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Archiver > WHITNEY > 1998-10 > 0908429293


From: "Robert L. Ward" <>
Subject: RE: WHITNEY Extracts from the NEHGR ...
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 22:28:13


At 04:22 PM 10/14/98 GMT, you wrote:
>Robert,
>
>I was interested in your note re. Henry Austin Whitney. I have on two
>previous occasions sent the following note to the WRG, and on both
>occasions I received absolutely zilch in response! Maybe my luck is
>changing!!

I reply to some of your points, but not all, below.

>The key point to note is that HAW appeared to think that he was
>descended from the Whitneys of ISLIP in Oxfordshire! This clearly
>needs further investigation.

You are correct, this needs further investigation. An alternate origin
seems worth more study.

>Some time ago I wrote to a Gary Boyd Roberts at the NEHGS asking about
>the HAW papers. Again I received no reply!

I cannot account for that. As a Life Member of the NEHGS, I apologize for
his poor manners.

>Regards
>
>John
>=====================================================================
>
>Last year I had various e-mail exchanges with two John Whitney descendents
>- Robert Ward and Mike Roman. I occasionally visit the Boston area, and
>Mike suggested that next time I'm there we should visit the NEHGS
>together, so that I can see what they have on file there. I spent half a
>day at the Boston Public Library (BPL) in 1989, and had a good browse
>through the old Watertown maps, etc. and through various books, including
>one by Henry Austin Whitney, "Brief account of descendents of J & E
>Whitney, etc.". I ran out of time before I could visit the NEHGS, and I
>have not been to Boston since my exchanges with Mike.
>
>Now to the specific subject of Henry and Samuel Austin Whitney. I have a
>copy of the Henry Green book mentioned above, in which he includes some
>detail on Geoffrey Whitney's Cheshire/Hereford connections, etc., and in
>particular he describes how in Feb. 1866 he heard from Henry Austin
>Whitney of Boston who had visited Leyden in Holland a short while after
>Green, where he (HAW) found out about Green's forthcoming book. He goes on
>to mention "Mr Samuel Austin Whitney of Glassboro, New Jersey, Horatio G.
>Somerby, Esq. ...". SAW was HAW's nephew, if my BPL notes are correct.
>Perhaps Horatio G. Somerby was a genealogist ?

Horatio Gates Somerby was a professional genealogist and member of the
NEHGS. He specialized in English origins of New England immigrants.

>Green and HAW corresponded, and Green gratefully acknowledges and
>reproduces a pedigree chart apparently compiled by SAW and later by
>Somerby. The chart purports to show that the 1635 JW descended from the
>Whitneys of ISLIP in Oxfordshire, his father being a Richard Whitney.
>Several Wills are quoted from, and these certainly exist; copies are
>located right here in the Oxford Record Office, and I have checked a
>couple at random. I am not sure why Somerby or Whitney thought that this
>John was the emigrant, although the date is OK.

Do you have abstracts of any of these wills?

>Can anyone (Allan?) confirm that no-one has found any evidence from the
>Watertown, etc. records to link John back to Westminster ?

There is nothing in Massachusetts or in the ship-list of the "Elizabeth and
Ann" which would tie John-1 WHITNEY to Westminster, or indicate anything
about his origins. The connection is made based on the similarity of the
family makeup of John WHITNEY, son of Thomas, and John-1 WHITNEY of
Watertown. Both had father named John, and sons John, Richard, and Thomas,
in that order, of appropriate ages. The English family vanishes, and the
American one appears. That is all the evidence there is. Even Donald Lines
Jacobus in his article, "Pre-American Ancestries: John Whitney of Watertown,
Mass.," expresses his dissatisfaction with the strength of this evidence.

>Henry Green states that HAW had printed in Boston several copies of
>various documents relating to his Whitney research, which Green lists in
>detail (see below) although he does not reproduce them all. Oddly,
>ALTHOUGH MELVILLE HIMSELF QUOTES from the Henry Green book, he does not
>refer to the Islip connection.
>
>I have no idea whether the research carried out by HAW/SAW/HGS is any more
>or less valid than that of Melville et al. I have seen no mention of
>the "Islip" research since it was carried out, and this puzzles me. I did
>see a mention of it at the Boston Public Library when browsing through
>J.J. Minot, Ancestors & Descendents of HAW, 1934. Minot states that the
>emigrant's father was "either Thos. W. of Lambeth Marsh, or Richard W. of
>Islip". Maybe he found the Islip reference in HAW's book, but I do not
>recall seeing it.
>
>The Whitneys of Islip [which by pure coincidence is about 5 miles from my
>home here near Oxford] were quite numerous in the 15th-19th centuries, and
>I have heard from various people both in the UK and in Australia whose
>ancestors lived in that area. Sometimes the name is spelt WITNEY,
>probably because of the town of that name about 10 miles West of Oxford
>[the same thing happens now!]. Another strange coincidence is that in
>1879 my grandfather Edward Underwood Whitney - who lived in WESTMINSTER
>next to the St. Margaret's church - married Florence Aime of .... LAMBETH
>[it is no longer a marsh!]
>
>Here are a couple of extracts from Henry Green's 1866 book. The first is
>from the List of Subscribers to the book. The second is from HG's notes
>on the material sent to him by HAW, or printed for HAW in Boston ....
>
>(i) Henry Austin Whitney; Joseph Whitney; Henry Lawrence Whitney; Joseph
> Cutler Whitney; Ellerton Pratt Whitney; Miss Elizabeth Whitney; Miss
> Constance Whitney [all these of Boston, Mass]; Thomas Heston Whitney
> of Glassboro', NJ.
>
>(ii) "Received from HAW: (a) MSS copy of the Will of Geoffrey Whitney the
> poet, lately extracted from the original by Horatio G. Somerby; (b)
> Memoranda relating to families of the name Whitney in England; (c)
> Wills relating to the name of Whitney in Buckinghamshire &
> Oxfordshire, England, 1549 to 1603, with a Pedigree."
>
>"Of the Memoranda, ten copies were printed on royal 4to, pages 11, at
>Boston, USA, April 1859; and of the Wills twelve copies on royal 4to,
>pages 23, were privately printed at Boston, USA, October 10th, 1865 ...."
>
>HAW lists 16 Whitney Pedigree charts, viz: 1: W. of W. Herefordshire; 2:
>W. of Clifford, Herefordshire; 3: W.s of Herefordshire; 4: W. of
>Llandbeder, Radnor (Wales); 5: W. of Coole [Pilate], Cheshire; 6: W.s of
>Cheshire; 7: W. of Picton, Cheshire; 8: W. of Barthomley, Cheshire;
>9: W.s of London; 10: W.s of Shropshire; 11: W. of Brook Walden, Essex;
>12: W. of Surrey; 13: W. of Chinner and of Islip, Oxfordshire; 14: W.
>of Holt, Worcestershire; 15: W.s of various counties, viz: Bucks, Suffolk,
>Oxon, Norfolk, York, Warwick, Wilts, Bristol, Northants, Lincoln; 16: W.
>of Watertown, NE.
>
>I am curious to know whether the Austin-Whitneys' and Somerby's records of
>their respective researches while in England, and perhaps the pedigree
>charts listed below, are actually in the NEHGS archives. I recall a
>reference in HAW's book to the NEHG Register. By the way, the HAW book I
>refer to is "Brief account of the descendents of J & E Whitney, etc." pub.
>1857, BPL ref. # 4432.256.

I hope this explains the situation as I know it. I can order a search of
the NEHGS Library collections, including the manuscript collections, for a
fee. Naturally, I am reluctant to do this unless I am quite sure it would
be worthwhile!

Thanks for your reply to my message to WHITNEY-L.

Regards,

Robert

Robert L. Ward

http://www.erols.com/rlward1/
12236 Shadetree Lane, Laurel, MD 20708-2832
301-776-1659

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