These are only some of the history vignettes.
The rest you can find under “Clermont County Families” in the sidebar.
World War II
• Hugh L Sweeney
Birth Year: 1914 Race: White, citizen Nativity State or Country: Ohio State: Hawaii Enlistment Date: 2 Nov 1942 Enlistment State: Ohio Enlistment City: Cincinnati
Branch: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA Branch Code: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA Grade: Private Grade Code: Private. Hugh Sweeney was a medic in the Battle of the Bulge.
• Jack K Prather
Birth Year: 1917 Race: White, citizen Nativity State or Country: Ohio State: Ohio County or City:
Hamilton Enlistment Date: 28 Oct 1941 Enlistment State: Kentucky Enlistment City: Fort Thomas Newport Branch: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA Branch Code: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA Grade: Private Grade Code: Private Jack Prather was on the Beach at Anzio.
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Bobbie Sweeney's Travels
This is the sixteenth of the many family history bits I promised you. And, yes, it is different. Thanks to John Sweeney, we have several pieces of Mom's travel writing.
For those who are too young to remember, Mom turned to writing in her later years. Most often, she wrote on a typewriter — oh, how she would have loved computers! She was constantly taking notes of things she was interested in. She wrote many articles for Peggy's Mountain States Collector and she published some pieces in the mainstream publications. I remember her article on the "Red Tide" that she wrote for Highlights Magazine. Gosh. She was proud of that! I have, and I think many of us have, the tiny Rookwood Pottery book Dad had published after her death. That can still be found on the internet. Some of her work for Peggy can be found in the files of the Mountain States Collector, available here on the web site.
Buried in my files is her story on the day she got her first job. She was a grandmother by then. And, in the travel files, John Sweeney included her notes on some of the places she traveled to. There are some notes she took in Massachusetts when she visited us in Holyoke. We took her to all the proper historical places. And she took notes everywhere. In the files are some notes on a trip to Las Vegas and to the Virgin Islands. She supplemented everything with research notes on each place. In time, I'll get copies of those on the pages.
For now, enjoy these two stories on her trips to Italy in 1974 (apparently with Aunt Ada Ruta Prather — her sister-in-law — and at least two of Aunt Ada's and Uncle Jack's children), and to New Orleans in 1979. I don't know if they were published. What copies we have can be considered rough drafts. Still, I promise you these are fascinating stories.
Go to the sidebar and choose "Mom Sweeney's travels." These are PDF files, so simply click on them.
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About Those Praters
This is the thirteenth of the many family history bits I promised you.
It is a different look at our family history. For the last 12 years, I have found myself in research centers, great libraries and huge cathedrals in England, always looking for the family. I’ve long been fascinated with what I call the “ancient” family and my searches have always been rewarded. It shouldn’t have been that way. The first time, in 1993, I was in the Trowbridge research center, the depository for the historical documents in Wiltshire, in the midst of the counties where mother’s families lived. I was looking for the Prathers (in England they were the Praters). I’d done a lot of research in the states and thought I would find the records. But one of the librarians told me not to get too excited. He said many, many Americans come over and rarely find what they want. That was, he said, because King Henry the VIII had most of the church documents destroyed when he ordered the dissolution of the monasteries. And church documents were one of the very few ways to find out when and where people were born and died. He sat me at a table, gave me a few microfilms and walked out the door with John, whispering to him that I would be disappointed.
I wasn’t. Not at all. The Prater baptisms and deaths and wills and monuments were still intact. Who knows why, but film after film yielded parish registers from the 1500s listing the Praters. I discovered so many of them in these records that, by the time John got back, I had a stack of copies — proof of their existence —next to me. The librarian was visibly impressed. I guess I was the first American he saw succeed in the search. He let us eat in the employee cafeteria. He gave us the code to get in. I was hooked.
Since then, we have been back to England five times. We always begin our travels in a wonderful B&B in Gloucestershire, on the border of Wiltshire and close to the family churches and, yes, manors. An added plus is Prince Charles’ Highgrove, right down the street. We always go to Nunney Castle, won in a card game by George Prater back in the 1500s and lost by his grandson to Cromwell in 1645. We always go to Inglesham, the first church we know they were buried in, the first manor we know was theirs. We go to Latton and we go to Stanton St. Bernard. And, of course, we go to West Kington to see Judith Ivye Prater’s monument. That’s just how we always start before we go on to other areas and other countries.
So I’m going to share a couple of things here. Nunney Castle is often written about because it is still standing and because it is thought to be the only castle with an intact moat in the country. Here are two urls you can go to to learn about it. (You'll have to copy and paste them.)
http://www.britannia.com/history/somerset/castles/nunneycast.html
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/awfrome/nunneycastle.html
Another is a little bit about our grandfather George Prater, the card playing castle winner. Another is about the will of his wife, Jane Plott Prater. Yet another is about their son Richard Prater (Anthony, about whom I’ve already written, was Richard’s younger brother). Also, see the Prather/Prater chart under Bragdon documents.
George was the first lord of the manor of Stanton St. Bernard. He also owned Inglesham, Latton and Nunney manors. He was a very rich man and had the title of Gentleman. George Prater, according to the book: Stanton and its People, 1986, held the demesne farm (the manor) for the Earl of Pembroke at Stanton St. Bernard from 1554 to 1564 when his son Anthony took over. George, born in 1510 at Inglesham, is also mentioned on page 14 of the book in this way:
"The sale of the monastic lands (by Henry VIII) did not suffice to fill the king's treasurey. One of the taxes levied to raise money for defence was quaintly called 'for the benevolence'. By this measure it was intended that the king's richer loving subjects would pay 20d in the pound on the income derived from land and 10d on the value of moveable possessions. This was an unparliamentary subsidy paid directly to the king's Cofferer. The loving subjects of Stanton, were Thomas Eyles, who paid 8s, Sir John Spynke, (Vicar) 5s, and George Prater who held the demesne or manor land, the very large sum of 3 (pounds).14s. The list is dated 1545."
George’s wife was Jane Plott, (born 1515 at Blewberye, Berkshire, and died at Latton Manor, Wiltshire in 1587). Sometime after his father died, her son Richard, the eldest and the inheritor of many of the manors, sued Jane for Latton manor. It doesn’t appear that he won. She drew up a will which first directs that she be buried in Latton Church. Her sons and daughters got money, beds, gold rings, gilded salts, silver bowls and silver spoons. Someone named Richard (Haymande?) got a quarter (?) of barley and someone named George Williams got a brass pot. Jane Robertes, her daughter, got a red petticoat (a valuable piece of clothing in that century). Someone named Joan got a gown. Anthony Prater, our previous poet, who apparently already had some of Jane’s money, was given the job of bringing up a William Prater until he was of age. By the time Jane died, Richard, her eldest, had been dead for seven years.
Richard himself left a will, an abstract of which, it says:
Dated Dec. 6, 1577, proved Oct. 22, 1580.
From Somerset: “To be buried in church of Nonney — My manors at . . . Messeuages, etc. in Nonney, Glaston, Nonney Castle, Trotox Hill, Sharpshawe & Lighe, Somerset . . . payable . . . to All other lands . . . to . . . Richard Plott & Anthony Prater, gent. for six years for the maintenance of my wife.” With all of that, Richard didn’t need Latton Manor at all.
As postscript, it was Richard’s son George who eventually lost Nunney to Cromwell’s forces. Above is a picture of a drawing of a pikeman’s helmet (from the Parliamentarian forces) found in 1900 buried near the castle.
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Bragdons
This is the twelfth of the many family history bits I promised you. Once again, it places our ancestors in an historic setting at an historic time. It begins with the arrival of Arthur Bragdon in what was then Massachusetts, soon to be Maine, and ends with the massacre of his sons in the French and Indian War. Although I can't tell this story with the action and the background, I can give you the details. The lives and history of this family are heavily documented.
To put the family in perspective, Hannah Bragdon was the wife of Maurice Witham and came with him to Clermont County around 1800. I have included a “family tree,” proposed first by Sally Gronauer, to help everyone understand the Bragdon relationship to us. It begins with our mother and can be found here, under “Bragdon documents.” Also, under Bragdon documents, you will find a Bragdon will and a thrilling 19th century account of Arthur Bragdon Jr. (an uncle) and his encounter with the Indians.
Finally, there is a confusing line of descent with the Bragdons. It goes from Thomas to Arthur to Thomas to Arthur to Thomas to Hannah. Stay with me on this! And enjoy.
Arthur Bragdon, son of Thomas Bragdon, was born about 1597 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Worcester, England. There is much speculation in many family accounts that the Bragdons knew the Shakespeares. But there is no proof. What there is proof of is Arthur’s arrival and his prominence in Maine.
He had arrived by 1640. Existing records show he was a constable in 1640 in York, York Co., Province of Maine, Massachusetts. He became an alderman in 1641. He took the oath of fidelity to the Massachusetts government on November 22, 1652 and was appointed lieutenant of the militia. He had a land grant of 100 acres in York and he was a planter. He died on October 2 1678 in York and his estate inventory was taken that same day.
Other tidbits about this Arthur as found in Maine history*:
“Arthur Bragdon, a planter at Bass Cove, presumably furnished food to the fishing fleet.”
“Arthur Bragdon on the Jury of Life and Death:
The Jury doeth find Robert Collins guiltie of the acke of Incontinence, not guiltie of the forsement.”
“Captains Grant and Bragdon are instructed to march to Narridgewock after the enemy, "Taking care that no Hostility be acted by you anywhere eastward of the Kennebeck River, but at Narridgewock, and that nothing be done on that side of the river contrary to the Cessation agreed on with the Penobscot Tribe. You may be very exact in your journal in noting down everything that is worthy of your observation, and send an account of your proceedings." (Letters of Col. Thomas Westbrook)”
*http://one-barton-family.net/
We are told this first Arthur had three sons: Arthur (Jr.), Thomas and Samuel. Only Arthur Jr. and Thomas appear to be documented.
Thomas was born in c.1640-43. Arthur Jr. was born in c. 1645. (An account of Arthur Jr.’s heroic actions earlier in the Indian Wars is in “Bragdon documents” on this web page.) During the second Indian War, Thomas and Arthur died at the hands of the Indians.
One account says: “During the 2nd Indian War (1689-1692), the Indians and the French were engaged in many attacks on the coastal towns of Maine. About this time, Arthur Bragdon, Daniel Bragdon, Thomas Bragdon, William Wormwood and James Freethy were mysteriously killed simultaneous on their adjoining lots just north of Bear Creek (York, ME). It was presumed they were victims of a local Indian attack and their estates were all inventoried by the same appraisers on the same day — 14 Oct 1690 (ME Deeds, p 51-53) Judge Samuel Sewall recorded in his letterbook (Bk i, p 129) an attack on York he heard about on 25 Oct 1690.”
Another account says:
“Lt. Arthur, Daniel, and Thomas Bragdon, with James Freethy and William Wormwood, were all killed by Indians and their inventory taken on the same day, 14 OCT 1690. Apparently the five out of nine were surprised while loading a vessel at Cape Neddick, mentioned by Niles.
Finally, this account adds a sad epitaph to the Bragdon part in the Indian wars:
“On Oct 13, 1703, the wife and five children of Arthur (this may be the son of Arthur Jr.) were killed by the Indians (Penhallow's Indian Wars.) Some say only the wife and the two youngest were killed, the older children were taken by the Indians.”
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John Case
This is the eighth of many family history bits I promise to share with you.
John Case is my generation’s eighth great-grandfather. He is your connection — however slight — to the Boleyns. The following is an excerpt from his Biography. It is, as usual, heavily documented. That’s always good in my view. But the documents quoted were written back in the late 17th and very early 18th centuries, long before standardized spelling. It’s fascinating to such as me.
Also, note that he refers to his “father” William Edwards. Edwards, I believe, was a close relation to Sarah Spencer, John’s wife. Sarah provides an extremely distant, even tenuous, relationship with the more recent Diana Spencer. John and Sarah’s eighth child, Joseph, is our seventh great-grandfather. It is Esther Case, my generation’s GGGG grandmother, who married Wait Knowles.
Finally, I think it is interesting to note that John Case was a contemporary of Thomas Sprigg, whose biography is on this page. Whereas Thomas fought for Charles I against Oliver Cromwell, the Cases furnished the leather for Cromwell’s army.
— Mary
John Case. Born ca 1620 in Aylesham, Norfolk, England. John died in Simsbury, Hartford Co., CT, on 21 Feb 1703; he was 83.
From the John Case Biography:
John Case, 1616 - 1703
John Case was born in Aylesham, England circa 1616 and died 21 Feb 1703 (or 1704 or 1705) in Simsbury, CT. The Case family is one of the ancient and honorable families of New England. They were noted as far back as Oliver Cromwell (1599-1659) and accumulated a fortune furnishing leather for the Army, being tanners and farriers. The records show they came from York, England to Aylesham, England in the year 1200. They held all the land around Aylesham so the town was said to be Cased in and were a clan by themselves. Many of them still reside there. Their land surrounded possessions of Anna Boleyn, who became the second wife of Henry VIII of England, and was beheaded "for treason" in 1536. The Cases were closely related by intermarriage to the Boleyns.
John arrived in New England on the ship "Dorsett" on September 3, 1635 from Gravesend, England, at the age of 19 years. The ship landed around Long Island. He then moved to Dorchester, MA [1]. In 1637 John married Sarah Spencer (1636-1691), daughter of William and Agnes (Tucker) Spencer of Hartford, CT. They next moved to Hartford, then moved to Maspeth Kills, NY (now Newton according to our Genealogy). John and Sarah resided in Windsor CT from 1656 until 1669, when they removed to Simsbury and settled in the area known as "Weatogue" [3].
In 1667, John, with twenty others, received the first grant of land in Simsbury which was at Meadow Plain, Massaco (Simsbury). He lived about one mile south of the Pettibone Tavern, the second house south. He was a shoemaker and harness maker as well as a farmer. He was appointed constable for Massaco by the General Court Oct. 14, 1669, and represented his town at the General Court in 1670 and several times afterwards. He with six sons would go from Weatogue to what now (1900) is West Simsbury and cultivate the land there. Hence it was first called Case's Farms, afterwards Farms Village, then West Simsbury. They carried their guns with them as a protection from the Indians as well as to shoot game which was very plentiful there.
The first of 5 children to John and Sarah were born in Windsor, the last 5 were born in Simsbury:
1. Elizabeth born 1658 in Windsor; died 9 Oct 1718; married (1) Joseph Lewis; married (2) John Tuller
2. Mary born 22 Jun 1660 in Windsor; died 22 Aug 1725; married (1) 1677/9 William Alderman who died 1697; married (2) 30 Mar 1698/9 James Hilliard who died 28 July 1720, age 76
3. John Jr. born 5 Nov 1662 in Windsor; died 22 May 1733; married (1) 12 Sep 1684 Mary Alcott; married (2) 1693 Sarah Holcomb
4. William James born 5 Jun 1665 in Windsor; died 31 Mar 1700 in Simsbury; married Elizabeth Holcomb
5. Samuel born 1667 in Windsor; died Jul 30 1725; married (1) Mary Westover; married (2) Elizabeth Thrall
6. Richard born 27 Apr/Aug 1669 in Simsbury; died 27 Apr 1746; married Amy Reed
7. Bartholomew 1 Oct 1670 in Simsbury; died 25 Oct 1725 in Simsbury; married 7 Dec 1699 in Simsbury Mary Humphrey, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Mills) Humphrey, born 16 Nov 1681 in Simsbury
8. Joseph born 6 Apr 1674 in Simsbury; died 11 Aug 1748; married Anna Eno
9. Sarah born 20 Apr 1676 in Simsbury; died 2 May 1704; married 9 Nov
169, as his second wife, Joseph Phelps Jr., son of Joseph and Hanna (Newton) Phelps, born 27 Aug 1667; died 20 Jan 1750
10. Abigail born 4 May 1682 in Simsbury; married 1 Sept. 1701 Simsbury Jonah Westover Jr.
Sarah died on 3 Nov 1691 in Simsbury, at the age of 55 [2]. Her headstone in Simsbury Cemetery is said to be the oldest in Simsbury. John married (2) Elizabeth (Moore) Loomis (1638-1728), daughter of John Moore and the widow of Nathaniel Loomis of Windsor, CT. Elizabeth died in Windsor 23 July 1728 at the age of 90. She and John had no issue.
John died in 1703 in Meadow Plains or the southern part of Simsbury. His place of burial is unknown but it is supposed to be by the side of his wife Sarah in Simsbury Cemetery, although no stone was erected. He had an estate of 562 pounds, making him a man of wealth at that time. John's will, dated 21 Nov 1700 named his wife Elizabeth, six sons, and four daughters. Samuel Spencer of Hartford (Sarah's brother), and John Case Jr. (John's son) were executors of the estate.
Sources:
[1] Spear's Genealogy
[2] Spencer Genealogy
[3] Case book
John Case gives power of attorney:
A DIGEST OF THE EARLY CONNECTICUT PROBATE RECORDS.
1650 to 1663.
Name: John Case Location: Mashpath Killes, New Netherlands (See Book II of Lands, at Sec. State's Office, Hartford.) 17 August, 1656. A Letter giving power of Attorney:
Know all Men by these prsents, that I John Case, now Inhabiting in Mashpath Kills in the new Netherlands, have constituted and made my Father William Edwards, inhabitant in Hartford in New England, my true and lawfull Attorneye to demand, recouver and receive in my name and for my vse of Mr. Richard Lord of Hartford in New England, mrcht, œ6 which the sd. Mr. Richard Lord was assigned by the ourseers to pay unto my wife in Pease and Wheat when shee was 18 yeares of Age, in Pease at 3 Shillings the Bushell, and Wheat at 4 Shillins the Bushell. Also I doe Authorise my Attornye, with as full power as if myselfe was existant, to demand, recouer and receive of the sd. Mr Lord all other Debts or Dues which shall bee found to bee owing unto mee from him. I say I doe Authorise. Ratifie and Confirme my Attornye with as full power in this Case as if myselfe was existant. Upon the Refusall to pay, I doe Authorise my Attorney to Arrest, Sue. Recouver, and upon receipt to give discharge, or if occasion bee to plead or implead in my name and place, and what Attornye shall see Cause to doe in this Case I Will Ratifie and Confirme as done by myselfe.
Witness: Joseph Langdon, Thomas Casse. John X Case.
Note: On the back side was written to his loving ffather William Edwards, living at Hartford in New England this prsent. The above written is a true Coppie of an original writing Recorded this 18th Aprill, 1657, by me John Cullick, Sec.
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Sir John FitzJames
This is the seventh of many family history bits I promise to share with you.
One of my great fascinations with compiling the family history is the knowledge that many of our ancestors walked in tandem with the characters we most often read about and wonder about. After I published the vignette on the Praters, some of you wondered if they knew such characters as Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn. That gave me pause. I don’t know. I know they paid Henry’s taxes. But I have no document that puts the Praters with the Tudors. I do, however, have other documents about other ancestors that do.
This vignette is about one of my favorite “uncles,” John FitzJames. Sir John’s uncle was Richard FitzJames the Bishop of London under King Henry VII and, for a time, under King Henry VIII. Sir John’s sister was our grandmother, Margaret FitzJames, who married Thomas Michell . . . it’s all in the genealogy. We have been to their home of Somersetshire and we have seen the church were both Richard and John are buried. You may enjoy the fact that the dolphin is a part of the FitzJames coats of arms.
Finally, I raise a glass to those of my family who can’t get enough of the time and the characters. Here’s to you . . . and there will be more.
—Mary
Sir John FitzJames was born about 1470 to John FitzJames in Redlynch, near Bruton, in Somersetshire. Not much is known about his early life, but by the time he rose to prominence in London, he was a well-known character on the stage with Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas More.
Sir John was the attorney-general when he conducted the prosecution of the Duke of Buckingham in May 1521. He then became serjeant-at-law. In February 1521-22, he was created chief baron of the exchequer and was knighted. At the king’s behest, he negotiated a marriage between Lord Henry Percy (who was supposed to be engaged to Anne Boleyn) and Lady Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. That was in 1523. By 1525, Sir John became England’s Chief Justice of the king’s bench. He was present at the coronation of Anne Boleyn June 1, 1533. He signed the articles of impeachment against Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in December 1529. He also helped try Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More in 1535. It is More’s death that casts the shadow on the career of our uncle, Sir John FitzJames.
Sir Thomas More was once a favorite of Henry VIII. He was knighted around the same time as Sir John. He helped Henry VIII write his Defence of the Seven Sacraments, a repudiation of Luther. More was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1525. As Speaker, he helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. But, he refused to endorse Henry VIII's plan to divorce Katherine of Aragón (1527). Nevertheless, after the fall of Thomas Wolsey in 1529, More became Lord Chancellor, the first layman to hold the post.
His fall came quickly. He resigned in 1532, citing ill health, but the reason was probably his disapproval of Henry's stance toward the church. Unlike Sir John, More refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn, a matter which did not escape the King's notice. In April 1534, More refused to swear to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London on April 17.
The trial ensued and, according to sources, Sir John was rather quiet during the proceedings. He was thought to be sympathetic to More. But, when asked if the indictment against More was or was not sufficient, he answered “By St. Gillian, I must needs confess that if the act of parliament be not unlawful, then the indictment is not in my conscience invalid.”
More was sent to his death because of that. He was found guilty of treason and beheaded on July 6, 1535. His final words on the scaffold were: "The King's good servant, but God's First." He was beatified in 1886 and canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935.
Several years later, in October 1538, Sir John FitzJames retired from the bench. He was buried in the church at Bruton when he died in 1542.
Sources:
National Dictionary of Biography, pp. 179-181.
Luminarium (http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/index.html)
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Prater Poetry
This is the sixth of many family history bits I promise to share with you.
Judith Ivye and Anthony Prater were two of our most colorful and most provable ancestors. They lived in a time with which we are all familiar. Judith's father was Thomas Ivye Esq. He owned the manor of West Kington in Wiltshire. The following is in your genealogies, but I've tried to put it together so it is more readable and, of course, to show you a couple of pictures! The spelling is, at times, erratic, but there was no dictionary and there were no grammar books then. A short note when you are reading the poems below — William Shakespeare did visit West Kington's Church. Many men of Anthony's class were educated and, apparently, poetry ruled! Anthony was born in 1545, during the reign of Henry the VIII. Judith was born in 1550 during the reign of Edward VI.
(Oh, Family! I could write a book about this part of the family. Why? Because many of their records are intact, even their names are in the baptismal records of the time. Their tombs, their churches and their manors are still there. Their stories are reflective of England's most interesting time in history. Someday, you must go. We do. And we go back again and again.)
—Mary
Anthony Prater inherited the lordship of Stanton St. Bernard manor, south of Thomas Ivye's manor of West Kington in Wiltshire. But Anthony also took over the care of Nunney Castle in Wiltshire owned once by his father and then by his oldest brother. He kept it until his nephew George Prater came of age. Nunney was lost to the family during the English Civil War. (Like Thomas Sprigg, they were royalists.) West Kington, Stanton Saint Bernard and Nunney are all still there. Nunney is in ruins, but there are, in the nearby church, the carved stone above-ground tombs of Praters.
Aaron Sikora and Emma Sikora Paulus
at Nunney in 2004.
In 1578, Anthony Prater erected a plaque in the wall of the church of St. Mary the Virgin at West Kington to his dead wife, Judith. It is stone and, at the top are carved a likeness of him next to his coat of arms. Below are carvings of their children and below that the epitaph. He remarried. In the records at Trowbridge, Anthony was said by the church at Stanton to have died "apostate." We have the records and the picture of the plaque.
Above, the monument in West Kington Church.
In a new booklet, published by Keith Duchars in 1995, he talks about Anthony's wife Judith dying in 1545 (this is Duchars' error, she really died in 1578) when her seventh child was born. And he talks about the carved stone:
"Anthony placed the carved stone in the South Transept wall directly above her tomb." The stone shows Anthony, his coat-of-arms and the carving of his children together with a eulogy inscribed to them as follows (exactly):
Oh mi dear chilldren marke what I saye
Your mothers bonns trvli arwrapt her inn clay
Her sovle no dovpte to heaven is gone thither
Wher we most joyfvilli shall meet alltogether
The Lord be yovr guid the Lord be yovr strength
And give yov his special grac to di in hnat length
Yov gentell readers remember your end
Be trv vnto svch whom faythfvl yov find
Let this be example and tell hit abroode
How fathfvll this woman died in the Lorde
Duchars also says that Anthony remarried but had no other known children. He married Elizabeth (Winter) Ivye, the widow of his wife's brother, Ferndinando Ivye.
At Stanton St. Bernard. there, too, was a book (which we have and which is rich in description) published by the church with references to the Domesday Book and other records. Regarding Anthony, there are several references:
"A survey of the estates of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was made in 1567. This gives a picture of Stanton as it was under the new lordship near the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I . . . Anthony Prater was the only tenant by indenture and held the demesne lands which included 280 acres in the common fields and rights for 1000 sheep on Milk Down and on the higher downs . . . .Of the animals, oxen (bovum) are mentioned once only, with 22 for Anthony Prater . . . . A name frequently mentioned in the record of court proceedings at this time was that of Anthony Prater. He was bound over to keep the peace on large sums on several occasions and he is recorded as 'dying excommunicate and not reconciled' in 1593. Pembroke himself called Anthony "a contentious man."
The book records the holders of the Manor of Stanton St. Bernard as such:
960 Grant by King Edwy to Oswald Bishop of Ramsbury by charter of King Edgar
1086 Held by Abbey of Wilton
1539 Abbey dissolved
1544 Abbey estates granted to Sir William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke. The demesne farm held from successive earls by 'beneficial leases' as follows:
1554 George Prater
1567 Anthony Prater (sons of Anthony Prater surrendered lease)
1602 . . . .
George Prater, according to the book: Stanton and its People, 1986, held the demesne farm for the Earl of Pembroke at Stanton St. Bernard from 1554 to 1567 when his son Anthony took over.
For George’s holding of Stanton St. Bernard, we have a description “On the style of the Manor” written in Latin from the Survey of the Lands of William First Earl of Pembroke, R. Stratton, Vol. 1, pp. 129-39.
When Judith Ivye Prater died in 1578, besides the carving in the wall at West Kington church, Anthony also placed a detailed description on her tomb. Duchars says, "Judith's stone is in the Ivye chapel but it is not possible to see the inscription in the stone which covers her tombe as a wooden floor was added so that the church could be properly heated." The stone under the floor boards reads:
Rest in the Lord most loving wife,
Thy daies are spent and gone.
Thy husband's race and end of life
Shall be, God knoweth how soon.
Though death hath done the worst he can
To part us twayn a space,
Yet time will come to meet again
In Heaven that joyful place.
With bitter teares they husband spake
these words upon they toombe,
His hand did write, this vers did make
To show in time to cum
How fathfull thou has been to me.
And haddest six children dear,
Within six year a marvell to see
All borne one time of yeare,
The seventh in like manner,
If death had not them lett,
Borne had been as the other wear,
At midsummer time direct
Alas how should it chance so bad
To little babes so young,
To tell in time what losse they had
Bi nature whence they sproung
But God is he who giveth life
And he that takes away,
Let us therefore avoyd all strife
And gere ourselves to pray.
Thy children's names if men would know,
Which God hath geven to thee,
Behold are written here below
In order as they bee.
Thomas, William, Elizabeth, Ferndinando, George, Thomas
About these verses, in the Limbe, thus: Here lieth Judeth Prater, the wife
of Anthony Prater, Gentilman, daughter unto Thomas Ivie Esqr, who
died the sixth day of February
Anno Domini 1578
Judith was about 28 years old when she died. Anthony was about 48 years old when he died.
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The Search for Dad’s Family
This is the fifth of many family history bits I promise to share with you.
Searching for Dad's family, nailing his genealogy, has been a journey obscured by half-remembered tales and lost stories. But I owe you the story of the search. Maybe one of our younger members can take it on and look at it with fresh eyes. Meanwhile, here's how it went.
—Mary
I knew we had a German grandmother and that Dad always liked "sour meat," otherwise known as sauerbraten. And it began with the surety of the older ones that the Irish ones came from County Cork. I also heard that someone was born on the ship over. Peggy heard "Something about a Sweeney ancestor that jumped off the boat in the harbor to make it to the American shore rather than go down with a sinking ship or something." Some of you may have heard the variation. That's all I remember hearing.
The German family history came easy. Dad's cousin Delores Daly told me a lot about them. She also sent me everything she knew about the Arlinghauses.
Bernadina
Ostendorf 
The Mass Card
Henry Arlinghaus
One story she told me that stays with me is this: Delores was the daughter of Emma Arlinghaus (Flora's sister) and Theodore Vieson. Or so she thought. When Emma died, Delores said she was bereft. She cried at the funeral. Aunt Theresa, Uncle Ed's wife (Uncle Ed was Flora's brother) asked her why she was crying.
Delores said, "Because my mother is dead."
Aunt Theresa said, "But she wasn't your mother. You were adopted."
That, Delores told me, was the first she knew of it. And she never quite got over being told.
I've researched the Arlinghauses. I always thought they lived in Covington, Kentucky, as did the Ostendorfs. Once, while I was a reporter, I interviewed the great Lincoln scholar Lloyd Ostendorf. I told him my great-grandmother was an Ostendorf. He smiled and said, "Well, then, we are cousins." He said that all the Ostendorfs who came from the Grand Duchy of Dinklage were related. They trickled into Kentucky, beginning in 1830.
Years later, I began doing census searches and discovered that our Bernadina Ostendorf and our Arlinghauses didn't go to Kentucky first. No, they came to Cincinnati around 1870 and lived in the Over-the-Rhine district, only a street or two away from the Sweeneys.
From the genealogy: From the 1880 census (on file) — The Arlinghauses were living at 101 Woodward in Cincinnati. At that time, Henry was listed as a chairmaker, as was his son, Bernard at age 14. The others listed are: Catherine, 19, Emma, 9, Frances, 7, Clara, 3, and Edward as “1/2”, which is probably six months. Henry’s age is 48 and Bernadina is 38. Flora was not yet born. In the 1920 Census of Covington KY, Henry is living with his son-in-law, John Mauntel and Henry's daughter Kate.
We have their pictures and their funeral mass cards. Almost all of the families are here in America.
Once, when we were in England, we saw a whole bunch of school kids from Dinklage. I asked them if they knew my family, especially the Arlinghauses and they became somewhat hostile and said no, no they knew nothing. About a year later, I was in contact with an Arlinghaus in Norway and he said he'd gone to Dinklage and found the only living Arlinghaus. It was a woman and she lived in a large house in town. He went to the house. She opened the door and let him have it. He said she was so mean, he would never, ever go back there again. Now I know why the kids were like that.
Why did they all leave Germany? That's for our history buffs in the family to tell us. I kind of know it was triggered by the many city-states and the subsequent strife amongst them.
James and
Flora Sweeney at their wedding c.1903Now, the Sweeneys. They are part of the huge Irish exodus that began mid-century in Ireland. And, they appear to be part of the great amnesia the Irish in Ireland and in America share.
Here's what I had to begin the search:
• A carbon copy of a letter Dad sent to a company in Ireland, saying he was coming over and that his great-grandparents' names were Owen and Hattie Sweeney. I didn't have a return letter, so I don't know what the company (which usually researches families for a fee) sent back to him.
• I also had a letter from Ellis Island, thanking him for his contribution.
Here's what I learned as I searched, and this is from the genealogy already here:
• In the 1870 census, Patrick Sweeney (the first to come) and his wife Margaret are living with daughter Margaret (age 7 months). His age is given as 37, which puts his birth date around 1833. He says he works in an ice house. There is another daughter there named Annie. She is age 12 and is attending school. Annie is apparently born in Ohio.
• In the 1880 census, he is listed as living at 215 Broadway Street. He says he is 55. That would date his birth to around 1825.
• According to Patrick's granddaughter, Gertrude Troxel, whose mother was Annette Kaveny and grandmother Gertrude Sweeney Harnish, there was a first marriage for Patrick. Among the children of that marriage were Anna Sweeney Spear who lived in Sarinac, NY, (near Oneida). She said that Patrick's daughter, Margaret (from the second marriage), died in a fire in the Over-the-Rhine district in Cincinnati. She said that John Sweeney (from the second marriage) had an "open leg," whatever that meant at the time.
• Patick's death certificate says he died of pneumonia. His last residence was 76 Hunt Street.
In the census data, we see that Margaret reports having had five children, but four are alive. That appears to account for Margaret. John, the one with the "open leg" is almost always living with his mother. Later, he becomes a boarder in various Cincinnati homes. He is always listed as a laborer.
Here is what is said in the genealogy: Margaret Dyer (Dwyer) was Patrick's second wife.
• We have her death certificate on file. It says her father's name (as we look at it) was "Sarah Dyer" born in Ireland. It is really Hugh. And his wife (her mother) is Margaret, that from the New St. Joseph Cemetery records. It also says she died of "acute dilation of heart."
• The 1880 census has her living with Patrick and children at 215 Broadway Street. Her name is given as “Maggie.”
• The 1900 census indicates she was renting the apartment at 334 Hunt Street.
• The Cemetery records indicate she was 60 years old when she died (same as the death certificate). She was living at 334 Hunt Street when she died. The cemetery lot was owned by someone named Spear which, according to Gertrude Troxel is the married name of one of Patrick’s children from his first marriage.
It is my belief that the "Spear" was Annie, the daughter who lived with the newly-married couple. I suspect she was born in New York, but that's not what they told the census taker. It is also my belief that Margaret changed her age frequently. She appeared to get younger in each census. Brother Tom has checked the homes out and says that Hunt Street was swallowed by Reading Road. And, the addresses changed. So, Patrick's residence at 76 Hunt Street, was the same as Margaret's residence at 334 Hunt Street.
All this did not prepare me for Ireland. Not at all. John and I went over in 1998 to begin that search. Everywhere we went in County Sligo, we met with Sweeneys. They all agreed we were related because they all were in Sligo.
Okay.
Yet, no one knew which of the many Owens and Patricks were ours. These were common names for the Sweeneys in Sligo and the connections were blurred. The Dyers were the same. When I went to the Family Research Center, they found a lot of Hugh Dyers married to Margarets. There was simply no way to know for sure, given my prediliction for proofs.
I hired a driver one day while John was playing golf in Donegal. The driver took me to every possible Sweeney abode he could find. We knocked on many doors and we found — are you ready? We found a Harold Patrick Sweeney. I took John back to meet him later. Harold had checked with his family and he said they knew only that he'd been named for someone in America. But his family assured him it wasn't our Harold Patrick. Of course, they were just guessing, he said.
Then, Harold Patrick Sweeney (who looked like a version of our Uncle Jimmy, as did many of them) took John and I to the ruins of the old homestead. He'd taken the stones from the old building to help build his new house. And he'd left the stables up. You see, when he took over the property, he realized the stables had been whitewashed. He heard that Sweeney families had come to live in the stable rooms in the worst times. One family to a stall. He thought he should leave the stables up. The Irish do that a lot. It's a visual memory as opposed to a visceral memory.
It was then that the horror of the Irish starving times came to us. And we understood how they chose to forget who was whom back then. The Sweeneys were living better in 1998 than they had lived since the time of Oliver Cromwell who had them crushed. Sligo was the last bastion of Irish freedom then. They weren't going to remember the horror that followed.
It was then that the realization that what we'd heard about the family was true. They were mercenaries. They took money to fight. They taught others to fight. They went to Scotland in the year 1000 A.D. for 300 years to fight for and to teach the MacDonalds. They came back to Ireland after the battle of Bannockburn, which they lost. They took up the battles of the O'Donnells then.
In Dublin, I talked with the head of the younger clan (not the Banagh, because our clan head is in Canada), Loughlin Sweeney. I discovered that many of the defensive castles around the northern part of Ireland were built by the Sweeneys. I also discovered that they earlier had married into the Vikings. That explains the periodic tallness I saw. That explains the taller Uncle Jimmy, too. Or so I think.
So, we came from County Sligo in Ireland and we came from Dinklage, Oldenburg in Germany. And our grandparents met because they were living in the same neighborhood, working in the same factories. They were chairmakers, shoe lacers, buttermakers. Flora, our grandmother, was a laundress right before she married Grandpa.
We didn't come from Cork. And we came much earlier than Ellis Island. And there are no records of ship jumping or birthing, as it were. If any of you have other stories, I'll be glad to research them. This is going to be a never ending story.
—Mary
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Thomas Sprigg
From Maryland and Virginia Colonials, by Sharon Doliante
This is the third of many family history bits I promise to share with you.
How many of you in our family are left-handed? It's entirely possible you inherited that trait from one of your more aristocratic grandfathers, Thomas Sprigg.
Much of what you read here is gleaned from other sources. They tell the story and they document the story. What is written in your genealogy is also heavily documented. That means you can count on all of it.
So, besides knowing he was a lefty, what else do we know? Consider this:
• He was a member of the Royal Army who fought for Charles I and against Oliver Cromwell.
• He came first to Virginia in 1649, then settled in Maryland where he was both justice and High Sheriff, where his brother-in-law was the governor and where three of his own descendants became governors.
• He built one of the more glorious homes in Maryland and his descendants hired Pierre L'Enfant, the Frenchman who planned and laid out Washington D.C. to plan and lay out the estate gardens.
• His second wife was Eleanor Nuttall, the daughter of John Nuttall, whose short biography is here on this page.
• His daughter, Martha, married a Prather, a name you are surely familiar with.
Here are the documented stories. Enjoy.
—Mary
Thomas Sprigg's biographers said he was "an officer in the Royal Lancers." Sharon Doliante's book (cited before) says they are unable to confirm this, but that in 1653, in Virginia, he "signed himself as 'Leift. Sprigge,' meaning he was an officer in the military. He came to Virginia as a "Cavalier" and left England "immediately after the execution of Charles I in 1649 . . . " Burke’s Landed Gentry says this for the lineage of a James Cresap Sprigg: "Lieut. Thomas Sprigg of Kettering, Northamptonshire England, b. 1630, officer with Royal army, left Great Britain to settle in America before 1650 . . . .”
There is a picture in Doliante's book of a painting of Thomas Sprigg by Jacob Huysman (shown on this page). The painting is still in the possesion of a descendant, says Doliante. At any rate, he is in full Court dress and is left-handed (he is holding the handle of a rapier in his left hand).
Three of his descendants were governors of Maryland: Robert Bowie (1803-4-5 and 1811); Samuel Sprigg (1819-1822) and Oden Bowie (1869). He was the owner of “Northampton” (destroyed by fire in 1909) in Prince George’s County, MD, as well as Resurection Manor. He served as a commissioner (justice) in both Virginia and Maryland. His will, includes a list of goods and chattels and slaves, and begins on p. 945 in Doliante's book (which is in our possession)..
From Tidewater Maryland Architecture and Gardens, a Sequel to Early Manor and Plantation Houses of Maryland, by Henry Chandlee Forman:
In the section "Sprigg's Northampton and L'Enfant's Garden: "One of the important estates of Prince George's County is Northampton, a tract of 1000 acres surveyed on May 26, 1673, for Thomas Sprigg I, born in Northamptonshire, England, and who later became High sheriff, Justice, and Commissioner of Calvert County, Maryland. He was married twice, first to Katherine Roper, as sister-in-law of Governor William Stone of Maryland . . . , then to Eleanor Nuthall, a granddaughter of John Nuthall, who owned the Manor of Cornwaleys Crosse and St. Elizabeth's Manor near St. Mary's City.
"When Sprigg died in 1704 he bequeathed to his son, Thomas II, 'my dwelling home and all houses and land of Northampton and Rolling that I have not disposed of, and one part of five hundred acres of land I patented for me, The Manor Collington.' In 1707, fifty acres of Northampton were possessed by Thomas Brooke, and 850 by Thomas Sprigg II.
"It is evident that the timber-framed gambrel-roofed house which stood on the Northampton tract had been erected by Thomas Sprigg I before his death in 1704." (There is a description of the house, a photograph taken about fourteen years before it burned down in 1909, and a drawing of the garden.)
"At Northampton once lived Samuel Sprigg, who was Governor of Maryland from 1819 to 1822. In 1811, on New Year's Day, he brought his bride, Violette Lansdale, to this homestead; and in 1812 their daughter Sally was born. When the British military forces made their attack on Washington, they came to Northampton and, out of regard for the helplessness of the young Violette and her baby, they refrained from burning the home.
"President Madison took refuge here from the British after the Battle of Bladensburg on August 14, 1814 . . . . The event most significant to Northampton was the visit of Pierre L'Enfant, that great French engineer, who planned the Federal City on the banks of the Potomac. He is credited with designing and laying out, in whole, or in part, the gardens at Northampton in the year 1788 — the date of the wing of the house.
"Off to the south once stood a little brick schoolhouse, and to the west stands a 'switch willow,' grown up from a little switch planted over 40 years ago (ca. 1916). The great locust tree, adjacent to the rose beds, has a trunk covered with ivy sentimentally brought from the Fairfax domicile, Leeds Castle, England. Down the hill and below the garden are two large slave quarters, one a brick duplex, the other with vertical-board walls, each having a central chimney."
From "The Pedigree of Fletcher Garrison Hall," by Garrison Kent Hall, Boston, NEHGS, 1979, page 239.
". . . nr. Northampton City, VA. 1651; nr. Resurrection Manor, Calver Co., Md.; Northampton Manor, Md.
"Thomas Sprigg, the colonist and Lord of Northampton Manor, probably came from Northamptonshire, England, and first settled in Northampton County, Virginia, where he and John Nuthall signed the 'Submission to Parliament' in 1651. He probably came to Maryland with Gov. Stone. He was a party to a suit against John Nevill in the Provincial Court in October 1657. He lived at first near Resurrction Manor in that part of Calvert County that was afterwards called Prince George's County and later at Northampton, which in 1910 was still in possession of the descendant Lord Fairfax of Cameron.
"Sprigg was one of the Justices of the Peace and of the Quorum for Calvert County in
1658-1661-1667-1669-1670-1674, commisioned High Sheriff of Calvert County April, 1664, and held the office until May, 1665. He was Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum in Prince George's County in 1696. Thomas Sprigg's first wife, Catherine, died after August 17, 1661, probably without issue.
"He built Northampton Manor house, encircled by a plantation of 800 acres, prior to 1661. His direct descendants have owned and occupied this manor though seven generations. The full length portrait, in which Thomas Sprigg is in full court costume, ks still in the possession of his descendants. No other family other than the Sprigg family and their kindred ever owned the manorial rights of Northampton Manor although the Fairfax family about the end of the Civil War, 1865, became owners of the land."
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John Nuttall
This is the second of many family history bits I promise to share with you.
If you’ve read any of Mom Sweeney’s genealogy, you know many of your grandparents came to America — to both New England and Virginia — in the 1620s. In Virginia and, subsequently, Maryland, they were the first. Few in the south came for religious reasons. Most of them wanted land or just pure adventure. They were often “second sons.” Others, like a grandfather, Thomas Sprigg, were true Cavaliers, fleeing Oliver Cromwell after the beheading of King Charles I. Still others, like John Nuttall, came alone for no discernible reason. This is a short story about your grandfather, John Nuttall.
—Mary
John Nuttall was born about 1620 in England. We have a book, Maryland and Virginia Colonials, by Sharon J. Doliante, that details those quantitative aspects of his life. But slipped into the often dry text is a story guaranteed to make you smile. Doliante speculates John came to America from London (where his parents later lived) but, she notes, it is also said the family originated in Essex County.
He arrived between 1626 and 1629 and was still a child and without his parents. He was the servant of Hugh Hays of Accowmacke County. Often, the Virginia newcomers became indentured servants for a while to pay their passage from England to America. John Nuttall was one of them. Some time before 1630, “he rant away and lived with the Indians (probably on the Eastern Shore of Maryland) and was found there by a William Jones, who paid the Indians ‘a hoe’ for him and returned him to his master, ‘well strapped with ye hallyards.’”
Though the idea that your grandfather was bought back from the Indians for a mere hoe, that moment from his childhood prepared him for the rest of his fascinating life. He, like most of our other southern relatives, eventually settled in Maryland. There, John Nuttall attained the title of “gentleman,” and he was a well-known and very rich Indian trader.
Doliante says: “. . . during his adult years, and in addition to whatever else he did, he was a trader and merchant, & has also been referred to as an interpreter. As a merchant he made numerous trips to London and back. We have reference to about five or six such trips, and he may actually have been going over every year or so . . . he was frequently appointed the ‘attorney’ of his friends and acquaintances.”
He owned Cross Manor, (Cornwalleys Cross manor bought from Thomas Cornwalleys in 1661) and St. Elizabeth’s Manor. Cross Manor (built in 1642) was still in existence in 1991 and is considered the oldest existing house in Maryland.
In Jan 1643/1644 when John was 23, he married Elizabeth Bacon Holloway, in England. Elizabeth was the widow of Dr. John Holloway, one of the first physicians in Virginia. John Nuttall died between June 5 and October 10, 1667 (the proving of his will) at Cross Manor in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. His will is extensive and contains property including skins, beads, slaves, tobacco and cloth. He was 47.
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