Family and Education

b. by 1526, 1st surv. s. of (Sir) John Puleston^† of Caernarvon and Bersham by his 1st w. Gaynor, da. of Robert ap Meredydd ap Hwlkin of Glynllifon, Caern. m. Ellen, da. of William Williams of Cochwillan, Caern., 6s. 2da. suc. fa. 1551.1

Offices Held

Commr. goods of churches and fraternities, Denb. 1553, for the Exchequer, Merion. 1561, piracy, Denb. 1565, for the eisteddfod at Caerwys, Flints. 1568, to investigate the loss of victuals sent to Ireland 1574, musters, Denb. 1580; j.p. Denb. 1555-61, q. 1562-d.; sheriff, Denb. 1558-9, 1569-70, Mont. 1571-2; j.p. Caern. 1573-d.2

Biography

Puleston’s second representation of Denbighshire, some 20 years after he succeeded to the substantial family lands in that county, left no impression upon the records of the House.

He extended his estates by taking leases of moutain land in the crown wastes of Bromfield and Yale, in the town of Wrexham, where his uncle Hugh Puleston was vicar, and in the demesne lands of the neighbouring borough of Holt. At the musters of 1570 he was charged with ‘one light horseman furnished’. He was no more free from litigation than most of his kind. He brought an action soon after his father’s death against a fellow burgess of Caernarvon whom he accused of diverting the water from his mill to work another; but the most serious cases he was involved in were two Star Chamber suits. The first, which began in 1569 and was later removed to Chancery, was brought by John Puleston (probably his distant cousin of Hafod y wern, Wrexham) against Robert Puleston and Sir John Salusbury^† of Lleweni, who were accused of corrupting the jury in a case about lands in Bromfield; in the second he was joint defendant with the sheriff of Shropshire, Thomas Fermor^†, on a charge that during Puleston’s shrievalty of Denbighshire he and his fellow sheriff had blackmailed a man accused of murder as the price of securing an aquittal, and that they had extorted further sums when he was in fact aquitted. Puleston died 15 Aug. 1583.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: A.H.D.

Notes

• 1. A. N. Palmer, Country Townships of Wrexham (1903), opp. p. 63; Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 359; PCC 7 Bucke.
• 2. Augmentations, ed. Lewis and Davies (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 433; CPR, 1560-3, p. 446; 1563-6, p. 30; Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 109, 133, 200-5, 212; APC, vii. 286.
• 3. PCC 7 Bucke; Augmentations, 56, 275, 302, 320, 336-7, 385; W. O. Williams, Cal. Caern. Q. Sess. Recs. i. 66, 88, 91, 110, 257; Exchequer, ed. E. G. Jones (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. iv), 170; Flenley, 75; St. Ch. 5/L14/39, P14/4, P62/38; 7/27/54.