Holbrook line: Roger Williams 1603-1683

 I hesitate to write this post.  What can I say about Roger Williams that has not already been said?  I have at least a half dozen books on my shelves about him, and that barely scratches the surface.  He was a great and imperfect man, and one of my favorite ancestors.  However, I started writing this blog in order to tell my family a few things about their ancestors, and I would be remiss if I didn't tell or remind them of this most famous (probably) of our ancestors who came to America.  

Williams was born about 1603, the son of James and Alice Pemberton Williams, in  London (the records for the parish church were destroyed in the 1666 fire, so we lack an exact date.)  His father was a "merchant tailor" and while not wealthy, was pretty close to being well-off.  "Merchant" generally means that he was able to import goods, and had employees.  He had at least two brothers, so didn't grow up alone but there were not so many children as to impoverish the family.  

Williams was a brilliant linguist, able to speak and read several languages, at one point tutoring the poet John Milton.  He apprenticed under Sir Edward Coke, the famous jurist, and attended Pembroke College at Cambridge University, earning his degree in 1627.  He took holy orders in the Church of England, but soon broke with the Church and became a Puritan.  

He married Mary Barnard, daughter of Richard Barnard, on December 15, 1629. As Archbishop Laud's strict regulations took effect, Roger had already been planning his move to the New World, and the couple left England soon after.  Their six children were all born in America.

Williams did not really fit into the mold of Puritanism in New England.  Boston chased him to a pastorate in Salem, then he went to Plymouth Colony, where he also preached, then he was back in Salem in an unofficial capacity, and finally he was exiled from Massachusetts entirely.  The story of his trek to a new home outside the jurisdiction is well known, including that he first settled on land that was later claimed to be part of Massachusetts Bay Colony, so he had to move again.

Prior to his exile, he had already begun doing missionary work with some of the native Americans, learning their language and providing a dictionary of sorts.  These same natives befriended him and helped the family and their supporters, who had arrived in Rhode Island about the same time as Williams, survive their first winter.  

It was in Rhode Island that Williams would exert his greatest influence.  He was the founder of "Providence Plantation" and was its leader, officially or unofficially, for many years.  He was a believer in religious freedom (except he had a hard time with Quakers), and founded a Baptist church before leaving that denomination and becoming a "Seeker" who didn't always attend church services.  His friendship with the local indigenous tribes was notable, although this did not prevent them from burning the Williams home (along with most of Providence) during King Philip's war in 1675-76.  

He died sometime before August 1, 1683 and was buried on the family farm.  He was 80 years old.  

Williams is known as the founder of religious freedom in America, as the governor of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation from 1654-1657, as one of the earliest Baptists, as a friend and missionary to native tribes, and as an author of several books.  I have great admiration for him, and also for Mary, who certainly had her work cut out for her in her marriage to this challenging man.  I like to think that their are traits in our family that can be traced back to him, especially his love for God and for the right to worship as one sees fit.  

For more information, there is a good wikipedia article about him, several good biographies, some novels, and numerous more scholarly articles.  This is just a quick survey to show our family a little of his greatness.

The line of descent is

Roger Williams-Mary Barnard

Mercy Williams-Samuel Winsor

Samuel Winsor-Mercy Harding

Joseph Winsor-Deborah Matthewson

Lillis Winsor-Nathan Paine

Deborah Paine-Enos Eddy

Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire

Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

Allen and Holbrook lines: Family themes

Now that I've been "doing" family history for awhile, I'm seeing some themes that run from generation to generation.  Recently I read someone's blogpost that suggested it would be good to note these down, more or less as guideposts, so that this current generation, and the generations following, would have at least a general idea of who we are besides names and dates.

The two strong themes that I see running through our families, for generations back, are God and education.  We have sub themes, like serving our country, and of course love seems to wrap around everything, but I keep coming back to God and education.  Of course, to a certain extent God and education go hand in hand, although it is quite possible to have either without the other.  Still, most pastors were educated, and they made sure their families were educated, too, if only to read the Bible and religious books. 

I've written about some of the pastors in our family but there are more who may or may not be the topic of a blog post at some point.  From Richard Allen to Roger Williams to William Eddy, we are descended from a long line of pastors who have taught us about the love of Jesus, each in their own way.  The last time I counted, there were at least 24 pastors in the Holbrook and Allen lines. If one continues back into distant England, some of our ancestors were bishops and archbishops, but I'm not sure we want to claim some of those people!

Besides pastors, we have ancestors who were church leaders, from Elder William Brewster to elder Edward Allen.  We have Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Puritans, Church of England, and a few Lutherans (there is a German line, after all), and many of our ancestors helped establish their local church, of whatever denomination.  We may even had had a Roman Catholic or two in early Maryland, but I'm still working on that.  My hope and prayer is that all of these people served the Lord with all their hearts.

Education is also a common theme in our family.  Ralph Wheelock was one of the first schoolteachers in New England, and in the recent past we have seen great grandparents and grandparents who taught school.  Those who didn't teach went to school and learned. We have very few known ancestors who couldn't read or write.  Many of those in more recent generations have gone to college, and some have multiple degrees.  Those who chose not to go to college have acquired an education in their own way, such as through their jobs, reading, or watching on line courses intensively. 

I personally find it fascinating that the very book that means the most to me, the Bible, is the same one that our ancestors have been reading for over 400 years (more, in some cases) and if I read a King James version, it's the very same words.  On top of all the other reasons for reading the Bible, this is an intriguing one. What did Roger Williams think, when he read the same words I'm reading?  Did Nicholas Street preach on this passage? 

God, and education, are the reasons we can find a connection to our ancestors, even though we may understand nothing of the rest of their lives.  Will our descendents also find that God and education have continued as themes, generations from now? 

Family history and books that relate

One of the reasons I enjoy family history so much is that it lets me combine two of my longtime loves, reading and history. I haven't read very much in the last 30 years or so while I was studying insurance, and while I was in my cross stitch phase, and then while I was so entranced with learning about my very, very extended family (and my husband's) that I could hardly tear myself away from my genealogy programs and Google.  Now that I'm retired, I am returning to reading, particularly history, and finding that it all connects! 

Family history is simply history on a micro-level. For instance, obviously we are not descendents of George Washington, but his life is worth reading from a family standpoint because some of our ancestors served with, or at least had the chance to see, George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Reading his life helps give insights into the lives of our ancestors who lived in Virginia at the same time as the Washingtons,  as well as the lives of our ancestors who were in the Revolutionary War. 

Here is some of what I've been reading in the last month or so, since I retired: 

The French and Indian War by Walter J Bornerman. Since I knew absolutely nothing about this except that Richard Falley, an Allen ancestor, was captured in it, I learned much more than I can tell you about this time period. I don't know if this is a classic, or if it's one of many books about this time period, but one has to start somewhere. Naturally, I am now more attuned to thinking of which of our ancestors would likely have fought in this war, and how I can find records for them.

Mary, Queen of France, the story of the Youngest Sister of Henry VIII by Jean Plaidy:  I was fascinated by this book, while realizing at the same time that it wasn't as deeply researched as, say, Alison Weir or Elizabeth Chadwick's books are.  (Jean Plaidy/Philippa Carr/Victoria Holt wrote 90 books, after all.)  On the positive side, it was an absolute delight to read about the women (and men) hanging out there on our family tree, and to see how this author portrayed them. 

Washington, A Life by Ron Chernow:  There is a line between George Washington the man and George Washington the General and President, but the book does a good job of showing us both sides of the man, and how and why he behaved in ways that sometimes puzzle us, 200 plus years later.  His world was likely not the world of many of our ancestors, but our ancestors owned land that he surveyed, and our ancestors fought where he fought.  It was an interesting read.

These books were my early morning/bedtime reads, on my Kindle. Currently on my Kindle I'm reading The Fifties by David Halberstam. It is the story of my parent's lives, and my in-laws.  I thought it would make me a little more nostalgic than it has, but instead it's pulling pieces together for me to show how my innocent childhood (we didn't even have a television set until late in 1957, which may not have been all bad) was so different from what was actually happening in the world. 

I spend an hour or sometimes two in the afternoon, reading "real" books. I've read A Stupendous Effort, by Jack K Overmyer, which tells the story of the 87th Indiana in the Civil War. My great grandfather George R Allen was in that unit until his early discharge, so I felt like I was meeting some of his friends and neighbors while I was reading that book.

I just recently finished Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul, by John M Barry.  Roger Williams is an ancestor on the Holbrook line, and I am honored to be one of his descendents.  This book told more than I knew about his life in England before coming to America, but there isn't much biographical material from then on, there being little mention of his wife and almost none of his children.  However, the book tells about his intellectual and spiritual development as the Puritan became the Baptist became the Seeker, and the stories that intertwine with what was happening in England are fascinating. 

I also read 11/22/63, which is a novel by Stephen King. I have never read any of his work before, but this one was intriguing.  It involves time travel and an attempt to change history by preventing the assassination of President John Kennedy.  I enjoyed the sense of being back in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the very careful descriptions of music, smells, food, cars, and education, which all seemed correct. 

Currently I'm reading The Guns at Last Light, by Rick Atkinson.  I had earlier read The Day of Battle, by the same author, in order to learn about my uncle Ray Holbrook's experience leading up to his death in Italy in 1944. I'm hoping this book will tell about my father and my father in law's experiences as they landed in the weeks following D Day, and onward. Neither man talked a lot about the war so it's going to take some digging to learn their stories. 

I still have a bureau drawer full of books to read (and two more coming in the mail) and maybe a dozen books on my Kindle. I know I'll learn something from each of them, and I'm looking forward to each and every read. 

Why I dance, genealogically speaking

Happy genealogy dance...what does that mean?  To me, it means almost any new discovery about our ancestors, or something new I've learned that helps me understand what I found.  Specifically, I do a happy genealogy dance when I:

• Go to a repository, especially a courthouse, and find new records 

• Am able to extend an ancestor's history back another generation, or 10, or 20

• Connect with a cousin who has information or pictures that I don't have, and they're willing to share

• Am able to help someone with one of their genealogy puzzles, or get someone started for the first time

• And of course, when I actually find information that I've been looking for, sometimes for years.

Some examples of happy genealogy dance days, which I'm sure I'll be writing more about:

• The day I figured out that Barack Obama, then a US Senator just starting his run for the presidency, was a distant cousin of my husband's

• The day I finally found marriage records for Archibald Allen, which proved his wife's name, told me where they were married, and led to his father's will which led to his father's will and the names and ancestors of their wives.  Even more exciting was actually going to Harrodsburg, Ky and finding wills of two of my great great great grandfathers, researching in a building that was there when my ancestors were there, and actually holding in my hand a document signed by my third great grandmother and my second great grandfather.  

• Several days when distant cousins, or people who were researching distant cousins, contacted me and gave me information that led to days and weeks of exciting discoveries.  I've received pictures, copies of wills, names and dates, and other information that I would never have found without their help.  I don't have permission to publish their names, but I hope they someday read this blog and realize that I am talking about them.  

• Coming across ancestors who are actually famous such as Roger Williams, Myles Standish, William Brewster (I grew up knowing about him, actually).

• Learning bits and pieces of the lives of ancestors who were not famous. They often served in wars, or did the work that kept the country growing (or fed), and finding even a little bit about them is priceless.

• Looking at a page in my tree and realizing it said some of these people were born in castles, which eventually led to more lines to the Plantagenets, Tudors, Stewarts, Capets, and other royal lines than I can count. I don't feel special because I know most of the English speaking world descends from these same lines, but it's much more exciting to read history and realize that that's my "grandpa" or "grandma" they're talking about. 

In the weeks to come, I'll be writing more about happy genealogy dance days.  If you care to join me for some of these dances, I'd be honored!