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Highlights of Family History
There are many fascinating stories told here, and I hope
continued research by myself and others will turn up more. If you would
like to add stories to this page, please contact me (see Contact Info on this
site).
One story of interest is how our lost roots were rediscovered. For 20
years, Charlotte McIntire (my 2nd cousin, once removed) had been frustrated in her efforts to
trace our Northrop ancestors back more than a few generations, and so she'd
focused her efforts on finding their descendants -- and we owe her for all that
information. In 1993, she tracked down my mother, who shared
an interesting story that she'd heard from her grandmother, Fleeta Edna Brotton:
that we are descended from Joseph Northrop, 17th century founder of a colony in
Virginia.
In subsequent research, Charlotte proved the story was partially apocryphal,
but learning the name gave her the break for which she'd been waiting. She
found we really are descended from Joseph Northrop, one of the earliest members of
a 17th century colony in Milford, Connecticut. Charlotte continued to research his descendants, while I focused on finding
their ancestors.
In 2001, while living in New York City, I learned of the
important work done by Karen Mentzer (nee Shorb), introducing me to the many
amazing ancestors of Catherine Frederick and Melissa Jenkins. Some of
these ancestors were Huguenots from France who
eventually emigrated to New York City, later moving a short distance upstate.
Highlights of our ancestors' lives include:
- John RIDGE, Cherokee Chief and Sarah Bird
NORTHROP, a love story that ended in the Trail of Tears.
- Humphrey ATHERTON,
Major
- John HARRIS, Major
- John PROUT, Yale
grad, later treasurer of Yale College
- Joel Prout NORTHROP,
Yale grad, surgeon in Revolutionary War
- Joseph NORTHROP,
settler
- Josiah CLIPPINGDALE,
composer
- George CLIPPINGDALE, thief?
- Edmund RICE,
missionary
- John ROGERS, "The Martyr"
- Mrs. CLIPPINGDALE, the Methodist
- James HARWOOD, member of the Roger's Rangers,
later a Revolutionary Fighter
- Archibald HARWOOD, betrayed by Benedict
Arnold
- Marshall JENKINS, swallowed by a whale
- Thomas MAYHEW, Colonial Governor of Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket
- Thomas MAYHEW, Jr.: Missionary, settler of
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
- Matthew MAYHEW, author,
politician and missionary
- Robert KITCHEL, founder of Guilford, CT and
Newark, NJ
- Samuel KITCHEL, "owner and
settler" of Newark, NJ and surrounding areas
- Richard WARREN, 12 signatory to Mayflower
Compact, among first Pilgrims who met "Indians"
- John HOWLAND, 13th signatory to Mayflower
Compact, written about by Jane Austen
- John TILLEY, 16th signatory to Mayflower
Compact, traveled with wife and daughter Elizabeth
- Elizabeth TILLEY, written about by Jane
Austen
- Richard SARSON, lived on land originally
owned by Thomas Paine
- Rev. Abraham PIERSON, Cambridge graduate, 1st minister
of Southampton, N.Y., 1st Rector of Yale University
- Robert PENOYER, brother of famous Harvard
man, they fled England after he witnessed a murder
- Rev. Ralph WHEELOCK, Cambridge grad, eminent
non-conformist
- John ELIOT, "Apostle of the
Indians", royal ancestry, Cambridge grad, wrote first book in
"Indian" language
- Edward HOWELL, founder of Southampton, Long
Island, New York
- Andre LAMOUREUX, Huguenot, in 1704 owned 32
acres in midtown Manhattan, later captured by French Pirate
- Daniel LAMOUREUX, Huguenot ancestor married
in Manhattan, NY in 1700
- Rev. John YOUNGS, founded 1st or 2nd church
in New York State
- Francis BELL, original settler of Stamford,
CT. His Bible is now owned by Stamford Historical Society.
- Rev. Jonathan WHEELWRIGHT, Cambridge
graduate, nonconformist, friend of Oliver Cromwell
- Rev. Stephen BATCHELDER, Turbulent personal
history of a Puritan preacher
1. John RIDGE and Sarah Bird NORTHROP:
Our family was profoundly involved with Chief John Ridge and the fate of the
entire Cherokee people. This is a love story that had a tragic and terrible end for thousands of Cherokee, ending in the Trail of Tears.
John Ridge, the sixteen year old son of Chief Major Ridge (Ka-non-ta-cla-ge) of the
Cherokee, from Rome, Georgia, lived for a time with the family of our ancestor, John Northrop, as a boarder with the Congregationalist mission to the Cherokee people. The Congregationalists' mission was to give a modern
education to the Cherokee, a well-intentioned effort that had tragic consequences for John Ridge and Sarah Northrop, if not tens of thousands of Cherokee people. Certainly it forever scarred the life of their son, John Rollin Ridge.
John Rollin Ridge's story begins with his Cherokee Indian
heritage, which centers on his grandfather who was born in 1771 in a Cherokee
village in what is now Polk County, Tennessee.
When small he was called "he who slays the enemy in the path."
His mother was a half-blood of the Deer clan and he claimed descent from a long
line of Cherokee chiefs and warriors.
As a young boy, he heard the tribal conjurers tell
stories of the origins and deeds of his forefathers. And he listened solemnly
when a conjurer predicted the fate of the Cherokees.
"Your elder brother (the white man) will settle around you - he will
encroach upon your lands, and then ask you to sell them to him . . . HE WILL
POINT YOU TO THE WEST, but you will find no resting place there, for your elder
brother will drive you from one place to another until you get to the western
waters. These things will certainly
happen, but it will be when we are dead and gone."
At puberty, Ridge's grandfather began the training that
would make him a savage warrior. At
the age of 17, he took his first white man's scalp to revenge the cold-blooded
shooting of a Cherokee chief under a flag of truce by a white settler. As
he grew older, he became an expert hunter and earned his final Indian name,
meaning "the man who walks on the mountain top," or The Ridge.
The Ridge became an influential tribal chieftain and an
orator of distinction. After he
married in 1792, he and his wife, Susanna, gradually gave up many of their
Indian habits. They cleared their
land and began to develop orchards and corn and cotton fields. They raised
horses and livestock. As they
prospered they acquired slaves, built a large colonial-style home, and adopted
the dress and manners of prosperous Southern planters.
Their plantation was located in an area that became known as the garden
spot of the Cherokee country in Georgia.
Here, The Ridge's five children were born.
John Ridge, born in 1803, was The Ridge's first son and John Rollin
Ridge's father.
As white settlers moved into the Cherokee territory,
which included parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, they became
eager to force the Indians out. With
the increasing intrusion of the whites, some Cherokees secretly ceded their land
and migrated west. Each cession
aroused great resentment among the Cherokees. The Ridge was adamantly against any cession of the
Cherokee ancestral lands. And he
firmly believed that if the younger Cherokees received a good white man's
education and adapted the white man's ways, they could successfully keep the
whites from usurping their land. He
centered his hopes on his eldest son, John.
In 1818, The Ridge sent John to Cornwall, Connecticut, to
further his education in the Foreign Mission School.
There John fell ill. There
he also fell in love with his nurse, Sarah Bird Northrop, a blue-eyed,
auburn-haired, 14 year-old beauty. The people of Cornwall were incensed at
the idea of an Indian courting a white girl.
"Outrage!" cried the press and the pulpit.
Some suggested that Sarah should be publicly whipped, her mother drowned,
and John hanged.
John was a handsome, graceful and determined young man
who was proud of his Cherokee heritage and undaunted by the bitter prejudices
and calumny of the whites. He also
faced disappointed parents, who wanted John to marry the daughter of a Cherokee
chief. Sarah's parents discouraged the romance, attributing it to the poor
judgment of youth. In their wisdom,
they asked that Ridge leave town and, if he came back in a year and the two
still wished a union, they would grant it.
They were relieved the young lovers agreed.
One year later, John Ridge, son of the wealthy
plantation-owner, arrived in a fancy horse-drawn coach, complete with four black
slaves dressed in full livery as servants, to claim his bride.
When Lydia Northrop asked her daughter, Sarah, "Do
you love John Ridge?" Sarah
said simply, "Yes, I do."
In 1824, Sarah and John were married, and the furious
citizens of Cornwall burned them in effigy.
The scandal of these intermarriages became too
controversial for the school, and it was forced to close its doors not long
afterwards. Citizens all over Connecticut were enraged at the events in
Cornwall. One newspaper had these
racist words to say of the union: "Ridge, David (the marriage of): At
Cornwall, Conn on the 17th Jan by the Rev. Mr. Smith, the pious and delicate
Miss Sally B Northrop, daughter of Mr. John B. Northrop, was married to a
full-blooded Cherokee Indian, late a member of the foreign mission school in
that town. His present name is Mr.
David Ridge - his true Indian name we have not learned.
Those white ladies who are in want of Indian husbands must apply soon or
there will not be any copper faces left.
They must send in their proposals (post paid) to the trustees of the
Cornwall School who have an assortment of unmarried Indians on hand".
On March 19, 1827, John Rollin Ridge was born on his
grandfather's estate. He spent an idyllic childhood as the heir to wealthy
and respected tribal chiefs. Yet,
another phase of the prophecy of the conjurer was soon to be fulfilled.
Although John, The Ridge, and his young protégé, John Ross, worked
unceasingly to stop it, more Cherokees ceded their land in exchange for land in
Arkansas. A speech by Womankiller
for reinstatement of the old Blood Law that prescribed death for any Cherokee
who sold his land without the consent of the Cherokee Nation was transcribed and
published by John Ridge.
When gold was discovered in the Cherokee country of
Georgia in 1829, more whites poured into the area. They raided, pillaged
and squatted on Indian homesteads. Their
crimes went unpunished. To make the Indians' position even more precarious, the
State of Georgia declared Cherokee laws invalid and decreed that Indians could
not testify against white men in Georgia courts or dig for gold on their own
land. Large sections of Cherokee
land were annexed to Georgia and any Cherokee who tried to stop other Cherokees
from migrating was to be arrested and imprisoned.
The U.S. government refused to refute the Georgia laws and repeatedly
urged the Cherokees to emigrate to Arkansas.
When John and The Ridge finally realized the futility of
the Cherokees' situation, they reluctantly decided that the Cherokees should
make the best bargain they could with the U.S. and move to Arkansas where many
of their brothers were already located. In a council meeting The Ridge said, "I would
willingly die to preserve them (these lands), but any forcible effort to keep
them will cost us our lands, our lives and the lives of our children. There is
but one path of safety, one road to future existence as a Nation. That path is
open before you. Make a treaty of cession. Give up these lands and go over
beyond the great Father of Waters." Moved by his powerful oratory,
several old Cherokees sadly promised to follow him West.
But John Ross and his supporters remained inflexibly opposed to
emigration.
The fate of The Ridge and his heirs was sealed in
December 1835, when The Ridge signed the Treaty of New Echota, which agreed to
the removal of the Cherokees from their ancestral lands in exchange for
extensive lands in the West and $4,500,000. The Ridge said as he signed
the treaty, "I have just signed my death warrant."
The treaty split the Cherokee into two feuding factions.
The Ridge faction favored emigration; the Ross faction opposed it.
As the conjurer had predicted, The Ridge and his followers emigrated westward to
Indian Territory in Oklahoma in March 1837. John and his family, including the
11 year-old John Rollin Ridge, emigrated in June 1837.
The majority of Cherokees made no preparations for removal.
In 1837, orders went out from the U.S. Army: "The
full moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed
away, every Cherokee man, woman and child must be in motion to join their
brethren in the far West."
Soldiers with rifles and bayonets were sent to round up the Cherokees. They
were forced from their dinner tables and their fields.
Women were driven from their spinning wheels and children were taken from
their play and horded into stockades like cattle.
Many died in the camps. Others died of fatigue, exposure, and disease as
they were driven through the drought of summer and snow of winter along the
trail to Arkansas.
Historians estimate that nearly 4,000 or about one-fifth
of the entire Cherokee population died in the emigration. The road over which
the Cherokees were driven was truly a "trail where they cried," a
Trail of Tears. The Ridges were consequently blamed for all the suffering,
difficulties, and deaths. In a
secret meeting, members of the Ross faction decreed that the Blood Law should be
enforced.
In the early morning hours of June 22, 1839, twenty-five
Cherokees on horseback and armed with rifles quietly surrounded John Ridge's new
home in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Three
forced open a door, entered John's bedroom, and aimed a pistol at John's head as
he slept. The pistol failed to
fire. Here is the scene as
described by his son, John Rollin Ridge, many years later:
“I saw my father in the hands
of assassins. He endeavored to
speak to them, but they shouted and drowned his voice, for they were instructed
not to listen to him for a moment, for fear they would be persuaded not to kill
him. They dragged him into the
yard, and prepared to murder him. Two
men held him by the arms, and others by the body, while another stabbed him
deliberately with a dirk twenty-nine times.
My mother rushed out to the door, but they pushed her back with their
guns into the house, and prevented her egress until their act was finished, when
they left the place quietly. My
father fell to the earth, but did not immediately expire.
My mother ran out to him.
“He raised himself on his
elbow and tried to speak, but the blood flowed into his mouth and prevented him.
In a few moments more he died, without speaking that last word which he
wished to say. Then succeeded a scene of agony the sight of which might make
one regret that the human race had ever been created. It has darkened my mind with an eternal shadow.
“In a room prepared for the purpose, lay pale in
death the man whose voice had been listened to with awe and admiration in the
councils of his Nation, and whose fame had passed to the remotest of the United
States, the blood oozing through his winding sheet, and falling drop by drop on
the floor. By his side sat my
mother, with hands clasped, and in speechless agony — she who had given him
her heart in the days of her youth and beauty, left the home of her parents, and
followed the husband of her choice to a wild and distant land. And bending over him was his own afflicted mother, with her
long, white hair flung loose over her shoulders and bosom, crying to the Great
Spirit to sustain her in that dreadful hour.
And in addition to all these, the wife, the mother and the little
children, who scarcely knew their loss, were the dark faces of those who had
been the murdered man’s friends, and, possibly, some who had been privy to the
assassination, who had come to smile over the scene.”
On the same day, other bands ambushed and killed The
Ridge and his nephew, Elias Boudinot. Five
bullets pierced The Ridge's head and body.
Boudinot was stabbed and then his head was split with a tomahawk.
Fearing for their lives, Sarah took her children and fled
to Arkansas. John Rollin was 13 at
the time, and his young memory would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He spent his adolescence in Arkansas, where he wrote, "There is a
deep-seated principle of Revenge in me which will never be satisfied, until it
reaches its object."
Although Stand Watie, Elias Boudinot's brother, fought
and killed one man who later boasted of bushwhacking The Ridge, and some of the
killers later met violent deaths, none was ever tried or punished in the
Cherokee courts.
In 1841, John Rollin went to college in New England where
he proved to be an able poet and scholar and a natural leader. In 1847, he
returned to Arkansas and married Elizabeth Wilson, an attractive white woman
from Fayetteville. But he never
lost his desire for revenge. He soon returned to Indian Territory and
joined in a guerrilla war against the Ross faction.
When one of his enemies, Judge David Kell, mutilated John Rollin's prize
stallion, John killed Kell in self-defense.
Since John doubted that he would get a fair trial before a Cherokee
court, he fled to Missouri.
In 1850, John Rollin fulfilled the last of the conjurer's
prophecy. He came to the West Coast
of California to seek his fortune. According
to his contemporaries, John Rollin was a tall, graceful, courteous, dignified
and handsome gentleman who had jet-black hair, dark eyes, a splendid physique,
and noble bearing. He was said to
be loyal and confiding to his friends and outspoken and defiant to his enemies.
It was also said that his individuality and personality were distinctly
different from other men.
Like many '49ers before him, John Rollin soon gave up
gold mining and turned to writing. As
"Yellow Bird," a translation of the Indian name given to him by The
Ridge, he gained recognition as a forceful writer and a talented poet.
Many of his articles and poems were published in the Golden Era and the Hesperian, which were popular magazines of the time. Later, he became an
outspoken editor for newspapers in San Francisco, Marysville, Sacramento, Red
Bluff, Weaverville, and Trinity County. In 1864, he became part owner and
editor of the Grass Valley National.
John Rollin was a fighting editor when editors fought not
only with their pens, but with fists, pistols, knives, canes, and, occasionally,
beer mugs. Upon meeting a rival editor in a saloon who had called him a
"Cayuse" in a blistering editorial, Ridge pushed his rival's nose into
his beer mug.
During the Civil War, Ridge Rollin was a Copperhead and
vigorously anti-Lincoln. His
fiery editorials supported the Southern cause, but he was one of the few
California editors who denounced secession as treason and urged the federal
government to resist it with force, if necessary. A political brouhaha
soon developed between Ridge as editor of the Grass Valley National, which
supported the Democratic presidential candidacy of McClellan, and Blumenthal of
the Grass Valley Union, which supported Lincoln's re-election.
Charges of bribery and chicanery were tossed back and forth. Ridge
challenged Blumenthal to a duel. John
was an excellent marksman. Blumenthal
ignored the challenge. Infuriated,
Ridge and two friends entered the Union office and caned Blumenthal soundly.
A Marysville paper hooted in mock acclaim at the
"bravery of three men who went at midnight to horsewhip a single, unarmed
man." To keep the records
straight, the National denied the use of a horsewhip. The paper declared that a
cane was the weapon and the attack was the only means of resort left to a
gentleman who was "denied satisfaction in the field of honor."
Despite his fiery temper and his virulent pen, when
Lincoln was assassinated, Ridge joined Blumenthal in mourning. His success
as an influential political writer and a talented poet in California never
dispelled Yellow Bird's yearning to be restored as chief among his own people
and to avenge the wrongs done to his relatives and his tribe. In 1853,
John Rollin wrote to a cousin in Indian Territory, "It is only on my
mother's account I have stayed away so long. It was only on her account that I
did not go back in '49 or the Spring of '50 and risk everything.
I am not afraid to do it anytime, provided my friends will only agree to
back me.
"But let that be as it may.
I intend some day, sooner or later, to plant my foot in the Cherokee
Nation and stay there, too, or die. You
recollect there is one gap in Cherokee history which needs to be filled up.
Boudinot is dead, John Ridge and Major Ridge are dead, and they are but
partially revenged. I don't know
how you feel now, but there was a time when the brave heart of yours, dear
cousin, grew dark over the memory of our wrong."
(Major was a title bestowed on The Ridge after he and his Cherokee
followers had distinguished themselves in helping General Andrew Jackson win the
Creek War of 1812.)
Another of John Rollin's fondest hopes was to establish a
paper in the Cherokee Nation where through the "fire of my own pen"
and the help of the best minds of the Indian nations they would prevent men and
governments from trampling on the rights of the defenseless Indian tribes.
John never realized these ambitions. And he often expressed feelings of melancholy and
frustration. Once while listening
to the rain, he wrote: "With each drop a memory of a bygone dream.
How melancholy are the whispers of the rain.
What hopes have we not all buried and what dreams have we not all
mourned, but come to us again with the soft music of the rhythmic rain.
Have we trusted and been deceived? Have
we lost what we loved? All comes to us again in the sad and mournful memory as
we listen to the patter of the rain."
In 1866, John Rollin went to Washington, D.C., with a
delegation of the Ridge faction in a last attempt to regain his tribal status
and to get the government to recognize a Southern Cherokee Nation as distinct
from the Cherokees under Ross. Washington
recognized him "as the loyal chief of the Ridge party," but they
negotiated with the Ross Cherokees. Although
Ross died soon after (in Washington), John Rollin returned to his home in Grass
Valley defeated and depressed. He, too, died soon after at the age of 40 from what was
termed fever of the brain. The
prophecy was complete.
The poetry John Rollin wrote in his youth was published
in a slender volume after his death. It
received short and limited literary acclaim. Ironically, when John Rollin
was 17, he wrote the first romanticized tale about another man's life, which
became one of the West's most enduring legends.
In his book, "The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta (sic), The
Celebrated California Bandit," John Rollin portrays Murietta as a peaceful
and noble citizen who is transformed into a bloody outlaw dedicated to revenging
the atrocities he and his family suffered at the hands of the
Anglo-Saxons. In the book, Murietta gets the revenge John Rollin longed
for. Murietta lives on in poems,
articles, books, plays, and in old movies and new television programs.
John Rollin's story of Murietta was the main source from which many of
these later accounts came. Even the eminent historians Bancroft and Hittell used John
Rollin's version of Murietta's story.
But history has taken little note of John Rollin Ridge, the man known as
Yellow Bird, whose story of unavenged suffering was foretold before he was born.
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2. Humphrey ATHERTON: Soldier, Speaker Of Assembly, Comm. Of Mass. Colonial Forces.
FROM "Clement Topliff and his Descendents in Boston":
Came to America from England 8/17/1635 in the "James". He was an important military character in early New England.
[From Alan Beeson] First mentioned in records, 18 March 1637, freeman, Deputy 2 May 1638. He was a magistrate, deputy governor, and active in
the affairs of the United colonies, Major General. See Pope, "Pioneers of MA". Came to America in the "James". Returning
from a military
review on Boston Commons, his horse stepped over a cow, he was thrown and died early the next morning. There were those who said the manner
of his death was "judgment". Mary: surname not proven. Husband called brother-in-law Nathaniel Wales. [From John F. Chandler] Humphrey was buried in "1st burying place". A
birth date Oct. 1609 apparently based on a declared age at some point. Note that it is likely that his descendants moved to Chesterfield, NH.
Many of these children are named "Humphrey" Atherton. He was of the English parish
Atherton (Leigh) and settled in Dorchester
and Milton.
FROM Various sources:
Humphrey Atherton, Maj. Gen'l b. 1609 Winwick, England, d. December 17, 1661 Boston,
Massachusetts. He came to America on 'James' from Bristol 1635. Humphrey lived in Lancashire, England and Dorchester and Boston, MA. Admitted freeman at Dorchester May 2, 1638; member of artillery company 1638; Lt. 1645; Capt. 1650; Maj. 1652; Speaker of the House 1653; Maj. Gen. 1661. Tradition says death resulted from a fall when his horse stumbled over a cow lying in the road.
Humphrey Atherton (1609, Lancashire, Eng - 1661, Boston), prominent in Mass Bay Colony politics and military affairs, principal of Atherton Land Company in
Narragansett area of Rhode Island.
Maj. Gen. Humphrey Atherton b. 1609 in England. Married Mary who died in 1672 in Dorchester, MA. Humphrey died on Sept.17, 1661 (accident while riding a horse). Both are buried in North Burying Ground, Dorchester. Humphrey Atherton is
believed to be the son of Edmund Atherton of Winstanley, in Lancashire, who was a descendant of Humphrey Atherton of Winstanley in the latter part of the fifteenth century. Humphrey in turn is believed to be the son of James Atherton.
The immigrant Humphrey settled at Dorchester, MA. in 1635 and became Major General of the Military forces of the Massachusetts colony. He was the father of Jonathan, Catharine or Elizabeth, Isabel,
Rest, Increase, Thankful, Hope, Mary, Margaret, Watching, Patience and Consider.
Humphrey Atherton was born in the English Atherton castle. He came to America with his brother James Atherton whose date of birth is recorded as 1624. They came in the ship JAMES from Bristol, England".
The Atherton brothers were two of the earliest settlers in MA. and prominent in Colonial and military life. Hundreds of Athertons living today are descended from Humphrey and James.
He came to America on the James from Bristol, England in 1635. He lived at Lancashire, England and Dorchester and Boston, Massachusetts. He was admitted Freeman at Dorchester May 2, 1638. A member of the artillery company 1638; Lt. 1645; Capt 1650; Maj. 1652; MajGen 1661. He was Speaker of the House in 1653.
Tradition says his death resulted from a fall when his horse stumbled over a cow lying in the road. Humphrey was married "when an infant".
Atherton, Maj. Gen. Humphrey, from Lancashire, England, to Boston, Mass., 1635, d. Sept. 17, 1661. A descendant of Robert de Atherton of the Manor of Atherton, England, 1199, and of Sir William Atherton, Knight, 1351. General Atherton was killed by a fall from his horse while returning home from a review of the troops on Boston Common. His gravestone is still standing in the North Burial Ground, Dorchester, Mass., and bears a drawn sword over the following inscription:
"Here lyes our Captaine, Major of Suffolk was withall,
A Godly Magistrate was he and Major Generall,
Two Troops of horse with him here came,
Such worth his love did crave,
Ten companies of Foot also marched mourning to his grave.
Let all who read be sure to keep the Faith as he has done
With Christ he lives now crowned;--his name was Humphrey Atherton."
He was born 1609 probably in Winwick, Lancashire, England, the son of Edmund and Mary (Rudd) Atherton. He married Mary Wales, 1627 in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was born 1610 in Idle, Yorkshire, England and died 17 Aug 1672 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Nathaniel and Susanna
(Greenaway) Wales.
From Savage - N.E. Settlers, N.E. Vol. 1:
Humphrey, Dorchester 1636, came, perhaps, from Preston in Lancash. where the name continues so late as 1780; was freeman 2 May 1638, Artillery Co. the same year and it's Captain 1650, often selectman, and representative nine years from 1638, but not success. yrs. and an Assist.
chos. ann. 1654 to his death, and in 1656, succeeded Sedgwick, as Major Gen.
He died 16 Sep. 1661, says the inscription printed in Alden's Epit. and as that was Monday, and prob. refers to the cause of his death thrown from his horse, on return from military rev. on Boston common by riding over a cow, I prefer to say 17 Sept. (a. one o'clock A.M. acc. the MS of John Hull's Diary). ( Savage - N.E. Settlers, N.E. Vol. 1).
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3. John HARRIS: (not yet available).
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4. John
PROUT: B.A. Yale 1708. Was treasurer of Yale College 1717-1765.
FROM "Yale Biographies & Annals," by Dexter, F.B., v. 1, 1701-1745, pp. 76-77:
John Prout, son of John Prout, a sea-captain of New Haven, CT (originally from Devonshire, England), was born in New Haven, Nov. 18, 1689. His mother was Mary, widow of Daniel Hall, and daughter of Henry Rutherford , both of New Haven.
His life was spent in mercantile operations in his native town, where he was also much employed in public business. In 1714 he was appointed Naval officer for this port. On the death of
John Alling, Treasurer of Yale College, Mr. Prout was elected (April 5, 1717) by the trustees to that office, which he held until his retirement in September, 1765. From 1727 to 1742, he was Probate Clerk for the District of New Haven. He held for many years an appointment as Justice of the Peace (for the first time in 1735).
He died in New Haven, April 4, 1776, aged 86 years, having been for almost six years the oldest living graduate, and having attained a greater age than any of his predecessors.
He married, in 1712, Sybil, daughter of John Howell, of Southampton, Long Island. She was born August 9, 1691, and died in New Haven, February 5, 1782. Of their eight children, two daughters only survived them, one of them the wife of the Rev. Samuel Bird, minister of the White Haven Church in New Haven. The oldest child, John Prout, Jr., graduated at this college in 1732.
The following is an extract from the notice of Mr. Prout's death in the New Haven paper of the week after.
'On Tuesday was taken with distressing pains, and on Thursday departed this life, JOHN PROUT, Esq., in the 87th year of his age, who lived in a married state with her he has now left a widow 64 years; who in life was entrusted with several important offices, particularly that of Treasurer of Yale College, and Justice of the Peace; all which he performed with
honor and fidelity. And a sermon was delivered the Lord's Day following, suitable to the occasion and character of the deceased, by the Rev'd Chauncey Whittlesby, from Job 5, 26. In the death of this aged gentleman, mankind are deprived of a benevolent friend, the church of God of a sincere and praying member and brother, the distressed injured country of a true and cordial friend and well wisher to its important liberties and
privileges, the widow of a most loving and faithful husband, the children of a tender father,
neighbors and acquaintances of an agreeable, entertaining and undisguised friend, generally if not universally belov'd.'
His tombstone calls him ' a Gentleman of an Established Character for Probity and seriousness.' President Stiles speaks of his social and Communicative disposition, and adds, "He was the gentleman and the Christian."
AUTHORITIES:
- Conn. Journal, Apr. 10, 1776.
- New Haven Historical Society's Papers, i, 118; iii, 578.
- Savage's Genealogical Dict., iii, 490; iv, 697.
- R.D. Smyth, College Courant, Aug. 8, 1868, 83.
- Pres. Stiles, MS. Itinerary, iii, 50
- Hist. of the Judges, 175, 194-5.
- Trowbridge Family, 26.
FROM Dexter's "Yale Biographies & Annals, v.3, p.93 - "Annals 1764-65":
The College Treasury had been exhausted by the building of a Chapel, and in the absence of any reserve funds the tuition receipts were not sufficient for the payment of salaries. The Corporation accordingly voted, at a special meeting in November, to increase the charge for undergraduate tuition 1s.6d. per quarter, with the proviso that if the General Assembly should make the College a grant at their next session, the tuition charge for the last quarter of the current year should be lowered correspondingly. But the General Assembly made no grant. At the close of the year Tutor Lyman resigned his place; and the two other tutors, Ebenezer R. White and Richard Woodhull, were dismissed on account of their having adopted Sandemanian views. In consideration of the financial necessities of the
College, but two new Tutors were appointed -- Punderson Austin and Diodate Johnson, the latter being only one year out of College.
John Prout, who had been Treasurer of the College for forty-eight years, resigned his office at this time, and Roger Sherman, who though a resident of New Haven for only four years was already one of its leading men, was appointed his successor ...
... A passing glimpse of undergraduate life in preserved in a letter written on Nov. 28, 1764 by Grant of the Senior Class to his father:
'Should be very glad of a Cheese if it do'd be conveniently sent me, as our Commons are very poor. Shall not want that Cherry you Reserved for me before vacancy, as all the Scholars have unanimously agreed not to drink any foreign spiritous Liquors any more, a Scheme proposed by Mr. Woohull & seconded by the other Tutors & the scholars in succession; there was no Compulsion, but all a voluntary Act.'
(All from Dexter's "Yale Biographies & Annals, v.3)
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5. Joel Prout NORTHROP: FROM "The
Northrup-Northrop Genealogy": Graduated at Yale College, 27 July 1776. Physician and Surgeon in the Revolutionary War. Settled in Danbury, removed to New Haven before July 5, 1779; in 1796 to Branford; returned to New Haven before 1803. Was a man of fine physique and marked characteristics. See Vol. II, New Haven Historical Society Papers, pp. 378-380 for a unique biography; also Vol. I, pp.114, 117, 118. Married May 15, 1777 Mabel Sarah Bird, eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Bird, DD, [founder and] first pastor of the White Haven Society, New Haven CT. [In 1796 the White Haven Society merged with the Fairhaven Society and the 2nd Church of Christ. In 1884 it became the United Church of New Haven, CT, and today stands in the middle of the town commons between two other old churches.] Rev. Bird married, 1st, Mabel
Jenner; and 2nd, Sarah (mother of Mabel Sarah), daughter of John Prout, for many years treasurer of Yale College.
Died Feb. 9, 11807 of lung fever.
FROM Dexter's "Yale Biographies & Annals," v. 3 ("Third Series"), 1763-1778, pp. 625-6:
1776: Joel Northrop, the youngest child of Amos Northrop, Jr., of New Milford, Connecticut, and brother of Amos (Yale 1762), was born on July 27, 1753. After graduation he studied medicine in Danbury,
Connecticut, and acted for a time as Surgeon's Mate at the Military Hospital in that town.
While still residing in New Milford, on May 15, 1777, he married in New Haven Mabel Sarah, the eldest sister of his classmate Bird, and within the next two years he settled here as a physician and druggist. His reputation was unsavory, and although he was one of the original members of the Connecticut Medical Society, in 1792, he was expelled in 1804, for "making and vending nostrums contrary to the by-laws." He never had much general practice, and his practice as a specialist was hardly reputable. Much of his time was given to pecuniary speculations, but the large sums which these brought him were soon lost.
In 1794 he had the yellow fever, and in 1796 he removed to Branford. He returned to the city after a few
years, but late in 1805 went beyond the town line on the Derby road, within the limits of Orange, where he occupied a stone house which he had just built. Here he died, after a brief illness, of lung fever, on February 9, 1807, in his 54th year.
He had naturally a strong mind. His form was stout, and his muscular energy very great. It is remembered that he was an inveterate smoker, and had a strange passion for cats. Though hot-tempered and violent, he had strong domestic attachments. His only daughter died in child-bed in 1803, and one of his six sons in 1806. His own death seemed to be a result of these afflictions.
Two sons were graduated at Yale, in 1804 and 1811, respectively. His widow survived until Feb. 14, 1835, having entered her 79th year.
Authorities:
- Baldwin genealogy, i, 107.
- Johnson, Yale in the Revolution, 324.
- NEHGR, xliii, 252
- New Haven Colony Hist. Soc. Papers, i, 117-18; ii, 378-80
- Orcutt, Hist. of New Milford, 747
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6. Joseph NORTHROP: (from "The
Northrup-Northrop Genealogy", 1908, by A. Judd Northup of Syracuse, NY. Grafton Press, 70 Fifth Ave., NY, NY.)
On Nov. 29, 1639, the little company who had come to Milford from New Haven signed a document which laid the foundation for their government of the "plantation." It read: "Those persons whose names are hereunto written are allowed to be Free Planters, having, for the present, the liberty to act in the choice of public officers, for the carrying on of public affairs in this plantation." Church membership was a
condition of admission as a "Free Planter." Forty-four persons signed as such. Joseph Northup, who was one of the company, was not then a church member, but with nine others was permitted to sign under the names of the full-fledged Free Planters. At a General Court (town meeting), held Nov. 24, 1640, the place was named "Milford." On Jan. 9, 1642, Joseph joined the First Church of Milford (organized at New Haven, Aug. 22, 1639, just before they came to Milford), and thereby became of right a member of that privileged class. He was married to Frances Norton about 1647. He died Sept. 11, 1669, thirty years after the settlement of Milford.
The Governor and company granted a Patent to Milford, dated May 22, 1713. The names of the
Northrups, attached to the Patent (the original of which is in the handwriting of Jonathan Law, Esq., afterward Governor of Connecticut) in the order in which they signed, are as follows: John, son of Jeremiah; Zophar and Jeremiah, sons of Joseph; Jeremiah, Jr.; Joseph, James and Moses, sons of Joseph, Jr.; Amos and Joel, sons of Samuel; Daniel and William, sons of the first Joseph.
The Colonists of Milford lived at a period when there was danger from hostile Indians. Their settlement was made shortly after the Pequot War. Although they purchased their lands of the tribes in possession, and sought their friendship, yet they soon saw indications of hostility, and as a protection built a
palisade of logs enclosing a mile square, within which they had their dwellings. The Indians became hostile in 1645-6, and guards were kept day and night. They went to church, carrying their rifles with them. The Indians were again troublesome in 1653. In 1700 there was much danger. It was a time of general alarm throughout the country for four or five years. The colonists of New Haven and Milford had all along purchased from the Indians the lands they settled upon, and in every way treated the Indians kindly and fairly, but the hostility of these sons of the forest was awakened by their fears of the growing
numbers and power of the whites, and the dawning consciousness that sooner or later they would inevitably be driven from their ancient homes. If they could have written history, it would go far to justify their hostility.
In 1647, Joseph Northrup married Mary, daughter of Francis Norton, who came to Milford from Wethersfield with the Rev. Peter Prudden and his party. Joseph died Sept. 11, 1669. His will was dated Sept. 1, 1669. It mentions of his children only Joseph, Samuel, Jeremiah and John. Codicil to his will says, "My mother shall have a living in my house as long as she lives" -- perhaps meaning his wife's mother, Mrs. Norton. His wife survived him, and made her will Jan. 24, 1683; mentions Joseph, Samuel, Jeremiah (omits John, who probably was dead),
Zophar, Daniel, William and Mary -- the latter two being in their minority -- also her mother Norton. Inventory of her estate dated Feb. 28, 1683. All their children were born in Milford, CT.
The surname Northrup was spelled as here given in the earliest records and inscriptions on tombstones -- rup -- sometimes
-rupp, and occasionally roop, and more often -rop, although this last termination was not common at an early period. Joseph, his son Joseph and his sons, James, Joseph and Moses, and most of their descendants, spelled the name
Northrup. Northrop, however, was the common form in England.
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7. Josiah
CLIPPINGDALE: Shipping agent, musician and composer.
Choirmaster and soloist at festivals at St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster
Abbey. The Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, has a copy of "Joy with Roses" by J.
Clippingdale, presumed to be Josiah.
Catalog details (no code info given): 692 joy with roses clippingdale, j satb 1 a cappella 0498.
Also: Strand - The Strand Musical Magazine: Vol 5, January to June, 1897, lists 'Take Life as it Comes', by Arthur Matthison, and J. Clippingdale.
Buried at Abney Park Cemetery, London (Family Grave):
Name
Date
Age Burial
Section Index
Clippingdale, Florence Evelyn 06mar1875
5 months 056347 K09
2S09
Clippingdale, Jane Mary
11nov1907 61 years 113086
K09 5S08
Clippingdale, Josiah
27mar1900 66 years 101203
K09 4S11
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8. George
CLIPPINGDALE: (Courtesy of Jack Clippingdale) George
Clippingdale was born 1742 at Shadwell, Middlesex, youngest of five children
born to John Clippingdale of Bell Wharf, Shadwell, and Mary his wife (Their son
John was our direct ancestor, George his younger brother). His father died
at 42 when George was only 3. Like his father and his three brothers,
George was apprenticed to the Watermen's Company, during which his mother
died. Unlike his elder brothers John and Thomas, George did not complete
the full seven-year apprenticeship to gain the Freedom of the Company.
Failure to complete an apprenticeship was far from unusual, but for George, the
death of his mother within a year of starting his apprenticeship must have
seriously affected his progress.
Ratcliff Highway, near where George lived, was one of the most notorious
streets in London, associated with all forms of vice, poverty, violence,
robbery, murder, drunkenness, prostitution and bigotry. Wages for the
riverside workers varied with seasons, changes in trade winds, and Irish
immigration. Without social welfare or any control of wages or
unemployment, the riverside workers and their families always suffered greatly
with any economic decline. The rising prices that began soon after the
middle of the 18th century brought so much discontent that some workers actually
went on strike, which in those days was an act of desperation. Similarly,
most crimes were acts of desperation, wrongdoers being driven to take the risk
of severe penalties.
It is not known where in Shadwell the Clippingdale family were living in the
early 1760s or what their circumstances were. Life for most people was
extremely hard, and for the five orphaned Clippingdale children - now in and
around their twenties - whether still all together or not, life can not have
been easy.
In one of the alleys off Ratcliff Highway on the night of Sunday 27 March
1763, George allegedly committed a highway robbery. Apparently he and two
others threatened a Mr. Thomas Harding and snatched four pounds of isinglass
from him. The alley concerned was Hammer and Crown Court, near Ratcliff
Cross, where Thomas Harding and his wife lived.
Following the alleged incident, George was arrested and committed for
trial. According to the Old Bailey trial report, the indictment read:
"George Clippingdale was indicted, for that he in a certain court called
Hammer-and-Crown Court, near the King's Highway, on Thomas Harding did make an
assault, putting him in corporal fear and danger of his life, and taking from
his person four pounds of isinglass, value 35s, the property of John Phillips,
March 27."
Mr. Harding was first to give evidence: "The Prisoner, in Company with
two others, stopped me at my Door in Hammer and Crow-court (sic), near
Ratcliff-cross; he d--n'd my Eyes and ask'd me what I had got in my
pockets." Mr. Harding's wife then opened the door. She was
holding a candle, and by this candle-light Mr. Harding managed to get a glimpse
of the men. They then apparently grabbed some isinglass out of his hand
and fled. (Isinglass is 1) a form of gelatin obtained from fish, and is used for
jellies, glue, etc.; or 2) mica, used as a glazing material. It seems
probably that the stolen isinglass was the mica form, since it would have been
more useful and so had more value). Two witnesses corroborated Mr.
Harding's version of events.
George Clippingdale was the only member of the trio to be apprehended and
brought to trial. In his defense he just said: "I was not the person
that took the isinglass."
The judge then pronounced George guilty and sentenced him to death. He
was then committed to Newgate Gaol to await execution.
The procedure at the Old Bailey Sessions House at this time provided for a
counsel for the prosecution, but no counsel for the defense was allowed.
This was unfortunate for the prisoner, and fairly well guaranteed a 'guilty'
verdict.
At about the same time, the ridiculous theories of a Mr. Thomas Pierce, quack
surgeon, took a curious effect on our relative. In 1761, he claimed to
have discovered two 'powerful and valuable styptic medicines ... capable of
stopping not only bleedings of the smaller vessels, whether internal or
external, but likewise those violent haemorrhages arising from the larger
arteries being wounded, or divided in amputations." He was granted
permission by the King to test them on a prisoner by 'cutting of his leg and
applying the styptic only, instead of taking up the vessels in the usual way [needle
and ligature].' Amazingly, George volunteered for (or consented
to) the experiment, thereby postponing his execution and extending his life for
two weeks. Bureaucratic formalities preceding the amputation and
experiment were slow to be finished, so the execution had to be postponed an
additional two weeks. As the experts weighed in on the wisdom of the
experiment, the King decided that the experiment was premature, and so commuted
George's sentence to 'transportation for life, unless the Serjeant Surgeons
wanted to detain him for further experiments.' His execution was to take
place on June 1; however the sentence was not officially commuted to
transportation for life until May 30. No doubt Mr. Pierce's disappointment
was George's great relief.
In fact, Mr. Pierce was furious. His styptic medicines had been
rejected as being of little worth, and his application for an amputation
experiment had been turned down. He was most aggrieved at the way he felt
he had been treated. Further, he felt that the Serjeant Surgeons' view
that experiments should first be performed by hospital surgeons on the 'smaller
arteries of men' would turn the no-risk situation of merely endangering a
condemned convict into a risk situation where harm could come to an innocent
person.
George had now been held in Newgate Gaol for two months. It was a great
fortress of a place, originally built around 1300, burnt down in 1666, and
rebuilt soon afterwards to the original plan. We can get some idea of the
kind of conditions George must have experienced there from a comment written by
Strype in 1754:
'It is a large prison and made very strong, the better to secure such sort of
criminals, which too much fill it. It is a dismal place within. The
prisoners are sometimes packed so close together, and the air so corrupted by
their stench and nastiness, that it occasions a disease called the Jail
distemper, o f which they die by the dozens, and cartloads of them are carried
out and thrown into a pit in the churchyard at Christ's Church, without
ceremony; and so infection is this distemper that several judges, jurymen, and
lawyers have taken it off the prisoners, when they have been brought to the Old
Bailey to be tried, and died soon after ...'
What happened to George after May 30 is uncertain. The order commuting
the death sentence to transportation was made on that date, and George's
transportation was due to follow in July. This did not happen, and George
died on 13 August.
Given the extent of disease within Newgate Gaol, it is highly likely that
during the weeks he had been held, George picked up a serious infection -
perhaps the 'Jail Distemper' described by Strype. The authorities may well
have looked upon such sick inmates either as doomed anyway or certain to be an
infectious hazard to all on board a transportation ship. In which case the
procedure, if there was any at all, may have been just to leave the sick
prisoners confined within Newgate.
George died 13 August, but his body was dumped in the Christ Church pit
referred to by Strype. His family must have been in a position to
intercede and make their own arrangement, because George was buried at Shadwell,
his birthplace, three days later on 16 August. His burial is recorded in
the parish register of St. Paul's, Shadwell, as George Clippingdale 'from
Newgate.'
This is the condensed version of George's story, edited from the fascinating
and richly detailed account by Jack Clippingdale. If interested in the
full version, please contact me (see Contact Info on this web site) and I will
forward the request to Jack.
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9. Edmund RICE: (not yet available)
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10. John ROGERS: Possible royal lineage, but it's also
problematic. There are so many John Rogers, and it seems the famous Rev.
John Rogers (possibly his grandfather) is claimed by many, including many
genealogists researching our family. Other genealogists aren't so sure.
This web page does have a link to a picture the Rev. John Rogers, just in case.
The following is provided without prejudice; however, this lineage has many
problems and may well not be of our family. Below is a brief biography:
John Rogers, "The Martyr":
John Rogers was born at Deritend soon after 1500. At Pembroke Hall, Cambridge,
and later at Oxford, he absorbed the New Learning which Erasmus and Colet had
fostered there. He was born too late to be under their actual tuition. For two
years, till 1534, he was Vicar of Trinity the Less in the city of London.
Shortly after Sir Thomas More's arrest in 1534, Rogers went to Antwerp as
chaplain to the Merchant Adventurers. Tyndale was then in Antwerp working at the
Biblical translation which led to his arrest and death (1535-1536). Rogers
completed and edited Tyndales's translation. It is known as the Mathew Bible
("Matthew" being Rogers under an assumed name which protected him from
Tyndale's fate). This Bible, by a Royal proclamation in 1537, was to be provided
for all to read, in every parish of the land.
Meanwhile Rogers had married a daughter of an Antwerp family (Adriana de
Weyden).
He thereby severed himself from the medieval church with its celibate priesthood
and decisively threw in his lot with the Reformers. In 1537 he went to
Wittenberg (where Luther's manifesto, 20 years before, had inaugurated the
Reformation). Rogers ministered as pastor to a Wittenberg congregation for
eleven years. As soon as the marriage of priests was tolerated in Edward VI's
reign, he returned to England. He became Vicar of St. Sepulchre's Holborn, and a
prebendary of St. Paul's. As a preacher at Paul's Cross he fearelessly denounced
the misappropriation of the properties accruring from the dissolution of the
monasteries.
But the accession of Mary Tudor brought a sudden and far severer test of the
preacher's courage and sincerity. Rogers was the first called upon to preach at
St. Paul's Cross after Mary's arrival, as undoubted Queen, in London. He could
have had no illusions as to the nature of the preacher's ordeal. The Privy
Council under whose scrutiny he would be preaching was already "overmatched
with papist bishops." When Rogers was a young celibate priest, Bilney and
Frith had been martyred. Their example had been with him for twenty years to
warn him as to what a confession of the Reformation faith was likely now to
involve. Ridley's imprisonment added a rather different warning. And he had now,
as hostages to fortune, his wife and ten children. "There was," says a
biographer, "in the whole of the Reformation, all things considered, no
position where the responsibilities thrown upon one man were greater or more
nobly sustained." The preacher's vocation had become that of the first
martyr of the Marian persecution. He accepted the challenge: In his sermon that
day he denounced what he considered to be papist errors and bore witness to the
truth as he saw it through eyes that had been opened by Colet and Erasmus, by
Tynbdale, Luther and Melancthon.
Rogers was summoned before the Council. His defense appears to have been that
the laws of Edward VI's reign had not been repealed. He was set at liberty, only
to be rearrested a few days later, in violation of the principle that forbids
re-trial for the same alleged offence. He was placed under house-arrest. In
December his wife and eight other women pleaded in vain for
"enlargement." In January, 1554, he was imprisoned in Newgate, within
a stone's throw of his own Church of St. Sepulchre. He was in Newgate for more
than a year awaiting trial. During all the latter months, till the very day of
his death, his wife and children were refused access to him.
The income due to him both from St. Sepulchre's and from his prebend, had been
confiscated. Somehow food and shelter had to be found for his family, and also
food for himself. The latter he proposed sharing with other prisoners more
destitute than himself.
Perhaps in the brief last moments when husband and wife met at Smithfield, he
had made known to her the existence of this document and its whereabouts. About
a hundred years ago its true copy was found, a document of paramount interest
and importance.
Hooper had been tried and condemned on the same day as Rogers. They passed each
other as they were being led from the scene of the trial (probably what is now
the Lady Chapel of Southwark Cathedral). Hooper, looking back said: "Come
brother Rogers, must we two take this matter first in hand and begin to try
these faggots?" "Yes sir." replied Rogers. "By God's grace
"Doubt not." returned Hooper, "but God will give us
strength." Later from his cell Rogers sent a message to Hooper: "There
was never little fellow better would stick to a man than he (Rogers) would stick
to him."
To prevent a demonstration of the crowd the torches of the costemongers' stalls
and other lights in the streets between Southwark and Newgate had to be
extinguished. But the Londoners brought out candles to light the prisoner's way
on that strange "bridal" procession across London Bridge. Hooper was
taken from Newgate to Gloucester to be burnt at the stake near his own cathedral. But before Hooper reached Gloucester, Rogers was burnt at
Smithfield, within his own parish. As he went along the road from Newgate to
Smithfield, past his own church of St. Sepulchre's, there were shouts of
thanksgiving from the crowds. The French Ambassador (a Roman Catholic) wrote of
Rogers that he went as one who goes to a wedding.
Bradford, soon to suffer martyrdom in the same cause, said that Rogers
"broke the ice valiantly." Ridley, from prison said that his death
"destroyed a lumpish heaviness in my heart."
On the Monday morning of his death, the Sheriff had shown Rogers a document
promising pardon if he would recant. "That which I have preached with my
lips will I seal with my blood," was the answer.
Now that the dust of bitter and mortal controversies has died down, it is
possible if we look attentively, to see John Rogers in his true stature, as no
one --not even Hooper himself--could have seen him before his death. The figure
that emerges is of one who held the Reformers' faith with great integrity,
uncorrupted by power or threat. In the penetrating spiritual exposure of those
critical years, he did not waver. He died for conscience sake, and blazed the
trail for the three hundred who were to follow him to the stake. He was
therefore of the company of the great proto-martyrs--of Sir Thomas More, in the
same century, of St. Stephen, in the first century, of our era. And like them he
brings perennial encouragement to hard-pressed men and women of to-day and
to-morrow in a world where the fires of different kind of persecution have been
lit, and other martyrs are sealing their faith with their blood.
(also see Research section on this web site)
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11. Mrs.
CLIPPINGDALE: This Mrs. Clippingdale is not, as far as I can
tell, our direct ancestor, but it gives a bit of history of the area where our
Clippingdale family lived for centuries, and her origins from near
Newcastle-upon-Tyne may even offer a clue to our earliest roots. From
United Methodist Daily News 97, by John Singleton. ‘Even at Poplar,’
Wesley had a vital ministry in this London neighborhood.
"Even at Poplar I found a remarkable revival of the work of God,"
wrote John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in his journal Nov. 15, 1787.
"I Never saw the preaching house so filled before; and the power of the
Lord seemed to rest on many of the hearers." "Even at Poplar?"
That happens to be my part of London, England, so let me tell you something of
the roots of Methodism in my own neighborhood. By the time Wesley came here in
1772 to consecrate his new "preaching house", the riverside hamlet of
Poplar was already a growing center for shipbuilding and trade on the River
Thames. Just a few minutes walk from our home - at the point where the river
straightens out downstream from a horseshoe bend around the Isle of Dogs - is
Blackwall, where the historic Blackwall Yard was laid down for shipbuilding in
about 1600. Tradition has it that Sebastian Cabot, the navigator, and Sir Walter
Raleigh once lived at Blackwall and Nelson resided nearby. It was from here in
1607 that English colonizer John Smith set sail on the expedition that
established Jamestown, Va., as the first permanent English settlement in
America. The place where Smith and later expeditions started on their long and
often hazardous voyages to the New World gradually became enveloped in the huge
complex of docks that mushroomed along the Thames during the early 19th
century.
This seething hub of industry and commerce stretched from Wapping (near the
Tower of London) to Woolwich in the east. The once bleak Blackwall pier from
where Smith embarked - and where a plaque records that he and his adventurers
all received the Sacrament of Holy Communion before sailing - eventually became
sandwiched between the mighty East and West India docks. The nearby preaching
house opened by Wesley was only a few hundred yards from a church built by the
East India Company for its employees more than 100 years before in 1656. Much
altered since then, the ancient Anglican building is now a neighborhood center.
On the site of Wesley’s preaching house, from which the Methodist cause had
moved on by 1847, stands an unobtrusive local mosque. This encapsulates the
changing face of the area, with succeeding waves of newcomers settling in what
had become the "East End" of London and constantly adding to its
cosmopolitan make-up. Scandinavians, Germans, Huguenots, Irish and Jewish
people; all have settled here during the past five centuries. More recent
arrivals have been people of African, Caribbean and Bengali origin. Our local
Mayflower school is 85 percent Bengali and many Methodist churches in inner
London would not exist today but for their African and Caribbean members.
Not far from Poplar is Spitalfields, where a fine French church was erected
in 1743 by Huguenot artisans who had fled religious persecution in France in the
late 17th century. Wesley borrowed this church in 1755 to hold the first
Methodist covenant service shared by a congregation of 1,800. It was acquired as
a Methodist chapel in 1809, but in 1897 was bought by a Jewish immigrant society
and became an Orthodox synagogue. The building is still used for worship as a
mosque.
The survival of early Methodism in Poplar seems to owe a lot to an immigrant
from the north of England, a Mrs. Clippingdale, who had joined a Methodist
society at Swalwell near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as a girl of 13. When, as a young
woman, she settled in Poplar in the middle years of the 18th century. Mrs.
Clippingdale either joined the existing society or formed one herself. By all
accounts she was known in the area as a "lovely pattern of holiness."
The story is told how the Methodist cause in Poplar had declined to a pitiful
handful of members - probably no more than three or four - and it was proposed
at a meeting of Wesley’s London preachers to give it up. But Wesley himself,
who always attended the preachers’ regular Sunday morning breakfast when he
was in town, asked: "Is Mrs. Clippingdale living?" On being told
"yes" he replied: "Then I will not consent to give up
Poplar." Wesley’s judgment was right; Mrs. Clippingdale lived to see a
chapel erected and the society increased to nearly 250 members.
The year Wesley opened the Poplar preaching house, 1772, was a bad year for
London’s poor, of whom there were many. A situation of "general and
alarming distress" was said to exist. Wesley faced the emergency by writing
vigorously to the public press; by calling his people to prayer and by
encouraging them to organize schemes of visitation and relief. In December he
wrote in his journal: "Being greatly embarrassed by the necessities of the
poor, we spread all our wants before God in solemn prayer; believing that He
would sooner ‘make windows in heaven’ than suffer His truth to
fail."
The social witness of Methodism in Poplar and the East End of London has been
a constant priority since the time of Wesley. The frenetic industry of the
docks, which survived the worst of Hitler’s bombing during the Second World
War, though much of the surrounding area was razed to the ground, has now
departed downstream to Tilbury, Essex. Left behind are the deep moorings,
largely undisturbed save for luxury boats and water sports. The wharves have
been regenerated for business and expensive apartments. The best views of Poplar
and Blackwall today are obtained from the driver-less trains which trundle round
the new "docklands" and beyond. Towering over everything is Canary
Wharf, the tallest building in Europe, winking day and night as a guide to
aircraft flying in to London City airport in the former Royal docks. And yes,
the Methodist Church is still a powerful presence, "even at Poplar"! A
residential seamen’s mission accommodating up to 170 men (mostly retired and
from all parts of the world) stands adjacent to Trinity church, only a short
distance from Wesley’s original preaching house. Other churches are at Bethnal
Green, Whitechapel, Stepney, Bow and Old Ford - all familiar places on
Wesley’s London itinerary.
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12. James HARWOOD: (from Harwood Genealogy) born in
Dunstable, New Hampshire, USA (now Nashua, N.H.), about the year 1730.
He married Mary CLOGSTON, who was of Irish origin. He was a soldier in the old French and Indian war, and belonged to the
legendary company of Rogers' Rangers. They were sent from Dunstable in 1759, and were at the storming of
Quebec, Canada. Later, he entered the American army in the war of the Revolution, and was in the first Regiment from
Dunstable. He was in the battles of Lexington and Bunker
Hill. He went to Canada with the army, where he died of small-pox, Dec., 1777, and was buried on Montreal Island.
He signed the petition in 1754 to divide the Province
of New Hampshire into counties. Because
of his absence in military service, Mary carried the responsibility of rearing
the children.
From early manhood until the close of his
eventful life he was almost constantly engaged as a soldier in the service of
his country. On September 22, 1755,
he enlisted in Capt James Todd's Company, Col. Peter Gilman's Regiment, to serve
in the war against the French and Indians.
James Harwood and John Harwood were members of the company of Roger’s
Rangers, sent out from Dunstable, New Hampshire in 1759, and were at the
storming of Quebec, Canada, under Gen. Wolfe.
The regiment was used in scouting, a service which no
other could perform as successfully as the Rangers of New Hampshire.
Parties of them were frequently under the walls of the French garrisons,
and at one time killed and scalped a soldier near the gate of the fort at Crown
Point. Late in the autumn the
forces were disbanded and the regiment returned to their homes.
James Harwood enlisted March 18, 1760, in Capt Nehemiah Lowell's company
from Dunstable. There is scarcely a
company of troops in the annals of America more famous than "Roger’s
Rangers." Their life was one of constant exposure.
The forest was their home, and they excelled even the Indian in cunning
and hardihood.
They wandered in search of adventures, fearless and
cautious, until their very name struck terror in the enemy.
Even in the post of danger, when the army was advancing, they scouted the
woods to detect the hidden ambush, and when retreating they skirmished in the
rear to keep the foe at bay. At
midnight they traversed the camp of the enemy, or carried off a sentinel from
his post as if in mockery. Their
blow fell like lightning, and before the echo had died away or the alarm
subsided, they struck another blow at some far distant point They seemed to be
omnipresent, and the enemy deemed them to be in league with evil spirits.
The plain, unvarnished tale of their daily hardships, their strange
adventures, and "hair breadth escapes" is wild and thrilling.
The men who settled the wilderness, defended their
homes from the attack of the “Indian enemy,” and had built themselves a
great and goodly heritage, without help from England, were not the men to
yield their dearly bought rights without a struggle.
Their love of the mother country was never very strong, and the first
approach of oppression and wrong was their signal for resistance.
James Harwood enlisted in Capt William Walker's company, Col. James
Reed's Regiment. They were among
the first men sent from New Hampshire to fight in the war for American
Independence. They were present and
fought valiantly at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Source: A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HARWOOD FAMILIES DESCENDED FROM JAMES HARWOOD, Who was of English Origin, and Resided in Chelmsford, Mass. BY WATSON H. HARWOOD. PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, A. F. BIGELOW, POTSDAM, N. Y. 1879.
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13. Archibald HARWOOD: (from Harwood
Genealogy) born Aug., 1762. He entered the American army in the war of the Revolution, in 1778, when only 16 years of age. He was one of those who were sold to the British by the traitor Arnold. After the war was over, he went to
Wethersfield, Windsor Co., Vermont, where he married SUSANNAH HOUSE, who was born Feb., 1762. He was a carpenter and
millwright by trade. He removed to Eden, Lamoille Co. (then Orleans Co.), Vermont, about 1802, to build the first mills ever built there. After that he resided in Constable, Franklin Co., N. Y. He died in Eden,
VT., in 1837. His wife died in 1848. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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14.
Marshall JENKINS: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
was
born at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard about 1744, son of Joseph Jenkins and
Abigail Little.
He married Elizabeth Mayhew, daughter of Matthew Mayhew and Mary Allen, 16 Dec 1777 at Chilmark. She
was born 30 June 1754 at Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard.
The perils and uncertainties of the
whaling business, and other forms of industry connected with the sea, are
well illustrated in the case of Captain Marshall Jenkins of Edgartown.
He engaged in these hazardous occupations before the Revolutionary War.
He had a remarkable adventure which was reported in the Boston Post
Boy. 'We learn from Edgartown
that a vessel lately arrived there
from a whaling voyage; and in her voyage one Marshall Jenkins, with others
being in a boat which struck a whale, she turned and bit the boat in two, took
Jenkins in her mouth and went down with him; but on her rising threw him into
one part of the boat, whence he was taken on board the vessel by the crew, being
much bruised, and that in about a fortnight after, he perfectly recovered.
This account comes from undoubted authority." It states that the
marks of the whale's teeth were borne for the rest of his life, a veritable
evidence of the truth of this remarkable tale of the deep (Vineyard Gazette,
July 20, 1888). An "old
salt' told Dr. Banks this story.
Marshall was in business with his elder brother,
Lemuel Jenkins, and his brothers-in-law, John Pease and Ephraim Pease (brothers
of his first wife, Mary Pease). The
owners did not lack energy and vigorous enterprise. Still fortune did not favor them Disaster followed disaster
After the whaling season was over, one of their vessels, a schooner of
seventy-five tons, was sent to the eastward under the charge of Abraham Preble
and Beriah Pease. They loaded the
vessel with lumber, but in coming home the men, vessel, and cargo were all lost
Ephraim Pease, in one of the vessels in the West Indies trade, got on the rocks
and lost the vessel and cargo but the men were saved. Cornelius Marchant was in charge of the brig which was taken,
and vessel and cargo condemned, but the men got home. Thomas Coffin, in one of their vessels loaded with salt from
the West Indies, when in sight of Long Island, was taken by the English.
The brig and cargo were condemned, a total loss.
Another of their vessels which had taken a valuable cargo on board, bound
to the West Indies, was taken the second day after sailing from the Vineyard.
To the severe disasters another was added; their brig, lying in Edgartown
harbor, was burned by the British. It
is no wonder that after such repeated losses, they should seek their fortune in
another direction, and relinquishing forever all interests in navigation.
Accordingly, in the month of October 1786, Lemuel Jenkins and his brother
Marshall Jenkins, with their families removed from Edgartown to Hudson, New
York.
The First U.S. Census of New York (1790) lists
Marshall as Head of Household in Hudson, Columbia County, New York.
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15. Thomas MAYHEW, Sr.:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) was baptized 1 April 1593 at Tisbury, Wiltshire, England, son of Matthew Mayhew and Alice Barter. He was married first in England to the mother of his son Thomas Mayhew, Jr., and second about 1635 to Jane (Gallion?), widow of Thomas Paine, a London merchant. He died in 1682, just short of his eighty-nine years of age, active to the last as governor and father to the Indians, the first of five generations of Mayhews who were missionaries.
After an apprenticeship, he became a mercer in Southampton, England. Before 1632 he settled in Medford, Massachusetts, as factor for Matthew Craddock, a London merchant for whom he built a mill at Watertown, later acquiring and operating it himself. On May 14, 1634, he was admitted a freeman of the Bay Colony. He engaged rather unsuccessfully in mercantile ventures, acting also as agent for Craddock who, becoming dissatisfied, ended this relationship about 1637. From the first, Mayhew served on responsible committees appointed by the General Court. He was deputy from Medford in 1636, and between 1637 and 1644 from Watertown, where he served locally as selectman and commissioner and built a bridge across the Charles River.
In September 1641, he purchased Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands. Thomas the elder followed his son to Martha's Vineyard about 1646 and acted as magistrate. He governed first as magistrate in the Massachusetts manner, but later Lovelace, governor under the Duke of York, commissioned him as governor for life. In 1673-4 when the Dutch held New York, Mayhew's rule was challenged by the Vineyard settlers, but he was not overthrown. His commission was afterward confirmed by Andros. During King Philip's War, the Vineyard Indians, then the most fully civilized and Christianized in New England, remained entirely loyal to the English. Mayhew formed and armed an Indian guard, to which the common safety was entrusted.
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16. Rev. Thomas MAYHEW, Jr.: (from
Jenkins Genealogy) Although Martha's Vineyard was at times under the authority of Massachusetts and at times under New York during the quarter-century before King Phillip's War, the island enjoyed a virtually autonomous status. It also experienced unparalleled success in its missionary efforts. By 1651, only four years after Thomas Mayhew had begun preaching the natives, so many converts wanted to attend religious services that Mayhew was forced to divide his attention between two congregations, though each had an Indian preacher of its own. It appeared that nothing short of a disaster could keep Thomas Mayhew from converting the entire island population, then estimated at about 1500 persons, to the Puritan faith. But in 1657 disaster did strike. Mayhew took a ship for England in November of that year accompanied by one of his most impressive converts. They and the vessel were never heard of again. The Puritan colonies received few setbacks more damaging to their missionary program.
Another Mayhew took up where the lost missionary had left off. This was Thomas,
Sr., who until his son's death had lived on the island but had shown somewhat less interest in the missionary project than the younger Thomas. Now the elder Mayhew carried on his son's work with exemplary energy, particularly for a man who was then sixty-five years old. As a layman, he was unable to act in exactly the same capacity that his son had, but the elder Mayhew nevertheless became a mainstay of the Puritan effort on the islands and proved a useful aid to the Indian clergy.
Thomas Mayhew, Jr. made the first purchase of land about 1655 from the Indian chief; the next purchase was not made until 1663, when Gov. Mayhew bought for five pounds the neck called Quanames from the Sachems Kenasaoome and Manooampete. In 1664 the Governor acquired a square mile of the extreme northeast, Kapenkiggon. In 1668 he bought a very large tract of land on the east side of the south road from the Sachem Josias for "a cow and suit of clothes from top to toe and seventeen pounds money."
A suitable memorial was erected by the Martha's Vineyard Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of Edgartown on July 27, 1901. A bronze tablet set in a large boulder, was placed on top of a stone pile. The boulder was brought from Gay Head, by descendants of the "poor and beloved" natives.
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17. Matthew MAYHEW: (from Jenkins Genealogy) was
born 1648 at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, son of Thomas Mayhew and Jane Paine.
He married 1 March 1674, in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Mary Skiffe.
She was born 24 March 1650 at Martha's Vineyard, daughter of James Skiffe
and Margaret Reaves, and died 1 May 1690 at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard.
Administration of Matthew's will was granted 24 August 1710.
Next in importance to the old governor himself in the
political life of Martha's Vineyard was his grandson, Matthew.
He was the eldest son of Rev. Thomas Mayhew and Jane Paine.
Up to the time of the death of his father in 1657, we have no knowledge,
but after the unfortunate event, the widow wished to consecrate Matthew or one
of his brothers to their father's work. Acting
on the advice, presumably, of the elder Mayhew, Matthew was educated so he might
follow in the footsteps of his father. Probably
his brother John was also to be dedicated to the same work, for in August 1658,
the Governor wrote to the Commissioners of the United Colonies asking assistance
for “my daughter and her 6 children,” and further requesting them to “find
a way to keepe two of the sonnes at schoole.” The Commissioners acceeded to
this request for the relief of the widow and for "Keeping her eldest son
att scoole to fitt him for the worke." He must have begun these studies
early in 1658, and continued his studies at Cambridge for four or five years, as
shown by the accounts of the Commissioners of the Society for the Propogation of
the Gospel among the Indians of New England in 1661, 1662, and 1663.
A further reference shows the expectations of the Commissioners
respecting the future usefulness of young Mayhew to them in their work: “And
whereas Matthew Mayhew is devoted by his parents to the worke and a considerable
charge has for his fathers sake bin expended on him; the Commissioners expect
that together with his other learning hee apply hemelfe to learne the Indian
language having now an appertunities to attaine the same, otherwise the
commissioners will bee necessitated to consider some more hopeful way for
expending the stocks betrusted in their hands." Upon his return to Martha's
Vineyard, he devoted himself to the task of learning the Indian dialect, which
he mastered successfully. In 1672,
the Commissioners write as follows concerning him: "One whereof if the son
of that Reverend and Good man Mr. Mahew deceased whoe being borne on the Iland
of Martha's Vineyard and now grown to mans estate and there settled, is an
hopefull young man, and hath theire Language p'fectly." The ministry was
not his sphere. His younger brother
John inherited the saintly character of the missionary, and followed the work of
his father on the island as a substitute for Matthew; and doubtless the
substitution was agreeable to the inclinations and temperament of both.
As Matthew grew to manhood he developed business qualifications which
made him useful to the aged governor. Family
custom was for the eldest to succeed to the estates and temporal management of
them. He did not, however, entirely forget his obligations to the
Commissioners.
His first appearance in political affairs, in which
he was destined to exercise such an important role for the rest of his life, was
in 1670, when he was sent to New York by his grandfather to wait upon Governor Lovelace in regard to submitting to the jurisdiction of the Duke of York over
the island. He was then about
twenty-three years of age, and from that time he was exclusively identified with
the executive management of the Vineyard and Nantucket.
This was the first of the offices held by him during the forty remaining
years of his active life. He was
the first secretary of the General Court of the Vineyard held in 1672, and one
of the assistants to the Governor. He
also held at different times the office of Register of Deeds (1672), High
Sheriff (1683), Judge of Probate (1697), Register of Probate (1685), besides
continuous service in the office of Justice of the King's Bench.
In 1682, upon the death of the aged governor he was commissioned "in
the stead of that worthy Person Mr. Thomas Mayhew his [grandfather] Late
Deceased to be chief supplying the Defect by another of the Name." While
not specifically designating him as governor, his functions were identical, and
he is termed in the Provincal Records as "Chief Magistrate" of the
island.
When the jurisdiction of New York ceased and Martha's
Vineyard became a dependency of Massachussetts by the charter of William and
Mary in 1691, Mayhew was not favorable to the change; but bowing to the
inevitable, he finally accepted with as good a grace as possible, the new order
of things, and on December 7, 1692, was newly commissioned as Justice of the
Peace with two others of his family. He
thus aligned himself with "those in authority," and maintained
ostensibly, amicable relations with his new superiors.
That this acceptance was only a matter of policy has appeared in the
narration of the political relations of the island with the Massachusetts authorities, immediately following the transfer.
Matthew Mayhew was a versatile man and by his early
training was probably the most cultivated person, intellectually speaking, on
the island in his time. He used his
leisure moments in writing the
first book about the island, and published it in London in 1695.
This volume gives a most interesting and authentic account of the Indian
tribes of the island, their manners, customs, and the progress of religion among
them.
He
was declared Lord of the Manor of Tisbury from 1671 till his death by Francis
Lovelace, who represented the Duke of York.
This gave the Mayhews full power over the lands, people, rents, and
courts with nearly the same power as barons in the feudal ages.
He
resided in Edgartown, where he was born, and was the first citizen of the town
for more than a generation.
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18.
Robert KITCHEL: (from Jenkins Genealogy) was born in England in 1604. He married Margaret Sheafe, daughter of Edmund Sheaffe and his second wife, of Cranbrook, Kent, England 21 July 1632 at Rolvenden, Kent, England. Robert died 1672 and Margaret moved to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1678 where she died in 1682.
They left England April 26, 1639, in company with a band of Puritan refugees led by Rev. Henry Whitfield. They arrived in the first vessel that anchored in the harbor of Quinnipiac, now New Haven, Connecticut.
While still on shipboard the company bound themselves by a "Plantation Covenant" to "sit down and join themselves together in one certain plantation." They settled at Guilford in order to be outside the jurisdiction of the Connecticut Colony, which they suspected of serious defection from Puritan principles.
Robert Kitchel was a leader in the community. There is evidence that he was a man of considerable estate. The Guilford settlers were generally men of character, culture, and substance. He was a member of the "general Court' in 1661 and was prominent among the founders of Newark, New Jersey.
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19.
Samuel KITCHEL:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) was born in England 1633, son of Robert Kitchel
and Margaret Sheaffe. He died at
Newark, New Jersey, 26 April 1690. He
married Elizabeth Wakeman at New Haven in 1651 and second Grace Pierson,
daughter of Rev. Abraham Pierson and
Elizabeth. He was one of those, who
for themselves and associates, purchased of the "Indians belonging to Hackinsack [Hackensack], the known
acknowledged proprietors," the territory now occupied by the living and the
dead in Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Newark.
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20.
Richard WARREN: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
sailed in the Mayflower September 6, 1620, and arrived in Cape Cod harbor November 11, 1620. His wife Elizabeth, whom he married in England before 1611, arrived in the Ann, late in July 1623 with five daughters: Mary, Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth and Abigail. He died in 1628 and Elizabeth died at Plymouth 2 October 1673 "aged above ninety years, having lived a godly life."
Bradford's History of Plimouth Plantations reports: 'Mr. Richard Warren [was a passenger on the Mayflower] but his wife and children were left behind and came afterwards. Mr. Richard Warren lived some 4 or 5 years and had his wife over to him, by whom he had 2 sons, before he dyed, and one of them is maryed and hath 2 children, so his increase is 4." Morton, in his New England's Memorial, prints his name as twelfth in the line of signers of the Mayflower Compact, and Prince in his New England Chronology adds the honorable prefix of "Mr." from the Register at the end of Bradford's folio manuscript.
Richard Warren was a member of the third exploring party which was surprised by the Indians, 18 December 1620, at the spot since called 'The First Encounter," and he was one of the first to land at Plymouth, 21 December 1620.
A contemporary authority described him "as a grave Richard Warren, a man of integrity, justice and uprightness." Nothing is known of his life before he joined the Pilgrims in London and there are few references to him in the Plymouth Colony Records due to his early death.
Elizabeth Warren, whose maiden name is not known, but it definitely is not Jowett. She was rated on the Plymouth tax list of 1632-3, and was one of the first purchasers of Dartmouth. A study of the early Plymouth records leads to the conclusion that she was a woman of force and social position in the community. The family appears to have been one of the wealthier ones in Plymouth. She is usually called "Mistress Elizabeth Warren," a designation not lightly used. She is one of the rare instances in that early colony of continued widowhood without remarriage.
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21.
John HOWLAND: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
was the son of Henry Howland of Fentstanton, Huntingdonshire. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in the ship Mayflower September 6, 1620. Some of the passengers had come in the ship Speedwell from Delft Haven, which met the Mayflower at Southampton, but the Speedwell proved unseaworthy. The persons who had come from Delft Haven, Holland, were part of a little colony of English families who had for eleven years resided at Leyden, near Delf Haven, to escape religious persecutions of the Church of England, and there had the privilege of worshipping God as their consciences dictated.
Governor Bradford wrote of the severe storms encountered on the passage and describes John's adventure:
A lusty young man (called John Howland) coming upon some occasion above the grating was with a seele of the ship thrown into the sea, but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halliards which hung overboard, and ran out at length, yet he held his hold (though he was sundry fathoms under water) till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water and then with a boat hook and other means got into the ship again."
The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth, and before landing the famous Mayflower Compact was signed, the thirteenth signature being that of John Howland; forty-one signed in all, and twenty-one of those died before the end of March. The ship arrived at Plymouth, John Howland being one of the ten "principal men" who had previously gone out to select a haven. In 1627 a division of cattle was agreed to, on the understanding that it should be for a term of ten years, and also that the old stock and half the increase should remain for common use (to be divided at the end of ten years of otherwise) but the other half to be their own forever. The division was by lots, thirteen persons being grouped in each lot and twelve lots in all. The fourth lot fell to the party headed by John Howland, and three of his family; viz., his wife Elizabeth Tilley, son John and daughter Desire.
After the death of Gov. Carver, he rose rapidly as a leader. He was one of the eight Plymouth Undertakers who assumed responsibility for the colony's debt to the Adventurers in return for certain monopoly trade privileges. He was a freeman in 1633; in 1634 he was in charge of the colony trading post on the Kennebec River. He received a good number of land grants, was elected a deputy for Plymouth, served on numerous special committees, and was an important lay leader of the Plymouth Church.
He died on 24 February 1672-3 in his eightieth year, and John Cotton noted his passing, "He was a good disciple, & had bin sometimes a magistrate here, a plaine-hearted Christian." In his will dated 29 May 1672, inventoried 3 March 1672-3, he mentioned his wife Elizabeth; oldest son John Howland; sons Jabez and Joseph; youngest son Isaac; daughters Desire Gorham, Hope Chipman, Elizabeth Dickenson, Lydia Browne, Hannah Bosworth, and Ruth Cushman; granddaughter Elizabeth Howland, daughter of his son John. His widow Elizabeth died at the home of her daughter Lydia Browne on 21 December 1687.
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22.
John TILLEY:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) and his wife Joan Hurst sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower with their young daughter Elizabeth Tilley. John was born 20 September 1591 at Henlow, England, son of Robert Tilley and Elizabeth (____). Joan was the daughter of William Hurst and [probably] Rose (____) of Henlow, Bedfordshire; baptized 30 April 1607. She had earlier been widowed from a Thomas Rogers, but not the Mayflower man of that name. They were also accompanied by his brother Edward Tilley and his wife Ann Cooper. The four elder Tilleys died the first terrible winter at Plymouth.
After a rough voyage of 64 days, the Mayflower made Cape Cod on 9 November 1620. Since this place was outside Virginia, their patent was useless. A few rugged individualists who had joined the Pilgrims in London announced that "when they came ashore they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them." They drew up the Mayflower Compact which forty-one adult males signed. Therein they formed "a civil body politic, and promised all due submission and obedience to such just and equal laws as the government they set up might pass."
After deciding that Cape Cod was not capable of supporting human life, the Pilgrims decided to settle at Plymouth and began landing passengers on 16 December 1620. They began to build a town on the shores of the Plymouth harbor. Whenever the rain and sleet died down, the men who could walk at all went ashore to work; first a common house and then separate houses. When the common house was thatched, provisions and ammunition were brought ashore and stored in it. One day a spark caught in the dry thatch of the common house, and its roof took fire. At the cries of alarm, the workmen rushed to the burning building and carried out the sick. Before the fire was checked, food and precious stores were damaged, but no lives were lost. One hundred and two had sailed from Plymouth; one of the company had died on the voyage and one child had been born. Four of the company died while the ship lay in Cape Cod. This was a good record.
The emigrants left the ship as the residences were completed. But no sooner had they landed and begun building shelter, "a great sickness" befell them. Only 50 of the 102 passengers survived the hacking coughs, fever and scurvy. John and Joan Tilley died during that first terrible winter of 1621.
The migration of people to the new colony of Connecticut caused the founding of several towns, such as Windsor, and Wethersfield. In 1639 the General Court drew up the "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut" which provided a legal base for the government. The settlements in Connecticut had no charter so they formed a government which they all could obey. It provided for a general assembly composed of four representatives from each town. It provided that electors or freemen should be merely those who were accepted by a majority of the householders of the town. There was no prescribed religious conviction for citizenship. However, in practice, only those newcomers found "acceptable" were themselves of the dominant religion. Connecticut lived under this government until the English Restoration of 1660.
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23.
Elizabeth TILLEY: (from
www.plimoth.org, site of the Plimoth Plantation, the "Living Historical
Museum")
(Regarding whether popcorn was eaten at the first "Thanksgiving") The popcorn problem is a perennial question. It stems from a "First Thanksgiving Day" breakfast scene in a novel by Jane G. Austen, Standish of Standish (1889), p. 281:
The meal was a rude one looked upon with the dainty eyes and languid appetites of to-day, but to those sturdy and heroic men and women it was a veritable feast, and at its close Quadequina with an amiable smile nodded to one of his attendants, who produced and poured upon the table something like a bushel of popped corn, - a dainty hitherto unseen and unknown by most of the Pilgrims.
All tasted, and John Howland hastily gathering up a portion upon a wooden plate carried it up to the Common house for the delectation of the women, that is to say, for Elizabeth Tilley, whose firm young teeth craunched [sic.] it with much gusto.
It's a good story, but not good history. The only historic description of the event comes from Mourt's Relation, a 1622 source, in which there is no mention of popcorn.
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24. Richard
SARSON:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) a tailor, embarked at London in the Elizabeth and Ann for these shores, and was listed as twenty-eight years of age, but the relationship he bore to the person of Edgartown who became prominent cannot be surely stated by Banks. He died sometime before October 23, 1703. There is no record of the date or of the settlement of the estate of Mrs. Jane (Paine) Mayhew Sarson. She gave to her children her personal and real property, including the Paine homestead by the pre-nuptial document of 1664.
The first record of a Richard Sarson in Edgartown is dated 1 February 1656, in connection with an agreement made by the townsmen with Robert Pease. As the known ancestor Richard was born 1637 he would have been only nineteen years at this time and not able to make a legal contract. Therefore, we may assume that it was the elder Richard and a son of the same name admitted as townsman 2 June 1657. This hypothesis of a father and son seems applicable in the next record of 18 February 1659, when Richard Sarson was chosen as arbitrator in a land controversy, an activity not appropriate to a twenty-one year old man. On June 7, 1659, Richard Sarson was chosen constable, an office of considerable dignity in those times. There are few references to death or settlement of estates on the Vineyard before 1660, and early vital statistics are lacking, so the disappearance of the elder Richard is probably due to his death.
The widow of Thomas Mayhew, Jr. had been in weeds for seven years, and dependent on the charity of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel for her maintenance when she accepted the suit of Richard Sarson. A marriage was arranged some time after December 20, 1664, when the widow disposed of her estate by gift to each of her children in anticipation of the event. She provided herself a loophole by this clause: "in case this match go on betwixt Richard & I," evidently recognizing the uncertainty of affairs of the heart. At this time the widow, Jane Mayhew (145), was about thirty-six years old, while Sarson was her junior by eight or nine years. The marriage took place, however, despite this and her uncertainty, and from that time the position of Richard Sarson was assured. By this he acquired the control of the inheritances of the Paine interests descending to his wife and thus became a considerable property owner, and as stepfather of Matthew, Thomas and Rev. John Mayhew he managed their affairs until they were old enough to look out for themselves. He became one of the governor's assistants shortly after his inauguration of the duke's government, and remained on the bench for about thirty years, sitting with his two step-sons most of the time. On October 2, 1694, he was licensed to sell liquor as a convenience for the public. This is a curious instance of the homely life of the Vineyard at that time when a justice of the King's bench could be seen pouring out a gill of rum for a thirsty yeoman who may have sat in his court a few hours before as
plaintiff or defendant.
Richard Sarson lived on a lot which originally belonged to Thomas Paine, and after Sarson's death descended to Samuel his son, and thence to Anne Belcher and Jane Little Sarson also owned land in Chilmark and Tisbury. When he died he owned a tract of a hundred acres at Homes Hole, bought of an Indian.
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25. Rev.
Abraham PIERSON:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) the immigrant ancestor, was born in Yorkshire, England in 1613. He married Abigail Wheelwright, daughter of Rev. John Wheelwright of Lincolnshire, England, who came to New Hampshire. Their children were Abraham, Thomas, John, Abigail, Grace, Susanna, Rebecca, Theophilus, Isaac, and Mary. Mr. Pierson died August 9, 1678. Though no memorial marks the resting place of the first pastor of "the mother of churches," enough is known to indicate the spot. He graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1622. Before leaving England he had been ordained as an Episcopal minister, and had preached in Yorkshire for a while. He came to America in 1630 in pursuit of religious freedom. He was ordained in Boston as a Congregational minister and preached at Lynn until 1640, when various circumstances led him and a part of his congregation to remove to Long Island. About 40 families, with Pierson as their Minister, departed from Lynn and attempted to make a settlement on the west end of Long Island, but were prevented by the Dutch and repaired to the cast end, where they laid the foundation of Southampton. He became the first minister of the church there, which was started as Congregational, but afterward became Presbyterian. He was rigid in his desire to have the "civil as well as the ecclesiastical power vested in the church, and to allow none but church members to act in the choice of officers of Gov't, or to be eligible as such." This led to a division of the colony. He interested himself in behalf of the Indians, learned their language and prepared a catechism for them. He became to the Indians of Connecticut what Eliot and Mayhew were to those of Massachusetts. In 1665 he united with John Davenport in opposing the union of Connecticut and New Haven colonies, being strongly against the liberality of the clergy of the Connecticut colony and desiring to keep the government entirely in the church.
In October 1701, the legislature granted a charter for "a collegiate school in his majesty's colony of Connecticut." The trustees chose one of their number, Mr. Pierson, rector of the school and determined that it should be located, for the present, at Saybrook. [Ed.: But according to this same entry above,
all from the "Harwood Genealogy," he died August 9, 1678.] The college was moved from Saybrook to New Haven and became known as Yale University.
He united his church and congregation with the Milford brethren and friends in 1666 in the settlement of' "New-work," or "Pesayak towne," on "the great river Pesayak," as it is called in the deed from the Native Americans. During the next two years about 65 men came from Branford and two neighboring towns. Each man was entitled to a homestead lot of six acres in the present city of Newark, New Jersey. He ministered to this church, "his life full of piety to God and service to his fellowmen" for twelve years.
Mr. Pierson was conversant in the Indian language, often acting as their interpreter, especially before the Court. He prepared a catechism for the Indians, of which only two copies exist, one in the Lenox Library, New York, and the other in the British Museum. For his labors among the Indians he received a regular salary paid by a missionary society in England.
The migration of people to the new colony of Connecticut caused the founding of several towns, such as Windsor and Wethersfield. In 1639 the General Court drew up the "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut," which provided a legal base for the government. The settlements in Connecticut had no charter so they formed a government which they all could obey. It provided for a general assembly composed of four representatives from each town. It provided that electors or freemen should be merely those who were accepted by a majority of the householders of the town. There was no prescribed religious conviction for citizenship. However, in practice, only those newcomers found "acceptable" were themselves of the dominant religion. Connecticut lived under this government until the English Restoration of 1660.
(Also
see Research section on this web site)
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26. Robert PENOYER: (from Jenkins Genealogy) was the son of Thomas BUTLER,
a weaver of Dorston, Hereford, England. He [Ed.: Robert] left Bristol, England and changed his name
because he had been a witness to a murder.
He came on the Hopewell with
his brother Thomas, aged 10, in 1635. He
was in Stamford by 1648 when he was cited for drunkenness.
He had a house on the corner of the west side of
West Street and the road to the mill in 1659.
In 1677 he moved to Mamaroneck, New York.
His son, Thomas Penoyer, went to settle Bedford, New York in 1680 and
returned in 1684. Robert's brother
was the William Penoyer of Harvard fame. In
the records there is a reference to Anne Rich marrying Thomas Penoyer in 1686.
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27. Rev. Ralph WHEELOCK:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) was born 14 May 1600 in Shropshire, England, son of Rev. Eleazar Wheelock and Sarah Davenport. He married 17 May 1630 Rececca [Ed.: Rebecca?] Clark who died 1 January 1680. He died 11 January 1684 at Medfield. He was an eminent non-conformist educated at Clare-Hall, in Cambridge and came to New England in 1637. He settled in Dedham and was made a freeman and was one of the founders of the church in 1638. He was a large land-owner of Medfield when it became a separate town, which he represented 1653, 1663, 1664, 1666, and 1667. He had sons, Benjamin, born in 1639; Samuel in 1642, and Elezar. [Ed.: what about our ancestor, Gershom? This casts some doubt on the veracity of this lineage.]
(Also see
Research section on this web site)
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28.
John ELIOT:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) was
the son of Bennett Eliot, born about 1604 and baptized 5 August 1604 at
Widford, Hertfordshire, England. He
married October 1632 Ann Mountfort who was born 1604 in England and died 24
March 1687. He died 20 May 1690 at Roxbury.
The celebrated Apostle of the Indians, was bred
at Cambridge, matriculated as a pensioner in Jesus College 20 March 1619, where
he took his A.B. 1623. He bore the
arms of the Eliots of St. German, Co. Devon, of royal descent and counted among
the oldest families of England, tracing themselves to Sir William de Aliot, who
came over with William the Conqueror. He
came to
Boston 2 November 1631 in the Lion, became
a freeman 6 March 1632 and in the following November was settled in his office
of teacher. He learned the Indian
dialects, and with the help of a young Indian, he translated the Ten
Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. His
first sermon in their tongue was preached at Newton in 1646.
The Cathechism, published in
1653 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the first book published in the Indian
language. The New Testament was
issued in 1661, and the Old Testament two years later. With the assistance of his sons he completed his Indian
Grammar
Begun (1666). The
Indian Primer and a translation of
the Larger Cathechism followed in
1669. In 1671, Rev. Eliott printed
in English Indian Dialogues, followed in 1672 by Logick
Primer both of which were intended for the instruction of the Indians in
English. A curious treatise on
government entitled The Christian
Commonwealth was published in 1659. Harmony of the Gospels
(1678) was a life of
Jesus Christ. The missions were at
their height of prosperity when he died.
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29. Edward HOWELL: According to the "Supplement" to Burke's "Peerage and Baronetage" or "General Armory": Howell (Westbury-in-Marsh, Gibbon, Buckingham Co.; EDWARD HOWELL sold this manor in 1639, and emigrated to North America. His eldest son, Major JOHN HOWELL, d. 3 Nov 1696, aged 71. The descendants of the first settler are still living in America, one of whom is GEORGE ROGERS HOWELL, Esq., of the New York State Library. Arms on the seal of EDWARD HOWELL, and on the tombstone of his son, Major JOHN HOWELL, 1696). Gu. three towers
triple-towered ar."
From "Early American Settlers" (chapter of a book?? In binder): Edward HOWELL, an emigrant descendant, came with his family to America settling at Lynn, Mass., first where he held five acres of land. He then moved to Southampton, Long Island, in 1640, where he was one of the founders, and a member of the Governor's council of Connecticut from 1647 to 1653. His son Major John HOWELL was prominent in civil and military affairs of Long Island and was baptised at March Gibbon, Bucks Co., 20 Nov. 1624; he died at Southampton, 3 Nov. 1696.
According to the "Supplement" to Burke's "Peerage and Baronetage" or "General Armory": Howell (Westbury-in-Marsh, Gibbon, Buckingham Co.; EDWARD HOWELL sold this manor in 1639, and emigrated to North America. His eldest son, Major JOHN HOWELL, d. 3 Nov 1696, aged 71. The descendants of the first settler are still living in America, one of whom is GEORGE ROGERS HOWELL, Esq., of the New York State Library. Arms on the seal of EDWARD HOWELL, and on the tombstone of his son, Major JOHN HOWELL, 1696). Gu. three towers
triple-towered ar."
From "Early American Settlers" (chapter of a book?? In binder): Edward HOWELL, an emigrant descendant, came with his family to America settling at Lynn, Mass., first where he held five acres of land. He then moved to Southampton, Long Island, in 1640, where he was one of the founders, and a member of the Governor's council of Connecticut from 1647 to 1653. His son Major John HOWELL was prominent in civil and military affairs of Long Island and was baptised at March Gibbon, Bucks Co., 20 Nov. 1624; he died at Southampton, 3 Nov. 1696.
From Mr. Barens, director of the Southampton Historical Museum:
Settled at Manhasset, Long Island before being dismissed by the Dutch (fighting
with the English for control) and moving to Southampton. At Peconic Bay,
they asked the Shinnecocks about the land at Southampton, which they'd likely scouted by boat earlier. Since they were largely sheep farmers, they had been looking for good meadowlands. The Shinnecock gladly took them there and sold them the land, something both groups soon came to regret. The Shinnecock contracted diseases from the settlers and began dying of epidemics within 2 weeks; the settlers built a new town, and soon discovered why the First People were so willing to sell: during summer, the meadows were swarmed by mosquitoes. So the settlers uprooted and moved a short distance to the current site of Southampton, today the most expensive vacation real estate in America.
Southampton was originally known as "Agawam," so named by its native inhabitants, the Shinnecocks, who can trace their ancestors back as far as 8,000 B.C. The "new" name of Southampton was chosen in 1640 to honor the port city in England from where the Pilgrims first sailed. The Shinnecocks taught the new settlers about local foods, craft traditions and whaling. African Americans were among the earliest inhabitants of Southampton, first recorded in 1695.
FROM History of Southampton, by George Rogers Howell, 1887, pp.300-302 (spelling errors left intact without notation):
Edward Howell of Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire, England, was the ancestor of this family of Southampton. A Richard Howell came to Southold with his mother, a widow, it is said by Rev.
William Hallock, D.D., late of New York, who married Peter Hallock, the ancestor of the Long Island family of Hallocks. No relationship is known to exist between these two pioneers. Edward Howell disposed of considerable estates in Bucks county in 1639, among which was the manor of Westbury in Marsh Gibbon, purchased by his grandfather, William Howell, in 1536. The old stone manor house is still standing, though the remains of an old foundation near it show that some portions of it have been taken down. It is of two full stories and what is called a double house, now nearly covered with ivy. Edward Howell came in 1639 with his family to Boston, where he was made freeman, March 14, 1639-40. He soon removed to Lynn, where he had a grant of 500 acres. During the winter of 1639-40 a new settlement was projected on Long Island, of which he seems to have been the leader, as the compact or agreement of terms of founding the plantation is in his handwriting, as well as the laws adopted by the first settlers, and to the last year of his life he was always a magistrate and member of the colonial legislature at Hartford. The manner in which his name is mentioned in the colonial records of New England and New York point to the same conclusion.
The arms of this family, as found on an old family seal now in possession of one of the descendants and on several old tombstones of the seventeenth century in Southampton, are as follows: Gules, three towers triple-towered, argent. Crest used by some branches. Out of a ducal crown or, a rose argent stalked and leaved vert, between two wings, indorsed of the last.
Motto: Tenax propositi. ...
Edward Howell built in 1648 the house occupied in his life-time by William P. Herrick, nearly opposite the present residence of Capt. James M. Herrick, and had the two adjoining house lots to the north, his front extending to Job's lane, as he had purchased three shares in the corporation of the settlement. This house was taken down about twenty-five years ago by Capt. Philetus Pierson, who purchase the homestead. His three shares
entitled him to over 3,000 acres within the boundaries of the town.
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30. Andre LAMOUREUX: Andre Lamoureux was a shipmaster and pilot at the French port of
Meche, Saintonge, France -- now called Meschers, Saintonge, Poitou-Charentes, near mouth of the Gironde River.
Moved to Bristol, England 1686-1689. "Denization" papers June 22, 1694 (Andre, Suzanne, Elizabeth, Judith).
In New Rochelle, Westchester Co., NY by May 15, 1700. Engaged in foreign trade. Military service in 1706.
History in "The Lamoureux Record", by A.J. Lamoureux, Ithaca, NY, OCT 1919.
Lots of Lamoureux in N.E. PA.
Variations: Lamoureux, Lamoreaux, Lamoreux, LaMoree, Lamoure, L'Amoureux, Lomoreux.
LAMOREAUX FAMILY COMES TO NEW YORK
[by April Coleman, from RootsWeb discussion board on Lamoureux family]
*1700 (about) - NYC - "Andre' (Lamoreaux), having heard of the new land of America, many of whose colonists were subjects of King George III, decided to take his family and any friends who dared venture in his ship, across the great Atlantic, secure in the thought that they would still be under the protection of this great sovereign."
SOURCE: "The Life Story of David Burlock Lamoreaux", Edith Ivans Lamoreaux, p 2
*1700 "Daniel Lamoureux was the son of Andre' Lamoureux, a native of Meschers in Saintonge. His mother was Suzanne La Tour. Daniel was born in 1695 in Bristol, England, but the family was in New York City in 1700. Daniel married Jeanne, Masse daughter of Pierre and Elizabeth (Mersereau) Masse and moved to New Rochelle by 1726, which he left after 1732 for northern Westchester County and finally the present Putnam County.
SOURCE: Ship Passenger Lists, New York and New Jersey (1600-1825), Carl Boyer
*1700 May - New York City - Suzanne de Latour Lamoureux witnesses a baptism at the French Church
SOURCE: Records of French Church of New York (de Nouvelle york) p 72 [First NY record. Five years after last record of Andre' & Suzanne Lamoreaux in England.]
The French Reformed Protestant Church of New York, "Pine and Nassau Streets, Manhattan (was) organized (in) 1688 by Rev. Pierre Peiret as Eglise francaise a la Nouvelle York. Originated with occasional French services held in Church in Fort ... from 1628. Incorporated Feb 20, 1796. First services in private dwellings to 1689, when occupied stone church on Market Street (Pettycoat Lane). Cornerstone of church laid July 8, 1704 by Lord Cornbury, ... Known as La Temple du St. Esprit. First clergyman, Rev. Pierre Peiret, 1688-1704. p 35
SOURCE: Inventory of the Church Archives of New York City, Reformed Church in America prepared by Historical Records Survey, WPA, NY aug 1939
"An old Huguenot custom required the presence of numerous relatives and friends, on such occasions [i.e. marriages & baptisms] History of the Huguenot Emigration to America,
SOURCE: C.W. Baird vol II p 99
*1701 Nov 16 - New York City - Daniel Jeandein baptized in French Church. Son of Catherine Lamoreaux & Daniel Jeandein.
SOURCE: Registers of the Births, Marriages, and Deaths, of the "Eglise Francoise a' la Nouvelle York", from 1688 to 1804, edited by Wittmeyer, Baltimore, 1968. collections of the Hug. Soc of Am. [First record of Catherine in NY, three years after last Holland record.]
[Catherine Lamoreaux & Daniel Jandin & family were in Holland 1696-1698, at least. (See Leiden Index, film #199852) They left Holland before 1701. She may be Andre's sister that left France with them Or maybe not. Did Andre' go there, too? They never witnesses church events for each other. However, Andre's England records end about the same time Catherine's Holland records begin. Merchant men did a lot of business with the Dutch. And both were in New York by 1700-1701.]
*1702 May Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, arrived in New York to act as Governor. New York City, 1664 - 1710 Conquest and Change,
SOURCE: Thomas J Archdeacon, Cornell University Press, 1976.
"Gov Bellomont was succeeded by Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, a cousin of Queen Anne, but a man of bad morals and a spendthrift,"
SOURCE: The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498 * 1909, Stokes.
*1702 Summer - New York City - During this summer there raged in the city an epidemic so severe ... many of the people fled into the country and Lord Cornbury himself retired to Jamaica, Long Island. [Losee were on Long Island.] The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498 * 1909,
*1703 Jan 13 - New York City - Andre' Lamourau witnesses Beau-Gaillard marriage at the French church in NYC. [Witnesses at baptism are Godparent.]
SOURCE: Registers of the Births, Marriages, and Deaths, of the "Eglise Francoise a' la Nouvelle York", from 1688 to 1804, edited by Wittmeyer, Baltimore, 1968. collections of the Hug. Soc of Am..
"... every Sabbath day, the people assembled from twenty miles around, from Long Island, Staten Island, New Rochelle, and other points for public worship. Every street near was filled with wagons as early as Saturday evening, and in them many passed the night and ate their frugal Sunday repast, ... named 'L'Eglise du St. Espirit' (The Church of the Holy Spirit) ... Pine Street..." "the church reached it's highest point of development ... 1690 to 1750, declining in the next half century, largely because of the Revolutionary War."
SOURCE: The French Blood in America, L. J. Fosdick, Baltimore, 1973.
*1703 - New York City Census - Andrew Lamarue, listed as inhabitant of New York City; 1 male 16 - 60; 1 female 16-60, 1 male & 1 female child under 16. West Ward Daniel Janden is in east ward, 2 adult male 16 - 60, 1 female 16 -60, 3 male children, 1 female child. p 612
SOURCE: Documentary History of the State of New York, by E. B. O'Callaghan, Albany, 1849. [Contains entire 1703 census of New York City] [I HAVE THIS.] Also found in: History of the City if New York, David T Valentine, 1853 Doc of NY, 1703 Census of NY
[Andre & Suzanne, born between 1687 & 1643; & Daniel & Judith, born between 1688 & 1703; where is Elizabeth? She would be at least 18 yrs. No Dujean listed in NYC. Was she in New Rochelle or etc? ] [Neighbors are D Graw, Riersie, Cure, Reed, Tinbrook, Lamarue, Harring,
Burley, Burkley, Risoe, D Bois; very few French in the neighborhood.] p 620 [Very few people over 60!]
New York was divided into five wards; West, East, North, South and Dock Wards. The West Ward is the area located north of Beaver Street (which is north of Market Street) bounded on the east by New Street, (half way between Broad Street and Broadway), bounded on the west by the Hudson River. Originally the wards only went north to Wall Street. As the city expanded so did the East, North and West Wards. Basically the West Ward included people living on Broadway? I think. See Map. I gather that the Dock Ward was the most affluent, North was the poorest, South was generally well to do and East and West were in between or mixed. [There were] "Seventy-four individuals or heads of [French] families in 1703, distinguished primarily from the records of the Eglise du Saint-Esprit" "French New Yorkers also married primarily within their own group. Not a single one of the 44 weddings which took place in the Eglise du Saint-Esprit between 1689 and 1710 involved a non-French person." [FIND THESE "Tax rolls for July, September, and December 1703, and Feb 1703/4 estimate the value of the houses and estates, or simply the estates of slightly more than a thousand heads of families." These are found in the "Minutes
Common Council, ... Klapper Library, Queens College, City University of New York"] New York City, 1664 - 1710 Conquest and Change,
SOURCE: Thomas J Archdeacon, Cornell University Press, 1976.
*1703 The population of New York, city and county, was 4,436
SOURCE: The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498 * 1909, Stokes
"It then appears in either 1702 or 1703 they purchased 32 acres of what is now midtown Manhattan. Andre' is listed on the 1703 census as a resident of the west ward of New York (midtown Manhattan) with Suzanne, Judith and Daniel. We know he was still a ships master at this time, so it is likely the 32 acres of farm land was purchased to give Suzanne a better place to raise the children. The purchase price of 32 acres of Manhattan was 15 pounds. This was a fair amount of money, so we can infer they were reasonably well off. It also indicates the land was cleared, and probably had a house. (As far as I can tell, the 32 acres is part of the
Rockefeller property which now contains the United Nations Building. It was on the north side of Broadway, which was the only road up there in 1703.)
[Ed.: That area is on the EAST side of midtown.] [Did they own the land? Where are the land records? FIND THEM!]
SOURCE: "A L'Amoureux Family History as we Approach 300 Years In America," Duane L'Amoureux in a letter to akrc, 1991 [I have not checked this data out. Is it true?]
*1704 - NYC - The French Church (l'Eglise du St. Esprit) was built "on the north side of Pine St. east of Nassau."
SOURCE: The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498 * 1909, Stokes
*1703/4 Jan 13 - NYC - Suzanne Lamoureux witnesses Beau-Gaillard daughter baptism at (Jan 1) the French church in NYC
SOURCE: Records of French Church of New York p 99
*1705 Paving was ordered laid, south end of Broad Street & about the dock, New York City & custom house.
SOURCE: The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498 * 1909, Stokes
*1706 Mar 15 - Fort Anne, NYC - "Warrant. Captain Miles, Fane and Davis, to impress seamen from inward bound vessels,"
SOURCE: Indexed in Calendar of Historic Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N.Y. part II [This sets a beginning time for Andre' to have been impressed in the British Navy by Capt Miles. His impressment could not have been more than 2 months, probably much less. See 1706 May 4 entry.]
*1706 May 4 - West Indies - Andrew Lamoureux, captain of a merchantman "being lately master of a sloop was unfortunately taken by French Privateer in the West Indies, and having procured his releasement Shipt himself at Curacao on board the Sloop Orange in order for his transportation hither, but that upon his arrival here he was impreset to serve on board her Maj-ties Ship Triton Prize" "You are hereby required to re-lease the sd [said] Lamoureux from her Maj-ties sd ship and service..." Letter to Capt Miles from "His Excy Edward Viscount Cornbury" Fort Anne, NY Harbor 1706
SOURCE: NY Colonial Manuscripts Vol 51 p 125B, NY State Archives Referred to in the 1919 Record of L. Family
"...there were traders...New York... men whose small sloops and schooners plied up and down the seaboard and into the West Indies." "…only to British ports and ship... only in British vessels" "Navagation Acts... stiff taxes... guaranteed markets, naval protection, and a network of credit."
SOURCE: The American Revolution, Edward Countryman, p19-20
"Privateers ... were privately owned ships whose crew members had written permission ... to attack and seize any [enemy] ship during war. If the privateers were captured ... the sailors were supposed to be treated as prisoners of war. ... without the necessary permission letter . ... the crew could be tried for piracy... Privateer crews were allowed to sell the cargoes of ships they captured and divide the money among the sailors according to a prearranged formula. They also could keep the captured ships, outfit them for privateering, and put them to work."
SOURCE: Those Remarkable Women of the American Revolution, Karen Zeinert, p60
*1706 May 4 - Fort Anne, NYC - "Order for the discharge of Andrew Lamarue, capt. of a merchantman, impressed,"
SOURCE: Indexed in Calendar of Historic Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N.Y. part II
[This is the last record of Andre'. When and where did he die? Where is it recorded?]
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31. Daniel LAMOUREUX: Son of Andre' Lamoureux, he married Jeanne Masse'
(from Staten Island, NY) in Manhattan, NY December 31, 1723.
Although we don't know much about Daniel Lamoureux, but we can gather much from stories about other Huguenots who lived in New York at the same time as Daniel:
From "Experiences of the French Huguenots in America - The King's Refugees -- Investigations into the Lives and Fortunes of Exiles who Fled to America during the Reign of Louis XIV when he Promulgated the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685",
by Colonel James Tompkins Watson, Clinton, New York, 1908 :
I find in the archives of the old French church called L'Eglise de St. Esprit, or the Church of the Holy Ghost, on Pine street in New York City, viz: "Pierre Bontekoe and Margaret Collinot, his wife, fugitives from the Isle of Re, near the city of
La Rochelle, in 1684 fled to England, came to New York in 1689." Jacob Leisler was at that time governor. Their name originally was Bondecoux, at a later date changed from Bontekoe to Bontecue. Their descendants are quite numerous, and several branches of the family at a later date located in Connecticut. Pierre's wife was known as Madame, and seems to have been a person of some importance in the French colony, as the Church records show a pension was paid her by the Church for several years. This could not have been in the way of charity as the family were in comfortable circumstances. At that date the French population in New York was about 200. They worshiped temporarily in a building on Marketfield street. In 1695 they built their own church of stone, located on Pine street with the burial ground adjoining. It was used as a place of worship for one hundred and thirty years. In 1831 the property was purchased by the United States government, on which was erected the present Sub-Treasury, between Wall and Pine streets. The remains in the cemetery were removed to St. Mark's Churchyard, Stuyvesant place and Second avenue, and placed in vault number 85, where they will probably remain until future needs demand further change. After the lapse of a hundred years there is generally but little left of the human form. In the third chapter of Genesis, the 19th verse, we read: "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."
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32. Rev. John YOUNGS: (from
Jenkins Genealogy) was born 1598, probably at Suffolk, England. He married Joan Herrington, born 1599, and had six children: John, Thomas, Ann, Rachel, Mary, and Joseph.
He was a minister, but probably not the rector, of St. Margaret's in Suffolk. He attempted to take a ship to Salem, New England, in 1633, from Yarmouth and was "forbidden passage by the Commissioners of Emigration and went not from Yarmouth" because he would not comply with conditions prescribed by government binding him to allegiance, after arrival at the place of destination. They came to Salem, New England, in the Mary Ann from Great Yarmough in May 1637, probably without the knowledge of the authorities. In 1640 he was with his family in Southold, Suffolk County, Long Island, "where he gathered his flock anew" and built the first church edifice in the State of New York, except perhaps the Dutch Church in New York City. The first meeting house erected on Long Island was built in the summer of 1642 and Mr. Youngs continued as minister until his death 24 February 1672 in his 74th year. The death date of his wife, Joan, who came with him to Southold is not known. He married a second wife, Mary ____, a widow, who survived him a few years.
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33. Francis BELL:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) came
in the Susan and Ellen at age 22 from
London. He was living in
Westerfield, Massachusetts but not a freeman before 1641, probably because he
was still quite young. His wife
Rebecca died in 1684 at Stamford. His
son Jonathan was the
first child born in the town.
He is on the list of original settlers of
Stamford who were assigned land in 1640, when he received seven acres.
He was a lieutenant in Stamford in 1643.
His house was on the corner of East Street and South Street, his son
later owning the southern portion of his land.
Cotton Mather referred to Francis as "a firm Puritan in form and
principles." For more than forty years he was prominent as a leader in
Stamford affairs. He and his son
Jonathan Bell seem to have carried on a tanning business.
His grandson Jonathan was a shoemaker.
Francis Bell's Bible is owned by the Stamford Historical Society.
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34.
Rev. Jonathan WHEELWRIGHT: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
was born in Saleby, Lincolnshire, England, about 1592 and arrived at Boston 26 May 1636. He died 15 November 1679 at Salisbury.
He was graduated at Cambridge in 1614 and entered the ministry of the Established Church. He married 8 November 1621 Marie Storre, daughter of Thomas Storre, vicar of Bilsby. He succeeded his father-in-law until 1633 when he became a nonconformist. His wife died some time after the birth of their third child and he married Mary Hutchinson, daughter of Edward Hutchinson of Alford and sister of William Hutcheson whose wife was Anne.
He became a Puritan and fled to New England to escape persecution. They landed in Boston in 1636 and were admitted to membership in the church on June 12. He was the founder and first minister of Exeter, preached at Boston and Braintree but was banished from the Massachusetts colony in 1638 for his sympathy with his sister-in-law Anne Hutchison [Ed.: "sympathy"?].
He went to Exeter in 1638 and bought land from the Indians with a company of friends. Five years later, as the town came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, he obtained a grant of land in Wells. In 1644 his sentence of banishment was revoked, on his admission that he was partially wrong, and he returned to Hampton in 1647. He was in England in 1658 and was well-received by Oliver Cromwell. He returned after the restoration but returned to New Hampshire where he succeeded Rev. William Worcester at Salisbury. The genuineness of the Indian deed to Mr. Wheelwright remains in question. His last will was made 25 May 1679.
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35.
Rev. Stephen BATCHELDER: was born Wherwell, South Stoneham, Hampshire, England, 1561. His first wife, Ann Bate was the mother of his children [Ed.: including Theodate Bathchelder]; he married Helena in 1650, and Mary in 1656. He returned to England after a sojourn in New England in 1660. He died at Hackney, England at the age of 100 years.
Governor Winthrop says that Rev. Batchelder suffered much at the hands of the Bishops; and in consequence of these persecutions he went to Holland and resided there several years. He, aged seventy years, resident of South Stonham, Southampton, and his wife Helen, aged forty-seven, had license given them to visit their sons and daughters at Flushing, and to return in two months in 1631. On June 5,1632, they arrived in Boston in ship William & Francis, 88 days from London. With him were part of his family, including his daughter Theodate and her husband, Christopher Hussey. He was made a freeman at Lynn May 6, 1635, and with a few others established a church, of which he was the first pastor. He requested dismission of himself and the first members of the church, which was granted in 1635. He was granted 50 acres at Ipswich, but he soon left through "differences." In the very cold winter of that year 1637, he went on foot with friends, one hundred miles to Yarmouth. He was then seventy-six years of age (Yarmouth was not settled permanently until later.) He was granted land by the town of Newbury July 6, 1638 and in September 6 of the same year the General Court granted him a commission to settle at Hampton with his company. On October 9, 1638, he wrote from Newbury to John Wintrop, Jr. that he intends to go by shallop and hopes Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Bradstreet will be ready to accompany them. The inhabitants of Ipswich voted him another grant of 60 acres upland, if he would return to them and reside three years there but he did not accept. He and his son-in-law, Christopher Hussey, sold their land in Newbury in 1639 and removed to Hampton (previously called Winnicunnet). In 1640 the town of Hampton gave him 300 acres and he gave them a bell for their church. About this time, being eighty years of age and having "a comely and lusty wife," yet for alleged irregularity with a
neighbor's wife (to which, it was declared, he finally confessed though first denied), he was excommunicated from the church and pastorate of Hampton. Soon after, his house was destroyed by fire. He wrote to Gov. Winthrop of the great loss he had sustained by burning of his house at Hampton. He was restored to communion in 1643 but not to the office of minister.
Being eighty-nine years old in 1650, he married his third wife. The same year on account of their matrimonial disagreements, the Court orders them to live together as man and wife, and either deserting the other to be arrested. His wife, Mary, and her paramour were sentenced to be whipped for adultery in 1651. Stephen went back to England in 1653 or 54. In 1656 his wife Mary prayed for divorce, because he left her with children who were sick, etc. and gone to England and taken a new wife. Savage says, "he probably had good reason for leaving her."
The King granted Rev. Batchelder a special coat of arms indicative of his ministry in the New World: a green field, with a plow in the center, in the left comer a rising sun, representing the sun of righteousness which would shine upon his new field of labor.
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