Cuthbert Potter’s father, also Cuthbert, is noted in the recusancy accounts of 1604 for Worsale, where the squire was John Saire (Sawyer), another recusant. John Sayer, of Worsall, Esq., m. Margery da. and heir of William Conyers, of Thormanby, Esq. The son and heir was William Sayer, who m. Margaret, da. of Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Gilling, Knt., and died within twelve months after his father. John, the eldest son of William, succeeded to the estate; his son, John, m. a da. of Sir George Conyers of Sockburne, desc., (1625, Harl. MS. 805, fol. 131d. ), whose sister, Eleanor Conyers, m. Lancelot Strother, parents of William, father of William, who m. Dorothy Savage, in Gloucester Co., VA.
(As an interesting aside, it was the recusancy tax imposed by James I. that ignited the passions of a Yorkshire kinship circle of Catholics to perpetrate the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November, 1605; its aim being to “blow the king back to the Scottish mountains”, as said by Fawkes).
Cuthbert m. Mary Ward. “Marie Ward maryed together as they confesse but when, where or by whome they know not”. This accounts for Henry Ward’s Will in Virginia: “Know all men that I Henry Ward make my loveing friend Cuthbert Potter of Rappa my true and lawful attorney to ask and demand all such sums of porke and tobaccoes as are due me by specialtys from severall persons so indebted & co act to all intents in as full manner as I my self might do if present hereby confirming the same. In witness I have sett my hand & scale this 20th of May 1663, imn the presence of us Giles Cales, Henry Ward, Richard Robinson. Rappa. D.B 7, pp. 36-8: I Cuthbert Potter of the Parrish of Christ Church in the County of Middlesex grant unto my heirs the full moyety of one halfe part of a tract of land contaying five thousand two hundred seaventy five acres in the whole taken up and pattented by Thomas Chetwood and John Prosser ye Sixth and twentieth day of July 1667 the said land being scituate and being in the Freshes of the Rappahannock River on the north side thereof and known by the name of Nanzemund Indian towne in the County of Rappa. Now Know ye that I the said Cuthbert Potter for divers valluable causes have sold unto Ralph Wormley Esqr. two thousand acres of land part of the said moyety adjoyning to the lands of Mr. Anthony Savage, William Strother & Symon Miller. This fifteenth day of March 1682.
Fellow recusants of “Gyrsbie parishe” – “George Conyers of Sockburne Esquier, Hodgson widowe late wife of Thomas Hodgson; Recusantes a yeare & a halfe. Leonard Hoggard, a man of small wealth in Girsby, Agnes wife of John Conyers; Recusantes since 25 Marcii 1603 & not before. Agnes wife of the said John Conyers; Noncommunicant at Easter last. Note, in Virginia, Denis Conyers: To “my loving friend Mr Cuthbert Potter” 100 acres of land formerly sold to Peter Godson. “To my cousin Dennys Conyers now servant to Coll Matthews’land”.
Those connected:
Robinson v Conyers. Plaintiffs: John Robinson clerk and Henry Robinson. Defendants: George Conyers. Subject: money matters, Yorkshire. (C 6/15/157, 1647). Robinson v Alsopp. Plaintiffs: Henry Robinson. Defendants: James Alsop and John Elam. Subject: property in Wath, Yorkshire. (C 6/197/62, 1671). Indentures, lease and release. 1. Thomas Strangeways and son and heir Thomas. 2. Thomas Potter of Leeds, merchant, and wife Jane and her sister Elizabeth Strangeways. Under will of Thomas Strangeways (He m. Jane Robinson, da. of Luke Robinson (son of Arthur, undoubtedly related to the Cleasby Robinsons interm. with Potter) and Frances Hodson – M.S) snr. his daughter Jane was to have half his property, Palay Crofts, York; by agreement that 2 is to have all Paley’s croft and Dovecote, 1 to 2, the above property. (Nottingham University Library, Hn D 5/21/25/1-2, 12-13 March 1678). Robinson v Potter. Plaintiffs: Luke Robinson. Defendants: Thomas Potter and another. Place or subject: property in York, Yorkshire. (C 7/289/19, 1689). Letter from Thomas Potter (Mayor) at Leeds to Henry Squire regarding necessity for levying a fine for conveyance from Robinson. (Nottingham University Library, Hn D 5/21/33. Signature of Thomas Potter, 4 Apr. 1690). Bond: Henry and Robert Squire of York bound in £2,000 to Thomas Potter of Leeds. Conditions: to pay to Thomas Potter £1,000 with interest. Signatures of Henry and Robert Squires. (Nottingham University Library, Hn D 5/21/31, 28 March 1690).
The Alsops were most likely related to this family: Alsop v Handley. Plaintiffs: Thomas Allsopp gent, of Beale, Yorkshire. Defendants: Richard Handley, Sarah Handley, John Fox, John Turner, John Wigfall and Barbara Wigfall. Subject: Debts owed to the testator, the plaintiff’s late brother Durant Allsopp esq, of Sheffield, Yorkshire, deceased: Shertliffe Hall, Sheffield, Yorkshire. C 6/366/2. 1694-1695. Assignment: Durant Alsop of the Inner Temple, with the consent of John Wigfall of Renishaw (co. Derby), esquire, to John Lee of Hasleborrow, gentleman, and Thomas Bagshawe of Tidswall. Messuage or farm called the Oakes in Norton, with houses, buildings, lands, woods, etc. belonging; for the sum of £500. The property was originally mortgaged to Alsop for a sum of £1500 and a rent of £90, the £500 being to enable Wigfall to raise the arrears of payment. (Sheffield City Archives, OD/1. 20 Oct 1668). Alsop, Durant. Matric. pens. from Trinity, Easter, 1627. S. and h. of Robert, barrister, who married the heiress of Durant, of Durant Hall, Chesterfield, Derbs. Adm. at the Inner Temple, 1625. Will dated 18 Nov. 1671. Robert Cooke, of Sheffield. Will 14 April 1682; makes uncle Ric. Handley & Sara his wife Ex.; 1/3 of Shiercliffe Hall; names uncle Durant Alsop.
“Thomas Potter & Janeta Kirkbie“, 23 October 1630, Elland, Leeds, St Mary the Virgin
King George Co. “John Alsop & Elizabeth Conway“, 30 December 1739. She m. (2) William Jones.
John Alsop d. 9 Feb. 1749, in St. Paul’s Parish, Stafford Co. Elizabeth Conway was the da. of Christopher Conway, b. 3 May 1684, in Northumberland Co.; son of Dennis Conway ( d. 15 June 1709, Northumberland Co., aged 67), and Ann Eyres, da. of Denis Eyres:
1671, land purchase with Joshua Atkins, 370 ac. – Knoe all men by these presents: I, Dennis (sic) Eyes of ye County of Northumberland in ye Colony of Virga. for diverse good causes & valuable consideracons have sold unto Charles Fallon & Joshua Atkins both of ye County and Colony aforesd., vizt., one parcell of land by estimacon three hundred and seaventy acres being in ye County of Northumberland on ye South side of ye Maine Branch of Great Wickokomikcoe River beginning at a marked white Oak nigh sd. Branch wch. Divides this & a parcell of land in ye possession of James Gaylard & extending then South 140 poles to a marked Gum dividing this & ye land of David Jennings, thense Southeast by East 160 poles to a marked red Oake standing in a line of trees dividing this & ye land of James Pope, thence East along yt. line to a marked Hicory in a Swampe called Pope’s Swamp, thence North by East 187 poles to marked red Oake standing on a point where Pope’s Swamp & ye Maine Branch of Wickokomikcoe meet, thence West up ye sd Branch to ye first stand. wch. sd. Land I ye sd Dennis Eyes doe make sale of from mee my heires to ye sd, Charles and Joshua to them their heirs, excepting Ten acres of ye Land beforemenconed sch by agreemt. I reserve for my owne use & for ye use of my heires, the sd. Quantity of Ten acres bounding upon my Land yt I am now seated on & is some certeyne Islands & places adjacent made soe by ye inclosure of ye sd. Swampe or Branches of ye sd Maine Branch of ye River abovesd.. And I ye sd Denis doe further engage that ye sd. Charles and Joshua shall have quiet possession of 360 acres of land part of ye dividend of land abovesd joyntly or severally from ye molestacon of mee my heires or any clayme from any of them. As Wittness my hand & seale this 26th of Octobr 1671. Sealed & Delivered in ye presence of Thomas Daniell. Thomas Aldwell.
Northumberland Co. Court, 16th of April 1701: Mary Eyes Widdow & Relict of Dennis Eyes petic’or husbands Estate he dying Intestate & Dennis Conway & withal moveing this Court for a Caveatt to p’vent Admon, to Stop the said Adm’c’on till next Court the said Conway. Upon the moc’on of David Conway, John Conway & Dennis Conway Jr. Exec’s a probate is granted them of the Last Will and Testament of Dennis Eyes dec’ed the Will being proved by the Oaths of Richard Rice, Dennis Conway Jr. & Patrick Connor who made Oath in Court that they did heare the said Dennis eyes Owne the same to be his last Will and Testament and the same is admitted to Record.
C&P 5, p. 493: Dennis Eyes and Dennis Conway, 400 acs. N’umberland Co., 11 Mar. 1662, p. 306, (281). Nwd. side of the main br. of great Wiccocomoco Riv. Trans. of 8 pers: Tho. Fuell, James Duke, Tho. Carter, Math. Wood, Jane Marsh, Tho. Tally.
John Conway, son of Dennis: “Motion of Dennis Conway, John Conway and Dennis Conway, Junior. A probate to them of the last will of Dennis Eyre, dec’d approved by Richard Rice, Dennis Conway, Jun. and Patrick Connor”. April 16, 1701. He m. Susanna Rout, da. of Thomas Rout. Their son, Thomas Conway, m. Elizabeth Mauzy, the widow of John Markham, and da. of John Mauzy and Mary Crosby. The said John Markham was the son of William Markham, d. 1734. (Holly G. Wright and F. Edward Wright, Colonial Families of the Northern Neck of Virginia, pp. 143-145), son of Lewis Markham; d. 24 June 1713, in Washington Parish, Westmoreland Co., aged 44.
Westm. Co. D&W, B. 8, p. 260: In Obedience to an Order of Westmorland County Court bearing date the 29th a day of May last past made in a suit there depending between John Price, Plt. … We find a Patent bearing date the fifteenth day of September 1651 by which two hundred acres of Land are granted unto Thomas Blagg. We find that Richard Brown and Thomas Tyrwhitt were afterwards, to wit, the eighth day of March 1668, seised in fee of the said premises. … We find a Deed bearing date the ninth day of February 1697 by which one hundred acres of land, part of the said two hundred acres of Land are granted unto Lewis Markham as escheated from the said Thomas Tyrwhitt, that the said Lewis Markham entered into the said Land & was thereof seised in fee died so seised, that after the death of the said Lewis Markham, William Markham as Son & heir of the said Lewis entered into the said One hundred acres of Land & was thereof seised and being so seised by Deeds of Lease and Release bearing date the nineteenth and twentieth days of April 1732 granted & conveyed the said one hundred acres of land unto John Price, the Pit., at the request of the Plt.
This is pure “Yorkshire Mixture”.
copyright m stanhope 2017
Walter FitzGilbert de Hamilton 
Hello Michael,
May I just mention the following snippets, in case they might be of any help to you or others in studying Cuthbert Potter’s kinships?
You record that he sold 2,000 acres in Virginia to Ralph Wormley, in 1682, and talk about the Conyers family and other recruisants.
In the 1500s to 1600s there was a small branch of my family, Wormleys, living at a village called Hurworth-on-Tees. This is only about two or three miles from Sockburn and about four miles from Worsall.
The Hurworth family were presumably cousins of my direct ancestors, who lived further south at Hatfield, Hull and Riccall in those times. I know they were connected with each other, but not details of how and when the Hurworth family branched off and moved 50 miles or more northwards to the Yorkshire-Durham border.
They also seem, surprisingly, to have owned a remote house at a hamlet called Rosgill on the edge of the Lake District, heading up into the moors around Shap. This house was confiscated because of the Hurworth Wormley family’s recruisancy in the 1640s.
About ten years later, the first Ralph Wormley, who was an early settler in Virginia, started building the finest house in the colony of the 17th century. It was called Rosegill – presumably named after the Wormleys’ former house in Westmorland (now part of Cumbria), but I have never been able to find out any more about this tenuous link.
A number of American people have expressed interest to me over a few years about the origins of Ralph Wormley of Virginia. He was definitely part of my ancestral family, but there doesn’t seem to be any surviving record of him being Christened or living in England as a boy or young man. He springs into existence as a justice in Virginia in 1637.
Ralph took over the Virginia lands of my ancestor Christopher Wormeley, and older books say that they were brothers. I think it is more probable that they were father and son – or that Ralph was a “cousin” of Christopher and came from the Hurworth/Rosgill family. I spent some time researching into this because it became intriguing to get to the bottom of, and I would have liked to have found clarification for the interest of Americans who had asked me about it. But in the end I could only produce a discursive view of the several possibilities for Ralph’s parents. A fascinating enigma.
However, it is interesting to learn that these families’ kinship connections in England continued for certainly some decades in north America.
Prior to settlement of Virginia, Simon Wormeley of Hatfield, near Doncaster, was cited in the early Elizabethan Diocesan Returns of Recrusants “for obstinat refusinge to receave ye Comunyon”. Records show that he was later “reconciled”, presumably meaning he eventually accepted the new Church of England.
He married Ann Claxton of Burn Hall, close to Durham. Probably through this marriage, he was recorded in 1580 as paying £5 a year rent to Durham Cathedral for some land at Cold Heseldon, near Seaham on the coast of Durham. The couple were certainly married by 1577, when they jointly bought some meadow land in Hatfield from a Bryan Stringer.
The Claxtons had cousins at Hurworth on the the Yorkshire-Durham border, where the other branch of the Wormley family lived, and it seems likely that this may have brought about Simon and Ann’s introduction. The Claxtons and the Hurworth Wormeleys were both related to the Conyers, although I have struggled to find out precisely how. These Hurworth Wormeleys and Conyers both had property confiscated for being recrusants.
The Wormleys also had a connection with the Fairfax family of Gilling Castle in Yorkshire. Their arms appear impaled by the arms of Fairfax in one of the finest surviving painted glass windows from Tudor times – the bay window of the great chamber at Gilling Castle, created for Sir William Fairfax in 1585, to portray his family’s heraldry.
The only known marriage between these two families was the wedding of Edward Wormley and Dorothy Fairfax in 1666. However, as the glass in this panel is believed by experts to be original, it suggests there was an earlier Wormeley-Fairfax marriage, sometime before 1585. I haven’t found any record of one, but, once again, it’s a snippet of knowledge that suggests a long-term continuation of association between these v arious families before and after early colonization in America.
In the late 1500s, our ancestor Christopher Wormeley, ship-owner and chamberlain of Hull, mentioned in his will that one of his properties there had been put in the custody of the Advocate and Registrar of the Commissary Court in York – Edward Fawkes, who died in 1579.
In 1570, Edward Fawkes had become the father of a baby that was named Guy. Several decades later, Guy Fawkes was caught in the act of attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament and everyone inside the building. This event has been remembered throughout Britain every year ever since as an act of infamy on Bonfire Night, November 5th.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that the Wormleys had anything at all to do with the Gunpowder Plot, but I was interested to see the same names crop up in your writings.
I don’t know if any of that is helpful or relevant at all to your work on Cuthbert Potter and other families you have been writing about, but I just thought I would throw in these jottings, in case they might be of any assistance.
If anybody should want to see more detail, please have a look at my website history of the Wormley family at:
http://www.wormleyfamilyhistory.com
I’m sorry there is no index, but if you look first at the contents page near the beginning and then scroll down there are references to Ralph Wormley, Conyers, recruisants, Fairfax and Fawkes etc in these short chapters:
Shocking Elizabethan Sex Scandals Fought Out in the Courts.
Wormley Shield is Preserved in a Castle Window: Heraldry Hints at Other Marriages.
Christopher Wormeley: Chamberlain of Kingston-upon-Hull.
The First Wormleys in Virginia.
(2) Michael, please may I ask a question? Is there any historical evidence connecting the Norman-medieval de Heriz family of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire with any of the Harris families and their ‘kinship associates’ that you have written about in impressive detail during recent months?
If the answer to that is no, then I will add that, in my opinion, neither is there any reliable Y-DNA evidence for a belief that men who have the “Harris Group 4” DNA profile are directly descended from these same knights.
I am not stating it is impossible that the Harris Group 4s (or any other modern-day Harris family) are a continuation of the de Heriz. But I am suggesting that estimates which have been made elsewhere, over the past few years, using a “Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor” calculator, set to FTDNA STR mutation rates, have probably led to some very misleading genealogical conclusions. More advanced, cutting-edge, scientific studies, using SNP rather than STR DNA data, currently challenge previous assertions genetically linking people with “Group 4” DNA to other families whose ancestors are known to have had medieval historical associations with the de Heriz. Such genetical links were almost certainly far longer ago, in ancient periods.
DNA is definitely not useless in assisting with genealogy, I promise, but unfortunately there have been some great misunderstandings in the early years of its scientific contribution. In future I am sure it will be a hugely valuable tool in genuinely advancing genealogical knowledge. At present, I suggest that tracing of any specific Harris family back to the Heriz would require a chain of historical proof.
Best regards,
Nick Wormley.
LikeLike