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mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Soul and Spirit of History

May 13, 2013 — 5 Comments

Since I study history through my ancestors’ perspective when I can, my dreams have become full of the characters from whom I descend. The way war and conflict are taught in school ,winners and the vanquished   divide spoils and define conquest as history progressed.  Places, however, record, digest, and reflect history on a different level.  Environment and social structure result from human use of land and resources.  If ownership and preservation of historical culture is valued and given high priority, the place is subject to less wasteful development.  Pawtuxet, RI preserves history by keeping homes from the past in tact. Seeing places my ancestors have lived and died brings history to life for me, and fills my dreams with the struggles and joys they experienced.

The  village of Pawtuxet is a place where local residents function as the tourist board.  I was directed by local ladies at the cafe to drive up Post Road and start to look for Malachi Rhode’s home.  I found it right away and saw the current resident in his back yard.  I resisted the temptation to ask him if I could go into his back yard since my family had owned the home in the 1700’s.  I had visited the larger new cemetery with graves that included Rhodes in great number.  The small ancient graveyard on the Post Road was even more peaceful and special.  I found Malachi there, within walking distance of his house. His life is honored and his place in history kept as a treasure that belongs to the place.  Seeing and feeling the place put me in touch with the spirit of all my relations.

William Kirkcaldy of Scotland

May 11, 2013 — 7 Comments

William Kirkcaldy

William Kirkcaldy

My 13th great grandfather lived in Scotland when religion was making life very difficult for all involved.  Mary Stuart reigned as a Catholic.  Life was uneasy and brutal:

Biography from Wikipedia:

“Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange (c. 1520 – 3 August 1573), Scottish politician and general, was the eldest son of Sir James Kirkcaldy of Grange (d. 1556), a member of an old Fife family. The house of the Grange lands was Halyards Palace.

Sir James was lord high treasurer of Scotland from 1537 to 1543 and was a determined opponent of Cardinal Beaton, for whose murder in 1546 he was partly responsible. William Kirkcaldy assisted to compass this murder, and when the castle of St Andrew’s surrendered to the French in July 1547 he was sent as a prisoner to Normandy, whence he escaped in 1550.

He was then employed in France as a secret agent by the advisers of Edward VI, being known in the cyphers as Corax; and later he served in the French army, where he gained a lasting reputation for skill and bravery. The sentence passed on Kirkcaldy for his share in Beaton’s murder was removed in 1556, and returning to Scotland in 1557 he came quickly to the front; as a Protestant he was one of the leaders of the lords of the congregation in their struggle with the regent, Mary of Guise, and he assisted to harass the French troops in Fife. He opposed Queen Mary’s marriage with Darnley, being associated at this time with Moray, and was forced for a short time to seek refuge in England.

Returning to Scotland, he was an accessory to the murder of Rizzio, but he had no share in that of Darnley, and he was one of the lords who banded themselves together to rescue Mary after her marriage with Bothwell. After the fight at Carberry Hill the queen surrendered herself to Kirkcaldy, and his generalship was mainly responsible for her defeat at the Battle of Langside. Kirkcaldy sailed to Orkney as Lord High Admiral of Scotland in pursuit of Bothwell, but his ship, the Lion, ran aground.[1] He seems, however, to have believed that an arrangement with Mary was possible, and coming under the influence of William Maitland of Lethington, whom in September 1569 he released by a stratagem from his confinement in Edinburgh, he was soon vehemently suspected by his fellows.

After the murder of Moray, Kirkcaldy ranged himself definitely among the friends of the imprisoned queen. About this time he forcibly released one of his supporters from imprisonment, a step which led to an altercation with his former friend John Knox, who called him a murderer and throat-cutter. Defying the regent Lennox, Kirkcaldy began to strengthen the fortifications of Edinburgh castle, of which he was governor, and which he held for Mary, and early in 1573 he refused to come to an agreement with the regent Morton because the terms of peace did not include a section of his friends.

After this some English troops arrived to help the Scots, and in May 1573 the castle surrendered. Strenuous efforts were made to save Kirkcaldy from the vengeance of his foes, but they were unavailing; Knox had prophesied that he would be hanged, and he was hanged on the 3rd of August 1573.”

William Kirkcaldy (1520 – 1573)
is my 13th great grandfather
Janet Kirkcaldy (1520 – 1572)
daughter of William Kirkcaldy
William Carr (1542 – 1655)
son of Janet Kirkcaldy
Benjamin Carr (1592 – 1635)
son of William Carr
Caleb Carr (1623 – 1695)
son of Benjamin Carr
Sarah Carr (1682 – 1765)
daughter of Caleb Carr
John Hammett (1705 – 1752)
son of Sarah Carr
MARGARET HAMMETT (1721 – 1753)
daughter of John Hammett
Benjamin Sweet (1722 – 1789)
son of MARGARET HAMMETT
Paul Sweet (1762 – 1836)
son of Benjamin Sweet
Valentine Sweet (1791 – 1858)
son of Paul Sweet
Sarah LaVina Sweet (1840 – 1923)
daughter of Valentine Sweet
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Sarah LaVina Sweet
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

History and Record Keeping

April 30, 2013 — 1 Comment

If I learned one thing on my ancestry quest in Massachusetts it is that the record keeper is the author of  history.  I have realized this by finding census and other documents that conflict with each other while studying my ancestors.  Never has it been so clear.  I believed that the tribe would have the information on the tribe in Mashpee, so I went straight to the museum to inquire.  Because they rely on records kept by the Europeans the family trees are reconstructed using English last names.  They use what they have.  The records looked like they started in the 1800’s.

I was unhappy about  the state of affairs.  The tiny tribal museum has little funding, and can open only a few hours, a couple of days a week.  I then traveled to the big well funded museum at Plimouth Plantation.  Wow, what a difference!!!

The museum at Plimouth Plantation is doing some revisionist history in order to correct many of the assumptions and erroneous stories that exist about the Mayflower and the native people. The Pilgrims play characters in period costume, expressing the beliefs of the time and place.  The Pilgrims were religious prudes who considered themselves religiously superior to all other religions.  They also felt entitled to take anything they wanted from the native people because they had permission from the King of England. Their church was fortified on top with cannons in all directions.  I guess they felt that God and the King needed some back up.  Although I had a few Pilgrims and only one ( I think) Wampanoag ancestor, I distinctly disliked the pretend Pilgrims when I met them. I am, however, glad they kept some records at the time.

Moon Dance

February 8, 2013 — 3 Comments

The moon, the way we view it ,and the power it holds have been studied for all of history. The phases of the moon are significant in agriculture as well as business. Lunar calendars were used to measure time until the Catholics went Gregorian on the Euros. Since the Julian calendar , created by Julius Caesar in 46 BC was inaccurate in terms of the planets, the Pope became concerned that Easter was sliding into summer. Catholic calendar year is key to the liturgy practice and costuming. The whole system supporting the Easter Bonnet was slowly slipping away with each new year. Astronomers were hired to deal with the issue. The Greek Orthodox religion uses the Julian calendar now, as do the Berbers, the Ethiopians, and others concerned with historical continuity.

The Pope as a symbol was resisted by the Protestants. The idea that Pope Gregory would now change the way they counted time was not going to go over with the new religions that sprung up precisely to combat Popery. At his death the Vatican treasury was empty, but Gregory XIII had left his mark on time. For this reason the Gregorian style was not adopted at the same time. The Swiss used both calendars simultaneously for more than 100 years. The Catholic cantons adopted it when they got the bull from the Pope in 1582. The Protestants kept the Julian style rather than agree with a Catholic concept. The Protestant cantons gave in to the new calendar in 1700. The canton of St Gallen was the last hold out, continuing on the lunar side of life until 1724. The Chinese succumbed in 1949, but they still use their own lunar calendar.

News from Pope Gregory XIII

News from Pope Gregory XIII

Gregory XIII in elaborate Easter Bonnet

Gregory XIII in elaborate Easter Bonnet

Women in History-Anima Projection

February 4, 2013 — 3 Comments

The celebration of Women’s History Month will take place in March, 2013 with a theme about innovation and imagination. A  salute to women in engineering, math and science must include the women who broke into those and other fields after a struggle to be educated.  By following a timeline we can see the contributions women have made.  The Queen archetype, both in history and in mythology has power to rule with wisdom when she is at her best.  Queens inherit the power and responsibility of ruling people wisely.  The shadow queen is ruled by her own heart and lacks boundaries.

It is obvious that without women there could be no history, no men, and no archetypes.  Our collective consciousness is full of both reality and projections.  To create a better and more wholesome future it behooves us to sort out delusions in order to enlighten both men and women.  When archetypes are understood well the need to perceive the world by using stereotypes can vanish.  Stereotypes are cliche. Archetypes are infinitely instructive. When you look around the world do you notice examples of both? How do you avoid being a stereotype?

Providence Party

January 25, 2013 — 2 Comments

Space and time are the first two elements of fine festivity.  A party, gentle reader, must have room to breathe and become what it wants to be.  One can always have impeccable timing if one takes time to consider the elements and the goals.  My party in Providence, RI is to celebrate with the living and the dead.  I will visit some of my ancestors who lived there in the early 1600’s and discover people who live there now.  For me , this is an excellent balance.  I like both groups equally.

The city contains historic buildings and museums that will please me a great deal, but I have also perceived some excellent night life and party opportunities downtown. I will visit Plymouth Colony, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Wampanoag village before returning to Providence to party.  I will probably need a day to myself in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, after which I believe I will feel like painting Rhode Island red (a little rooster humor). I love nothing better than historic architecture put to modern artful uses.  I am highly attracted to the whole state because it is so tiny and well preserved. It appears to have fabulous taste and a high fun factor, not to mention a history of wealth and power. I am looking forward to discovering what Providence has in store for me.

Richard Earl Sefton Molyneux, 15th Great Grandfather

January 20, 2013 — 3 Comments

Battle of Blore Heath

Battle of Blore Heath

My 15th great grandfather was a knight involved with Brit royalty.  He lost his life defending it in a battle called Blore Heath.  They were fighting about roses (red and white, although I am still not sure what the symbols meant) and the right to the throne. They were royals.  They were angry. Things got bloody nasty:

The Battle of Blore Heath

September 23, 1459

After four years of uneasy peace the King presided over a wasting realm. No parliament had been summoned for three years, the country was sadly divided and distressed. The Yorkists were armed, armies were marching across all England. Lord Audley had recently raised a Lancastrian army centered round Market Drayton, and the Queen -through whom the King ruled- sent him orders to intercept Lord Salisbury, who was marching from Yorkshire to join the Duke of York at Ludlow. The two armies met head on two and a half miles east of Market Drayton at a place called Blore Heath. Salisbury, with 3,000 troops, was outnumbered by more than two to one, but could not avoid giving battle.

Audley took up a position just west of a little stream that crossed the Market Drayton-Newcastle-under-Lyme road, and Salisbury’s men were drawn up about 150 yards east of the present Audley Cross, which marks the spot where Lord Audley fell. The Yorkist left rested upon the boggy edge of a wood, but their right was in the air, and Salisbury made a laager of his wagons to protect this flank. Whether Salisbury feigned retreat in order to draw Audley on is not certain, but the Lancastrian commander was definitely the one to attack. Two cavalry charges were repulsed, the first with heavy loss to the Lancastrians, and then they mounted an infantry attack up the hill to the Yorkist position. But this too failed; there was no support from the cavalry, Lord Audley had already fallen and 500 Lancastrians chose this moment to desert to the enemy. Salisbury’s victory was complete and in the pursuit, which continued for two miles, the slaughter was very heavy. Possibly 2,000 Lancastrians perished in this battle, but fewer than 200 Yorkists fell.

For more information on the Battle of Blore Heath, contact Blore Heath 1459 online at  http://www.bloreheath.org

    YORKISTS                                                                                 LANCASTRIANS

Sir Christopher Conyers of Sokebourne, Durham

Sir Henry Bromflete, Wymington, Bedford

Sir John Conyers of Hornby, Yorkshire

Sir Robert del Booth of Wilmslow, Cheshire (killed in battle)

Sir Walter Devereux of Weobley, Herefordshire (killed in battle)

Sir John Bourchier of West Horsley, Surrey

Sir Richard Grey of Powis, Powis

Sir Hugh Calveley of the Lea, Cheshire (killed in battle)

Sir Richard Hamerton of Hamerton, Yorkshire

Sir William Catesby (Sr.) of Ashby St. Legers, Northamptonshire

Sir Thomas Harrington, Lancashire

Sir John Dawne of Cheshire

Sir Roger Kynaston of Hordley, Shropshire

Sir Jerkin Done of Wickington, Cheshire (killed in battle)

Sir Thomas Lumley of Lumley, Durham

Sir Robert Downes of Shrigley, (killed in battle)

Thomas Meering of Tong

Sir Thomas Dutton of Dutton, Cheshire (killed in battle)

Sir James Metcalfe of Nappa, Yorkshire

Sir John Dwnn of Cheshire, killed in battle

Sir John Middleton of Belsay Castle, Northumberland

Sir John Egerton of Egerton, Cheshire (killed in battle)

Sir Thomas Mountford of Hackforth, Yorkshire

Sir Nicholas of Eyton of Eyton, Shropshire

Sir Richard Neville (Earl of Salisbury) of Middleham, Yorkshire (fled to Calais)

Sir Richard Fitton of Gawsforth, Cheshire

Sir Richard Neville (Earl of Warwick) of Middleham, Yorkshire (fled to Calais)

Thomas Fitton, fate unknown

Sir Thomas Neville of Thornton Bridge, Durham

Sir John Haigh, killed in battle

Sir Robert Ogle of Ogle, Northumberland

Sir Edmund Hampden of Hampden, Buckinghamshire

Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal, Westmoreland

Sir Thomas Hesketh of Rufford, Lancashire

Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, fled to Ireland

Sir Henry Holland of Darlington, Devon

Sir William Pudsey of Selaby, Durham

Sir John Legh of Booths, Cheshire (killed in battle)

Sir James Strangeways of Whorlton, Yorkshire

Sir Philip Maunsell of Scrurlage, Glamorgan

Sir Walter Strickland of Sizergh, Westmoreland

Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton, Lancashire (killed in battle)

Sir John Wandesford of Kirklington, Yorkshire

Sir John Neville of Raby, Durham

Sir John Wenlock of Wenlock, Shropshire

Sir Ralph Shirley of Shirley, Sussex

Sir Walter Wrottesley of Wrottesley, Shropshire

Sir John Skidmore of Mochas, Herefordshire

 

Sir John Stanley of Pipe, Staffordshire

 

Sir Edmund Sutton of Dudley, Westmoreland

 

Sir John Sutton of Dudley, Westmoreland

 

Sir William Troutbeck of Dunham-on-the-Hill, killed in battle

 

James Touchet (Lord Audley) of Markeaton, Derbyshire (killed in battle)

 

Sir Hugh Venables of Kinderton (killed in battle)

           ©The Richard III Foundation, Inc. 

 

Sir Richard Earl Sefton Molyneux (1422 – 1459)
is my 15th great grandfather
Thomas Sir 8th Earl of Sefton Molyneux (1445 – 1483)
Son of Sir Richard Earl Sefton
Lawrence Castellan of Liverpool Mollenaux (1490 – 1550)
Son of Thomas Sir 8th Earl of Sefton
John Mollenax (1542 – 1583)
Son of Lawrence Castellan of Liverpool
Mary Mollenax (1559 – 1575)
Daughter of John
Francis Gabriell Holland (1596 – 1660)
Son of Mary
John Holland (1628 – 1710)
Son of Francis Gabriell
Elizabeth Holland (1652 – 1737)
Daughter of John
Richard Dearden (1645 – 1747)
Son of Elizabeth
George Dearden (1705 – 1749)
Son of Richard
George Darden (1734 – 1807)
Son of George
David Darden (1770 – 1820)
Son of George
Minerva Truly Darden (1806 – )
Daughter of David
Sarah E Hughes (1829 – 1911)
Daughter of Minerva Truly
Lucinda Jane Armer (1847 – 1939)
Daughter of Sarah E
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
Son of Lucinda Jane
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
Daughter of George Harvey
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee

Ghost Tourism

January 13, 2013 — 4 Comments

My Dead Peeps

My Dead Peeps

I have traveled in person only once to visit my dead ancestors and look for local records of their lives. I went to Tulsa, where I was born, and my grandparents are buried, but I can not find their graves. After my cousin went back to Iowa I did more investigation in the town where my father was born, Independence, KS. I drove to the small rural town of Ladore, where many of my ancestors settled when they came from Ohio and New York. I found the grave of one of my 2nd great grandmother while looking for somebody else. It made the hair stand up on my neck even in sweltering humid July in Kansas. I have been all over the world on all kinds of journeys, but this is a whole new way to look at travel…visiting history by combining the ancestors and geography. Kinky, and very cool.

I have accumulated and am trying to geographically arrange data on ancestors around Plymouth Colony, MA and around Jamestown, VA. I will go to both destinations eventually, but have to choose one to be the first. The peeps are mostly very fancy in both places and we know how to find many of the graves, some homes, etc. I am not really into them for the royal blood and fame, I just like them because they survived. It is nothing like visiting living relatives. They are past judgement and are all very low maintenance. They are what you might call spooky. I just learned from a local that Virginia is a vortex for ticks, which makes graves in Massachusetts instantly sound so much more appealing. I am thinking now of flying to tick free, but cold Boston. Someday I will procure the right tick graveyard gear to safely visit my Virginians…like Mary, who is in the private and elite graveyard at Warner Hall with a lot of my other ancestors:

The walled family cemetery of the Warner and Lewis families is located on the Warner Hall property, southeast of Warner Hall. Access to the Graveyard is from the road North of Warner Hall and not from Warner Hall or the Driveway to Warner Hall located West of the Graveyard. The cemetery is the final resting place for many of the Warner and Lewis family members. The family cemetery, is also the resting place for such well known ancestors of George Washington, Robert E. Lee, The Queen Mother of England, and Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth has visited Gloucester where she placed a wreath upon her ancestor’s grave. The cemetery has thirteen graves and plaques in memory of all the family. The cemetery is owned and maintained by the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (A.P.V.A.). The A.P.V.A. acquired the cemetery at Warner Hall in 1903, since which time the Association’s Gloucester Branch, now known as the Joseph Bryan Branch, has zealously maintained it.

There are thirteen graves in the Warner Hall Grave Yard. they are:1 Mary Warner (believed to be Mary Towneley Warner), 1614 – 16622 Augustine Warner I, 1611 – 16743 Augustine Warner II, 1642 – 16814 Mildred Reade Warner (wife of Augustine Warner II), 16945 Augustine Warner III, 1666 – 16866 Elizabeth Warner Lewis (d/o Augustine Warner II w/o Col John Lewis), 1672 – 17197 Col John Lewis (s/o John & Isabella Lewis h/o Elizabeth Warner), 1669 – 17258 Mary Chiswell Lewis (d/o John & Elizabeth Randolph Chiswell w/o Warner Lewis II, 1748 – 17769 Warner Lewis II (s/o Warner Lewis I & Eleanor Bowles Gooch Lewis & grandson of Col John Lewis & Elizabeth Warner Lewis), 1747 – 179110 Juliana Clayton (d/o Dr. Thomas & Isabella Lewis Clayton), 1731 – 173411 Isabella Lewis Clayton (d/o Col John Lewis & Elizabeth Warner w/o Dr. Thomas Clayton), 1706/7 – 1742 (the dates 1706/7 is exactly what is engraved on her stone)12 (Dr.) Thomas Clayton (h/o Isabella Lewis), 1701 – 173913 Caroline Lewis Barrett (d/o Warner Lewis II), 1783 – 1811

Mary Cant Towneley (1614 – 1662)
is my 11th great grandmother
Colonel Augustine II Warner (1642 – 1681)
Son of Mary Cant
Mary Warner (1664 – 1700)
Daughter of Colonel Augustine II
Augustine Warner Smith (1689 – 1756)
Son of Mary
Martha Cary (1682 – 1738)
Daughter of Augustine Warner
Mary Jacquelin (1768 – 1843)
Daughter of Martha
Johannes John SCHMIDT SMITH (1742 – 1814)
Son of Mary
Henry Smith (1780 – 1859)
Son of Johannes John
Swain Smith (1805 – )
Son of Henry
Jerimiah Smith (1845 – )
Son of Swain
Minnie M Smith (1872 – 1893)
Daughter of Jerimiah
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
Son of Minnie M
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
Son of Ernest Abner
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden
Private Graveyard at Warner Hall

Private Graveyard at Warner Hall

What Would My Ancestors Do?

December 23, 2012 — 1 Comment

Sears Cemetery

Sears Cemetery, Barnstable

You do not need to hold a seance to contact the spirits of the dead. You can use a few facts, or many facts if you have them, to query your ancestors. These are not fictional characters of history, but your DNA connection to the past. The novels you have read in your life can not possibly match the drama of the story of your particular historical survival.  Your ancestors handed down to you an ethical will.  Those who left no written document have nonetheless passed values to the future, with less precision. You are now actively creating the history and the ethics you want to survive in the world.

I started to study my ancestry to learn about the ethical will of my people, whoever they were.  My mother had never described her family in any racial terms.  I was taught that the Taylors were, in no uncertain terms, Confederate Rebels.  My mother, Ruby Taylor’s very large family all lived in Texas.  They were involved in religion to a much greater degree than our family living in Pittsburgh. The went to church at least three times a week, including Wednesday.  They did a bit of holy rolling and other practices foreign to me. Indeed, my great grandfather Taylor fought in the civil war and received a Confederate pension in Texas in his old age.  He was a farmer and preacher in the Church of Christ.  This story was the known history of the  Taylor tribe, and even this information was never retold to the Taylors of the 1960’s.

What nobody knew at the Taylor family reunion in Houston on the 4th of July each year in the 1960’s was that our Taylor forefather and his wife’s uncle had been burned at the stake as Protestant martyrs in England.  Now that is what I call a Rebel.  The roots of each family feed the ethical expression (also known as fruit) of the family spirit.  The tongue speaking, chicken frying Taylors of Humble/Houston all shared a particular extreme view of the Bible that freaked me out when I was young. The Pentecostal experience, when I was exposed to it, frightened me.   Now that I know about the stake burning it all makes perfect sense.

My forefathers and mothers in the grave yard pictured above lived in Holland, then sailed to Plymouth to build a shining city on a hill, creating a strong, complex ethical will.  They  had a lot to say about the way they thought all cosmology worked in harmony with government.  They had strong convictions by which they lived and died.  Now that I know more about the lives of these elders in my tribe I have a greater responsibility.  I can no longer look at Thanksgiving as a bunch of stuffing.  I need to discover the meaning of  the Puritan Ethic they created. The values they held are more significant than the physical goods they once owned in old Cape Cod.

On the surface they all seem to use the Bible as an excuse for their own human folly.  Just under the surface is the fact that humans have always indulged in folly to learn the folly of our ways.  What did they learn?  How can we acquire wisdom from their knowledge?

John Bourchier Sears, Holland to Plymouth

December 22, 2012 — 2 Comments

Sears COA

Sears COA

My 11th Great grandfather was so totally kicked out of England:

JOHN BOURCHIER, so named after his father, “he married MARIE L. daughter of PHlLIP VAN EGMONDE, of that city, and acquired with her a large fortune, principally in money. With this he was enabled to purchase property in Essex, adjoining the lands which he hoped soon to recover as his lawful patrimony. Amongst the estates thus bought were Bourchier and Little Fordham Manors, both of which had in former times belonged to his ancestors. But his return to England was resisted by those who were deeply interested in keeping at a distance so formidable a claimant to many of their broad acres. Strenuous and energetic were the efforts JOHN BOURCHIER SEARS made to remove the obstacles which intervened to keep him in exile; but all to no purpose. His opponents were inexorably hostile, and even threatened him with a prosecution, as a participator in the gunpowder plot, if he ventured to set foot in England. The attainder, it must be remembered, which hung over his grandfather, had never been removed, and still impended over the family at the time of his death in 1629.”
He left two sons and two daughter, RICHARD, JOHN, MARIE, and JANE, the three latter settled in Kent; the eldest son
“worn out by his parents’ want of success to recover their English possessions, determined at his father’s death to quit England for ever. He accordingly took passage, with a party of Puritans, for New England in America, and landed at Plymouth in Massachusetts on the 8th of May, 1630. Here he became the founder of a family which has attained wealth and honours in the New World, and died in 1676, leaving behind him three sons, KNYVET, PAUL, and SYLAS. “In the year 1851, a descendant of this family, the Honourable DAVID SEARS, of Boston, visited Colchester in company with a friend, Mr. H. G. SOMERBY, of London, and inspected with much interest the monuments in St. Peter’s Church. With a view to perpetuate the recollection of the ties that attached his family to the town of Colchester, Mr. SEARS caused a brass tablet to be engraved, and obtained the permission of the late Vicar (the Rev. S. CARR), for its erection on the North wall of the Church.”
This brass is divided into three columns, with the copies of the memorials on either side. The central column is headed by a coat of arms bearing the mottoes “EXALTAT HUMILES” and “HONOR ET FIDES”. Beneath is repeated the motto “Exaltat humiles” and the following:
Worth is better than wealth, Goodness better than nobility, Excellence better than distinction. To their Pilgrim Fathers, a grateful posterity. The outer columns transcribe the following memorials: Sacred to the Memory of Richard Sears, son of John Bouchier Sears and Marie L. Van Egmont in lineal descent from Richard Sears of Colchester and Ann Bouchier Knyvet, England. he landed at Plymouth in 1630, Married Dorothy Thacher and died in Yarmouth in 1676. Sacred to the Memory of Knyvet Sears eldest son of Richard Sears of Yarmouth, born in 1635, married Elizabeth Dymoke and died in England in 1686. Sacred to the Memory of Paul Sears, second son of Richard Sears born in 1637, married Deborah Willard and died in Yarmouth in 1707. Sacred to the Memory of Sylas Sears, third son of Richard Sears, born in 1639, married and died in Yarmouth in 1697. Sacred to the Memory of Daniel Sears, son of Knyvet Sears of Yarmouth born in 1682, married Sarah Hawes and died in Chatham in 1756. Sacred to the Memory of Daniel Sears II son of Daniel Sears of Chatham born in 1712, married Fear Freeman and died at Chatham in 1761. Sacred to the Memory of David Sears I son of Daniel Sears II of Chatham born in 1752, married Ann Winthrop and died in Boston in 1816. An explanation for this plate is given along the bottom edge: ON GRANITE MONUMENTS IN THE GRAVEYARDS OF YARMOUTH, AND CHATHAM, IN MASSACHUSETTS, NEW ENGLAND, IN NORTH AMERICA, ARE THE ABOVE INSCRIPTIONS TO THE MEMORY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE SAYERS OF ALDHAM, AND COLCHESTER. 1830.

John Bouchier Sears (1561 – 1629)
is your 11th great grandfather
Richard Sears (1590 – 1676)
Son of John Bouchier
Silas Sears (1638 – 1697)
Son of Richard
Silas Sears (1661 – 1732)
Son of Silas
Sarah Sears (1697 – 1785)
Daughter of Silas
Sarah Hamblin (1721 – 1814)
Daughter of Sarah
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
Daughter of Sarah
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
Daughter of Mercy
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
Son of Martha
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
Son of Abner
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
Son of Daniel Rowland
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
Son of Jason A
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
Son of Ernest Abner
Pamela Morse
am the daughter of Richard Arden