The epilogue at the end of this work takes the form of an open letter. It states that it was Florence Cynthia Bond's wish that the pedigree and account should be carried on and distributed to other branches of the Bond family. To this end, my wife and I have spent very many hours reproducing her work and storing it on a computer so it is not lost, and good copies can be easily made by others in the future.

The author's death and that of her two sisters put an end to her particular branch of the Bond family. My two daughters Paula, Christine and I are the only survivors on my line, which biologically, is as close as any of the others although descending through the female line we have lost the family name.

I am shown on the original pedigree and rate half a sentence on page 29. My wife and children are not mentioned in the original work because it was completed in 1957. I have decided to add to the end of the account a few births, deaths and marriages that have taken place since it was completed.

I do not know what has happened to the original documents, but I suspect that they have been handed on to part of the family which I have not been able to contact as yet, and if that is the case, I hope that they treasure them as much as I.

I first saw our family pedigree and met Florence Cynthia Bond my great aunt during 1965, while I was staying with my own aunt (Elsie Pratt, nee Chubb) in Eastbourne. (Actually since studying the family pedigree I discovered that she was my great great uncle George's daughter, but I knew her as great aunt.) My aunt took me to her at her home in Battle near Hastings and it was there that I believe I saw the original pedigree, although it may just have been a copy. The only other time I saw a copy was at my aunt's house in 1969. I was on my honeymoon at the time and did not pay it too much attention! I requested that she gave me a copy or allow me to make one myself. She was reluctant to allow me to do this, why? I do not know, but she promised that she would leave it to me in her will. Even in 1969 the copy was not in good condition and it consisted of several sheets of foolscap paper sellotaped together to make a chart approximately four feet wide by three feet high.

After the death of my mother, relations between my aunt and myself cooled somewhat and restricted themselves to the sending of Christmas and birthday cards. After the death of her husband, my aunt moved to a retirement home, where I visited her only on one occasion. It was painfully clear that she was slowly becoming senile. I mentioned the family pedigree to her during my visit, but she told me that it had been lost in the move. (It has recently occurred to me, that she may have been referring to the original priceless accounts that were stolen!)

After a few years the Christmas cards stopped and I received no replies to letters that I sent her. I tried to get the telephone number of the retirement home, but was led to believe from directory enquiries that the home was no longer listed. I assumed that she had died, I did not at that time know her age, but I believed her to be around 90. It was in December 1989 that I received a telephone call from her step son who although did not have my address managed to find my name from directory enquiries. (Luckily there are only four Entwistles in the Colchester area.) He informed me that my aunt had just died and invited me to her funeral. My children and I were her only living blood relatives. At the reception her step son not only handed me the "lost" copy of the family pedigree, and also the 18,000 word account of our family history which until that moment I did not even know existed!

The account, like the pedigree, was a photocopy showing the effects of age. It was badly typed and I think may just have been a working copy with crossing outs, alterations and updates written in by hand. There was an errata at the end, but many of the corrections it refers to had already been made. The photocopy was not easy to read and had faded round the edges.

Because of the poor condition of the photo copies I decided to undertake the task of typing the account into my computer, (actually my wife did. Thanks Olive!) It will not be long before they fade to a point where much of the information on them would have been lost, luckily I have caught it just in time.

The text was illustrated with drawings of Earth Barton, various versions of the family crest that certain individuals used, also the Golden Hind and other ships that the family owned. I have scanned the drawings and I am adding them to the computer text. Considering the poor quality of the originals they have come out surprisingly well.

In the 'Additions November 1958' section at the end of the text, there was mention of incorrect colours on a separate arms page which was hand painted. Unfortunately I had only a poor photostat copy which was in black and white.

Because of the limitations of my computer I am not able to scan a whole page and store it in memory at the same time, therefore I have scanned the individual arms and inserted them beside the main body of the text.

I have been very careful not to 'tart up' (computer enhance)the drawings and I have left them as much as possible in the same state, shape and size as they were when they were first drawn. Marks on the paper I have removed as they were not original, but that is all! It is the same with the text. I have reproduced it "word perfect" I have not corrected grammar or syntax, (not that I am qualified to do so) but I have put right the occasional typing error e.g. "thaat" and maybe the odd spelling mistake. I have laid it out to fit modern sized paper and a clear modern font has been chosen. The hand-written amendments I have either added as a footnote or amended the text. If any member of the family reading this would like a copy either on paper or a computer disk please let me know and I will willingly give you one.

I have had the family pedigree professionally redrawn although the style and lay out are as close to the original as practicable. It now has pride of place in my lounge and the original photocopies are filed safely away. Both of the crests shown in the preface have been scanned directly from it.

Peter Joseph Entwistle
Elmstead
Colchester
Essex
1991

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