How much do you believe genealogy can really go back? To arrival from the Old Country? Knights of the Middle Ages? Charlemagne in 800 AD? Adam and Eve? (see West and Presbury-Mayflower Pedigree Charts)
Here's a fact that gives me chills every time I mention it. My children are descended from Moses's brother Aaron on their paternal line. Yes, that Moses. DNA testing shows that they belong to paternal genetic haplogroup J-1. Kohanim, members of a special hereditary priest class of Jews that is passed down from father to son, have J-1 haplotype. (this data is constantly being refined). Kohanim believe that they are all descendants of Aaron. A DNA study of kohanim around the world, the US, Israel, Europe, South America, found that over 90% of kohanim Jews are descended from one man. That man lived 3000 years ago. Aaron.
Kohanim aside, genealogy is difficult if you are not of English ancestry. The English have kept meticulous records since the Domesday Book census in 1086 AD. At about that time, surnames came into use, much earlier than in other countries, making it possible to follow people back to their father, and his father, and so on. Strict religious customs required churches to record baptisms and marriages, which usually have family info, of all people, not just the rich and famous. England has been blessedly free of destructive wars, so its parish registers are largely intact. (Records in Hesse, where my Sulzbach ancestors are from, only go back to the destruction of the region in 1630s). And of course, the English are fascinated with nobility and the rightful descent of kings since the time of King Arthur. Have you seen The Sword in the Stone?
Margaret Adelia West Ells, in her book West Lines that I am using to prove Spence-Rushton-West descent from the Mayflower, writes this in Part I , The Wests and their Name:
"The name of West is...believed to have originated with one Thomas de West, an early medieval warrior.
The renowned house of West, Lord de la Warr, claims descent from the Kings of Burgundy (450 AD); the Kings of France (732 AD); the Kings of England (800 AD); the Kings of Italy (850 AD); the Holy Roman Emperors (1030 AD); William the Conqueror (1060 AD); St. David, King of Scotland; Ann of Russia; and the Plantagenets. [that would be King Richard the Lion-Hearted]. Through the De la Warrs --- through a line of knights, peers, and warriors who served with honor under Edward I, Edward III, Richard II, and the Black Prince ---- the Wests, Lords de la Warr, trace their pedigree back to Alfred the Great."
Whew! That's a lot of kings!
"The families of West and De la Warr merged about 1390 with the marriage of Joan (died 1404), daughter of Roger la Warre, Lord la Warre (1326-1370) by his third wife, Alianore, daughter of Sir John de Moubray, to Sir Thomas West, Lord West. This Sir Thomas West was a grandson of Sir Thomas West of Hamperdeen, Cantalupe, and Great Tarrington, Devonshire, who took part in the wars of Edward III, attained to the peerage in 1326 [I think that means became a lord] and married Lady Elenor of Cantalupe."
How accurate is any of this? I have no idea.
As far as I can tell, just like anything else, if it provides source citations, it's probably accurate, and if it doesn't, well...who knows?
"Outstanding in English history, the Wests have done honor to their name in America as well, both in affairs of Government and in the development of the Country. The Wests...were among the earliest settlers in the New World....Writers have described them as a hardy, courageous, adventurous race, gifted with imagination, idealism, and high intellectual power together with a strength of character which has made them leaders of men in both thought and action. These traits...have produced not only notable soldiers, pioneers and statesmen, but also famous artists, poets, writers, educators, physicians, and clergymen." Biased much?
Margaret Adelia got her information on the medieval English Wests from "West Family Register" by Letta Stone, 5x great-granddaughter of Joseph West of Maryland. It is written in 1928, well-sourced, and in the library of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. So, pretty credible, I think. However, she used Burke's Peerage, which has now been shown to be wrong a lot of the time.
Letta Stone's West Family Register is a much more interesting read. First there is Alfred the Great, who twelve generations later, begat King Henry III. King Henry's great-great-great-granddaughter Eleanor married Baron Roger La Warr, getting that royal blood into the De La Warr family. Then Eleanor and Roger's daughter Joan married Sir Thomas West, getting all that royal DNA into the West descendants. Sir Thomas was known as Thomas de West. He became a knight in 1326 and later, a baron for bravery during battle with King Edward III.
battle of Poitiers, France, 1356, an English victory during the Hundred Years' WarThe earliest La Warr mentioned in history was John La Warr, who was lord of Bristolton in Gloucestershire during the reign of King John in 1200 AD. You know, the King John who kept getting robbed by Robin Hood. Speaking of King John, Eleanor's forebear Lord Mowbray was one of the barons who enforced King John's adherence to the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta, in case you don't remember your civics, is the first document of democracy since Ancient Rome, forced on King John because everyone hated him so much. And then there's Reginald, the 6th Baron de la Warr, who made 2 pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the mid-1400s.
arrival in the New WorldSeveral barons later, in the late 1500s, Lord Thomas (West) de la Warr and his wife Anne Knollys had 4 sons, Thomas, Francis, Nathaniel, and John, who were pioneers to the New World. West Lines clearly says, falsely, that Francis arrived in Virginia in 1607 with Christopher Newport and John Smith to found Jamestown, the first permanent English-speaking colony in the New World. Two pages later, it correctly says that the same Francis West arrived in 1608, when Jamestown was already a year old. *
Thomas was appointed the first governor of Virginia in 1610. The West brothers owned land on the north side of the James River, which later became the famous plantations of Shirley, named for Thomas's wife, and Westover. (Just miles from my home, I have visited them many times without noticing their West connection). Nathaniel came to Virginia but didn't live long enough to do much. John held several government offices and began a plantation at West Point, Virginia.
Westover PlantationMrs. Ells and Mrs. Stone differ, though, on whether we actually are descended from all these great Wests. If we are, it is from Capt. Francis.
Francis West, younger brother of the baron, made several voyages back and forth from England to build the colony and served as governor from 1627 to 1629. Francis took over the position when the previous governor died and promptly married his widow. She quickly died and Francis married his 3rd wife on his next trip home. He returned to Virginia 2 years later and died after another 3 years. Francis only had one surviving child, a son also named Francis.
The question is, are we descended from son Francis? If we are, then we can lay claim to King Alfred the Great, the Magna Carta, Jamestown and all the rest. If not, then our West ancestry in England is blank.
We are most definitely descended from Francis West, the first West in New England, and his wife Margery Reeves, who were married in Massachusetts on Feb. 27, 1639. What we need to know is, is Margery's husband Francis the same person as son Francis West De La Warr?
Mrs. Ells connects the Massachusetts Wests to the Virginia Wests. She believes that son Francis was born in 1606, before any Virginia trips, the son of Capt. Francis De La Warr's 1st wife Margaret. She quotes another genealogy, Winston of Virginia and Allied Families, which is also a source on Ancestry.com. But the Winston book says that son Francis was a baby when his father died, the child of 3rd wife Jane.
Mrs. Stone believes they are completely different families. She writes "Years ago discussion raged over the English ancestry of this Francis [Margery's husband] and an endeavor was made to prove that he was [the son] of Capt. Francis West, one of the 3 early De La Warr Wests who came to this country. Banks [whoever that is] says that the claim has no basis in fact." She goes on to talk about a tombstone that has a weird amount of information which she doesn't think is credible.
All this stuff in history actually happened. The question is, are we descended from these important people? I find that hard to wrap my head around, but I guess somebody has to be descended from King Alfred the Great. By the way, he is so great because he consolidated various Saxon kingdoms into one nation in 886 AD. (England became one nation 500 years before France and 1000 years before Germany). He loved to read and memorize poetry, traced his genealogy to Adam and Eve, had laws and books translated into English, and promoted literacy for the common people, a man after my own heart. Maybe I am his daughter born 1000 years later.
* West Lines, by Margaret Adelia West Ells, on page 17: "...on Dec. 20, 1606, one hundred and forty-four men, including Captains Christopher Newport, Francis West and John Smith , sailed in three small vessels from England to establish a colony in Virginia..." To me, this implies that each ship was captained by each man. Actually, Captain Newport was the only master; he commanded the fleet and the biggest ship, Susan Constant. John Smith was on board, but he arrived in America in chains, having been arrested for mutiny. He was saved from execution when the leaders opened their orders and found that John Smith was supposed to be a colony leader!
On page 19, West Lines states that "Francis arrived in Virginia with Newport in 1608..." This is true. With competing facts on pages so close together, West Lines, in my opinion, is not all that accurate, at least for this section.*
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poitiers
https://shirleyplantation.com/history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great
http://www.jamesriverplantations.org/Westover.html
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/15271/images/dvm_GenMono000709-00175-0?ssrc=&backlabel=Return (for Winston of Virginia and Allied Families)
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/15242/images/dvm_GenMono000677-00175-0?ssrc=&backlabel=Return (for The West Family Register - Important Lines Traced 1326-1928)
Margaret Adelia Ells, West Lines, Specialty Printers, Truro, NS, 1978
Comments
Post a Comment