Category Archives: Uncategorized

1t seems many years since I was introduced to a triumverate of Harris, a “Captain”, “Major”, and “Sergeant”, who, by the accepted wisdom of that time. were all related; the “Captain”, brother of the “Sergeant”, was father of the “Major”. … Continue reading →

1. John Hardie (Strode v Strode. Plaintiffs: Sir Richard Strode kt of Chalmington. Defendants: John Strode, esq of Chantmarell, JP, counsellor-at-law, Hugh Crabb, John Hardie, late steward of the manor of Beaminster Prima, Richard Christmas, gent of Sydling, Anne Watkins … Continue reading →

To follow up on a previous post: The introduction to The Marriage Registers of St. Dunstan’s Stepney, in the County of Middlesex, Thomas Collyer-Fergusson, ed., 1898, comments: “This volume does not require many words of introduction, as anyone familiar with … Continue reading →

In the perspective of English genealogists of old, the interconnections between some of the descendants of Thomas Harris, d. 1688, and Robert Lancaster Sr. would have invariably arose from connecting points in common, both geographical and familial. In the latter … Continue reading →

INTRODUCTION QUAKER POWELLS OF SOMERSET – Among the converts to Quakerism who suffered therefore were the following: “Gregory, Jerome and Thomas Powell, all arrested at Gregory Stoke, in the year 1662; Thomas Powell, of Middlezoy, arrested at Bridgewater, 1670; Samuel … Continue reading →

Genealogy can be an opportunity to speculate about those we imagine as ancestors. In terms of English ancestors who colonised early Virginia, speculation is stimied by a lack of surviving documents, and the dubious authenticity of others, leading to imaginative … Continue reading →

REVISIONS – DISPENSERS OF THE EARL OF CHESTER – TURSTIN FILIUS ROLF NORMAN, etc. 1. Torf. According to Robert of Torigny (GND, viii. c. 37), Torf was the father of Turold and Turchetil (see also OV ii. 12). 1.1. Turold … Continue reading →

A great historian once likened trying to identify people of the Conquest era to peering into a thick fog, where indistinguishable figures came in and out of view. The Norman chroniclers do not always offer reliable insights. William de Jumièges, … Continue reading →

I have often commented on the extremely interconnected ancestries of a “middling” section of English that orbited their superior lords as their tenants, always plotting, as some game of marital chess, a strategy to marry into their lord’s family, so … Continue reading →

This article will differentiate between the English kinship groups to which Captain Thomas Harris (of Buckinghamshire), and Major William Harris (of Shropshire), belonged, and will show that the myth of the latter being the son of the former was the … Continue reading →

SHAWBURY MARKET HALL The following notice concerns a particular family of Kirby, of Shawbury, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and, later, of Goochland, Virginia. It places them within the context of a group of families (kinship circle) that had intermarried over successive … Continue reading →

The Norman elite can be identified when the method by which they formed familial associations is understood – “Foedus inter consobinos heredes” – inheritance (and close tenurial association) passing down non-consanguineous lines of cousins. The following notes seek to correct … Continue reading →

So many genealogical accounts of the origins of English settlers in early Virginia commence with prestigious families that are recorded in the tomes of Mr. Burke, et al.; understandably so, for it is no simple task to identify clusters of … Continue reading →

When considering the possible ancestry of John ap Harry (John Harris) of Cruckton, near Shrewsbury, who m. Margaret Leighton, dau. of Sir Thomas Leighton (by his mistress, Ann Baker), husband of Elizabeth Devereux, it may be pertinent to consider that … Continue reading →

The following notes were compiled with a substantial input from B.T. Shannon, who has also kindly edited them. “The answer is in the soil”, as a historian of note once said, when explaining that adjoining landholders in medieval times were … Continue reading →

English settlement of early Virginia is a deep-rooted subject, which cannot be understood by simply observing, as a forrest, the visible branches of ‘genealogical trees’. It is necessary to delve into the vast and interconnected kinship network that lays beneath … Continue reading →

ARNEWAY, COCKE, GARNER 1. … 1.1. William Cocke, Will 1582. Indenture dated Oct. 2O, 1614 12 Jas. I. Between (1) Sir George Hayward of Acton Burnell Kt.; (2) John Lutley of Bromscroft, gent. Reciting (i) Lease (4 Eliz) by Sir … Continue reading →

Precis from Proceedings, vols. 29-30, Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, pp. 19-32, 1884: “In the Gheld Inquest of Somerset, taken in 1084, it is recorded that in Wivelscoma there was one mill, and rent amounting to fifty pence; there … Continue reading →

The notes that follow concern the Cresett family of Upton Cresset, Shropshire. As in any area of enquiry that demands references for what is claimed, it is not their number or the format used to display them that is important; … Continue reading →

A Harris family of Somerset, intermarried with such families as Bennett, Blake and Westbrooke, settled in 17th century colonial Virginia, and continued to be associated with them. As I have stated many times, this ‘continuation of association’ was a centuries-old … Continue reading →