In England one finds an explanation of the development of the Gyrlyngton name (ancient spelling of Garlington) in the publication as presented by the Yorkshire Place Name Society.

Among the early Saxons the feeling of kinship was a strong social factor. Distant relations were the responsibility of the entire family. Therefore, when new settlements sprang up throughout England they were usually populated by family groups, dwellings in these settlements would normally be built in a closely-knit fashion and protected behind large wooden or stone stockade. Such settlements were known as 'tuns' and eventually evolved into the modern word 'town'. At night they retired behind the stockade to protect themselves against roving bands of thieves or the imagined hideous creatures believed to inhabit the 'fens' (marshlands) and 'weald' (forest). Ignorance was common and superstition an accepted fact to these part Christian and predominately paganistic Englishmen.
The first known Garlington, Waleran de Gyrlyngton, was lord of such a 'tun'. He is described by the Yorkshire Place Name Society as having derived its name from 'Gyrla's tun" Gyrla was the baptismal name of the settlement's chief inhabitants. As surnames had not yet come into existence, any member of this family group when asked his name would reply "John (or Waleran) de (of) Gyrla's tun." The subtle change of the word to Gyrlyngton produced the family name as well as the place name. At a later period, the family dropped the 'de' from their names.

Prior to 1066, when the Normans invaded England, there had been no uniform records kept except for the highest nobility. William the Conqueror brought with him an ordered regimentation for the benefit of taxation of recording families and their belongings.

The recorded history of the Garlingtons begins not long after William I(William the Conqueror), in about the year 1100, and the reign of Henry I. At the time one had to be of some stature before any complete records were kept of the family. In the Middle Ages, that period of years between William I and Henry VII, the classes of society were quite distinct. Fist of all, it was divided into two classes-that of the clergy, or religious class, and the laity, or secular class.

The first class, the clergy, was then further divided into three sub-classes with at the top the prelates, that is the bishops, abbotts and priors. These were the royalty of the religious community and held great influence with the king. They were accountable to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope in Rome. Next the regular clergy, monks and friars. Then came the ordinary parish priest and chaplains whose responsibility was to keep records.

The laity were also divided into three sub-classes, that is the nobility the tradesmen and the common laborers (villein). The nobility was divided into three classes, which consisted of, at the top, the king or queen and prince or princess. Then came the earls, barons and dukes and finally, the lesser nobility which consisted of the lords of the manors throughout the realm. It is among the lesser nobility where one finds the earliest mention of the Gyrlyngton Family. There lived in the year 1100, in the county of Yorkshire, North Riding, in that part of England which according to Henry VIII, "God made last", a lord of the manor of Gyrlyngton, a man named Waleran de Gyrlyngton. Waleran de Gyrlyngton presided over Gyrlyngton Hall located northeast of Hutton Magna. "The Hall is a very ancient house, which was built before the reign of King Henry III...and was the house of the ancient family of Gyrlyngton, who possessed this manor or lordship for upwards of six hundred years." This place is recorded in Doomsday Book. Girlington Hall which according to Marshal-General Plantagenet-Harrison’s History of Yorkshire(published in 1879) was built in the late 1200’s or early 1300’s. Back in those days when most people lived in small huts, it would have been quite a large and prominent building. (History of Yorkshire, Vol. I by Harrison, published 1879) Waleran de Gyrlyngton, Lord of Gyrlyngton-juxta-Wycliffe, was born near Richmondshire during the reigns of Henry I and Stephen, between 1100 and 1154.

Sir Henry de Gyrlyngton, Lord of Gyrlyngton, knight in the reign of King John, was one of eight knights appointed by the sheriff of Yorkshire to try a plea of trespass in Swaledale at the suit of Gilbert de Gant in the 31st year of Henry III, 28 Oct. 1246-27 Oct. 1247. Sir Henry was a grandson of Lord Waleran de Gyrlyngton.

Anthony Gyrlyngton, descendant of Waleran de Gyrlyngton, is shown in the Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae (a calendar of the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries in Emngland and Wales, and the chief officers in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge), and the Athenae Cantabrigienses as an outstanding English scholar.

The ensuing generations of Lord Gyrlyngton's owned vast land holdings throughout England, including the Manors of Gyrlynton and the Manor of Temple Hurst, Manor of Redmarshall, Manor of Basingham, Manor of Hackforth and Aynderby Myres, Manor of Longvillers, lands in East Appleton, Huddeswell, East Dalton and Newby. Also, in 1546, the Crown granted a Nicholas Gerlington, Esquire, the manor Pittstone Morrants, lands in the county of Durham lands in Wycliffe, East and Thurland Castle in Lancashire, about 10 miles northeast of Lancaster, built on a low mound and is encircled by a moat. The Castle was sold to John Girlington(another ancient spelling of the Garlington name) in 1605. Sir John, grandson of John, was a knight and Major-general in the Civil War, and surrendered the Castle to the Parliamentary forces. The interior of the Castle was burned and part of it destroyed. The present building is a reconstruction of the north and east wings. The south side is approached by a bridge over the moat and through the gateway.

The Girlingtons of Thurland Castle were active participants in the English Civil War on the side of Charles I. John Girlington, Lord of Hackforth, was the founder of this line. Like all his predecessors, John Girlington was an ardent Roman Catholic. Nicholas, son of John, was twenty years of age when his father died at Thurland Castle on February 29th in the 10th year of James I. Nicholas recorded a pedigree as "of Thurland" with Richard St. George of the College of Arms in 1613. His coat of arms was shown quartered with de Montfort, Burgh and Acclom and may be found in Harlein MSS #1437. Nicholas also purchased the manor of Arnforth from George Pudsey during the reign of Charles I.

Anthony, brother of Nicholas, later known as Captain Anthony Girlington in the service of Charles I. It is recorded that he gallantly charge the Scots at Newburne which is near Newcastle, in the first Scottish expedition where he was almost cut to pieces, but he recovered. He was eventually slain near Lancaster. Sir John Girlington, Knight of Thurland Castle, son and heir of Nicholas zealously espoused the cause of Charles I at the opening of the English Civil Was and on June 6, 1642 was made knight, major-general and High Sheriff of Lancashire by Charles I at his court in the city of York. General Sir John Girlington was slain in the king's service in March 1645 at Melton Mobray.

John Girlington, Esquire of Thurland Castle, and son and heir of Sir John Girlington, knight, stated when Thurland Castle was taken and destroyed by the Parliamentarians his father conveyed all his title deed to Pontefract Castle for safe-keeping. Then Pontefract Castle was also taken by the Parliamentary Forces and all said deeds were then destroyed. After the restoration of the Stuarts, Charles II made John Girlington High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1663.
William Gyrlyngton was a Member of Parliament for the city of York in 1440 and was Lord Mayor of York in 1441.

Nicholas Gerlington, son of Nicholas Gyrlyngton of Dighton-juxta-Escrik, by his marriage to Margaret Montfort, daughter and heir of Thomas de Montfort became the Lord of Hackforth.

Anne Girlington, daughter of Nicholas and Isabel, married Sir Christopher Wray, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of the Queen's Bench in the reign of Elizabeth I. Sir Christopher was a descendant of John Wray of Richmond and served for Bouroughbride, in all the parliaments called by Queen Mary, was in Elizabeth I's reign chosen Speaker of the House of Commons, and eventually became the Lord Chief Justice. He was so well liked by Queen Elizabeth that she gave him the profits of her coinage until he had enough wealth to erect his noble hoe a Glentworth. Sir Christopher and Anne has a son, Sir William Wray, who received honor of Knighthood from Elizabeth I and was created a Baronet on November 25, 1612.

CHRISTOPHER GARLINGTON, THE IMMIGRANT
Christopher, of whom Rita Carpenter Jenrette is a direct descendant, Garlington Family , by Thesta Kennedy Scogland, 1976, page 736, Rita Carpenter(Jenrette), Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 75-42802, immigrated to America (Virginia) between 1637 and 1638. He was born between 1614-1620, in England. He returned to England briefly to marry Elizabeth Wyatt, sister of Sir Dudley Wyatt, Cavalier who came to Virginia. He had served in the army of Charles I, King of England, and was one of the grantees of the northern Neck, all the tract of land between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, from Charles I, dated at the St. Germains in France, September 18, 1650. Virginia was the only place that these faithful soldiers of King Charles I had to go to seek new fortunes. "Cavaliers and Pioneers, Volume I, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800", by Nell Marion Nugent and published in 1934, on Page 186.

We see that Christopher Garlington, from a prominent and titled family in England, paid his way to Virginia and purchased land, in Virginia, on or before 1638. Christopher found Virginia to be a safe haven for worshiping freely and in an attempt to recreate the Garlington fortune. The first record found for Christopher is recorded in :York County, Deeds, Orders, Wills, Etc. Book 2, p.58: "...Christopher Carlington(a misspelling of the name) his heirs executors administrators or asignes to their owne use forever one hundred acres of land sett lying & being at the heed of the New Pocosin River being bounded by the sd river on the North & running South unto the maine woods & by the Gleabe land on the East side & on the West by the s'd Thomas Curtice ..."Christopher Garlington is mentioned in Nell Marion Nugent's Book, "Cavaliers & Pioneers, Volume I, abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800, Page 371, page 383, Page 467, and Page 556, and many more. From these land records it would seem that Christopher Garlington moved from York County to Northumberland County by the year 1658. Christopher Garlington became a substantial tobacco plantation owner.

Christopher Garlington III, grandson of Christopher Garlington I, married Elizabeth Conway in Lancaster County, Virginia on May 5, 1724. Miss Conway was born in 1705/1705 to Col. Edwin Conway III and his wife Ann Ball. Ann Ball, daughter of Col. Joseph Ball and Elizabeth Romney Ball, and half sister to Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington. Rita Carpenter Jenrette is a direct descendant of Christopher Garlington.

The Garlington Family distinguished themselves by fighting in the Revolutionary War of 1776, the War of 1812, the Civil War of 1865, World War I and World War II.

The Garlington family of Dalphon Ripley Garlington, descended from Benjamin Garlington, son of Christopher Garlington(V), moved to Browndell, Jasper County, Texas about 1900 and established the Garlington Ranch, about 15,000 acres. They are on of the oldest Brahman cattle breeders in Texas. The Garlington Ranch still exists and in his will Dalphon Ripley Garlington stated that it must always be handed down to a Garlington heir and that heir must live on the property if he or she wishes to inherit the Garlington estate. Currently, Garlington heirs are living on and farming that estate. Rita Carpenter Jenrette's mother, Reba Garlington Carpenter was born on that land, September 10, 1925.

The Garlington Family, Thesta Scogland Kennedy, Gateway press, Inc. Baltimore 1976. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 75-42802.

The Garlington Coat of Arms

The Garlington family Coat of Arms is found in, "Fairbairn's Crests of the Leading Families in Great Britain and Ireland." Another source is the book, "The General Armory of England and Scotland, Ireland and Wales" by Sir John Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of Arms, published 1884 in London by Harrison 59, Pall Mall, bookseller to the Queen and H.R.H. the Prince of Wales; on page 395 is recorded the Garlington Coat of Arms. Another Source of information comes from Dr. C
Conrad Swan, Esqauire, Ph.D.., M.A., F.S.A., :York Herald of Arms, College of Arms, London, England, who in a letter dated July 11, 1973 states, "...Their (the Garlington) arms are shown as: -Argent a chevron Sable between three winged insects Sable. "

The Garlington coat of Arms is an ancient one, and all direct descendants are entitled to use it. A Garlington took part in the Second Crusade (1147 to 1149). His knight's helmet is shown, there are three honeybees denoting the Trinity and a characteristic of thrift for the Garlington family. Black(for mourning because of the failure of the second crusade) and silver (for virtue) constitutes the coloring of the background. The crest is a griffin, part lion and part eagle.

During the Crusades, heraldry became a system of symbols by which families could indicate their reputation for bravery and also their lineage. Knights all over England and Europe carried shields and spears which looked very much alike. They wore helmets, which covered their faces. In the 13th century the practice was introduced to embroider the family insignia on the coat of clothing and it is from this Coat of Arms army leaders could identify the various knights on the battlefield.

In 1483 King Edward IV established the Herald's College in which he delegated the supervision of armorial bearings. "In Medieval Europe, coats of arms were almost always conferred by royalty only on the nobility or gentry as recognition for service to the Crown."2

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