were persons of
no mean degree, as the following statement of their local positions
indicates. According to Playfair's "British Family Antiquity," Vol.
VII., Mr. Robert Cann was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Cann, who was the
eldest son of Sir Robert Cann, the first baronet. Sir Robert Cann was
the eldest son of William Cann, Esqr., Alderman of Bristol. He married
the sister of Sir Robert Yeomans, who was beheaded at Bristol for
supporting the cause of Charles I. Sir Robert was Councillor, 1649-1663;
Sheriff, 1651-1652; Treasurer, Merchant Venturers, 1653-1654; Master,
Merchant Venturers, 1658-1659; Mayor, 1662-1663; Knighted, 1662; created
Baronet, 1662; Alderman 1663-1685; Mayor, 1675-1676. Under the south
window of St. Werburgh's Church was a handsome monument, with a
half-arch, for the family of Sir Robert Cann, of Compton-Greenfield,
Bart. Richard Streamer was Councillor, 1661-1672; Sheriff, 1663-1664;
Alderman, 1672-1680; Mayor 1673-1674; Master, Merchant Venturers,
1672-1673; died 1680. Sir William Pool cannot be traced in the local
histories which have been consulted. Sir Abraham Elton (first baronet),
baptized 3 July, 1654, at St. Philip and St. Jacob Church, was the son
of Isaac and Elizabeth Elton, of that parish. From entries in the
registers, it may be seen that the family was settled there as early as
1608, about which time the members of it migrated from near Ledbury to
the neighbourhood, attracted doubtless by the splendid field for
enterprise offered by the second City of the Kingdom, as Bristol
undoubtedly was at that period, and for some time afterwards. They were
Puritans, and held some land in Barton Regis on the Gloucestershire side
of the city. Richard Elton, bap. at St. Philip and St. Jacob, 29 April,
1610, was a Colonel in Fairfax's Army, and he published one of the
earliest text books in the English language on military tactics; hence
the family motto, "Artibus et Armis." A copy of this book is now in
Clevedon Court Library, with its quaint frontispiece, portrait and
inscription: "Richard Elton, of Bristol, 1649, aetas suae 39." Sir
Abraham was apprenticed in 1670 to his eldest brother, Jacob Elton, but
in 1672 went to sea. He married in 1676 Mary, daughter of Robert
Jefferies, a member of a well-known mercantile family of that day. He
served in many public offices, thus:--President, Gloucestershire
Society, 1689; Councillor, 1699-1712; Sheriff, 1702-1703; Master,
Merchant Venturers, 1708-1709; M