dear Neal
it's a long story so I'll give a summary and would be happy to share more
details (why isn't there a Carrier roots website where we can share files &
notes?)
My family is from Staffordshire in England, with some variants in the
landed gentry recorded in 1640s in Derbyshire (not far from Staffordshire)
in the town of Wirksworth. (Sir Christopher Gent, current CEO of Vodafone
in UK, is a likely descendant).
Around late 1700s the family had a daughter called Elizabeth Carrier who
married William Anson. He was made a Lord because as Admiral Anson he had
been the first Brit to circumnavigate the world. He wrote a book which is
still around in antiquarian circles. So Eliz. Carrier became Lady Anson.
Lord Anson or his heirs also gained the title Earl of Lichfield, and a
major estate and mansion called Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire.
The current (living) Earl of Lichfield is a man called Patrick Lichfield
(after the title, as is customary) , though his real surname is of course
still Anson. He is a well-known photographer, and is a direct cousin of
Queen Elizabeth II - I believe his wife is a cousin of the late Queen
Mother.
If you check the court of arms of Lord Anson/Earl of Lichfield in reference
books such as Debretts, or Burke's Peerage, you will see that the lower
quadrant of the arms is entitled 'Carrier'. This is my family's coat of
arms. I have a parchment scroll signed by the wax seal of Queen Eliz 2 on
the wall of my study, re-granting this coat of arms to my grandfather, in
the 1960s.
$64,000 question:
Was Thomas Carrier of Salem in any way related to the Carriers of
Staffordshire? Carrier is in no way a Welsh name, but Wales is only 50
miles away from Staffordshire so he may have migrated there before going to
the US. Odd for him to claim Wales, though.
The origins of the name:
The heraldic experts in UK say that the designs on the coat of arms suggest
the family was a Norman-French family who came with William the Conqueror
in or after 1066. No way to test this theory, however.
When I lived in the US I tried to make US-UK connections re Thomas of
Salem, but so far no luck. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has
other UK connections documented. And I can share a database of hundreds of
Carrier birth records in Uk from 1950 back to 1837, taken from UK record
office.
Michael Carrier