Trist Families Of Devon

This series of e-Books will chiefly be of interest to family historians with Devon ancestry. This first volume gives an account of the research methods used in building up the history of a mostly obscure family previously known mainly from parish registers and muster rolls.

This list contains most of the people surnamed Trist encountered in researching this family history. In the index the Trist family name is omitted to save space but was generally Trist(e) or Tryst(e) which is usually the spelling of the record sources used. Sometimes the record source gave the name Trust(e) and if so I have retained this spelling and typed it after the Christian name. In many cases the Trust entries reflected the Devon pronunciation of Trist and there is often evidence that the surname was misspelt (e.g. in Chart 5/574, at the baptism of Ambrose Trust whose father is known to have been Ambrose Trist). He was orphaned and later migrated to New Zealand where his descendants continue to use the surname Trust. Sometimes in earlier documents both spellings are used interchangeably in the same document. However, where a source used Trust I have retained that spelling because in a minority of cases (particularly in the nineteenth century) it passed into use as the surname Trust.

During the Industrial Revolution Devon underwent de-population as younger people left to enter numerous occupations created by new technologies. Younger people left the countryside for jobs being created in the rapidly expanding towns and cities in Great Britain. But they also emigrated overseas and joined up with the economic development occurring globally. Since 1800, branches of the Trist family have sprung up in various parts of the world: in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America. I have come into contact with some present-day descendants of these groups, reminders of the rapid divergence from the family's English traditions.

Changes to the laws of inheritance combined with the traditional system of male entail facilitated the rise or maintenance of a small leisured class which could participate in the political community and the church. It seems likely that Nicholas Trist of Harberton and Totnes (1668-1741) leveraged his lucky double inheritance from his brother and maternal uncle to enhance his business interests. These could well have been in the woollen serge industry then enjoying its boom years. He was Mayor of Totnes twice and his son Browse Trist (1698-1777) represented the town as one of its two Members of Parliament, Totnes being one of the notorious Pocket Boroughs of eighteenth-century politics.

Although this section was written last, it is appearing in this second volume which discusses the origin of the Trist surname. The evidence is etymological rather than historical.

If your ancestors were Devon farmers and country dwellers this volume is of great relevance and interest because it examines the daily life of villagers using the statistical data accumulated by social historians. It answers some of the questions we would have asked our ancestors if we could travel back in time to their era. Questions are discussed regarding • marriage partners • life span • bereavement • re-marriage • size of families • mobility • men’s & women’s work • standards of living and many more everyday issues.

This volume will interest people whose ancestors were Devon farmers. It discusses the siting, the exterior and the interior of Devon farmhouses from about 1450 to about 1920.

This series of e-Books will chiefly be of interest to family historians with Devon ancestry. This ninth volume contains information about how the politics and trade of Devon may have affected our ancestors. It also contains information on Dartmoor and the semi-moorland parish of South Brent and genealogical charts and notes regarding the Trist families at South Brent.