Part 6 .The Extended Family Connections of the American DeGraw Family 1600s

The Ancestors of Henry Irvin DeGraw

The Extended Family Connections

of the American DeGraw Family

Overview

The lives of the family in Part 6 of "The Ancestors of Henry Irvin DeGraw" are extremely diverse.

Possibly the most confronting, for some, is the way in which Philip Welsh arrived in America.

A story of power, greed and unbelieveable treatment of young children.

It was though, what happened.  Not one person can gloss over the fact that Early America was built on slaves.  While some were, initially, house servants and farm workers sent from Ireland to West Indies to work on the Master's plantation or home.  It developed much further than that.

Years ago we watched a delightful movie called "Belle".  Her father was upper class in London, he had a family in England, and he also had a family in West Indies.

Belle was his daughter, a beautiful mulatto girl. Imagine the shock when she was introduced to the London society.

Belle was exactly the same person that my 3rd step grandmother was.  Mulatto, the offspring of a wealthy London businessman, and one of the Merchants of Galway, John Blake.

On the other side the family have links through their Scottish ancestors to the current Royal Family.

There are so many very interesting ancestors.

The Puritan Migrants 7

The Benion Family. 15

The Knapp Family. 19

The Tew Family. 25

The Richardson Family. 37

The Unfortunate Abraham Browne. 49

The Winthrop Fleet 57

Richardsons from Hertfordshire. 59

The Welch Family. 63

The Birch Family. 77

The Haggett Family. 81

The Lyon Family. 85

Extracts from the Lyon Memorial 1907. 93

William Lyon. 117

The Reduction of New Netherland. 127

The Earls of Kinghorne & Strathmore  131

The Puritan Migrants

The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects in the two decades from 1620 to 1640, after which it declined sharply for a time. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English Puritans to Massachusetts and the West Indies, especially Barbados. They came in family groups rather than as isolated individuals and were motivated chiefly by a quest for freedom to practice their Puritan religion

This religious conflict worsened after Charles I became king in 1625, and Parliament increasingly opposed his authority. In 1629, Charles dissolved Parliament with no intention of summoning a new one, in an ill-fated attempt to neutralize his enemies there—which included numerous Puritans. With the religious and political climate so unpromising, many Puritans decided to leave the country. Some of the migration was also from the expatriate English communities in the Netherlands of nonconformists and Separatists who had set up churches there since the 1590s.

The Winthrop Fleet of 1630 included eleven ships led by the flagship Arbella; it delivered some 700 passengers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Migration continued until Parliament was reconvened in 1640, at which point the scale dropped off sharply. The English Civil War began in 1641, and some colonists returned from New England to England to fight on the Puritan side. Many then remained in England, since Oliver Cromwell backed Parliament as an Independent.

The Great Migration saw 80,000 people leave England, roughly 20,000 migrating to each of four destinations: Ireland, New England, the West Indies, and the Netherlands. The immigrants to New England came from every English county except Westmorland, and nearly half from East Anglia.

The colonists to New England were mostly families with some education who were leading relatively prosperous lives in England.  One modern writer, however, estimates that 7 to 10 percent of the colonists returned to England after 1640, including about a third of the clergymen

The first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag. This was the second successful permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. Before heading to the New World, they migrated to Holland to escape the harsh treatment from King James for rejecting England's official church. Although they were allowed some religious liberties in Holland, the liberalism and openness of the Dutch to all styles of life horrified them.
They approached the Virginia Company and asked to settle "as a distinct body of themselves" in America. In the fall of 1620, they sailed to North America on the Mayflower, first landing near the tip of Cape Cod (modern-day Provincetown, Massachusetts). Blown north off its course, the Mayflower landed at a site that had been named Plymouth. Since the area was not land that lay within their charter, they created the Mayflower Compact, one of America's first documents of self-governance, prior to landing. The first year was extremely difficult, with inadequate supplies. They also suffered grievously from smallpox and malaria.

They were assisted, however, in their time of trouble by the Wampanoag under-chief Massasoit.

In 1621 (following the one held at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia, 1619), they celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God for blessings of good harvest and survival.  This Thanksgiving came to represent the peace that existed at that time between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims.

Although only about half of the Mayflower company survived the first year, the colony grew slowly over the next ten years, and was estimated to have 300 inhabitants by 1630.
The Plymouth colonists were joined by a colony of adventurers that settled nearby at present-day Weymouth in 1622. This colony was short-lived, and abandoned in 1623, only to be replaced by another small colony led by Robert Gorges. This settlement also failed, and individuals from these colonies either returned to England, joined the Plymouth colonists, or established individual outposts elsewhere on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. In 1624 the Dorchester Company established a settlement on Cape Ann. This colony only survived until 1626, but again, a few settlers remained behind.

The Pilgrims were followed by Puritans who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present-day Salem (1629) and Boston (1630). The Puritans, who believed the Church of England was too hierarchical (among other disagreements) came to Massachusetts for religious freedom, although, like the Plymouth colony, the bay colony was founded under a royal charter. The Puritans were mainly from East Anglia and south western regions of England. With an estimated 20,000 migrants between 1628 and 1642, the Massachusetts Bay colony eclipsed Plymouth in population and economy, the chief factors being more suitable harbor facilities for trade and the growth of a prosperous merchant class.

Massachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain, earning it the nickname, the "Cradle of Liberty". Colonists here had long had uneasy relations with the British monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1680s. The Boston Tea Party is an example of the protest spirit in the early 1770s, while the Boston Massacre escalated the conflict. Anti-British activity by men like Sam Adams and John Hancock, followed by reprisals by the British government, were a primary reason for the unity of the Thirteen Colonies and the outbreak of the American Revolution.

The names of the migrants were often recorded in the Bishop's Records updated on an annual basis.  But also many names of the immigrants where change due to the difficulty of language, accent and transcription. 

While some of the DeGraw ancestors are fairly easy to follow from the English or other origins, some are very difficult.  Those difficulties lie often with the understanding of dialects and language, attributed to the early settlers,  but also the very strong accents, particularly among those who lived in the Yorkshire area. 

By the reign of King Henry VIII,  surnames as an identifier had been introduced in England. Understanding the different surnames often provides an indication as to the ancestors region of birth, or his trade.

Surnames deriving from a place are probably the oldest and most common. They can be derived from numerous sources - country, town or estate - or from features in the landscape - hill, wood or stream. Many of these names, and their derivation are obvious, other less so. The names Pickering, Bedford, Berkley and Hampshire might have been given to migrants who left those places during the period of surname formation, or they may have been the names of the landowners where the individuals lived.  Features of the landscape gave rise to many surnames.  Many people took their name from their farm or hamlet. This was particularly the case in those counties where occupation was scattered, and the Pennines and Devon have more than their share of distinctive names
Countries give surnames such as French, Beamish (Bohemian), Britten, Fleming, Hannay (Hainault), Janeway (Genoese), Lubbock (Lubeck) and Moore (Morocco), among many others. And it's interesting that Blackmore, Morys, Moris, Morris, Morice, Morrice, Maurice, Moorish and Mountmorris are themselves all further forms of Moore.

Nearly every county, town, riding, hundred, wapentake, village, hamlet and even single house, at any date, has given its name. Again, most are obvious, but there are some surprises - such as Bristowe (both Bristol and Burstow in Surrey), and Vyse (Devizes or a dweller on the boundary). Thorpe means a village and there are numerous names derived from the word borough - examples are Boroughs, Bury, Burg, Burke, Bourke, Borrow and Burrowes.

Other surnames were formed from a person's job or trade. The three most common English names are Smith, Wright and Taylor. Cook and Turner are also very common.  The rarer occupational names are sometimes restricted in their distribution, as are other names that possibly originated with only one or two families. For example, the Arkwrights (makers of arks or chests) are from Lancashire, the Crappers (croppers) and Frobishers (furbishers or cleaners of armour) are from Yorkshire, and the Dymonds (dairymen) are from Devon. On the other hand, some distinctive names were influenced by more prolific occupational names, and names that started out as Goldsmith, Combsmith or Smithson may have become simply Smith.

This article explains a little about those who migrated from the parish of Rowley.

A 1638 Migration from Rowley, Yorkshire to America    By Anne Sherman| January 21st, 2016

In 1638 the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers and his parishioners are said to have migrated from Rowley, East Yorkshire to Massachusetts, America and started a new settlement which he named Rowley. However there is some confusion regarding his companions and if they were actually from the parish of Rowley, and also the lack of parish registers in the original parish for this period.

A descendant of Ezekiel Rogers states that the Parish Register was taken to America, as it contained the records relating to those who left with him, however but this cannot be correct as fragments of the Bishops Transcripts covering 1620-1640, are available at the Borthwich Institute, York and the East Riding Archives, Beverley.  These transcripts would have been copied from the main registers on an annual basis close to the Easter period, therefore the registers were still in East Yorkshire up until Easter 1641.  The original parish register (pre 1653), for Rowley church was possibly lost or destroyed during the Civil War (1642-51). The earliest available register starts in 1653 when the Commonwealth started Civil Registration, and continued to be used when the Monarchy was reinstated and church records started again in 1660.

17^th Century England was dominated by the Church, and the Sabbath was held by many to be for religious observance only. In 1633 Charles II re-issued King James’ the ‘Kings Declaration to His Subjects, Concerning Lawful Sports to be Used’ which allowed sports such as dancing, piping and animal baiting, to be undertaken on Sundays and Holy Days, and threatened Puritans with exile for banning them and disobeying the Church’s laws.

 As Puritan power and as fear of the return of Catholicism grew, many Ministers rebelled and were suspended, and many from East Yorkshire migrated to New England including Ezekiel Rogers the minister of Rowley.

Ezekiel Rogers, a strict and fiery preacher, was suspended from his duties for “refusing to read from that accursed book, that allowed sports on God’s Holy Sabbath”.  It is not certain when he ceased his duties but in a diary written by John Winthorp, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay, it states that when Ezekiel Rogers and his companions arrived in the province they had “for a good time, withdrawn themselves from the Church communion in England”.

There is disagreement over who actually travelled from Rowley to the Massachusetts. Mr A. N. Cooper, an East Riding Antiquarian in 1909,  claimed Rogers took 20 families from Rowley, so depopulating the village, but later research in the 1940’s suggested that only four families, headed by: William Bellingham, Thomas Nelson, cousins Jerimiah & Ezekiel Northend, and William Jackson, had been parishioners of Rowley parish, the others being from other parishes and Counties. My research suggests that only the Northend’s have strong ancestral links to the parish.

 Records states the travellers left Hull aboard the ‘John of London’, and this matches with details by Harvard College, as its first printing press was also aboard.  This press would print ‘The Freeman’s Oath,’ a document “that every man over 20 years of age, and six months a householder, had to swear to in order to become a citizen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”  The ship was possibly similar to the ‘Mayflower’ that took the Pilgrim Fathers to America 18 years earlier.

Before boarding passengers should have obtained the King’s license to travel, although not all did, and swear an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown.

The journey generally took about two months and comprised of crowded cabins, discomfort, boredom and disease. Although there are no records of this journey, Winthrop mentions contemporary journeys, including his own in 1630, which demonstrate some of the difficulties they may have experienced.  One ship had been at sea for 18 weeks, whilst on another passengers only had ½ a pint of drink per day for a fortnight.

Massachusetts was first settled in 1620 when the Pilgrims on the Mayflower arrived, however in 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company obtained a Royal Charter allowing the company to colonise and trade in New England, between the Merimack and Charles rivers, with 1,000 Puritans from England settling there in 1630. Between 1620 and 1640 over 21,000 British subjects settled in Massachusetts.

Rogers et.al. arrived in Boston on 10 December 1838, where they stayed until the following April when they created a plantation between Ipswich and Newbury.  A year later, Ezekiel Rogers was ordained pastor of the plantation which he named Rowley in honour of his last parish.

Life was not easy for the settlers, forming partnerships and working together to create a new home and town in a strange land. In 1643 supplies from England had decreased due to the Civil War, so everyone had to make their own provisions, which Rowley reportedly did better than other towns.
Some suffered misfortunes.  In 13 years, Ezekiel Rogers was widowed three times, lost children in childbirth and his home was maliciously destroyed by fire on the night of his 3^rd marriage, by a jealous woman.  One of the many items destroyed in the fire were the parish registers for Rowley MA. Upon his death in 1662 he bequeathed his books valued about £73 (roughly equivalent to £9,000 today) to the Harvard College.

In 1692 the Salem Witch Trials, affected the Rowley settlers, and probably harmed the sense of unity the original settlers had built up. The sons of Thomas Nelson both testified against Margaret Scott of Rowley, who was executed in September. Elizabeth Howe, the daughter of William Jackson, was tried and hung in July, and her brother John and his son were indicted and imprisoned for witchcraft in August. In four months, 19 people were executed as witches.

Family of Bridget Benion

Her mother was Isabel Higginson 1560 - 1608.  

John Higginson of Berkeswell, Warwickshire, yeoman, was born say 1480. He died between 10 December 1540, when he executed his will, and 4 February 1540/1, when is was proved. He married Joan _____, who was dead by 29 Nov 1573, when the will of their son Thomas referred to his mother Jone as deceased.

John was probably the son of John and Ellen Higginson of Berkeswell, who were admitted to the Guild of St. Ann of Knowle in 1498. Sixteen years later, in 1514, John Higginson of Berkeswell and his wife Joan were admitted to the guild. By 1533, John was master of the guild. In the same year, his sons John and Thomas were admitted. 

The Guild of St. Ann of Knowle, also known as the Guild of Knowle, was a religious, social, and charitable organization that attracted members from throughout Warwickshire and beyond, but especially in the vicinity of Knowle. The fifteenth-century guild house is still standing in Knowle, a few miles from Berkeswell.

John Carter (ca. 1613–1670)

Contributed by Martin H. Quitt and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography

John Carter was a member of the governor's Council and the House of Burgesses. His family had familial and business connections with the Virginia Company of London, and Carter left England for Virginia during the 1630s. In 1642 he began acquiring the extensive property on the north bank of the Rappahannock River that became the family seat known as Corotoman. Carter married five times and founded one of the greatest of the colonial Virginia families. During the 1640s and 1650s Carter served in the House of Burgesses, which elected him to the governor's Council in 1658. He was again a burgess in 1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne, and Governor Sir William Berkeley reappointed Carter, a royalist, to the Council. He remained a councillor until his death ten years later.
Gabriel Benion was the son of Thomas Benion of Berkeswell, Warwickshire. Thomas Benion's 1608 will lists a married daughter (Dorothie Warner) and four married daughters, Maria, Margerie, Elizabeth and Ursula, one of whom was John Carter's wife. The only names common to both Thomas Benion and John Carter's daughters are Elizabeth and Mary, and as Elizabeth Carter was born first, it is assumed this is the name of his first wife. John Carter probably married 'Elizabeth' Benion shortly after her father's death in 1608, and they had ten children over the next two decades up to her death around 1625, after which he married Bridget.

His children were clearly under the age of 21 when his will was made in 1630. Indeed, all ten children were subject of proceedings as orphans in the London Court of Orphans in 1630, confirming this timetable

The Benion Family

It is not at all surprising to find that members of the Benion Family were merchants, and in particular in London.  There were no doubt many branches of the family, including some in Shropshire, where in 1625, John Benion died, and was described as a Yeoman of Crow Meole.

From some more contemporary research, in regard to Englefield House, in Berkshire, some interesting stories and relationships emerge, particularly with regard to some previously ancestors, and the East India Company.

From the blog    http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/englefield-house-berkshire/

Richard Benyon, Lady Margaret Clive and Elizabeth Sykes were all connected to the East India Company and came to reside at Englefield House at different points during the eighteenth century. Richard Benyon worked for the Company, Lady Margaret Clive was effectively married to the Company and Elizabeth Sykes was daughter to a Company man. This section of the case study tracks how such individuals came to inhabit Englefield House.

When Richard Benyon’s grandson Richard Benyon, inherited Englefield in 1796 the house began to be shaped by another generation of Benyons. This section explores the changes Benyon made and the legacy he established.

As an East India Company official working in Madras, Richard Benyon knew about textiles. He came to use that knowledge not only in his work but also in his personal life when sending gifts and mementoes. Through the deployment of detailed material knowledge Benyon was able to express affection and regard to distant relations. For Benyon, objects were important things.

 “BENYON OF ENGLEFIELD, BERKSHIRE. LINEAGE: Richard Benyon esq, Governor of Fort St George, in the east Indies, son of Daniel Benyon esq. By Mary his wife, b 26 Nov 1698 married for his third wife Mary, dau of Francis Tysson Esq of Baines House, Hackney, and relicit of Powlett Wright Esq (grandson of Sir Nathaniel Wright, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal), and had one son, RICHARD BENYON (b1745, d 1796)…”

The Debeauvoir Association, which is sponsored by the Benyon Estate at Englefield, has carried a number of historical articles on the family including (Article in DeBeauvoir Association Newsletter July 2008 p4. http://www.debeauvoir.org.uk):

“So how did Richard Benyon (de Beauvoir) pop out of the woodwork? His early 17th century ancestor Gabriel Benyon of Crooked Lane, son of a Warwickshire yeoman who supplied candles to the Balmes Estate when it was owned by the Whitmores. Benyon’s orphaned grandfather, another Richard Benyon, was shipped out to the East Indies trading post at Madras at the age of 9 by Colonel John Perry (his godfather), the rather shady secretary to the slave-trading Royal Africa Company. 

Perry took a bond on this first Richard Benyon for 500 pds and in Madras, Benyon was taken up and adopted by the Beauvoir family in all but name. He eventually married into the family to save the Estate at Englefield from the Tory Catholics.”

Daniel Benyon (1664-c1709), Richard’s father was christened 12/8/1664 at St Nicholas Acons, London to Daniel Benyon Snr (c1628-1690), tallow chandler of Crooked Lane, and Mary, his wife. Not much is known about him. According to Burke, he married a Mary and their son was Richard (born 26 Nov 1698). Richard had an older brother (or possibly an uncle) Bernard Benyon (c 1685-1715) who also moved to India with him in 1711 and died at Fort St George, Madras in 1715. Daniel Benyon was probably a merchant, and appears to have been based in Madras, India in 1701-2. He died before 1709 when his son Richard, then an orphan, was sent to Madras.
It is possible that Burke has the name of Daniel Benyon’s wife wrong, and that it was Elizabeth rather than Mary. A Daniel Bynian from Deptford, Blackheath, Kent was buried at St Margaret Lee Kent on 27/5/1708, followed by his widow Elizabeth on 19/10/1709, and daughter Elizabeth (29/7/1709). Daniel Benyon married Elizabeth Moore in April 1691. They also had a son George christened at St Alfege, Greenwich (10/5/1692), on whose baptism certificate he is described as a ‘merchant’. Indeed, it is also possible that he married twice, and that Bernard was the son of an earlier marriage. Bernard Benyon married around 1710 to Grace and had two children at Fort St George, Madras: Edward (13/2/1712, who returned to work in Madras in 1733) and Grace (30/6/1713).

Daniel Benyon was the son of another Daniel Benyon and is recorded in Boyd’s Citizens of London as married to a Mary and having three children between 1660 and 1664: Mary (Benyen) 15/9/1660, Daniell (Binnion) 12/8/1664 and a third unnamed child who was buried 30 Mar 1663. Daniel Benyon was buried at St Dunstans & All Saints on 19/4/1690 with the reference “of Wapping to St Nicholas Acons”. St Nicholas Acons is just 200m from the address given by Daniel Benyon in 1652 of ‘St Michaels Crooked Lane’ and 600m from the church where his brother Gabriel was baptised in 1619.
Daniel Benyon was born c1628 and, like his father Gabriel , trained as a tallow chandler. He is listed as accepting an apprentice (John Harrison, son of Richard, citizen and stationer) on 20 Jan 1663/4, and later served as Master of the Company of Tallow Chandlers in 1689. Daniel Benyon is mentioned in 1671 in Chancery Proceedings when his nephew Benjamin Benyon sued him over the estate of his father Gabriel Benyon. Gabriel Benyon’s’s will (PCC 1662) lists two sons: Daniel and Robert, and Robert’s son Benjamin, as well as his wife Susanna. Benjamin was probably born about 1657, as Benjamin Benyon, ‘son of Robert citizen and apothecary’ was apprenticed to Richard Joyce a tallow chandler in Mar/1671.

Gabriel was the executor of his brother in law John Carter’s will in 1664. john Carter was an ancestor of a famous American family that includes the two US Presidents Harrison.
Gabriel Benyon was the youngest of the three sons of Thomas Benyon of Berkeswell, Warwickshire (will PCC 1608) and his wife Isabell Higginson. Thomas was the son of THomas Benion (d 1543) and his wife Margery Cotton, of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. Both Thomas and Margery came from old Shropshire families based near Whitchurch.
I have more if you are interested.
The Benyon family was close to the notorious (and eventually very wealthy) Thomas Pitt (1653-1726), son of a Dorset parson who was Governor of Fort St George from 1698-1709, having been a merchant in India since 1674. He later served in the House of Commons and was the grandfather of William Pitt the Elder Prime Minister from 1766-68, and great grandfather of William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister 1783-1801; 1804-06.  

Thomas Pitt is known as “Diamond Pitt” because of his purchase and profit from an extraordinary diamond, which was eventually sold to Phillippe II, Duke of Orleans for 135,000 pds and is now part of the French Crown jewels. Daniel Benyon, a ‘dear friend’ of Thomas Pitt, was part of the negotiations that lead to the purchase of the diamond. In a letter, Pitt recorded the circumstances of the purchase at Madras in 1701-02: “Mr Benyon was then writing in my closet, with whom I discoursed on what had passed and told him now I was clear of it; when about an hour after my servant brought me word that Jamchund and Vincatee Chittee were at the door……Presently he came to 48,000 pagodas, when I went again into the closet to Mr Benyon and told him what had passed: so I closed with him got that sum.”

A footnote notes that “Mr Benyon” was “Daniel Benyon, father of Richard Benyon, Governor of Fort St George, and great grandfather of the late Richard Benyon of Englefield, Berks.”. In October 1709, shortly before he left Madras, Pitt sent a consignment of goods to London on the :Henry Davenport” consigned to ‘Bernard Benyon, merchant of London’, who had presumably taken over his father’s affairs after his death.

Following Bernard’s death in 1715, Pitt wrote to his son that he had received news from Madras that ‘poor Benyon and Mr Fleetwood are dead’ and adds ‘In the former I have a great loss.”
.     ............................Follow on the blog.

Well there is a little more to this story, they actually acquired the diamonds in unscrupulous means, and had it shipped to England inside a horse.  This fact was quite well known, and the Pitt Diamond actually ended up in the private collection of  one of my European cousins. In 1674, Pitt went to India with the East India Company, and soon began trading for himself as an 'interloper' in defiance of the East India Company's legal monopoly on Indian trade. Upon his return to England, he was fined £400 for his actions, although by that time he was already very wealthy and could easily afford the fine

Pitt is best known for his purchase of a 410 carat (82 g) uncut diamond acquired from an Indian merchant named Jamchand in Madras in 1701. The merchant had purchased the diamond from an English sea captain, who had, in fact, stolen the diamond from a servant of Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. According to another version, the servant found the diamond in one of the Golkonda mines on the Krishna River and had concealed it inside a large wound in his leg, which he had suffered as he fled the Siege of Golconda.

Pitt claimed he acquired the diamond from the eminent Indian diamond merchant Jamchund for 48,000 pagodas in the same year, so it is sometimes also known as the Pitt Diamond. He dispatched the stone to London hidden in the heel of his son Robert's shoe aboard the East Indiaman Loyal Cooke, which left Madras on 9 October 1702. It was later cut in London by the diamond cutter Harris, between 1704 and 1706. The cutting took two years and cost about £5,000
Rumours circulated that Pitt had fraudulently acquired the diamond, leading satirist Alexander Pope to pen the following lines in his Moral Essays

"Asleep and naked as an INDIAN lay
An honest factor stole a gem away;
He pledged it to the Knight, the Knight had wit,

So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit."

There is a great deal more to be told about the diamond, all neatly typed in one of my manuscript!  

The Knapp Family

Sythene Knapp was the daughter of

5GG  Edward Knapp 1763 - 1821  and Esther Skell 1776 - 1853   

Edward Knapp's headstone in the Galena Cemetery in Galena, Delaware County, Ohio. Revolutionary War Soldier Find A Grave Memorial

Edward was the son of

6GG Daniel W Knapp 1741 - 1778 and Hannah Lyon  1744 - 1807

Daniel was the son of

7GG  Daniel Knapp 1696 - 1772 and Sarah Wilde 1709 - 1797

Daniel was the son of

8GG  John Knapp 1661 - 1733 and Sarah Parke 1666 - 1727

John was the son of

9GG John Knapp 1622 - 1696 . and Sarah Young 1623 - 1696

John was the son of

10GG  William Knapp 1581 - 1658 and Judith Tue 1589 - 1651 Her relatives lived Culworth Northampton, and were Yoemen.  They married in 1606 in Northampton.

Judith Tue, was most probably Judith Tey/Tew, and the daughter of

11GG  John Tew 1540 - 1605 and Ciseley Browne  1553 - 1605.  This John Tew was a Yoeman.

John Tew was the son of

12GG William Tey/Teu/Tew 1510 - 1553 and Godith Throckmorton 1518 - 1553

11GU John Tey had a brother Nicholas Tew 1546 - 1601  who married Alice Pimes 1548 - 1599

Their son, who was John Tew's nephew was Henry Tew.  He married Eleanor Mee.

His son Richard and his wife Mary and family travelled to America to Portsmouth.

1640. Richard Tew came to New England this year; his daughter Seaborn, receiving her name from the fact of her birth on the voyage. In subsequent years, he became a Quaker; and upon the Friends' Records of Portsmouth, are recorded his children's births.

Mary was the sister of Lieutenant William Clarke who also was an American pioneer.  He arrived in Virginia in 1635.

While the history of the Knapp family may not be traced as far as some lineages, in 1735 Robert Knapp Esq married Miss Penford, an heiress of a 700l per year estate!

In 1911 Oswald Greenwaye Knapp, M.A. wrote a book "A History of the Chief English Families bearing the Name of Knapp". However the major part of this chapter has been based on research by Paul White, also wills and the published family pedigrees prepared in the 16th and 17th Centuries at the Herald's "Visitations".

It may also be noted that Thomas Knappe (born c.1350), merchant selling wool and cloth abroad in France and Spain, was Bailiff at Bristol (1377), Member of Parliament (1386), Mayor of Bristol (1388/92/97, 1400/04), suggesting a slight possibility that the Suffolk Knapp family originated as merchants in Bristol.

Thomas Knappe, Burgess of Bristol, died in 1404 and his will included references to his brother William, his late wife Avice/Agnes, and servant Avice Knappe ("50 pounds for her marriage"). He also had a daughter Margery, who married John Droyes (Mayor of Bristol, 1406/14). It would appear therefore that Thomas had no male issue, but that this brother William probably had at least one child, a daughter Avice.

There are some interesting stories that can be found relating to the Knapp family.

The first settlers to America were William Knapp and his wife Judith Tue.

William Knapp was the son of

11GG  Thomas Knapp 1545 - 1613  and Alice Howlett 1550 - 1595

Thomas Knapp was the son of 

12GG  William Knappe 1480 - 1555 and Jyllian Childs 1472 - 1555 She married William Aldham.

Alice Howlett was the daughter of

12GG   Nicholas Howatt 1514 - 1556 and Alice Barnes 1515

Nicholas Howatt was the son of

13GG  William Howatt  1475 - 1548  and his wife Agnes Deynes 1480 - 1548

William Knappe was the son of

13GG Richard Knapp  c 1450 and Christian Browne c 1450

But as with nearly every story associated with the settling of America, there are associations back to the Merchants Guild, and the Lord Mayors of London.

This time, the link is to Sir Richard Saltonstall.

William Knapp, (whose name was a derivative of the Teutonic name Knappe and often spelled Knoppe or Knop), was born in Bures, Suffolk, England and baptized in St. Mary's Church on New Years Day, 1581.  He was a carpenter - a practical trade which carried him through many of the crises of his life.  Some researchers believe his parents were Thomas Knapp and Alice Howlat, while others say they were John Knapp and Martha Blosse. (Fortunately, neither option has an impact on this story).

On January 11, 1607, 27 year old William married 18 year old Judith Tue, of Wormingford, Essex, England (a small town only 3.5 miles down the road). The young couple often moved between Bures and Wormingford after their marriage - with three of their children being born in one of the towns and four in the other.

But that pattern changed drastically in 1629 when they made the decision to leave their families, friends and home behind with no expectation of ever seeing them again.  It might have been driven by the recognition that their debts had grown too large and could never be repaid (just an assumption on my part).  Perhaps they simply craved adventure or, if they were Puritans, were the victims of religious intolerance.

Like many who were anxious to leave the “old country” at that time,  the Knapps could not have made the trip if William hadn't signed an indenture contract with Sir Richard Saltonstall.  In the contract, he pledged his life and services for the next seven to ten years to Sir Richard who would, in return, pay for the family's shipboard travel and shelter after they reached their destination. 

Sir Richard Saltonstall (1521–1601) was an English politician and Lord Mayor of London.

Richard Saltonstall was descended from Robert de Saltonstall who held lands in Warley, near Halifax, Yorkshire in 1274. He was the son of Gilbert Saltonstall, a cloth merchant of Halifax, who owned lands in Hipperholme. For a time, Richard lived in the Netherlands, where he was a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London; by 1585, he had become the director of the company.
He was also affiliated with the Muscovy Company, the Levant Company, and the English East India Company. Richard had a long political career serving the city of London. He was a member of the city council by 1583, a Member of Parliament in 1586, and an alderman by 1588. He served as Sheriff of the City of London for 1589 and was elected Lord Mayor of London for 1597. He served as master of the Skinners Company in 1589, 1593, 1595–6, and 1599–1600.

He was knighted in 1598. Sir Richard's mansions were at "Mynchenlane," London, Moorhall in Hertfordshire, and South Ockendon near Romford in Essex.

He married Susannah Poyntz, only daughter of Thomas Poyntz, Esq. of South Ockendon; together they had seven sons and nine daughters (in addition to at least one illegitimate daughter fathered by Richard). He was the uncle of New England colonist Sir Richard Saltonstall, father-in-law of Richard Wyche (a director of the English East India Company) and Sir Thomas Myddelton (a later Lord Mayor of London), and grandfather of Sir Peter Wyche (Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire), Nathaniel Wyche (president of the English East India Company) and Sir Thomas Myddelton (a general in the English Civil War

From a Blog

Sir Richard was a wealthy landowner and signer of the original charter establishing a new territory named Massachusetts.  Sometime later, he invested much of his fortune in the Massachusetts Bay Company, with the expectation that he and his family would join the “Great Migration” of Puritans seeking freedom to practice their religion without persecution.  

 Perhaps he didn't fully realize that Sir Richard, with debts of his own, had no intention of letting any of his indentured servants or other debtors off the hook (especially William with whom he seemed to have had some problems).  As a result, he reached across the sea and successfully petitioned the Massachusetts “Court of Assistants” to collect all debts owed him.  One of the debtors was William, and the Court ruled that any money he or his sons earned was to be halved - with half going to William and the other half sent to Sir Richard until the debt was fully satisfied.

Despite losing that battle, William was still in better financial shape than he had ever been before - at least for awhile.  As one of the first settlers of Watertown, he had been granted several plots of land and even a 93 acre farm. However, old/bad habits die hard and there are definite signs that William (also known as “Ould Knop or “Father Knop”) continued to get himself into trouble.

However, because of his wife's serious illness,  he couldn't put all his plans into motion at that time, but that didn't stop him from getting his estate in order.  All his preparation paid off!  Shortly after his wife died, he was in a position to invest in and join “The Winthrop Fleet of 1630”.  This fleet of  11 ships included the barque, Arabella, which was to serve as the flagship on which both Richard's and William's families sailed to America.

Some historians assert that Judith Tue Knapp had died before her family left for England. However, most sources agree that not only was Judith alive, but she joined her husband and 7 children on the ship and actually lived for several more years. 

The ships were packed with approximately 700 passengers plus ship crews and livestock.  Obviously, there was little if any housing on the ships, so temporary shelters had to be built on deck to protect the women and children during the 3,000 mile journey. All the plans finally came together and on August 26, 1629, they set sail from Yarmouth, England and didn't reach Salem, Massachusetts until June 12, 1630.

 http://legendsofthefamily.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/william-knapp-fascinating-rascal.html

The Tew Family

The town of Portsmouth was established in 1638, following a declaration signed by the residents regarding their beliefs.  It was called the Portsmouth Charter.

The Portsmouth Compact was a document signed on March 7, 1638 that established the settlement of Portsmouth, which is now a town in the state of Rhode Island. It was the first document in American history that severed both political and religious ties with England.

The document was written and signed in Boston by a group of men who followed Anne Hutchinson, a banished Christian dissident from Massachusetts, seeking religious freedom apart from the governmental oversight of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by moving to Aquidneck Island to set up a new colony.

The purpose of the Portsmouth Compact was to set up a new, independent colony that was Christian in character but non-sectarian in governance. It has been called "the first instrument for governing as a true democracy.

We, whose names are underwritten, do hereby solemnly in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick and, as He shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to all those perfect and absolute laws of His given in His Holy Word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby."

William Coddington, John Clarke, William Hutchinson, Jr., John Coggeshall,  Willam Aspinwall, Samuel Wilbore,   John Porter, John Sanford, Edward Hutchinson Jr., Thomas Savage, William Dyre, William Freeborne,      Philip Shearman,  John Walker,  Richard Cardner, William Baulston, Edward Hutchinson Sr., Henry Bull, Randall Holden, Thomas Clarke, John Johnson,  William Hall,  John Brightman, Esq.

It was to Portsmouth that Richard Tew and his wife Mary Clarke sailed in 1640.  She gave birth to a daughter on the high seas, and named the child Seaborn Tew.

Among their children were two sons.

·        Thomas Tew  1649 - 1695

·        Henry Tew 1654 - 1718

Never could the lives of two brothers be so vastly apart.

Henry Tew went on to become a Deputy Governor of Rhode Island. 

Henry Tew (1654 - 26 Apr 1718)  was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was the son of Richard and Mary (Clarke) Tew who arrived in New England in 1640, and the grandson of Henry Tew of Maidford, Northamptonshire, England.^[1] From 1680 to 1698 he served continuously as Deputy from Newport, and during most of the years from 1703 to 1712 he served as Assistant. He was on many committees during his life, one of the later ones being to advise Governor Cranston on matters concerning the expedition against Canada.

 In 1714 he succeeded the late Walter Clarke as Deputy Governor, serving for a single year. Tew wrote his will on 20 April 1718, dying six days later.  He was married twice, having nine children by his first wife, and nine by his second. He and both wives are buried in a family burial ground half a mile north of Sachuest Beach, in Middletown, Rhode Island. There is some evidence that Tew was the brother of the privateer and pirate, Thomas Tew

He was a prominent man in the affairs of Rhode Island, and succeeded William Clarke as Deputy Governor of the Colony. He was a man of wealth and influence and owned a large tract of real estate, cattle, sheep, and was also a slave owner.

No doubt Henry Tew was a very respected and prominent member of the community.

Meanwhile his brother Thomas became a Pirate!

Thomas Tew (1649 – September 1695), also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th-century English privateer-turned-pirate. He embarked on two major piratical voyages and met a bloody death on the second journey, and he pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Many other famous pirates followed in his path, including Henry Avery and William Kidd.

Much of what is known about Tew is derived from Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, which is a mixture of fact and fiction. When reading about Thomas Tew, it is important to be able to distinguish between truth and story. Captain Johnson said, "Tew, in Point of Gallantry, was inferior to none."

It is frequently written that Tew had family in Rhode Island dating back to 1640, but it is not known where he may have been born. He may have been born in New England. One hypothesis is that he was born in Maidford, Northamptonshire, England before emigrating to the colonies as a child with his family, although there is only a little circumstantial evidence for this. He lived at one time in Newport, Rhode Island. Tew is reported as being married with two daughters. According to one source, his wife and children all greatly enjoyed the New York City social scene after Tew struck it rich, but there is no supporting evidence elsewhere for this.

In 1691, Tew moved to Bermuda. There is evidence that he was already reputed as a pirate at that time, but no modern historian has determined whether this reputation was earned or not. He may simply have engaged in privateering against French and Spanish ships.

He was in close relations with fellow pirate Captain Richard Want who was his closest ally; Want became Tew's first mate on his first pirate cruise, and sailed his own ship Dolphin alongside Tew's Amity on the second.

First pirate cruise

In 1692, Thomas Tew obtained a letter of marque from the Governor of Bermuda. Various Bermudian backers provided him with a vessel: the seventy-ton sloop Amity, armed with eight guns and crewed by forty-six officers and men. He and another captain obtained a privateer's commission from the lieutenant governor of Bermuda to destroy a French factory off the coast of West Africa.
 Thus equipped, Tew set sail in December, ostensibly to serve as a privateer against French holdings in The Gambia. He set out alongside buccaneer, privateer, and pirate George Dew aboard the sloop Amy; shortly out of port they were separated in a storm. Dew's dismasted ship limped alone to Saldanha Bay in South Africa, where he was arrested by the Dutch. Not long out of Bermuda, Tew announced his intention of turning to piracy, asking the crew for their support since he could not enforce the illegal scheme without their consent. Tew's crew reportedly answered with the shout, "A gold chain or a wooden leg, we'll stand with you!" The newly minted pirates proceeded to elect a quartermaster, a common pirate practice to balance the captain's power.

Tew reached the Red Sea and ran down a large Ghanjah dhow en route from India to the Ottoman Empire, sometime in late 1693. Despite its enormous garrison of 300 soldiers the Indian dhow surrendered without serious resistance, inflicting no casualties on the assailants. Tew's pirates helped themselves to the ship’s rich treasure, worth £100,000 in gold and silver alone, not counting the value of the ivory, spices, gemstones, and silk taken. Tew's 45 men afterward shared out between £1,200 and £3,000 per man, and Tew himself claimed about £8,000.

Tew urged his filibusters to hunt down and rob the other ships in the Indian convoy, but yielded to the opposition of the quartermaster. He set course back to the Cape of Good Hope, stopping at Adam Baldridge's pirate settlement at St. Mary's on Madagascar to careen.
Tew reached Newport in April 1694. Benjamin Fletcher, royal governor of Province of New York, became good friends with Tew and his family. Tew eventually paid off the owners of the Amity, who recouped fourteen times the value of the vessel.

Second pirate cruise

In November 1694, Tew bought a new letter of marque from Fletcher and set out for another pirate cruise. His crew numbered thirty to forty men at departure this time.  John Ireland, who served as navigator on Tew's Amity during their second cruise, claimed after his own capture that both he and Tew had been forced to serve by the sloop's mutinous crew. According to his deposition, the crew threatened the pair during what would have been a trip from New York to Boston to prepare for privateering against the French. However, by the time he reached Madagascar, Tew apparently increased his force to 50 or 60 men.

Arriving at the Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea in August 1695, Tew found several other pirates hoping to duplicate his prior success, including Henry Avery in the powerfully armed warship Fancy as well as fellow Rhode Island pirate captains Joseph Faro and Thomas Wake, plus William May and Richard Want. Tew and the other pirate captains decided to sail in concert.

In September 1695, a 25-ship Mughal convoy approached the Mandab Strait, slipping past the pirates during the night. Tew and his fellow pirates pursued. The Amity overtook one of the Mughal ships, believed to be the Fateh Muhammed, and attacked it.

Tew was killed in this battle, reportedly disemboweled by a cannon shot. Demoralized, Tew's crew surrendered immediately, though they were freed later when Avery’s Fancy captured the Fateh Muhammed. Minus Tew, the Amity under John Ireland returned to Baldridge's settlement to refit; they later swapped the Amity for Richard Glover's Charming Mary and plundered ships in the Indian Ocean under captain Richard Bobbington, but a number of them were captured soon after.
The final resting place of Tew's remains is unknown, but he is said to be the father of Ratsimilaho, a man who created a kingdom on the east coast of Madagascar. In addition, it has been claimed that Tew was one of the named founders of the mysterious pirate colony of Libertatia.

Captain William Kidd, before he himself allegedly turned pirate, was commissioned by King William III to hunt down several named pirates, Thomas Tew and John Ireland among them. Unknown to either Kidd or the King, Tew was already dead when the commission was issued.

There would be those who would think that no family could possibly consist of such a vast and diverse range of people.  Perhaps they are quite correct.

There are many in this family, for whom records are scant.  There are many online trees.,compiled from previous researchers, and much of that has been totally incorrect.

One important point to remember is in the period prior to the 17th century, birth and death records in England, were kept in Rolls.  Therefore the births and deaths in those early days, around the 1500s, can often be no more than a generational estimate. 

One's station in life, depended upon the amount of researchable information.

There was a hierarchy,  Royalty, Royal Courts, Clergy, Merchants - Lord Mayors, Sheriffs and Aldermen, and then Explorers and Adventurers, Military and Yoemen.  The poor lowly serf, peasant, and farm worker, were often forgotten among the historical ledgers of that time, except for baptismal records.  Those were kept by the Parish Priests.

But, that is the fantastic thing about resourcing family history, it is based on researchable facts!

John Clarke was the fifth of seven known children born to Thomas and Rose Clarke, all born or baptized at Westhorpe, Suffolk, England. Margaret was the oldest child, born about 1601, and next was Carew, baptized 17 February 1602/3, followed by Thomas, baptized 31 March 1605. Mary was next, baptized 26 July 1607, then the subject John was baptized 8 October 1609, next was William baptized 11 February 1611   who married Katherine Bunce, and the youngest, Joseph, was baptized on 16 December 1618. Margaret married Nicholas Wyeth and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mary married John Peckham, and came to Newport, Rhode Island with her husband and four brothers, Carew, Thomas, John, and Joseph.

John Clarke was married three times, his first wife being Elizabeth Harris, the daughter of John Harris who was lord of the manor of Westlingworth in Bedfordshire. This was the wife who was with him while he was an agent in England, and she died in Newport a few years before Clarke. Following her death he was married on 1 February 1671 to Jane, the widow of Nicholas Fletcher, but she died the following year on 19 April 1672. Clarke had a daughter with Jane, born 14 February 1672 and dying on 18 May 1673.
Clarke's third wife was Sarah, the widow of Nicholas Davis, with whom Clarke had had a long association. Davis, like Clarke, had been an early settler of Aquidneck Island in 1639, but became a merchant and moved to Hyannis in the Plymouth Colony. Davis had many business dealings in Massachusetts, but when he became a Quaker, he was imprisoned and banished from there in 1659, and later lived in Newport. He transported Quaker founder George Fox from Long Island to Newport in 1672, during Fox's visit to the American colonies. Soon thereafter Davis drowned, and within a year and a half his widow married Clarke.^[  Sarah survived Clarke, and died sometime about 1692.
 She had children who were remembered in her husband's will.
Other than the daughter with his second wife, Clarke had no known children, and did not leave descendants

Her brother was Lieutenant William Clarke.

The following is research which has been done by a Researcher in the Bures Area.

Why did so many local families emigrate from around out local area to America ?
In 1630, a large group of Puritans decided to emigrate to the Americas, and they were known as part of the Winthrop Fleet
Herbert Pelham snr of Ferriers Bures, finding himself increasingly dissatisfied with the High Church proclivities of the government decided to emigrate. He offered to give passage to any villagers who wished to join him.
In 1630 Pelham and the three families embarked in the James Winthrop Fleet, landing three months later in Salem, Massachusetts.
Herbert Pelham and Thomas Waldegrave, were among the "Adventurers," or founding investors, of the Massachusetts Bay Company.
On the Flagship "Arabella" were the Knapp/Knopp and Parke family:
It is confusingthat records indicate there arfe two William Knapps/Knopps

(1) There is William Knopp 1555-1640

and also William Knopp 1580-1658, son of Thomas Knopp and Alice Howlett who married Judith Tue and subsequently Priscilla Akers.
William Knopp/Knapp was baptized on January 1, 1580 at Bures St. Mary, Suffolk, England.
On January 11, 1607 at Wormingford, Essex he married Judith Tue. (b 1580 d 1657)
William and Judith immigrated from Bures St. Mary to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1630, with their seven children on the Winthrop Fleet.
Documents record William as "Carpenter"

Elizabeth Knopp was christened on 10 July 1608 in Wormingford, Essex, England.
She never emigrated but stayed In Bures and subsequentkly died on 23 February 1662 in Bures St. Mary.
Elizabeth married John Buttery and had one child
William Knopp 1610/1-1676 Born in Wormingford, Essex, England on Feb 1611 to William Knapp and Judith Tue.
William married Mary. He passed away on 25 Sep 1676 in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA.
Mary Knopp 1613-1658 Born in Wormingford, England on 1612 to William Knapp and Judith Tue.
Mary married Thomas Smith of Watertown. She passed away on 1658 in Watertown, Massachusetts

Ann Knopp 1618-1657 Born in Wormingford, Essex, England on Dec 1618 to William Knapp and Judith Tue.
Ann Knopp married John Philbrick (b1616) . She passed away on 20 Oct 1657 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA

John Knopp 1623-1696 Born in Wormingford, Essex, England on Jan 1623 to William Knapp and Judith Tue.
John married Sarah Young. He passed away on 9 Apr 1696 in Middlesex, Massachusetts



James Knopp 1631-1695 Born in St Marys Bures, Suffolk, England on 1631 to William Knapp and Judith Tue
James married Elizabeth Warren and had a child. He passed away on 1695 in Groton, Massachuusetts
Judith Knopp 1629-1683 Born in Bures St Mary, England on 1629 to William Knapp and Judith Tue
Judith married Nicholas Cady and had 7 children. She passed away on 1683 in Massachusetts, USA

William married for the second time to Priscilla Akers, (b1592) on 20th June 1651 in Watertown Mass
Priscila was the widow of Thomas Akers/Acres and bore no children


Judith died 1651 in Watertown, Mass
William d. 30th Aug 1659, Watertown, MA
Priscila D 1634 in Watertown. MA
Then we have Nicholas Knapp (abt 1606 - 1670).
His place of birth, if you follow the research on the internet, ranges from Wells in Norfolk, Ipswich, Bures and Mount Bures.
Some sites advocate he married Elinor both coming from Wells, this is totally fictious.
We know for a fact, Nicholas married Elinor Lockwood, from Coombs, Suffolk (b1611 - d1658), they were both recorded as Passengers on the Withrop Fleet, 1630.
Also on the same Fleet of vessels that left England, was Elinors father, wife and children who were recorded as passengers
Namely:-Lockwood, Edmond, Lockwood Elizabeth, and Lockwood Robert ( possibly more children)
Once settled in Watertown, Nicholas and Elinor had nine children:
Jonathan Knapp (1631 - 1631
Timothy Knapp (1632 -
Joshua Knapp (1635 - 1684
Caleb Knapp (1636 - 1675
Sarah Knapp Disborough (1638 -
Ruth Knapp Ferris (1640 -
Hannah Knapp (1642 -
Moses Knapp (1645 -
Lydia Knapp (1647 -
He is recorded by some ill informed researchers to be a Medicine Man from Bures
This ridiculous assumption may well stem from this report:-
Knapp is fyned 5 pounds for taking upon him to cure the scurvy by a water of noe worth nor value which he solde att a very deare rate, to be imprisoned till hee pay his ffine or give secuitye it, orelse be whipped and shall be liable to any mans ac’cn of whome hee hath receaved money for the s’d water. Mr. Will’m Pelham and Mr. Edward Lockewood both promised to pay the court the sum of five pounds for Nich. Knapp before the first court of May next.
Massachusetts Bay Company Records 1630-31

Others maintain he was a Weaver, which holds more credit but unsubstantiated
It seems that he may well have been born in Bures/Mount Bures as the report states his fine was part paid by William Pelham.
William Pelham`s grandfather was Herbert Pelham of Ferriers
William Pelham was the person responsible for Nicholas Knapp who belonged to his company, and that Mr. Edmund Lockwood was his Deputy, thus the reasons for paying the fine.

Now we find Nicholas being employed by William Pelham
Robert Parke, b June 1580 in Bures, d1644 Roxberry Conneticut
Martha Parke (nee Chaplin) b1855 Semer, Suffolk and married Robert 1601

Children
1. William Park, b.1607, Semer, Suffolk, d.1685, Roxbury, Suffolk CO, MA (Age ~ 81 years)

2. Samuel Park, b. Between 1606 and 1608, Bures, d.unknown

3. Ann Park, b. Between 1610 and 1612, Bures, Suffolk,, d.1641 (Age ~ 31 years)

4. Thomas Park, b.1615, Bures, Suffolk, d.1709, Preston, New London CO, (Age ~ 94 years)
Robert Parke, wife Martha, son Thomas and 3 more children arrived in America with the (Arabella) Winthrop fleet March 29, 1630. Robert returned to England the same year, carrying an order by Governor Winthrop to his son John, in England, to "pay money which is in my possession" and may be the earliest bill of exchange in America. It is not known just when Robert returned from England, but on April 9, 1640, he was made freeman at Wethersfield, Connecticut.


Passenger List of the Arabella
(1)Parke, Robert Probably from Bures, co. Suffolk, or vicinity. Born about 1585 .
May be related to Edward Parke who called Winthrop 'a cousin'

(2) Parke, Martha (Chaplin) Wife of Robert
(3)Parke, Thomas Son of Robert.
(4)Parke, _____ Child of Robert
(5)Parke, _____ Child of Robert
(5)Parke, _____ Child of Robert
Another of the religious Pilgrims on the Mayflower were Edward Winslow married to Susanna (White) Winslow.
Although Edward & Susanna were not residents of Bures (but Droitwich) when they emigrated, they had a close connection with the Pelham family.
Whilst in America they had a son Josiah, b 1629 in Plymouth MA.
Josiah Winslow was subsequently Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1673 until his death in 1680.
Josiah Winslow travelled back to the UK abt 1651 and eventually married Penelope Pelham of Ferriers, during 1657 in London, England.

In 1649, the Pelhams returned to England.
In London in 1651, Penelope married Josiah Winslow (the son of Mayflower passengers Susanna White and Edward Winslow,a resident of Plymouth Colony,'
Penelope Pelham was born and baptised in Bures in 1633, the daughter of Herbert Pelham and Jemima Waldegrave of Smallbridge Hall. 

Jemima was the daughter of Thomas Waldegrave and Margaret Holmstead from Smallbridge.
Herbert married Jemima on October 13, 1626 in London, Middlesex, England

Herbert Pelham "agreed to invest in the Winthrop project with his father-in-law Thomas Waldegrave.
So he decided to emigrate to the Americas with Jemima and his daughter Penelope.
Penelope Pelham (1630-1703) would gave only been 9 yrs at this time
The marriage was short lived, as Jemima died either during the voyage or shortly afterwards in 1639

It seem within a few months (before 1640)on arriving in New England, Herbert married Elizabeth Bosville,
Herbert Pelham, a lawyer and aristocrat, became the first treasurer of Harvard College in 1643.

In one of Herbert`s letters to John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay, he called Edward Winslow 'a cosen.
This indicates that both the Pelham (Bures) and Winslow families were known to each other.

In 1646, the Pelhams returned to England, without Penelope.

Josiah Winslow returned to England in 1651 and while in England, married Penelope Pelham from Bures.
Josiah Winslow (was the son of Mayflower passengers Susanna White and Edward Winslow)
Penelope and Josiah then returned to New England where she died in 1703.
Josiah became Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1673 to 1680
Josiah and Penelope children were:
Elizabeth Winslow b1664 Plymouth, Massachusetts
Edward Winslow b1667. Plymouth, Massachusetts
Isaac Winslow b 1670 Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts
(possibly more)

Here we have other emigrates with Bures connections who sailed on the vessel "Arabella"
FRENCH Family from Assington

(Included as Assington is our adjacent Parish)

Thomas French, Sr., christened 11 Oct 1584 at Bures St. Mary, Suffolk County, a son of Jacob, m. Susan French (nee Riddlesdale) 5 Sep 1608 in Assington.
Both Thomas and Susan emigrated in 1635 to Ipswich.
Thomas d. 5 Nov 1639 in Ipswich, MA

Ref:-http://www.frenchfamilyassoc.com/FFA/CHARTSWEB/ChartE001.htm

Additional children are listed as passengers on the Winthrop Fleet
No embarkation dates found, so they may not have all travelled together.


Thomas French Jnr immigrant to Boston and then Ipswich, Massachusetts, was baptized 27 November 1608, at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington, died at Ipswich MA 8 August 1680
Married Mary Scudamore, Died May 6, 1681 in Ipswich, Mass

Alice French was baptized 9 April 1610, at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington. Died June 26, 1666 in Topsfield,Mass
Married Thomas Howlett b1605 Assington. Died December 22, 1677 in Topsfield, Mass

Dorcas French was baptized 31 July 1614 at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington. December 30, 1697 in Roxbury, Mass
Married Christopher Peake. Died May 23, 1666 in Roxbury, Mass

Susan French was baptized 22 April 1616 at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington. Died April 25, 1616 in Assington,

Anne French was baptized 15 March 1617 [1617/18] at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington. Died March 15, 1618 in Assington,

Margaret French was baptized 12 March 1619 [1619/20] at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington. Died Nov 1635 Ipswich, Suffolk, Mass.

John French was baptized 26 May 1622 at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington, Married Freedom Kingsley.
He was granted administration of his mother's estate in 1658
Died February 1, 1697 in Northampton, Mass

Mary French was baptized 6 Jan 1624 [1624/5] at St. Edmund's Parish in Assington. Died February 1, 1696 in Northampton, Mass
Married George Smith. Died March 30, 1675 in Ipswich, Mass
Another local family emigrated circa 1634, so they wouldn`t have been part of the Winthrop Fleet

The following name has many derivations:-fffilbrick/Filbrick/Filbrig/Felbrigge/and Philbrick

Thomas Fylbrigg, b.circa 1540 Bures St Mary, Died Bures 1633, aged approx 93 years
Marriage 1574 at Bures St Mary to Elizabeth Philbrick

Elizabeth Philbrick b. 1554, Bures St Mary. d. 24 Apr 1619, Bures St Mary

The couple had several children which included a son Thomas:-
Thomas Philbrick was baptized on 23 September 1584 in Bures St. Mary
Thomas Philbrick married Elizabeth Knopp,(b1594) daughter of William Knopp and Elizabeth Reade, on 4 June 1615 in Bures,
William Knopp born possibly Bures and buried Bures 1627. Elizabeth b Bures 1563 and d Bures1593
This William is not the William who emigrated in 1630
Thomas and Elizabeth more than likely emigrated around 1634, after his father Thomas passed away in 1632/33, as Thomas the son was one of the lucky ones to receive an allotment of land in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635.


This date can also be justified, as the records show his daughter Martha was baptized in September, 1631, in Bures St Mary and Thomas was fined in Court on Oct. 12, 1631, for converting a tenement into multiple cottages.
Hannah PHILBRICK-1625 -1699
John PHILBRICK- 1616 -1657 married Ann Knapp ( 1618 - 1657) . John Died October 20, 1657 in Hampton, New hamps
James PHILBRICK 1619 -1674 married Anne Roberts
Mary PHILBRICK-1662 -1702
Elizabeth PHILBRICK-1621 -1676/77
Thomas PHILBRICK- , Jr. Born about 1623. He married Ann Knapp (1632-1669 daughter of William Knapp Jnr. Died November 24, 1700 in Hampton, New Hamps
Margaret PHILBRICK , was baptized on 30 November 1628 in Bures St. Mary, Suffolk,
Martha PHILBRICK- . Born on 1631 at Bures. She married (1) John Cass and then (2) William Lyon, of Rowley, Massachusetts, on 30 November 1676

Henry Loker Snr was baptized in Bures St Mary, Suffolk on 7 Feb 1576/7.

Henry married Elizabeth (French) in 1605, at age 24 at Bures
Elizabeth b1580 in Assington

Henry died in Feb 1630/1; aged 54. Buried on 25 Feb 1630/1 in Bures St Mary, Suffolk. Occupation: glover.

They had two children born in Bures with two others in MA
1. Henry Loker. Born in prob. by 1610 in prob. Bures St. Mary, Eng. Henry died in Sudbury, MA on 14 Oct 1688; he was 78
2. John Loker. Born in prob. Bures St. Mary, Eng. John died on 18 Jun 1653 in Sudbury, MA
3 born MA
4 born MA

Consequently Elizabeth Loker emigrated with her two sons, Henry and John.
Elizabeth passed away in March 1648, at age 67 in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

NOTES:-
Records indicate that for some time, Henry used his Mothers name Riddisdale before changing it to Loker
Henry Riddlesdale, alias Loker, married Elizabeth (not French). There is no evidence that Elizabeth, wife of Henry Loker, was born a French. 

Ref:- https://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Loker/6000000013226913219

 We do know that both the Knapp family and the Philbrick family were both Puritans and that the Knapp family crossed the Atlantic in 1630.

The "Arbella" was the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet. John Winthrop,( born at Groton)the leading Puritan leader of the Massachusetts Bay Company, sailed on board the "Arbella" when she and three (Ambrose, Hopewell, Talbot) other ships sailed from Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight on April 8, 1630.

On May 1630, a further seven ships sailed from the Isle of Wight:: Charles, Jewel, Mayflower, Success, Trial, Whale, William and Francis.  In total, the eleven ships were carrying some seven hundred passengers.

COPYRIGHT©2001> Coral Engineering, Bures

What fantastic information, and perhaps the beginning of the French Family to America

The Richardson Family

It is satisfying to be able to trace the ancestors to their homes in England, and to learn some of the background, and their lives.  

6GU  Ezekeil Richardson* was the son of Thomas Richardson 1565 - 1633 and Katherine Duxford 1569 - 1631.  They were from West Mill in Herefordshire.  

*There is no Birth or Marriage record for Ezekeil, which indicates, either transcription error, or he decided to change his name.  He is purported to be the eldest son of Thomas Richardson.  Was he Christened as John and later changed his name to a more fitting Religious name?

The eldest son of Thomas Richardson is John born 1596, with a baptismal record, but no death record. 

Hannah Mason was the daughter of Hugh Mason 1605 - 1678 and Hester Wells 1611 -1692

6GU  Hugh Mason was recorded as Captain Hugh Mason at his death in 1678. He was a tanner and born in

He was appointed as Captain of a Foot Company to be raised in this jurisdiction to be raised as volunteers into reducing the Dutch at the Manhatoes unto the obedience of his Majesty. He also was Lieutenant of the Waterton Train Band.  See following

Hugh Mason was the son of

7GUDaniel Mason and Dorothy Hubbard.

Unravelling the correct names and persons in this family has been so involved, and probably impossible, had my tree not contained many of the ancestors of Dorothy.

She is listed in most records as Dorothy Hobart.  Only problem she was never born nor married.  There was however one clue, a Hubert Hobart had gone to America.  My assumption was that he must have been some sort of relation, and he was.  They were in fact the children of

8GU Sir Thomas Hubbarde, of Blickling Hall and Helen Harrys/Audrey Hare.

One wonders then how Hobart can be derived from Hubbarde.  The secret lies in the transcription of Middle English.  But more importantly her mother was Helen Harrys.  Past researchers decided her name was Helen Winsofor, or Helen Winsofor Hare.  But again there was no birth record for anyone called Winsofor.   Where did that arise from?  From someone's intrepretation of the marriage written in 1569.

 Her father was William Harrys, or Hare.  How can one get Hare from Harrys?  Again transcription.  Very often in the past a name was never written in full.  In modern day, the name is Harris.  But then it was also known as Herries.

There is a saying in Family History Research, of finding "brick walls", and it is most gratifying when you are able to "break through".  Solving the Winsfor/Hare/Harrys/Harris/Hubbarde/Hubbard/Hobart, was one of those moments.  So much history would not be known except for a marriage to a Joan Percy.

8GU Sir Thomas Hubbarde was born in 1531 in Snoring Magna, in Norfolk.  He married Helena in 1569.     (Helena has been researched as Audrey Hare)

The children were

1.     1.        Sir Henry Hubbarde               1563 - 1625      m  Dorothy Bell  1572 - 1641  7GU
2.      Helen Hubbard   (Ellen)             1570 - 1576
3.      Dorothy Hubbard                      1570 - 1605       m  Daniel Mason   7GG
4.      Thomas Hubbard                      1571 - 1576
5.      Andrew Hubbard                      1572 - 1598
6.      Hon Edmund Hubbard              1573 - 1646      m Margaret Dewey m Sarah Lynford

7GU  Sir Henry Hubbarde/Hobart

Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet SL (c. 1560 – 29 December 1625), of Blickling Hall, was an English politician who succeeded Sir Edward Coke to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. The son of Thomas Hobart and Audrey Hare, and great-grandson of Sir James Hobart of Monks Eleigh, Suffolk, who served as Attorney General during the reign of King Henry VII. He would further this lineal occupation and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 10 August 1575, and was later called to the Bar in 1584, and subsequently became governor of Lincoln's Inn in 1591.

Between 1588 and 1589, Hobart was Member of Parliament (MP) for St Ives, for Great Yarmouth in 1597 and 1601, and for Norwich from 1604 to 1611. He was Steward of Norwich in 1595, made Serjeant from 1603 to 1606, and later served as Attorney for the Court of Wards in 1605 and Attorney General for England and Wales between 1606 and 1613 while Bacon was Solicitor-General. While in that post, they argued Calvin's Case, by which the Rights of Englishmen were bestowed on the postnati Scots.

 From 1613 to 1625, his abilities were further recognized and he was elevated to Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Hobart was knighted in 1603 and made Baronet, of Intwood in the County of Norfolk on 11 May 1611. He was respected for his knowledge and sophistication in matters of estate management. He successfully acquired a fair amount of Norfolk property, including the estates of Intwood in 1596 and Blickling in 1616, where he was buried on 4 January 1625.

His son

b. 19 Apr. 1593,1 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Sir Henry Hobart* of Blickling, and Dorothy, da. of Sir Robert Bell† of Beaupré Hall, Outwell, Norf.; bro. of Nathaniel*. educ. Pembroke Coll. Camb. 1608, travelled abroad (Spanish Netherlands) 1609-11; L. Inn 1612. m. (1) June 1614 (with £4,000), Philippa (d. 24 Sep. 1620), da. of Robert Sidney†, 1st earl of Leicester, 1s. d.v.p., 3da. (2 d.v.p.); (2) settlement 20 Jan. 1622 (with £800 p.a.), Frances (d. 27 Nov. 1664), da. of John Egerton, 1st earl of Bridgwater, 5s. d.v.p. 3da. (2 d.v.p.). kntd. 10 Nov. 1611;suc. fa. as 2nd bt. 1625. d. 20 Apr. 1647.
According to his chaplain, the Presbyterian John Collinges, Hobart in his younger years was ‘not patient of academical learning’; nevertheless, he probably went up to Cambridge before attending Lincoln’s Inn, interrupting his studies with a European tour for which he was granted a licence in April 1609. Though devastated by the death of his first wife and all but one of their four children, he made an advantageous second marriage to Frances Egerton in 1622.

A pious woman of strong puritan convictions, Frances reformed his character, broke his habit of swearing, and managed his affairs, reducing his debts by £6,000. Her prudence induced Hobart’s father to make him a post-nuptial settlement of £800 a year. 

Though he declined to follow his father into a legal career, Hobart fostered connections with members of the profession, and was appointed comptroller of the new serjeants-at-laws’ feast in July 1623.

At the elections for the third Jacobean Parliament, Sir Henry Hobart used his position as chancellor to Prince Charles to recommend his heir to the duchy of Cornwall borough of Beverley, Yorkshire. The corporation indicated its ‘desire to satisfy so great and noble a friend’, but warned that ‘the election consists in the voices of many’.

 Having been disappointed at Beverley, Hobart was returned for Cambridge in March 1621 at his father’s request. He was enrolled as a freeman of Cambridge on the day of his election, and admitted as an alderman ten days later. In the Commons he was appointed to one committee for a private bill, concerning Jermy’s lands in Cambridgeshire (1 May). Sir Henry again helped him to a place in the Parliament of 1624. As chancellor to Prince Charles, Hobart senior initially recommended his son to the duchy of Cornwall seat of West Looe, but in the event Hobart was accepted at the duchy borough of Lostwithiel after it rejected his brother Miles.

 Hobart was also nominated for a seat at Hertford, which the Prince’s Council hoped would be re-enfranchised, as he had been a trustee of Hertford Castle manor for Prince Charles since 1619. Once elected, Hobart’s only recorded activity reflected his connection with the prince: he was appointed to consider a bill for leasing duchy of Cornwall lands (9 Mar.) and ordered to attend the conference of 11 Mar., at which Charles exhorted Parliament to provide the sinews of war.

Hobart failed to find a seat in the first Caroline Parliament, despite a recommendation from his father to the corporation of Colchester. At the next election his father died on the day that writs were issued, so that he was obliged to find other patrons. Three weeks earlier John Spelman* informed his father Sir Henry* that Hobart was canvassing for a Norfolk county seat, but Hobart was dissuaded from standing, presumably by the prospect of a contest. Instead he was returned for Thetford on the recommendation of the earl of Arundel. He also had himself returned for Brackley on the interest of his father-in-law, for which seat he eventually plumped.

 His only committee appointment was for Lord Morley’s bill (14 March). He apparently did not stand in 1628, perhaps because in September 1627 he had publicly accused his fellow deputy lieutenants of selling exemptions from the press at exorbitant rates - a charge that he later declined to substantiate.
Hobart completed the building of Blickling Hall, one of the major Jacobean houses in England, and became active in local government as a deputy lieutenant and j.p. He inherited his father’s lease of the duchy of Lancaster’s bailiwick of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, though not the receivership that the latter had occupied.

 He borrowed money from his former brother-in-law, the 2nd earl of Leicester (Sir Robert Sidney*), with whom he corresponded in the late 1630s. Hobart supported Parliament during the Civil War, and was re-elected as a recruiter for Norfolk on 29 Dec. 1645 in place of Sir Edmund Moundeford.
However, he had long been in poor health, and was granted leave on 18 Sept. 1646. He never returned to Westminster, for by this time, according to Collinges, he was in a ‘dying condition’. In a will dated 17 Jan. 1645 he left £300 for his funeral, £500 for a monument for himself, his two wives and his parents, and £100 to the poor of Norfolk and Norwich.

He bequeathed £2,500 worth of plate, apparel and household effects to his widow, and in a codicil added a few days before his death, gave £20 to his brother Nathaniel*. His kinsman John Hobart† was appointed executor. Hobart died at Norwich on 20 Apr. 1647 and was buried at Blickling nine days later. Collinges described him as ‘one that might err through prejudice or misapprehension, but of that nobleness of temper, height of courage and spirit, that he never valued cost, nor wanted an heart to go through with anything of the goodness and justice of which he was once convinced’.

All six of his sons having died in infancy, Hobart was succeeded by his nephew, Sir John Hobart, who entered Parliament in 1654.

In the 15th century, Blickling was in the possession of Sir John Fastolf of Caister in Norfolk (1380–1459), who made a fortune in the Hundred Years' War, and whose coat of arms is still on display there. Later, the property was in the possession of the Boleyn family, and home to Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife Elizabeth between 1499 and 1505. Although the exact birth dates of their children are unknown, historians including Eric Ives are confident that all three surviving children were likely born at Blickling – Mary in about 1500, Anne in about 1501, and George in about 1504.

 A statue and portrait of Anne may be found at Blickling Estate which carry the inscription, "Anna Bolena hic nata 1507" (Anne Boleyn born here 1507), based on earlier scholarship which assigned Anne a (now thought highly improbable) year of birth of 1507.

 The house of Blickling seen today was built on the ruins of the old Boleyn property in the reign of James I, by Sir Henry Hobart, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and 1st Baronet, who bought Blickling from Robert Clere in 1616. The architect of Hatfield House, Robert Lyminge, is credited with the design of the current structure.

The Lord Chief Justice married Dorothy, the daughter of Sir Robert Bell of Beaupre Hall, Outwell/Upwell, Norfolk, Speaker of the House of Commons 1572–1576. A grand display of heraldic material is present throughout the estate.

  He studied at Cambridge  Matric. Fell.-Com. from PETERHOUSE, Michs. 1570. 2nd s. of Thomas, of Plumstead, Norfolk. Adm. at Lincoln's Inn, from Furnival's Inn, July 30, 1575. Called to the Bar, 1584. Bencher, 1596. Reader, 1600-1, 1602-3. Serjeant-at-law, 1602. M.P. for St Ives, 1588, 1589; for Yarmouth, 1597 and 1601; for Norwich, 1604-10. Knighted, July 23, 1603. Attorney-general, 1606-13. Created Baronet, 1611. Lord Chief Justice of C.P., 1613. Built Blickling Hall. Married Dorothy, dau. of Sir Robert Bell, of Beaupré Hall. Author, Reports in the Reign of James I. Died Dec. 26, 1625. Buried at Blickling. Father of Miles (1611), Edward (1623), Robert (1623) and perhaps of Thomas (1620). (T. A. Walker; D.N.B.)

Sir Robert Bell was an initial investor with the Virginia Company that financed the expedition to the New World.  His son-in-law Robert Hobart's father, Sir Henry Hobart invested in the Second Charter of the Virginia Company.

Both Sir Robert Bell and Sir Henry Hobart had sons who travelled to Virginia to make their fortunes and establish themselves.

Helena/Helen/Audry was the daughter of

9GU  William Harrys/Hare 1511 - 1537 and his wife Alice.  After his death Alice married Robert Rugge an Alderman in Norwich.  His half brother was

9GU  Sir Arthur Harris 1530 - 1597 married Dorothy Waldegrave

It has been established that Sir Arthur Harris lived in the villages of Creeksea, Woodham Mortimer, Cold Norton and the City of London. Sir Arthur Harris is credited with building the manor house Creeksea Place in Creeksea, Essex. Sir Arthur was the High Sheriff of Essex in 1589, a Justice of the Peace, and one of the Commissioners appointed in 1577 to enquire into piratical practices along the Essex coast.

Sir Arthur Harris died 7 July 1597 and is buried at St. Mary's Church in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex
Sir Arthur Harris was born c. 1530 in the county of Essex, England.

He married Dorothy Waldegrave of Smallbridge, who was the daughter of Sir William Waldegrave and Julia Reynsford.  At this point Arthur Harris, is the 9 great uncle, but it is his son's marriage that is of interest.  William Harris 1556 and Helen Harrys were cousins.

8GU  Sir William Harris 1556 - 1616 and Alice Anne Smythe 1556 - 1615.  She was none other than the sister of Sir Thomas Smythe, an aunt of Maree's.   Sir Thomas Smythe was the first Governor of Jamestown, and the Director of the Virginia Company.

Sir William Harris (21 September 1556 – 14 November 1616) was an English knight, land owner, and a notable incorporator in the third Virginia Company of London.
Sir William Harris, his brother in law, Sir Thomas Smythe and his son, Sir Arthur Harris, each, were Incorporators and Subscribers to the third charter of the Virginia Company of London, and each paid £75 as their subscription. Both Harris and Smythe were very interested in the development of Virginia. They exerted their influence to secure money, men, equipment, supplies, and ships for the colonization efforts.

Lady Alice died 10 November 1615 and Sir William on 14 Nov 1616. Both are buried at All Saints Church in Creeksea. All Saints still displays a depiction of Sir William and his sword, a rapier, which was found in Creeksea Place and given to the church.

This Harris family appears to have originated some 40 to 50 miles east-north-east of London and on the north bank of the River Crouch. The village of Cricksea (or Creeksea) exists today on this peninsula in Essex County. Creeksea is located about two miles west of Burnham-on-the-Crouch and about 18 miles inland from the North Sea. Anciently called "Danes Island", this area was inhabited largely by Norman families after the conquest in 1066.

Sir William Harris was knighted on 23 July 1603 at Whitehall on the eve of the coronation of James I. His elevation to the knighthood was the result of military service in Ireland during the Nine Years' War along with his cousin Sir William Harris of Shenfield, Essex
William Harris was born on 21 September 1556 in Essex. He made his home at Creeksea Place Manor

In its original form Creeksea Place (built by Sir Arthur Harris) probably consisted of three, or possibly, four wings surrounding a courtyard with the longest wing running from north to south. An original lead rain-water head, complete with the date ‘1569’ moulded on its face side, still exists today.

Sadly, in about 1740, the south part of the house, together with the enclosing walls of the garden were dismantled and the materials sold, leaving standing only the outer courtyard enclosure, the North range and the West wing. The house was restored in modern times with a new range built on the foundations of the original East wing and various other additions were made by the Rome family. However a number of original features still exist such as a moulded oak door frame, original windows with brick mullions, transoms and square moulded labels and superb chimney stacks with octagonal shafts.

Creeksea Place was reputed to have been the home of Anne Boleyn (however she actually died in 1536) and that her spirit was said to been seen walking from an old cottage near the Cricksea ferry. Her daughter, Queen Elizabeth, is thought to have met her soldiers here and that they were supposed to have come to meet her through a subterranean tunnel connected with Rochford.

As Rochford is some ten miles or so away then the tunnel is more likely based on fantasy than fact. Great Tudor drains, full of oyster shells have been uncovered but not the tunnel itself. Sir Henry Mildmay, Keeper of the Crown Jewels for Charles I married into the Harris family and, by the laws of the day, eventually became the owner of Creeksea Place. He is reputed to have been one of the twelve State elders who subsequently signed King Charles's death warrant. Following the execution and after the accession to the throne of Charles II, Sir Henry was said to have been arrested at Creeksea and he and the other eleven elders were accused of regicide (the murder of a king or queen), later pardoned but it is said, to make sure they did not forget the enormity of their crime, all twelve were obliged to spend the anniversary date of the King's execution in the Tower of London.

His parents were Sir Arthur Harris 1530 - 1597 and Dorothy Waldegrave 1530 - 1626.
Sir William Waldegrave (2 August 1507 – 2 May 1554) was an English soldier and Member of Parliament.

Waldegrave was born into a prosperous Suffolk family, the eldest son of Sir George Waldegrave of Smallbridge and Anne Drury, the daughter of Sir Robert Drury. He was brought up at his maternal grandfather's house. The deaths within the space of 14 months of his paternal grandfather, Sir William Waldegrave, and his own father left him heir to a large estate and fortune at the age of 20. Whilst on his deathbed, his father secured Waldegrave an advantageous marriage to a Suffolk heiress.
After inheriting the family estate, Waldegrave combined local administration with attendance at court and military service. He was knighted by Henry VIII at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, and headed the commission to take the oath of succession in Suffolk. He was known for his loyalty to the Crown and in the autumn of 1536 he was one of a group of men who Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk believed would quell any rising in Suffolk.

In 1542, Waldegrave served under the Duke of Norfolk's command in the war against Scotland and two years later he captained 60 of his own men in the French campaign. His election to the Parliament of 1545 reflected this recent military experience as much as his own standing in Suffolk and may have been promoted by his uncle, Sir William Drury, as sheriff.

Although he was not to be re-elected, early in January 1553 the Council considered him for nomination with Sir William Drury as knights for Suffolk in the forthcoming Parliament, but in the event nominated Sir Henry Bedingfield with Drury.

 Following Edward VI's death in the summer, Cecil listed Waldegrave among potential supporters of Lady Jane Grey, but on being summoned to Kenninghall by Mary on 8 July he joined her in her successful bid for the throne. Later he heard the indictments in Suffolk against Jane's adherents.^[1]
Waldegrave married Juliana, the daughter of Sir John Raysnford of Essex, with whom he had four children:

• Dorothy Waldegrave, married Sir John Spring of Lavenham
• Margaret Waldegrave
• Mary Waldegrave
• Sir William Waldegrave, married firstly Elizabeth (d.1581), daughter of Thomas Mildmay and secondly Grizelda, daughter of William Paget, 1st Baron Paget

While on a visit to Calais late in 1554, perhaps in connection with the arrival of Cardinal Pole, Waldegrave fell sick. He died there on the following 12 December.

9GU William Harrys/Hare/Harris and Sir Arthur Harris, were the sons of

10GU  Sir William Harris, 1490 - 1556 the High Sheriff of Essex and his wife Alice Jane Wayte.  By his second wife Joanna Cooke, Sir William was the father of Sir Arthur Harris b 1530
Alice Wayte c 1494 - 1528 was the daughter of

11 GU William Wayte of Titleshall  Norfolk

Sir William Farmour, Knt. of East-Barsham, sold to Henry Wayte of Titleshale, Gent. and Robert Davy of Stanfield, yeoman, 00 acres of land in the fieldcourse or sheep pasture of Titleshale or Mikhan, belonging to the Earl of Arundel's manor of Mileham, with the liberty of two fold-courses thereto belonging, in the 7th of Edward VI.

Joanna Cooke c 1500 was the daughter of

11GUSir John Cooke 1473 - 1516  and Alice Saunders 1478 - 1517

12GU Sir John Cooke was the son of Sir Phillip Cooke the Lord Mayor of London and Elizabeth Belknap 1464 - 1537  

Joanna Cooke brings together my Isaacson family, Maree's Sprye family and Randy's De Graw family.     She is the great aunt of Sir Thomas Smythe.

13GU Sir Philip Cooke 1411  - 1478 married Elizabeth Malpas 1415

Margaret was the daughter of
14GU  Philip Malpas

In 1439 Philip Malpas and Robert Marshall, sheriffs of London were obliged to restore an enormous criminal, whom they had torn from the sanctuary of St Martin's Le Grand and sent to Newgate.  It was not until 1457, that a check was given to these odious privileges.

Philip Malpas was a very wealthy draper and mercer in London, and during the revolt of Jack Cade his home was destroyed.

Jack Cade was the leader of a popular revolt against the government of England in 1450. At the time of the revolt, the weak and unpopular King Henry VI was on the throne. While little is known about the rebel leader himself, the events of the rebellion to which he gave his name are well recorded in fifteenth-century chronicles. The Jack Cade Rebellion stemmed from local grievances concerned about the corruption and abuse of power surrounding the king's regime and his closest advisors. Furthermore, the rebels were angered by the debt caused by years of warfare against France and the recent loss of Normandy. Leading an army of men from Kent and the surrounding counties, Jack Cade marched on London in order to force the government to end the corruption and remove the traitors—as they saw the King's closest advisors—surrounding the king's person.

Despite Cade's attempt to keep his men under control once the rebel forces had entered London they began to loot. The citizens of London turned on the rebels and forced them out of the city in a bloody battle on London Bridge. To end the bloodshed the rebels were issued pardons by the king and told to return home. Cade fled but was later caught on 12 July 1450 by Alexander Iden, a future High Sheriff of Kent.

As a result of the skirmish with Iden, the mortally wounded Cade died before reaching London for trial.  The Jack Cade Rebellion has been perceived as a reflection of the social, political and economic issues of the time period and as a precursor to the Wars of the Roses which saw the decline of the Lancaster dynasty and the rise of the Yorks. The Jack Cade Rebellion was the largest popular uprising to take place in England during the 15th century.

 Lord Saye and Sele brought before Jack Cade 4th July 1450, painting by Charles Lucy

In his will, Philip Malpas, mindful of his soul's need, left 20 marks for a graduate priest to travel about the country for a year to preach to the people "exhorting hem among other to pray for my soule

The Malpas Family is another with strong links to the Invasion in 1066.

After the Norman conquest of 1066 Malpas is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086 as belonging to Robert FitzHugh, Baron of Malpas.

A concentrated line of castles protected Cheshire's western border from the Welsh; these included motte-and-bailey castles at Shotwick, Dodleston, Aldford, Pulford, Shocklach, Oldcastle and Malpas. The earthworks of Malpas Castle are still to be found to the north of St. Oswald's Church.
King William ordered Moat and Bailey castles to be erected on the highest lands all around the country.  All of the same style and all built to protect the invaders from an invasion of Englishmen!

10GU Sir William Harris 1490 - 1556 was the son of

11GU  Sir John Harris 1475 - 1537 and his wife Lady Joan Percy 1475 - 1547.  Joan is likely to have some alternative names.
Sir John Harris was the son of

12GU William John Harris 1445 - 1480 and Anne Jernegan 1448 - 1480.

Anne was the daughter of Sir Thomas Jernegan

13GU  Sir Thomas Jernegan 1380 - 1446 m Joan Appleyard 1393 - 1450  He is buried in St Mary's Church Somerleyton


Somerleyton

From about 838 AD for nearly two centuries, East Anglia was subject to Danish and Viking raids, including pillaging, burning, and looting. The village of Somerleyton derived its name from a Viking explorer (raider) named Sumarlithi -a warrior-name meaning "Summer-Warrior-Mariner". He settled in the area prior to 900 AD, and the area became Sumarlithi's tun, or Sumarlithi's town.

Some researchers suggest, in fact, that the original Jernegan was a Danish swordmaker who perfected the process of iron-braid metallurgy (later referred to as the damascening process).

At any rate, the estate at Somerleyton was held by a Sir Peter Fitzobert, whose son, Sir Roger was lord of the manor during the reign of Henry III and Edward I until he died in 1305. After Sir Roger's death, the estate passed to his sister, Isabella, because Sir Roger had no children. Isabella, widow of Sir Henry de Walpole subsequently married Sir Walter Jernegan, and the estate remained in the Jernegan family by descent until its sale to the Wentworth family in 1604.

The manor which is now on the estate is the fourth such splendid residence to be on the property, and was built in about 1840. Thus sadly, no Jernigans ever lived in the current manor.

Also located in the village of Somerleyton is St. Mary's Church, which dates to about 1309.

There is a ring of six bells in the tower. The oldest three date to the 15th century and were cast in Norwich.

In the corner of the chancel is a tomb chest to Sir Thomas Gernegan (1446), decorated with quatrefoil panels containing shields. "A previous Sir Thomas, who died in 1406, and his wife, glazed the church windows at their own expense.

The old stone floor of the chancel covers the remains of Edward Jernegan who died 6th May 1515, and was buried by the side of his first wife, the inscription reading:

"Margaret Jernegan the wyef of Edward Jernegan Esquyer, d. of Sir Edmund Bedingfelde Knt, which Margaret dyed the XXIIII of March anno MDIIII"

[1] http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/suffolk/churches/somerleyton.htm




Percy (old French Perci) was the most powerful noble family in northern England for much of the Middle Ages, having descended from William de Percy (d.1096), a Norman who crossed over to England after William the Conqueror in early December 1067, was created 1st feudal baron of Topcliffe in Yorkshire, and was rebuilding York Castle in 1070. The name derives from the manor of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy, the home of the family at the time of the Norman Conquest.

 Members have held the titles of Earl of Northumberland or Duke of Northumberland to this day, in addition to Baron Percy and other titles. The Percy surname twice died out in the male line but was re-adopted by the husband of a Percy heiress and by their descendants. In the 12th century, the original Percy line was represented by Agnes de Percy, whose son by her husband Joscelin of Louvain adopted the surname Percy. Again in the 18th century, the heiress Elizabeth Seymour married Sir Hugh Smithson, who adopted the surname Percy and was created Duke of Northumberland.....

The fourth Earl was involved in the political manoeuvrings of the last Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III. Through either indecision or treachery he did not respond in a timely manner at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and thus helped cause his ally Richard III's defeat at the hands of Henry Tudor (who became Henry VII). In 1489, he was pulled from his horse and murdered by some of his tenants.

(He is your great grandfather)

The fifth Earl displayed magnificence in his tastes, and being one of the richest magnates of his day, kept a very large household establishment.

Henry Percy, the sixth Earl of Northumberland, loved Anne Boleyn, and was her accepted suitor before Henry VIII married her. He married later to the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, but as he died without a son, his nephew, Thomas Percy became the seventh Earl.

Thereafter, a succession of plots and counterplots—the Rising of the North, the plots to liberate Mary Queen of Scots, and the Gunpowder Plot – each claimed a Percy among their adherents. On this account the eighth and ninth Earls spent many years in the Tower, but the tenth Earl, Algernon, fought for King Charles in the Civil War, the male line of the Percy-Louvain house ending with Josceline, the eleventh Earl. The heiress to the vast Percy estates married the Duke of Somerset; and her granddaughter married a Yorkshire knight, Sir Hugh Smithson, who in 1766 was created the first Duke of Northumberland and Earl Percy, and it is their descendants who now represent the famous old house

Imagine not knowing you were part of this amazing history.  Bet there are not too many others who are related to Hubert Hobart who are aware of this.  Just another family whose  DNA we share.

The Unfortunate Abraham Browne

In the January 1848 issue of the New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Charles Browne communicated a note regarding a manuscript journal kept by his ancestor, Abraham Browne.

The title and dedication of the journal were given as follows:

A Book of Remembrance of God’s Provydences towards me, A.B., throughout the cours of my Life, written for my own medytacon in New Engl.

To his honnered father in law, Mr. Hezykiah Vsher, Segr. marchent in Boston, N.E.

Honnered Sr. whatever afflicons hath befalne me in the wholl cours of my life, whether in body, minde, estate, or name, I know my sin to be the procuring caws. Jere. 4:18 I medle not with God’s decrees, tho I believe our stations, situations, and ends limmited by God. What I was unwilling to do while living, I have left to be presented to you after my decease, viz., a few lines of my life and experiences, which, when you have perused it, I desire my child, Hezykiah Browne, may have it. I pray God make it of use to him, that he may not trust to worldly enjoyments of any kinde, but in Christ Jesus, to live unto him, to be forever blest of him. This Booke is, as it weare, of two parts;—The second part I bequeath unto my dafter, Elizabeth Browne, the original of which I write in captivity, and once intended for my friends in England. I am sorry my Condicon will admitt of no other portion (as you have been there friend) soe I hope the Lord will be their portion.—Fr. your kindness to them I have own’d and shall own with all dew thankfulness to my dying hower.

Your obliged Sonn in Law

Abraham Browne

 In the April 1891 issue of the Register, Dr. James A. Spaulding of Portland, Maine, wrote asking about the location of the manuscript for which he had been searching a long time.

In 1975, the Massachusetts Historical Society bought the manuscript from an English bookseller.
Perhaps all of us are familiar to a degree with the Barbary Pirates and their threat to commercial shipping in the early days of our republic. Their activities began as early as 1492 and were not halted until 1830. It has been said that the “first half of the seventeenth century may be described as the flowering time of the Barbary Pirates” when more than 20,000 captives were believed to have been imprisoned in Algiers alone.

It was Abraham Browne’s fate to be captured by the Pirates in 1655. His detailed account of this episode in his life makes up the body of this paper.


Abraham Browne was born in Plymouth, England, about the year 1630. His father was a merchant and shipmaster, often at sea, so that the upbringing of Abraham was left to his mother, a godly woman. She had some difficulty with this son, for by his own admission he had not the least inclination to good in his early years. Indeed, as he graphically put it, he “was fully bent to sin.” This manifested itself in his thought, word, and deed. At the age of seven, God was pleased to intercede, and Abraham came to realize that if he did not mend his ways “that hell would be my portion.” He reformed, attended church regularly, and might be termed a model boy.

Throughout his life Abraham was to experience these swings from moderate dissipation to rectitude as his journal amply indicates.

About this time word reached Mrs. Browne that her husband, returning to England from France in a ship and cargo of his own, was taken captive by the Turks and carried off to Algiers. The sad news greatly distressed her, a sadness that was increased by the failure of many of her pretended friends to come to her aid. Her efforts to persuade them to help her secure her husband’s redemption met with no success. Mrs. Browne was finally reduced to selling her possessions, including her plate, gold rings, and bracelets, to raise the £150 sterling necessary for his ransom. A trusted friend arranged for the payment of this money, but it took three years before Mr. Browne was released.

Once back in England, Mr. Browne was able to re-establish his business, concentrating on shipping between the British Isles and Holland. At the age of twelve, Abraham accompanied his father on a voyage to the Continent and was placed by his father with a French family. While voyaging from Scotland to Holland, his father died. All his goods were lost. Abraham remained with the French family for almost three years, staunchly resisting their attempts to interest him in Catholicism, before returning to his mother in Plymouth. He was scheduled to return in a pink, but it sailed without him only to be captured by pirates two days after leaving port. The pirate galleys were a constant threat at this time, ranging as far north as Iceland.

Once safely home, Abraham Browne at the age of fifteen was apprenticed by his mother to a Plymouth merchant. Abraham was lucky in his masters; and this one, Mr. Nicholas Opie, was kind to him, later entrusting many details of the business to him. During his apprenticeship of seven years, Abraham was sent on a voyage to Wales and later a voyage to Spain. With money in his pocket, he grew apart from God and His ways spending considerable time “in musike dansing and drinking &c.”
The Spanish voyage took him to Málaga from Falmouth and later to Alicante, Denia, and the island of Majorca. Abraham probably matured on this trip, for he had to match wits with other traders. He disposed of a cargo of Newfoundland fish for his master and took on a cargo of salad oil at Majorca. Abraham also enjoyed himself, for he spoke of his drinking and carousing and of the prevalence of lewd women. In the latter case the impression is given that he looked but did not touch. On the return voyage to England the ship Browne was aboard ran into such a violent storm that she was not able to take on bread and water at Málaga as planned. It took ten weeks to reach Land’s End from the Straits. All this time the crew feared that the ship might be taken by pirates. After a stay in London, Browne returned to Plymouth, where he remained for some months.

It was Browne’s intention to return to Alicante, but his master proposed “he haveing an estate in New England whence he intended to drive a great trade for bilboe proposed it to me if I weare willing there to live some time where my Imployement should be greate to wch I had noe greate Inclynacon at the first But being therunto Encoragd by my mother I did freely Imbrace it, whereupon being then freed from my service by way of an aprentice I was to Live in New England on Commissions as my master gave to others, And soe through Gods provydence haveing taken Leave of my mother and freinds wee Sett sayle from plymouth the first daye of Maye 1650 and arived att new england att Richmonts Island aboute the 20th of June following.”

After the initial difficulty of securing enough fish to load “our” boats, Browne settled into the life of the country. He found congenial companions, attended the lectures as well as the Sabbath sermons, but confessed “yet all had butt Litle or noe Imprission upon my hart nay it did hardly reach my head and as to desire only the onderstanding part in the Letter though some few notions itt might be I might retayne and in this frame I continued my first three years. And though I minded the dispatch of my bussness yet I as much if not more minded my vayne pastimes and pleasures Litle mindeing or laying to heart the many grasious opportunyties I had for the good of my soule both puplick and privitt.”
The Lord overtook him in Boston, and at a Sunday lecture Browne was once again converted. He carried on private fasts even to the neglect of his business, and while on his small fishing island devoured theological works a friend had given him.
On 14 November 1654, Browne returned to England to see his friends, settle accounts with his master, and take care of family matters. He fully intended to return to New England for good once this business was completed. After a stay in London, Browne went to Plymouth to see his master and friends. He missed New England, and idle pleasures seem to have lost their charms for him. Finally, an opportunity to return to New England presented itself:

At Last I agreed with my master to goe on a shipp of his the Intent of our voyage was first to maderah next to barbados and thence to newengland where I was to staye but my orders gave me Leave that if our fleet who wear gon for Spanyoala had taken itt or any Considerable place from the Spanyard I should goe thether with our Cargo of wines And then afterwards I might goe for N.E.

That now being in Redynes in the month of May to sett sayle from plymouth and having put abord all that I could recover in [bond?] what I had in goods fitt for madera Barbados and newengland being somewhat considerable to my beginings And after having taken a solom and sorowfull Leave of all my frinds in plymouth and their about wee sett sayle from thence the latter end of May 1665 [1655] in company with a dutch ship of 12 gunns and an English shipp of 10 gunns bound Likewise for the Maderas. We kept them compa some 11 dayes ontill we came in sight of the groyne on the Coast of gallisia and makeing from the shor the Next night after being under a gale of winde not a storme we Lost them strangly I may Saye Carelislye But it was to fulfill the purpose of God who many times denyes us the means of preservation when he Intends the Contrary for Ends best knowne to himselfe for two dayes after we Lost the company of those two shipps wee fell into the company of two other shipps to our greate sorow and misery they being our most crewill Enymes Two Turkes men of war belonging to Sally thuse when men are in the most likelyest way for outward gayne and advantage for such a Condicõn was I now in had we gonn in safetye the Lord disapoynteth our hopes to make us see the Insufyciency and vanytye of the Creture being that wch shall be yether taken from us or wee from itt for by those crewill and blody men we wear taken and Lost all wee had aborde and everyone of us sorly Captyvated under those crewill Taskmasters of wch greate and sore tryalls during said missery I now come to make mencõn of next.

In the morning abowt Sun Rising wee descryed two sayle wch made both towards us. Wee keeping in our Cours the winds right aft and they being asterne we percevd they gatt grownd of us that by 12 or one of the Clocke the Lesser of them Came up with us having 8 gunns and 140 men hayld us saying they weare both of Argeer with whom wee had peace. But wee beleavd them not becawse these frigotts weare to small for Argeer men of war that we concluded them to be as they weare.

After this the other being admirable came up haveing 12 gunns and att Least 20 ports open and abowte 170 men who sayde he was of Argeer. Likewise by this Long chase we weare prepared though our boate was not hoysed out nor our mayne sayle furled up as it should have been. Then the Lesser of those two shipps came under out starne calling us doggs commanded us to Amearce wee giveing them the like Term told them we would not Amearce.

They Answered us if we would not they would aborde us presently. Wee told them they should Come and if they durst whereupon we saluted them by a greate gunn we had in the Cabin out of the starne ports on which he fell astarne to parlye with his consort what they should doe.


 In the meanwhile wee Incoraged one another being resolved to fight and then I fetcht up a bottell and made every man to drinke Encoraging them in the best manner I could telling them w[ha]t a dredfull thing itt was to come into their hands who all answered they would doe their utmost and soe the men goeing to prayer I alsoe committed my selfe to God who was pleased I may saye without ostentation to put a greater Corage in me then I am of natureally wherby att this as God had been filling my spirit for itt To make Choyce Rather to dye then to fall into the hands of Those onreasonable men. But the Lord was pleased to preserve my Life merackulesly of wch afterwards.

The two men of war haveing thus parlied together that of 8 guns came up and did us aborde where befor he gatt aborde us I stood with the master and one that was a parsenger upon the quarter deck soe Long as wee could and when by Reason of ther muskett shott wch came soe thick wee could staye their noe Longer wee went into the Rownd howse and made it fast and soe thence into the greate Cabin wheare from the Loops the passenger and myselfe discharged our muskitts and trafersing the greate gun in the Cabin They did us a Bord on the starbor quarter and Lasht themselfes fast unto us there first worke when they came aborde us They cut downe our antient and as many Ropes as they could and our Rownd howse being but small and slight the bulke heade thereof being built only with some deal with axes they made way into the Rownd howse where we plast only one man who befor they had taken itt he gatt downe Into the Cabin by a Scutal wch when he was come to us we fastned onderneath from the forcastill.

Our men with me shot [and] wounded severall of the Turkes that weare upon deck, the lesser of the two men of war haveing been abord abowte an houers space the greater ship never came up to Laye us abord but kept Just on our starne and with his chase peeces racked us for and aft also his musket shot came very thick Abowte us wherewith the gentelman who was passenger and was in the Cabin with me reed a musket shot into his body and soe was committed to the docters charge, not Long after as I was about to discharg my muskitt came in a Cannon shot wch threw severall peeces of Timber from the starne about my ears and with severall splinters I was sorly wonded in the heade and browe the marks whereof I shall Cary to my grave and with all soe stund I Laye as a dead man and was flung between dex as one that was in Curable.
And upon my being wonded the man alsoe onder the Qt dex was Alsoe beaten downe with splinters whereupon the masters heart begun to fayle and then begun to call for quarter. And it seems as afterwards we onderstood when he first cald out they heard him not being possest with greate feare and gitting aft as fast as they coud haveing Cutt there fasts and had been of [f] had not the flux [flukes] of there Ancor hung in our shrouds. And in all Likelyhood had they been once of [f] had never borded us agayne, for in there lying us abord with our gun out of the quarter we kild them [there] many men, their men being all open upon deck, in all we understood we had killed 21 of their men and wonded 15.

 The Captain of the greate shipp was an Absolut Coward, Butt our master not knowing all this cald agayne the second Tyme for quarter and they then hearing him came abord us. Thuse weare wee by the Just Ju[d]gm[en]ts of God and the desert of our sinns Captivated unto Crewell taskmasters on the 21st of June Anno 1655 abowte one of the Clocke att noone. I was abowt here to blame Instrum [en] ts in wt was now befallne me and the rest but I shall be sylent Least I be found to repine agaynst God whom in the wholl proceedings in this voyag I saw by the Event that he had before apoynted us to undergoe such an aflicting Stroak. And now I shall relate of Gods Dealings with me in his Dispensations both in relation to my I[n]ward and outward man from my first takeing by those blody men untill the Tyme hee was pleased to deliver me out of their Hands vzt.


After the master had yeelded up the shipp as befor exprest and that wee weare fully in there possession they noe sooner came to the sight of us mor like Ravones beasts then men beganne to fall upon us in striping of us all stark naked haveing noe Respect to any of us that weare wonded that as they did to others soe likewise they did to me though I was as one that walowed in blod. 



And they haveing stript me of all my cloths to an old peace of Lynning drawers I requested them they would have mercy upon me though indeed I was soe faynt by Reason of the Loss of so much blod I could scars stand upon my Leggs, yett all would not prevayle but my drawers they would have of [f] Likewise soe that they Left me nothing but an old Lyning Cap all blody one my heade.

And being in this Lamentable Condic̃on they tooke one of my shoose and with the soules thereof beate me sorly on my naked back and soe in that naked posture they Led me abord there ship wch was made fast to ours and as soone as they could they brought all the Rest of our men abord and Led us Altogether as itt weare in a heap upon there quarter deck And being thuse together naked they begun to Pass ropes and binde every mans hand behinde their backs Except myselfe and one more that was wonded and having soe don the Captaine tooke up a greate spung rope almost as thick as my arme and began to Laye over our shoulders with all his might till he was quit weary and amongst the many blowes he gave us it pleased God but one fell to my part which brock my heade in a new place that had I not been soported by a greater strength then my owne I had perished in this very begining of my distres for my spirets were brought soe Low that I did rather desire to dye then to Live and was upon this Temptacon to neglect means that I might be brought to my Last end the Lord was pleased to rayse me above this temptacon.

Befor night wee weare all put downe into there hold where all night ontill the next morning wee Laye in this dismall and naked condicon on their watter Caske I am not fully able to Express the greate sadness of my heart this night wherein I was almost overwhelmed with sorow and yet the greatest part of this God was pleased to help mee to meditate on the 46 psalm and the begining which I often repeated to my selfe and sometymes spoake out to the heareing of all my fellow Captives with me that God is our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble wch according to my poor abilety I did speake unto ym for the Comforting of my selfe and others whereby I was by the power of God kept from those dispareing thoughts that now in this condic̃on I was excersizd with: O Lord thou art wonderful in thy workings and in the midst of thy Ju[d]gements thou remembrest mercy.
The next day [afternoon?] after our takeing wee were all had upon dex where on us they bestowd some old Ragged cloths only to cover our nakedness for to some that they gave a peare of britches to they gave noe Dublett and to others that they gave a Coate to they gave nether dublett nor briches and to all nether Cap, stockings shurt nor shoose. I had only an old partingale Dublett and one of our men gave me a peare of Canvas drawers which was all the Cloths I had on till I was sold in Sally to my pateron: while wee weare upon dex that wch did augment my missery, was the seight of those ugly onhumayne cretures wch goe soe disgisd according to there Custome with there heads shaved and their Armes almost naked did teryfie me Exceedingly.

After this wee weare put downe into the hold agayne our diett bread and watter, the Captain of the man of warr sent often for our master Examining him whether he had noe man of qualety aborde or a m[e]rchant he answared he had not whereby I was not discoverid being told by the slaves who weare in the vessell that tooke us what to doe and saye and yet our docter was discovered and put often to dress there men Although they had A scilfull Sergent aborde which was A portingale and captive unto them and who tooke greate care abowte dressing me morning and evening who was a greate Instrumt in the preservation of my Life being I was in such a Lowe and weake condition.
Some fower dayes after we weare taken wee arived att Sake, which place in our condic̃on was most dredfull to behold wee weare noe sooner come to an Ancor but weare all of us sent ashore and we are noe sooner Landed in old Sally But an exceeding greate Compa of most dismall specktators wee had to behold us In this our Captivated condic̃on who instead of pitieing of us wch according to humanytie they should have don they did on the Contrary deride us scofing att our Callametty and Calling us doggs and the Like butt true patience in wayteing on God was that which att this tyme could be our Cheafest remedy. How sadd my heart was upon the Entrence into this towne I am not fully able to relate.

And that I was not now agayne over whelmed with greife and sorow I cannot butt admire and speake of to the prayse of God who brings downe to the gates of death &c rayseth up from thence According to his greate mercy.

From the Landing place we weare garded up to a roome over the dungon where all the Christiens of that towne Laye Every night where all day Long being kept by a gaurdan there was Libertie for all sorts to come and Looke on us, that whosoever had a mind to buy any of us on the daye apoynted that wee should bee sold together in the markett they might see (as I may say) what they weare Like to have for there money whereby we had Soo many Comfortlis vissiters both from the towne and Cuntry one sayeing he would buy this man and the other that, wee remaynd in this Roome abowte a weekes tyme being all of us their by day though at night wee weare all Lett downe in the dongon with the rest of the Christion slaves that weare Sent there every night from there patterones howses and Although our condicon now was most sad Laying on the beare grownd, yet it was some kinde of staye to our spirets to con overe with our Cuntrymen who did aquainte us with the Carage of the turkes and how wee should Cary our selves for not one of our company had Ever been in Captivety befor that to comfort us they told us if wee mett with such and such patterones our usage would not be soe bad as wee suposed, though indeed our men fownde the usage of the best bad Enough;

During this tyme before wee weare Sold wee had constantly fresh vitteles once a daye and some rimes twice in abondance with good white breade from the markett place I supose to feed us up for the markett that wee might be in some good plight agaynst the day wee weare to be sold and during this time in regaurde of my weakeness and soars they sent me every Evoning and morning to be drest by a Jew who had Livd many years in france who scilfuly and Carefully did attend me and was pleased after some tyme I had been with him freely of his owne accord to give me an old English bible which in this my sadd Condicone itt was to me through grace my greatest and best Cordiall, that att this tyme I may saye truely with the profitt had not thy word Comforted me I had perished in myne affliccon.

And now I come to speake of our being sold into this dolfull slavery, itt was dolfull in Respect of the tyme and maner butt more Especcially in the Consequence. As to the tyme itt was one our Saboth daye in the morning abowte the tyme the people of God weare going abowte to Injoye the Libertie of Gods howse this was the tyme our bondage was Confermd and now when others weare singing forth the prayses of Jehova in the Congregacions of the saints wee weare now sitting downe by the Rivers of babylon and morning when we remembred Syon.

And truely these considera[tions] did add unto my griefe being deprived from those spiretuall as well as Temperall Injoymints. Agayne it was sadd in respect of the manner of our selves being all of us brought into the markit place wee weare Led abowte two or three att a tyme in the midst of a greate concors of people—both of the Towne and Cuntry—who haveing the full sight of you and if that will not sattisfye they come and feele your hand and Looke into your mouth to see whether you are sounde and in helth or to see by the hardness of yr hnd whether you have been a worker or noe. The manner of buying is by as[u]ering that he that gives the greatest price hath you they biding one upon another untill the hyest profferer whose slave you must be wt Ever he is or where Ever he dwells.

And as concerning my Selfe—being brought to the weakest condicon of any of our men I was Led forth amongst the Crewell multitude to be sold as yet being ondiscoverid where I was, I was Like to have been sold att a very Low rate not above 15 £ starling, whereas our ordinary Seamen weare sold for 30 and 35 £ starling and 2 boyse weare sold for 40 £ apice and being in this sad posture Lead up and downe at Least one houre and halfe during which tyme a dutch man that was our Carpenter discovered me to some Jews that in breefe from 15 £ they rise me up to 75 £ wch was the price my paterone gave for mee being 300 ducketts and had I not been soe weake and in those ragg[s], And indeed I made my Selfe worse then I was for some time as they Led me I pretended I could not goe and did often sitt downe I saye had not these things been in all Likelyhood I had been sold fore nere as much agayne in the markitt and soe I had been the deerer and the difyculter to have been Redeemed.

During the time of my being Led up and downe the markitt I was possest with greate feares not knowing whom the patteron might bee. Some tymes I feared itt might be one of the turkes who might Cary me where I might never retorne or whether itt might not be one of the Crewelest in or abowte Sally some of which wee had sadd Carecters given us by the English Captives and many other dishearting thoughts I had and yett notwithstanding God was pleased to assist me by prayer unto his maiestye who beheld my affliccon unto whome amongst other I utered these words viz. Lord Although through thy Just Jugment I am now in the hand of a crewell man yet Lord I am not out of thy hands who orders all things. Christ soe dispose of me to such a one of whom I may finde fauvour wch Lord grant unto me for thy mercys sake. And though I was like to have [been] sold unto the most Crewelest man in Sally there being but one peece of eight between him and my patteron, yett the Lord was pleased to make him to buy me of whom I may speake to the glory of God was and had been by the report of all the best master to Captives in the place, which accordingly I found.

Abraham Browne was indeed fortunate in his master, for he was given relatively light tasks to perform and was cared for adequately. The thing that troubled Browne most was being under the orders of a black foreman who refused to drink out of the same water bucket used by him: “whereby I was despissed of the most despisedst people in the world.” Browne had been in captivity only three months when he was ransomed by a Philip Payne, an English merchant who had orders to ransom forty captives. Browne’s ransom amounted to £125 sterling, of which sum he gave a bill of exchange of £60 drawn on his master, Nicholas Opie of Plymouth.

After waiting for eleven weeks in Salé, Browne was put aboard a ship bound for England. The voyage of seven weeks was a difficult one, for the vessel leaked and all hands were almost constantly at the pumps. The voyagers despaired of ever reaching England again. Toward the end of December 1655, the vessel reached London, where Browne remained for seven weeks before returning to his friends in Plymouth. His wish to return to New England being still firm, Browne was enabled through his master’s kindness to sail in a ship of 150 tons, partially laden with English goods to the Cape Verde Islands, whence, after picking up salt, she proceeded to New England. The voyage started at Plymouth on 22 May 1656, and, to Browne’s great joy, ended in New England on 12 September 1656.
The joy did not last, for, despite the friendly reception given him, Browne found himself backsliding as the months passed. In about a year’s time he was again consorting with less than godly friends. A young gentlewoman whom he fell in love with in 1658 made his slide even faster. Finally, on the advice of friends, he parted from this enchantress and returned once again to more respectable ways. On 1 May 1660 Browne married Rebecca Usher, the daughter of Hezekiah Usher, a wealthy merchant of Boston. The marriage was performed by Governor John Endecott before a very great assembly. We trust a life of contentment followed. Browne’s comment is revealing: “thuse through the veryetye of changes the Lord was pleased to bring me to a seeming setled condicon, But a Lass our hyest rest here below is disrest and there is nothing under the sonn that can sattisfie the soule of man.[1]”

[1] https://archive.org/stream/richardsonsofwes00watk/richardsonsofwes00watk_djvu.txt

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[1] https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1979