The Ark and The Dove

The Marbury family has kept me busy the last few weeks. There are a lot of men named Francis and Leonard and they all served in the Revolutionary War so it’s tough keeping them all straight. Because they were so desperate to protect their new country from the Indians and the Tories, everyone from age 10 to 100 grabbed a musket and fought.

Some families, like the Marburys, had three generations of soldiers, men and women, sometimes fighting in the same battles. I’ll soon be uploading what I’ve been able to find so far but, in the meantime, one set of ancestors seems interesting enough to spend a little more time with.

Watercolor of The Ark and The Dove by John Moll

My 10th great grandparents were Thomas Greene and Ann Gerard who arrived in Maryland on The Ark and The Dove Expedition of 1633 and helped settle the new colony of Maryland. They boarded the ship as a single man and possibly a widow and, a short time after they arrived in the new colony, had the first Christian marriage in Maryland. Their wedding took place on the banks of the St. George River.

Thomas was a son of Sir Thomas Greene and Lady Margaret Webb. Sir Thomas had been made a “knight bachelor” by James I in 1622 at Windsor Castle. Ann is thought to have been the sister of another passenger, Sir Richard K.B. Gerard, and was one of the few "gentlewomen" on the initial voyage. She was likely a widow of someone with the last name of Cox.

Like Thomas Greene, many of those setting out for the new land on this expedition were Catholics who saw this as a way to experience religious tolerance. Consisting of two small vessels, the "Ark" and the "Dove," with about 200 people, left England in mid-October 1633. Shortly after heading down the Thames, it was discovered everyone on board had "not taken the oath of allegiance to the Crown." It seems the king was afraid they would get to the new world and revolt. After a detour that allowed everyone on board to take the oath they then had to wait for favorable weather conditions and final approval to leave. On November 22, 1633 they finally began their voyage.

During the journey, they encountered a storm, the two ships were separated and The Dove was thought to be lost at sea. However, shortly after The Ark docked in Barbados, The Dove pulled into port and the two ships were reunited. Together, they reached Point Comfort, Virginia on February 24, 1634, and then on March 25 landed on an island in the Potomac, which they named St. Clement's.

A Mass was led by the two Jesuit priests that accompanied the expedition. Two days later they founded a city they called St. Mary's in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Here is an account of the landing of the Ark and the Dove:
"It was March 25, 1634, the initial day of Spring and the first day of the Julian Calendar, as well as the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, all of which were propitious for joyous and solemn celebration and a memorial day for each adventurer, who had survived the voyage of 123 days or slightly over four months from the sailing from Cowes to their destination. They selected the larger of three islands lying near the shore of the Potomac not too far distant from the mainland to disembark. To the island they gave the name of St. Clement after the fourth Bishop of Rome. Father White directed several of his retainers to construct a huge cross from one of the native trees. It was hastily hewn together and, on that virgin day of Spring in 1634, led by Father White who was assisted by Father Altham, all the Roman Catholics, and not a few of the Anglicans, gathered for the first sacrifice of the Roman Mass ever to have been celebrated in one of the Original Thirteen English Colonies."

“Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate” by Harry Wright Newman, pg. 38

Also on board the ship was Leonard Calvert who would become the colony’s first governor and was Thomas’ godfather and lifelong friend. In 1647, Thomas was appointed governor of the colony by Leonard, as an emergency measure only hours before Leonard's death due to a sudden illness.

Leonard served several years in various leadership positions in the colony but his Catholic faith and loyalty to England proved problematic. In 1650 he was “discharged from all offices for usurping authority.”

Ann died in 1643 and Leonard married a widow, Winifred Seybourne. Leonard died on January 20, 1651.

Memorials for The Ark and The Dove and Leonard Calvert in Maryland.

Ann and Leonard, being super-Catholics, named their daughter Mary. Mary Greene married Francis Marbury sometime before 1698 and they had a son named Leonard Marbury who named his son Francis Marbury who then named his son Leonard Marbury. Leonard is the Marbury who first moved to Haywood Co., TN around 1829. Leonard had a son named John who named his son Robert Green Marbury. At this time, could John have known about his “Greene” connection? Robert Green Marbury must have been very patriotic because he named his son Benjamin Franklin Marbury. Ben married Maggie Yelverton and both of them are buried at Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Haywood Co., TN. Ben and Maggie’s son Hardy Joyner Marbury married Evelena “Lena” Booth and they had a daughter, my great grandmother, Allie Marbury.

Sources
The Society of The Ark and The Dove
The Ark and the Dove Adventurers
Wikipedia: Thomas Greene
Wikipedia: The Ark and The Dove
Maryland Online Encyclopedia
Historic St. Mary's City

Adam and Eve of Virginia

Much has been written about my 10th great-grandparents, Colonel William Randolph and Mary Royall Isham Randolph.

I recently wrote about Reverend William Dawson who was the second president of The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He was married to Mary Randolph Stith, who was the daughter of Captain William Stith Jr. and Mary Randolph.

Mary’s parents have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia" because of both the number of children they had but also the significant historical personalities from their line.

Herman Melville, who wrote Moby Dick, called the Randolphs the quintessential "old established family in the land," and used them as a contrast to those families whose sons were forced into the dangerous job of whaling.

Colonel William Randolph arrived in Virginia in 1673 without much money but with a solid connection through his uncle, Henry Randolph, who had settled in the Colony a decade before. William Randolph was thought to have been a carpentry apprentice in England and, once in America, he began a business building barns. He soon began using hired help for the actual labor and functioned as a contractor.

Randolph also began purchasing land on what was called Turkey Island in pieces; ultimately building a large brick mansion with a dome on the property.

He also persuaded the Governor of Virginia to grant him a large plantation that adjoined his on Turkey Island that belonged to Nathaniel Bacon but had been confiscated after Bacon had
staged a revolt against the colonial government.

Randolph was around 30 years old when married Mary Isham, daughter of Henry Isham, another large plantation owner in the area, which secured Randolph’s place in colonial society and his position as one of the wealthiest men in the area. She was around 22 years old at the time of their marriage.

One of Randolph’s best friends was Colonel William Byrd, a London goldsmith, who moved to Virginia in the late 1660s. The Byrds and The Randolphs are said to have spent much time together and, when Byrd died in 1704, the families continued their friendship and Randolph remained close to William Byrd II who is considered the founder of Richmond, VA. Byrd II also wrote a book called “The Secret Diaries of William Byrd of Westover” which include many references to The Randolph Family.

As Randolph’s wealth increased, he built a line of ships that carried both cargo and immigrants between England and the Colonies.

As he acquired more property, he converted it from wilderness into farms and plantations and was very passionate about the possibilities the development new land offered everyone. He also took a leading role in trying to civilize Indians and hired them to work on his plantations. In everything one can read about Randolph, it is clear he was well-respected throughout Virginia and the surrounding area and offered legal advise and assistance to thousands of the colonists.

William and Mary Randolph had nine children.

I found an additional connection to The Randolphs which I think is interesting. While researching, I came across this manuscript which was written in 1949 by Wassell Randolph, the president of Cossitt Library here in Memphis and a prominent Memphis attorney at the time.

Wassell Randolph researched his ancestor William Randolph extensively and wrote:

"William Randolph, like so many prominent contemporary colonists, was an indiscreet eater and drinker. Consequently, he suffered severely from gout. The first spell mentioned in “The Secret Diary” occurred in December 1709 and recurrent attacks followed in January and May succeeding. How long had he suffered from this malady is not known, but he was so afflicted in 1700. It reoccurred persistently and may have been a contributing cause to his death."

William Randolph died April 21, 1711 at 5 p.m. in his home on Turkey Island and his wife, Mary, died Dec 29, 1735. She was buried on Turkey Island in the Randolph Family Cemetery, next to her husband.

Their headstone contains the following inscription:

Col. Wm Randolph of Warwickshire, but late of
Virginia, Gent. Died 11th 1711.
Mrs. Mary Randolph his only wife, she was the daughter
Of Mr. Henry Isham by Catherine his wife. He was of
Northamptomshire, but late of Virginia, Gent.

The Randophs had several children who played a role in American History, including:

Elizabeth Randolph Bland – mother of Richard Bland who was the first to put in writing the legal reason the colonies should become independent from England. Through her daughter, Mary Bland Lee, she was also the ancestor of Light Horse Harry and his son Robert E. Lee.

Thomas Randolph – great grandfather of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the US and great-great-grandfather of Thomas Mann who married Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, Martha.

Richard Randolph - married a granddaughter of Pocahontas, Jane Bolling, and was grandfather of congressman John Randolph.

Isham Randolph – grandfather of Thomas Jefferson.

Sir John Randolph - the only native of Colonial America to receive a knighthood and father of Peyton Randolph, president of the First Continental Congress.

Mary Randolph - had a daughter, Mary Stith who would marry William Dawson, who would become the second president of William and Mary College. The Dawsons had a son named John Dawson who became a lawyer and who married Penelope Johnston, heiress and daughter of the Governor of Virginia.
Their daughter married John Castellaw and they named their son John Dawson Castellaw and he led many wagon trains from Bertie Co., North Carolina into Haywood Co., TN. John’s son was Thomas Jefferson Castellaw whose son was Thomas Jefferson Castellaw Jr. His son was Bob Castellaw and his daughter was Elizabeth Castellaw Williams who was the mother of my father, Bob Williams. Visit HaywoodCountyLine.com for more about The Castellaw Family.


Today, Turkey Island is still privately owned, but there are several owners. Randolph’s mansion burned in 1806 but parts of the foundation are still visible. The Randolph Family Cemetery is still there and is completely walled in and located between the former front of the mansion and the James River.

The oldest grave is that of William Randolph.

Other sources:
Genealogy of the Page Family
Descendants of William Randolph
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties
Col. John Wise of England and Virginia
Virginia Colonial Decisions

I have George Washington’s Autograph

I finally received the book written by my 7g-grandfather today from Amazon and the cover page was signed by George Washington.

The daughter of Penelope Golland Maule Lovick Phenney Johnston, also named Penelope, married Colonel John Dawson who was the son of Reverend William Dawson, making the Reverend my 7g-grandfather, if I counted right.

His book, “Poems on Several Occasions by a Gentleman of Virginia” was written while he was a student at Queens College in Oxford around 1720. According to the book, “Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary” by Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel (2006), while the book was reprinted in 1930, there is only one original copy left and it was once the personal property of George Washington and is now kept in the Boston Athenaeum Library.


As you can see, when the book was reprinted in 1930, they copied the pages exactly, even including George Washington’s signature on the title page.

I am not a poet and I know it but the book is hard to read because, for some reason, most of the letter s’s are replaced by a letter f. So it reads like this:

“The following Pieces are the cafual Productions of Youth. Having communicated them to fome of my Friends, whofe Judgement in thefe Matters I thought leaft liable to err…”

You get the idea.

When it was reprinted in 1930, they were not aware of the author and a note at the front of the book states, “the interest which attaches to this volume, partly because of its rarity, is enhanced by the few facts available regarding its history.”

It is known it was published around October 1736, several years after Dawson had come to America and become the Professor of Moral Philosophy at William and Mary College. In 1743, he was made president of the college, a position he held until 1752.

Because of the style of Washington’s signature, it’s thought that the book was not given to him until 40 or 50 years after it was originally published. After his death, it was probably given, along with the rest of his library, to Bushrod Washington, his nephew. The single original copy remained at Mount Vernon until 1848.

Reverend William Dawson died and was buried in Williamsburg on July 24, 1752. Many of the things he wrote while at the college are in the Library of Congress.

If you are looking for something fun to do next Christmas, you can gather the family around the tree and read a Christmas sermon given by Dawson in 1732.

If you happen to visit William & Mary today, you can check out Dawson Hall in the Bryan Complex.

A complete biography of William Dawson can be found in The National cyclopaedia of American biography, Volume 3.

John Castallaw and Martha Butler

When digging through the Castellaw side of my family, one story that begs to be explored further is that of my great-great-great-great-great grandparents, John and Margaret Dawson Castellaw.

Both John and Margaret were from wealthy, influential Colonial families and were married sometime around 1775. At the time, John was 49. Marrying the daughter of a prominent Bertie Co., NC socialite whose grandfather and uncle had both been presidents of William and Mary College was what one could expect from John who was a member of "the assembly" in Bertie and himself a wealthy landowner. The surprise comes when you back up a few years.

In 1755, when he was 29, John Castellaw had a son named William with Martha Butler who was 21. Although they could not marry because she was a “mulatto,” records indicate she was his common law wife. It is unknown for certain whether Martha was part Indian or black because the term “mulatto” referred to anyone with a mix of any race other than white. In the early years of America, there were white people who were servants and black people who were free so the lines between the races were not yet firmly established. “Poor and often unfree peoples--mostly slaves and servants of various derivations -lived and worked under common conditions.” Source

As white, female servants and male slaves of other races began families, many free mulatto children were born. In the book, “Freedom in the Archives” by Paul Heinegg and Henry B. Hoff, you read, “most free African American families that originated in colonial Virginia and Maryland descended from white servant women who had children by slaves or free African Americans, and many descended from slaves who were freed before the 1723 Virginia law requiring legislative approval for manumissions.” Source

It is not certain, but possible that Martha was the grandaughter or ancestor of Ann Butler who was a white servant of Samuel Hershey. According the Bertie Co., NC records, on January 15, 1690, she admitted having a “Molatta” child with a black slave named Emanuel who was owned by William Coulborne. It is possible that Martha’s mother was Margaret Butler because John Castellaw appeared on her behalf in court September 1768 and is referred to as her son-in-law. Margaret was head of household of herself and Isaac who was listed as a “free mulatto.”

Eventually, in addition to William, it is thought John and Martha had at least four other children.

Although it's impossible to know, one could assume John would have married Martha if he could have. At the time, interracial marriages were forbidden by law, and any minister or Justice performing one lost his license.

All the children of John and Martha stayed in Bertie Co., NC while all but one of the children of John and his second wife, Margaret moved to Haywood Co., TN.

You can read more about John and Martha on HaywoodCountyLine.com

The Immortal Ten

My great-great grandfather, Tom Castellaw Jr., stayed in Haywood County his entire life as did most of his children. His brother Fletcher, however, had a son who moved to Ennis, TX before the turn of the century. Jack Coleman Castellaw became a pharmacist and owned a drug store in Ennis. Jack had a son named Jack Pender Castellaw who attended Baylor in Waco and was on the basketball team. On Jan. 22, 1927, coach Ralph Wolf was taking his first Baylor basketball team to play a game in Austin against the University of Texas.

In Round Rock, Texas, just miles from the team's arrival in Austin, a speeding train rammed into the side of the bus at a railway crossing near the center of the city. Ten of the 21 players, coaches and fans in the Baylor party that traveled on the bus that day were killed, including Jack.

The Immortal Ten are honored each year during Homecoming, when freshman hear the tragic story and participate in a candlelight remembrance ceremony.

On June 22, 2007, a monument was erected on campus in the new Traditions Square to honor the Immortal Ten.

In December 1968, Jack's mother gave approximately $750,000 to Baylor to fund the Castellaw Communications Center in his memory.



You can read more about the tragedy in a post as part of The Waco History Project or buy the book, The Immortal Ten: The Definitive Account of the 1927 Tragedy and Its Legacy at Baylor University on Amazon.

Check out HaywoodCountyLine.com to read more about The Castellaw Family.

My Famous, Smart Cousin

So when researching their ancestry I guess most people are hoping that, at some point, they'll find they are related to a president, a great general or at least a king or something. Up until now, I have uncovered your basic assortment of Revolutionary War heroes, brave settlers, Civil War POWs, farmers and the like.

But I finally found someone famous. And even better, he's really smart, famous AND helped promote women at NASA, which means he is now going to be my daughters' patron saint of making As in science.

My great-great-great grandfather, Thomas A. Lovelace moved to Haywood County from Iredell County, NC by way of Kentucky while his brother Levi, with whom he appears to have been close, moved to Franklin Co., MO right before the Civil War in the early 1860s. Thomas had taken off years before since it appears that in 1842, Thomas sold Levi the plantation he had inherited from their father for $500. In their father Thomas' will, Thomas A. and Levi had each received, "the plantations on which they lived and suits of strong cloth to make them equal to what the others got.”

Sounds like they were snappy dressers.

Levi would have a son named John Lazenby Lovelace and one grandson named Edgar and another, who became a doctor; William Randolph. Unfortunately, not William Randolph Hearst. Edgar's son and Levi's great-grandson would be Dr. William "Randy" Lovelace II.

Dr. Randy Lovelace, is the one who did some really interesting things.

First, he pursued a medical career in the footsteps of his uncle and received his M.D. from Harvard University in 1934. Then, he began a surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic and he was eventually appointed Chief of Surgery. As the US was preparing for the possibility of war in the late 1930s, The Mayo Clinic was asked to form a research unit to develop solutions to the physiological challenges associated with high-altitude flight. Basically, when pilots jumped out of damaged airplanes, they would die because of lack of oxygen. Dr. Lovelace proposed that pilots be provided small, personal oxygen bottles, but the military denied official permission to test the idea. Dr. Lovelace, tested it anyway, jumping from a bomber at 40,200 feet with a small oxygen bottle taped to his leg. Despite being knocked unconscious when exiting the plane, he survived the experiment and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross when the government finally acknowledged the feat and adopted the strategy.

Eventually, he developed an oxygen-mask for use in high-altitude aircraft and helped establish the Lovelace Medical Foundation, currently known as the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, in Albuquerque, NM.

In 1958, Lovelace was appointed chairman of NASA's Special Advisory Committee on Life Science at NASA Headquarters. Then, in 1960, Dr. Lovelace and Brig. General Donald Flickinger invited award-winning pilot Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb to undergo the physical testing regimen that Lovelace’s Albuquerque, New Mexico Foundation had developed to help select NASA’s first astronauts.

Dr. Lovelace also served as head of NASA’s Special Committee on Bioastronautics. When Cobb became the first woman to pass the tests, Lovelace announced her success at a 1960 conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Lovelace then invited more women pilots to take the tests. Jacqueline Cochran, the famous pilot, businesswoman, and Lovelace’s old friend, joined the project as an adviser and paid all of the women’s testing expenses.

Dr. Lovelace went on to play a central role in selecting the Mercury Seven astronauts who are also known as The Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. It included Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Donald Slayton. I think every child of the '60s remembers a few of those names. Dr. Lovelace had helped NASA draw up a profile of the perfect astronaut, based on years of medical testing experience of pilots. These guidelines were used to help select astronauts for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Lovelace believed that these guidelines showed that women were just as capable of space travel as men, and in 1960, he helped choose 25 female astronaut candidates, some of which were selected as the "Mercury Thirteen" the next year. However, NASA would not send a woman into space until 1983, when Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on the shuttle Challenger.

In 1964, Dr. Lovelace was appointed by President Johnson as Director of Space Medicine for NASA.

Sadly, in 1965, he and his wife were killed when their chartered airplane crashed in the Colorado mountains.

Each year, the William Randolph Lovelace II Award recognizes outstanding contributions to space science and technology. The 2009 winner was Buzz Aldrin. Dr. Lovelace has also been honored with the Lovelace Crater on the moon.

Today, The Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute is the nation’s largest independent, not-for-profit organization conducting basic and applied research on the causes and treatments of respiratory illness and disease. Dr. Lovelace’s youngest daughter, Jacqueline Lovelace Johnson, is the current Chair of The Institute Board of Directors.

So that's my famous and smart cousin. OK, sort of distant but I have always thought either of my daughters would make a great astronaut...or doctor so it is good to know it's in their blood.

You can check out the rest of my Lovelace Family genealogy on my Haywood County Line Web site.

Sources:

The Lovelace Research Institute

History of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute

William Randolph Lovelace II on Wikipedia

The Mercury Seven on Wikipedia

Dr. Lovelace in the International Space Hall of Fame

The William Randolph Lovelace Award

Jacqueline Cochran on Wikipedia

Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb in Encyclopedia of Science

Guy Lovelace's Garden

I've been working a lot this weekend trying to get the Lovelace family finished and up so I would have two complete family lines live on the Web site. My kids were at my parent's house so it made me think about all the summers I would go to my own grandparent's houses in Haywood County, TN. Every single time I cut open a watermelon, and get a whiff of it, it takes me back to those days. Both sets of grandparents had big gardens and lots of fresh vegetables. Both also had back porches where tomatoes would be lined up on newspapers waiting to ripen. At my Lovelace grandparents house the tomatoes were watched over by rows of left over Aunt Jemima syrup bottles that were always cleaned out, saved and placed in the window sill that ran the length of the back porch.
Cantaloupe was another thing they grew. Then, they would eat slices of it for breakfast, lunch or dinner, sprinkled with pepper. One summer, probably around 1985, I took my video camera with me on a visit to Papaw and Grandmama's house (that's what we called Guy and Virginia Lovelace). When we arrived, Papaw was in the middle of watering some of the watermelon and cantaloupe so I took the opportunity to video him at work. It turned out to be one of my favorite videos ever. Some of his cows make an appearance and, if you look closely, you see the barn that was nearly 50 years old that would burn to the ground a few years later. So it's been an interesting weekend. Spending all this time with the Lovelace family and watching the video, I have topped it off by eating watermelon, cantaloupe and tomatoes this weekend. Although, I did have to buy them at the store.