THE CLOPTON FAMILY ASSOCIATION

The Clopton Family Association operates as a nonprofit organization under bylaws adopted in 1998.  For the modest dues of $10 a year the Clopton Family Association provides a newsletter including historical and genealogic information on the Clopton and related families.  Members are provided contact information for other members to encourage the exchange of information and to facilitate regional, national and international reunions.  Volunteer donations from the membership have been contributed for the maintenance and repair of churches which have played key roles in Clopton history including the Holy Trinity Church at Long Melford, Suffolk, and St. Peter's Parish Church, New Kent County, Virginia.  Committees of the CFA work to update Clopton genealogy, and the CFA maintains this website to provide information about the family and news about its activities.

The CFA was founded in 1984 through the efforts of Gene Carlton Clopton.  Gene also published The Clopton Family that year, the book which remains the authoritative source for our genealogy and history.  The genealogy committee of the CFA is currently updating this important work.

An international reunion of the Clopton family was held in 1984 in Long Melford, Suffolk, the center of Clopton history since the time of William the Conquerer until William Clopton immigrated to the Colony of Virginia in about 1673.  William was the son of Rev. William Clopton and his wife Elizabeth Sutcliffe of Eastwood, County Essex, England.  The 1984 reunion coincided with the 500th anniversary of the Holy Trinity Church at Long Melford, one of the great Suffolk wool churches, which is intimately involved with Clopton family history.  The church has recently been identified as one of the top 10 in England for historical significance.  Through the untiring help and support of Christopher Sansbury, Rector of Long Melford, and many other residents of the village, the family has renewed it's ties to the church and surrounding region.  These ties go back almost a thousand years.  Other international Clopton reunions were held in Long Melford in 1990 and 1996.  National reunions are also held in Williamsburg, Virginia,  where St. Peters Church in nearby New Kent County is the site of the tombs of the first American Clopton, William Clopton (1655-c1732) and his wife, Ann (Booth) Dennett Clopton (1647-1716) of Virginia.

National and regional Clopton reunions have been held in Virginia, Georgia, Texas, and Wyoming, and Washington.  These reunions are organized by CFA members.