Middleton family

The Middleton family refers to the immediate family of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, formerly commonly known as Kate Middleton. The Duchess's parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, whose fortune derives from their party supplies business, have featured heavily in the world media in the run up to their to Prince William of Wales and its aftermath. In addition, as a result of the world exposure of the wedding ceremony, their two other children, Pippa and James have become prominant personalities with much discussion in the press.
Background
"Middleton" is a locational Anglo-Saxon surname originating from dozens of different settlements in England going by one of the pre-7th century Old English variations of "middle" (such as midel) and "town" (such as tun). The earliest recorded examples of such hamlets date to 1086 and include Middeltone, Mideltuna, and Middeltune in such Derbyshire, Shropshire, Sussex, and Yorkshire. The surname "Mideltone" is recorded in Oxfordshire (1166), "Midilton" is noted in Arbroath, Scotland (1221) and "Middelton" is found in Yorkshire (1273).
Michael Middleton's family line came from Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, and his paternal relations, such as the Lupton family were active in Leeds' commercial and municipal work for generations. Ancestors of the Middleton family include The Rev. Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer.
William Addams Reitwiesner discovered that via Michael Middleton, the family are distantly related to Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife Agnes Gascoine, an ancestor of Princess Diana, thus making Catherine and Prince William fifteenth cousins. This link, as well as another more distant ancestry via Sir William Gascoine and his wife, née Lady Margaret Percy are both via Michael Middleton's grandmother, Olive Lupton, daughter of a Leeds cloth merchant Francis Lupton and his wife Harriet (née Davis) - Fairfax being an ancestor of Lupton and Leighton an ancestor of Davis.
The Goldsmith family of Carole Middleton came from London, although two generations before, the Harrisons were working class labourers and miners from Sunderland and County Durham.
Carole and Michael Middleton
Michael Francis Middleton was born in Leeds in 1949, and was the son of an airline pilot, Peter Francis Middleton, and his wife Valerie Glassborow. Like his father and grandfather, Middleton was educated at Clifton College. Carole Elizabeth Middleton (née Goldsmith) was born on 31 January 1955 at Perivale Maternity Hospital in Ealing. The daughter of a builder, Ronald Goldsmith and his wife Dorothy Harrison, she grew up in a council flat and attended the local state school.
The couple met when they both worked as cabin attendants for British Airways. In 1979, Michael Middleton was promoted within BA and became a flight dispatcher at London Heathrow Airport, where he kept track of the airline's fleet on the ground. The couple married on 21 June 1980, at the parish church of St James in Dorney, Buckinghamshire. They bought a semi-detatched Victorian house in Bradfield Southend near Reading, Berkshire.
Their third child, James was born in 1987. The business was successful, and over the space of a few years the Middletons are reported to have become multi-millionaires. As a result, the Middletons sent both of their daughters to the independent Downe House, a girls' boarding school in Cold Ash, and finally the public school Marlborough College, Wiltshire.
As a result of their first daughter's Royal marriage, the family have been granted a coat of arms. This features three acorn sprigs - one for each of their children. The oak represents "England and strength" as well as their home county of West Berkshire. The white chevronels symbolise peaks and mountains, apparently representing the family's love of the Lake District and skiing, and the inverted gold chevron represents Carole Middleton's maiden name of Goldsmith.
Children
Their first daughter, , now known under her official title Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was born 9 January 1982. After finishing at Marlborough, she went to study at University of St Andrews. It was here that she met Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. After a long relationship, and a one-year engagement, she married Prince William at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.
Their second daugher, Pippa (born 6 September 1983), attended the same schools as her sister and then studied English literature at Edinburgh University. There she shared a house with Lord Edward Innes-Ker, a son of the Duke of Roxburghe, and with Earl Percy, heir of the Duke of Northumberland. Following graduation, in 2008 she took a job with Table Talk, a London-based company an events catering company. She also writes for The Party Times, an online magazine which is an off-shoot of her parents' company.
James Middleton, their last child, was born on 15 April 1987. He was educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne and Marlborough College. He started a degree in English at the University of Edinburgh before leaving in 2006 after one year to start his own cake-making business, the Cake Kit Company. Both of the younger siblings live in a flat in Chelsea, reportedly purchased in 2002 by their parents for £780,000. Both of Catherine's siblings played a prominent role in their sister's wedding; Pippa was the Maiden of Honour and James read the lesson.
Family tree

Television and film portrayals
In William & Kate, a television movie released on 18 April 2011 about her Catherine's romance, the part of Pippa Middleton was played by Mary Elise Hayden. and the part of James Middleton was played by Calvin Goldspink. and Channel 4's Meet the Middletons.

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