Our 9th Great-grandmother Ann (1604-1666) and Her Virginia Adventure

 

Early Jamestown

 Jay and I have watched five episodes of the series "Jamestown," about three women sent by the Virginia Company to Jamestown in 1619 to marry planters. My only criticism so far is that the married women characters have long straggly hair, instead of linen coifs over neatly pinned hair.  Curious to know more about such women and whether we have a 'tobacco bride' in our lineage, I searched our ancestry. Yes, we do.

The Francis Bonaventure might have resembled this ship, although a bit large I expect.

Ann, whose last name is unknown, arrived in Jamestown in August 1620 aboard the Francis Bonaventure, leased by the Virginia Company. Some believe Ann was a native of the Isle of Wight, but the ship set sail from West Cowes harbor there, so her origin of birth is speculative. After the Crown dissolved the Virginia Company and took sovereignty over the colonies, it conducted an official muster the winter of 1624/5, recording the date when each person arrived, the name of the ship and the person's present age. Married to the 'ancient planter' John Price, Ann was 21 and had a three-month old daughter Mary. The muster failed to list the older son Matthew (c.1623). 

Once married, Ann wore comfortable clothing and a coif over her hair.

 

John Price was the first of Ann's three husbands. He was 40 years old at the muster and had arrived in 1611 with Sir Thomas Dale on the ship Starr. HERE If John Price had been indentured, his time had ended, for in 1619 Governor Yeardley granted him 150 acres and he patented another 150 acres at Bermuda Hundred in Charles City County in 1620. 

On board the Francis Bonaventure carrying Ann and 152 others was Robert Hallom, age 23 at time of muster, indentured to Luke Boyse of Bermuda Hundred, and who would become her second husband in 1630 and our 9th great-grandfather . . . but I get ahead of myself. 

Ann was one of 90 young women brought to Virginia Colony by the Virginia Company in 1620. What possessed her to make that perilous voyage and live in a foreign clime where danger lurked? Hadn't she heard the stories of the Starving Time and of unfriendly indigenous peoples? It's likely her father had died and perhaps lacked a dowry. England was in an economic depression and many young men were too poor to marry. We can assume she was handsome, for the Company had become particular. 

17th century English coif for a married woman

 

The Company promised free passage and a trousseau (petticoats, linen for a coif a married woman would wear as a symbol of her status, an apron, two pairs of shoes and six pairs of sheets), shelter and food on arrival until she chose her husband, who would be well-enough off to afford her, because he would have to recompense the Virginia Company 150 pounds of best leaf tobacco for the expense it laid out for her. She was given the right to own land and to have a servant. The Virginia Company wanted the planters in Virginia to remain, marry,  have children and give permanency to the colony, so the Company's investors could reap their dividends. Unlike the Pilgrims in Massachusetts, who came in family groups for religious freedom, most men came to Virginia alone, intending to make their fortune and return to England. That really wouldn't do.

The Company had tried bringing women earlier - women from prisons - but their behavior had unsettled Jamestown. Now the Company required testimonials of good reputation and character from family and acquaintances. Someone had stepped forward to speak well of young Ann, who was about 17 when she boarded the ship in England, destined to become a founding mother of Virginia.

typical working garb of a Colonial Virginian c.1630

Ann freely chose the Welshman, John Price, probably wanting a man who was established, sober, kind, and would give her a comfortable life. True, he was nearly 20 years older, but he had a great deal of property and likely a newly-built house. If there was romance in their marriage, it was an unexpected benefit. 

John Price's house might have resembled this museum replica. Colonists were not yet building log homes.

 

They lived up the James River from Jamestown at the Neck of Land in Charles City County, which later became Henrico County, and escaped being killed during the Indian Massacre of 1622, when 347 settlers were killed and 20 women carried away, a quarter of Virginia Colony's white population. HERE

Someone conveniently circled in red where Ann and her three husbands lived at the Neck of Land on the south side of the James River.

 

 After the 1622 massacre John Price rose in importance and served in the House of Burgesses in Jamestown. In 1628 he patented another 150 acres. Ann had three children with John before his death in 1628, Matthew, Mary and John (b. 1625). Shortly after he died, she married Robert Hallom, our 9th great-grandfather.

Burnham, County Essex, England, now called Burnham on Crouch

County Essex, England

Closer to Ann's age, Robert Hallom was born in Burnham, County Essex, England, about 1699 and arrived at Jamestown with Ann on the Francis Bonaventure. His indenture to Luke Boyse, who paid his passage and lived near the Prices, was likely for seven years, so he was a free man in time to wed the widow Ann. 

Medieval St. Mary the Virgin Church where Robert Hallom was likely baptized

Perhaps Robert was the love of her life or simply dependable, healthy, and without vice. She had three Price children to care for and he looked after their interests. In 1636 Robert patented 1,000 acres. Ann and Robert had three children together - Robert Hallom (c1629), who went back to the Hallom family in Essex for an apprenticeship, and died without children; Ann Hallom (b.1631), who married John Gundrey; Sarah Hallom (b.1632), our 8th great-grandmother, who married first Samuel Woodward, and then our 8th great-grandfather, John Sturdivant (1630-1684).  Sadly, in 1638, Robert Hallom died. Ann now had six children, for whom she was responsible, apparently without male relatives of either husband nearby for guidance. She was in her mid-thirties.

Shortly thereafter, Ann, as widow of Robert Hallom, was granted 1,000 acres in Henrico, called Turkey Island, "lying N. by E. into the woods, S. by W. upon the river, W. by N. toward Bremo . . . E. by S. towards Turkey Island Creek, adjoining the lands of John Price [i.e., her lands], due by bargain and sale by Arthur Bayly, merchant." Ann was intent on providing an inheritance for her Hallom children and, apparently, she had the means to do it. The following year, her son, Matthew Price, was old enough to claim the 150 acres granted to his father, John Price, in 1619. 

Her third husband, Daniel Llewellin/Lewellyn, was born in Chelmsford, County Essex, England, c1600. (See upper left corner of Essex map above.) He came to Virginia Colony about 1633 and settled near Shirley Hundred in Charles City County (across the James River from Bermuda Hundred on map above). Styled a gentleman, in 1642 he was granted 856 acres on Turkey Creek for transporting 17 persons, two of them being Robert Hallom, likely Ann's son, and his wife Frances Hallom. It indicates that Ann married him shortly after Robert Hallom, Sr's death. Daniel was a militia captain, elected a burgess from Charles City County 1642-44, and again 1646-56; a justice, and sheriff of Charles City County. Later, he received other land grants in the same area. He had good reason to acquire land for tobacco growing. Ann presented him with daughters Margaret (c.1641) and Martha (c1643), and son Daniel Alexander Lewellyn in 1647. Ann had married up - to a gentleman, no less, with political power. She must have been well-satisfied to have produced nine children who reached adulthood. Studies done on the increase in the fertility (and live births, I assume) of women in the New World (Canada and America), compared to that of contemporary women in England and France, concluded that the reason was an improvement in diet.

Tobacco was big business and Daniel Lewellyn made trips back to England. On one trip in the winter of 1663/4, he fell ill and made his will in February 1664.

Church at Chelmsford, County Essex, where Daniel is buried

Summary of Will: Daniel LLUELLIN of Chelmsford, Essex, planter. Lands, tenements, hereditaments in Charles County in upper part of James River in Virginia, to wife Anne for life, then to son Daniel LLUELLIN. Ditto as to goods, but to daughter Martha JONES, two seasoned servants [slaves]. Also to son Daniell LLUELLIN best suit, cloak, coat and hat, second best hat with silver hatband, all linnen [linen] and my sayle skinn [sealskin] trunk. To friend Mary ELSING of Chelmsford, spinster, for care, one of the best white ruggs [likely a thick bed cover] and my new peece [piece] of Dowlas [cloth] saving sufficient for a winding sheet to bury me. To Mary DEERINGTON of Chelmsford, widow, one of the worst [worsted] white rugs. To daughter Margaret CRUSE, 40 shillings to buy her a ring and to her husband, ditto. To son in law [stepson] Robert HALLOM, Ditto. To master Chr. SALTER living in Wine Court without Bishopgate and Ann his wife 10 shillings each for gloves. Goods sent over [to Virginia] this spring and summer to be sold for debts due, rest to son Daniel. Executors: Thomas VERVELL of Roxwell, Essex, James JAUNCEY to Cateaton Street, London, Hotpresser, and Master William WALKER of Colchester, Essex, Shopkeeper. To be buried in Parish Church of Chelmsford near the reading deske and friend Doctor John MICHELSON to preach." Witnesses: Robert LLOYD, Tim Code, senior, scrivener. It was proved March 3, 1664 in County Essex.

Widowed again, Ann was comfortably settled, surrounded by adult children to look after her welfare. She lived a few years more, dying on May 5, 1666.

Ann's and Robert Hallom's daughter Sarah (1632-1690) married John Sturdivant (1630-1684), and had Matthew Sturdivant, the father of Henry Sturdivant, and grandfather of Lucretia Sturdivant, mother of our 4th great-grandmother Martha Parham, who married James Rainey. And so our 9th great-grandmother, the tobacco bride, became a founding mother of white Virginia . . . and black Virginia, too, for Ann's many descendants were slaveholders for more than two hundred years.

I wrote an earlier blog about daughter Sarah Hallom's husband, John Sturdivant  HERE

By the way, we qualify through most of our early ancestors, who came to Virginia Colony before 1700, to join the prestigious Jamestown Society, should you be so inclined.

George Poindexter/Poindestre: 1657 Isle of Jersey Immigrant to Virginia Colony

Poindestre/Poindexter Coat of Arms "Loyal Right Hand"

 

When I discovered our descent from the Poindestres/Poindexters of the Isle of Jersey, I was pleased to locate and purchase a scarce genealogy book researched by John Poindexter Landers and privately published in 1977. He wrote, " . . [T]he descendants of the Poindestre-Poindexters are singularly fortunate in that the name was native to the island of Jersey alone until the Seventeenth Century, at which time only one immigrant came to Virginia . . . [The early descendants] are representative of a true Norman family that had lived on one of the Norman Isles for at least 600 years." From the Introduction of Poingdestre-Poindexter, A Norman Family. 

Tiny Isle of Jersey

These Normans immigrated to the Isle of Jersey in the late 10th century. The island has an almost Mediterranean climate. "According to family tradition it was in the capacity as a retainer or squire to the De Carteret family on some . . . military foray that a shadowy medieval ancestor first became graced by his lord with a surname -- Poingdestre, or pugnus dexter [Right Hand], in honor of his rough loyalty to his leader on the battlefield." They spoke Norman French and, although English is now the official language of Jersey, some of its citizens still speak it today.

This is our family ascent to George Poindestre/Poindexter, the Immigrant, from our 5th great-grandmother, Catherine Hall Vaughan (1745 Surry Co., VA -1836 Warren Co., NC), wife of William Rainey (1750, Surry Co., VA - 1799 Northampton Co., NC):

Catherine Hall Vaughan's father was William Vaughan, Sr. (1722 New Kent Co. or Northampton Co., NC - 1794 Northampton Co.); her mother was Catherine Hall, who died shortly after her birth in 1746. William Vaughan's father was John Vaughan (c1695 New Kent Co., VA - c.1750 Northampton Co., NC). John's father was another John Vaughan (1665 Charles City, VA - 1725 New Kent Co.), who in 1686 married Sarah Poindexter (c1668 York Co., VA - 1725 New Kent Co.). They were our 8th great-grandparents. Sarah's parents, George Poindestre/Poindexter (1629 Isle of Jersey - 1692 New Kent Co.) arrived in Virginia about 1657. His wife Susannah  (1630 Isle of Jersey - 1698 New Kent Co.) and three children joined him a few years later.

The Poindestres were of Norman Viking stock, their surname found in Normandy as early as the 1180s. The Isle of Jersey, a granite rock 4 by 9 miles (45 square miles) covered with good soil, lies 14 miles off the coast of Normandy, whose dukes ruled it as part of their duchy. When Duke William conquered England in 1066, Jersey and Normandy became part of the English crown. After Normandy was lost by the kings of England to France, Jersey and the other Channel Islands remained attached to the British Crown.  The author traced eleven generations up from George the Immigrant. The first mention of Poingdestres as landowners in Jersey occurred in 1250. The earliest document bearing the Poindestre coat of arms seal was written in 1452. "The Poindestre family soon entered the ranks of the landed gentry to become one of the leading feudal families on the island." The family's source of influence in St. Saviour Parish seems to have come from being minor clerics (who could marry), judges and bailiffs (the second highest position on the island). By the late 1300s and early 1400s, they had become great landowners. (A relative term, since the island isn't very large, not to be compared to the great swaths of land granted in Virginia Colony). By the time of John Poindestre's death in 1477, three generations of the male line had held the office of bailiff (similar to a governor), receiving the honor of being buried inside the church of Saint Saviour. By 1500 the name Poindestre was being Latinized into Poindextre and later Poindexter.

St. Saviour Church, once Catholic, then Calvinist, now Anglican

Once the Danes of Normandy were converted to Christianity, the Poindexters worshiped as Roman Catholics, numerous members becoming priests. When the Reformation came to Jersey, the Poindexters, as island leaders, embraced Protestantism. During the reign of Catholic Mary I of England, members of the family crossed over to France to attend Calvinist services. 

Parishes on the Isle of Jersey.

 

Seldom did more than one or two Poindexter sons reach adulthood, but our ancestor George, born in 1627, was the 3rd son of Thomas Poindestre and Elizabeth Effard. His maternal grandfather, the Rev. Nicolas Effard, was born to a prominent family on the nearby Isle of Guernsey, educated at its newly founded Elizabeth College and later at Oxford. He was installed as the Calvinist rector of St. Saviour in 1587, where he married as his 2nd wife, Sara de Caumont, daughter of the Rev. Pierre de Caumont, rector of St. Peter in Jersey. De Caumont, of a Huguenot family, had formerly been rector of Sainte Marie du Mont in Normandy, but fled to Jersey with other refugees of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in September 1572. Read about that atrocity HERE

 Because the Poindestre family married into other leading families of Jersey, we can trace our line back to the Lempriere family, whose origins were in Cotentin, Normandy, in Everard de Lempriere, born about 970, and directly descended from Rollo, first Duke of Normany and, through his wife, from Charlemagne. 

George Poindestre/Poindexter was born in this manor house at Swan Farm in 1627

 

George Poindestre immigrated to Virginia in 1657 with his cousin Peter Effard and his half-uncle Jean Poindestre, Esq. Why did George leave Jersey for Virginia? For a possible clue, we turn to his half-uncle, Jean Poindestre (1609-1691)

Jean Poindestre, painted in England c.1636. It is the earliest portrait of a Jerseyman.

 

A Latin and Greek scholar, lawyer and cleric, Jean Poindestre studied at Cambridge, which had Calvinist leanings, but as a staunch Royalist, became a fellow at Exeter College, Oxford in 1635, where he began his literary career. In 1638 he was tutor to the children of King Charles I's grand chamberlain, a lucrative position. In 1641 he took Anglican orders as a deacon and was given a benefice, another source of income. At the height of the English Civil War, expelled from his fellowship at Oxford by Parliamentarians, he returned to Jersey.  King Charles I was beheaded in February1649, and his son was proclaimed Charles II in Jersey's main market square.

Charles II as Prince of Wales

 

King Charles II and his brother James arrived in Jersey in September, and took up residency in Elizabeth Castle until their departure in February 1650 to seek Dutch assistance in regaining his throne.  In October 1651, Cromwell remembered Jersey and sent forces to conquer this last bastion of Royalist loyalty. Jean and possibly other Poindestres withstood the siege in Elizabeth Castle.

Elizabeth Castle, Isle of Jersey

Jean was sent to Charles II in Paris to request orders and returned to tell the besieged to accept the best conditions of surrender they could negotiate.  Charles II, in exile in France, requested Jean become his Latin secretary - most official documents were still written in Latin - but he declined.

Jean Poindestre seems to have had amicable relations with the Parliamentary government established on Jersey, but he disappears from the record between 1657 to 1659, and it's believed he voyaged to Virginia with his nephew George (our 9th great-grandfather), son of Jean's half-brother, Thomas Poindexter, and his wife Marie Effard, accompanied by George's cousin, Peter Efford. Virginia was the logical place for Royalists to go. Jean returned to Jersey, married, was granted honors on Charles II's resumption of kingship in 1660, and served as Lieutenant Bailiff of Jersey 1669-1676, afterward writing among other works, a history of the Isle of Jersey. His nephew George remained in Virginia. 

As mentioned earlier, George was a 3rd son with little hope of inheriting land from his father Thomas, seigneur of the fief Poindestres. Already 30 years old when he voyaged to Virginia, George  and a George Thompson acquired 350 acres in Gloucester County in March, 1657. Yet he seems to have settled in York County at Middle Plantation, present-day Williamsburg, for in 1667, along with Otho Thorpe, he acquired 850 acres from Edward Wyatt and his wife, exactly where historic Williamsburg now stands. He became a prosperous merchant and planter, and a joint owner of several ships with Nathaniel Bacon (he of Bacon's Rebellion of 1678). 

Present-day York County, Virginia

He must have avoided the chaos and punishments after the rebellion because when Bruton Parish was founded in Williamsburg in 1679,  George, an important man about town, was elected to its first vestry. 

Present-day New Kent County, Virginia

 

In 1685, on land between the Pamunky and Chickahominy rivers in New Kent County, he built with slave labor, for he was a large slave owner, a remarkable house of brick with a timber frame, he named Christ's Cross or Criss-Cross (for its crosslike shape), now one of the six oldest houses in Virginia, with several bed-chambers, a great hall and a wine cellar. Held by the Poindexter family until the 19th century, it was derelict by the 1930s, purchased and restored in the 1950s and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. See before and after photos and the story of the restoration. HERE

A before photo of Criss Cross

George was one of the founders of St. Peter's Parish in New Kent County, which was Anglican, as were all parishes in Virginia until the American Revolutionary War, and was a member of its first vestry. He died in 1690 and Susannah died in 1693.

St. Peter's Church, New Kent County, Virginia, where our ancestors worshiped

On the 5th day of November 1686, our 8th great-grandparents, Sarah Poindexter and John Vaughan were married. However, the edifice above wasn't built until 1704, but they worshiped there and some of their large family married there. Their son, our 7th great-grandfather, John Vaughan (1694 - 1750) married Cassiah (b. c1695) either there or after relocating to Northampton County, North Carolina. St. Peter's Church history HERE

Northampton County, North Carolina

There is a well-established Poindexter Descendants Assoc. that I've joined to learn more about the early years on this family in America.

Judith of France (844 - unkown), Our 35th Great-grandmother: A Love Story

 

Baldwin I of Flanders and his wife, Judith of France, by Jan van der Asselt, ca. 1372/73, but probably heavily restored in the 19th century.

Who does not enjoy a love story, especially when it involves one's ancestors. In a previous blog, I wrote of our 35th great-grandfather, Alfred the Great, and his youngest daughter, Ælfthryth of Wessex (877- 929), who married Baldwin II (865-918), Margrave of Flanders, and they became our 34th great-grandparents. Baldwin's parents were Baldwin, first margrave of Flanders and Judith of France, a woman with a mind of her own.

Charles the Bald as depicted in 845 in his personal Bible

 

Born about 844, Judith was the eldest daughter of Charles the Bald (823-877), king of West Francia HERE, and Ermentrude of Orléans, our 36th great-grandparents. Her great-grandfather was Charlemagne, our 38th great-grandfather HERE.Royal Carolingian princesses seldom married, but were sent into nunneries to avoid entangling alliances. If they did marry, it never was to a foreigner, but times they were a-changing. The encroachments by the Danes got into Charles the Bald's head, for when Judith was twelve, the 55-year-old elderly King Æthelwulf of Wessex negotiated for her hand in Paris while on a pilgrimage to Rome, accompanied by his youngest son, the future King Alfred the Great, and married her on his way back. 

All the lands Charlemagne conquered. West Francia with capital Paris on left.

After the wedding ceremony in October 856, little Judith was anointed with myrrh by the archbishop of Rheims and declared Queen of Wessex - something unheard of, as previous wives of Wessex kings were not called 'queen', but only wives. This honor was insisted upon by her father, perhaps to secure her position in Wessex, a wild and crazy place, because King Æthelwulf's eldest son, Æthelbald, had risen against him during his absence, but settled for half of Wessex. Or, he rose up after Judith arrived in Wessex, fearing any son she would have would take precedence over his claim to the throne.

A King Æthelwulf penny. Was this a good likeness of our ancestor?

 

Judith settled into royal life in Wessex, but King Æthelwulf HERE died in January 858. We are descended from this 36th great-grandfather only through King Alfred because Judith had no children by him. 

  

After Æthelwulf's death, Judith, now 14 or 15 years old, married that eldest son, Æthelbald, chosen by the witan (council) as king of Wessex. It saved her from being sent to a nunnery. Marrying one's stepmother was beyond the pale, not even the pagan Danes committed such an offense, but marrying into the Carolingian dynasty enhanced Æthelbald's position. Judith was still a queen, the signing of numerous charters proving her status. Two and a half years later, in 860, Æthelbald died. Judith was still childless at age seventeen.

She sold her property in Wessex and returned to Francia, where her father placed her in the monastery of Senlis in modern northern France, under royal protection, with all the honors due a queen until such time as she was suitably remarried to a noble of his choice.

The Meeting of Baldwin and Judith. Wood panel at the seminary in Bruges, Belgium. I doubt he would have worn armor on a visit to a monastery, or she a crown, but we get the symbolism.

 

It was at Senlis that same year of 860 that she met Baldwin, perhaps already a count in Flanders, allegedly the son of a forester named Odoacre, but a man with some status, else how would he have been allowed in her presence. Foresters were often knights and minor nobles given control over royal forest lands. These two fell in love and, with the consent of her older brother, Louis the Stammerer, they likely married at the monastery in 861/862 before fleeing. Louis may have sent troops with them for his sister's protection, or Baldwin may have had his own following.

Judith's father, Charles the Bald, was enraged. He imprisoned her brother Louis in the Abbey of St. Martin and sent out troops to search for the couple. He had Baldwin excommunicated for kidnapping Judith and marrying her without royal consent.

In 862 Charles the Bald held a council with the bishops and nobles of his kingdom. According to contemporary chronicles he asked the bishops to pass a canonical verdict on Baldwin and Judith, according to the decrees of Pope Gregory II: “if anyone marries, having kidnapped a widow, let him be anathematized himself, as well as those who contributed to this.”  Charles was not an ancestor in whose company we would have been comfortable. 

Present-day Frisia in northern part of modern Netherlands

Baldwin and Judith initially sought refuge with the Viking Rorik, ruler of Frisia. Rorik was no friend to Judith's family, having  already fought against Charles the Bald on the side of Charles' brother, Lothair I. After Lothair and Charles concluded the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Lothair imprisoned Rorik, accusing him of treason. Rorik escaped and began attacking Lothair's Middle Francia kingdom, . Unable to cope with the Vikings, Lothair gave him Frisia on condition he protect the Carolingians from the rest of the Danes.

 Judith and Baldwin left Rorik because this Dane, recently converted to Christianity, was ordered by Charles' bishops not to give refuge to the king's enemies, and threatened, not with an invading army, but with the same spiritual doom Baldwin had received.  Judith and Baldwin fled for protection to the court of her cousin, Lothair II of Lotharingia (Middle Francia) at his capital of Aix-La-Chapelle, present-day Aachen, in western Germany.

  From there they traveled to Rome to plead their case to Pope Nicholas I.  The Pope listened to their arguments and sent two bishops as his legates to Charles the Bald, asking that he recognize the marriage and bring the couple into his royal circle. Still angry, Charles rejected a rapprochement. In a letter dated 23 November 862, the Pope expressed to the king his fears that Baldwin, after his excommunication from the church, might joined forces with the 'Jute prince Rorik'. This missive indicates to me that Baldwin had status and a following.

When this message reached Charles in his capital of Paris, he reluctantly forgave them, and the couple returned to France and were officially married at Auxerre on 13 December 863. Charles gave Baldwin the March of Flanders (the borderland), perhaps hoping he'd be killed in a Viking raid. 

10th century Flanders at the top encroached from Normans from the south and Vikings from the north

Baldwin quelled the Viking threat (earning the nickname of 'Iron' [Ferreum] from his contemporaries, which later generations replaced with the nickname "Iron Hand"), expanded his army and his territory quickly, and became a faithful supporter of Charles the Bald. His County of Flanders became a powerful domain in France. He and Judith lived on an island at the confluence of the Boterbeke and Roya rivers that became modern Bruges, Belgium.

Baldwin I died in 879 in the city of Arras (in present-day France on the Belgian border) and was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Bertin near Saint-Omer.  His and Judith's son became Baldwin II (born c.865/867 – c. 918). We don't know exactly when Judith died. It's possible it was she who arranged the marriage of her son Baldwin II to Alfred the Great's youngest daughter Ælfthryth of Wessex (877- 929), between 893 and 899. They became our 34th great-grandparents.

Baldwin and Judith

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ælfthryth of Wessex, Daughter of Saxon King Alfred the Great, Our 34th Great-Grandmother

King Alfred the Great

 

Jay and I are watching a four-season series streaming on Netflix, titled "The Last Kingdom," based on Bernard Cornwell's historical novels, The Saxon Chronicles, about King Alfred the Great's conflicts with invading Danes as he establishes an England out of his kingdom of Wessex and neighboring Mercia.  It's a very good series, but does compress events. The protagonist, Uhtred of Northumbria, a Saxon reared by Danes, actually lived later; he's quite the flawed hero. We always turn on the subtitles to understand all the dialogue (just a suggestion, in case you decide to give the series a try). 

I'm newly interested in early medieval England because I've discovered we're descended from King Alfred the Great (848-899) and his wife, Ealhswith/Ealswitha (died 902) a noble lady of Mercia, believed descended from tribal Britions - our 35th great-grandparents. I kid you not. It's not uncommon to be descended from Alfred. His son King Edward the Elder had about 14 children by three wives. However, it's not through Edward we're descended. You can read about Alfred HERE

Alfred's youngest of three daughters, Ælfthryth of Wessex (877- 929), also known as Elftrudis/Elftrude/Elfrida), became the wife of Baldwin II (865-918), Margrave of Flanders, married between 893 and 897. They were our 34th great-grandparents. The Anglo-Flemish alliance was intended to assist Baldwin in clearing the Danes from what became northern France, a stepping stone into Europe that England needed. Baldwin was rather blood-thirsty, but it must have been the times. They were buried in Ghent in present-day Belgium. Baldwin's bio HERE

10th century Flanders/Flandre across the Channel from England

Their son, Arnulf I (c. 893/899-964), First Count of Flanders, styled "The Great," married Adele of Vermandois (c 915–960), a Frankish noblewoman, who was both a Carolingian (Frankish royal family, whose direct ancestor [and ours] was Charlemagne, son of Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, our 40th great-grandfather and founder of the dynasty - but, that's for a future blog) as well as a Robertian (from the Capetian dynasty, founded by Hugh Capet). Arnulf's rule ended when he was murdered. HERE

Their youngest child, Elstrude/Elftrude/Elisende (937-970), married Sigfrid/Siegfried the Dane (920 Denmark - 965), comte (Count) de Guînes, which is in present-day northern France at the Belgian border. The Danes had taken this land in 928. (George Washington was also a descendant, so why shouldn't we be. Our families lived in Virginia at the same time.) Arnulf, Count of Flanders, realizing a counter-attack against the Danes would be costly, arranged the marriage of his daughter Elstrude to Sigfrid, the Danish leader, bestowing upon him the title of Count of Guînes, but as vassal to him, the Count of Flanders. Under Sigfrid’s successors, the county of Guînes acquired considerable importance. 

Guînes in present-day France. Note its closeness to Calais, where the English always landed when they invaded France. You can see on this map Bruges, Belgium, in what was Flanders.

Their son, born after his father's death, was Ardolph (966-996), 2nd comte de Guînes, almost from birth provided the title of Count of Guînes by Arnulf II, Count of Flanders, his cousin, who brought him up in his court. Arnulf II also gave him the land of Brédenarde. Ardolph married Matilda/Mahaut de Boulogne, daughter of Ernicule, Count of Boulogne. They were our 31st great-grandparents. 

Present-day Boulogne, France

Their son was Rodolphe/Rodelphus, le Blund, 3rd comte de Guînes, born 982 in Guînes and died 1036 in Paris, who married Rosella de Saint Pol (c 995-1062).  I know you're thinking, "How are these ancestors, living in what is present-day France, connected to that line of English ancestors you've been blogging about?" Well, I'll tell you.

Remains of moat and bailey at Guînes where our ancestors were born and lived.

Rodolphe's and Rosella's second son was Robert le Blund/Blount (c1033 Guînes - died after 1086 Suffolk, England), who married Gundred Ferrers (c1040 Normandy - died after 1086 Suffolk, England). Robert joined William the Conqueror HERE on his invasion of England in 1066 and, as a result, was given 14 manors in County Suffolk and was styled 1st Baron, Lord of Ixworth.

County Suffolk, England. Ixworth is in its western part.

 

Robert and Gundred were buried  6 miles from Ixworth at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. They were our 29th great-grandparents. The Conqueror's wife, Matilda of Flanders, was a distant cousin of Robert le Blund, both being descended from Arnulf, Count of Flanders. Remember him? And that made Matilda HERE also descended from Alfred the Great. The right woman to make queen if you'd just conquered England.

Scene from Battle of Hastings in Bayeux Tapestry. Read about its creation in the 1080s HERE

You will recall my most recent blog about Richard de Argentein, the Crusader. It was his wife, Cassandra de Insula (1180-1227), our 24th great-grandmother, who was descended from Robert le Blund.

These ancestors combined Briton, Saxon, Danish, Flemish, Frankish and who knows what other ethnicities to make Englishmen and women. No wonder our DNA has a large section that is called only "northern Europe."