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Highlights of Family History
There are many fascinating stories told here, and I hope continued research by myself and others will turn up more. If you would like to add stories to this page, please contact me (see Contact Info on this site). One story of interest is how our lost roots were rediscovered. For 20 years, Charlotte McIntire (my 2nd cousin, once removed) had been frustrated in her efforts to trace our Northrop ancestors back more than a few generations, and so she'd focused her efforts on finding their descendants -- and we owe her for all that information. In 1993, she tracked down my mother, who shared an interesting story that she'd heard from her grandmother, Fleeta Edna Brotton: that we are descended from Joseph Northrop, 17th century founder of a colony in Virginia. In subsequent research, Charlotte proved the story was partially apocryphal, but learning the name gave her the break for which she'd been waiting. She found we really are descended from Joseph Northrop, one of the earliest members of a 17th century colony in Milford, Connecticut. Charlotte continued to research his descendants, while I focused on finding their ancestors. In 2001, while living in New York City, I learned of the important work done by Karen Mentzer (nee Shorb), introducing me to the many amazing ancestors of Catherine Frederick and Melissa Jenkins. Some of these ancestors were Huguenots from France who eventually emigrated to New York City, later moving a short distance upstate. Highlights of our ancestors' lives include:
1. John RIDGE and Sarah Bird NORTHROP: Our family was profoundly involved with Chief John Ridge and the fate of the entire Cherokee people. This is a love story that had a tragic and terrible end for thousands of Cherokee, ending in the Trail of Tears. John Ridge, the sixteen year old son of Chief Major Ridge (Ka-non-ta-cla-ge) of the Cherokee, from Rome, Georgia, lived for a time with the family of our ancestor, John Northrop, as a boarder with the Congregationalist mission to the Cherokee people. The Congregationalists' mission was to give a modern education to the Cherokee, a well-intentioned effort that had tragic consequences for John Ridge and Sarah Northrop, if not tens of thousands of Cherokee people. Certainly it forever scarred the life of their son, John Rollin Ridge. John Rollin Ridge's story begins with his Cherokee Indian
heritage, which centers on his grandfather who was born in 1771 in a Cherokee
village in what is now Polk County, Tennessee.
When small he was called "he who slays the enemy in the path."
His mother was a half-blood of the Deer clan and he claimed descent from a long
line of Cherokee chiefs and warriors. As a young boy, he heard the tribal conjurers tell
stories of the origins and deeds of his forefathers. And he listened solemnly
when a conjurer predicted the fate of the Cherokees.
"Your elder brother (the white man) will settle around you - he will
encroach upon your lands, and then ask you to sell them to him . . . HE WILL
POINT YOU TO THE WEST, but you will find no resting place there, for your elder
brother will drive you from one place to another until you get to the western
waters. These things will certainly
happen, but it will be when we are dead and gone." At puberty, Ridge's grandfather began the training that
would make him a savage warrior. At
the age of 17, he took his first white man's scalp to revenge the cold-blooded
shooting of a Cherokee chief under a flag of truce by a white settler. As
he grew older, he became an expert hunter and earned his final Indian name,
meaning "the man who walks on the mountain top," or The Ridge. The Ridge became an influential tribal chieftain and an
orator of distinction. After he
married in 1792, he and his wife, Susanna, gradually gave up many of their
Indian habits. They cleared their
land and began to develop orchards and corn and cotton fields. They raised
horses and livestock. As they
prospered they acquired slaves, built a large colonial-style home, and adopted
the dress and manners of prosperous Southern planters.
Their plantation was located in an area that became known as the garden
spot of the Cherokee country in Georgia. Here, The Ridge's five children were born.
John Ridge, born in 1803, was The Ridge's first son and John Rollin
Ridge's father. As white settlers moved into the Cherokee territory,
which included parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, they became
eager to force the Indians out. With
the increasing intrusion of the whites, some Cherokees secretly ceded their land
and migrated west. Each cession
aroused great resentment among the Cherokees. The Ridge was adamantly against any cession of the
Cherokee ancestral lands. And he
firmly believed that if the younger Cherokees received a good white man's
education and adapted the white man's ways, they could successfully keep the
whites from usurping their land. He
centered his hopes on his eldest son, John. In 1818, The Ridge sent John to Cornwall, Connecticut, to further his education in the Foreign Mission School. There John fell ill. There he also fell in love with his nurse, Sarah Bird Northrop, a blue-eyed, auburn-haired, 14 year-old beauty. The people of Cornwall were incensed at the idea of an Indian courting a white girl. "Outrage!" cried the press and the pulpit. Some suggested that Sarah should be publicly whipped, her mother drowned, and John hanged. John was a handsome, graceful and determined young man
who was proud of his Cherokee heritage and undaunted by the bitter prejudices
and calumny of the whites. He also
faced disappointed parents, who wanted John to marry the daughter of a Cherokee
chief. Sarah's parents discouraged the romance, attributing it to the poor
judgment of youth. In their wisdom,
they asked that Ridge leave town and, if he came back in a year and the two
still wished a union, they would grant it.
They were relieved the young lovers agreed. One year later, John Ridge, son of the wealthy
plantation-owner, arrived in a fancy horse-drawn coach, complete with four black
slaves dressed in full livery as servants, to claim his bride. The scandal of these intermarriages became too
controversial for the school, and it was forced to close its doors not long
afterwards. Citizens all over Connecticut were enraged at the events in
Cornwall. One newspaper had these
racist words to say of the union: "Ridge, David (the marriage of): At
Cornwall, Conn on the 17th Jan by the Rev. Mr. Smith, the pious and delicate
Miss Sally B Northrop, daughter of Mr. John B. Northrop, was married to a
full-blooded Cherokee Indian, late a member of the foreign mission school in
that town. His present name is Mr.
David Ridge - his true Indian name we have not learned.
Those white ladies who are in want of Indian husbands must apply soon or
there will not be any copper faces left.
They must send in their proposals (post paid) to the trustees of the
Cornwall School who have an assortment of unmarried Indians on hand". On March 19, 1827, John Rollin Ridge was born on his
grandfather's estate. He spent an idyllic childhood as the heir to wealthy
and respected tribal chiefs. Yet,
another phase of the prophecy of the conjurer was soon to be fulfilled.
Although John, The Ridge, and his young protégé, John Ross, worked
unceasingly to stop it, more Cherokees ceded their land in exchange for land in
Arkansas. A speech by Womankiller
for reinstatement of the old Blood Law that prescribed death for any Cherokee
who sold his land without the consent of the Cherokee Nation was transcribed and
published by John Ridge. When gold was discovered in the Cherokee country of
Georgia in 1829, more whites poured into the area. They raided, pillaged
and squatted on Indian homesteads. Their
crimes went unpunished. To make the Indians' position even more precarious, the
State of Georgia declared Cherokee laws invalid and decreed that Indians could
not testify against white men in Georgia courts or dig for gold on their own
land. Large sections of Cherokee
land were annexed to Georgia and any Cherokee who tried to stop other Cherokees
from migrating was to be arrested and imprisoned.
The U.S. government refused to refute the Georgia laws and repeatedly
urged the Cherokees to emigrate to Arkansas. When John and The Ridge finally realized the futility of
the Cherokees' situation, they reluctantly decided that the Cherokees should
make the best bargain they could with the U.S. and move to Arkansas where many
of their brothers were already located. In a council meeting The Ridge said, "I would
willingly die to preserve them (these lands), but any forcible effort to keep
them will cost us our lands, our lives and the lives of our children. There is
but one path of safety, one road to future existence as a Nation. That path is
open before you. Make a treaty of cession. Give up these lands and go over
beyond the great Father of Waters." Moved by his powerful oratory,
several old Cherokees sadly promised to follow him West.
But John Ross and his supporters remained inflexibly opposed to
emigration. The fate of The Ridge and his heirs was sealed in
December 1835, when The Ridge signed the Treaty of New Echota, which agreed to
the removal of the Cherokees from their ancestral lands in exchange for
extensive lands in the West and $4,500,000. The Ridge said as he signed
the treaty, "I have just signed my death warrant." The treaty split the Cherokee into two feuding factions.
The Ridge faction favored emigration; the Ross faction opposed it.
As the conjurer had predicted, The Ridge and his followers emigrated westward to
Indian Territory in Oklahoma in March 1837. John and his family, including the
11 year-old John Rollin Ridge, emigrated in June 1837.
The majority of Cherokees made no preparations for removal. In 1837, orders went out from the U.S. Army: "The
full moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed
away, every Cherokee man, woman and child must be in motion to join their
brethren in the far West." Historians estimate that nearly 4,000 or about one-fifth
of the entire Cherokee population died in the emigration. The road over which
the Cherokees were driven was truly a "trail where they cried," a
Trail of Tears. The Ridges were consequently blamed for all the suffering,
difficulties, and deaths. In a
secret meeting, members of the Ross faction decreed that the Blood Law should be
enforced. In the early morning hours of June 22, 1839, twenty-five
Cherokees on horseback and armed with rifles quietly surrounded John Ridge's new
home in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Three
forced open a door, entered John's bedroom, and aimed a pistol at John's head as
he slept. The pistol failed to
fire. Here is the scene as
described by his son, John Rollin Ridge, many years later: “I saw my father in the hands of assassins. He endeavored to speak to them, but they shouted and drowned his voice, for they were instructed not to listen to him for a moment, for fear they would be persuaded not to kill him. They dragged him into the yard, and prepared to murder him. Two men held him by the arms, and others by the body, while another stabbed him deliberately with a dirk twenty-nine times. My mother rushed out to the door, but they pushed her back with their guns into the house, and prevented her egress until their act was finished, when they left the place quietly. My father fell to the earth, but did not immediately expire. My mother ran out to him. “He raised himself on his elbow and tried to speak, but the blood flowed into his mouth and prevented him. In a few moments more he died, without speaking that last word which he wished to say. Then succeeded a scene of agony the sight of which might make one regret that the human race had ever been created. It has darkened my mind with an eternal shadow. “In a room prepared for the purpose, lay pale in death the man whose voice had been listened to with awe and admiration in the councils of his Nation, and whose fame had passed to the remotest of the United States, the blood oozing through his winding sheet, and falling drop by drop on the floor. By his side sat my mother, with hands clasped, and in speechless agony — she who had given him her heart in the days of her youth and beauty, left the home of her parents, and followed the husband of her choice to a wild and distant land. And bending over him was his own afflicted mother, with her long, white hair flung loose over her shoulders and bosom, crying to the Great Spirit to sustain her in that dreadful hour. And in addition to all these, the wife, the mother and the little children, who scarcely knew their loss, were the dark faces of those who had been the murdered man’s friends, and, possibly, some who had been privy to the assassination, who had come to smile over the scene.” On the same day, other bands ambushed and killed The
Ridge and his nephew, Elias Boudinot. Five
bullets pierced The Ridge's head and body.
Boudinot was stabbed and then his head was split with a tomahawk. Fearing for their lives, Sarah took her children and fled
to Arkansas. John Rollin was 13 at
the time, and his young memory would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He spent his adolescence in Arkansas, where he wrote, "There is a
deep-seated principle of Revenge in me which will never be satisfied, until it
reaches its object." Although Stand Watie, Elias Boudinot's brother, fought
and killed one man who later boasted of bushwhacking The Ridge, and some of the
killers later met violent deaths, none was ever tried or punished in the
Cherokee courts. In 1841, John Rollin went to college in New England where
he proved to be an able poet and scholar and a natural leader. In 1847, he
returned to Arkansas and married Elizabeth Wilson, an attractive white woman
from Fayetteville. But he never
lost his desire for revenge. He soon returned to Indian Territory and
joined in a guerrilla war against the Ross faction.
When one of his enemies, Judge David Kell, mutilated John Rollin's prize
stallion, John killed Kell in self-defense.
Since John doubted that he would get a fair trial before a Cherokee
court, he fled to Missouri. In 1850, John Rollin fulfilled the last of the conjurer's
prophecy. He came to the West Coast
of California to seek his fortune. According
to his contemporaries, John Rollin was a tall, graceful, courteous, dignified
and handsome gentleman who had jet-black hair, dark eyes, a splendid physique,
and noble bearing. He was said to
be loyal and confiding to his friends and outspoken and defiant to his enemies.
It was also said that his individuality and personality were distinctly
different from other men. Like many '49ers before him, John Rollin soon gave up
gold mining and turned to writing. As
"Yellow Bird," a translation of the Indian name given to him by The
Ridge, he gained recognition as a forceful writer and a talented poet.
Many of his articles and poems were published in the Golden Era and the Hesperian, which were popular magazines of the time. Later, he became an
outspoken editor for newspapers in San Francisco, Marysville, Sacramento, Red
Bluff, Weaverville, and Trinity County. In 1864, he became part owner and
editor of the Grass Valley National. John Rollin was a fighting editor when editors fought not
only with their pens, but with fists, pistols, knives, canes, and, occasionally,
beer mugs. Upon meeting a rival editor in a saloon who had called him a
"Cayuse" in a blistering editorial, Ridge pushed his rival's nose into
his beer mug. During the Civil War, Ridge Rollin was a Copperhead and
vigorously anti-Lincoln. His
fiery editorials supported the Southern cause, but he was one of the few
California editors who denounced secession as treason and urged the federal
government to resist it with force, if necessary. A political brouhaha
soon developed between Ridge as editor of the Grass Valley National, which
supported the Democratic presidential candidacy of McClellan, and Blumenthal of
the Grass Valley Union, which supported Lincoln's re-election.
Charges of bribery and chicanery were tossed back and forth. Ridge
challenged Blumenthal to a duel. John
was an excellent marksman. Blumenthal
ignored the challenge. Infuriated,
Ridge and two friends entered the Union office and caned Blumenthal soundly. A Marysville paper hooted in mock acclaim at the
"bravery of three men who went at midnight to horsewhip a single, unarmed
man." To keep the records
straight, the National denied the use of a horsewhip. The paper declared that a
cane was the weapon and the attack was the only means of resort left to a
gentleman who was "denied satisfaction in the field of honor." Despite his fiery temper and his virulent pen, when
Lincoln was assassinated, Ridge joined Blumenthal in mourning. His success
as an influential political writer and a talented poet in California never
dispelled Yellow Bird's yearning to be restored as chief among his own people
and to avenge the wrongs done to his relatives and his tribe. In 1853,
John Rollin wrote to a cousin in Indian Territory, "It is only on my
mother's account I have stayed away so long. It was only on her account that I
did not go back in '49 or the Spring of '50 and risk everything.
I am not afraid to do it anytime, provided my friends will only agree to
back me. "But let that be as it may.
I intend some day, sooner or later, to plant my foot in the Cherokee
Nation and stay there, too, or die. You
recollect there is one gap in Cherokee history which needs to be filled up.
Boudinot is dead, John Ridge and Major Ridge are dead, and they are but
partially revenged. I don't know
how you feel now, but there was a time when the brave heart of yours, dear
cousin, grew dark over the memory of our wrong."
(Major was a title bestowed on The Ridge after he and his Cherokee
followers had distinguished themselves in helping General Andrew Jackson win the
Creek War of 1812.) Another of John Rollin's fondest hopes was to establish a
paper in the Cherokee Nation where through the "fire of my own pen"
and the help of the best minds of the Indian nations they would prevent men and
governments from trampling on the rights of the defenseless Indian tribes. John never realized these ambitions. And he often expressed feelings of melancholy and frustration. Once while listening to the rain, he wrote: "With each drop a memory of a bygone dream. How melancholy are the whispers of the rain. What hopes have we not all buried and what dreams have we not all mourned, but come to us again with the soft music of the rhythmic rain. Have we trusted and been deceived? Have we lost what we loved? All comes to us again in the sad and mournful memory as we listen to the patter of the rain." In 1866, John Rollin went to Washington, D.C., with a delegation of the Ridge faction in a last attempt to regain his tribal status and to get the government to recognize a Southern Cherokee Nation as distinct from the Cherokees under Ross. Washington recognized him "as the loyal chief of the Ridge party," but they negotiated with the Ross Cherokees. Although Ross died soon after (in Washington), John Rollin returned to his home in Grass Valley defeated and depressed. He, too, died soon after at the age of 40 from what was termed fever of the brain. The prophecy was complete. The poetry John Rollin wrote in his youth was published
in a slender volume after his death. It
received short and limited literary acclaim. Ironically, when John Rollin
was 17, he wrote the first romanticized tale about another man's life, which
became one of the West's most enduring legends.
In his book, "The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta (sic), The
Celebrated California Bandit," John Rollin portrays Murietta as a peaceful
and noble citizen who is transformed into a bloody outlaw dedicated to revenging
the atrocities he and his family suffered at the hands of the
Anglo-Saxons. In the book, Murietta gets the revenge John Rollin longed
for. Murietta lives on in poems,
articles, books, plays, and in old movies and new television programs.
John Rollin's story of Murietta was the main source from which many of
these later accounts came. Even the eminent historians Bancroft and Hittell used John
Rollin's version of Murietta's story. But history has taken little note of John Rollin Ridge, the man known as
Yellow Bird, whose story of unavenged suffering was foretold before he was born. 2. Humphrey ATHERTON: Soldier, Speaker Of Assembly, Comm. Of Mass. Colonial Forces. FROM "Clement Topliff and his Descendents in Boston": FROM Various sources: 3. John HARRIS: (not yet available). 4. John
PROUT: B.A. Yale 1708. Was treasurer of Yale College 1717-1765. John Prout, son of John Prout, a sea-captain of New Haven, CT (originally from Devonshire, England), was born in New Haven, Nov. 18, 1689. His mother was Mary, widow of Daniel Hall, and daughter of Henry Rutherford , both of New Haven. 5. Joel Prout NORTHROP: FROM "The
Northrup-Northrop Genealogy": Graduated at Yale College, 27 July 1776. Physician and Surgeon in the Revolutionary War. Settled in Danbury, removed to New Haven before July 5, 1779; in 1796 to Branford; returned to New Haven before 1803. Was a man of fine physique and marked characteristics. See Vol. II, New Haven Historical Society Papers, pp. 378-380 for a unique biography; also Vol. I, pp.114, 117, 118. Married May 15, 1777 Mabel Sarah Bird, eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Bird, DD, [founder and] first pastor of the White Haven Society, New Haven CT. [In 1796 the White Haven Society merged with the Fairhaven Society and the 2nd Church of Christ. In 1884 it became the United Church of New Haven, CT, and today stands in the middle of the town commons between two other old churches.] Rev. Bird married, 1st, Mabel
Jenner; and 2nd, Sarah (mother of Mabel Sarah), daughter of John Prout, for many years treasurer of Yale College.
Died Feb. 9, 11807 of lung fever. 6. Joseph NORTHROP: (from "The
Northrup-Northrop Genealogy", 1908, by A. Judd Northup of Syracuse, NY. Grafton Press, 70 Fifth Ave., NY, NY.)
On Nov. 29, 1639, the little company who had come to Milford from New Haven signed a document which laid the foundation for their government of the "plantation." It read: "Those persons whose names are hereunto written are allowed to be Free Planters, having, for the present, the liberty to act in the choice of public officers, for the carrying on of public affairs in this plantation." Church membership was a
condition of admission as a "Free Planter." Forty-four persons signed as such. Joseph Northup, who was one of the company, was not then a church member, but with nine others was permitted to sign under the names of the full-fledged Free Planters. At a General Court (town meeting), held Nov. 24, 1640, the place was named "Milford." On Jan. 9, 1642, Joseph joined the First Church of Milford (organized at New Haven, Aug. 22, 1639, just before they came to Milford), and thereby became of right a member of that privileged class. He was married to Frances Norton about 1647. He died Sept. 11, 1669, thirty years after the settlement of Milford. Also: Strand - The Strand Musical Magazine: Vol 5, January to June, 1897, lists 'Take Life as it Comes', by Arthur Matthison, and J. Clippingdale. Buried at Abney Park Cemetery, London (Family Grave): 8. George CLIPPINGDALE: (Courtesy of Jack Clippingdale) George Clippingdale was born 1742 at Shadwell, Middlesex, youngest of five children born to John Clippingdale of Bell Wharf, Shadwell, and Mary his wife (Their son John was our direct ancestor, George his younger brother). His father died at 42 when George was only 3. Like his father and his three brothers, George was apprenticed to the Watermen's Company, during which his mother died. Unlike his elder brothers John and Thomas, George did not complete the full seven-year apprenticeship to gain the Freedom of the Company. Failure to complete an apprenticeship was far from unusual, but for George, the death of his mother within a year of starting his apprenticeship must have seriously affected his progress. Ratcliff Highway, near where George lived, was one of the most notorious streets in London, associated with all forms of vice, poverty, violence, robbery, murder, drunkenness, prostitution and bigotry. Wages for the riverside workers varied with seasons, changes in trade winds, and Irish immigration. Without social welfare or any control of wages or unemployment, the riverside workers and their families always suffered greatly with any economic decline. The rising prices that began soon after the middle of the 18th century brought so much discontent that some workers actually went on strike, which in those days was an act of desperation. Similarly, most crimes were acts of desperation, wrongdoers being driven to take the risk of severe penalties. It is not known where in Shadwell the Clippingdale family were living in the early 1760s or what their circumstances were. Life for most people was extremely hard, and for the five orphaned Clippingdale children - now in and around their twenties - whether still all together or not, life can not have been easy. In one of the alleys off Ratcliff Highway on the night of Sunday 27 March 1763, George allegedly committed a highway robbery. Apparently he and two others threatened a Mr. Thomas Harding and snatched four pounds of isinglass from him. The alley concerned was Hammer and Crown Court, near Ratcliff Cross, where Thomas Harding and his wife lived. Following the alleged incident, George was arrested and committed for trial. According to the Old Bailey trial report, the indictment read: "George Clippingdale was indicted, for that he in a certain court called Hammer-and-Crown Court, near the King's Highway, on Thomas Harding did make an assault, putting him in corporal fear and danger of his life, and taking from his person four pounds of isinglass, value 35s, the property of John Phillips, March 27." Mr. Harding was first to give evidence: "The Prisoner, in Company with two others, stopped me at my Door in Hammer and Crow-court (sic), near Ratcliff-cross; he d--n'd my Eyes and ask'd me what I had got in my pockets." Mr. Harding's wife then opened the door. She was holding a candle, and by this candle-light Mr. Harding managed to get a glimpse of the men. They then apparently grabbed some isinglass out of his hand and fled. (Isinglass is 1) a form of gelatin obtained from fish, and is used for jellies, glue, etc.; or 2) mica, used as a glazing material. It seems probably that the stolen isinglass was the mica form, since it would have been more useful and so had more value). Two witnesses corroborated Mr. Harding's version of events. George Clippingdale was the only member of the trio to be apprehended and brought to trial. In his defense he just said: "I was not the person that took the isinglass." The judge then pronounced George guilty and sentenced him to death. He was then committed to Newgate Gaol to await execution. The procedure at the Old Bailey Sessions House at this time provided for a counsel for the prosecution, but no counsel for the defense was allowed. This was unfortunate for the prisoner, and fairly well guaranteed a 'guilty' verdict. At about the same time, the ridiculous theories of a Mr. Thomas Pierce, quack surgeon, took a curious effect on our relative. In 1761, he claimed to have discovered two 'powerful and valuable styptic medicines ... capable of stopping not only bleedings of the smaller vessels, whether internal or external, but likewise those violent haemorrhages arising from the larger arteries being wounded, or divided in amputations." He was granted permission by the King to test them on a prisoner by 'cutting of his leg and applying the styptic only, instead of taking up the vessels in the usual way [needle and ligature].' Amazingly, George volunteered for (or consented to) the experiment, thereby postponing his execution and extending his life for two weeks. Bureaucratic formalities preceding the amputation and experiment were slow to be finished, so the execution had to be postponed an additional two weeks. As the experts weighed in on the wisdom of the experiment, the King decided that the experiment was premature, and so commuted George's sentence to 'transportation for life, unless the Serjeant Surgeons wanted to detain him for further experiments.' His execution was to take place on June 1; however the sentence was not officially commuted to transportation for life until May 30. No doubt Mr. Pierce's disappointment was George's great relief. In fact, Mr. Pierce was furious. His styptic medicines had been rejected as being of little worth, and his application for an amputation experiment had been turned down. He was most aggrieved at the way he felt he had been treated. Further, he felt that the Serjeant Surgeons' view that experiments should first be performed by hospital surgeons on the 'smaller arteries of men' would turn the no-risk situation of merely endangering a condemned convict into a risk situation where harm could come to an innocent person. George had now been held in Newgate Gaol for two months. It was a great fortress of a place, originally built around 1300, burnt down in 1666, and rebuilt soon afterwards to the original plan. We can get some idea of the kind of conditions George must have experienced there from a comment written by Strype in 1754: 'It is a large prison and made very strong, the better to secure such sort of criminals, which too much fill it. It is a dismal place within. The prisoners are sometimes packed so close together, and the air so corrupted by their stench and nastiness, that it occasions a disease called the Jail distemper, o f which they die by the dozens, and cartloads of them are carried out and thrown into a pit in the churchyard at Christ's Church, without ceremony; and so infection is this distemper that several judges, jurymen, and lawyers have taken it off the prisoners, when they have been brought to the Old Bailey to be tried, and died soon after ...' What happened to George after May 30 is uncertain. The order commuting the death sentence to transportation was made on that date, and George's transportation was due to follow in July. This did not happen, and George died on 13 August. Given the extent of disease within Newgate Gaol, it is highly likely that during the weeks he had been held, George picked up a serious infection - perhaps the 'Jail Distemper' described by Strype. The authorities may well have looked upon such sick inmates either as doomed anyway or certain to be an infectious hazard to all on board a transportation ship. In which case the procedure, if there was any at all, may have been just to leave the sick prisoners confined within Newgate. George died 13 August, but his body was dumped in the Christ Church pit referred to by Strype. His family must have been in a position to intercede and make their own arrangement, because George was buried at Shadwell, his birthplace, three days later on 16 August. His burial is recorded in the parish register of St. Paul's, Shadwell, as George Clippingdale 'from Newgate.' This is the condensed version of George's story, edited from the fascinating
and richly detailed account by Jack Clippingdale. If interested in the
full version, please contact me (see Contact Info on this web site) and I will
forward the request to Jack. 9. Edmund RICE: (not yet available) 10. John ROGERS: Possible royal lineage, but it's also
problematic. There are so many John Rogers, and it seems the famous Rev.
John Rogers (possibly his grandfather) is claimed by many, including many
genealogists researching our family. Other genealogists aren't so sure.
This web page does have a link to a picture the Rev. John Rogers, just in case.
The following is provided without prejudice; however, this lineage has many
problems and may well not be of our family. Below is a brief biography: (also see Research section on this web site) 11. Mrs. CLIPPINGDALE: This Mrs. Clippingdale is not, as far as I can tell, our direct ancestor, but it gives a bit of history of the area where our Clippingdale family lived for centuries, and her origins from near Newcastle-upon-Tyne may even offer a clue to our earliest roots. From United Methodist Daily News 97, by John Singleton. ‘Even at Poplar,’ Wesley had a vital ministry in this London neighborhood. "Even at Poplar I found a remarkable revival of the work of God," wrote John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in his journal Nov. 15, 1787. "I Never saw the preaching house so filled before; and the power of the Lord seemed to rest on many of the hearers." "Even at Poplar?" That happens to be my part of London, England, so let me tell you something of the roots of Methodism in my own neighborhood. By the time Wesley came here in 1772 to consecrate his new "preaching house", the riverside hamlet of Poplar was already a growing center for shipbuilding and trade on the River Thames. Just a few minutes walk from our home - at the point where the river straightens out downstream from a horseshoe bend around the Isle of Dogs - is Blackwall, where the historic Blackwall Yard was laid down for shipbuilding in about 1600. Tradition has it that Sebastian Cabot, the navigator, and Sir Walter Raleigh once lived at Blackwall and Nelson resided nearby. It was from here in 1607 that English colonizer John Smith set sail on the expedition that established Jamestown, Va., as the first permanent English settlement in America. The place where Smith and later expeditions started on their long and often hazardous voyages to the New World gradually became enveloped in the huge complex of docks that mushroomed along the Thames during the early 19th century. This seething hub of industry and commerce stretched from Wapping (near the Tower of London) to Woolwich in the east. The once bleak Blackwall pier from where Smith embarked - and where a plaque records that he and his adventurers all received the Sacrament of Holy Communion before sailing - eventually became sandwiched between the mighty East and West India docks. The nearby preaching house opened by Wesley was only a few hundred yards from a church built by the East India Company for its employees more than 100 years before in 1656. Much altered since then, the ancient Anglican building is now a neighborhood center. On the site of Wesley’s preaching house, from which the Methodist cause had moved on by 1847, stands an unobtrusive local mosque. This encapsulates the changing face of the area, with succeeding waves of newcomers settling in what had become the "East End" of London and constantly adding to its cosmopolitan make-up. Scandinavians, Germans, Huguenots, Irish and Jewish people; all have settled here during the past five centuries. More recent arrivals have been people of African, Caribbean and Bengali origin. Our local Mayflower school is 85 percent Bengali and many Methodist churches in inner London would not exist today but for their African and Caribbean members. Not far from Poplar is Spitalfields, where a fine French church was erected in 1743 by Huguenot artisans who had fled religious persecution in France in the late 17th century. Wesley borrowed this church in 1755 to hold the first Methodist covenant service shared by a congregation of 1,800. It was acquired as a Methodist chapel in 1809, but in 1897 was bought by a Jewish immigrant society and became an Orthodox synagogue. The building is still used for worship as a mosque. The survival of early Methodism in Poplar seems to owe a lot to an immigrant from the north of England, a Mrs. Clippingdale, who had joined a Methodist society at Swalwell near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as a girl of 13. When, as a young woman, she settled in Poplar in the middle years of the 18th century. Mrs. Clippingdale either joined the existing society or formed one herself. By all accounts she was known in the area as a "lovely pattern of holiness." The story is told how the Methodist cause in Poplar had declined to a pitiful handful of members - probably no more than three or four - and it was proposed at a meeting of Wesley’s London preachers to give it up. But Wesley himself, who always attended the preachers’ regular Sunday morning breakfast when he was in town, asked: "Is Mrs. Clippingdale living?" On being told "yes" he replied: "Then I will not consent to give up Poplar." Wesley’s judgment was right; Mrs. Clippingdale lived to see a chapel erected and the society increased to nearly 250 members. The year Wesley opened the Poplar preaching house, 1772, was a bad year for London’s poor, of whom there were many. A situation of "general and alarming distress" was said to exist. Wesley faced the emergency by writing vigorously to the public press; by calling his people to prayer and by encouraging them to organize schemes of visitation and relief. In December he wrote in his journal: "Being greatly embarrassed by the necessities of the poor, we spread all our wants before God in solemn prayer; believing that He would sooner ‘make windows in heaven’ than suffer His truth to fail." The social witness of Methodism in Poplar and the East End of London has been
a constant priority since the time of Wesley. The frenetic industry of the
docks, which survived the worst of Hitler’s bombing during the Second World
War, though much of the surrounding area was razed to the ground, has now
departed downstream to Tilbury, Essex. Left behind are the deep moorings,
largely undisturbed save for luxury boats and water sports. The wharves have
been regenerated for business and expensive apartments. The best views of Poplar
and Blackwall today are obtained from the driver-less trains which trundle round
the new "docklands" and beyond. Towering over everything is Canary
Wharf, the tallest building in Europe, winking day and night as a guide to
aircraft flying in to London City airport in the former Royal docks. And yes,
the Methodist Church is still a powerful presence, "even at Poplar"! A
residential seamen’s mission accommodating up to 170 men (mostly retired and
from all parts of the world) stands adjacent to Trinity church, only a short
distance from Wesley’s original preaching house. Other churches are at Bethnal
Green, Whitechapel, Stepney, Bow and Old Ford - all familiar places on
Wesley’s London itinerary. 12. James HARWOOD: (from Harwood Genealogy) born in Dunstable, New Hampshire, USA (now Nashua, N.H.), about the year 1730. He married Mary CLOGSTON, who was of Irish origin. He was a soldier in the old French and Indian war, and belonged to the legendary company of Rogers' Rangers. They were sent from Dunstable in 1759, and were at the storming of Quebec, Canada. Later, he entered the American army in the war of the Revolution, and was in the first Regiment from Dunstable. He was in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. He went to Canada with the army, where he died of small-pox, Dec., 1777, and was buried on Montreal Island. He signed the petition in 1754 to divide the Province of New Hampshire into counties. Because of his absence in military service, Mary carried the responsibility of rearing the children. From early manhood until the close of his
eventful life he was almost constantly engaged as a soldier in the service of
his country. On September 22, 1755,
he enlisted in Capt James Todd's Company, Col. Peter Gilman's Regiment, to serve
in the war against the French and Indians.
James Harwood and John Harwood were members of the company of Roger’s
Rangers, sent out from Dunstable, New Hampshire in 1759, and were at the
storming of Quebec, Canada, under Gen. Wolfe. The regiment was used in scouting, a service which no
other could perform as successfully as the Rangers of New Hampshire.
Parties of them were frequently under the walls of the French garrisons,
and at one time killed and scalped a soldier near the gate of the fort at Crown
Point. Late in the autumn the
forces were disbanded and the regiment returned to their homes.
James Harwood enlisted March 18, 1760, in Capt Nehemiah Lowell's company
from Dunstable. There is scarcely a
company of troops in the annals of America more famous than "Roger’s
Rangers." Their life was one of constant exposure.
The forest was their home, and they excelled even the Indian in cunning
and hardihood. They wandered in search of adventures, fearless and
cautious, until their very name struck terror in the enemy.
Even in the post of danger, when the army was advancing, they scouted the
woods to detect the hidden ambush, and when retreating they skirmished in the
rear to keep the foe at bay. At
midnight they traversed the camp of the enemy, or carried off a sentinel from
his post as if in mockery. Their
blow fell like lightning, and before the echo had died away or the alarm
subsided, they struck another blow at some far distant point They seemed to be
omnipresent, and the enemy deemed them to be in league with evil spirits.
The plain, unvarnished tale of their daily hardships, their strange
adventures, and "hair breadth escapes" is wild and thrilling. The men who settled the wilderness, defended their
homes from the attack of the “Indian enemy,” and had built themselves a
great and goodly heritage, without help from England, were not the men to
yield their dearly bought rights without a struggle.
Their love of the mother country was never very strong, and the first
approach of oppression and wrong was their signal for resistance.
James Harwood enlisted in Capt William Walker's company, Col. James
Reed's Regiment. They were among
the first men sent from New Hampshire to fight in the war for American
Independence. They were present and
fought valiantly at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Source: A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HARWOOD FAMILIES DESCENDED FROM JAMES HARWOOD, Who was of English Origin, and Resided in Chelmsford, Mass. BY WATSON H. HARWOOD. PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, A. F. BIGELOW, POTSDAM, N. Y. 1879. 13. Archibald HARWOOD: (from Harwood
Genealogy) born Aug., 1762. He entered the American army in the war of the Revolution, in 1778, when only 16 years of age. He was one of those who were sold to the British by the traitor Arnold. After the war was over, he went to
Wethersfield, Windsor Co., Vermont, where he married SUSANNAH HOUSE, who was born Feb., 1762. He was a carpenter and
millwright by trade. He removed to Eden, Lamoille Co. (then Orleans Co.), Vermont, about 1802, to build the first mills ever built there. After that he resided in Constable, Franklin Co., N. Y. He died in Eden,
VT., in 1837. His wife died in 1848. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 14.
Marshall JENKINS: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
was
born at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard about 1744, son of Joseph Jenkins and
Abigail Little.
He married Elizabeth Mayhew, daughter of Matthew Mayhew and Mary Allen, 16 Dec 1777 at Chilmark. She
was born 30 June 1754 at Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard. The perils and uncertainties of the
whaling business, and other forms of industry connected with the sea, are
well illustrated in the case of Captain Marshall Jenkins of Edgartown.
He engaged in these hazardous occupations before the Revolutionary War.
He had a remarkable adventure which was reported in the Boston Post
Boy. 'We learn from Edgartown
that a vessel lately arrived there
from a whaling voyage; and in her voyage one Marshall Jenkins, with others
being in a boat which struck a whale, she turned and bit the boat in two, took
Jenkins in her mouth and went down with him; but on her rising threw him into
one part of the boat, whence he was taken on board the vessel by the crew, being
much bruised, and that in about a fortnight after, he perfectly recovered.
This account comes from undoubted authority." It states that the
marks of the whale's teeth were borne for the rest of his life, a veritable
evidence of the truth of this remarkable tale of the deep (Vineyard Gazette,
July 20, 1888). An "old
salt' told Dr. Banks this story. The First U.S. Census of New York (1790) lists
Marshall as Head of Household in Hudson, Columbia County, New York. 15. Thomas MAYHEW, Sr.:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) was baptized 1 April 1593 at Tisbury, Wiltshire, England, son of Matthew Mayhew and Alice Barter. He was married first in England to the mother of his son Thomas Mayhew, Jr., and second about 1635 to Jane (Gallion?), widow of Thomas Paine, a London merchant. He died in 1682, just short of his eighty-nine years of age, active to the last as governor and father to the Indians, the first of five generations of Mayhews who were missionaries. 16. Rev. Thomas MAYHEW, Jr.: (from
Jenkins Genealogy) Although Martha's Vineyard was at times under the authority of Massachusetts and at times under New York during the quarter-century before King Phillip's War, the island enjoyed a virtually autonomous status. It also experienced unparalleled success in its missionary efforts. By 1651, only four years after Thomas Mayhew had begun preaching the natives, so many converts wanted to attend religious services that Mayhew was forced to divide his attention between two congregations, though each had an Indian preacher of its own. It appeared that nothing short of a disaster could keep Thomas Mayhew from converting the entire island population, then estimated at about 1500 persons, to the Puritan faith. But in 1657 disaster did strike. Mayhew took a ship for England in November of that year accompanied by one of his most impressive converts. They and the vessel were never heard of again. The Puritan colonies received few setbacks more damaging to their missionary program.
17. Matthew MAYHEW: (from Jenkins Genealogy) was
born 1648 at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, son of Thomas Mayhew and Jane Paine.
He married 1 March 1674, in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Mary Skiffe.
She was born 24 March 1650 at Martha's Vineyard, daughter of James Skiffe
and Margaret Reaves, and died 1 May 1690 at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard.
Administration of Matthew's will was granted 24 August 1710. Next in importance to the old governor himself in the political life of Martha's Vineyard was his grandson, Matthew. He was the eldest son of Rev. Thomas Mayhew and Jane Paine. Up to the time of the death of his father in 1657, we have no knowledge, but after the unfortunate event, the widow wished to consecrate Matthew or one of his brothers to their father's work. Acting on the advice, presumably, of the elder Mayhew, Matthew was educated so he might follow in the footsteps of his father. Probably his brother John was also to be dedicated to the same work, for in August 1658, the Governor wrote to the Commissioners of the United Colonies asking assistance for “my daughter and her 6 children,” and further requesting them to “find a way to keepe two of the sonnes at schoole.” The Commissioners acceeded to this request for the relief of the widow and for "Keeping her eldest son att scoole to fitt him for the worke." He must have begun these studies early in 1658, and continued his studies at Cambridge for four or five years, as shown by the accounts of the Commissioners of the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel among the Indians of New England in 1661, 1662, and 1663. A further reference shows the expectations of the Commissioners respecting the future usefulness of young Mayhew to them in their work: “And whereas Matthew Mayhew is devoted by his parents to the worke and a considerable charge has for his fathers sake bin expended on him; the Commissioners expect that together with his other learning hee apply hemelfe to learne the Indian language having now an appertunities to attaine the same, otherwise the commissioners will bee necessitated to consider some more hopeful way for expending the stocks betrusted in their hands." Upon his return to Martha's Vineyard, he devoted himself to the task of learning the Indian dialect, which he mastered successfully. In 1672, the Commissioners write as follows concerning him: "One whereof if the son of that Reverend and Good man Mr. Mahew deceased whoe being borne on the Iland of Martha's Vineyard and now grown to mans estate and there settled, is an hopefull young man, and hath theire Language p'fectly." The ministry was not his sphere. His younger brother John inherited the saintly character of the missionary, and followed the work of his father on the island as a substitute for Matthew; and doubtless the substitution was agreeable to the inclinations and temperament of both. As Matthew grew to manhood he developed business qualifications which made him useful to the aged governor. Family custom was for the eldest to succeed to the estates and temporal management of them. He did not, however, entirely forget his obligations to the Commissioners. His first appearance in political affairs, in which
he was destined to exercise such an important role for the rest of his life, was
in 1670, when he was sent to New York by his grandfather to wait upon Governor Lovelace in regard to submitting to the jurisdiction of the Duke of York over
the island. He was then about
twenty-three years of age, and from that time he was exclusively identified with
the executive management of the Vineyard and Nantucket.
This was the first of the offices held by him during the forty remaining
years of his active life. He was
the first secretary of the General Court of the Vineyard held in 1672, and one
of the assistants to the Governor. He
also held at different times the office of Register of Deeds (1672), High
Sheriff (1683), Judge of Probate (1697), Register of Probate (1685), besides
continuous service in the office of Justice of the King's Bench.
In 1682, upon the death of the aged governor he was commissioned "in
the stead of that worthy Person Mr. Thomas Mayhew his [grandfather] Late
Deceased to be chief supplying the Defect by another of the Name." While
not specifically designating him as governor, his functions were identical, and
he is termed in the Provincal Records as "Chief Magistrate" of the
island. When the jurisdiction of New York ceased and Martha's
Vineyard became a dependency of Massachussetts by the charter of William and
Mary in 1691, Mayhew was not favorable to the change; but bowing to the
inevitable, he finally accepted with as good a grace as possible, the new order
of things, and on December 7, 1692, was newly commissioned as Justice of the
Peace with two others of his family. He
thus aligned himself with "those in authority," and maintained
ostensibly, amicable relations with his new superiors.
That this acceptance was only a matter of policy has appeared in the
narration of the political relations of the island with the Massachusetts authorities, immediately following the transfer. Matthew Mayhew was a versatile man and by his early
training was probably the most cultivated person, intellectually speaking, on
the island in his time. He used his
leisure moments in writing the
first book about the island, and published it in London in 1695.
This volume gives a most interesting and authentic account of the Indian
tribes of the island, their manners, customs, and the progress of religion among
them. He
was declared Lord of the Manor of Tisbury from 1671 till his death by Francis
Lovelace, who represented the Duke of York.
This gave the Mayhews full power over the lands, people, rents, and
courts with nearly the same power as barons in the feudal ages. He
resided in Edgartown, where he was born, and was the first citizen of the town
for more than a generation. 18.
Robert KITCHEL: (from Jenkins Genealogy) was born in England in 1604. He married Margaret Sheafe, daughter of Edmund Sheaffe and his second wife, of Cranbrook, Kent, England 21 July 1632 at Rolvenden, Kent, England. Robert died 1672 and Margaret moved to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1678 where she died in 1682. 19.
Samuel KITCHEL:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) was born in England 1633, son of Robert Kitchel
and Margaret Sheaffe. He died at
Newark, New Jersey, 26 April 1690. He
married Elizabeth Wakeman at New Haven in 1651 and second Grace Pierson,
daughter of Rev. Abraham Pierson and
Elizabeth. He was one of those, who
for themselves and associates, purchased of the "Indians belonging to Hackinsack [Hackensack], the known
acknowledged proprietors," the territory now occupied by the living and the
dead in Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Newark. 20.
Richard WARREN: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
sailed in the Mayflower September 6, 1620, and arrived in Cape Cod harbor November 11, 1620. His wife Elizabeth, whom he married in England before 1611, arrived in the Ann, late in July 1623 with five daughters: Mary, Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth and Abigail. He died in 1628 and Elizabeth died at Plymouth 2 October 1673 "aged above ninety years, having lived a godly life." 21.
John HOWLAND: (from Jenkins Genealogy)
was the son of Henry Howland of Fentstanton, Huntingdonshire. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in the ship Mayflower September 6, 1620. Some of the passengers had come in the ship Speedwell from Delft Haven, which met the Mayflower at Southampton, but the Speedwell proved unseaworthy. The persons who had come from Delft Haven, Holland, were part of a little colony of English families who had for eleven years resided at Leyden, near Delf Haven, to escape religious persecutions of the Church of England, and there had the privilege of worshipping God as their consciences dictated. 23.
Elizabeth TILLEY: (from
www.plimoth.org, site of the Plimoth Plantation, the "Living Historical
Museum") 24. Richard
SARSON:
(from Jenkins Genealogy) a tailor, embarked at London in the Elizabeth and Ann for these shores, and was listed as twenty-eight years of age, but the relationship he bore to the person of Edgartown who became prominent cannot be surely stated by Banks. He died sometime before October 23, 1703. There is no record of the date or of the settlement of the estate of Mrs. Jane (Paine) Mayhew Sarson. She gave to her children her personal and real property, including the Paine homestead by the pre-nuptial document of 1664. |