Lineage:
The Actons, whose antiquity of descent is equalled by few existing
families, are of Saxon origin, and were in Worcestershire, according to Mr. Abington,
previously to the Conquest. Soon after that great event, we find them seated
at Ombersley, and in the 3rd Henry III, the name of Elias de Acton of Acton Hall, in
Ombersley, appears with those of other knights and gentlemen summoned to serve upon a
jury. The chief line of the family, Actons of Acton Hall, expired with Walter
Acton, of Acton, who died without male issue, leaving his estates to his two daughters and
co-heirs, of whom the elder, Joyce, m. Thomas Barneby, Esq., of the Hull, ancestor of the
Barnebys of Brockhampton, and the younger, Elizabeth, wedded, first, Mr. Broughton, and
secondly, Walter Blount, Esq., of Astley.
From a common ancestor with the Actons of Acton sprang the Actons of
Sutton, who continued to reside there until the estate was conveyed by their heiress,
Joice, dau. of Thomas Acton, Esq., of Sutton, to her husband, Sir Thomas Lucy, of
Charlecote, in Warwickshire, Shakespear's "Justice Shallow." Of this
family, that of Wolverton is a scion, being founded by a younger son of Sir Roger Acton,
of Sutton, (the heir of Sir John Mortimer,) who m. Alice, sister of William Cokesey, Esq.,
and was father of:
John ACTON, who acquired the estate of Wolfrinton, or
Wolverton, in Worcestershire, as heir to his uncle, the last of the Cokeseys.
He was immediate ancestor of,
Thomas ACTON, Esq., of Wolverton, who m. daughter of John
Weeden, Esq., of Sarsden, County Oxford, and had a son and successor.
William ACTON, Esq., of Wolverton, who married Barbara,
dau. and co-heir of John Vincent, Esq., bencher of Gray's Inn, and d. 12 April, 1679,
leaving a son,
William ACTON, Esq., of Wolverton, who m. Margaret,
youngest dau. and co-heir of Richard Perkins, Esq., of Beenham, in Berkshire, by Ann, his
wife, dau. of John Eyston, Esq., of Lye Farm, and dying 6 September 1763, left a son and
successor.
William ACTON, Esq., of Wolverton who married in 1801,
Ann Constantia Davies, descended from the family of Fowler, of St. Thomas, Co. Stafford,
and, dying 22 Feb. 1814, left, with a dau. Mary, who d. unmarried, a son, the present
William Acton, Esq.,
of Wolverton.
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