Postcard image courtesy of Warren County Historical Society, Warren, Pa./Times Observer file photo This unnamed school in Clarendon is now the Clarendon Borough building. (below)

There are places named Clarendon in England, Canada, Australia, and Jamaica, as well as Arkansas, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, South Carolina, Michigan, and Warren County, Pennsylvania.

Since 1661 (except for 1753 to 1776) the Earl of Clarendon has been a title in England.

Clarendon, PA, may have indirectly been named for the Earl of Clarendon, but, according to Ernest C. Miller’s Place Names of Warren County the direct procession is from a Thomas Clarendon of New York City.

We can’t say how Thomas’ family got its name.

Thomas Clarendon and F.H. Rockwell were joint owners of large tracts of land in what would eventually become eastern Warren County.

Postcard image courtesy of Warren County Historical Society, Warren, Pa./Times Observer file photo This unnamed school in Clarendon is now the Clarendon Borough building. (below)

The borough was chartered in 1882. At that time, it was probably centered about three quarters of a mile southwest of the current borough center — identified by the railroad depot. Old Clarendon burned on July 4, 1887.

What is now known as Clarendon Borough would have been called North Clarendon back then.

Speaking of the railroad depot, prior to honoring Clarendon with the place name, the area was known as Pattonia.

William Patton (or Thomas Patton, according to Schenck’s History of Warren County) was the railroad builder who had the contract to build a line through the area.

It was announced in the June 2, 1860, edition of the Warren Mail that Patton had completed the contract and was selling off all of the equipment.

Postcard image courtesy of Warren County Historical Society, Warren, Pa. Electric/telephone poles more abundant and elaborate. Note the tram line on the left side of the road with a tram in the distance. Road is still unpaved.

There may be connections between the two families other than that the same place was named after each.

In trying to further track down William Patton’s ties to Clarendon, two listings stood out among the names of people buried in the Patton Family Burying Ground in Cochecton, N.Y. along the Pennsylvania border northeast of Scranton, in Historical Papers, a publication of the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands.

The first name was Edward Clarendon Patton who died at the age of four months in 1869.

Another Edward Patton died in 1864 at the age of one year and one month. His parents were M. Edward Clarendon and Mary Patton-Clarendon.

There is a listing for a William Patton who died in 1864 at the age of 67 in that publication.

Direct evidence that the Pattons working on the railroad intermingled with the Clarendons who owned the land could not be found.

Possibly as early as 1250, Clarendon Palace, near Salisbury, England, was a walled-in area of about five acres including terraced gardens, several buildings, and a central courtyard. By 1650 it was out of use and the palace deteriorated over the centuries. It is little more than a pile of stones now.