Cranmer Family
Cranmer Family

This page may get bigger eventually, but right now all I have is this brief synopsis of the family genealogy from E.M. Woodward's History of Burlington County, published in 1883. As always, submissions are always welcome by e-mail.

In 1729, Stephen Cranmer settled at Bass River, on the farm known as Caleb Cranmer farm, which lies contiguous to the river. Stephen Cranmer was considered one of the wealthy men of Bass River, and a man of considerable influence in the place of his adoption, and for some generations his posterity were people of wealth and influence. The Cranmers of New Jersey claim to be the descendants of Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was burned at the stake for his devotion to Protestantism by order of Queen Mary, at Smithfield, England, May 21, 1556.

(NOTE: According to Floyd, another researcher who has contributed to this site,
"The belief that the New Jersey Cranmer's are descendants of the family of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer appears to be only a legend. I have been working with a research team, including one member in England to establish the origin of William Cranmer and Elizabeth Carwithy, of Southold, L.I. and Elizabethtown, NJ, who were the fore-parents of the Cranmer family in the USA. After thoroughly studying the pedigrees of the family of the archbishop, we have not yet discovered any link to the Cranmers in this country. Some of us believe that William Cranmer's origin in England was Devon, which also appears to have been the home of his spouse Elizabeth Carwithy.")

The Cranmers do not all spell their names alike: some have it Cranmer, others Cramer, and still others Crammer, but the variation is easily accounted for. In old times most people had little if any learning and orthography suffered in their hands.

William, Josiah, and probably Thomas Cranmer were the forefathers of the Cranmers of Ocean County, NJ, and John and Stephen were the ancestors of the Cranmers of Burlington County, who settled at Bass River.

The Cranmers are noted (especially former generations), for being partial to family names, it being a tradition among the family that there were six Josiah Cranmrs, all residing with a short distance of each other, and in order to distinguish one from another they were denominated thus: Old Josiah and Young Josiah, Big Josiah and Little Josiah, Over the Creek Josiah and Poplar Neck Josiah. The descendants of Stephen Cranmer wre quite numerous, many of which still reside in the township, and are classed among the more prominent farmers in Bass River Township.

This is what I have right now as the genealogy of William Cranmer and his descendants---some of it was given to me with no sources cited, and as such I can not vouch for it's authenticity.

William Cranmer married Elizabeth Carwithy of Southold, Long Island and Elizabethtown, NJ. Before he died in 1689, he became the father of:

  1. Thomas Cranmer
  2. John Cranmer
  3. Elizabeth Cranmer
  4. William Cranmer
William Cranmer, jr was born sometime around 1664. He was married to a woman named Rachel and was the father John Cranmer, who in turn married first Mary Andrews and second, Rebecca Stout. John and Rebecca had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Nehemiah Mathis. They had a daughter Rebecca who married Jacob Headley. Jacob Headley and Rebecca Mathis had daughter Hope who married Zepheniah Penn.
Hope Headley had a sister Rebecca who married Zepheniah's brother Jesse Penn.
Obviously there is a great deal more to this family...this is all I have right now but I will be adding more in the future.

Another visitor to this site was kind enough to send us this bit of genealogy concerning one particular branch of the Cramer family: Isaac Cramer was the father of
Charles Cramer who was the father of
DARIUS CRAMER, who was born December 08, 1808, and died September 13, 1858. He married SARAH ANN CRAMER on January 03, 1833. She was born June 29, 1816, and died May 27, 1897. Both Darius and Sarah are buried in Hillside Cemetery.

Their children were:

  1. LAVINIA CRAMER, b. November 27, 1833; d. 1895; m. CHALKLEY S. CRAMER, on May 16, 1854; Chalkley was b. 1833; d. December 13, 1855.
  2. WILLIAM G. CRAMER, b. August 10, 1837; d. November 29, 1912. He married Mary Frances Maxwell (3 Apr 1847-28 Aug 1907). Both are buried in Hillside Cemetery. They were the parents of:
  3. CHARLES HENRY "SPIDE" CRAMER, b. October 30, 1839.
  4. MARY ELIZABETH CRAMER, b. 1842.
  5. CALAB SMITH "SWAMPY" CRAMER, b. November 29, 1844.
  6. ELLIS S. CRAMER, b. 1845.
  7. SARAH ANN CRAMER, b. May 16, 1847.
  8. EMMA M. CRAMER, b. September 17, 1852.
  9. CHALKLEY SEARS CRAMER, b. May 02, 1856.
  10. DANIEL D. CRAMER, b. March 1858.
A visitor to this site provided me with this information from a Cramer family bible from Elizabeth, NJ:
Jeremiah Cramer - Born: 19 March 1800 in Elizebeth Town, New Jersey of Welsh descent, Death: ??, Marriage: 12 Oct. 1821 to Susanah Chase-Born: March 7, 1803 in Montrial Teower, Canada of English descent
Children of this marriage:
  1. Joseph
  2. Walter
  3. David
  4. John
  5. Isaac
  6. Morris
  7. Amy
  8. Sharlotte
  9. Elizabeth, born 28 Jul 1834
  10. Mary, born 28 Jul 1834, d. 16 Mar 1903, married 29 Sep 1855 to David Moe. They had:
Antoher visitor has recently added this tidbit of genealogy:
Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop) marrige margaret Osiander and had:
Margery Cranmer, who married Thomas Norton and had:
   Henry Norton, who married Sarah Lawton and had:
     Henry Norton, Jr., who settled in York, Maine in 1633. He was the father of:
       Elizabeth North, who married Sylvester Stover.

Sylvester was the father of :

Dependence Stover, who was the father of
	Joseph Stover, who was the father of Dependence Stover, who was the father of
		Jeremiah Stover, who was the father of 
			Lydia Arnold Stover, who married Rodney Moore Adams and had
				Lewis Huntley Adams.