The royal descent of
Jean Margaret (Kennedy) Mitchelson
part I

When this page originally appeared in 2003, the descents of the writer’s maternal grandmother Jean Margaret (Kennedy) Mitchelson from Edward I of England were still the “best” royal descents known, i.e. those from the most recently-deceased monarch. Of these, the following is the briefest, showing her descent from Edward I (generation 18) in only 20 generations.^[1] At generation 25 two additional descents from Edward I, both one generation longer, are noted. Back of this, we show the descent of Edward I from the dowager Empress Maud, heiress of England (generation 14), and since her mother, Matilda, the legitimist heiress of England, had no known descents from Charlemagne, we continue backward through her father, Henry I of England. When these notes first appeared in 2003 the latter’s alleged Carolingian descent through his father, William the Conqueror, was widely regarded as problematic,^[2] and we decided to focus instead on the ancestry of the Conqueror’s wife, Matilda of Flanders, who appears to have had as many as eighteen well-attested descents from Charlemagne.^[3] Of these we present the briefest, which seems to be beyond dispute.

    As is generally the case with royal descents, the line runs through many females (who comprise 15 of the 36 persons included), resulting in many changes of surname in the pedigree, and many changes of locale — from continental Europe to England, then from Connecticut through New York, Nova Scotia, to Ontario, and finally to Manitoba. From the birth of Charlemagne in 747 to the birth 35 generations later of Margaret (Kennedy) Mitchelson in 1917, the average generation-length is 33.4 years. Our account draws on many published sources, but it is our understanding that the most difficult links in the modern portions of the pedigree were established by Robert Behra and by Gale Ion Harris, and we are deeply grateful to their work. We are also grateful to those who have sent corrections and comments to earlier drafts of this material, including the late Cecelia (Coon) Botting, Ross W. McCurdy, and Douglas Richardson, although they should of course not be held accountable for any errors of fact or interpretation.

    In order to avoid excessive repetition, references to more general sources, such as lineage-books, are gathered together in a condensed list at the end of the text, immediately prior to the endnotes, which are reserved for discussion of controversial points or specific supplemental matter such as the ancestry of spouses.

1. Charlemagne, King of Neustria, Austrasia, and Easter Aquitaine 768, King of Lombardy and Patriarch of Rome 774, Emperor of the West 800 (crowned on Christmas day by Pope Leo III), b. probably on 2 April 748,^[4] d. 28 Jan. 814 at Aachen. He had four wives and at least six concumbines. He m. (2) in 771, before 30 April, Hildegard, b. 758, d. 30 April 783, daughter of Gerold I, Count of the Vinzgouw, by Imma, daughter of Hnabi, Duke of Allemania, Count in the Linzgau.^[5]
2. Ludwig I (called “le Pieux” or “le Débonnaire”), declared King of Aquitaine by his father at his birth, and confirmed as such in 781, Emperor of the West 816, b. in April-September of 778 at Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, in Aquitaine, d. 20 June 840 near Mainz. He m. (1) in 794-98, Hermengarde, d. 3 Oct. 818, daughter of Ingram/Ingelram, Count in Hesbaye, in Liège. He m. (2) in Feb. 819, Judith, b. ca. 805, d. 19 April 843, daughter of Welf, Duke of Bavaria, by his wife Eigilwich.^[6]
3. Gisela, b. 819-22, living 1 July 874. She m. in 836-40, Eberhard, created Count of Trevise by his wife’s brother, the Emperor Lothair, succeeded as Duke of Friuli ca. 846, d. probably in 864-66 at Maniastre, in Trevise, son of Hunroch I, Duke of Friuli, by his wife Engeltrude. She and her husband founded about 840 the Abbey of Canon Regulars at Chisoing (or Cisoin), near Lille, where he is buried.^[7]
4. Berengar I, Duke of Friuli and Marquis of Trevise 874 (succeeding his brother Hunroch II, who d. s.p.), King of Italy (Jan. 888-death), Emperor of the West (915-924), b. ca. 840-50, murdered 7 April 924 at Verona. He m. (1) probably by 880,^[8] Bertila, d. Dec. 915, said to have been poisoned for her infidelities, daughter of Suppo, Duke of Spoleto, in Perugia, Italy, by his wife Bertha. He m. (2) ca. 915, Anna, of unknown origin, living May 936.^[9]
5. Gisela, b. ca. 880-85, living June 910 but dead by the end of 915. She m. (as his first wife?) before 900, Adalbert, Margrave of Ivrea, in Torino, Italy, from 896, d. 923-25, son of Anchier/Ansgar, Margrave of Ivrea, possibly by a wife Gisela. Her widower m. secondly, about 915, Ermengarde, daughter of Adalbert (“The Rich”), Marquis of Tuscany.^[10]
6. Berengar II of Ivrea, Margrave of Ivrea, King of Italy jointly with his son Adalbert from 950 until they were deposed in 961, b. say 907, d. 6 Aug. 966. He imprisoned Adelheid, the beautiful widow of the Emperor Lothair, and tried to force her to marry his son Adalbert, but she escaped and married the future Emperor Otto the Great, who retaliated by invading Lombardy and deposing Berengar and his son. He m. before 936, Willa, d. 966, after 6 August, daughter of Boson, Count of Arles, Marquis of Tuscany, by his wife Willa.^[11]
7. Rozela/Susanna, b. say 952, d. 26 Jan. 1003. She m. (1) 968, Arnulf II (“The Young”), Count of Flanders 973, b. Dec. 961, d. 30 March 987, son of Baldwin III, Count of Flanders, by Maud, daughter of Hermann Billung, Duke of Saxony, by Hildegarde of Westerbourg.^[12] She m. (2) (as his first wife), but was afterward repudiated by him, Robert II, King of France.
8. Balduin IV (Barbatus), Count of Flanders 987, Count of Valenciennes 1007, b. ca. 980, d. 30 May 1036. He m. (1) ca. 1012, Otgiva, said in most modern acccounts to have been a daughter of brother of Friedrich I, Count of Luxemburg, but possibly a daughter of the latter’s brother Giselbert of Wallerfangen.^[13] He m. (2) ca. 1031, a daughter of Richard II, Duke of Normandy.
9. Balduin V (“De Lille”), Count of Flanders 1035, b. ca. 1012, d. 1 Sept. 1067. He m. (as her second husband) in 1028, Adela/Aelis/Adelheid, d. 8 Jan. 1079, widow of Richard III, Duke of Normandy, and daughter of Robert II, King of France, by Constance, daughter of Guillaume I, Count of Arles.^[14]
10. Matilda of Flanders, b. ca. 1032, d. 2/3 Nov. 1083 at Caen, Normandy, and buried in the Abbey of the La Trinié at Caen, daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, by Adela, daughter of Robert II, King of France.^[15] She m. in 1053 (?) at the Cathedal of Notre Dame d’Eu, Normandy, William I (“the Bastard,” later known as “the Conqueror”), Duke of Normandy 1035-1087, King of England by conquest 1066-1087, b. ca. 1027/8 at Falaise Castle, Normandy, d. 8/9 Sept. 1087 at the Priory of St. Gervais near Rouen, and buried in the Abbey of St. Etienne at Caen. He succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy on 22 July 1035. He defeated Harold I at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066 and claimed the crown of England by right of conquest.
11. Henry I (“Beauclerc”), King of England 1100-1135, b. Sept. 1068 at Selby, Yorkshire, d. 1 Dec. 1135 at the Castle of Lions in Normandy, and buried in Reading Abbey. He became lord of Domfront in 1092 and Count of Coutances and Bayeux in 1096. He succeeded his brother William II as King of England on 3 August 1100. He usurped the duchy of Normandy on 28 Sept. 1106, after defeating his brother Robert, the lawful Duke, at the Battle of Tinchebrai. He m. (1) 11 Nov. 1100, Matilda of Scotland, b. 1079, d. 1 May 1118, daughter of Malcolm III (Canmore), King of Scots, by St. Margaret, heiress of England, daughter of Edward Ætheling.^[16] He m. (2) (as her first husband) 20 Jan. 1121, Adelheid, daughter of Godfrey I (Barbatus), Duke of Lothier, Marquis of Antwerp, Count of Brabant and Louvain, by Ida, daughter of Albert III, Count of Namur; she afterward m. secondly William d’Albini, Earl of Sussex.
12. Maud, b. ca. Aug. 1102, d. 10 Sept. 1167 at the Priory of the Pré de Rouen, and buried in the Abbey of Bec, Normandy. She m. (1) as a child, 7 Jan. 1114, Henry V, Emperor of Germany, who d. 1125. She m. (2) 3 April or 22 May 1127 at Rouen, Geoffrey V (nicknamed “Plantagenet” after the broom-plant which he used as a badge), b. 24 Aug. 1113, d. 7 Sept. 1151 at Château-du-Loir, and buried in the Cathedral Church of St. Julien at Le Mans, son of Fulk V, Count of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, by Eremburga, heiress of Maine, daughter of Helias, Seigneur de La Fleche, Count of Maine. In consequence of her first marriage she was therefore called “The Empress.”^[17]
13. Henry II (“FitzEmpress” or “Curtmantle”), born 5 March 1133 at Le Mans, Anjou, became Count of Touraine and Maine in 1151, and succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou on 7 Sept. 1151. He succeeded his second cousin Stephen as King of England, and was crowned 19 Dec. 1154. He m. 18 May 1152 at the Castle of Bordeaux, in Gascony, Eleanor d’Aquitaine, b. ca. 1123, d. 31 March 1204, daughter of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine, by Eleanor, bastard daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault.^[18]
14. John (“Lackland”), King of England, b. 24 Dec. 1166 at Beaumont Palace, d. 1216. Designated King of Ireland in 1177 and created Count of Mortain in 1189. He was styled Earl of Gloucester in right of his first wife from 29 Aug. 1189. He succeeded his brother Richard as King of England and Duke of Normandy on 27 May 1199. He m. (1) 29 Aug. 1189, and divorced 1199, Isabel, daughter and heiress of William, Earl of Gloucester, by Hawise, daughter of Robert, Earl of Leicester. He m. (2) (as her first husband) 24 Aug. 1200 at the Cathedral of Bordeaux, in Gascony, Isabelle d’Angouleme, d. 31 May 1246, daughter and heiress of Aymer Taillefer, Count of AngoulÍme, by Alix, daughter of Pierre de France, Seigneur de Courtenay;^[19] she m. secondly Hugh de Lusignan.
15. Henry III, b. 1 Oct. 1207 at Winchester Castle Hampshire, succeeded his father as King of England and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in 1216. In December 1259 he formally renounced the duchy of Normandy under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. He m. 14 Jan. 1236 at Canterbury Cathedral, Eleanor of Provence, b. after 1221 (possibly in 1223), d. 25 June 1291 in the convent of Amesbury in Wiltshire, to which she had retired as a nun after her husband’s death, daughter of Raymond Berenger IV, Count of Provence, by Beatrix, daughter of Tomaso, Count of Savoy.^[20] Their second son Edmund (Crouchback), Earl of Lancaster, was an ancestor of Richard FitzAlan, husband of no. 19 below.
16. Edward I (“Longshanks”), King of England and Duke of Aquitaine 1272, b. 17 June 1239 at Westminster, d. 7/8 July 1307 at Burgh-on-Sands, Cumberland, and buried in Westminster Abbey. He was created Duke of Gascony and Earl of Chester in 1254. He m. (1) 18 Oct. 1254 in the Abbey of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castile, Leonor de Castilla (called Eleanore in England), Countess of Ponthieu and Montreal 1279, heiress of the Castilian claims to Gascony, b. 1240, d. 28 Nov. 1290 at Herdeby, co. Lincoln, and buried in Westminster Abbey, daughter of Fernando III (El Santo), King of Castilla, Toledo, Extremadura, LeÛn, Galicia, of and CÛrdoba, Conqueror of Sevilla (1248), canonized 1671, by his second wife, Jeanne de Dammartin, Countess of Aumale, daughter of Simon de Dammartin, Count of Aumale and Ponthieu.^[21] They had 18 children. He m. (2) 8/10 Sept. 1299 in Canterbury Cathedral, Marguerite de France, d. 14 Feb. 1317/8 at Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire.
17. Elizabeth of England, b. 7 Aug. 1282 at Rhuddlan Castle, co. Caernarvon, d. 5 May 1316 at Quendon, Essex, following childbirth, and buried at Walden Abbey. She m. (1) Jan, Count of Holland and Zeeland. She m. (2) 14 Nov. 1302 at Westminster, Humphrey de Bohun VIII, 4^th Earl of Hereford and 3^rd Earl of Essex, Hereditary Constable of England, b. ca. 1276 (aged 22 at his father’s death in 1298), slain 16 March 1321/2 in battle at Boroughbridge, dying testate, and buried in the church of the Friars Preachers at York. He was a son of Humphrey de Bohun VII, 3^rd Earl of Hereford and 2^nd Earl of Essex, Hereditary Constable of England, by Maud, daughter of Enguerrand de Fiennes II, Seigneur de Fiennes, in Guisnes, Baron de Tingry, Lord of Wendover.^[22]
18. William de Bohun, created a Knight of the Garter by July 1331, created 6^th Earl of Northampton (1337), b. ca. 1312, d. 16 Sept. 1360. He fought in the Battle of Crecy.^[23] He m. (as her second husband) in 1335-38, Elizabeth de Badlesmere, d. (testate) 8 June 1356, and buried in Walden Abbey, Essex, widow of Edmund de Mortimer, Lord Mortimer of Wigmore, sister and coheiress of Giles de Badlesmere, and daughter of Bartholomew de Badlesmere. By her first husband she was an ancestress of Edward V, the last Plantagenet king.^[24]
19. Elizabeth de Bohun, d. 3 April 1385, and buried at Lewes, sister of Humphrey de Bohun, 7^th Earl of Hereford, 6^th Earl of Essex, and 2^nd Earl of Northampton, father-in-law of Henry IV. She m. (1) (contract dated 28 Sept. 1359, papal dispensation same month), her 3^rd cousin, Richard FitzAlan III, 11^th or 4^th Earl of Arundel and 10^th Earl of Surrey, b. 1345-47, beheaded 21 Sept. 1397 at Tower Hill, dying testate, and buried in the Augustinian Church, son of Richard FitzAlan, 10^th or 3^rd Earl of Arundel and 9^th Earl of Surrey, by Alianor of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, grandson of Henry III and Eleonor of Provence (see generation 15 above). “He was bearer of the Crown at the coronation of Richard II, 16 july 1377, was a member of the Council, and was made Admiral of the West and South, 1377, and subsequently, 1386, of all England. K.G. 1386. He distinguished himself in the French wars, gaining a brilliant naval victory over the allied French, Spanish, and Flemish fleets, off Margate, 24 Mar. 1387, and was made Governor of Brest in 1388, being one of the five Lords Appellant in the Parliament of that year. Together with the Duke of Gloucester he took an active part against the King, who, in 1388, was entirely in that Duke’s power. In 1394 he obtained pardon for all political offences, but was treacherously seized, 12 July 1397, tried at Westminster, and beheaded in Cheapside, 21 Sep. 1397.” He was attainted, but his son Thomas obtained a restoration of the earldom thirteen years later.^[25] His sister, Alice, was a direct ancestress both of the brothers Edward IV and Richard III, of the latter’s wife Anne of Warwick, and of Henry VII.^[26] He m. (2) Philippe Mortimer, widow of John Hastings, 3^rd Earl of Pembroke, and daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, by Philippe, daughter and heiress of Lionel, Duke of Clarence (third son of King Edward III).
20. Elizabeth FitzAlan, b. about 1375 (aged “40 and more” at the death of her brother Thomas in 1415), d. 8 July 1425, sister and co-heiress of Thomas FitzAlan, 7^th Earl of Arundel. She was of a very prominent family, being double first cousin of Mary de Bohun (d. 1394), the first wife of Henry IV, and a second cousin of this king himself. She m. (1) before Dec. 1378, William de Montagu, Knt., d. s.p., v.p. 6 Aug. 1382, son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury. She m. (2) in July 1384, her double-third and double-fourth cousin,^[27] Thomas de Mowbray, afterward 1^st Duke of Norfolk, d. 22 Sept. 1399, by whom she had four children.^[28] She m. (3) shortly before 19 Aug. 1401, Robert Goushill, Knt., of Hoveringham, co. Nottingham, who d. 21 July 1403 of wounds sustained in the Battle of Shrewsbury, and was possibly buried in Hoveringham church, where a tomb said to be that of him and his wife survives; he was son of Nicholas de Goushill, Knt., of Hoveringham and Barlborough.^[29] By him she had two daughters, their father’s coheiresses. On this marriage, without the king’s permission, her dower lands were seized by the crown (19 Aug. 1401), but were subsequently restored before his death. Elizabeth FitzAlan and Robert Goushill were ancestors of H.M. Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, in at least six lines.^[30] She m. (4) before 18 April 1411, Gerard de Usflete, Knight of the Bath (1306),^[31] whose will was proved in Feb. 1420/1. She seems to have been buried with her third husband in Hoveringham church.
21. Joan Goushill, b. about 1401 (aged 2 years at her father’s death in July 1403), living 1460, her parents’ coheiress.^[32] She was sister to Elizabeth Goushill, wife of Sir Robert Wingfield, of Letheringham, co. Suffolk, who was also an ancestress of numerous early New England settlers.^[33] Thomas Stanley, Knt., of Lathom and Knowlsey, co., Lancaster, Sovereign Lord of the Isle of Man, Lieutenant of Ireland, Controller to the Household of King Henry VI, Chamberlain of North Wales, Knight of the Shire for Lancashire (1447-55), summoned to the House of Lords as 1^st Lord Stanley (1456), created a Knight of Garter shortly before 13 May 1457, b. about 1406 (aged 31 years at the death of his father in 1437), d. 20 Feb. 1458/9, and buried at Nurscough Priory, son of John de Stanley, Knt., of Lathom, co. Lancaster, Sovereign Lord of the Isle of Man, by Isabel, daughter of Nicholas Haryngton, Knt., of Farleton, co. Lancaster.^[34] Faris notes that he and his wife had four sons and three daughters. They were ancestors of H.M. Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, in at least five different lines.^[35] The eldest son, Thomas, was 1^st Earl of Derby, a title still borne by his successors.^[36]
22. John Stanley, Knt., of Weever and Alderley, co. Chester jure uxoris, d. before 1485.^[37] He m. (as her first husband) Elizabeth de Weever, d. 17 Feb. 1512/3,^[38] heiress of Weever, in the parish of Middlewich, co. Chester, who m. secondly Sir John Done, of Utkinton; she was daughter and heiress of Thomas de Weever, of Weever and Over Alderley, co. Chester, by Elizabeth ____.^[39] He and his wife were the ancestors of the Baronets Stanley and the Barons Stanley of Alderley.
23. Margery Stanley, m. (arranged Jan. 1490),^[40] William Torbock, lord of the manor of Tarbock, in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, b. about 1464 (aged “about 25 years” at the death of his elder brother, Henry, in 1489), knighted by George, Lord Strange, in Scotland, during the expedition of 1497, d. 5 May 1505, son of Richard Torbock, of the same place, by a daughter (probably Elizabeth) of Thomas Daniell.^[41]
24. Thomas Torbock, Esq., lord of the manor of Tarbock (succ. 1505), in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, b. about 1497 (aged 8 years at his father’s death in 1505), d. 20 Sept. 1554. According to Faris, he had two sons and three daughters. He m. by 1526, Elizabeth Moore, daughter of William Moore, Esq., of “Bank House,” Kirkdale, in the parish of Walton, co. Lancaster, by Alice, daughter of William Ireland of Hale and “The Hutt,” co. Lancaster.^[42]
25. William Torbock, Esq., lord of the manor of Tarbock (succ. 1554), in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, b. about 1526 (aged 28 on his father’s death in 1554), living 14 May 1558 (when he made his will), and d. s.p.m.s. soon after.^[43] He had two sons who died during their parents’ lifetimes, and two daughters, his heiresses. The manor of Tarbock was inherited by his brother, Edward. He m. by 1555,^[44] his double third cousin once removed (through their mutual descent from Thomas Stanley and Joan Goushill, above), Katherine Gerard, whose memorial (of which we have not been able to discover the date) notes that she “o.s.p.m.” (i.e. died without male issue), daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard, of Kingsley, in the parish of Frodsham, co. Chester, and of Byrn in Ashton-in-Makerfield, co. Lancaster, Sheriff of Lancashire, by Jane, daughter of Peter Legh.^[45] Each of her parents (who were second cousins to one another) also possessed the Goushill-Stanley royal descent:^[46] Her father was son of Sir Thomas Gerard by Margery, daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford by Margaret, daughter of Sir John Savage by Catherine, daughter of Thomas Stanley and Joan Goushill.^[47] Her mother’s father, Peter Legh (Jr.), was son of Sir Peter Legh by Ellen, another daughter of Sir John Savage by Catherine Stanley aforesaid.^[48] She would appear to have predeceased her mother, whose 1575 will makes bequests to Katherine’s daughters.^[49]
26. Margaret Torbock, b. not long after 14 May 1558,^[50] mentioned in the 1575 will of her maternal grandmother, Jane (Legh) Gerard; living 1586. She m. by 1587,^[51] Oliver Mainwaring (I), Gent., of Exeter, Devon, and of Windleshaw, co. Lancaster, b. say 1545-50, living 1587 but d. by 1634 (for it was his son, Oliver, rather than he, who was served heir to his older brother Christopher in that year), seventh son of George Mainwaring, of Exeter, by Juliana, daughter of Thomas Spurway, Mayor of Exeter. Faris suggests that he was probably identical with “one Olyver Manwayringe, servant to the right wo[rshipful] Sr George Peckham, Knight, [who] being authorized for that purpose came in and declared the pretence and orger of a voyage pretended to the western parte of America” in 1583. He and his wife were probably parents of Mary Mainwaring, wife of Benjamin Gill of Maryland.^[52]
27. Oliver Mainwaring (II), Gent., of Exeter and Dawlish, Devon, was b. about 1587 (in a deposition of 1666 he is stated to have been “aged 79 and upwards”), and was heir to his father’s older brother Christopher Mainwaring, who d. intestate and s.p. in 1634. He d. (apparently intestate) 14 March 1672, and was buried at Dawlish. He m. 1618 (an entry in the LDS Ancestral file says 21 June) at Heavitree, near Exeter, Prudence Esse, bapt. 23 Dec. 1599 at Clyst Formison (alias Sowton), Devon, daughter of Henry Esse (or Aishe), Gent., of Clyst Formison, by Loveday, daughter of Richard Moyle, of St. Austle, Cornwall.^[53]
28. Oliver Mainwaring (or Manwaring) (III), bapt. 16 March 1633/4 at Dawlish, Devon, d. 3 Nov. 1723, aged 89 years, at New London, Connecticut. His 1723 will mentions, among others, “the heirs of Elizabeth Harris,” who had predeceased him. He m. by 1662 (in which year Richard Raymond deeded land to his “son-in-law Oliver Manwaring”), Hannah Rayment (or Raymond), bapt. 12 Feb. 1643 at Salem, Massachusetts, d. 18 Dec. 1717 at New London, Connecticut, daughter of Richard Rayment/Raymond, of Salem and of Saybrook, Connecticut, by Judith ____.^[54]
29. Elizabeth Mainwaring (or Manwaring), b. about 1663, d. v.p. 17 Aug. 1720 at New London, aged 57 years. She joined the First Church of New London on 15 Oct. 1693. The 1723 will of her long-lived father, who survived her, mentions “the heirs of Elizabeth Harris.” She m. 7 July 1686 at New London, Peter Harris, of New London, Connecticut, b. there 8 Dec. 1660, d. there 25 Jan. 1718/9 “with ye dropsie,” aged 58 years, son of Gabriel Harris, of New London, by Elizabeth Abbott, probably a daughter of Robert Abbott, of Watertown, Massachussetts.^[55]
30. Joseph Harris,^[56] of Poughkeepsie, bapt. 12 June 1709 in the First Church of New London, Connecticut, living 1746. Joseph Harris, “son of Mr. Peter Harris, deceased, formerly of New London, now of Waterbury,” sold his father’s share of land in Waterbury when he came of age in 1730. In a deed dated 1 Feb. 1731, he is called “resident now of Guilford, New Haven County,” Connecticut.^[57] G.I. Harris gives further details of Connecticut land transactions for this man. He is first of record in New York in 1737, when he is listed as a tax-payer in the Middle Ward of Nine Partners Precinct, Dutchess Co.^[58] In 1738 he was appointed Constable and Collector for Crum Elbow Precinct.^[59] He had several children baptized at Poughkeepsie in 1739-45. The account-book of his wife’s mother’s half-brother, Francis Filkin, who was the landlord of their farm at Crum Elbow, records sales to him in 1744 of a total of 14 dozen pigeons, suggesting that he was planning to breed them. The same record mentions under date of 1 April 1746 that Joseph Harris had absconded, owing a year’s rent and abandonning his wife and children. He was apparently never heard from again.^[60] He m. before 1739,^[61] Catharina Hegeman, b. say 1711, living 1746, daughter of Frans Hegeman, of Flatbush, L.I., and of Dutchess County, New York, by Antjen, daughter of Hendrick Ruwaert (or Rouard).^[62]
31. Francis Harris, of Rumbout Precinct, Dutchess Co., N.Y., and of Sandy Cove, Digby Tp., Annapolis (now Digby) Co., Nova Scotia, bapt. (as “Frans”) 9 May 1740 in the Poughkeepsie Dutch Church,^[63] d. in Nova Scotia in 1816, between 1 April (when he made his will) and 27 Dec. (when it was proved). Francis Harris paid taxes in Rumbout Precinct in 1763 and 1765-73.^[64] He was living at Hopewell (now called Hopewell Junction) in 1765-77, when he had children baptized there. He is referred to in a 1771 mortage as “Francis Harris, yeoman, of Rombout.” Francis Harris m. (1) 10 Jan. 1763 in the Rumbout Presbyterian Church, Dutchess Co., N.Y.,^[65] Catharina Lent, b. say 1743 in New York State, living 1767 but d. before 17 July 1774, daughter of Isaac Lent, of Fishkill, Dutchess Co., New York, by Sara, daughter of Peter Luyster.^[66] As “widower of Cathrina Lent” he m. (2) 17 July 1774 in the Dutch Church of Hopewell, Engeltje (“Evangeline”) Vandewater, almost certainly a daughter of Peter Vandewater (or Van De Water), of Hopewell and Fishkill, by his wife Egtje de Lange, who were of the right age to be her parents.^[67] He was living at New Hackensack, Wappinger Tp., Dutchess Co., in 1777, when his daughter Hannah was baptized there.
        R.B. Jones was correct in suggesting that Francis Harris was “probably the Loyalist of that name whose estate was confiscated in Dutchess County and who went to Digby, Nova Scotia, after the peace.”^[68] That our subject was indeed this man is verified by the detailed agreement of Canadian records with the New York sources cited by Jones as to Harris’s four eldest children, and is further corroborated by the presence of his brother Peter there. His name appears in the muster roll of Loyalists taken at Digby on 29 May 1784, which gives his place of settlement as Digby.^[69] Francis Harris was granted 300 acres in Digby Tp. as a Loyalist in 1784, but he subsequently escheated his land to the Crown after failing to fulfil his settlement duties, and later events make it clear that he took up residence elsewhere. Presumably the reason he allowed this forfeiture to occur is that in the meantime, in 1787, he had received a grant for 100 more acres at Sandy Cove, Digby Tp.^[70] There are several scattered references to him there in the local history, which seem to state that he lived “on Valley Shore, east of the Mills,” and that his house was used as a school.^[71] Following the building of old Trinity Parish Church, Digby in 1787, Francis Harris was one of the “proprietors” of the parish taxed to pay the sexton’s salary in 1789.^[72] In his will, dated 1 April 1816 and proved 27 Dec. following, Francis Harris names his sons Peter, Stephen, and Francis, his daughters Hannah, Sarah, and Catharine, and “Angalche” (i.e. Engeltje), daughter of his son Peter.^[73] A letter written by his daughter Hannah (Harris) Saunders to her sister Catharine (Harris) Comfort in December 1817 (formerly in the possession of the latter’s descendant Cecelia Botting), refers to Francis Harris’ death in the previous year and to his second wife Evangeline’s death six years earlier.
32. Catharine Harris, b. 5 Oct. 1767, bapt. 4 Nov. 1767 in the Hopewell Dutch Church, Fishkill Tp., Dutchess Co., New York, d. 10 Aug. 1846 in Lincoln Co., Upper Canada (now Ontario). She m. by New York licence dated 13 July 1782,^[74] John Comfort, Jr., of Digby Tp., Annapolis (now Digby) Co., Nova Scotia, of Montgomery Tp., Orange Co., New York, and finally of Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C., b. say 1759, probably in Montgomery Tp., d. Jan. 1830 in Lincoln Co., U.C., son of John Comfort (Sr.), of Hanover Precinct (now Montgomery Tp.), Ulster (now Orange) Co., N.Y., farmer, by his wife Anna Maul. He served in the Revolution in the Ulster Co. Militia, 4^th Regiment, with his brothers Benjamin and Samuel, but he was doubtless a Loyalist sympathiser, as he and his wife accompanied her father to Digby, Nova Scotia, at the end of the Revolutionary War, and he is listed in a Muster Roll taken at Digby in May 1784.^[75] John Comfort and his wife returned to the United States by 1790, when he appears in the census of Montgomery Tp., Orange Co., New York, as John Comfort, Jr., and he and his wife Catherine sold land in Montgomery in 1798. His fatherís 1794 will bequeaths ìunto my son John and to his heirs and assigns forever all that estate on which he now liveth, with … appurtenances, known and distinguished by lot no. 11.î Finally, leaving behind their two eldest daughters, who were by then married, he and his wife returned to Canada about 1802, going to Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C., where they founded a large family.^[76]
33. Francis Comfort, of Beamsville, Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., Upper Canada (now Ontario), b. 28 Aug. 1800 at Montgomery, Orange Co., N.Y., bapt. 11 Jan. 1801 in the Goodwill Presbyterian Church, Montgomery,^[77] d. (testate) on 18 or 19 June 1880 near Beamsville, and buried in the Clinton Presbyterian churchyard. Brought by his parents to Upper Canada as a child, Francis Comfort was an elder of the Clinton Presbyterian Church in 1819. In 1836 he purchased from his brother John, for £200, a farm on lot 19 in the 7^th concession of Clinton Tp., and built a house on it after one his father had built was lost to fire. During the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1838, he served with the 4^th Lincoln Regiment. He is listed in the 1842, 1852, and 1871 censuses of Clinton Tp. Some time in the 1840s he lost a hand in a threshing-machine accident, and thereafter turned to clerical work, becoming an assessor, tax collector, and census enumerator. The census returns of 1852 for Clinton Tp. testify to his chirographic skill. In a letter written to his son Andrew in 1849 he mentions a visit to his “uncle Daniel Comfort” near Newburgh, N.Y., which the Bottings acknowledge as “one of the main pieces of evidence that he was the grandson of John [Comfort], Sr.”^[78] The Bottings note that “all his children were well educated; all the sons had advanced education, one or two attending Western Reserve and one Johns Hopkins; three of the daughters were teachers.” Francis Comfort m. 20 Feb. 1822, Jemima Wilcox, b. 27 Dec. 1801 in Grimsby Tp., Lincoln Co., d. 5 Nov. 1876 near Beamsville, and buried in the Clinton Presbyterian churchyard, daughter of Daniel Wilcox (V), of St. Anns, Gainsborough Tp., Lincoln Co., by his wife Mary (“Polly”), daughter of Daniel McIntyre, of Grimsby Tp., Lincoln Co.^[79] They had ten children.
34. Margaret Comfort, b. 11 Dec. 1833, bapt. 18 May 1834 in Clinton Presbyterian Church, d. 20 Jan. 1916, and buried in St. Anns Cemetery. She m. 23 Oct. 1856, John Kennedy (IV), of St. Anns, Gainsborough Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C., farmer, b. 29 Feb. 1832, d. 11 Oct. 1897, and buried at St. Anns, son of John Kennedy (III), of St. Anns, by his wife Barbara Dean.^[80]
35. John Kennedy (V), of Melita, Manitoba, Canada, b. 13 April 1862 at St. Anns, Gainsborough Tp., Lincoln Co., Ontario, d. 13 July 1939 at Winnipeg, and buried there in Elmwood Cemetery. He m. 22 Jan. 1916 at Westminster Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Susanna Samantha Helena Young, b. 26 March 1882, d. 12 Oct. 1937 at Winnipeg, and buried there in Elmwood Cemetery, daughter of Joseph Young, of Williamsburg Tp., Dundas Co., Ontario, by his wife Jane McMillan, daughter of David McMillan, also of Williamsburg Tp.
36. Jean Margaret Kennedy, b. 13 June 1917 at Melita, Manitoba, Canada, d. 4 Jan. 2000 at Winnipeg. She m. 15 Aug. 1937, Richard (“Dick”) Harry Mitchelson, Jr., of Winnipeg, b. 31 Dec. 1914, d. 13 Feb. 1998 at Winnipeg, son of Richard Harry Mitchelson, of Winnipeg and Vancouver, by his wife Kathleen McBride. Richard Mitchelson became an engineman with the Canadian National Railway (CNR) by 1946, retiring in 1983 or 1984. He served nearly six years in the Navy during World War II. Richard and Margaret Mitchelson were living at 228 Balmoral Street, Winnipeg, in 1946-47, and at 426 Robertson from 1948 to 1972. About the end of 1972 they moved to 22 Greenwood Avenue, where they lived until their deaths. They have five children, all still living.

General Sources

• Generations 1-8: Karl Ferdinand Werner, “Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen bis um das Jahr 1000 (1.-8. Generation),” in Karl der Große: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, 5 vols. (Düsseldorf, 1967), 4:403-82, and folded chart at end.
• Generations 1-10: Europäische Staamtafeln, 2^nd ed. (1965), 2:109 (generations 1-6), 2:9 (generations 7-10).
• Generations 1-13: The Henry Project [a ten-generation ahnentafel for Henry II of England], ed. Stewart Baldwin and Todd Farmerie, available online at http://sbaldw.home.mindspring.com/hproject/henry.htm.
• Generations 1-16: George Andrews Moriarty, The Plantagenet Ancestry, M.S. at NEHGS, pp. 16 (Carolingians), 18 (Ivrea and Friuli), 14-15 (Flanders), 13 (England), 2 (Plantagenets)
• Generations 1-18: Pedigrees of some of the Emperor Charlemagne’s Descendants, 1:271 (generations 1-8), 2:10-11 (generations 1-9).
• Generations 1-21: AR7, lines 146 (generations 1-7), 162 (generations 7-10), 121 (generations 10-11), 1 (generations 11-16), 6 (generations 16-17), 15 (generations 17-20), 20 (generations 19-21).
• Generations 8-18: W.H. Turton, The Plantagenet Ancestry (London, 1928), tables 171 (generations 1-2), 42 (generation 2-6), 19 (generations 6-8), 6 (generations 8-13), 4 (generations 13-16).
• Generations 9-16: Don Charles Stone, Some ancient and Medieval Descents of Edward I of England (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2000), charts 9 (generation 9), 11 (generations 10-16).
• Generations 12-29: David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry of Sevententh-Century Colonists, 2^nd ed. (Boston: NEHGS, 1999), pp. 277-83, 33-34, 144-6, 236-7.
• Generations 16-21: Frederick Lewis Weis, “A New England Colonist [i.e. Elizabeth Coytemore] descended from Edward I,” NEHGR 108 (1954): 172-74.
• Generations 16-28: Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants (Baltimore, 1993), 255, citing the researches of Robert Behra, among other sources.
• Generations 16-20: Charles M. Hansen, “The descent of James¹ Claypoole of Philadelphia from Edward I,” TAG 67 (1992): 97-107, at pp. 98-100.
• Generations 23-25: The Visitation of Cheshire in the year 1580 (Harleian Society, vol. XVIII, London, 1882), 191.
• Generations 23-26: The Visitation of the county Palatine of Lancaster made in the year 1567 (Chetham Society, vol. 81, 1870); V.C.H. Lancs. 3:180.
• Generations 27-28: Howard Mendenhall Buck, “Parentage of Oliver Manwaring,” NEHGR 79 (1925): 111-12; Donald Lines Jacobus, “Notes on Connecticut Families, XI — Manwaring Family of Lyme,” TAG 41 (1965): 225-27; AR7, line 217.
• Generations 28-29: Francis Manwaring Caulkins, History of New London, Connecticut (New London, 1852), 367; Lillian Lounsberry (Miner) Selleck, One branch of the Miner family, with extensive nots on the Wood, Lounsberry, Rogers, and fifty other allied families of Connecticut and Long Island (New Haven, Connecticut, 1928), 124-6 (where the will of Oliver Manwaring is printed in full); Edith Bartless Sumner, Ancestry of Edward Wales Blakes and Clarissa Matilda Glidden, with ninety allied families (Los Angeles: privately published, 1948), 166.
• Generations 29-31: Gale Ion Harris, “The supposed children of Thomas Harris of Dutchess County, New York: Reevaluation and Revisions,” NYGBR 133 (2002): 10-15; Gale Ion Harris, “Walter and Mary (Fry) Harris of New London, Connecticut,” NEHGR 156 (2002), 145-58, 262-79, 357-72, 392 (correction).
• Generations 30-32: Roderick Bissell Jones, “The Harris Family of Block Island and Dutchess County, N.Y.,” NYGBR 84 (1953): 134-48, 216-32, at pp. 143-6. His account of the earlier portion of the Harris lineage was however overturned by the work of Gale Ion Harris, cited above.
• Generations 32-36: Cecelia C. Botting & Roland B. Botting, Comfort Families of America (1971), 328-31, 344, 347, 349, superseding the appendix on the Comfort family in Roland & Cecelia Botting, A History of the Kennedy Family [1st ed.] (1957), pp. 17-22, where the Comfort and Harris families are confused.
• Generations 34-36: Cecelia and Roland Botting, Descendants of John Kennedy of Sussex County, New Jersey [3^rd ed.] (n.p., 1989), pp. 14-15, 21-22; interviews with the late Mrs. Margaret (Kennedy) Mitchelson, and personal knowledge (she was my natural mother’s mother); obituaries.

Notes

From the Genealogy Page of John Blythe Dobson
URL = cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/people/Dobson/genealogy/royal/0001.cfm
This page first appeared 1O October 2003
Last revised 22 August 2009