t is, singularly enough, true that in his family
line of descent there have been three generations where each had
but one male representative, and two generations having but one
representative of either sex. Thus the Carolina Gastons are of the
nearest kindred to Governor Gaston's particular branch.

Kezia (Arnold) Gaston, the mother of Governor Gaston, was a
daughter of Aaron Arnold and Rhoda (Hunt) Arnold, and a lineal
descendant of Thomas Arnold, who, with his brother William, came to
New England in 1636. William Arnold went to Rhode Island with Roger
Williams, being one of the fifty-four proprietors of that
Plantation. His brother Thomas followed him there in 1654. The
latter was born in England in 1599, probably in Leamington, that
being the birth-place of his brother William. His second wife was
Phoebe Parkhurst, daughter of George Parkhurst of Watertown,
Massachusetts. The family record is carried back to 1100, being
undoubtedly accurate to about the year 1570, when the name Arnold
was first used as a surname; possibly accurate throughout.

The arms of the Family; Gules, a chevron ermine between three
Pheons, or; appear on the tombstone of Oliver Arnold, and of
William Arnold, the original settler. The same arms are on a tablet
in the Parish Church of Churcham in Gloucestershire, England,
placed there in memory of his ancestor John Arnold of Lanthony,
Monmouthshire, afterwards of Hingham, who acquired the manor of
Churcham in 1541.

TRADITIONS.

The most ancient written record of the family which the writer has
consulted was written by John Roseborough, late Clerk of the
Circuit Court, Chester District, South Carolina. He was the son of
Alexander Roseborough and Martha Gaston, whose father, William
Gaston of Caranleigh Clough Water, Ireland, was grandson of Jean
Gaston, the Huguenot ancestor of the family.

The statement is as follows, the words enclosed in parenthesis
being supplied by way of information.

"Jean Gaston emigrated from France to Scotland on account of his
religion, as a persecution then raged against the Protestants. He
had two sons who emigrated from Scotland to Ireland between 1662
and 1668 during a time of persecution in Scotland. There was a John
and a William, but which of them was the ancestor of our