The Weld family are a cadet branch, arisen in 1843, of the English Welds of Lulworth. It is an old gentry family which claims descent from Eadric the Wild and is related to other Weld branches in several parts of the United Kingdom, notably from Willey, Shropshire and others in the Antipodes and America. A notable early Weld was William de Welde (or atte Welde), High Sheriff of London in 1352, whose progeny moved in and out of obscurity.[1][2]
This Weld line is itself a cadet line originating from John Weld of Eaton, Cheshire and descends from his youngest son, Sir Humphrey Weld, Lord Mayor of London (1608), a Protestant, whose grandson of the same name, having reverted to Catholicism, purchased Lulworth Castle in Dorset, England, in 1641.[3]
They were a notable recusant family prior to Catholic Emancipation in the 19th century. The distantly related Catholic Blundell family died out at the start of the 19th century and passed on their Ince Blundell estate to Thomas Weld (1808-1887), the second son of the then owner of Lulworth Castle, Joseph, on condition that he and his issue adopted the "Blundell" name. The branch in England had died out by 1924, since Herbert Weld Blundell, last of the line, dropped the suffix, "Blundell".[citation needed]
- ^ 'Folios i - x: Sept 1352 -', in Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London: G, 1352-1374, ed. Reginald R Sharpe (London, 1905), pp. 1-13. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-letter-books/volg/pp1-13 [accessed 30 July 2020].
- ^ Shirley, Evelyn Philip (1866). The Noble and Gentle Men of England or, notes touching the arms and descents of the ancient knightly and gentle houses of england, arranged in their respective counties.
- ^ Lovat, Alice, Lady (1914). The Weld Pedigree in The Life of Sir Frederick Weld G.C.M.G - Pioneer of Empire. London: John Murray. pp. xxvii–xxxvi.
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