I've been waiting for several years for the facts about this ancestor to come out. I think I've waited in vain, and it will be some time, if ever, before the origins of this man are determined. We know where he was baptized, and we know his parents' names and when and where they were baptized. But after that, it gets confusing. Was Detmar's father a German count, or a Dutch count, or an Englishman named Stansbury who decided to stay in the area of the Low countries after spending time there during one or another of the many wars those countries had? Was his mother some relation to William of Orange? All these theories are mentioned on various internet sites but no one seems to really have documents that show anything for sure. The one exception is a crude drawing of heraldry, with a 1609 date, and the name Sternberg written on it. It's written in a foreign language so I have no idea what the sketch actually says.
Detmar was the son of Dethmarus and Catherine Morske Sternberge, and was baptized in the Protestant church honoring St. Rainaldi in Dortmund, Prussia in 1628. He was probably born shortly before that. He married Catherine (Renske was her nickname but we don't know her given name) probably about 1650. Their first and perhaps only son was named Tobias. The three of them came to Maryland in 1658 according to Detmar's claim for headrights, and he had also transported a man by the name of John Dowlin. So he had 200 acres, or at least the right to 200 acres.
I wish I knew more about Detmar. He arrived in 1658 and was in 1663 selling land. Why? Did he acquire other land? Did he originally acquire unsuitable land? What crop was he trying to raise? Did he actually work the land, or was that done by servants and slaves? Did he have another trade or way to support himself? What was his religion? We know he was living in 1678 but we don't know when after that he died. And most certainly, I'd love to know more about his origins. Did he find fellow Germans in the area, or Dutch, or English? What was his relationship with his neighbors? Could he speak English at all? Since we don't know the answers to these questions, this post is not a story of his life but just a beginning, hoping to point us toward a fuller understanding of our ancestor with the strange sounding name.
Two generations after Detmar arrived, the family, or at least some of it, changed its name to Stansbury, and that is the name our line is using today.
Here's the line of descent:
Detmar Sternberg-Catherine (renske)
Tobias Starnborough-Sarah Raven
Thomas Stansbury-Jean Dixon Hayes
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansubry-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants
Showing posts with label Hayes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hayes. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Holbrook post: Captain Peter Hayes, born about 1571, Immigrant
Folks, we have an adventurer in the family! Not a farmer, at least not at first, not a pastor, not even a merchant, but a real live (at the time) adventurer. He was called Captain for a reason, and it wasn't just to differentiate himself from his son Peter Hayes, "the Envoy". It's always interesting to find someone with a story different from those of most of our ancestors, and Captain Peter Hayes is our man.
The frustrating thing about Peter isn't the lack of knowledge about him, because we actually know quite a bit. The frustrating thing is that I don't know who I should credit for this information. It is freely available on the web, but the closest I got to a source was page 168 and following of an unnamed journal, repeated on many web sites.
Peter was born about 1571 in Great Budworth, CHeshire, England. I've seen his father referred to as "Sir" John Hayes, and his mother was Elizabeth Starkey Hayes. He has a christening date of July 28, 1578 so I wonder if maybe he wasn't the second Peter Hayes in the family. It was not usual to delay a christening for that long. At any rate, he had six brothers and sisters. As the third son, he was not given an inheritance but the family did give him an education, and he eventually apprenticed for his cousin, Edward Hayes, who was a ship captain and owned a ship called "The Golden Hind". (I don't believe this was the ship of Sir Francis Drake, but the ship may have been named in honor of the famous vessel that sailed around the world).
When Peter finished the apprenticeship with his cousin, he married Margaret Davyes Howse, a widow, on September 18, 1591 in London (date supports the 1571 birthdate). Known children are Peter, Elizabeth and Ann, all of whom outlived their father. Shortly after James I came to the throne, he sold the nation's navy, leaving the merchant marines open to piracy from France and Spain, particularly. Soon after that, most British seamen were either unemployed or were working for a foreign country. Peter chose to work for the Dutch. His route was to go from Texel Island (in the Netherlands) to Greenland, where the Dutch had established a colony. His home base was at the town of Edam, not far from Amsterdam.
In 1630 the Dutch West India Company ordered Peter to take a group of Puritans to the Caribbean island of Tortugas. From there he went to Delaware Bay, where again the Dutch wished to establish a colony. Peter liked what he saw in America and when he returned the ship to the company, he terminated his employment also.
He was in Virginia by 1635 and settled on Pagan Point, now called James Creek. He purchased land that was recorded in 1636, 350 acres, although he had likely made the purchase several years before that. He was growing old, though, and in 1641 petitioned the Virginia Assembly to have his taxes abated due to his advanced age. He was successful in this, although he still had to pay the church tithe. This is the last we hear of Peter. His death date is generally given as 1641-1650, but there is no proof ofa specific date.
It's hard to imagine that Peter had an easy life. 350 acres was just the wrong size of land-a little too much for one man to handle, and a little too small to attract tenant workers. It is possible, even probable, that he had native American slaves, given the time period he was living in Virginia. One wonders whether he was glad he'd gone to America, or if he ever wished he had stayed on, sailing for the Dutch.
The line of descent is:
Peter Hayes-Margaret Davyes
Peter Hayes,-Ann possibly Hudson
John Hayes-Abigail Dixon
Jane Dixon Hayes-Thomas Stansbury
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants
The frustrating thing about Peter isn't the lack of knowledge about him, because we actually know quite a bit. The frustrating thing is that I don't know who I should credit for this information. It is freely available on the web, but the closest I got to a source was page 168 and following of an unnamed journal, repeated on many web sites.
Peter was born about 1571 in Great Budworth, CHeshire, England. I've seen his father referred to as "Sir" John Hayes, and his mother was Elizabeth Starkey Hayes. He has a christening date of July 28, 1578 so I wonder if maybe he wasn't the second Peter Hayes in the family. It was not usual to delay a christening for that long. At any rate, he had six brothers and sisters. As the third son, he was not given an inheritance but the family did give him an education, and he eventually apprenticed for his cousin, Edward Hayes, who was a ship captain and owned a ship called "The Golden Hind". (I don't believe this was the ship of Sir Francis Drake, but the ship may have been named in honor of the famous vessel that sailed around the world).
When Peter finished the apprenticeship with his cousin, he married Margaret Davyes Howse, a widow, on September 18, 1591 in London (date supports the 1571 birthdate). Known children are Peter, Elizabeth and Ann, all of whom outlived their father. Shortly after James I came to the throne, he sold the nation's navy, leaving the merchant marines open to piracy from France and Spain, particularly. Soon after that, most British seamen were either unemployed or were working for a foreign country. Peter chose to work for the Dutch. His route was to go from Texel Island (in the Netherlands) to Greenland, where the Dutch had established a colony. His home base was at the town of Edam, not far from Amsterdam.
In 1630 the Dutch West India Company ordered Peter to take a group of Puritans to the Caribbean island of Tortugas. From there he went to Delaware Bay, where again the Dutch wished to establish a colony. Peter liked what he saw in America and when he returned the ship to the company, he terminated his employment also.
He was in Virginia by 1635 and settled on Pagan Point, now called James Creek. He purchased land that was recorded in 1636, 350 acres, although he had likely made the purchase several years before that. He was growing old, though, and in 1641 petitioned the Virginia Assembly to have his taxes abated due to his advanced age. He was successful in this, although he still had to pay the church tithe. This is the last we hear of Peter. His death date is generally given as 1641-1650, but there is no proof ofa specific date.
It's hard to imagine that Peter had an easy life. 350 acres was just the wrong size of land-a little too much for one man to handle, and a little too small to attract tenant workers. It is possible, even probable, that he had native American slaves, given the time period he was living in Virginia. One wonders whether he was glad he'd gone to America, or if he ever wished he had stayed on, sailing for the Dutch.
The line of descent is:
Peter Hayes-Margaret Davyes
Peter Hayes,-Ann possibly Hudson
John Hayes-Abigail Dixon
Jane Dixon Hayes-Thomas Stansbury
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants
Friday, April 29, 2016
Holbrook line: John Dixon, Immigrant
John Dixon is one of our Maryland ancestors. His name needs to be mentioned and known in our family tree, even though I haven't found a lot of information about him yet. I've found two plausible sets of parents for him in England but am currently unable to prove or disprove either, so at this point his family is unknown.
He arrived in Virginia in 1664 (or possibly earlier) with his wife Jane (possibly Jane Carey) and 10 other persons, and received 600 acres of land as headright (meaning he paid for the transportation of each person and received 50 acres of land in return.) He quickly acquired other lands also, purchasing 420 acres in August of 1664. He sold 300 acres of land in 1668/69 and still had 870 acres of land to dispose of in his will, so there must be other acquisitions that we don't know of.
We know that he was a justice of the Baltimore County Court in 1665, which leads one to the idea that he was probably educated and was respected in his community. The fact that he was able to pay for the passage of 12 people from England indicates that he also had some financial means. With these clues, why hasn't someone been able to pin down his ancestry? Surely there is a Dixon family in England who is missing one of their family members!
Most sources say that he died in 1667 but Robert Barnes, in his Baltimore County Families 1659-1769, says that he disposed of land in March of 1668/69 and wrote his will October 12, 1669. Administrative bond was posted March 28, 1670 so it seems likely that his death occurred sometime in early 1670. Jane, who had been married before she married John, went on to marry Thomas Long and to have at least three children with him.
There are so many questions about John. Why did he come to American, and where did the money come from to make the trip? What was his religion? Did he own slaves to help cultivate his land? As a respected citizen and a justice, did he ever make a trip back to England? And finally, he was only about 45 years old when he died. What was his cause of death?
If someone has answers or more information, I'd love to hear from you!
The line of descent is:
John Dixon-Jane possibly Carey
Abigail Dixon-John Hayes
Jane Dixon Hayes-Thomas Stansbury
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansberry-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis E Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants
He arrived in Virginia in 1664 (or possibly earlier) with his wife Jane (possibly Jane Carey) and 10 other persons, and received 600 acres of land as headright (meaning he paid for the transportation of each person and received 50 acres of land in return.) He quickly acquired other lands also, purchasing 420 acres in August of 1664. He sold 300 acres of land in 1668/69 and still had 870 acres of land to dispose of in his will, so there must be other acquisitions that we don't know of.
We know that he was a justice of the Baltimore County Court in 1665, which leads one to the idea that he was probably educated and was respected in his community. The fact that he was able to pay for the passage of 12 people from England indicates that he also had some financial means. With these clues, why hasn't someone been able to pin down his ancestry? Surely there is a Dixon family in England who is missing one of their family members!
Most sources say that he died in 1667 but Robert Barnes, in his Baltimore County Families 1659-1769, says that he disposed of land in March of 1668/69 and wrote his will October 12, 1669. Administrative bond was posted March 28, 1670 so it seems likely that his death occurred sometime in early 1670. Jane, who had been married before she married John, went on to marry Thomas Long and to have at least three children with him.
There are so many questions about John. Why did he come to American, and where did the money come from to make the trip? What was his religion? Did he own slaves to help cultivate his land? As a respected citizen and a justice, did he ever make a trip back to England? And finally, he was only about 45 years old when he died. What was his cause of death?
If someone has answers or more information, I'd love to hear from you!
The line of descent is:
John Dixon-Jane possibly Carey
Abigail Dixon-John Hayes
Jane Dixon Hayes-Thomas Stansbury
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansberry-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis E Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants
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