GENEALOGY
Through his mother Donald
Adamson is seventeenth in line of descent from Henry VII. Also
through her, he is directly descended from the notable horseman
William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle (1593-1676), author of
A New
Method to Dress Horses.
As a descendant of the Booths, subsequently earls of Warrington, he can trace
his mother's ancestry uninterruptedly in the male line to Adam de Booth who
lived at Booths, near Worsley in Lancashire, in the late twelfth century.
He is also descended from the
Leigh family (formerly of West Hall, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire), whose
genealogy he posted on, but has recently removed from, this website after twenty years
of research.
Through the Leighs he is
descended from John Egerton, first Earl of Bridgewater (1579-1649),
Lord President of Wales, before whom Milton’s masque Comus
was first played. Riding must run in his blood as, through his
father, he is a collateral descendant of the jockey Fred Archer
(1857-1886), famous for his exploits in the St Leger, Oaks and Two
Thousand Guineas, and five-times winner of the Derby. However, though
he used to be a keen motorcyclist (and came off every motorcycle he
owned!), the most he now rides is a bicycle.
Also through the Leighs he is
fifteenth in line of descent from Thomas Cavendish who was lord of
the manor of Dodmore in the reign of Henry VIII: he is the first
lord of that manor to live there since 1681.
The earliest known origin of
the Adamsons was in Lanarkshire. The family came to Lancashire in the
sixteenth century.
Donald Adamson is a member of
Clan Mackintosh.
Ancestral home of the
Adamson family in Lancashire
Return
to Home Page