DUTTON-L Archives

From: "Phyllis Ryerse" <>
Subject: PRESS RELEASE
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 16:12:05 -0400

(Transcribed from an attachment
of the actual release which hasn't
even hit the English newspapers yet! )

PRESS RELEASE
NORTON Priory Museum Trust
Runcorn, Cheshire

Home Coming for Halton Star

At 2:30 pm on September 16th, academic star, Runcorn born Andy Abram
returns from university to give a lecture of exciting new historical
research at Norton Priory Museum and Gardens. Andy returns having just
achieved outstanding success, graduating at Lampeter University with a first
class honours degree in history. Now, after months of poring over documents
many hundreds of years old, Andy will be revealing new ideas concerning THE
DUTTON FAMILY and its all important links with Norton Priory for the first
time. The lecture will be free of charge. Since it is a special Heritage
Open Day, access to the whole amazing site at Norton Priory will be free, so
it is an opportunity for the whole family to take part in special events of
which Andy's talk is just one.
The ancient and colourful, local DUTTON FAMILY were for much of the
medieval period major supporters of Norton Priory. They gave it considerable
wealth and land and expected to be buried in the priory church on holy
ground to increase their chances of getting to heaven! Piety turned to
greed, however, and by 1535, SIR PIERS DUTTON, then one of the greatest
landowners in Cheshire, tried unsuccessfully to get the abbot of Norton
deposed so that he could get the abbey's lands for himself.
"I am looking forward to coming back to Norton Priory to give this talk. It
has been a wonderful time delving into the past to research THE DUTTONS. My
purpose," says Andy, "was to find out just exactly what made a Cheshire
knightly family choose to give so much wealth to Norton Priory and I am
looking forward to revealing what I have uncovered."

*************************
Hi Gang.....this just came via e-mail this morning. Anybody going to England
on Sept 16? <grin>
Well, Colin may be in the neighborhood and can give us a report.....and my
friend Katy, who works at Norton and who sent this news will be there to
tell us about it........and I've asked if a small tape recorder could be
turned on so that the American Dutton cousins could actually hear it all for
ourselves! So we shall see how this all plays out. Who knows what this
young scholar might have turned up! Believe me, if Norton was a little
closer, I'd be there in a wink!

Katy also tells us that........."I'm afraid DNA testing isn't actually
possible. Someone looked into it a
few years ago. A student from Liverpool University had hoped she could
analyze the skeletons found in the Dutton Chapel to see if they were all
related, or trace any descent. Unfortunately, they've been in store for
twenty to thirty years, and have been handled by a number of people over
that time, so there's been too much contamination to get reliable DNA out of
the bones. While I'm talking about the skeletons though, English Heritage
have provided some money for Lancaster University to look at them and see
what else can be learnt from them. Then, in a couple of years time, they'll
probably be reburied. They may have to be placed in a local church, because
Norton is no longer consecrated, but Jon seems to be hoping that they can
arrange for them to return to Norton. If this is the case, there will be
some form of ceremony, which I told him I'd mention to you in case various
members of the Dutton Family want to go along to watch. Don't get too
excited though, as it won't be for a few years yet. Once the bones have
been studied and written up, there'll be a new book coming out, as Patrick
Greene's is no longer in print. The book will incorporate all the recent
work on the bones, as well as Greene's historical research. It should be
very interesting reading."

So stay tuned folks.......for any other breaking news!
phyllis

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• PRESS RELEASE by "Phyllis Ryerse" <>