Weld family

Weld
Political family
Coat of arms granted to Joseph Weld
Place of origin	Cheshire, England
Titles	Sheriff of London Governor of Massachusetts

The Weld family may refer to an ancient English family, and to their possible relations in New England, an extended family of Boston Brahmin.^[1] An early record of a Weld holding public office, is the High Sheriff of London in 1352, William. In the 16th and 17th centuries people called Weld and living in Cheshire began to travel and to settle in the environs of London, in Shropshire, in Suffolk and thence in the American Colonies, and in Dorset. While most of the Welds of England had adopted Protestantism, the exception was all three sons of Sir John Weld of Edmonton, who married into elite recusant families, thus reverting, with their descendants, to Roman Catholicism. The noted Catholic Weld lineage, unbroken till the new millennium, is that of Lulworth Castle in Dorset.^[2]