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GENEALOGICAL GLEANINGS IN ENGLAND

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GENEALOGICAL GLEANINGS

IN ENGLAND

ABSTRACTS OF WILLS RELATING TO EARLY AMERICAN

FAMILIES, WITH GENEALOGICAL NOTES AND

PEDIGREES CONSTRUCTED FROM

THE WILLS AND FROM OTHER RECORDS

By

HENRY F. WATERS, A.M.

With the Addition of

GENEALOGICAL GLEANINGS IN ENGLAND

(New Series) A-Anyon (1907)

VOLUME I

Baltimore GENEALOGICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

1969

Originally Published in Serial Form

New England Historical and Genealogical Register

July, 1883 — January, 1899

First Published Complete in Book Form

New-England Historic Genealogical Society

Boston, 1901

Reprinted with Permission

With the Addition of

Genealogical Gleanings in England

(New Series)

By Henry F. Waters

Salem, 1907

And with an Added Sub-Title

Genealogical Publishing Company Baltimore, 1969

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-88096

v 0* « /

Genealogical Publishing Company

Baltimore, Maryland

Made in the United States of America

PUBLISHER'S NOTICE

The indexes of persons and places mentioned in these two volumes will be found on pages 1449-1643 in Volume II, just as they were originally published in 1901. The publisher has added the New Series, which was originally published in 1907, on pages 1645-1760 following the indexes; since the entries in the New Series were in alphabetical order, it was deemed unnecessary to add an index to the New Series.

—GENEALOGICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

CONTENTS

VOLUME I Page

Henry F. Waters, Portrait and Autograph Frontispiece

Publisher's Notice v

Illustrations and Pedigrees, A List ix

Introduction by John T. Hassam xi

Genealogical Gleanings in England 1

VOLUME II

Illustrations and Pedigrees, A List v

Genealogical Gleanings in England 845

Index of Persons 1451

Index of Places 1593

New Series: Genealogical Gleanings in England 1645

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VOLUME

Henrj' F W» Publi?

Dlustratica i Introdncttn I

Genealopal

VOLUME !

IllustratioDs i

tailor.:. Indes i \ fates of P New Series

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CONTENTS

VOLUME I Page

Henry F. Waters, Portrait and Autograph Frontispiece

Publisher's Notice v

Illustrations and Pedigrees, A List ix

Introduction by John T. Hassam xi

Genealogical Gleanings in England 1

VOLUME II

Illustrations and Pedigrees, A List v

Genealogical Gleanings in England 845

Index of Persons 1451

Index of Places 1593

New Series: Genealogical Gleanings in England 1645

it . <

■ ■

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ILLUSTRATIONS AND PEDIGREES.

VOL. I.

Page Henry F. Waters's Portrait and Autograph .... Frontispiece

The Early Home of John Harvard's Mother 180

Garsden Church 455

Washington Memorial Stone 399

Washington Tablet 455

Arms. Nicholson ........... 101

Washington impaling Butler 399

Fac-similes. Part of John Washington's Will and Probate, with George

Washington's endorsement ...... 523

Seal on Release of Mount Vernon estate, Va. . . . 523

Record of apprenticeship of Thomas Harvard to William Coxe, and of his admission as Freeman of the Cloth- workers' Company of London ...... 206

Autographs. William Byrd 103

John Harvard ......... xii

Thomas Stegge ......... 103

John West 151

Map showing Tring, Herts, and Luton, Bedfordshire, and Vicinity, 357

Tabular Pedigrees. Alsop 427

Ames ......... 279

Archedale ........ 318

Bedle 25

Brereton ........ 15

Brindley ........ 15

Brinley ......... 14

Bulkley 2«6

Burnell 568

Cogan ......... 351

Collins ......... 25

Cotton 92

Crane . . . . . 213

Crane ....„..,. 226

X ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Tabular Pedigrees. Disbrowe 250

Disbrowe ........ 251

Fawknor 99

Fenwick ........ 42

Hall 687

Harrison ........ 446

Haynes 453

Home 155

Houghton 258

Jadwyn 582

Jolliffe 262

Light 712

Lisle 91

Moody ......... 97

Morley 568

Piilmer 306

Palmer 327

Pemberton 331

Quiney 198

Rasing 182

Rogers 209

Rogers 213

Springett 576

Stagg 61

Thomson 67

Warnet 40

Washington 396

Willis 599

Woodhall 53

XI

INTRODUCTION.

The efforts made by the New England Historic Genealogi- cal Society, through its Committee on English Research, to pro- cure funds sufficient to enable it to make an exhaustive search of the English Records, on a plan never before attempted, for every- thing which concerns the family history of the early settlers of this country ; its great good fortune in securing the services of the eminent antiquary, Henry FitzGilbert Waters : his pecul- iar qualifications for the task, and the superiority of the method adopted by him, are all set forth in the New England Histori- cal and Genealogical Register for July, 1883 (xxxvii., 305) ; July, 1884 (xxxviii., 339) ; and January, 1888 (xlii., 40).

Mr. Waters sailed for England May 5, 1883, and at once en- tered upon his great work. The step thus taken was a most im- portant one, and marked a new departure in genealogical research. The notes printed in the Register for July, 1883 (xxxvii., 233), were the results of Mr. Waters's first few days' work among the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Somerset House, London. They arrived here barely in time for publication in that number of the Register, and were a foretaste of what was to come. Before a twelvemonth had passed he had accumulated a vast amount of historical and genealogical material, including abstracts of more than six hundred wills relating to American families, and he has since then industriously added to his inval- uable collections, until they are now unequalled both in extent and in importance.

Some of the results of his researches, under the title of " Genea- logical Gleanings in England," have been given to the public in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, the organ of the Society. It has now been deemed advisable to reprint some of these " Gleanings " in a form more convenient for reference. The present volumes include the various instalments published in the Register from July, 1883, to January, 1899, inclusive.

In addition to these genealogical researches, Mr. Waters has made historical discoveries of the highest value. We owe to him the finding of the Winthrop map and the Maverick MS., two of

xjj INTRODUCTION.

the most important contributions made in our day to our early colonial history. For an account of the former, the reader is re- ferred to the "Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society " for June, 1884 (xxi., 211), and the Register for July, 1884 (xxxviii., 342). The Maverick MS. was printed in the "Proceed- ings of the Massachusetts Historical Society" for October, 1884 (xxi., 231), and in the Register for January, 1885 (xxxix., 33). These discoveries excited great attention among historical students, not only in this country, but also in England.

Mr. Waters also contributed "Papers in Egerton MS. 2395," to the Register for April, 1886 (xl., 175) ; the will of Alexander Selkirk — the real Robinson Crusoe — to the Register for Octo- ber, 1896 (1., 539), and the will of Thomas Hobson, carrier ("Hobson's choice, that or none"), to the Register for October, 1898 (Hi., 487). A facsimile of the will of Alexander Selkirk may be found in the Register for April, 1897 (li., 150).

Mr. Waters also made a most valuable collection of " Extracts from Marriage Licenses granted by the Bishop of London, 1598 to 1639," which he intended should be printed in the Register as an instalment of these Gleanings, but being unable, much to his regret, "to get it before the genealogical world through that chan- nel," and as it seemed to him "too valuable not to be published," he contributed it to the Historical Collections of the Essex Insti- tute (xxviii., 57-150).

To some of the various instalments of Gleanings published in the Register I added certain explanatory remarks by way of introduction, and these remarks it has been thought advisable to reprint here in this preface, in order not to break the continuity of Mr. Waters's notes.

The article in the Register for July, 1883 (xxxvii., 233-240) (pp. 1-8 this book), was introduced by a note from which the fol- lowing: extract is made :

It has been found almost impossible heretofore, in most cases, to establish satisfactorily the relationship between English and American families of the same name, and this failure to connect has been to the American genealogist the source of his greatest trouble. The searches now undertaken promise for the first time to meet and over- come this difficulty. The method adopted by Mr. Waters, so different from that of his predecessors, cannot fail to bring to light information which must necessarily have escaped the attention of all other investi- gators.

The article on "John Harvard and his Ancestry," Part I., in the Register for July, 1885 (xxxix., 265) (pp. 117-134 this book), was preceded by the following introductory note :

The Committee on English Research of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, under whose direction Mr. Waters is now pursu-

INTRODUCTION. Xiii

ing his investigations in England, have on more than one occasion asserted that the method of search adopted by him — so different from that of his predecessors — would without fail enable him to bring to light what had escaped the notice of all other antiquaries. Striking proofs of the correctness of this statement have been already afforded by the remarkable discoveries Mr. Waters has hitherto made, and the following paper, in which the parentage and ancestry of John Harvard are for the first time conclusively shown, will add still another.

In 1842 the late James Savage, President of the Massachusetts His- torical Society and author of the " Genealogical Dictionary of New England," went to England for the express purpose of ascertaining what could be learned of the early history of John Harvard; but although Mr. Everett, then our minister to the court of St. James, ren- dered every assistance in his power, no trace of Harvard could be found, except his signature on taking his degrees at the University of Cam- bridge. Mr. Savage tells us that he would gladly have given five hun- dred dollars to get five lines about him in any capacity, public or private. Since that date others have made efforts equally unavailing.

The late Col. Joseph L. Chester, in a letter written the year before his death to the editor of the Register (Register, xxxvi., 319), says that he had carried about with him daily for many years a bit of pedi- gree of Harvard in the hope of being able to perfect it ; that he thought he had found the will of the father of John Harvard, but could not yet prove it ; that he disliked to put forward a mere theory, but hoped to come upon further evidence some day.

At a meeting of the New England Historic Genealogical Society held in Boston, June 3, 1885, a paper by Miss Frances B. James, of Cam- bridge, Massv was read, on " John Harvard's English Home, a Caveat in Behalf of Devonshire." It contained the results of some researches made by her in the summer of 1883, in Plymtree, co. Devon, England, where there formerly lived a family of Harward or Harvard, but no claim was made by her that any relationship could be shown to exist between this family and that of John Harvard.

Mr. William Rendle, in an article in the " Genealogist " for April, 18S4, on " Harvard University, U. S., and the Harvards of Southwark," gives a list of certain Harvards of the Parish of St. Saviour's noted by him, but he failed to find the baptism of John Harvard, and was unable to connect him with this family of Harvards. In the South London "Press" for April 11, 1885, and in the " Athenaeum" for April 18, 1885, Mr. Rendle has something further to say about the Harvards. He gives the date of baptism of a John Harvye, whom he says he believes to be the founder of Harvard College, but is unable to prove the fact, and offers no evidence to support it. These articles, however, contain nothing new. Everything of importance in them had been previously made known to us by Mr. Waters. The record of this very baptism had been already found by him, and a copy of it sent to the committee. Mr. Rendle's knowledge of it seems to have been obtained from a per- son to whom Mr. Waters had mentioned it as a discovery of his own, and its appropriation by Mr. Rendle without acknowledgment, and its publication in this manner, was certainly a most extraordinary pro- ceeding.

It had long been known that there was a family of Harvards in St. Saviour's Parish, Southwark; that John, son of Richard, was baptized

xjv INTRODUCTION.

there 11 Dec, 1606; another John, son of Robert, baptized 29 Nov., 1607; another John, son of John, baptized 2 Feb., 1611; and still another John, son of John, baptized 10 April, 1614; but whether the benefactor of the College was one of these, or whether he was of South- wark at all, has not been known, until now at last the proof is pre- sented to us by Mr. Waters. Colonel Chester, as we have seen, years ago surmised that he was the son of Robert Harvard, but, like a true gene- alogist, waited for evidence before making a positive statement. Prob- ably nearly every one in America who was interested in Harvard, and had given the subject much thought, suspected, at least, if not believe 1, that he was the son of Robert Harvard, of South wark. So that Mr. Rendle offers nothing new and merely adds his belief to theirs, for which he fails to offer evidence. That Southwark was a field for per- secution, and therefore its people must have been ready to emigrate to New England, carries no weight, for there was persecution in other parts of England ; and it would be difficult for Mr. Rendle or any other investigator to show that more people came to New England for relig- ion's sake from the county of Surrey than from the counties of Somer- set, Dorset, or Wilts, in all of which Harvards were to be found. Could he say that John Harvard was not from either of these counties, or from St. Katherine's near the Tower in co. Middlesex where a family of Harvards lived, or that he was not the son of Robert Harvey, alias Harverde, of Rugby in Warwickshire ?

Mr. Waters, however, is the first to show conclusively that John Har- vard, from whom the College takes its name, was one of the sons of Robert Harvard of the parish of St. Saviour's, Southwark, London, and Katherine (Rogers) Harvard his wife, and that he was baptized in that parish Nov. 29, 1607. Ample proof of this is afforded "by the docu- mentary evidence now for the first time published, to which the atten- tion of the reader is directed. The parentage of John Harvard is no longer a mystery. Mr. Waters gives us here, among others, the wills of his father and mother, his brother Thomas Harvard, his uncle Thomas Harvard, his aunt by marriage Margaret Harvard, his step- fathers John Elletson and Richard Yearwood, and his father-in-law John Sadler.

But although so much has been accomplished that a few months ago would have been thought impossible, much remains to be done. There are other fields of research as yet unexplored, which will richly repay all the expenditure of time and labor which a thorough investigation of them will require.

The expense of the search thus far has been met by voluntary con- tributions of the Alumni, particularly the Harvard Club of New York.

The article in the Register for October, 1885 (xxxix., 325) (pp. 134-145 this book), was introduced by the following note:

The following is the tenth in the remarkable series of papers con- tributed to the Register by Mr. Waters, and modestly styled by him " Genealogical Gleanings in England." The article on " John Harvard and his Ancestry," published in the Register for July last, although it appears under a separate title, was the ninth in that series.

There is no need to enlarge upon the importance of Mr. Waters's dis-

INTRODUCTION. XV

coveries in relation to John Harvard ; but it will not be out of place to make the announcement here that Harvard College, in grateful recog- nition of his patient labors in these' investigations, conferred upon him on Commencement Day, June 24, 1885, the honorary degree of Master of Arts. The words of President Eliot on that occasion were :

Henricum Fitz-Gilbert Waters investigatorem antiquitatis curiosum, de Uni- versitate ob genus Johanuis Harvard feliciter exquisitum bene meritum, artium maffistrum causa honoris.

At the Commencement Dinner President Eliot said :

The class of 1855, this day thirty years out of college, the class which boasts Agassiz the naturalist, Francis C. Barlow the general, Theodore Lyman the independent, and Phillips Brooks the great preacher and large minded man, has won a new distinction this year. One of its members, Henry Fitzgilbert Waters, genealogist and antiquai'ian, has discovered, by most patient and ingenious research, the family of John Harvard. We have only known about our first benefactor that he was a master of arts of Emmanuel College, and a non-conforming minister, that he had a well chosen library of three hundred volumes and some property, and that he was admitted a freeman in this colony in November, 1637, and died at Charlestown within a year, leaving his library and half of his estate to the infant college at Cambridge, which was thereafter called by his name. Nothing has been known about his family or the sources of his property, until now, when Mr. Waters has brought to light the wills of his father, two step-fathers, mother, brother, uncle, aunt, and father-in-law, besides other documents of importance in connection with these wills.

John Harvard, whose faith and piety planted this institution, was baptized in the parish of St. Saviour's, Southwark, London, Nov. 29, 1607, being the son of Robert Harvard, a well-to-do butcher, and Katherine Rogers. The mother's maiden name was discovered through the will of William Ward, a goldsmith, who, in 1624, bequeathed a ring of gold to the value of 20s. to his brother Robert Harvard. Rose Rogers, the wife of William Ward, was the sister of Katherine Rogers, John Harvard's mother, so that William Ward could speak of Robert Harvard as his brother. The father, youngest brother, and older brother of our benefactor died in 1625, perhaps of the plague which raged that year in London, and the father disposed by will of a property con- siderable for those days, the widow and her two surviving sons receiving most of it. Katherine Harvard married John Elletson, a cooper, in January, 1626 ; but he died in the following June, leaving another considerable property to his widow Katherine. In December, 1627, John Harvard was entered at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, at the age of twenty, presumably by the advice of the Rev. Mr. Morton or the Rev. Mr. Archer, ministers of the parish of St. Saviour's, both of whom are remembered in the will of John Harvard's mother and in that of his brother Thomas. Five years later this mother appears as the widow and principal heir of Richard Yearwood, a grocer, who was mentioned in the will of her first husband, Robert Harvard, as " my good neighbor and friend Richard Yearwood." In July, 1635, Katherine (Harvard) (Elletson) Yearwood made her will and died, leaving her property, which had been derived from her three husbands, the butcher, the cooper, and the gro- cer, chiefly to her two sons, John and Thomas Harvard, with a preference, however, for the elder son, " John Harvard, clarke." In this year John took his master's degree at Cambridge. In February, 1637, he appeal's married to Ann Sadler, seven years younger than himself, and the daughter of a clergy- man settled at Ringmer in Sussex. In July, 1636, John's younger brother Thomas, a cloth woi'ker, being " sick and weak in body," made his will, in which he disposed of a fair property, a good portion of which he gave to his well beloved brother John. The executors named in this will were his brother John and Nicholas Morton, preacher; but when the will was proved on the 5th of May, 1637, only Mr, Morton appeared, John Harvard having sailed

XVI INTRODUCTION.

with his young wife for New England. In 1638 the young minister at Charles- town, dying at thirty years of age, became the first private benefactor of this college, started in the New World a stream of-beneficenee which has never ceased to flow in ever widening channels, and won for himself, and now at last for his family, an enduring remembrance.

In the twelve years from 1625 to 1637 John Harvard had lost his father, two step-fathers, his mother, and his two brothers, and almost the whole family property had fallen to him. He appears to have been the only scholar in the family, although his brother Thomas seems to have signed his name to his will. His father and mother both made their marks. The whole family con- nection were trades-people ; but his mother, by her marriages, came into pos- session of property enough to give a college education to her oldest son. The education of that one delicate youth has had far-reaching consequences indeed. No prince or potentate, civil or ecclesiastical, founded this college ; it spi'ang from the loins of the common people. It was founded by the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and first endowed by an educated son of pious London trades-people. When I had read these Harvard wills, I asked myself how closely the college is bound — after two hundred and fifty years — to the sort of people who established it. I went to the admission books in which the occupations of jDarents of the students are recorded, and found to my great satisfaction that more than a quarter part of its students are to-day sons of tradesmen, shopkeepers, mechanics, salesmen, foremen, laborers, and farmers. I found sons of butchers, coopers, grocers, and cloth-workers — the Harvard trades — on the roll of its students to-day. May no exclusive policy or spirit ever separate the university which bears John Harvard's name from that laborious, frugal, self-respecting part of the community to which he and his belonged.

Since the article on John Harvard in the Register for July was printed, Mr. Dean, the editor, has received from Mr. E. S. Shuckburgh, the librarian of Emmanuel College, a facsimile, which is reproduced here, of Harvard's signature in 1635, when he took the degree of A.M. It is from the original University register in the custody of the Rev. H. Luard, D. D., registrar of the University. " There is," Mr. Shuck- burgh writes, "no doubt whatever about its genuineness. All persons admitted to a degree had to sign these books, which have been preserved since 1544 — unhappily not earlier." It is to be hoped that funds sufficient to prosecute still further these interesting investigations may be speedily obtained.

To the article in the Register for January, 1886 (xl., 34) (pp. 145-158 this book), was prefixed the following note, which was also printed in part in the London tr Athenreum" for Jan. 2,

1886 :

Mr. William Rendle has published in the " Athenfeum " of April 18, July 11, and Oct. 24, 1885, some communications as to the genealogy of John Harvard, and in certain quarters allusions have been made to a "controversy" on the subject. There is, properly speaking, no con- troversy at all. There is and can be no question whatever in the minds of those conversant with the facts in the case as to who discovered the parentage and ancestry of John Harvard. The credit of this remark- able discovery belongs undeniably to Mr. Henry F. Waters, and to him alone.

INTRODUCTION.

XV11

The facts in the case are briefly these : Mr. Rendle seems to be a local antiquary who has, I believe, lived many years in Southwark, and who has spent much time among the records there, and has undoubt- edly there done good work. But unfortunately for Mr. Rendle, there is not in this case so far a single scrap of evidence to show that there is anything whatever in the Southwark records to establish the slight- est possible connection between the Harvards of that Borough and John Harvard of Emmanuel College and of New England. There were Har- vards in Southwark, it is true, and perhaps in other parts of Surrey, just as there were Harvards in Devonshire, Somerset, Dorset, Wilts, Middlesex, Warwickshire, and doubtless in other parts of England. The problem was to identify, among them all, the father of John Har- vard. So far as Mr. Rendle was concerned, this problem might have remained unsolved to the end of time, for there was nothing in the Southwark records which would have enabled him to solve it.

The proof of this relationship Mr. Waters discovered after much research in the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. There he found, among others, the wills of John Harvard's father, mother, brother, uncle, aunt, two step-fathers, and father-in-law. This proved the whole family connection. If Mr. Waters had stopped there and gone not a step farther, it would have been enough to completely dispel the mystery which had so long enveloped the birth and early life of the benefactor of the noble University. After thus finally solving the problem, he went to Southwark merely for supplemental evidence, not at all necessary, however, to substantiate his case, and there in the parish registers he found the record of the baptism of John Harvard and other collateral matter.

Information of this visit of Mr. Waters to Southwark and its suc- cessful result was communicated to several persons. That Mr. Rendle was apprised of it by one of them can be shown by evidence both direct and circumstantial.

In articles published by Mr. Rendle in the " Genealogist " for April and July, 1884 (N. S., i., 107 and 182), he gives the names of the Harvards found by him in the records of St. Saviour's, Southwark. But there nowhere appears in his list the name of our John Harvard. He even quotes the late Chaplain Samuel Benson as saying that "he cannot find the name of John Harvard, the founder, but that he had no doubt he was born of this family of Harvard of St. Saviour's." Mr. Rendle then adds : " After careful, I will not say exhaustive, examination of the original books and papers, I am quite of the same opinion." On page 182 he quotes the entry in the books of Emmanuel College, where Har- vard is said to be of Middlesex, and in a foot-note talks of drawing the " attention of officials of Middlesex churches to the name of John Har- vard, and the dates circa 1605 and after." Mr. Rendle, although fully apprised of the fact that Harvard, Harverde, and Harvye were merely different forms of the same family name, had evidently overlooked the entry of Harvard's baptism, or had failed to recognize it, or to appreci- ate the importance of the entry, even if his eye had ever rested upon it, and was as late as July, 1884, turning to Middlesex for the record of it, having apparently given up all hope of finding it in Southwark. The " extremely diverse spelling " of the name, being already well known to him, will by no means account for this failure.

On the 11th of April, 1885, a date, be it remembered, subsequent to

Xviii INTRODUCTION.

Mr. Waters's visit to Southwark and his discovery of the record of this baptism, Mr. Kendle published in the South London "Press" a letter, which, with some additions, he again published in the " Athenaeum " of April 18th.

In this letter he printed conspicuously in italics the record of this baptism, and added, " I believe " him " to be the founder " of Harvard College, but he neither then nor has he since offered any proof of his own to substantiate his belief or to show any reasonable grounds for it. Sometime, therefore, between July, 1884, and April, 1885, Mr. Kendle saw a great light. He evidently does not mean to tell us how or when this flashed upon him. But he unwittingly, in the very letter above referred to, shows us the source of his information in these sig- nificant words : " The clue, or rather the result of the clue, is before me. I believe that some American friends, anxious to do honor to their benefactor and his birth-place, are now among us. It would have been pleasant to me to have known them ; probably now I may." Of course he did not know " them." But when we consider that at the very time he penned these lines Mr. Rendle knew that the long search for John Harvard was over, that even the record of his baptism had been found and that Mr. Waters was the successful discoverer, the extremely disingenuous and misleading nature of this allusion to Ameri- can friends can be readily seen. What is the " clue " the result of which Mr. Rendle had before him ? Does he mean to say that some- body else had the clue and that he had only the result ? The general denial made by W. D. in the " Athenaeum " of July 11, 1885, is altogether too vague. It should be more specific if it is expected that much weight should be attached to it.

There seems indeed to be a confusion or haziness in Mr. Rendle's mind as to what constitutes not merely legal but even genealogical proof. Mr. Waters, on the other hand, like a true genealogist, has made a scientific treatment of the subject, and shows us step by step how he reached the successful result of his search, and on what his conclusions are based. He gives us the pedigree of Harvard and the proof by which it can be substantiated. That the search was an inde- pendent one is shown by Mr. Rendle's chief and only witness W. D., who, in the letter above referred to, kindly proves Mr. Waters's case for him by admitting that Mr. Rendle's offer of assistance was " neither acted on nor acknowledged " by Mr. Waters.

In an article in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1885, I expressed my astonishment at what I called this " extraordinary proceeding " on the part of Mr. Rendle. That such a proceeding is happily considered as extraordinary in England as it is here, and that the standard of literary morality is at least as high there as here, is shown by the fact that I have before me, as I write, letters from several English antiquaries whose names are known on both sides of the Atlantic, and who are fully cognizant of the facts in the case, who express surprise at what they call the " strange conduct " of Mr. Rendle. As these are private letters, not intended for publication, I have no right to quote them in this matter, but the evidence thus afforded is overwhelming.

Mr. Rendle's pamphlet, a copy of which I have only lately seen, will, I understand, be reviewed elsewhere and by abler hands than mine. I will therefore not take up space to point out certain inaccuracies in it,

INTRODUCTION. XIX

which are patent to every one who has given much thought to the sub- ject. I will content myself with calling attention to the fact that it furnishes not an iota of proof of the connection of John Harvard of Southwark with John Harvard of New England, except what is taken from Mr. Waters's pamphlet on the subject. This indebtedness Mr. Rendle is, however, careful to acknowledge, and he has conspicuously marked with a W. the source of information thus obtained. It is instructive to notice how plentifully sprinkled Mr. Rendle's page's are with this initial letter.

I freely admit — now that Mr. Waters has conclusively shown that John Harvard was a Southwark man, and has put this statement in print so that all may read — that Mr. Rendle's local knowledge as a Southwark antiquary may enable him to carry on still further the inves- tigations in that Borough, and I certainly trust that he may supplement and add to the already accumulating data concerning the early life of the benefactor of America's oldest and most famous University. Any such supplemental and corroborative material will command the atten- tion of antiquaries on both sides of the ocean, and will deserve and receive due recognition on their part.

The article on ft John Harvard and his Ancestry," Part II., in the Register for October, 1886 (xl., 362) (pp. 180-197 this book), was preceded by the following introduction :

In the article in the Register for July, 1885 (xxxix., 265), entitled " John Harvard and his Ancestry," which formed the ninth instalment of his " Genealogical Gleanings in England," Mr. Waters conclusively established the fact that John Harvard was one of the sons of Robert Harvard of the parish of St. Saviour's, Southwark, London, aud Kath- erine (Rogers) Harvard, his wife, and that he was baptized in that parish Nov. 29, 1607. In support of this statement he published, among others, the wills of Harvard's father, mother, brother, uncle, aunt, two step-fathers, and father-in-law.

In the present paper he continues still further the investigations so successfully begun. He here gives us, with other new and important matter now for the first time published, the probate of the will of Thomas Rogers of Stratford-on-Avon, Harvard's maternal grandfather, the wills of Rose Reason, his aunt, and Thomas Rogers, Jr., his uncle, both on his mother's side, with extracts from the Parish Registers of Stratford, setting forth the baptisms, marriages, and burials of the Rogers family. Harvard's grandfather, Thomas Rogers, was, at the time of his death, an alderman of Stratford, and the house which he built there in 1596 is still standing. From it John Harvard's father and mother were married in 1605. It is one of the oldest and certainly the best remaining example of ancient domestic architecture in Strat- ford. The illustration in this number is a heliotype copy, slightly reduced, of an excellent photograph just taken.

When it is remembered that the late Hon. James Savage, LL.D., the author of the " Genealogical Dictionary of New England," made a voy- age to England for the express purpose of ascertaining what could be learned of the early history of John Harvard, and that he would gladly have given, as he himself tells us, five hundred dollars to get five lines

XX INTRODUCTION.

about him in any capacity, public or private, but that all his efforts were without avail, the accumulation of material now brought to light by the perseverance of Mr. Waters is certainly most surprising. From being almost a semi-mythical figure in our early colonial history, John Harvard bids fair to become one of the best known of the first genera- tion of settlers on these shores. The mystery which surrounded him is now dispelled. No better illustration could be given of the impor- tance" of the work Mr. Waters is doing in England, no more striking instance could be found of the extraordinary success which is attending his labors there.

The Committee earnestly hope that funds sufficient to carry on still further these valuable investigations may be speedily raised.

That the interest excited by Mr. Waters's discovery of the par- entage and ancestry of John Harvard is not confined to those who speak the English language, is shown by an editorial article in the Paris journal, r'La Renaissance," which was reprinted in the Reg- ister for April, 1886 (xl., 180).

The article on the " Family of John Rogers of Dedhara," in the Register for April, 1887 (xlL, 160) (pp. 209-236 this book), was introduced as follows :

The article in the Register for October, 1886 (xl., 362), on "John Harvard and his Ancestry, Part Second," which, although published under a separate title, formed the fourteenth instalment of Mr. Waters's " Genealogical Gleanings in England," related especially to the family of John Harvard's maternal grandfather, Thomas Rogers of Stratford on Avon, co. Warwick. Mr. Waters's investigations in this direction resulted in the accumulation of a mass of material in regard not only to this but to other families of the name of Rogers, but a part of which is as yet ready for publication.

The article in the present number of the Register, the sixteenth in the series of " Genealogical Gleanings," concerns more particularly the Rogers family of Essex Co., England, and of Essex Co., Massachusetts. It is by no means complete, nor is it intended to be a final report of the results of Mr. Waters's signally successful researches. Mr. Waters has evidently thought it advisable simply to " report progress " in this line of search rather than to wait until he could perfect his work so as to present a finished pedigree of this family. The latter course would necessitate a long delay, while the course he has adopted, although open to the objection of being perhaps a fragmentary and unsatisfactory mode of dealing with the subject, has the positive merit of enabling him to make at once available for the use of antiquaries some of the new and important discoveries he has made in relation to this family.

As is well known to the readers of the Register, the Committee on English Research have repeatedly asserted that the method of search adopted by Mr. Waters would without fail enable him to bring to light what had escaped the notice of all previous investigators, and they have from time to time called attention to the most striking points in the evidence relied upon to support this assertion. The Harvard dis- coveries undoubtedly made the most impression on the minds of the general public, but Mr. Waters's whole work, in every part, is proof

INTRODUCTION. XXI

enough to the mind of the trained antiquary that here at last is a new departure in genealogical investigation which cannot fail to produce results not otherwise to be attained. And this present paper on the Essex Rogers is by no means inferior to the Harvard papers as evidence of the truth of the statements above referred to.

It has long been a tradition in New England that the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich, Mass., son of the Rev. John Rogers of Dedham, co. Essex, England, was a descendant of John Rogers the Martyr. This tradition was disproved by the late Col. Joseph L. Chester, himself a descendant of the Ipswich minister. Indeed, it was through the re- searches that he then made into the history of this branch of the Rog- ers family that Colonel Chester was first led to turn his attention to the genealogical pursuits in which he subsequently became preeminent. His " Life of John Rogers the Martyr," published in London in 1861, was his earliest antiquarian work, and was the means of first bringing him to the notice of genealogists in this country and England. Although the result of these investigations was personally unsatisfactory to him, as he himself tells us, and his disappointment was great in finding that the Martyr could not have been the ancestor of the Ipswich minister, he never lost his interest in the subject, and continued almost to the day of his death to accumulate material in relation to the Rogers family in all its branches.

Through the kindness of Augustus D. Rogers, Esq., of Salem, Mass., I am permitted to make the following extracts from three letters writ- ten to him by Colonel Chester.

In the first, dated Jan. 13, 1877, after referring to his " Life of John Rogers the Martyr," he says :

I may say generally that I have since discovered nothing to vary the con- clusions I then arrived at, but much to confirm them. We shall never, I fear, carry the Rogers pedigree back beyond Richard Rogers of Wethersfield. I have sought earnestly in vain to ascertain who his father was, but I quite accept Candler's statement that he was of the North of England. ... I have often been at Dedham, where the bust of John Rogers is still in the chan- cel of the church. I have spared no pains to ascertain his parentage, but in vain. My Rogers collections alone would make a small libi'ary.

In the second, bearing date Feb. 17, 1877, he says :

For eighteen years I have been collecting everything I could lay my hands on, from every possible source, concerning the Rogers families, all over Eng- land. All this material I have kept carefully worked up in pedigree form, and, with all my personal interest in the descent, I have never been able to get back a step beyond Richard Rogers of Wethersfield, nor even ascertain Avho was the father of John Rogers of Dedham. If any further progress is ever made it will be by accident. But my impression is that the earlier ances- tors of the family were of a rank in life so humble that they never got into the public records. If I could think of anything more to do, you may be sure that I would do it. . . . My Rogers collections are enormous, and I know of nothing that has escaped me.

The third is dated March 9, 1878, and he there says :

You must recollect that I take as deep an interest in the Rogers pedigree as you or anybody else can, as there is no doubt about my descent from Rev. John Rogers of Dedham, and if I had been able to add anything to what I have heretofore published, I should have clone so. I have been pursuing these

xxii INTRODUCTION.

inquiries here for now nearly twenty years, and you may be sure I have left no stoue unturned.

It will be seen that these letters were written but a few years before the death of the writer.

It is with no wish to detract from the fame of Colonel Chester — for that is now secure, and he is admitted by all to have been preeminent among the genealogists of our day, without a superior indeed either in this country or in England — that attention is called to the fact that in the history