The Slovak Yankee

Another Wrong Royal Line. This one for Rev. Roger Newton

I have already written about the unlikely fact that the English Origins of the Rev. Roger Newton of Milford, Connecticut are unknown.  He studied at King's College, Cambridge U. in England and finished his studies at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He was a protege of the Rev. Thomas Hooker whose daughter Mary he married.

A google search of Roger Newton shows an entry  in the Milford Hall of Fame webpage.   This biography claims that Roger Newton is of the same family as Sir Isaac Newton (doubtful) and that his father was Samuel Newton and Grandparents were John Newton (b. 1565) and  Alice Hales.  All of this is without evidence or citation.

If you then google John Newton and Alice Hales you get a fanciful royal line to Edward I.

1. Edward I m. Eleanor, Princess of Castile
2. Elizabeth m. Humphrey VIII de Bohun
3. Margaret de Bohun m. Hugh de Courtenay
4. Philip de Courtenay m. Anne Wake
5. John de Courtenay m. Joan Champernoun
6. Philip de Courtenay m. Elizabeth Hungerford
7. Catherine de Courtenay m. William Huddesfield
8. Elizabeth Huddesfield m. Anthony Poyntz
9. Margaret Poyntz m. John Craddock (sic) Newton
10. Henry Newton m. Catherine Paston
11. John Newton m. Alice Hales
12. Samuel Newton m. (---)
13. Rev. Roger Newton

This line falls apart at lines 9 and 11 and 12.  (If not more than that).  All the wonderful royal lines I could have if I weren't particular.

This pedigree has the added flourish of a descent from Jacquetta of Luxembourg through one of her Woodville children. 

The False Royal Line of Thomas Gardiner b.ca. 1531-1590 of London, England

Occasionally I google the names of ancestors who are dead ends to see if someone else has broken through or is working on them.  I happen to descend from Thomas Gardiner and Katherine Benbowe of London, England.  They are covered in the Visitations of London and Essex where Katherine is given as Benbowe or Dembowe.  Their son Christopher married Jane Topp.

Thomas Gardiner is given as the son of a Robert Gardiner and grandson of a John Gardiner.

I found Thomas and Katherine today on a webpage with ancestors.  I was curious. It is called McCay/Stevens  Genealogy Pages.  Well, the red flag went up right away.  Katherine Benbowe's father is given as Richard Donbolde Benbowe born say 1530.  No one in England had middle names in the 16th century (and earlier). 

Thomas Gardiner is given as the son of John Gardiner and Agnes Hornsey and grandson of a Richard Gardiner.  That Richard was the son of a William John Gardiner b. 1459 and Helen Tudor.  Again a middle name in the 15th century.

Well, Tudor is quite the name to come across and indeed she is the illegitimate daughter of Sir Jasper Tudor, the Duke of Bedford and uncle to Henry VII of England.  Sir Jasper is the second son of Owen Tudor and Katherine of Valois, first Queen to Henry V and daughter of Charles VI of France.

Well, be still my beating heart.  What a line.  It took almost no time to tear this up.  Helen Tudor is indeed the illegitimate daughter of Sir Jasper Tudor.  She married a William Gardiner, citizen of London.  She had five children, one son and 4 daughters.  The son became a monk (Thomas Gardiner) and the Gardiner name dies out there.

So some enterprising genealogist has concocted a way to get from Helen and William to another Gardiner family, citizens of London.  I would have liked a Tudor line.

Latest Article

My latest article is out:

A Review of Royally Descended Immigrants to New Hampshire, The New Hampshire Genealogical Record 36 (2024):43-47.

It's a simple article showing the royal descents of several New Hampshire immigrants.  Two were recently published in The American Genealogist and I thought that New Hampshirites might not see them.  And I never published my own research on Rose (Stoughton) Otis.

 

 

The Mowbray Connection

Gary Boyd Roberts is a famous genealogist known for two published series.  One is on the ancestors of the American presidents and the other is on royally-descended immigrants to North America.  I've owned all his books at one time or another.

However, his life's work is an unpublished set called the Mowbray Connection where in dozens of notebooks he traces the ancestry of famous people.  And he shows how most are connected via English ancestry.  That made me think of my own Mowbray Connections.

Starting with:

1. Roger de Mowbray, 1st Lord Mowbray c. 1257-1297 m. Roese de Clare
2. John de Mowbray, 2nd Lord Mowbray 1286-1322 m. Aline de Braiose  they were the parents of Christina de Mowbray who married Sir William de Plumpton who are ancestral to Peter Worden
3. John de Mowbray, 3rd Lord Mowbray, 1310-1362 m. Joan of Lancaster  they were the parents of Eleanor de Mowbray who married Roger La Warre, 3rd Lord la Warre and are ancestral to Rose (Stoughton) Otis
4. John de Mowbray, 4th Lord Mowbray, 1340-1368 m. Elizabeth de Segrave
5. Eleanor de Mowbray m. Sir John de Welles, 5th Lord Welles who are ancestral to Anne Eure and Elizabeth (Mansfield) Wilson.

So I have three immigrants of royal descent with Mowbray ancestry.

Charles III and Catherine the Great

Something I haven't read or seen is the fact that for the first time, a descendant of Catherine the Great is sitting on the English throne.  Not only do her descendants sit on the throne of Russia, but also the thrones of Greece, Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.  That's pretty impressive given that Catherine had but one legitimate son.

That also means Peter the Great is behind Charles III.

1. Peter the Great of Russia m. Catherine I of Russia
2. Grand Duchess Anna m. Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein Gotorp
3. Peter III of Russia m. Catherine the Great of Russia
4. Paul I of Russia m. Sophia Dorothea of Wurttemburg
5. Nicholas I of  Russia m. Charlotte of Prussia
6. Grand Duke Konstantin m. Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg
7. Olga m. George I of Greece
8. Andrew, Prince of Greece m. Alice of Battenberg
9. Philip, Duke of Edinburgh m. Elizabeth II of England
10. Charles III of England

 

 

Interrelated Royal Gateways

If my assumption that Thomas Bradbury's Fulnetby ancestors descend from the Sothills (and that's just one generation back in the visitations from provable ancestry), then Thomas Bradbury and William Wentworth are fifth cousins once removed.   Likewise Thomas Bradbury and Elizabeth (Mansfield) Wilson are sixth cousins via Lionel de Welles.

John Fulnetby

The Fulnetby's weren't very imaginative and named the heir of their line John Fulnetby for five generations.   Therefore you have to sort through all the John Fulnetby's and assign to them a correct wife or wives.

 

1. John Fulnetby born say 1390 was alive in April 1429 when he is named in a lawsuit with his wife.  He was the son of John Fulnetby and Eleanor Skipwith.  John married Jane (or Joan) Towers who was also alive in April 1429.
2. John Fulnetby born say 1420.  He married a daughter of Gerard Sothill according to the Visitations.
3. John Fulnetby born about 1455 and died before 3 November 1528.  He married twice, first to Elizabeth Eland by whom he had two daughters and then to Jane Dymoke born say 1465, daughter of Sir Thomas Dymoke and Margaret de Welles.  Through this marriage all descendants share a descent from Edward I of England.
4. Several children including Godfrey Fulnetby and Katherine Fulnetby and Elizabeth Fulnetby who married Gerard Sothill.  Godfrey married a Goodrich which made him and his sisters near kin of the Bishop of Ely.

You can see that Visitations clearly note a Fulnetby and Sothill marriage but disagree when and which generation.  However, by marriage #2 if provable Thomas Bradbury would have additional royal ancestry as follows:

1. William I, "the Lion" King of Scotland with Isabel Avenal
2. Isabel of Scotland m. Robert de Ros
3. Sir Robert de Ros m. Christine Bertram
4. Robert de Ros m. Margaret Brus
5. Robert de Ros m. Laura (---)
6. Margaret de Ros m. John Salweyn
7. Sir Gerard Salvain m. Agnes Mauleverer
8. Sir Gerard Salvain m. Alice (---)
9. Muriel Salvain m. Sir Gerard Sothill
10. daughter m. John Fulnetby
11. John Fulnetby m. Jane Dymoke
12. Katherine Fulnetby m. William Dynewell
13. Anne Dynewell m. Henry Whitgift
14. William Whitgift m. Margaret Bell
15. Elizabeth Whitgift m. Wymond Bradbury
16. Thomas Bradbury

 

*Caution.  The above pedigree is rendered no good by the completion of the William Wentworth article which shows Sir Gerald Sothill married a Joan (---) Wascelin.  The Salvain descent is thrown out.

David I and Holyrood Abbey

We went to visit Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh which is the king's official residence in Scotland.  Next to the palace are the ruins of Holyrood Abbey which was built by King David I of Scotland in memory of his mother St. Margaret of Scotland.

David I c. 1080-1153 has a single son through which you can descend, Henry of Huntingdon, Earl of Northumberland.  But I descend through five of Henry's children:

• William I the Lion of Scotland (through two of his daughters)
• David de Huntingdon, Earl of Huntingdon (through three of his daughters)
• Margaret de Huntingdon wife of Humphrey IV de Bohun
• Ada de Huntingdon wife of Florent III, Count of Holland
• Marjory de Huntingdon, wife of Gilchrist de Angus, Earl of Angus

I've already written a posting on the descent of Scottish kings to Anne Eure.  William the Lion is the royal ancestor of Peter Worden.

 

Lionel de Welles, K.G.

I wrote the Thomas Bradbury article and it has a logical hypothesis on the royal line through the Fulnetbys.  I include it in my own database because I descend from Thomas Bradbury, but I also descend from the key couple in the line already.  That couple is Lionel de  Welles, the 6th Lord Welles who died in 1461 and his wife Joan de Waterton.  Among their children were:

1. Cecily de Welles m. Sir Robert Willoughby
2. Christopher Willoughby, 10th Lord Willoughby m. Margaret Jenney
3. Elizabeth Willoughby m. William Eure, 1st Lord Eure
4. Sir Ralph Eure m. Margery Bowes
5. Anne  Eure m. Lancelot Mansfield
6. John Mansfield m. Elizabeth (---)
7. Elizabeth Mansfield of Boston, Mass. m. John Wilson

 

1. Margaret de Welles, sister of Cicely m. Sir Thomas Dymoke
2. Jane Dymoke m. John Fulnetby
3. Katherine Fulnetby m. William Dynewell
4. Anne Dynewell m. Henry Whitgift
5. William Whitgift m. Margaret Bell
6. Elizabeth Whitgift m. Wymond Bradbury
7. Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Mass. m. Mary Perkins

So  I descend from this couple no matter what.  If this identification holds up then Elizabeth Mansfield and Thomas Bradbury were sixth cousins.  Lionel is given a page in the Ancestry of American Presidents.  Among his descendants are George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and both Bush presidents.

 Lionel is also an ancestor of Michael's royal ancestor Anne Skipwith Goforth.

1. Margaret de Welles m. Sir  Thomas  Dymoke
2. Lionel Dymoke m. Joan Griffith
3. Alice Dymoke m. William Skipwith
4. Henry Skipwith m. Jane Hall
5. Anne Skipwith m. Henry Smith
6. Sarah Smith m. Dr. Patrick Saunders
7. Honora Saunders m. Willoughby Skipwith (half third cousins through the Skipwith family)
8. Anne Skipwith, of Philadelphia, Penn. m. William Goforth

 

Visitations

I was enjoying a recent article in TAG on the Sothill and Fauconberge ancestry of William  Wentworth of New Hampshire.  He was the only New Hampshire person of gentry origins and of royal descent until I discovered Rose (Stoughton) Otis's background.  Now the Sanborn brothers make three New Hampshirites of royal descent.

Anyway,  William Wentworth has many descendants and it's been hard to prove a true royal line for him.  This TAG article shows previously unknown gentry and noble ancestors.  I was intrigued since I had Sothill and Fauconberge ancestry myself through other lines.  In 2007 I ghost wrote an article for the late Marshall Kirk  on the royal line of Thomas Bradbury.  That line went through the couple John Fulnetby and Jane Dymoke.  Using the 1562 Visitations of Lincolnshire I saw that John Fulnetby was the son of another John Fultnetby and a daughter of Gerard Sothill.  Using the TAG article, the time seemed to indicate that this was the same Gerard Sothill as in the TAG article.  This would give Thomas Bradbury some added ancestry.

I wrote to the author (since TAG is notoriously slow and I needed the second half of the article).  Sadly, he shot down my thesis and noted that the 1562 Visitations is very faulty on the Fulnetby family.

I already had many similar lines.  I descend from both Margery and  William Facounberge through the St. Quintin family which is ancestral to the Fitzhugh family (specifically Henry Fitzhugh, the 3rd Lord Fitzhugh and his wife Elizabeth de Grey.  I descend from three of their children).

I also descend from Sir Robert de Ros and his wife Isabel d'Aubigny through their children William and Mary.

Lastly, I descend from Sir John de Patshull and his wife Mabel de Grandison through their daughter Sibyl who married Sir Roger Beauchamp and are ancestral to Margaret de Beauchamp of whom I've recently written. 

So most of the ancestry lost by the Sothill connection I already had anyway through Anne Eure.

You can use  the Visitations for clues and they are accurate the closer they are to the date of the Visitation.  In this case 1562 is 150 years after the events in question.  Clearly there was a Fulnetby/Sothill connection (which will be revealed in the second part of the article) just not my connection.