Debunking the Published Griffin Family Myths:
Edward Griffin of Flushing was not Edward Pengruffwnd (Pengriffin)
of Walton West, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Summary
The following work details the results of eleven
years of research on the life and times of Edward Griffin who was born about
1602, somewhere in Britain, who arrived in Virginia late in 1635 or early in
1636 aboard the vessel Abraham, and
who died after 1698, in Flushing, New York.
For those simply interested in the outcome of this
research, I offer the following four assertions; the remainder of this account
reveals the circumstances which lead to my conclusions, as well as a list of my
supporting references. The sources are
bracketed [ ] and the notes are braced { } for convenience.
Please cite my work if you use it. You are welcome to use any of the information
here for your personal use; commercial use is not granted.
1.
Neither
Edward Griffin nor Sgt. John Griffin of Simsbury, Connecticut, was related to
the Pengruffwnd/Pengriffin family of Walton West, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The man who was born Edward Pengruffwnd
(Griffith/Griffin) was dead by 1622, and his brother, John Griffith, died in
1624. [1] [2]
2.
Edward Griffin of Flushing, and Sgt. John Griffin of Simsbury, were not
brothers and did not share a common blood relative within the past 10,000
years. There is solid DNA evidence (12
samples) that not only disproves their relationship, but clearly shows they had
different haplogroups. [3]
3.
Jasper Griffing of Southold, also did not share a common blood relative
with Edward Griffin within the past 10,000 years. There is solid DNA evidence to prove this
assertion, though I have not thoroughly investigated his potential relationship
with Sgt. John Griffin of Simsbury. [4]
4.
The coat of arms attributed to the descendants of Edward Griffin, Sgt.
John Griffin, and Jasper Griffing, was actually awarded to Griffin Appenreth,
of Calais, who died in 1553, leaving no male heirs. No American or Canadian Griffins have rights
to the following coat-of-arms, family crest, or motto:
Gu[les] on a fesse
betw[een] three lozenges or, each charged with a fleur-de-lis of the first, a
demi-rose betw[een] two griffins, segreant of the field/ of the first
Crest
– A griffin segreant
Motto
– Semper paratus [5] [6] [7] [8]
I welcome any additions, corrections, questions and
alternative theories. This is an ongoing
project, and will be amended as new information is found. Despite my best efforts to accurately record
my findings, I realize I may have made errors and welcome your comments. Before contacting me, I ask only that you
read the following rationale, as your questions may have been answered below.
Theresa Griffin
20746 Bentley Drive
Perris, CA 92570
September, 2009
The Elusive
Pengruffwnd Family
There are more than twenty Griffin family histories
that merge the Edward Pengruffwnd [Pengriffin] of Walton West, son of John
Pengriffin and Ann Langford (daughter of Edward Llangffort) with the Edward
Griffith who arrived in Virginia in 1635, and who ended his days as Edward
Griffin Sr., in Flushing, New York.
Almost all of these publications cite the work of Zeno T. Griffen of
Chicago, Illinois, or can be traced back to his research. [9] [10] [11] [12]
Zeno Griffen offered the above visitation pedigree of
Richiart Pengruffwnd, recorded by Lewys Dwnn (pronounced Lewis Dunn) in his
1613 Heraldic Visitation of Wales, as evidence that this person was his
ancestor, Edward Griffin, who died after 1698, in Flushing. [13] To date, this statement has neither been
authenticated nor challenged, though it is not surprising that Griffen’s
assertions went unquestioned. It is not
only notoriously difficult for Americans to search and translate Welsh records,
but the variant spellings of Pengruffwnd (hereafter Pengriffin) and the Griffin
and Griffith surname variations make the workload overwhelming. {14} Consequently, American and Canadian
descendants of Edward Griffin have used Dwnn’s pedigree as the starting point
of their family histories for over 100 years.
It appears, however, that in his zeal to find a
family for his ancestor, Zeno made several incorrect assumptions, which
resulted in the above-mentioned pedigree being published in the “New York
Genealogical and Biographical Record” in 1906 and 1912. {15}
It is not my intention to condemn the work of Zeno
T. Griffen, or any Griffin family historian.
According to Zeno, he had relied upon his father’s unpublished,
handwritten manuscript which was written circa 1830. [16] The fact that Zeno was able to locate as much
correct information as he did, without the use of the computer, Internet, easy
travel, or on-demand access to documents from all over the world, is to be
admired. I do not believe Zeno intended
to deceive anyone with his suppositions, only that he had access to a small
pool of documents and he drew his conclusions solely from that pool. It is my assertion that he based most of his
opinions upon the published abstracts listed in the Calendars of State Papers
Domestic of England. Although Zeno often
gave specific dates for the events he reported, which was probably enough to
convince early 20th century readers of his conclusions, with few
exceptions he did not accurately cite his references. Because the current conventions for
documenting sources are much more rigorous than they were in 1906, and access
to ancient documents is on the rise, it is time to authenticate the facts
presented in previous Griffin family histories.
In 1998, I began working on what was to be my
husband Dale’s Christmas gift, his family history. Eleven years and thousands of hours later it
is still incomplete. Several years after
I began working on his genealogy, I found myself questioning the accuracy of
the information that had been published regarding the pre-America history of
the Griffin family. In reading the works
of Edmund Cleveland, Charles F. Griffin, Rev. Duane N. Griffin, Justus A. Griffin,
Paul Jennings Griffin, Robert F. Griffin, Robert P. Griffing, Jordan T. Jack,
Donald L. Jacobus, Suzanne S. Kulp, Barbara R. Kupac, Robert B. Miller, Elaine
W. Olney, Edith R. Redman, Howard E. Staples, and Mavis Van Peenen, I found
that most of their sources for Edward’s ancestry were those originally cited by
Zeno. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] With the support and encouragement of Paul
Jennings Griffin and my husband Dale Griffin, who are both Edward Griffin’s
seventh great grandsons, I began the long process of authenticating the
assertions made in the various Griffin family histories.
While at the University of California Riverside’s
Tomas Rivera Library in 2005, I came upon an entire aisle of books in the Great
Britain section that housed the Calendars of State Papers both Domestic and
Foreign (hereafter Calendars) containing abstracts of letters to and from the
Secretaries of State or the Privy Council, acting on behalf of the Kings and
Queens of England, categorized by the years of their reign (regnal years). Over the next four months I read through each
abstract beginning in 1400, through to the end of the reign of King Charles I,
in 1649. Although I was searching for
the variants of the surname Pengriffin, I kept a list of every document that
referenced a Richard, John or Edward Griffin (the names from the Dwnn pedigree)
including all permutations of these names.
This exercise paid off because in 2007, after I had finished reading all
of Zeno’s works, including his personal letters, I was astonished to find that
every single document on my list had been cited in one of Zeno’s four manuscripts
or referenced in his letters. He had
linked every document reported in the
abstracts which were tied to an Edward, Richard, or John Griffin or Griffith
into Edward Griffin’s family and ancestry.
It appeared that Zeno had cobbled together a life for
Edward straight out of the Calendars.
All of the activities that he and others attributed to Edward prior to
his crossing the Atlantic were in these published Calendars. Certainly, this was where he got the story of
Constable Edward Griffin who was pardoned by King James I, on January 7, 1625,
for killing a man in the line of duty.
It was also how he determined that Edward Griffith was a servant of Lady
Anna Wake (the wife of the British Ambassador to France, Sir Isaac Wake, and
the half-sister of Edward 2nd Viscount Conway). [32] [33] It seemed
that Zeno had, as my British friend Brian Swann said, “Hoovered up all Griffin documents
in the [Newberry] library and attributed them to your Griffins.”
However, it wasn’t only Zeno who attributed events
to Edward that were not confirmed by the source documents. One long held assertion, repeated in many
Griffin manuscripts, including Suzanne’s Kulp’s, was that Constable Edward
Griffin, while in service to the King, was granted a pardon by King James I in
January of 1625, for killing a man in a London tavern in the line of duty. {34} Here is the document referred to in those
family histories. It is from the
Calendar of State Papers of King James I 1625, 1626:
Jan 7
(1625)
Grant to
Edw. Griffin of pardon for manslaughter, commetted in self-defence.
[Docquet] [33]
This
abstract did not provide enough information, so I ordered the original docket
from the British National Archives:
07 Jan
1624 [/25]
A pardon
to Edward Griffin for the killing of C----
Snelgrave w[hi]ch by the Coroner’s Inquest was found to be done in his
owne defence; not[wi]thstanding, his Majesty doth hereby pardon him for
manslaughter, and doth remit all forfeitures of his goods and chattels
thereupon. Subscri[bed] by Mr. Sollicitor, according to warrant under his
Majesty’s signe. Mannell.
Processed
by [/s/] J. Kirkham. [35]
Clearly,
nothing in this document, which I transcribed with Brian Swann’s help,
established the subject as our Edward Griffin of Virginia. Further, there is no mention that this man
was a constable, was in London, was in a tavern, or that he killed Snelgrave
(or - Snelgrove) in the line of duty. It
is possible that the original lawsuit may provide more information. I recently obtained a copy from Cambridge
University from the Cholmondeley (Houghton) Papers which was catalogued by TNA
as dealing with this lawsuit but the document was mistakenly identified; it was
dated 1715 and dealt with a request by a Edward Griffin, Esq., son of Lord
Edward Griffin, to Queen Anne regarding an offence he committed in France
during the reign of William the III.
I’ll continue to search for a document to explain the 1624 pardon.
Another event Zeno attributed to Edward Griffin was
his position as a financial servant to Lady Anna (née Bray) Wake, and on page
one of Barbara Kupec’s manuscript, she referred to him as Lady Anna’s
“financial agent.” I reviewed the
Calendar abstracts and most telling was one written from Berwick in early
January, 1633/34. Sir Isaac Wake had
died in 1632, and left Lady Anna destitute. [36] Her half-brother was responsible
for distributing her annuity twice a year and this entry acknowledges delivery
of an acquittance (receipt) by Lady Wake’s servant, Edward Griffith:
1633-34.
Jan. 6
19. Anna
Lady Wake to William Weld. Has sent an
acquittance drawn by Mr. Malet according
to my Lord’s [Lord Conway’s] desire.
Begs him not to let her servant see it. [One page.]
Inclosed,
19.1. I. Acquittance by Lady Wake to Lord Conway for 100 £ for half a year’s
payment of an annuity of 200£ per annum issuing out of his lands in Ireland,
granted to Richard Moore and Grimbald Pauncefoot for the life of Lady Wake, and
in trust for her, 6th January 1633-34. [Indorsed, “Receipt of Edward Griffith,
servant to Lady Wake for the 100£. above-mentioned. 5th [sic] January 1633-34.” One page.]
[32]
Zeno
cited this source on page 17 of the
Ancient Welsh Pedigree of the Griffin Family as proof of Edward’s
occupation, but once again, there is nothing in this entry to indicate this is
our Edward or that he was a financial agent - or advisor, as has been reported
in several family histories subsequent to Zeno’s.
While these two findings were disturbing, and
confirmed Brian’s and my suspicions that a family history may have been created
for Edward out of random documents, the fact that in nine years of searching, I
had not been able to find the surname Pengriffin in any document before or after Dwnn’s 1613 visitation was more troubling, and caused me to
doubt other parts of the Griffin family lore, which I began to tackle.
The Myth about
the Griffin Family Coat of Arms
Lewys Dwnn was a Deputy Herald at Arms for Wales
from 1586. His visitation was a census,
of sorts, of those entitled to bear arms or who were considered to be of “noble
stock”. Those with a coat of arms were
often required to provide him with the documents which demonstrated how and
when they or their ancestors had been granted their coats of arms. [37] This visitation was available for
Zeno and others to consult because it was published in 1848 by the historian
and antiquarian Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick and was in the Newberry Library in
Chicago Illinois in the late 1800s. It
should be mentioned that it has been recognized that there were some serious errors
made by Rush Meyrick in his transcription of Dwnn’s visitation.
Based upon this published visitation, Zeno and
several others claimed that the Richard Griffith, who was listed first on
Dwnn’s pedigree, had been given a coat of arms as a reward for his delivery of
Welsh troops to Henry Tudor in August of 1485, just days before the Battle of
Bosworth Field. [11] The victory at Bosworth resulted in Henry
Tudor taking the crown from Richard III and becoming King Henry VII.
Here, in Zeno’s own words from page 7 of the Lineage of Richard Griffith, is his
assertion:
As
RICHARD GRIFFITH was a very important personage, in the greatest of wars in the
English realm, and one, whose Lineage is the subject of this history, it is
necessary to give a short account of the War of the Red and the White Rose,
which cost the lives of a million men, and about all of the nobility of
England. It was a struggle for the
English crown, between the House of Lancaster, which had for its emblem, the
Red Rose, and the House of York, the White Rose.
Over
the next eight pages Zeno details the events leading up to the Battle of
Bosworth Field between Richard III of the House of York and Henry Tudor, of the
House of Lancaster. He continues on page
15:
In
this battle, there is no record of the participation, (sic) of Sir Walter
Herbert, the brother-in-law of RICHARD GRIFFITH, although the Herberts, after
that victory, were men of prominence in South Wales. But Sir Rhys was suitably honored, and
lavishly given position, honors and possessions by Henry VII.
GRIFFITH,
of (sic) GRIFFIN, Coat of Arms, of Penrith, Wales.
In
tracing lineage genealogists claimed that Coats of Arms are the best evidence,
where there is no direct record; that they are more reliable than
pedigrees. There are about fifty “Coats”
recorded in the Heraldic books, of Griffith, Griffen and Griffin, granted in
England and Wales. Written in Welsh is a
grant to what is obviously RICHARD GRIFFITH, about the date of Henry’s
coronation, as Henry VIIth. But there is
an authentic record [in] all the Heraldic books of the following, which is
undoubtedly his;
GRIFFIN, (Penrith, Wales)
Gu[les]
on a fesse betw[een] three lozenges or, each charged with a fleur-de-lis of the
first, a demi-rose betw[een] two griffins, segreant of the field.
Crest – A griffin segreant
Motto – Semper paratus
In
a French book of Heraldry, the motto is “Toujours prêt”, which being translated
is “Always ready.”
Zeno
continued with this rationale to back up his claim that the above arms were
awarded to Richard Griffith:
The
demi-rose on this shield, indicates exactly, RICHARD GRIFFITH’S change of
sovereignty from the White Rose, under which emblem he had fought for the House
of York, with both his relatives, the Herberts and Rhys ap Thomas ap Griffith,
to the cause of Henry Tudor, at Cardigan, in August, 1484[1485], and fought
under the Red Rose at Boswerth [Bosworth] for him. He was an old man when Henry Tudor obtained
the crown, and did not obtain the favors that Sir Rhys ap Thomas did, in lands,
grants, and honors, and probably settled at Penrith, on a manor, located near
the boundary between Cardigan and Pembroke chires, [shires] which had been
granted to his ancestors, June 16, 1290, by Edward I, of England.
I have found seven sources which credit “Richard
Griffith, an old solider of nobility,” or “a local gentleman named Griffith, a
friend of Rhys ap Thomas, who was accompanied by Evan [John] Morgan of Gwent,”
with assistance in the delivery of Welsh troops, formerly loyal to Richard of
York, to Henry Tudor. However, there are
at least as many sources which attribute this act to solely to Rhys ap Thomas
ap Griffith. [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] It should be
noted that one of the most regarded authorities on this time period is Dr.
Ralph Alan Griffiths. In an email to me,
he wrote that he had worked to identify this particular Richard Griffith and
directed me to a particular source. [51] From page
186 of his book, Sir Rhys ap Thomas and
his Family, there is this footnote:
16 The identification of Richard Griffith
is uncertain, but he may have been the younger brother of Sir Walter Griffith (c. 1431-81), lord (sic) of Llangybi,
Betws Bledrws and Llanrhystud (Cards.), as well as of more extensive estates in
Yorkshire and Staffordshire. . . . This would make him the brother of
Elizabeth, Rhys ap Thomas’s mother . . .[43]
As to the land grant of June 16, 1290, to which
Zeno referred, I was unable to find it, but I knew he must have seen the date
written somewhere. I examined the
Calendar of Close Rolls of King Edward I, and found neither a grant to the
ancestors of the Griffiths, nor any
document recorded on that date. I
reviewed all entries for 1290, but could not find what Zeno might have seen to
give him this impression. Because Zeno
asserted that Richard Griffith was from Cardigan (Cards., above ) I began to
suspect that he had merged the activities and land grants of the family of Sir
Rhys ap Thomas ap Griffith with the Pengriffins. His justification, which must have lead him
to conclude that these two families were one, is found on page 8 of the Lineage of Richard Griffith.
RICHARD
GRIFFITH, alias, RICHIART PENGRUFFWND,
of [or] Chief Griffith, was one of [the] old and experienced soldiers,
and a man of great nobility, according to the various references to him in the
Welsh histories. He was a relative,
either by blood or marriage, of Sir Rhys ap Thomas ap Griffith, who was much
younger than RICHARD, and a brother-in-law of Lord, Sir William Herbert, the
most powerful and wealthy man of South Wales . . .
I wasn’t convinced that the two families were
related, and made a concerted effort to find another instance of the Pengriffin
name. That it did not appear in any of
the volumes of the Calendars wasn’t too surprising; the family may not have had
occasion to interact with the Crown, but the fact that the name was missing
from the preeminent authority on Welsh surnames: the 1985 edition of T.J. and
Prys Morgan’s Welsh Surnames, concerned
me. In March of 2006, I wrote to Dr.
Prys Morgan and inquired about the Pengriffin family, to which he responded
that his father and he had “missed this family” while researching their book. [52] His opinion was that the family members probably
changed their name to make it less cumbersome, something that turned out to be
correct.
It was also disconcerting that the Pengriffins did
not appear in Peter Bartrum’s seminal Welsh
Genealogies, which span the years AD 300-1500. [53] [54] I did, however, find the purported Pengriffin
coat of arms attributed to a Griffith Appenreth in Dr. Michael Powell Siddons’
authoritative work, The Development of
Welsh Heraldry, [5] and on the Parry Family History website as well. [55] In April 2006, I emailed Ms.
Barbara Griffiths, owner of the site, who over the next several months helped
me understand the rudimentary rules of British heraldry. She explained that a coat of arms was
generally not inheritable without permission; it was awarded to one man for an
act. Barbara, and later Brian Swann,
alerted me to the possibility that the pre American Griffin family histories
may have been fabricated, a conclusion that I was starting to consider because
I still hadn’t found the Pengriffin name in over 250 sources.
At this point, it made sense to return to the only
place I had ever seen the Pengriffin name in a British document: Meyrick’s printed version of Dwnn’s
visitation. I obtained an original
edition from the University of Minnesota and combed the two volumes for any
other mention of the Pengriffin family.
There wasn’t one. I noticed that
Dwnn had not recorded a coat of arms for this family, yet most other families
enumerated had descriptions of their arms shown along with their
pedigrees. In his introduction, Meyrick
stated that Dwnn, who was Welsh, had written the original in an odd combination
of English and Welsh, so it was plausible that the names and places recorded in
the visitation might have been incorrectly spelled. I was hoping to locate this family in
Pembrokeshire, where Syr Richart, Edward’s purported uncle, was living in 1613,
and follow it into present times. For
assistance with the difficult Welsh place names, in May of 2006, I posted an inquiry
on Rootsweb’s Pembrokeshire message board and received a response from Dr.
Brian Picton Swann, a native of England (but not a Griffin) who had over 30
years of experience in genealogy on both sides of the Atlantic. With his generous help, research tools,
guidance, assistance, and transcription expertise, I began to make progress on
the Pengriffin family. While Brian
always says that I did most of the work, I would never have had the tools,
knowledge or courage necessary to undertake this effort without his guidance
and support, and for this I am so very grateful.
Brian strongly urged me to contact the current
Wales Herald of Arms Extraordinary, Dr. Michael Powell Siddons, at the College
of Arms in London, to understand why the coat of arms that Zeno had attributed
to the Pengriffin family was shown in his book as belonging to Griffith
Appenreth. In his letters, Dr. Siddons
confirmed that the coat of arms which had been displayed by descendants of
Edward Griffin of Flushing, Jasper Griffing of Southold, and Sgt. John Griffin
of Simsbury, had been awarded to Griffin Appenreth (also Appenrith, Appenrithe,
Ap Penrith), by Christopher Barker, Knight of the Garter. Griffith Appenreth, he wrote, had died in
Calais on September 3, 1553, leaving only two daughters; therefore, there was
no male line of descent. Dr. Siddons
added that the Parry family may have been entitled to the coat of arms through
the marriage of Griffith Appenreth’s daughter Margaret to Sir Richard Windebank
[6] What’s more, he said that he “had never met
the name Pengruffwnd or Pengriffin.”
This was significant as now I had confirmation from two recognized
experts that they had never seen the name Pengriffin. {56}
While rereading Dr. Morgan’s letter, I focused on
his note that “Syr is a sixteenth century title like our Reverend,” which meant
that Richart Pengriffin was probably a cleric, not a member of the gentry as
Zeno had assumed. [52] This realization lead me to an
article entitled “Lewys Dwnn and the Parsons” at the University of Wales at
Bangor, and on page 39 I found another piece of the puzzle:
163.
WALTON WEST Syr Richart Pengrffwnd Person o Walton yn Rows yn Sir Benfro, son
of Gruffyff Pengruffwnd son of Richard Pengruffwnd; married Agnes, daughter of
Martin O'Reily of Ireland, esquire, and had four children. He signed his
pedigree for Dwnn in 1613, as Richard Pengriffin. (i, 244). [57]
Roughly
translated this says Cleric Richard Pengriffin Parson of Walton in Rhos in
Pembrokeshire son of Griffin Pengriffin, son of Richard Pengriffin; married Agnes,
daughter of Martin O’Reily of Ireland, Esquire, and had four children. This article
explained the Pengriffin family’s inclusion in the visitation: Richart was the head of the church (the
Parson) at Walton West. It also
explained why there were no arms associated with this family: Richard Pengriffin was not a member of the
gentry.
With the help of Dr. Morgan and Dr. Swann, and the
generous assistance of Dr. Siddons, the question of the Appenreth coat of arms
passing via recorded documents to the descendants of Edward Griffin, Sgt. John
Griffin or Jasper Griffing, has been unequivocally answered: they did not. In his letter of July 6, 2006, Dr. Siddons
said this,
[Griffith
Appenrith] was perhaps Griffith ap
Henry, since I have never come across the personal name Penrith. I am unable to place him in any family.
It is probable that Burke assumed wrongly that
he was Griffith (surname) of a place called Penrith. There is a parish of
Pen-rhydd (English Penrith) in north Pembrokeshire, and I believe that the
Griffins understood Burke's entry to mean that this was a family called
Griffith of this parish. Burke is clearly referring to Griffith (Christian
name) Appenrith of Calais, mentioned above. As is well known, the use of a coat
of arms, while it may be a signpost, does not always prove a descent, and
people often use a coat of arms on a mistaken assumption.
Dr.
Siddons’ contention was borne out on page 15 of Zeno’s manuscript The Lineage of Richard Griffith, which
was taken directly from Burke’s book:
Griffin
(Penrith, Wales) Gu. on a fess betw. three lozenges or, each charged with a
fleur-de-lis of the first, a demi-rose, betw. two griffins segreant, of the
field. [58]
How did this coat of arms come to be part of the
Griffin family lore? I have been advised
by many genealogists that it was not uncommon for those who immigrated to the
colonies to bring coats of arms and family crests with them to elevate
themselves in society. This subject and
its importance was particularly prevalent in the early years of the twentieth
century, where social status was far more important than today. It was clear that not all Griffin historians
were convinced about the ownership of these arms. As early as 1924, Justus Griffin voiced his
doubts about his family’s ownership of this coat of arms. On page 10 of his book, after discussing a
silver plate engraved with the coat of arms described above, which was owned by
a descendant of Jasper Griffing, he wrote:
Some of
the descendants of Edward Griffin, of Flushing, have convinced themselves that
he also was of the family which bore those arms, and made use of them. Whether that is a fact or not is of little
consequence now, and the arms are shown here as an interesting relic. [19]
At this point, we have substantial proof that the
coat of arms which William Crozier attributed to Sgt. John Griffin of Simsbury,
belongs to the Parry family, and therefore, the descendants of Edward Griffin
in America and Canada cannot rightfully claim or use these arms. [55] {59}
The Myth about
Narberth Castle
I remember a phone conversation I had with Paul
Jennings Griffin in early 2005, about a 1998 trip he had taken to Wales, to
work on the Pengriffin family. Paul told
me that while he was at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, he asked
the librarian for help with the Pengriffin family. She pointed to “a distinguished professor”
(name unknown - possibly Dr. Prys Morgan) and said he was the person to
ask. Paul showed him page 244 of Dwnn’s
pedigree, and the professor responded that he had been studying the family
names of Wales all of his life and never heard of Pengriffin as a Welsh
name. Paul said he was speechless.
Paul also said that when he visited the village of Narberth, the town
historian informed him that there was no connection between a Richiart
Pengriffin and Narberth Castle because he never owned it.
Zeno, however, maintained that Richart Pengriffin
was a knight and had ownership of Narberth Castle, because on page 18 of the Lineage of Richard Griffith, he stated,
At the
time Sir Richard Griffith, the Grand Son (sic) of RICHARD GRIFFITH, on May 8,
1609, was attained [attainted] he owned Narberth Castle and Woods, which is yet
in existence, situated about ten miles north of Tenby.
I
began reading histories of Wales during the time of the Tudors to see if I
could understand Zeno’s assertion about the ownership of Narberth. On page 246 of Dr. Ralph Alan Griffiths’
book, Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his Family,
I found a clue.
A portion of Narberth Castle and its lands was given to Sir Rhys ap
Thomas ap Griffith, (aka Rice ap Thomas) who fought alongside Henry Tudor at
Bosworth and who was knighted in
early 1486, about the time of King Henry VII’s coronation. Sir Rhys’ grandson and heir, Rice Griffith,
had been attainted by Henry VIII in 1531, on the charge of conspiracy, whereby
he lost all rights to Narberth. [43] In Volume 8 of the Calendar of
Correspondence of King James I at page 510, I found the abstract which probably
lead to Zeno’s conclusion about the ownership of Narberth:
1609 May
8. 32. Memorandum by Auditor Grofton of
the town, castle, and forest of Norbertes [Narberth] co. Pembroke, and other
possessions of Rich. Griffith, attainted.
Even if Zeno had not merged the Griffith and Rhys
ap Thomas ap Griffith families, here was “Rich. Griffith” listed as the former
owner of Narberth.
For clarification, I wrote again to Dr. Ralph
Griffiths, who was not only the Professor Emeritus of Medieval History of the
University of Wales at Swansea, but also the Chair of the Royal Commission on
the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Certainly, Dr. Griffiths, who is not a
relative, was the expert in his field and I was so fortunate to have been the
beneficiary of his kindness. He worked
with me over the balance of 2006 to clear up the mystery: Sir Rhys ap Thomas’ son was Gruffydd ap Rhys
ap Thomas [Griffith Rhys] and it was his son, Rhys ap Gruffydd [Rice Griffith]
who was attainted for treason by King Henry VIII in 1531 (not 1609, as
suggested by Zeno). Rice not only lost
his possessions, he lost his life. In
his email, Dr. Griffiths said that many English transcribers had misinterpreted
“Rhys” as “Richard.” [51] Dr Siddons concurred when he
wrote on July 6, 2006:
I wonder
if there has been confusion with Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who undoubtedly took an
important contingent to help Henry Tudor at Bosworth. Sir Rhys's father was
Thomas ap Gruffudd ap Nicolas, that is, his grandfather's Christian name was
Gruffudd. [6]
The
descendants of Rice Griffith are now known by the surnames Rice, Reese and
Royce, but not Griffith, Griffin or Griffing.
The Myth of the
Pengruffwnd Family
Zeno’s family histories continue with the assertion
that Edward Pengriffin and his brother John, were born in the parish of Walton,
in the Hundred of Rhos, in the County of Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1602 and
1608, respectively. Meyrick’s
transcription of Dwnn’s pedigree, however, gave no dates. At my request, Dr. Siddons reviewed his
microfilmed copy of the original 1613 pedigree and confirmed that there were no
birthdates on Dwnn’s handwritten document. [8]
Zeno’s likely source for these dates was the
“Licenses to Go Beyond the Seas” from J. C. Hotten’s 1874 edition of The Original Persons of Quality which
was available in the Newberry Library in Chicago, when Zeno was
researching. On page 27 of the Lineage of Richard Griffith, Zeno
transcribed Hotten’s list of passengers aboard the Abraham of London on October 24, 1635, headed for Virginia. He also copied the passenger list for the Constance, which showed a 26-year-old
John Griffin departing on the same date, also bound for Virginia. It became apparent that Zeno calculated
Edward and John’s birthdates from these licences to emigrate which meant there
wasn’t any proof that Dwnn’s pedigree contained the family of our Edward
Griffin. The original source of these
pages in Hotten is in the Records of the Exchequer, Class E 157/20/58, in the
National Archives at Kew, England.
I should say that by this time both Brian and I
were operating under the assumption that our Edward Griffin was not Edward Pengriffin. In reviewing Zeno’s conclusions, we had found
no documented proof for continuing to believe that the Edward and John listed
at the bottom of Dwnn’s pedigree of 1613, were our Edward and John
Griffin. Nevertheless, it was necessary
to research this family with the hope that we would find wills which would lead
us to the Edward and John who were
listed on the visitation document to furnish unambiguous proof of this
hypothesis. I soon realized that a trip
to Wales was going to be necessary to solve this puzzle.
The key to deciphering this impasse was to try and
understand the locations being talked about in Dwnn’s visitation pedigree of
1613. The title of the pedigree
mentioned not only Walton in the Hundred of Rhos in Pembrokeshire, but also the
county of Shropshire, although under its old-fashioned name of S. Moethig,
which meant Sir Amwythig, which is Welsh for Shropshire. Brian then realized that Bwknil or Biganell
could be the parish of Bucknell in south Shropshire. Michael Powell Siddons had suggested that
Koksol, mentioned in the context of Griffith Pengruffwnd who had married Joan,
daughter of Selmont David of Koksol, Gent., was a phoenetic transcription of
Coxall [7]. Brian was
able to locate a farmstead of that name in the parish of Bedstone, the
neighboring parish to Bucknell. And then
it dawned on us that Bedstone was actually mentioned in the title line of the
pedigree, but as Bedson. The only other
location mentioned in the visitation pedigree and the families therein was a
daughter Margery marrying Ieuan ap Stephen of Gasgob. Gascob is a parish in Radnorshire, very close
to the parishes of Bedstone and Bucknell in Shropshire. So we seemed to have found the family home of
the Pengriffin/Griffithes/Griffin family at last.
Meanwhile, I had managed to locate the will of a
John Griffithes, dated May 3, 1614, who seemed to be the father of Edward
Pengruffwnd and who was shown as John Pengruffwnd on Dwnn’s pedigree. He had died in 1616, at Bedstone in the
county of Shropshire; his wife had, apparently, predeceased him. His sons Edward and John were mentioned in
the will, along with their sisters Jowan [Johan/Joan], who married Richard
Marston [Mason]; Katrin [Katherine], who married Charles Maklon [Makelyn and
Maclen], and their families. [60]. This provided good additional
evidence we were looking at the right Griffith family in the right place
because the names and locations were matching up with those given in the
visitation pedigree.
Further evidence was provided by Brian’s
examination of the parish registers of Bedstone and Bucknell. Unfortunately the parish registers of
Bedstone do not survive before 1719, but those of Bucknell start in 1598. The registers of Bucknell had baptism entries
for 1605 [Thomas Mason] and 1606 [Priscilla Mason] as the two youngest children
of Joan Pengriffin/Griffith who had married Richard Mason. They correspond to the two youngest children
given in the visitation pedigree, and Priscilla is an unusual Christian name at
this time. The registers also mention
the Davies family living at Coxall, e.g. the burial of John Davies of Coxall,
Gent., on 31 May 1608. The significance
of this Davies family will become clear in the paragraph regarding the will of
Edward Griffth, below.
In looking back over some notes I had made years
prior, I found a notation about a will of a John Griffithes from Clunbury. With Brian’s transcription help we found that
we had the will of John, Edward Griffith’s older brother, who had died in 1624,
in the parish of Clunbury in the Diocese of Hereford, where he, like his uncle
Richard Pengriffin of Walton West, was a cleric. Clunbury is not far away from the parishes of
Bedstone and Bucknell. His will, dated
February 1, 1623/24, revealed he was unmarried and had no children. He left his estate to his nieces and nephews,
including the children of his late brother Edward, as well as the children of
his sisters Joan and Katherine. [2] This will suggested that his
brother, Edward Pengriffin/Griffith had died before 1624. Both of these wills were online from the
probate records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at the National Archives
website.
In July of 2007, Brian invited Dale and me to join
him and his wife, Eirwen, in Wales in late September to attend a talk he was
giving on DNA and Welsh Family History at the Montgomeryshire Family History
Society. He also offered an insider’s
tour of Wales and England, and a promise to familiarize me with The National
Archives at Kew. Brian had been working
with me on the Griffin family history for about a year at this time and it was
our goal to find the ancestral home of Edward Pengriffin’s family. Brian proposed we travel to Walton West,
Pembrokeshire, where we knew his uncle, Richard Pengriffin, had been living in
1613, and also to Shropshire, where it now seemed clear that Dwnn was stating
in his visitation that members of the family were living both in 1613 and prior
to this date.
On October 4, 2007, the moment we walked into All
Saints’ Church in Walton West, Pembrokeshire, we saw Richard Pengriffin’s name
listed on a document entitled “The Rectors of All Saints’, Walton West,” posted
on the back wall of the church. It told us that Richard’s tenure as parson was
1613- 1619. To finally see the
Pengriffin name somewhere other than in Dwnn’s document was enormously
gratifying, and I could not have done this without Brian’s help. It was an incredible moment for both of us,
and one that we caught on camera and later celebrated with a champagne toast.
All Saint’s
Church, Walton West, Pembrokeshire, Wales
The source of this information in the church may
well not have been due to diligent effort by the rectors of Walton West, but
taken from the research and article by Francis Green, “Pembrokeshire Parsons”,
in Volume 2 of West Wales Historical Records, 1911/12. This volume includes the parish of Walton
West. Green recorded Richard Pengriffin
in the list of incumbents of Walton West from 1613 until William Ormond was
appointed on November 2, 1619. It is not
clear where Francis Green obtained his information but he was a diligent
antiquarian and the foremost Pembrokeshire historian of his day. He may well have collected information from
the archives of the Bishops of St. Davids, now at the National Library of
Wales.
With Richard Pengriffin/Griffith located, our next
task was to find the rest of the family.
As mentioned above, during the five months prior to my visit, Brian and
I had been working to update and correct the transcription of Dwnn’s original
1613 visitation. After visits to the
parish churches of Bedstone, Bucknell and the farm at Coxall in the parish of
Bedstone, Brian suggested a visit to the Hereford Record Office, where the
ecclesiastical documents for this area were housed. The Diocese of Hereford included parishes in
south Shropshire as well as the county of Hereford for the time period we were
researching. It was there, on October 6,
2007, that I found the will of Edward Pengriffin, known then as Edward Griffith. As explained above I had already found the
wills of John Griffithes (his father) and Edward’s brother John Griffithes; all
that had been missing was Edward’s will.
We managed to locate this document in the surviving probate records for
the Archdeaconry of Shropshire in the Diocese of Hereford. We tackled the challenging handwriting in the
will together and managed to unearth the following information about this
family, who were using the spellings Griffithes, Griffiths and Griffith
interchangeably.
Edward Griffith, a Yeoman of Bedstone, Shropshire,
was dead by June 1622. In his will dated
April 14, 1622, he provided for an unnamed wife, sons Thomas (the eldest) and
Richard, a daughter Anne, who was under twenty-one, his brother John and a
cousin, Thomas Davies. [1]
Here we have unequivocal evidence that this
Pengriffin family cannot possibly be the ancestors of our Edward Griffin of
Flushing or of Sgt. John Griffin of Simsbury.
The men in question had been dead for more than ten years before the Abraham or the Constance
departed London in October of 1635.
To answer the often-asked question as to how this
pedigree became to be accepted as the ancestry of Edward Griffin, I offer this
quote from Zeno’s letter written to Justus Griffin, Andrew W., and his brother,
Morganza Griffin, on June 6, 1912:
Gentlemen:-
You three, with myself have for
years been searching the records and gathering the traditions of our great
family, and it is now about complete and as correct as can be from the present
“lights” of the late published histories and records, particularly gathered
from our greatest genealogical and historical - Newbury [Newberry] Library, of
Chicago- and I say this not from my own investigation in it, but from other genealogical
students, who have used the genealogical libraries, in Boston, New York, and
other great cities - and they have to come here for final investigation. It was
in this Library that I first discovered the line of our family in England and
Wales, and which was published in the N.Y. Genealogical and Historical Record,
in 1905, and my discovery of Richiart Pengruffwnd, was so important that it is
noticed in the proceedings of the American Genealogical Association, the next
year, and published to the world. I
don’t want to extol myself at all, but just state the fact, that in several
years after 1880, I gleaned everything in Great Britain, bearing on the Welsh
people, and became quite interested in that ancient race, and a little educated
in the old language, for instance, I found that “Edward” was in Welsh,
“Iorwerth”. Gruffydd, could only be
translated into “Griffith”, Pengriffin was the title of “Head of the Griffins”
etc. [61]
As to the coat of
arms, Zeno had this to say in his letter dated September 15, 1912,
". . . with the help of
records, and Coat of Arms sent me by Mr. Justus A. G. of Hamilton, Ont, I think
that we have discovered the correct Coat of Arms of our great ancestor, Richard
Griffith, the powerful, aged and noble Welsh chieftain, who so ably assisted
Henry Tudor to obtain the Crown of England, as Henry VIIth, at the battle of
Bosworth Field, in 1485. This Richard
Griffith has the same ancestor that the sovereigns of England are proud to
have." [62]
This idea may have
originated when Zeno saw page 65 of Crozier's
General Armory,
“GRIFFIN. Connecticut
Sergeant John Griffin, Windsor,
1646.
(Yorkshire.)
Gules, on a fesse or between
three fusils, charged with fleurs-de-lis a demi-quatrefoil between two gryphons
segreant.
CREST - A gryphon segreant.
MOTTO - Semper paratus.”
Because Zeno
wholeheartedly believed that Edward and John were brothers, it would follow
that he would link the arms to his Edward Griffin family. [62]
With these
admissions from Zeno, any lingering questions about the Pengruffwnd family
connection and the coat of arms are now finally put to rest.
The Myth about the Brothers, Edward and Sgt. John
The next area to
tackle was the purported relationship between our Edward and Sgt. John Griffin
of Simsbury. In ten years of examining
documents from Virginia, New England and New York, I have never found any
evidence that Edward and John were together in the same place, which seemed
unusual for brothers who were thousands of miles from their homeland. In fact, the only mention of them in the same
city was when they were departing London on October 24, 1635.
Although Edward
Griffin’s name was listed as one of the servants who was taken hostage June 20,
1638, on orders of Governor Leonard Calvert, from William Claiborne’s outpost
on Palmer’s Island (renamed Watsons Island and is now Garrett Island) by
Sheriff Robert Vaughn, John Griffin was not mentioned. John Griffin was not listed as an occupant of
Kent Island in the lists I found in the Virginia State Library, either. [63] It is telling that most family histories
written by descendants of Sgt. John begin with his activities in Simsbury in
1642, and mention nothing of his life before then. After reading Zeno’s letters, I can see that
he tried to make the connection, but the relatives of Sgt. John with whom he
was corresponding were skeptical, as was Justus Griffin, Edward’s descendant.
It is important to
understand that the Constance, according
to the following depositions relating to a lawsuit brought by some of the
passenger of the Constance and taken by the High Court of Admiralty, got only as far as the Downs due to
high winds; what’s more, it never
made it to Virginia. From the deposition
of Henry Morrell,
All the passengers were landed at
Ilfracombe, Devon, where the deponent and others stayed for 3 months until the
ship’s voyage was quite given up.”
In his deposition,
George Taylor said,
He was a passenger in the Constance,
whose purser, Jeffrey Gough, informed him that the ship was forced to put into
Ilfracombe in January 1635/6 because of her leakiness.
It is my belief
that the John Griffin listed on the passenger list was most likely the “___
Griffith, a servant of Thomas Palmer,” mentioned by Edmond Porter in his
deposition. More than likely, the reason
John Griffin’s name never appeared in the Kent Island records from 1636 through
1640, was that he was not there, or even in Virginia. [64]
The question of
John’s whereabouts became moot in early 2008, after we received the results of
twelve DNA tests which proved that our Edward Griffin was not remotely related
to Sgt. John Griffin. Out of a possible
12/12 marker match, the four descendants of John who were tested against the
eight descendants of Edward, scored a 0/12 match. This means they did not have one
genetic marker out of twelve in common!
More importantly, the haplogroup for Edward Griffin is 12b1 whereas Sgt.
John Griffin’s is R1b1b2, which means these two men could not have shared a
common blood relative within 10,000 years!
As of today, Edward
Griffin is without a homeland, parents or siblings. Although Zeno made some errors in logic
regarding Edward’s ancestry, he did create a credible history for Edward
Griffin in America, with only a few errors.
The Truth about Edward Griffin, born circa 1602
With all of this
said, what do we actually know about the life of Edward Griffin from documented
evidence? What is the truth about our
Edward Griffin?
According to the Registers
of Licenses to Go Pass Beyond the Seas, the original of which I received as an
Easter present from Brian in 2007, Edward was 33 when he boarded the Abraham, which would mean, if his age
was correctly recorded, he would most likely have been born in 1602, or the
last quarter of 1601. [65]
We do not have any
evidence which even hints at where or to whom he was born. It may take years, even decades, to find
Edward’s origins. As Brian once told me,
“This task may just see you out;” he truly knows the enormity of the job
ahead. Not only are the British records
difficult to locate, they must also be transcribed, and sometimes translated.
Without Brian’s
unrelenting help, I could never have gotten this far and although I have his
promise of help for just a few more years, I hope that those of you reading
this will be inspired to work with us to find a home and family for
Edward. During my visit to London in
2007, I saw parish records which showed that there were hundreds of Griffiths
(Edward’s name as recorded on the port register) and Griffins living in and
around London in 1635. As this was
Edward’s point of departure, we must begin looking for him there.
We must also
consider that by the age of 33, Edward may have had already been married and
had children. The most compelling
question for me has been, and still is, “why would a 33
year-old man leave his homeland and family and willingly put himself into servitude?” I first explored the possibility that he was
forced to leave the country in lieu of serving time in prison. I located the lists of prisoners sent to
Virginia from England in the 1630s and although there were a few Griffins and
Griffiths shown, none was named Edward, (or John). [66] [67] [68]
Recently, Brian wrote that in 1625, there was a plague in Stepney, a
parish less than two miles from the center of London. In fact, Stepney is reported to have been
“one of the worst plague districts in London,” and from December 23, 1624,
through December 15, 1625, there were 35,417 deaths in the London area due to
the plague. [69] Could
Edward have lost his family to the plague?
If so, this may have been a reason for his emigration and
indenture.
Brian often points out that people do not migrate into a vacuum and so
we are working on a looking for a motive to explain why and how Edward Griffin
left London. One connection may be
between the owners of the vessel Abraham
and the merchants of Cloberry & Company, William Claiborne’s London
partners in the Virginia venture. The
evidence suggests that Edward Griffin was more likely an indentured servant,
but at an age of thirty-three he would have been old enough to have had a
trade. The processes by which indentured
servants were recruited in London at this particular time are not well
documented. There was clearly an
agreement between the owners of the vessel and the ship’s captain, John Barker,
and it must have made more economic sense to recruit people locally from London
and its surrounding counties than from the more distant counties of England and
Wales. The population of London was
increasing by very significant numbers during the first half of the seventeenth
century. [70]
Nothing very much at all is known about the captain of the Abraham, John Barker. All the early vessels bound for Virginia left
from the parish of Stepney, which before the 1650s, was a huge parish covering
almost all of London outside the city walls along the north bank of the Thames
as far as the county boundary with Essex. [68] [71] [72]
Once in Virginia, Edward Griffeth (sic) was
indentured to “Colo.” Wm Claiborne, Secretary of State of the Virginia Colony. [73] I have found no proof that Edward Griffin was
on Kent Island, a “fact” often reported in the Griffin family histories. He was certainly on Palmer’s Island in July
of 1638, when he and three other servants were taken prisoner by Sheriff Robert
Vaughn, an agent of Lord Baltimore. {74} According to numerous
depositions, Edward Griffin, William Jones, William Freeman, who may have been
aboard the Abraham with Edward, and
Richard Reymond were captured and taken to Maryland on orders from Governor
Calvert who disregarded the time the men had served with Claiborne and put them
into the service of his brother, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore. {75} [76] Edward, unfortunately, had gotten
caught in the middle of a land battle between Lord Baltimore and Captain
William Claiborne. Claiborne, who had
first come to Virginia as a surveyor, had seen the fur-trading potential and
been granted a license to trade with the Indians in the Chesapeake Bay area by
the King of England, where he set up a colony at Kent Island and an outpost at
Palmers Island. Later, the King granted
Maryland to George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore and the boundaries of
Claiborne’s license overlapped with Calvert’s grant. A land war ensued.[Ibid]
Somehow Edward turned up in the court at Fort
Amsterdam on 23 August 1640. He
testified that he “ran away” from Maryland because he didn’t have a master in
Maryland and his master in Virginia was Captain Claiborne. [77] Several Griffin family histories claim that
Captain Thomas Gems/Games/James, who was reported by Zeno to have been Welsh,
helped him to escape. I have seen over
fifteen documents concerning Games and none of them support this
allegation. It appears that Zeno may
have connected Thomas Games to the prominent Games family from Brecknockshire,
Wales, also enumerated in Lewys Dwnn’s 1613 visitation document, to establish
him as Welsh, but there is no proof that he was related to that family.
In the colonial documents there was a mariner,
Thomas Games, who lived in Kent County, Maryland, and who had licenses in 1638
and 1640, to trade with the Dutch and Indians in the Hudson Bay area, as well
as in New England. It is interesting to
note that Games made a trip to New England in 1639, about the time Edward
Griffin would have escaped from Lord Baltimore’s plantation in Maryland. [78] There is also evidence that Games was in at
court in Fort Amsterdam on 30 August 1639, and again in court in New Haven,
Connecticut on 5 August 1640, over a dispute with John Moody.” [79] [80] So, he was in the area at the time and it is
possible he could have assisted Edward, but to date I have not found
proof.
It isn’t clear if Edward sought asylum from the
Dutch owners of New York, or was arrested by them, but on August 27, 1640, he
stood trial at Fort Amsterdam, New Netherland, which resulted in a decision
stating that although Governor Calvert had sent Peter Draper, his attorney, to
apprehend Edward Griffins, a runaway servant, Griffins provided evidence from Henry Pennington of Hackemac that
he was not a fugitive servant but had been a prisoner in Maryland. {81} Pennington testified that he
didn’t know if Edward
“. . . voluntarily
bound himself a servant to any person, but he, Henry Pennington, well knows
that he was Captain Claver’s [Claiborne’s] servant in Virginia.” [77]
As a result, on August 23, 1640, the Dutch court
ordered that,
Peter
Draper shall agree with the above-named Griffins for his freedom, and said
Draper shall be bound to give good security that said Griffins shall not be
molested by Captain Claber, or anyother [any other] person, who may exhibit his
articles of indenture, and shall remain undisturbed.
Eight days later, a document entitled, “Bond of
Thomas James of Maryland as surety, for the freedom of Edward Griffins” was
recorded. Although I have a copy of the
original Dutch court order, the original Dutch bond was destroyed in the 1911
fire of the New York Capitol building.
This means we must rely upon the first and only translation of the
ancient Dutch document, which reads, [82]
I, the
undersigned, Thomas Gems, an inhabitant of Maryland, bind myself as surety and
principal for Edward Griffins, who has agreed and contracted for the sum of
five pounds sterling with Peter Draper, who also acknowledges in the presence
of the underwritten witnesses that he has received the money, for the freedome
of said Griffins; and if it happens that he should exhibit Captain Claver’s
indenture and molest him, Griffin, I substitute my person and property as
aforesaid in place of the principal, Edward Griffins.
Thomas
James
Tho:
Wilett, witness
John Hampton,
witness
To my
knowledge,
Cornelius
van Tienhoven, Secretary
Zeno, Jordan Jack Thurlow, and other Griffin family
historians have proposed that Edward may have been aboard Thomas Games’ ship
during the time his bond was active. The
suggestion is a good one, and makes sense if Games would have had to surrender
himself and his property in place of Edward if he disappeared and William
Claiborne showed up claiming that Edward still owed him time on his indenture.
There is no term shown on the bond translation, but
based upon Edward’s age, his time of service would have likely been completed
by 1640. [83] I have not been able to find the name of
Games’ ship, or any other documentation to further clarify the bond. The relationship between Thomas Games and
Edward Griffin is a mystery. It is
possible that Games, who owned property in Kent County, Maryland, was loyal to
the Calverts and did not assist Edward in escaping. A possibility is that Edward stowed away on
Game’s ship, but this is certainly conjecture on my part. It may be that Governor Calvert ordered Games
take Draper to the court at New Amsterdam.
Games may have accompanied Draper to court because Draper was expecting
to take Edward into custody and return him to Maryland, via Games’ ship.
From here the Griffin family histories lose track
of Edward until he purchased what was most likely his first piece of land, from
Gerrit Bicker [Stryker] on February 25, 1653, in Mid(e)wout or Middle Woods,
(Flatbush) Long Island; however, I found an earlier document that may refer to
our Edward:
[172] On
the 2d of July anno 1643
Edwardt
Griffis, plaintiff, vs. Jan Celes, defendant, for fl. 187 and a pair of shoes
earned by the plaintiff in working [for the defendant]. The defendant promises to pay within two
months. The defendant is condemned to
pay within six or eight weeks. [84]
Anthony Jansen Van Seles (aka Anthony Jansen, aka
Anthony Johnson from Salee) was a half Dutch, half Moroccan settler and the
holder of the first patent in Gravesend, later known as the Old Bowery. If the Edwardt Griffis mentioned in the
lawsuit was our Edward, this would mean that he was on Long Island in 1643, ten
years earlier than has been previously reported. This is not a stretch to believe as I have
found no other Edward Griffin or any Griffis in the early New Amsterdam
colonial records.
The Griffin family histories indicate that Edward’s
first residence was in Gravesend. Edward
was not listed as a freeholder of Gravesend in 1650, but he did appear in the
1655 list of inhabitants and freeholders. [85] On January 27, 1658, he bought
half of plantation lot 14 and half the housing in Lady Deborah Moody’s
Gravesend patent from Walter Wall. [85] Between 1653 and 1661, Edward
participated in seven land transactions in Flatbush and Gravesend. There had to have been more transactions,
because many of the documents I have found are sales, but I have not yet
located them. We don’t know where his
home was situated during this time, but there is proof that he was subdividing
and selling land. To some, it may have
appeared that Edward was a land speculator. [86]
In 1657, Edward was a resident of Flushing, an
English town under Dutch rule. On the
days around December 27, 1657, Edward and 29 other freeholders signed The
Flushing Remonstrance, protesting Governor-Director Peter Stuyvesant’s
persecution of the Quakers as well as his policies of intolerance towards Jews,
Turks, Egyptians, and others. [87] [88] The Flushing Remonstrance was the first
religious freedom document in America, and was the precursor to our First
Amendment to the Bill of Rights.
Dale and I were invited to participate in the 350th
anniversary celebration of the signing of The Flushing Remonstrance from
December 6-9, 2007. As pointed out by
Tabetha Garman, M.A., in her Master’s thesis on the Flushing Remonstrance, it
is the only religious freedom document to be signed by men who did not have a
stake in the outcome. In the past,
religious protest documents were written for the purpose of giving relief to
those signing the document. None of the
30 signers were Quakers, Jews, Turks or Egyptians. They were simply honorable men who believed
that people should be able to worship their God in their own manner,
unmolested. Here is the text of the
document which was addressed to Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of New
Amsterdam:
Right Honorable
You have been pleased to send unto us a
certain prohibition or command that we should not receive or entertain any of
those people called Quakers because they are supposed to be, by some, seducers
of the people. For our part we cannot condemn them in this case, neither can we
stretch out our hands against them, for out of Christ God is a consuming fire,
and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Wee [We] desire therefore in this case not
to judge least we be judged, neither to condemn least we be condemned, but
rather let every man stand or fall to his own Master. Wee [We] are bounde
[bound] by the law to do good unto all men, especially to those of the
household of faith. And though for the present we seem to be unsensible [insensible]
for the law and the Law giver, yet when death and the Law assault us, if wee
have our advocate to seeke [seek,] who shall plead for us in this case of
conscience betwixt God and our own souls; the powers of this world can neither
attach us, neither excuse us, for if God justifye [justify] who can condemn and
if God condemn there is none can justifye [justify].
And for
those jealousies and suspicions which some have of them, that they are
destructive unto Magistracy and Ministerye [Ministry,] that cannot bee [be,]
for the Magistrate hath his sword in his hand and the Minister hath the sword
in his hand, as witnesse [witnesses] those two great examples, which all
Magistrates and Ministers are to follow, Moses and Christ, whom God raised up
maintained and defended against all enemies both of flesh and spirit; and
therefore that of God will stand, and that which is of man will come to
nothing. And as the Lord hath taught Moses or the civil power to give an
outward liberty in the state, by the law written in his heart designed for the
good of all, and can truly judge who is good, who is evil, who is true and who
is false, and can pass definitive sentence of life or death against that man
which arises up against the fundamental law of the States General; soe [so] he hath made his ministers a savor of
life unto life and a savor of death unto death.
The law of love, peace and liberty in the
states extending to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, as they are considered sons of
Adam, which is the glory of the outward state of Holland, soe [so] love, peace
and liberty, extending to all in Christ Jesus, condemns hatred, war and
bondage. And because our Saviour [Savior] sayeth [said] it is impossible but
that offences will come, but woe unto him by whom they cometh, our desire is
not to offend one of his little ones, in whatsoever form, name or title hee
[he] appears in, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker, but
shall be glad to see anything of God in any of them, desiring to doe unto all
men as we desire all men should doe unto us, which is the true law both of
Church and State; for our Saviour [Savior] sayeth [said] this is the law and
the prophets.
Therefore if any of these said persons come
in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give
them free egresse [egress] and regresse [regress] unto our Town, and houses, as
God shall persuade our consciences, for we are bounde by the law of God and man
to doe good unto all men and evil to noe [no] man. And this is according to the
patent and charter of our Towne, given unto us in the name of the States
General, which we are not willing to infringe, and violate, but shall houlde
[hold] to our patent and shall remaine [remain,] your humble subjects, the
inhabitants of Vlishing [Flushing].
Written
this 27th of December in the year 1657, by mee.
Edward
Hart, Clericus [Clerk] [89]
The
document was not signed in Edward Griffin’s home, as Zeno claimed on page 40
the Lineage of Richard Griffith. According to the deposition of Edward Hart,
the town clerk and author of the Remonstrance, the document was signed in
various places; Edward Griffin, he testified, signed the document at Edward
Hart’s house. [77]
After
Tabetha Garman’s speech on December 8, 2007, I asked her about the
inconsistencies I noticed with the signatures on the document when I saw the
original on display at the Queens’ Library two days before. While six men had signed with their mark, it
seemed clear that the man who wrote the names after the marks of William
Thorne, Jr., William Pidgion, George Clerke, Henry Townsend and Michael Milner
had the same handwriting as the man who wrote Edward Griffine’s signature. Ms. Garman pointed out that while the
original had been lost, there were two originals made and both were originally
signed. She said that it was likely that
several of the men who could only sign by mark may have felt so strongly about
the significance of the Remonstrance that they wanted their full name to be
written on the document. She added that
the names of those who made their marks were later added by Edward Hart prior
to submitting it to Stuyvesant. {90}
Perhaps this is how Edward Griffin’s name became
Griffine in the transcribed copies of
the Remonstrance. If he couldn’t write
his own name, Hart would have spelled Edward’s name the way he thought it
should have been spelled. It is
interesting that Edmund O’Callaghan in his 1855 history of New Netherland,
called him Edward Griffin when referring to his signing of the Remonstrance. [91]
On 11 Mar 1661/62, Edward was deposed as a witness
for the plaintiff in Richbell v. Revell regarding ownership of Mamaroneck, New
York. John Richbell, whose family later
intermarried with the Griffins, purchased the property from Wappaquewan and his
brother Matheutson with the help of Indian language interpreters Edward Griffin
and John Finch. After collecting a
down-payment, Wappaquewan resold the property to Mr. Revell without his
brother’s knowledge. [92]
There are many other documents recorded in Queens’
and Kings’ counties which are attributed to our Edward: In 1667, Edward presented himself to the
Governor, “and gave [his] name to be ready to serve his Majesty under his
honors Command upon all occasions.” [93] At this point, Edward could not
have been a Quaker, as their beliefs did not allow them to submit to any
authority. In 1676, he served on several
juries in the Court of Assizes; [94] in 1680, Edward was listed as an Overseer of Flushing where he objected
to lessening the amount of property required to owned in order to be called a
freeman; [77] in 1681, he
gave testimony as a Constable of Flushing; [95] in 1683, Edward Griffing of
Flushing sold property in Occubank [Aquebogue] [96] and was listed
in a tax rate schedule of Flushing for 1683 and 1688; [97] also, in 1688, Edward Griffin was listed in an “Order Removing From
Office Several Town Assessors in Queens County, Nullifying Their Rates, and
Requiring Their Replacement.” Edward and
seven other assessors were subsequently summoned before the New York Council
for refusing to take the oath of office and a trial was set; the council
required the towns to elect new assessors. [93] [98]
The Edward Griffin who refused to submit to the
authority of Queens in the late 1680s may have become a Quaker. Although I spent many hours reading both the
transcribed and handwritten meeting minutes for the Society of Friends, I never
saw Edward or Mary Griffin’s names mentioned in any of the documents, and they
were not listed in the New York state Quaker histories. [99] [100] [101] [102] [103] [104] [105] [106] [107] [108] There is confirmation that Edward’s son John,
was a Quaker. [105] [106]
It is important to understand that there is no verification
that the documents immediately above were referring to our Edward Griffin, born
1602. It may have been his son Edward,
who was the subject of some of these documents.
This is an area that needs further study and I will revise this document
if I am able to find proof which distinguishes the two Edwards.
Teunis Bergen may have been the originator of the
assertion that Edward was aboard the Blossom
December 14, 1678, en route to London, another error that has been carried
forward in many Griffin family histories. [109] In fact,
the man who was on the Blossom was Edward Griffith,
(sometimes Griffeth) a London merchant who made many crossings to London
during this time; oddly the Blossom
passage was the only one reported in the family histories. The story of this Edward Griffith is
interesting and the case was important because Governor Andros, who was accused
of interfering with the free trade of British citizens, was recalled by the
Duke of York as a result of Edward’s lawsuit.
Griffeth
had complained about preferential treatment for the Dutch, an inability to
trade at Albany, and, in general, being denied the rights of an Englishman. For
acting in "derogation and contempt of the Kings (sic) Authority," he
was fined 20 [pounds]. Outraged by his
treatment, he sought revenge. Unwilling,
or perhaps unable, to attack Andros in New York, Griffeth had his family begin
a court case against Andros when he returned to England during the winter of
1677-78 to receive his knighthood and attend to family business. [110]
Nevertheless, it was not our Edward Griffin aboard
the Blossom and it appears he never
left America after his arrival in 1635.
From the 1698 Flushing census we know that our
Edward, his wife Mary, presumed daughter Deborah and “a Negro” Jack were listed
in the 1698 census of Flushing. {111} Edward’s three sons, Richard,
Edward and John were also enumerated with their wives and children living
nearby in their own households. [112] Several Griffin family
historians have contended that the fact that Edward had a slave living with him
means he could not have been a Quaker in 1698, as Quakers believed in equality
for all human beings. However, there
were many slave-owning Quakers in the period before the Revolutionary War. [113] [114] [115]
The final document that has been attributed to our
Edward Griffin is from 1708, wherein “Edw’d Griffin sr” and several other men
opposed a survey of land granted to a Wm Peartree in Westchester County. We have evidence that Edward, Jr. moved to
Westchester, and it is my hypothesis that this document refers to our Edward’s
son, Edward who may have taken the title Senior
after his father’s death, which I believe was around 1699. I also believe that Edward, Jr.’s son, Edward
III, who died early in his life, assumed the title of Edward Jr. when his
father became Edward Sr. Although Zeno
reported on page 52 of the Lineage of
Richard Griffith, that Edward, Jr. died without leaving a male heir, he
cites as his source Edward’s will, which showed he had no male heir. However, Edward, Jr. did have a son, Edward,
who, according to Justus Griffin, died young.
This is probably the Edward the Younger mentioned in the 1734 will of
Edward Jr. [116] I have just begun working on
this issue and will supplement this document as I gather evidence to clarify
the persons mentioned in the documents.
The Missing
Pieces of Edward’s Life
As of September, 2009, we do not have an exact date
of birth for Edward.
We do not know the name of Edward’s parents.
We do not know where Edward was born.
We do not know when Edward married.
We do not know the maiden name of Edward’s wife
Mary, or if she was his only wife. {117}
We do not know the dates of birth of his children,
or if he, had four children.
We do not know Edward’s exact date of death.
We do not have a will for Edward, although Van
Peenen’s family history asserts his will was probated in November, 1691. I have
spent hundreds of hours trying to locate one and have been unsuccessful. [31] {118}
These items are yet to be discovered, if such
documents survive, and I hope that those of you who have read this document to
the very end will join me in the hunt for the missing information.
Acknowledgments
This document would not have been possible without
the kind and unyielding help of the following people: Paul Jennings Griffin, who was determined to
help me correct previously published Griffin family histories, provided copies
of over 60 of Zeno T. Griffen’s letters as well as several manuscripts, gave me
unlimited access to his knowledge stores, and entertained numerous theories of
mine.
Dr. Brian Picton Swann, who is not a Griffin
relative but saw an American floundering in the morass of British documents and
generously stepped in with tutelage, hours upon hours of research,
collaboration on this document, a wealth of experience, transcriptions,
incisive editing, a tour of England and Wales which resulted in finding Richard
Pengriffin’s name on the wall of All Saints Church in Walton West, the homeland
of the Pengriffin family, the will of Edward Griffith in the Hereford Records
Office, a trip to the National Archives at Kew where he orchestrated a photo of
Dale holding the original London Port Register for the ship Abraham, which had Edward Griffith’s
name written as a passenger, and most importantly a lifelong friendship.
Eirwen Swann, who endured the aforementioned trip.
Barbara Griffiths, a Parry, and not a Griffin
relative, who first mentioned in April of 2006, that the early Griffin family histories
might have been fabricated, and whose help with the laws of British heraldry
and the Appenreth family has been invaluable; Dr. Prys Morgan who took time out
of his spring holiday to share his thoughts on the Pengruffwnd family with me
Dr. Ralph Alan Griffiths, the Guardian of the
Records of Wales, who graciously corresponded with me throughout 2006, and
helped me with the Richard Griffith who was incorrectly shown in the Griffin
family histories as the recipient of the Appenreth arms
Dr. Michael Powell Siddons, Wales Herald of Arms Extraordinary,
whose kindness and generosity cannot be repaid in this lifetime.
Anna Rose LeBlanc, Dale’s third cousin and newfound
relative, who took the time to review this very long document in its infancy.
Nancy Griffin, who also waded through an early
version of this document and gave me her comments.
And finally, my wonderful husband, Dale, who
selflessly went many nights without a proper dinner so that I could stay on
course, and who endured years of lonely “vacations” while I hunted in dusty
libraries, courthouse basements and genealogy society stacks.
Thank you all so very, very much; I am truly
grateful to all of you for your help, kindness, encouragement and inspiration.
Bibliography and Notes
4. Griffing,
William, Personal Correspondence to Griffin, Theresa, 17 Sep 2007.
6. Siddons,
Michael Powell, Dr., Your Letter of May 24 to Griffin, Theresa, July 6, 2006;
5:23 PM.
16. Griffen,
Joseph, Account of the Griffen Family.
1830.
20. Griffin, Paul
Jennings. Annotated Bibliography of the
Griffin/Griffen Family. [Web page] 1997 2004; 2nd:[Available from: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~griffingriffenfamily/Griffin.html.
21. Griffin,
Robert F. The Griffin and Burtner
Families. [Photocopy of manuscript online] 1919 [cited 2006 September 26]; Available from:
http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php.
25. Kulp, Suzanne
S., The Griffin Family. 1995: Orchard
Park, New York.
29. Redman, Edith
Read, Giffen - Griffith Progenitors, 1635-1775.
1984, Chicago: Self-published.
37. Griffiths,
Barbara, British History Online to Griffin, Theresa, June 3, 2009.
47. Ross, Charles,
The Wars of the Roses: A Concise History.
1976, London: Thames and Hudson, 101.
51. Griffiths,
Ralph Alan, The Griffin Family in the U.S. to Griffin, Theresa, March 8, 2006.
52. Morgan, Prys,
Personal Correspondence to Theresa Griffin to, 13 April 2006.
55. Griffiths,
Barbara. Parry Surname Research Family
History and the One-Name Study.
2006 [cited 2006,2008,2009;
Available from: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/im.griffiths/parryfamilyhistory/parrytrnscrptns/heraldry.htm.
66. Coldham, Peter
Wilson English Convicts in Colonial
America. 1974, New Orleans: Polyanthos.
90. In his
deposition, Hart claimed that he wrote the names of Townsend and Milner.
100. Cox, John, New York Friends Records, 1671-1703,
Salt Lake: Genealogical Society.
103. Holder,
Frederick, The Quaker in Great Britain
and America.
104. Jones, Rufus
Matthew, The Quakers in the American
Colonies. 1962, New York: Russell & Russell.
114. Singer, Alan
J., New York and Slavery: Time to Teach
the Truth. 2008, New York: SUNY.
115. Wills, Gary, Head and Heart: American Christianities.
2007: Penguin Group.