From Alex and Olivia to Alfred the Great

The Marbury family is loaded with some interesting characters and, if you allow jumping back and forth from the wife's genealogical line to the husband's, you can get from my daughters, Alex and Olivia, to Alfred the Great and run into some pretty interesting figures along the way. The link in the chain around a couple of the Revolutionary War ancestors named Leonard and Frances is "likely" rather than "proven" but everything before and after those generations is certain. Just a few of the cast of characters include:

Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland who was the daughter of John of Gaunt, the first Duke of Lancaster and his mistress Katherine Swynford who has a whole club dedicated to her called The Katherine Swynford Society. Joan was the grandmother of Edward the IV and Richard the III of England.

Saint Margaret of Scotland of who was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in recognition of her personal holiness, fidelity to the Church, work for religious reform, and charity. Her husband, Malcolm III, and their eldest son, Edward, were killed in a fight against the English at Alnwick Castle on November 13, 1093. Her son Edmund was left with the task of telling his mother of their deaths. Margaret was ill, and she died on November 16, 1093, three days after the deaths of her husband and eldest son. Her remains are kept at Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland.

Edmund I who was called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent and was King of England from 939 until his death in 946. During his reign the revival of monasteries in England began and he established peaceful relationships with Scotland. He was murdered by Leofa, an exiled thief, while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day in Pucklechurch in South Gloucestershire.

Alfred the Great who was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred was an educated man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system and military structure. He is regarded as a saint by some, but has never been officially canonized. The Anglican Communion venerates him as a hero of the Christian Church, and he may often be found depicted in stain glass windows in churches throughout England.

Here is how you get from Alex and Olivia to Alfred the Great:

Alex and Olivia Williams have me as their father.
My mother is Shirley Lovelace Williams
whose mother was Virginia Brantley Lovelace
whose mother was Allie Ern Marbury Brantley
whose father was Hardy Joyner Marbury
whose father was Ben F. Marbury
whose father was Robert Green Marbury
whose father was John Marbury
whose father was Leonard Marbury
whose father was Francis Marbury
whose father was Leonard Marbury
whose father was Frances Marbury
whose father was also Francis Marbury
whose father was Euscbius Marbury (b. 1605, England)
whose mother was Elizabeth Cave
whose father was Henry Cave
whose mother was Margaret Throckmorton
whose mother was Lady Vaux
whose mother was Elizabeth Fitzhugh
whose mother was Alice Neville
whose father was Richard Neville
whose mother was Joan de Beaufort
whose father was John “of Gaunt” Beaufort, Duke of Lancaster
whose father was Edward III King of England
whose father was Edward II King of England
whose father was Edward I “Longshanks”
whose father was Henry III
whose father was John Lackland, King of England
whose father was Henry II Curtmantle King of England
whose mother was Matilda
whose mother was Matilda of Scotland
whose mother was Saint Margaret of Scotland
whose father was Edward Athling
whose father was Ethelred II the Unready, King of Kent
whose father was Edgar the Peaceful
whose father was Edmund I
whose father was Edward
whose father was Alfred the Great

Primary Source

You can read more details about the Marbury family at HaywoodCountyLine.com.

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

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.

Bertie County Moves Into the Modern World

Since I first began researching my ancestry a few months ago, I have wanted to visit Bertie County, North Carolina. From what I have been able to figure out so far, between 1834 and 1836 just about every one of my ancestors who ended up in Haywood County, TN left Bertie County, NC via wagon trains, landed someplace and then pretty much stayed in a 30 mile area.
According to John Cowand, who is a fellow member of the Bertie Newsgroup on RootsWeb:

"There were many Bertie families that made the trek to Tennessee in the early 1800's, mostly in the 1830's. Most of the families in Bertie lived between Ross Baptist Church and Capeharts Baptist Church and all were usually kin in one way or another. They mostly went either to Humphreys County, TN or to Haywood County, TN. John Dawson Castellaw was said to be the wagon master and he led numerous wagon trains to Tennessee in the 1830's. It is said that he would lead a group out there, then come back and lead another group. He finally just stayed in Tennessee. His kindred remained in Bertie County, and are there to this day..."

Had the ancestors of mine that made the journey been able to use Mapquest, they would know they were making a journey of 803 miles that, if they could drive 65 mile an hour, would take 12 hours and 15 minutes. Of course, their journey took months and, when they left, they knew they would likely never see their friends and families again. My ancestors who made that journey include; John Dawson Castellaw, John Hardy Cobb, John Bembery “Bem” and Penelope White, Bem’s brother Charlton White, William and Millie Thompson Watridge, Dempsey and Elizabeth Rawls Nowell, George Solomon Williams, Edward Brantley, Thomas “T.A” and Unity Shirley Lovelace, George Forrest, and William and Ann Capehart Steel.
Most of these groups included children, friends, extend family and servants. Most seem to have been plantation owners in the Bertie County area and many had slaves that made the journey with them to Haywood County.
This connection I feel with Bertie County, NC made an article posted in our Bertie newsgroup by Ms. Claudia Harrell Williams very fun to read.

Windsor launches website
By Thadd White | Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald
Published Friday, July 9, 2010
WINDSOR – Bertie County’s historic capital is moving into the modern world.
The town of Windsor has officially launched its own website, helping the historic county seat of Bertie County be accessible to people the world over. The new site is www.windsornc.com and features a variety of information about town government and travel destinations.
During Thursday morning’s regular meeting of the Windsor Board of Commissioners, that governing body had an opportunity to view the new site which was developed by the Windsor-Bertie County Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re really pleased and excited to have a website developed for the town,” Mayor Jimmy Hoggard said.
Commissioner Collins Cooper, who also serves in the role of Executive Director of the Chamber, gave Mayor Hoggard, Town Administrator Allen Castelloe and the board members the highlights of the new site.
“We want you to have the opportunity to see it and then make any suggestions for changes or additions,” Cooper said.
The new site provides visitors with information on the town’s elected officials as well as the staff members who assist the public on a daily basis. There is also a link to the town’s public safety officers, including the Windsor Police Department and Windsor Fire Department.
The site also provides a brief history of the town and a forms library which allows people to print off useful forms and have them filled out before arriving at town hall.
There is also a place to learn more about the town’s ordinances as well as a community calendar.
“We want to add more to the calendar,” Cooper said. “We hope people will pass on community events that we can put on the calendar for everyone to know about.”
Cooper said the Chamber would also be adding a Facebook page for the town of Windsor, which he believed would be useful as well.
“We’ll continually be adding to the website,” Cooper said. “Anything the board wants to see added, all they have to do is let us know.”
Commissioner Joe Alexander said the site “looks good” and complimented Cooper and his staff for their work.
Mayor Hoggard agreed.
“It looks great,” he said. “When people travel now, the first thing they do is Google their destination and check out the information on the town.
“Thank you, Collins, for your hard work on this,” he added. “It’s done really well."

OK, so when I read this article, I could actually see William Holden, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in a courtroom under a giant ceiling fan and everyone wearing seersucker suits and looking all wholesome and happy to be there. Remember the movie Pleasantville with Toby Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. Like that.

Anyway, when they get their Facebook page, I am going to be first in line to be their friend.