I've been reading and reviewing Brandon Fradd's new book on the Winslow Families of medieval England 1400-1700. The first thing that comes to my mind is how unbelievable it is that it's 2009 already. This book was written in large part to continue the research of the late Marshall Kirk whose 2000 NEHGR article Loving Cosens was also about the Winslows of Massachusetts and their potential royal and gentry ancestry.
I helped Marshall with the the Loving Cosens article. I worked at Widener Library from 1996 to 1999 and retrieved many items for him. I am also a Winslow descendant and I proofread several drafts of the article. I believe I'm mentioned in two footnotes [the entire article is reproduced in the book as Appendix A]. Marshall died in 2005.
In any case, Brandon (as I did) thought Marshall had an excellent theory and set out to prove it. The volume is his research effort to that end. In short, Fradd feels that Kirk's theory is no longer credible. I have to say that Fradd's discovery of the will of Lady Elizabeth (Willoughby) Greville is very important and does shut the door on the thought that an unnamed older daughter of hers was the wife of Kenelm Winslow, the grandfather of the Winslow brothers.
Fradd details the relationships between the Buck and Winslow families and conjectures a Buck descent. However, Fradd is very cautious and, in short, does not even firmly state that the father of EdwardA Winslow was KenelmB Winslow [he does give five main points why that relationship was true]. The Buck descent would still explain why both Dorothy Hesilrige and Elizabeth Pelham mentioned Gov. Edward Winslow of Plymouth as cousin in letters both to him and John Winthrop.
The book is unusual insofar as it is a research notebook of all pertinent documents found, none of which shed any light on the Winslows' ancestry. Several other Winslow families, some branches of other families, are given where they were pieced together. I wish there had been a Buck genealogical section, since that family plays such an important role.
So, I'm left a bit perplexed. I have to believe that Winslow, Hesilrige, and Pelham were cognizant of their fifth cousinship via the Neville family [a younger brother of the 2nd Lord Latimer]. Or I have to believe that both Fulke and Elizabeth failed to mention a daughter who was ostensibly living close by. I find neither situation appealing or believable. I have a feeling something else may be happening, but what?
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