The Shorto Family of Exeter
A foundational genealogical study of an Exeter family
The early documentary reconstruction from which my later Shorto biographies developed.
This book brings together the genealogy, occupations, civic connections and family networks of the Shortos of Exeter and related branches. Its value lies chiefly in the documentary record it preserves across generations.
Why I wrote this book
The Shorto research began as genealogy. I wanted to establish the family accurately across generations and preserve material that was scattered through civil, parish, census and local records. As with several of my early books, the immediate task was documentary recovery rather than constructing a single historical argument.
What emerged was a family with unusually persistent connections to education, church life, professional service and civic Exeter. Those patterns later became historically more interesting to me than the genealogy alone.
What the book preserves
The volume records relationships, occupations, marriages, addresses and civic associations across a long period. That detail made it possible to see continuity as well as change: families moving between crafts, teaching, military service, law and public office while maintaining a strong language of duty and respectability.
How the research later developed
I later returned to the same documentary base in Faith, Service, and Respectability, where the family is treated as a subject in social history, and in Duty and Dignity, which focuses specifically on George Roberts Shorto. Those later books ask questions about institutions, values, class and civic identity that this earlier volume made possible.
Sources and method
The research draws on census returns, civil registration, parish records, newspapers, directories, occupational information and family evidence. The method is deliberately genealogical and accumulative, creating a foundation that could later be interpreted in broader historical terms.
Publication details
- Author: Antony David Davies
- Published: 2015
- Formats: Kindle and paperback