_Abbott Families._--Samuel Abbott, of Sudbury, in the county of Suffolk,
gentleman, lived about 1670. Can any of your genealogical contributors
inform me if he was in any way connected with the family of Archbishop
Abbott, or otherwise elucidate his parentage? It may probably be
interesting to persons of the same name to be acquainted that the
_pears_ worn by many of the Abbot family are merely a corruption of the
ancient inkhorns of the Abbots of Northamptonshire, and impaled in
Netherheyford churchyard, same county, on the tomb of Sir Walt.
Mauntele, knight, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Abbot, Esq.,
1487, viz. a chev. between three inkhorns. The resemblance between pears
and inkhorns doubtless occasioned the error. I believe the ancient
bottles of Harebottle were similarly corrupted into icicles.