The Beginning
Two major theories exist about the origin
of the name Estep. One states that the
Castillo brothers, whose ancestral home is believed to be in Estepona in the
Andalusian area of Spain,
were brought to England
by William the Conqueror in the late 11th century as a reward for
honorable service during the Crusades.
This theory is supported by the fact that there doesn’t seem to be an
English derivative for Estep. The Estep Family Journal cites Russel A.
Estep in Estep Genealogy & Family
History as describing an ancient Roman family using the name Este. In 218 B.C. the “p” was added to the name
after the Romans conquered Astepa, a Moorish town near Gibraltar,
and changed the town’s name to Estepona in honor of the Este family. The name was found throughout Europe during the Middle Ages with various spellings and
pronunciations.
This
makes a good story; however, the facts don’t seem to support this theory. The history of Estepona says that the town’s
modern name came from the Moorish, Astabbuna.[1] Agatha, a daughter of William I, was
betrothed to Alphonso VI (1030-1109) of Castile, but Castile did not
include the area of Estepona (which was controlled by the Moors), so it is
unlikely that this was the ancestral home of Alphonso. One source claims that Agatha died on her way
to Spain to marry Alphonso[2];
another source says that a daughter of William I (supposedly Agatha) was sought in marriage
by two rival kings of Spain who were brothers, one probably Alphonso VI, but she protested
going to Spain, died a virgin, and is buried at Bayeux.[3] In either case, the Spanish “brothers”, even
if one had married William’s daughter, would
not have migrated to England. The wife would have lived in Spain, so it is
doubtful that some form of the name “Estep” was brought to England by
Spanish crusaders.
The
second theory is that the Estep name originated near the Welsh town of East Hope in
the medieval
province of Powys.
When spoken in Welsh dialect, the name East Hope sounds like E-stup. The parish of Hope is located in the
present-day county
Wrexham which lies on the Welsh-English border. This area was settled as early as the Romans,
and after their withdrawal from Britain,
this post was occupied by native defenders.
The Hope castle was first known as Caergwrle castle (derived from the
ancient British “Caer gawr lleng” or “fortress of the gigantic legion”), and
the first mention of the area using the name “Hope” was in the Norman survey
(The Domesday Book, 1085). The castle was bestowed upon Davydd, brother
of the Prince of Wales, about 1280, and has also been known as East Hope to
distinguish it from North Hope or Northop.
The name Hope may have come from the Welsh “hob”, meaning a swelling, derived from the rolling hills around the
castle.
 |
| Caergwrle Castle, also known as Hope Castle. |
There
is also a village called Easthope in the county of Shropshire,
near the Welsh border, which lies a little over 50 miles southeast of Hope Parish in Wales. A search of
internet sites containing modern vital records from England revealed numerous
occurrences of the names Estep,
Easthope,
and Eastop.
.png) |
| Church in Easthope, Shropshire County. |
It is possible that the name Estep was imported
after 1066 A.D. when William the Conqueror invaded England, and William’s associates
moved to Cornwall
and eventually to Wales.[5] It's also possible that the distinction between
the Estep and Easthope surnames may be related to whether the surname originated
from the location Easthope or the importation of the Spanish derivation.
However,
it seems unlikely that the name was imported from Spain, and more likely that it is
derived from a place near the Welsh border.
None of these theories are proven.
Possibly all could be true, or none could be true, but they make good stories that prickle our imaginations.
The stories of the Esteps are much easier to document after the American Civil War. Prior to that the stories are mostly educated opinion based on the few facts that are available.
In the book Thomas Estep, Sr., (c. 1709-c.1772) of Frederick County, Maryland and His Descendants, the writers listed many early
references to the name Estep. In Britain,
inquisitions were conducted from 1235-1644 after a death to determine what
property a man owned and to determine the man’s heir. These inquisition reports were filed in the
Chancery. In these inquisitions is found
John De Esthope in the County
Salop (Shropshire County). His inquisition was to be returned to the
exchequer at York
on St. Martin (Nov. 12). This was witnessed on 20 October 1303. In the same county on Ash Wednesday (between
4 February and 10 March) 1306 there is an inquisition of John De Esthope that
states that John de Esthope had no heir, but “Thomas, son of Thomas de Esthope,
aged 12 at the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist last (24 June), is
brother and next heir of the said John son of Thomas de Esthope.” It
says that John, the son of Thomas, died before the said John de Esthope without
heir.
According to the Thomas Estep book,
many Esteps were found in the British Isles
living along the Welsh border in the counties of Shropshire
(Salop), Gloucester,
and Hereford.
Two Esteps, one of whom is likely the
ancestor of the American branch, are Richard Eaststopp and Joseph Eastop. Thomas
Estep states that it is commonly accepted that these two men were brothers,
but no record has been found to prove this as a fact or to prove the facts of
their births. Our knowledge of them
comes mainly from immigration records.
At age 16 Richard, of Petticoate Lane in Stepney Parish in County Middlesex,
son of John Eastopp, deceased, was bound to Thomas Rogers, a merchant in London. Richard sailed to Maryland on the ship Loyall Subject and was bound for 5 years to Thomas Rogers, who was
also captain of the ship. The indenture
was signed on 6 August 1684
and was witnessed by Richard’s grandmother, Precilla Eaton, and his uncle,
Richard Eaton.
Joseph Eastop, son of John Eastop, a
deceased glover from London,
was indentured to Mathew Daveson for five years in Maryland.
This document was dated 26
August 1685 and was also witnessed by Richard Eaton. The fact that the witness for both documents
was Richard Eaton, who was named as an uncle to Richard, indicates at the least
that Richard Eastopp and Joseph Eastop were related. It is probable that after John Eastopp died
and left his sons without any means of support, each boy was bound out as soon
as they reached the age of 16, one in 1684 and the other a year later.
Stepney
Parish, near the main port
of London and the
location of St. Dunstan’s Church, was home to many of the people who worked on
the ships and docks. There was a tradition that any child
baptized at sea in a British ship could claim to be a native of Stepney, and
the children were often entered into the baptismal register of St Dunstan’s.
The official guide to Stepney says, “He who sails on the wide sea is a
parishioner of Stepney.” It
may be that Mr. Daveson, the merchant and sea captain to whom the boys were
indentured, was a familiar face to them.
This is not documented, but only a conclusion from the information known
about the area.
A record in the marriage registers of St. Dunstan’s,
Stepney, in the County of Middlesex,
documents the marriage of John Eastop, of Pettycoat Lane, and Elizabeth Eaton on
2 October 1677. Middlesex County
no longer exists as an administrative unit, having been mostly incorporated
into the city of London. St. Dunstan’s dates from the 1400s, although the
chancel is older, and was the medieval parish church of Stepney.
Initially it served the whole of Middlesex east of London, but from the 1300s the parishes were
separated.
If
John is the father of Richard and Joseph, he probably died shortly before the
two boys were bound out which would have been about 1683-84. Some researchers list John Estep’s birth date
as 1644-1648, probably based on the assumption that he would have been about 20
years old at the birth of Richard in 1668. No documentation is given for the birth date
of 1644.
Because
Richard (the 16-year old emigrant) and John (the deceased husband/father) have
the same address and John's in-laws have the same surname (Eaton), the immigration
records and the marriage record seem to be for the same family. The marriage occurred AFTER the births of
Richard and Joseph, which probably indicates that the marriage of John Eastop
and Elizabeth Eaton was the second marriage for John, and that Richard Eaton,
uncle; Precilla Eaton, grandmother, and Elizabeth Eaton Eastop, step-mother, were
not biological relatives of Richard and Joseph Eastop, emigrants. So perhaps this is a “Cinderella” story in
which the step-family disposed of the biological sons of John Eastop by sending
them to America
to seek their fortunes and to relieve the Eatons from having to support
them.
The
researchers in Thomas Estep conclude
that Joseph, the emigrant, is the probable father of Thomas Estep, Sr., but
they also indicate that no proof of this has been found, nor is it likely to be
found in the future. Other researchers
list Richard as the father of Thomas Estep.
According
to the research of Veronica Estep, Richard Estep and his wife, Rebecca Ramsey
married about 1689 in England and were the parents of Richard, born about 1694
in Stepney Parish, Middlesex County, England; Alexandria Estep, born about 1698,
also in Stepney Parish: and Thomas Estep, born about 1709 in Charles County,
Maryland. This Thomas Estep was the ancestor of the
Virginia/West Virginia branch of Esteps.
No
documentation is presented with this research, but if it is accurate, Richard
was bound out in 1684 for five years, went to America, returned to England at
least by 1689, and lived there at least until 1698 when his second child was
born. Then he and his wife returned to America where
Thomas Estep, Sr., was born. This is not
impossible to have happened, but whether or not it actually happened is
unproven. No documentation is presented
in Veronica Estep’s research as to the birth dates, etc.
The
Thomas Estep book states that no records have been found on Joseph Eastop in Maryland, so many assume
that Richard Eastopp is the ancestor of all Esteps in and from Maryland. Dr. Martin Hanson addresses this by writing
of the differences in the two branches of the family.
Members
of families tended to follow each other from place to place, with names
recurring
among family members, such as John, Shadrach, and Thomas. Dr. Hanson contrasts the differences in the
Richard-Thomas lines: 1) the families of
Richard’s line seem to have one to four children, and this occurs in the Thomas
line only if the wife dies; 2) the naming of the children follows different
patterns; 3) men in the Richard line were wealthy land and slave owners by the
mid-18th century, and Thomas and his sons are “dirt farmers”; 4) it
is possible that Joseph died and therefore no other records occurred for him,
but if he didn’t own land, neither would there have been records in that
situation; 5) just because Richard and Joseph were related, doesn’t mean they
got along with each other.
.png) |
| Map of Maryland, 1680. |
Because
the Richard Estep families and the Virginia/West Virginia branches seem to be
very different from each other, Thomas
Estep lists Joseph as the father of Thomas Estep, Sr., rather than Richard
Estep. Since the book about Thomas Estep
is so thoroughly researched and documented, Joseph will be listed as the father
of Thomas Estep on charts included in this work with the understanding that
this is not proven.
Thomas Estep, Sr. left few written records before the
birth of his son Thomas Estep, Jr. 3 November 1730 in St. Margaret’s Parish, Anne Arundel
Co., Maryland. With no oral tradition passed down,
speculation is “based upon what we know blended with what seems probable.” From birth records of his children and a
court record in which he was called as a witness in a court case, the arbitrary
date of Thomas, Sr.'s birth is set at around 1709.
The first land transaction for Thomas Estep, Sr. was the purchase of
“Chinkapin Forrest” in Anne
Arundel County
for 3600 pounds of tobacco on 9
March 1746. Other
transactions track him through Frederick
County and Baltimore County,
but it appears he lived in Anne
Arundel County
for over 20 years.
After
selling property in Frederick
County, Thomas, Sr. and
his wife, Mary, probably moved to Rowan
County, North Carolina
about 1772. Thomas, Sr. may have died in
Maryland
shortly before Thomas, Jr. moved to North
Carolina, or Thomas, Sr. may have lived for a short
time in Rowan County.
Records from the Dutchman’s Creek Meeting House in North Carolina, 5 October 1772, list Thomas, Jr., his wife,
Susanna, and Mary Estep (spelled Easteb) as original members of the
church. Thomas, Sr. is absent from the
list, either having died in Maryland
or shortly after the move to North
Carolina.
The next set of stories begins as America becomes a nation, and the Esteps settle in North Carolina.
The next set of stories begins as America becomes a nation, and the Esteps settle in North Carolina.
[2] William I and the Norman Conquest, Frank
Barlow, 1965, p. 180.
[3] William the Conqueror, the Norman Impact
upon England,
David Douglas, 1966, p. 393-394.
[5] The Estep Family Journal. “The Origin of
Our Surname, Estep”, Vol. 1, pages 25-26.
