44 Ancestors with a Wikipedia Entry + all the ones leading to Edward I and Charlemagne!

CHARLEMAGNE (c. 742 – 28 Jan 814) (Charles I), King of Franks and Roman Emporer.  Ancestor of Robert ABELL, 43rd Generation

EDWARD I of England (1239 – 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307  and Eleanor of Castile We descend from Edward through two immigrant lines šPercival LOWELL, Massachusetts Colonist (1570-1664), 24th Generation and through Katherine MARBURY SCOTT (1610-1687)

Sir William PARR first Baron Parr of Kendal (1434 – c. 1483) was an English courtier and soldier. Parr left a daughter Anne, who married Sir Thomas Cheney of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, great great grandfather of John CHENEY.

Sir Ralph WARREN (c.1486 – 1553)  twice Lord Mayor of London, for the first time in 1536 and the second in 1543.   His great grandson, Giles CROMWELL emigrated to Newbury, Mass.

Sir Henry (Williams)  CROMWELL (1524 – 1604) (Wikipedia) was a grandfather of Oliver Cromwell.  He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Richard Williams, was highly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth I, who knighted him in 1563, and did him the honor of sleeping at his seat of Hinchinbrook, on 18 August 1564, upon her return from visiting the University of Cambridge.  His grandson Giles CROMWELL emigrated to Newbury, Mass.

Sir Thomas BROMLEY (1530 – 1587) (Wikipedia) was an English lord chancellor. His daughter Elizabeth inherited his entire estate and married our Sir Oliver CROMWELL   In 1566 he was appointed recorder of London, and in 1569 he became solicitor-general. .  His first considerable case was in 1571, when he was of counsel for the crown on the trial of the Duke of Norfolk for high treason, on which occasion he had the conduct of that part of the case which rested on Ridolfi’s message  On the death of Sir Nicholas Bacon in 1579 he was appointed lord chancellor. He presided over the commission which tried Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586, but the strain of the trial and the responsibility of ordering the execution of a monarch proved too much for his strength, and he died soon after. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Sir Erasmus Dryden 1st Baronet (1553-1632) (Wikipedia) Son of John DRYDEN Two of John’s descendants were literary stars of the 17^th and 18^th Centuries.  He was great grandfather of John Dryden (1631 – 1700) and the 2nd great grandfather of Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745).

Alexander CARPENTER (1546/1551 – 1612) was the father of four daughters who came to the Plymouth Colony early in its history.  The wikipedia article about The Carpenter sisters has been deleted, though you can still view it here on this wikipedia user page.  It looks like the topic of this article did meet Wikipedia’s general notability guidelines. The 31 footnotes and extensive external links were not enough for our dear Carpenters to make the grade. However, I am the sole arbiter for the definitions on this site and I declare they are approved for Wikipedia Famous!

The Carpenter Sisters of Leiden, Netherlands and Plymouth Colony provided a unique genetic impact and moral influence to the colonization of the Plymouth Colony in America in the early 1620s. Juliana Carpenter MORTON (1584– 1665 Plymouth), Agnes (1585– 1615/1616 Leyden), Alice (1590– 1670 Plymouth), Mary (1595 – 1687 Plymouth), and Priscilla Carpenter COOPER (1597 – 1689 Plymouth) became their family matriarchs that settled the hearths, maintained Pilgrim Fathers family life under difficult religious times and many gave birth to the next generation under harsh physical conditions in the difficult early years.

Francis MARBURY  (1555–1611) (wikipedia)  was a Cambridge-Educated, English clergyman, school master, and Puritan reformer now remembered as a playwright and father of Anne Hutchinson and Katherine Scott husband of Richard SCOTT (1605 – 1680)

Elder William BREWSTER (c. 1560 or 1566 – 1644) (Wikipedia ) was a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher born in Doncaster, England , who reached what became the Plymouth Colony in the Mayflower in 1620.  When the Mayflower colonists landed at Plymouth, Brewster became the senior elder of the colony, serving as its religious leader and as an adviser to Governor William Bradford. As the only university educated member of the colony, Brewster took the part of the colony’s religious leader until a pastor, Ralph Smith, arrived in 1629.

Rev. Stephen BACHILER (c. 1561 – 1656) (Wikipedia) was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in America.

John TILLEY (1571 – 1620 or 1621) (Wikipedia) was one of the settlers who traveled from England to North America on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact. Tilley died shortly after arrival in New England.  John was Alex’s 12th Great Grandfather; one of 8,192 in this generation of the Shaw line.

Percival LOWELL (1571 – 1665)  determined at the age of 68 that the future was in the New World. and the Lowell clan settled on the North Shore at Newbury after they arrived in Boston 23 June 1639. (See wikipedia article)

William CARPENTER Sr. (1575 -1638 ) , William CARPENTER Jr (1605 – 1659) and Joseph CARPENTER (1628 – 1675) The Rehoboth Carpenter family, an American family that helped settle the town of Rehoboth, Massachusetts in 1644.

James CARVER’s son John Carver (wiki) (ca. 1576 – April 5, 1621) was a Pilgrim leader. He was the first governor of Plymouth Colony and his is the first signature on the Mayflower Compact

Thomas WEST 3rd Baron de la Warr (1577 – 1618)  (Wikipedia)  was the Englishman after whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, an American Indian people and U.S. state, all later called “Delaware“, were named.  He was in Virginia for less than a year, but he had great timing.    On June 7, 1610, both groups of starving survivors from Jamestown and Bermuda boarded the Deliverance and Patience , and they all set sail down the James River toward the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic Ocean and home.  On June 9, 1610, Lord De La Warr and his party arrived on the James River. Intercepting the fleeing colonists about 10 miles  downstream from Jamestown near Mulberry Island, the new governor forced the remaining 90 settlers to return, thwarting their plans to abandon the colony.

Robert CUSHMAN (1578 – 1625)  was a Pilgrim leader and made arrangements for the Leiden congregation to immigrate to North America. He preached the first recorded sermon in the New World. (Wikipedia)  Robert was excommunicated for not recognizing the official church and as a consequence spent time in a cell of Canterbury’s West Gate Towers. In 1611 he was one of a group of Pilgrims who fled to Holland because of differences with the official church over their practise of religion.  In 1620 he returned to Canterbury and at 59 Palace Street arranged the leasing of the Mayflower for the Pilgrims to use on their voyage to America.

Robert did not complete the initial trip to the New World with the other Pilgrims on board the Mayflower, as the ship he was travelling on, the Speedwell, developed leaks and had to return to England. He instead took a different ship to the New World.

Robert sailed to Plymouth, Massachusetts in the fall of 1621 aboard the Fortune, but returned shortly thereafter to England to promote the colony’s interests. There, he published an essay concerning the Lawfulness of Plantations, which was appended to Mourt’s Relation. This document is of interest to modern scholars because of its treatment of the economic reasons for emigration.

Unfortunately, before he could return to the New World, he succumbed to an outbreak of plague in London, in the spring of 1625; as a result, the site of his grave is unknown. The book Saints and Strangers by George F. Willison recounts his story.

Stephen HOPKINS (1580 – 1644) (Wikipedia) The only Mayflower passenger who had previously been to the New World.  His adventures  included surviving a the  Sea Venture’s  1609 shipwreck in Bermuda  and working from 1610–14 in Jamestown as well as knowing the legendary Pocahontas, who married John Rolfe, a fellow Bermuda castaway.  Some Shakespearean scholars believe he was the model for the rogue Stephano in the Tempest.

Franics COOKE  (c.1583 -1663) (Wikipedia) was one of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower. This early settler is one of the twenty-six male Pilgrims known to have descendants.

Rev. John LATHROP (1584 – 1653) (Wikipedia)  was an English Anglican clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to New England. He was the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.John was Alex’s 10th Great Grandfather; one of 2,048 in this generation in the Shaw line.

Walter PALMER (1585 – 1661) (Wikipedia) was an early Separatist Puritan settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who helped found Charlestown and Rehoboth, Massachusetts and New London, Connecticut.

George MORTON (George Mourt) (c. 1585 – 1624) was an English Puritan Separatist. (Wikipedia)  He published and wrote the introduction to the first account in Great Britain of the founding of Plymouth Colony, called Mourt’s Relation.

Isaac ALLERTON (1586 – 1659) was one of the original Pilgrim fathers who came on the Mayflower to settle the Plymouth Colony in 1620. (Wikipedia)   He was one of the more active and prominent members of early Plymouth.  He was elected as Governor Bradford’s assistant in 1621, and continued as an assistant into the 1630s.  In 1627, he was sent to negotiate the Plymouth Colony’s buyout of the Merchant Adventurers, the investors who had originally funded (and had hoped to profit from) the Colony.

John HOWLAND (c. 1591 – 1673) (Wikipedia ) was one of the Pilgrims who travelled  on the Mayflower, signed theMayflower Compact, and helped found Plymouth Colony.

Rev. Thomas STOUGHTON’s son John Stoughton (1593?-1639)  (Wikipedia) was an English clergyman, of influential millennial views. His step-son Ralph Cudworth (1617 – 26 June 1688) was an English philosopher, the leader of the Cambridge Platonists.

Jonathan FAIRBANKS (1594 – 1668)  (Wikipedia) was an American colonist who in 1637 built the  Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts which is today the oldest surviving wood framed house in North America.  He was Alex’s 9th Great Grandfather, one of 1,024 in this generation of the Shaw line.

Edmund FREEMAN (1596 – 1682) (Wikipedia) was one of the founders of Sandwich, Massachusetts and an Assistant Governor of Plymouth Colony under Governor William Bradford.

Gov. Thomas PRENCE (1599 – 1673)  (Wikipedia) was a co-founder of Eastham, Massachusetts, a political leader in both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, and governor of Plymouth (1634, 1638, and 1657 – 1673).

Maj. John MASON (1600 – 1672) was the commanding officer in the Pequot War.   At the time, he was a victorious hero who later became  Deputy Governor of Connecticut and founded Norwich, Connecticut.  Now, he is viewed by some as a war criminal due to his responsible for the Mystic Massacre.

Rev. Thomas STOUGHTON’s son Israel Stoughton (1603?-1644) (Wikipedia) was an early English colonist in Massachusetts, and later a Parliamentarian officer in the First English Civil War. His son William Stoughton, was best known as the chief magistrate of the Salem witch trials.   His step-sister (and sister-in-law) Ursula Knight was the mother of Elihu Yale  a Welsh merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company, and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honor.  His daughter Rebecca Stoughton, married William Tailer and was the mother of William Tailer, Jr., also a colonial governor of Massachusetts, and of Elizabeth Tailer, wife of fur trader John Nelson, an immigrant of royal descent and a nephew of Acadian governor Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Bt.

Robert ABELL (c. 1605 – 1663) (Wikipedia) was descendant from CHARLESMAGNE and a from a long line of English, Norman and French aristocrats and royalty.  His maternal grandfather, “Rt. Hon. Sir George Cotton,” was “Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to the Prince of Wales, (later King Edward VI) . . . a Privy Counsellor . . . [and] Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII.”Henry knighted him before or in 1542.

His father, George Abell, at the age of 17 enrolled in Oxford University’s Brasenose College (8 Dec 1578). By Nov of 1580, he had become a barrister and a member of the Inner Temple. Before June 1630, he arranged an apprenticeship in London for his son, but Robert decided to try his luck in the New World, instead. This was a move that his father disapproved of, but, nevertheless, financed.

In his will, dated 8 Sep 1630, George Abell states (original spelling retained), “I bequeath unto my second sonne Robert Abell onelie a Twentie shilling peece for his childs parte in regard of ye charges I have beene at in placeing him in a good trade in London wch hee hath made noe use of and since in furnishing him for newe England where I hope he now is.”

Fear BREWSTER (1605 – 1634 ) (Wikipedia)  She was the third daughter of Mayflower pilgrim Elder William BREWSTER  Wikipedia  his wife Mary.  Fear married about 1625 to Isaac ALLERTON (Wikipedia)as his second wife

Constance HOPKINS (1606 – 1677)   (Wikipedia) The second daughter of Stephen Hopkins, by his first wife, Mary.   Constance, at the age of fourteen, along with her father and his second wife Elizabeth (Fisher), accompanied by brother Giles, half-sister Damaris as well as two servants   Edward Doty and Edward Lester were passengers on the Mayflower .  Constance married Nicholas SNOW, shortly before the 1627 division of cattle.  Constance Hopkins is the central character in Patricia Clapp’s young adult novel Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth.  It must be a popular book as I found three different cover portraits.

Thomas MINER (1608 – 1690) (Wikipedia) was a founder of New London and Stonington, Connecticut, and an early New England diarist.

Rebecca Towne Nurse (1621 – 1692) daughter of William TOWNE who was executed for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials.

Susanna North Martin (1621 – 1692) (Wikipedia)  was executed for witchcraft on 19 Jul 1692 in Salem, Essex, Mass.

Christopher Holder (ca. 1631 – ?) son-in-law of Richard SCOTT was an Anglo-American Quaker minister who was persecuted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his beliefs.

John Proctor Jr. (1632 – 1692),   son of John PROCTOR, was executed for witchcraft on 19 Jul 1692 in Salem, Essex, Mass.  The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a fictionalized version of the trials casts John Proctor as one of the main characters in the play.  In the 1996 film based on the play, Proctor was played by Daniel Day-Lewis.

Mary  ESTEY (1634 – 1692), wife of Isaac ESTEY was a victim of the Salem witch trials of 1692.  Mary’s petition is quite moving. The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Verbatim Transcriptions of the Court Records. Retrieved 2007-12-10.

Sarah Towne Cloyce (1642 – ) daughter of William TOWNE . Sarah was accused of witchcraft, in 1692 [at age 53], and put into prison, and later released. She pressed charges for her unlawful arrest and the killing of her sisters. She received three gold sovereigns for each of them. The  1985 PBS American Playhouse movie, Three Sovereigns For Sister Sarah is about this event.  Vanessa Redgrave plays Sarah. Kim Hunter plays Mary Estey.

Johann Conrad WEISER Sr. (1662 – 1746) (Wikipedia) was a German soldier, baker, and farmer who fled his homeland with thousands of other German Palatines and settled in New York. Weiser became a leader in the Palatine community and was founder of their settlement of Weiser’s Dorf, now known as Middleburgh, New York. When the Germans were in dispute with their English landlords and the colonial government of New York, he was among the representatives chosen to go to London and seek help from the British government. This contributed to the downfall of the governorship of Robert Hunter.

Edward WANTON’s sons Capt. William Wanton (1670 – 1691) (wiki) and John Wanton (1672  –  1740) (wiki) were the 20th and 21st governors of Rhode Island.

John Conrad Weiser Jr (Wikipedia) (1696 – 1760) son of Johann Conrad WEISER Sr.  was a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer, interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native Americans. He was a farmer, soldier, monk, tanner, and judge as well. He contributed as an emissary in councils between Native Americans and the colonies, especially Pennsylvania, during the French and Indian War.  Weiser was able to maintain fairly stable relations between the Pennsylvania government and the Iroquois Nation during the 1730’s and 1740’s.