Newsletter 2-Spring 1993

Darlington -the places
Darlington, Florida  was named after Mr AC Darling a turpentine operator 50 years ago.
Darlington,Idaho was named for a mining engineer who settle here and developed the country to quite an extent in the 1890's.                                                                 
Darlington,Indiana was anmed after Darlington, England at the suggestion of Job Moffith, a Quaker preacher.  ( note- Darlington Football Club is still nicknamed " the Quakers"   JSD )
Darlington,Virginia  Darlington Heights was named after a man of that name who lived there many years ago.

Darlington,Missouri named after a man from Darlington, England.

Sightings
There is an area of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which can truly be said to be called Darlington country. The only published, hard-cover Family history that I have ever seen on Darlingtons, deals with people from there.  When I was stationed in Philadelphia in 1952-54 I noticed the extensive list of Darlingtons in the phone book for the Main Line area. My wife and I used to drive out on Sunday afternoons and marvel at the mansions. My sighting for this newsletter was part of those wealthy and inflentioal families. But he was also one of the most honoured and controversial US Marine Corps officers in the history of the Corps.
From" Maverick Marine" by Hans Schmidt
Smedley Darlington Butler, swept up in the enthusiasm for the Cuban war, volunteered for the Marine Corps in 1898.  His way was eased by family political connections firmly rooted in the history of Chester County,Pennsylvania, where his ancestors included three prominent Quaker families, the Smedleys, Darlingtons and Butlers....... Congressman Smedley Darlington served two terms in Washington.
He book goes on to trace the career of the young officer who was twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour, the highest award for bravery in the USA.

The Quakers
The Quakers were founded by George Fox and have strong Lancashire connections -there was , until recently, a George Fox school in Lancaster. It would appear that many of the early settlers from Cheshire to Pennsylvania were adherents.

Ourselves
Dan Barrett is a retired secondary school teacher. He taught for many years in St Catherine's ,Ontario but chose to live near Niagara Falls in retirement. Between 1980 and 1991 Dan produced 45 issues of the Barrett newsletter , the idea of which I have copied. His register contains 725 Barrett ancestral lines and over 1100 researchers. His Darlington ancestry traces from his great-grandmother Martha who was from Little Hulton ,Bolton, Greater Manchester. He has traced for three earlier generations to Ralph Darlington who married Ann Orrett at Deane Church near Bolton on 7th April 1752. There is a chance that Dan may be related to Monica Darlington ( researcher 17)

Newsletter 3-Autumn 1993

My great-grandfather, Joseph Thomas Darlington, was the seventh of ten children. His younger brother, John Williams Darlington, was born in 1826, a year before their father died. That was all I knew before I attended a meeting of the Liverpool Family History Society.  It was suggested I looked at Will probates.
At Somerset House in London I sighted the will and it was a gold-mine. John Williams was a Master Mariner, ( his father was a mariner ). He left almost £7000 when he died in 1884 in Willaston, Cheshire. As minor bequests he left my grandfather, his nephew, £50 and also named two nieces who had emigrated to Toronto with my grandfather. One of those nieces was a new name to me.  He also left a small sum to the son of his younger sister, Elizabeth Hall Wibby who had also emigrated to Canada. John Williams left his wife Georgina Metherell Darlington the bulk of his estate. Metherell is a Devon name and I suspect he met her during his trips to the south coast. She was not his first wife. I St Katherines House I found his 1855 marriage to Sarah Simcock of Leighton. 
In the will he indicated that he wanted Georgina to name his nephew John Darlington in her will. There has been a John Darlington in the Liverpool and Birkenhead City Directory over a period of years from late 19th century to WW2. He is listed as 'shipping and forwarding agent and ship broker, Dock Rd,Garston'.   
Sightings
Since the vast majority of Darlingtons can be traced to the Mersey river area it is not surprising to find their names among seafaring records. Liverpool wasa major port for world trade so there would be a number who sailed in blue water ships. Perhaps that explains the South Wales, Cornwall and County Wexford branches of the family ( mining also features heavily - salt mines in Cheshire, coal mines in the Bolton area,  tin mines in Cornwall and later, gold mines in Australia     -JSD).
From "Frozen in Time"  by Owen Beattie and John Geiger 1987
Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition 0f 1845-8 is the subject of this book. Franklin set out to find the North West passage which would provide a more direct trade route to the far east. He sailed in two ships of the Royal Navy, HMS terror and HMS Erebus. Both ships and all the crews disappeared. Search expeditions were sent out but all thast was found was a single note. In 1981 three well-preserved bodies were found by scientists in the permafrost north of Hudson Bay. One of the crew of the "Terror" was Petty Officer Thomas Darlington.
Certificates available
Death of Alice Darlington 20 June 1865 age 13mths., father John, a labourer , mother Alice (Jump), Etna St, West Derby