The Strattons cannot be traced to a common ancestor. It is a place name being derived from two Anglo-Saxon words, 'Strat’ a paved road and ‘Tun’ an enclosure, a home, a small city. When the Saxons came into Britain they found the paved streets of the Romans, such roads they had never seen before and having no name to describe them used the Roman word stratum which soon became stroet from which comes our word street. To an enclosure having a strong wall within which was dwelling to the Saxons gave the name tun and from that we have the word town. Surnames began to be used about the 11th. century and so families of Strattons sprang up all over the country.

Mary Stratton who married Thomas Moores is from the Shrivenham branch England and the American branch settled in Boston can be traced back to the English branch. Shrivenham is a parish of Berkshire, about seventy miles west of London. The picturesque old village of Shrivenham, with its thatched houses, some of them more than four centuries old, is situated near a remnant of an old Roman road.

How early the Strattons were in Shrivenham in unknown. The earliest Stratton will of Berkshire in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury was probated 1593. Mention is made on the "Hundred Rolls" of Strattons in Northampton and Oxford, just north of Berkshire, in the time of Edward I.

William Stratton of Shrivnaham England died in 1604. In his will he calls himself an "aged man" from which we infer he was born in the first half of the sixteenth century. As he named one of his daughters , Joan, and speaks of his cousin Thomas Stratton, it seems very probable that he is a son of Thomas and Joan Stratton, mentioned in Burke’s "Landed Gentry".

William’s children were Joan, Christian(girl),Agnes, and John.

The following is a full abstract of William Stratton’s will, dated September 16, 1601:

To be buried in Shrivenham Churchyard, near my wife; to the poor of Shrivenham eight Pounds; to my poor sister, Agnes, five shillings per annum for her life; to Zachary Lidyard and his wife, my kins-woman, and their children three pounds, to the children of my son-in-law, James Saunders, viz. John, Richard Thomas, Nicholas and Jane, twenty pounds' among them; to Christian, my daughter, sixty pounds, but if she die unmarried, this to go to the children of said James Saunders and my daughter Joan, his wife; to Margaret and Agnes Coxe, children of my daughter, Agnes, long since deceased, each twenty shillings when sixteen years old, to William, son of my son, John Stratton, four pounds, all residue of my estate to said John, my son, and he to be my executor. Overseers of my will my cousin, Thomas Stratton and my son-in-law, James Saunders."

John Stratton, proved his fathers will in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury , May 1604. John, who was the executor of his father William’s will, received 5000 pounds and residue, which was probably by far the greater part of the estate.

John had a son William born 1585 and died in 1647. This William was apprenticed in London in 1599, then aged 14 years. At the end of his seven years apprenticeship, at the age of 21, he became a free citizen of London, where he resided for 25 years, in the parish of St. Leonard, in Eastcheap .He married first Elizabeth about 1612. Elizabeth died in 1635 and was buried at St. Loenards, June 12. Soon after the death of Elizabeth, he gave up his business in London and retired to Tenterden, in the county of Kent. He married Margaret ( a widow with two children) in 1636 and had fifteen children. William made his will on May 31, 1647, and died within the year. He listed his profession as"jurat" or alderman.

William’s will is in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, the following is a full abstract of it: "My executor to pay to my wife Margaret, 1,045 pounds, agreed upon before our marriage; to my daughter, Elizabeth, 140, pounds, at her marriage, or when twenty years of age, and a trunk of linen appointed by her mother, to my sons John, Thomas and Nathaniel, each 120 pounds, when 23 years of age; to Caleb, my son, 110 pounds when 23, to Joseph, Benjamin and Samuel, my sons, each 100 pounds, when 23, to Bartholomew, my son, 90 pounds when 23; to my daughter, Sarah Pickering, 10 pounds for her children; to my wife's daughters, Rose and Margaret, each 10 shillings. All the rest of my estate to William, my son,. and he to be my executor."

William’s children were :

William’s son Caleb was baptized at St. Leonards, Eastcheap, London on June 10, 1635 (or 1631) came to this country and settled in Boston. In his father William’s will he was to have 110 Pounds at 23 years of age. We know nothing more of him until 1660 when he is in Boston and is styled "a mariner" He purchased a house in Boston on December 12, 1661 from William Hudson. July 4, 1662, John Sunderland, attorney for Caleb Stratton, sold this property and Caleb, "having just returned from ye voyage" signed the deed. Sometime before 1662 he married Mary Adams, daughter of Alexander Adams and Mary Coffin (sister of Tristnam). Caleb’s wife Mary died in Boston, February 3, 1698.

Caleb and Mary Adams children were:

William Stratton was "the only son of Caleb Stratton, deceased, and Mary his wife" on October 26, 1703. At this date he conveys two-thirds of the homestead and land to Soloman Townsand "where Townsand now lives, estate of Caleb and Mary Stratton, from their father Alexander Adams;" also two-thirds of "household stuff;" value 48 pounds. (Suff. Co. Deeds.)

This homestead was "43 feet frontage on Lane to North Battery." As William was "only son" and Possessed two-thirds of his father's estate, it is inferred that his brother (or brothers) died before 1703, without issue. His sister, Elizabeth Townsend, probably owned the remaining one-third. William's name does not again appear in Boston. He was evidently preparing to leave there when he sold his two-thirds of "home-stead and household stuff." We next find him living in Nantucket in 1708, having previously married Susanna Cartwright, daughter of Edward Cartwright and Elizabeth Trott .Their home was in the northern part of the town of Nantucket (the part then called " Sherburn ") near where the Jethro Coffin House still stands, built in 1686. In 1716 the town voted to "build a town house on the hill between William Stratton's and George Burke's.

West of No-Bottom Pond is a winding passway, connecting Duke and Westchester Streets. At the southeast corner of its junction with Westchester street stood William Stratton's house. It was on the land given him by deed of gift from James Coffin in 1712.

DEED TO WILLIAM STRATTON FROM JAMES COFFIN

Be it known to all men by these presents that I James Coffin, of the Island of Nantucket in the province of the Massachusetts bay in New England Esq. being willing to Promote the good and welfare of my kinsman William Stratton of the sd Island of Nantucket and for divers other considerations me thereunto moving have given granted infeoffed conveyed and confirmed and do by these presents fully freely and absolutely give grant infeoffed Convey and Confirm unto the said William Stratton half an acre of land on which his house now stands which I had of William Worth Esq by his grant, bearing date the fourth day of April in the year 1712 may appear the first bound of the sd land beginning at the Swamp to the Southward of the sd Stratton house and running Nine Rods North Northwest Six Rods to the Eastward, of the house from thence West Southwest Nine Rods till it comes about one Rod and a half to the Westward of the house from thence South Southeast to the Swamp and along the Swamp to the first bound To have & To hold the sd half acre of land as above bounded to him the sd William Stratton his heirs and assigns to his and their proper use and benefit forever So that the said Wiliiam Stratton his heirs and assigns may have hold use occupy possess and Injoy the sd land for ever without any let hindrance or molestation by me the sd James Coffin or my heirs or by any other person by our means consent or procurement. In Witness Whereof I the sd James Coffin have hereunto set my hand and seal this fifth day of April anno que Dom 1712.

Signed Sealed & delivered in James Coffin (seal)

the presence of us

Eleazer Folger Junr

Jonathan Coffin

(Nantucket County Records of Deeds).

In another deed, dated "sixth day of the tenth month of the fifth year of the Reign of George of Great Britain, King, Annoque Domini '1718," Jethro Starbuck conveys "one quarter of an acre of land with dwelling house thereon , to William Stratton, Blockmaker.

William Stratton was a Friend. The first "Monthly Meeting" on the Island was in 1708, and the first meetinghouse was on the lot adjoining his home lot. He died August 28, 1740, intestate.

William married Susanna Cartwright daughter of Edward Cartwright and Elizabeth Trott, and then our Mary appeared. Mary Stratton (August 1,1710-1781) married Thomas Moores.