Shafto Information and Links

This is a location for the genealogy of the Shafto family, originating in Northumberland and Durham counties of Great Britian.

The family of Shafto is of great antiquity in the north of England, and proof of the rank which the old lords of Shafto held on the Scottish border may be gathered from song and tradition. The raid of Redswire, 1575, a hostile meeting between the Scotch and English border wardens has been described in verse. This reference occurs in the old song: "Young Henry Shafton is hurt, a souldier shot him with a bow."
Henry Shafton, or Shafto was one of the leaders of the English at the raid of Redswire, and was captured by the victorious Scotch, who later freed him. One of the battle cries of the English was "A Shafton and a Fenwick!". In these ancient times it was the custom for a man to take the name of his residence for himself, and Thomas Folliott residing at Shaftoe Crags [hills], Northumberland, was the first to bear Shafto as a surname. From him, who assumed that name in the tenth year of the reign of Edward I [1282], are descended all Shaftos wherever found.

---George Castor Martin, The Shore Press, Sunday, May 11, 1913.

The Shafto coat of arms are described as follows: Gules on a chevron argent, three mullets azure.
Gules describes the color of the shield, which is red. Argent applies to the chevron, which is silver, and azure describes the mullets or five pointed stars, which are blue. A five pointed star in heraldry is styled a mullet. The crest is a salamander standing amid flames, all in natural colors.
Shaftoe of Bavington Crest
Shafto of Whitworth Crest

For those with the Shaftoe and a few other spellings, this is usually the same surname with different spellings. The different branches (spellings) developed in England between 1282 and the late 1700's. The Shaftoe's of York are a good example of closely related individuals with various spellings of the surname.

There is a brochure from Whitworth Hall in Durham, UK that describes the Whitworth line of Shafto's including
"Little Bobby Shafto" from the Mother Goose nursery ryhmes.

The primary American tree begins with Anthony & his wife Hannah Cole. They left Whitby, Yorkshire, England via Newcastle, for Philadelphia with their sons Robert, Anthony, and three daughters. They landed 8 July 1791. The original homestead was on the north bank of Shark River Brook, between that stream and Corlies Ave., about two miles west of Hamilton, in Monmouth County, NJ. The twentieth century history of their grandson John's larger farmhouse is written in a newspaper article from the Asbury Park Press (NJ).