It isn’t often that my family tree ties into documented records of English royalty. I also have to add that I’m not much into genealogical records of the Middle Ages. However, I very much appreciate the scholarly research published in well respected journals like The American Genealogist, today’s source of genealogical gold.
A recent family Christmas gift was Uncrowned Queen, The Life of Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudors, by Nicola Tallis and published in 2020 by Basic Books, New York.
Most of my family doesn’t pay much attention to my genealogy research. They lend an ear at times when I start going on about some find, but I doubt much of the information ingrains itself in their brains.
That’s what makes Uncrowned Queen so special to me. This isn’t a book review, but if you like English history and/or have an interest in English royal history, Tallis’s biography of Margaret Beaufort is well done and an excellent read.
Back to the genealogy end of things – Because of the semi-interest in genealogy, my family had no way of knowing that I actually have a historical tie to Margaret Beaufort, who was a strong, independent woman who led an incredible life. That is not even taking into account that she was the founder of the Tudor dynasty, which ended the War of the Roses when her son, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York.
Where does the scholarly genealogical research come into this story?
In October 1992, F.N. Craig published an article in The American Genealogist (pp. 201-210) titled The Well Beloved Mother-in-Law of Robert Marbury.
This Robert Marbury was the great grandfather of Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson and Katherine (Marbury) Scott, who settled in Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island about the time of the Great Migration in the 1630s.
Robert Marbury was my ancestor, through his daughter, Katherine, who married Richard Scott. Look at what I found in Mr. Craig’s article:
Robert was a young yeoman to Margaret Beaufort and attended the funeral of King Henry VII!
It’s pretty amazing to find documentation that one of my ancestors who was born in the 1400s attended the funeral of a king!
Thanks to the top notch research completed by a handful of experienced genealogists, I have several documented ancestors who lived in the 1400s. Robert Marbury is, without a doubt, the most illustrious!
Proof of this line is possible because of my early colonial Massachusetts ancestry and plentiful probate records that have survived in England.
Because of further research by Mr. Craig, I can extend this ancestral line back two more generations before Robert Marbury, through his wife’s family, Katherine Williamson. Her parents were John Williamson and Jane Angevine. All four of Katherine’s grandparents have also been identified: Alexander and Alice (MNU) Williamson and Michael Angevine and Joan Towthby!
My line of descent:
- Alexander & Alice Williamson and Michael Angevine & Joan Towthby
- John Williamson & Jane Angevine
- Robert Marbury & Katherine Williamson
- William Marbury & Agnes Lenton
- Francis Marbury & Bridget Dryden
- Richard Scott & Katherine Marbury
- John Scott & Rebecca (MNU)
- Sylvanus Scott & Joanne Jenckes
- John Wilkinson & Rebecca Scott
- Israel Thornton & Joanna Wilkinson
- Ira Hicks & Sarah Thornton
- Israel Hicks & Abigail Carlisle
- Charles Augustus Stewart & Elida Ann Hicks
- Charles Edwin Adams & Annie Maude Stewart/Stuart
- Vernon Tarbox Adams & Hazel Ethel Coleman
- George Michael Sabo & Doris Priscilla Adams
- Linda Anne Sabo Stufflebean – Me!
That’s lot of generations and my ancestors’ lives changed a lot through the centuries.
The Scotts (Generation 6) left England for the New World, settling in Rhode Island.
The Thorntons (Generation 10) left Rhode Island and settled in Nova Scotia, today’s New Brunswick, Canada. They were pre-Loyalists who migrated in the 1760s.
The Stewarts (Generation 12) left New Brunswick and settled in Washington County, Maine before 1850.
The Vernon Adams family (Generation 15) left Maine and lived in New York, New Jersey and finally Massachusetts, as Vernon was transferred multiple times during his career with Western Union.
The Sabos (Generation 16) lived in New Jersey.
I left New Jersey for Rhode Island, Mexico, California and, finally, Arizona, when we retired.
One more plug for Nicola Tallis’s book, which is an EXCELLENT history of England in the Middle Ages – it is available online either as a hardback book or on Kindle. Prices range from $20 to $24.
I kind of knew that the Middle Ages were a violent time period, but wasn’t really aware of the almost constant warfare among the nobility as they vied for power and riches. I loved the book!