Sergeant Humphrey Johnson (1620-1692) - Don't Mess Around with Him!

My 9X great grandfather Humphrey Johnson arrived with his parents Captain John and Margery Johnson as part of the Winthrop Fleet, landing at Salem, MA on 22 June 1630. He had not yet celebrated his 10th birthday. Brother Isaac, a few years older, was probably entrusted with keeping an eye on him aboard ship on the crossing from England to America. The main troubles for children were cold and seasickness; a game involving a rope (perhaps tug-of-war?) reportedly helped with both. Younger sister Sarah would have completed the family group at the time of the crossing, though three additional siblings were later born in America.

Arrival of Winthrop's Company in Boston Harbor (1630) by William Formby Halsall (painted ca. 1880)
Wikimedia Commons

Humphrey's father John was very active in the new Massachusetts Bay Colony community at Roxbury. He was made a freeman there on 18 May 1631 and served on many juries and committees, acted as Surveyor laying out the bounds of towns around Boston. He was the first clerk of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Roxbury. He was chosen for 22 years to be Roxbury's Deputy to the House of Deputies. Later in life, John was awarded 1000 acres of land as thanks for his community service. His position as Surveyor General included taking care of the arms and ammunition of the community; at one point his house burned down with the Colony's stock of gun powder. That must have created much excitement and consternation for the family!

Captain John's fine community service should have provided an excellent role model for his sons.

Elder son Isaac became a military man, serving as Captain in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and also as Captain of the Roxbury Company in the Narragansett Expedition. Isaac was killed, as head of his company, at the Great Swamp Fight on 19 December 1675. We may not necessarily be comfortable with colonialism and such military actions today but it is a part of our history. Isaac's younger brother Sergeant Humphrey was a member of his brother's Company in the Narragansett Expedition. Fortunately for my family, Humphrey returned home to his wife Eleanor (Chaney) Johnson and their 10 children, the  youngest of whom was my 8X great grandfather another Isaac Johnson (1668-1738)

By the time Humphrey was in his early 30's he had moved from Roxbury to Scituate, MA. Samuel Deane in his History of Scituate, p. 296, says of him: "Serj. Johnson was a capable man in pulbick affairs, and often employed in Town business, in the early part of his life: but he had an uncommon inclination to law suits, and few men have left on the records of the Court, so many evidences of his litigious disposition."

Deane goes on (pages 296-297) to describe some details.

First, Humphrey was fined 5 pounds in 1673 for removing a land mark and  "for the boldness and insolency in coming into this Government to do this act."

That same year, he was ordered to remove his dwelling and cottage erected within the town of Scituate within a month or an order would be given for removing it. This was the result of his coming into the Government without leave of the Governor and two Assistants (contrary to law).

No record could be found that would indicate why Humphrey was so upset with the Town in the first place.

Although an obviously-aggrieved Humphrey had moved his residence from Scituate to Hingham about 1673 (probably in the month following the above order!), he commenced an action in 1683 against the Town of Scituate for three shares in the common lands. Although the Town considered his change of residence to have cancelled any such right, Humphrey won and lands were set off to satisfy the execution.

Still not satisfied, he complained in 1687 that he hadn't had all his rights in Scituate. The Town felt his rights had all been satisfied (although they still felt he should not have won that 1683 suit). Nevertheless, Humphrey won again and Governor Andros furnished him with a warrant so that Humphrey could take a surveyor and lay out an additional 100 acres at the head of Dudley's lot, 100 acres at Burnt Plain and 100 acres at Halifax cedar swamp. The Town protested to the Governor that much of this land had already been claimed by others and that "Johnson had already been accommodated with thrice sixty-five acres to the full amount of his claim as principal and successor to two others." It seems Humphrey never got these lands after Governor Andros was tossed from office. There was an area thereafter known as "Johnson's swamp" which was in remembrance of Humphrey's trespass on part of those lands and for which the Town eventually recovered damages from him.

Humphrey must have finally felt revenged for whatever slight had started the whole fiasco. In Hingham, the only records for him involve his community work on committees. His first wife Eleanor had died in 1678 amid his legal battles and he married Abigail Stansfall and had a couple more children with her.

Humphrey died 24 July 1692 in Hingham, MA at the age of 71.

Resources:

Deane, Samuel, History of Scituate, Massachusetts, From its First Settlement to 1831 (Boston: James Loring 1831), pp. 296-297

Johnson, Paul Franklin and Johnson, Frank Leonard, "Genealogy of Captain John Johnson of Roxbury, Massachusetts", compiled 1932-1945 located online at Ancestry.com

Edward Lewknor ( c1517 - 1556) - Political Intrigue in Tudor England

The story of my 11th great grandfather Edward Lewknor provides a cautionary tale about wishing for a prominent life at court. Better, perhaps, to be an obscure farmer (like the majority of my ancestors) than to find oneself caught up in the political intrigue often surrounding more prominent lives. In the case of Edward Lewknor, the intrigue occurred during the rancorous and bloody aftermath of the break from the Roman Catholic Church by England's King Henry VIII (1491-1537).

First, to set the stage: A very simplified recollection of Tudor history centres on Henry VIII's desire for a male heir. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had produced a daughter Mary but not the male heir he desired. (Of course we now know that it is the father that determines the gender of his offspring, but Henry placed the blame squarely on his wives.) In order to marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church and started the Church of England so that he could obtain an annulment of his first marriage. However, Anne also suffered miscarriages and produced but a single living child, daughter Elizabeth. The marriage to Anne was also annulled. After Anne was beheaded, Henry went on to marry Jane Seymour who did produce the desired son, Edward.

When Henry died on 28 January 1547, succession to the English throne was governed by the Third Succession Act under which the order in the line of succession started as follows:
1. Prince Edward
2. Princess Mary
3. Princess Elizabeth
4. Lady Jane Grey

King Henry had also left a will with his wishes for his succession expressed; the first 3 names noted above were his first 3 choices but after that the lists diverged. After the early death of  Protestant King Edward VI, still in his teens, Mary became queen. Mary, like her mother, was Roman Catholic while her sister Elizabeth was Protestant. Both sisters suffered the stigma of being considered illegitimate by the other faction! Much of the rancour that swirled around their reigns was as a result of the religious persecution between Catholic and Protestant supporters. Even among Protestant supporters, there were dissident groups who thought the Reformation had not gone far enough in purging the church of its Popish ways. (For example, see the story of another of  my ancestors, Thomas Morse, who was definitely in this category.)

Now to get to Edward Lewknor's place in all of this: Edward was born about 1517 at Kingston Buci (now Kingston by Sea), Sussex, to another Edward Lewknor and his wife Margaret Copley.

St Julian's Church, Kingston Buci, Shoreham-by-Sea, Adur District, West Sussex, England. An 11th-century parish church in the ancient village of Kingston Buci, now the suburb of Kingston-by-Sea in the urban area between Southwick and Shoreham-by-Sea photo on Wikimedia Commons courtesy The Voice of Hassocks.

Both parents came from prominent families with ancestral links to royal and noble families. His father had served in the court of King Henry VII and King Henry VIII. A few years after the death of the elder Edward in 1528, Robert Wroth, one of the co-executors of the will, became young Edward's guardian. Edward had been left estates including Hamsey, East Sussex which would mature for him in 1542.

Robert Wroth had a son Thomas Wroth of a similar age to Edward. The Wroth household were Protestant sympathizers. Robert Wroth was a friend of Thomas Cromwell and from 1534 shared with Cromwell the stewardship of Westminster Abbey.

At the requirement of Robert Wroth in his will, Edward married Wroth's daughter Dorothy prior to 1542 and had a large family with her, including four sons (Edward,Thomas, Stephen and William) and six daughters (Lucrece, Ann, Dorothy, Jane, Elizabeth and my 10th great-grandmother Mary). (It should be remembered that in this time, marriages were not generally love matches but a way to cement family relationships and property rights. Robert Wroth's will had contemplated that both Edward and Dorothy would have the right to refuse this marriage, but in that case, Dorothy would receive the financial benefit from the dissolution of her father's wardship of Edward.)

On the death of his mother Margaret, Edward came into possession of the manor of Kingston Buci. In 1553 young King Edward VI granted him the manor of King's Barns (in Upper Beeding) and another estate called New Park (in Lower Beeding), Sussex.

Edward was elected as a Member of Parliament for Horsham in March of 1553 but lost his seat when Queen Mary came to the throne later that year. Mary, of course, was intent on returning England to Roman Catholicism and history reveals the methods she employed to have been very "bloody". During her 5 year reign she had some 280 people burned at the stake.

Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 resulted from Mary's decision to marry the Catholic King Philip II of Spain (and likely breed a family of devout Catholics to ensure Catholic succession to the throne). Lewknor was not implicated in this failed plot but because of his wife's family ties to Sir Thomas Wyatt's wife, there were suspicions about his loyalty. His wife's brother Thomas Wroth was not so fortunate, but did manage to escape to France where  he remained in exile. Some 90 nobles were executed, including Wyatt himself, Jane Gray and Guilford Dudley.

Two years later Edward Lewknor was to find himself entangled in a new web of intrigue in an affair known as the Dudley Conspiracy. This was another unsuccessful attempt to depose Mary and replace her on the throne with her half sister Elizabeth. With his brother-in-law Thomas Wroth still in exile, there is no doubt that Edward was in communication with Protestant dissidents. He complied with a request to use his position in Queen Mary's court to obtain a copy of Henry VIII's will in the hope that it would prove Mary's ineligibility to hold the throne. It was also said that he held meetings both in London and at his home in Sussex with other sympathizers. There was even some talk of a plot to kill the Queen during a card game. All of this culminated in his being taken to the Tower of London on 6 June 1556. Nine days later he was tried at Guildhall and found guilty of treason. He was among those whose sentences were deferred and he might well have ultimately been released. However, his health failed during his imprisonment. Wife Dorothy and one of his daughters had been allowed to look after him in prison, but he died in the Tower on 6 September 1556 and was buried in the Tower Precinct.

His final request was to ask for Queen Mary's forgiveness and for her to spare his wife and children. This she did, quickly restoring to widow Dorothy Lewknor the properties at Kingston Buci and Hamsey. Son and heir (yet another!) Edward Lewknor was restored in blood in 1559 and went on to become a leading Puritan Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Sources:

R.J. W. Swales entry in "History of Parliament" located online at https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/lewknor-edward-151617-56

Wikipedia article on Edward Lewknor located online at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lewknor_(died_1556)

Website located at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dearbornboutwell/fam578.html accessed October 24, 2012