William Woodhall

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a clerk in the king's service.

Family/Spouse: Jennett Crakeplace. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Ullock in Dean, Cumberland, England

John married Elizabeth Grindall on 20 Oct 1542 in St. Bees, Cumberland, England. Elizabeth (daughter of William Grindal) was born between 1517 and 1522; died before Apr 1583. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Isabel Woodhall. She was a neice of Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of York and, later, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Elizabeth married Rev. William Wilson on 19 Jan 1579 in St. Mary's, Lambeth, Surrey, England. William (son of William Wilson) was born about 1542; died on 15 May 1615 in Windsor, Berkshire, England; was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Anderson, in Puritans and Pedigrees (citation details below) several times gives her birth as "about 1575." But her parents were married 19 Jan 1579 at St. Mary's, Lambeth, Surrey, a fact that Anderson reports on page 150 and footnotes to the St. Mary's parish register. (The pertinent page can be viewed on ancestry.com here; the line in question is fifth from the bottom on the left-hand page. As Anderson remarks, "Part of the bride's name is lost in the gutter of the image of the parish register that was consulted, and all that is visible is 'Isabel Wod,' but this is certainly the correct marriage record.") This being the case, a better estimated birth date for Mary Wilson would surely be "about 1580."

Mary married Rev. Thomas Sheafe about 1597. Thomas (son of Thomas Sheafe and Mary Harman) was born before 10 Oct 1562 in Cranbrook, Kent, England; was christened on 10 Oct 1562 in St. Dunstan, Cranbrook, Kent, England; died on 12 Dec 1639 in Wickham, Welford, Berkshire, England; was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between Aug 1588 and Aug 1589

Notes:

From Wikipedia (accessed 4 Jan 2024):

John Wilson [...] was a Puritan clergyman in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the minister of the First Church of Boston from its beginnings in Charlestown in 1630 until his death in 1667. He is most noted for being a minister at odds with Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy from 1636 to 1638, and for being an attending minister during the execution of Mary Dyer in 1660.

Born into a prominent English family from Sudbury in Suffolk, his father was the chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and thus held a high position in the Anglican Church. Young Wilson was sent to school at Eton for four years, and then attended the university at King's College, Cambridge, where he received his B.A. in 1610. From there he studied law briefly, and then studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he received an M.A. in 1613. Following his ordination, he was the chaplain for some prominent families for a few years, before being installed as pastor in his home town of Sudbury. Over the next ten years, he was dismissed and then reinstated on several occasions, because of his strong Puritan sentiments which contradicted the practices of the established church.

As with many other Puritan divines, Wilson came to New England, and sailed with his friend John Winthrop and the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. He was the first minister of the settlers, who established themselves in Charlestown, but soon crossed the Charles River into Boston. Wilson was an encouragement to the early settlers during the very trying initial years of colonization. He made two return trips to England during his early days in Boston, the first time to persuade his wife to come, after she initially refused to make the trip, and the second time to transact some business. Upon his second return to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, Anne Hutchinson was first exposed to his preaching, and found an unhappy difference between his theology and that of her mentor, John Cotton, who was the other Boston minister. The theologically astute, sharp-minded, and outspoken Hutchinson, who had been hosting large groups of followers in her home, began to criticize Wilson, and the divide erupted into the Antinomian Controversy. Hutchinson was eventually tried and banished from the colony, as was her brother-in-law, Reverend John Wheelwright.

Following the controversy, Wilson and Cotton were able to work together to heal the divisions within the Boston church, but after Cotton's death, more controversy befell Boston as the Quakers began to infiltrate the orthodox colony with their evangelists. Greatly opposed to their theology, Wilson supported the actions taken against them, and supervised the execution of his former parishioner, Mary Dyer in 1660. He died in 1667, the longest-lived of the early ministers in the Boston area, and his passing was lamented by those who knew him and worked with him, but he is also remembered for the roles he played in the persecution of those who did not embrace the Puritan orthodoxy.

From Robert Charles Anderson, John C. Brandon, and Paul C. Reed, "The Ancestry of the Royally-Descended Mansfields of the Massachusetts Bay" (citation details below):

Rev. John Wilson's career is covered in detail in such sources as The Great Migration Begins and The Dictionary of American Biography, but his interaction with the Puritan gentry of England has been minimized in these accounts, and it may be interesting to mention it here. The DAB, quoting Mather, states that, early in his career, he "served as chaplain in several 'Honourable and Religious Families,' among them that of Henry Leigh." Henry Leigh was the third husband of Ruth (Hampden) (Oglethorp) Scudamore, Lady Scudamore by virtue of her marriage to Sir Philip Scudamore. She seems to have lived at Henley-on-Thames in the period during which Wilson served as her chaplain. When he admonished the men in Lady Scudamore's household for their frivolous speech on the Sabbath,

Mr. Leigh, the lady's husband, was very angry; whereof when the lady advised Mr. Wilson, wishing him to say something that might satisfie him [Leigh], he replied, 'Good madam, I know not wherein I have given any just offence; and therefore I know of no satisfaction that I owe: your ladyship has invited me to preach the good word of God among you; and so I have endeavoured according to my ability: now such discourse as this, on the Lord's day, is profane and dis- orderly: if your husband like me not, I will be gone. When the lady informed her husband how peremptory Mr. Wilson was in this matter, he mended his countenance and carriage; and the effect of this reproof was, that unsuitable discourse, on the Lord's day, was cured among them.

Mather mentions other members of the aristocracy in contact with Wilson. When Wilson was prevented from receiving his M.A. degree,

...he repaired unto his father, at whose house there happened then to be present the Countess of Bedford's chief gentleman, who had business with the Earl of Northampton, the Chancellor of the university. And this noble person, upon the information which that gentleman gave him of the matter, presently wrote a letter to the Vice-chancellor, on behalf of our young Wilson; whereupon he received his degree ...

Later, in trouble for his Puritanism, "Mr. Wilson obtained from the truly noble Earl of Warwick, to sign a letter, which the Earl bid himself to draw up, unto the Bishop, on his behalf; by the operation of which letter, his liberty for the exercise of his ministry was again procured." Irvonwy Morgan argues that John's brother, Dr. Edmund Wilson, may have owed his advancement -- in some degree -- to the patronage of Sir Horatio and Lady Mary Vere, who were strong Puritans.

Rev. married Elizabeth Mansfield before 1617. Elizabeth (daughter of John Mansfield and Elizabeth) was born before 3 Dec 1592; was christened on 3 Dec 1592 in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England; died about 1658 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The generally excellent Abandoning America (citation details below) gives her as a daughter of Dr. Edmund Sheafe. But John Brooks Threlfall (citation details below) presents convincing proof that her father was Thomas Sheafe, a brother of Edmund. First, Thomas Sheafe's 1639 will refers to his "daughter Dorothy Whitfield." Second, Threlfall shows the 1617 marriage contract between, on the one hand, Henry Whitfield and his father, and on the other, Dorothy Sheafe and her father, which further demonstrates that Dorothy's father was Thomas Sheafe:

Indenture tripartite made 20 September, 15 James I (1617) between Thomas Whitfeld of Mortlake, county Surrey, esquire, and Henry Whitfeld of Okelye in the same county, clerk, on the first part; Thomas Sheafe of Wickham, county Barks., Doctor of Divinity and Dorothy Sheafe, spinster, his daughter, on the second part; Thomas Woodwarde of Lyncolns Inne, county Middlesex, esquire, Richard Kinge of Lyncolns Inne, esquire, Thomas Rashleigh of the Strande, London, gentleman, and David Rawsoune of St. Gregoryes, London, woollen draper, on the third part, being the settlement previous to the marriage of the said Henry Whitfeld and Dorothy Sheafe; in consideration of £400, her marriage portion, the said Thomas Whitfeld and Henry Whitfeld covenant to levy a fine and suffer recovery of their messuage and 100 ac. of fresh marsh in Bexhill, called Wrenhams, and also of their closes of pasture and fresh marsh, called Jesus marshe in Aylsham alias Haylsham, the said recovery to enure, as to the said messuage and 70 ac. of fresh marsh land in Bexhill to the use of the said Henry Whitfeld and Dorothy Sheafe, and the heirs of the said Henry Whitfeld, and as to the other 30 ac. of fresh marsh called Wrenhams and the lands called Jesus marshe to the use of the said Henry Whitfeld, his heirs and assigns. Seal & Signatures of Thomas Whytfeld and Henry Whitfeld.

[Sussex Archaeological Society, Vol. 37, p. 46.]

Abandoning America and John Brooks Threlfall also disagree on a major point of Dorothy Sheafe's life: whether she accompanied her husband, Henry Whitfield, back to England when he returned there permanently in 1650. Threlfall says that she did not, that she "continued to live in the stone house on its commanding knoll long after her husband's departure," but that in 1659, Dorothy "returned to England and lived there until her death in 1669." Moore says that after Henry's death, Dorothy "visited New England in 1659, perhaps to settle her husband's estate at Guilford", which would seem to imply that she either accompanied him or followed him back to England early in the 1650s. Where Moore and Threlfall appear to agree is that Dorothy was granted probate in Henry's estate on 29 Jan 1658. We aren't expert enough to know whether this is something that would plausibly happen in the early 17th century if the testator's preferred executor was an ocean away.

Dorothy married Rev. Henry Whitfield in 1618. Henry (son of Thomas Whitfield and Mildred Fortune Manning) was born about 1590 in Mortlake, Surrey, England; died before 17 Sep 1657; was buried on 17 Sep 1657 in Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, Hampshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Rev. married Sarah Hooker before 1649. Sarah (daughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker and Susannah Garbrand) was born before 21 Feb 1630; was christened on 21 Feb 1630 in Broomfield, Essex, England; died on 20 Aug 1725 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Rev. Samuel Danforth on 5 Nov 1651. Rev. (son of Nicholas Danforth and Elizabeth Barber) was born in Sep 1626 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England; was christened on 17 Oct 1626 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England; died on 19 Nov 1674 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sarah married Rev. John Higginson before 1646 in Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut. John (son of Rev. Francis Higginson and Anne Herbert) was born before 31 Aug 1616 in Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England; was christened on 11 Aug 1616 in Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England; died on 9 Dec 1708 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was ordained pastor of the Taunton church in 1688. He also practiced medicine and law.

Rev. married Hannah Allen on 4 Oct 1688. Hannah (daughter of Rev. James Allen and Elizabeth Houchin) was born on 22 Jul 1668; died on 3 Dec 1761; was buried in Riverview Cemetery, Groveland, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"John Higginson was one of the great merchants of Salem, and held many public offices. In 1678, he was chosen to keep the town books, and was frequently selectman. He was deputy from Salem, 1685, 1689, and 1691, and a member of the Council from 1700 until his death. He was also county treasurer and justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was commissioned ensign in 1675 and promoted until, in 1701, he ranked as colonel." [Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson, citation details below.]

John married Sarah Savage on 9 Oct 1672 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. Sarah (daughter of Capt. Thomas Savage and Mary Symmes) was born on 25 Jun 1653 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; was christened on 26 Jun 1653 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died before 26 Jun 1713; was buried on 26 Jun 1713 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Sarah Leonard on 11 Jun 1730. Sarah (daughter of James Leonard and Hannah Walley) died on 22 May 1742. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A merchant. Registrar of probate, 1698-1702; selectman in 1704. A lieutenant in 1797, his estate settlement calls him "captain."

John married Hannah Gardner on 11 Sep 1695 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. Hannah was born on 4 Apr 1676 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 24 Jun 1713 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A DAR lineage says that he "was a private in Capt. Seth Gilbert's company, Col. John Daggett's, regiment, which marched in the Lexington Alarm of 1775."

Elijah married Susanna Copeland on 1 Oct 1761. Susanna (daughter of Deacon Benjamin Copeland and Sarah Allen) was born on 1 Apr 1740 in Norton, Bristol, Massachusetts; died on 12 Mar 1816. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Rev. Benjamin Prescott on 20 Oct 1715 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. Benjamin (son of Capt. Jonathan Prescott and Elizabeth Hoar) was born on 16 Sep 1687 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 27 May 1777 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Asa married Hannah Walker on 27 Nov 1806. Hannah (daughter of Eleazar Walker and Catherine "Caty" Carpenter) was born on 12 Jun 1785 in Norton, Bristol, Massachusetts; died on 3 Jun 1823. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Benjamin married Rebecca Minot on 12 Aug 1741 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Rebecca (daughter of Col. James Minot and Martha Lane) was born on 5 May 1720 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 8 Oct 1761 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Asa married Catherine Ariana Rupert on 25 Feb 1839 in Pekin, Tazewell, Illinois. Catherine (daughter of Henry S. Rupert and Naomi Henkel) was born on 3 Dec 1819 in Point Pleasant, Macon, Virginia; died on 4 Feb 1901 in Washington, Tazewell, Illinois; was buried in Glendale Cemetery, Washington, Tazewell, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also spelled Rebekah.

Rebecca married Roger Sherman on 12 May 1763 in Danvers, Essex, Massachusetts. Roger (son of William Sherman and Mehetabel Wellington) was born on 19 Apr 1721 in Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 23 Jul 1793 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From his Find a Grave page (citation details below): "Henry attended Lombard College in Galesburg, IL. Along with his uncle, George W. Danforth, they built the town of Danforth, IL. and had a banking business there. He built the Danforth Bank and Danforth Hotel in Washington and also had a lumber company here. Besides being a successful businessman he also served as the Mayor of Washington."

Note that the Wikipedia page for Danforth, Illinois calls the town's founder "George M. Danforth", citing Henry Gannett's 1905 The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, which also calls him "George M. Danforth." From the evidence of Find a Grave, and also the town records of Norton, Massachusetts, this is an error both in Gannett's book and on Wikipedia. At https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40947601/george-walker-danforth, we find a page for an uncle of Henry Rupert Danforth whose gravestone at Glendale Cemetery in Washington, Illinois clearly reads "GEORGE W. DANFORTH 1807-1882". The page states that his middle initial W stood for "Walker". and that he was born 5 Sep 1807 in Norton, Bristol, Massachusetts, a son of Asa Danforth and Hannah Walker. And indeed the town records of Norton show a George Walker Danforth born 5 Sep 1807, "ch. Asa and Hannah".

Henry married Mary Elizabeth Wenger on 2 Nov 1865. Mary (daughter of Dr. Elias Wenger and Eliza Jane Smith) was born on 15 Nov 1843; died on 11 Jan 1930; was buried in Glendale Cemetery, Washington, Tazewell, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Shortly after the Revolution, he spent two weeks visiting George Washington at Mount Vernon.

On 31 Jan 1794, with his uncle Benjamin Prescott, he formed the firm of Prescott & Sherman, trading in dry goods, groceries, navigation, shoemaking, and tanning.

Representative for New Haven in the Connecticut General Assembly, May and October 1810 and May 1811.

Roger married Susanna Staples on 7 Jan 1801 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut. Susanna (daughter of Rev. John Staples and Susanna Perkins) was born on 20 Aug 1778 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut; died on 22 Nov 1855 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Herman married Louise W. Leonard on 18 Oct 1905 in Pekin, Tazewell, Illinois. Louise (daughter of Frederick Leonard and Mary Lou Turner) was born in 1883 in Illinois; died in 1959 in Illinois; was buried in Glendale Cemetery, Washington, Tazewell, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Nordhoff, California was renamed Ojai during World War I.

Elizabeth married Thomas Anthony Thacher on 1 Aug 1860 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut. Thomas (son of Peter Thacher and Ann Parks) was born on 11 Jan 1815 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; died on 7 Apr 1886 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lieutenant (JG), US Naval Reserve, WWII.

His ashes were scattered at sea by the US Navy.

Herman married Ruth Marie Gelpi in Nov 1944 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana. Ruth (daughter of Dr. Maurice Joseph Gelpi and Ruth Marie de Grange) was born on 10 Jan 1926 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana; died on 16 Dec 2000 in Scottsdale, Maricopa, Arizona. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From www.ywcasf-marin.org/marin-womens-hall-fame/honorees/elizabeth-thacher-kent:

Elizabeth Thacher Kent, a matriarch in the founding family of Kentfield, is one of the few Marin County women to be elected posthumously to the Marin Women's Hall of Fame. Kent was a distinguished proponent of women's rights and international peace and was instrumental in securing women's right to vote.

Kent took up permanent residence in Marin in 1907 and immediately became a vocal activist in support of women's' suffrage. When her husband, William, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Kent leveraged her position as a Congressman's wife to support the national suffrage movement. She was a featured speaker at the 1913 and 1914 conventions of the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and shortly thereafter assumed leadership of their Congressional Committee. By 1915, she helped form the Congressional Union (later re-named the Women's Party), which picketed the White House in support of suffrage. Kent was arrested twice for her suffrage demonstrating. However, her cause prevailed and in August 1920 the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed guaranteeing American women the right to vote.

In addition to supporting suffrage, Elizabeth Kent was committed to the cause of world peace. In the 1930's, she provided leadership to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She and her husband were also early supporters of the fledging conservation movement. They donated a large tract of land to the U.S. Government to preserve old-growth redwoods. Their gift, the Muir Woods National Monument, provides a lasting testimony to the Kents' exemplary lives of public service.

Elizabeth married Rep. William Kent on 26 Feb 1890 in Nordhoff, California. Rep. (son of Albert Emmet Kent and Adaline Elizabeth Dutton) was born on 29 Mar 1864 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois; died on 13 Mar 1928 in Kentfield, Marin, California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married George Stanleigh Arnold on 26 Feb 1915 in Washington, D.C.. George (son of George Sumner Arnold and Evelyn Greenwood Thompson) was born on 3 Apr 1881 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut; died on 18 Jan 1942 in Marin, California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

http://www.sfgenealogy.com/boards/mcobits/archive4/5426.html:

Elizabeth 'Bibbs' [sic] Arnold of Los Altos, a mathematician, environmentalist and wildlife advocate who helped crack the Japanese code during World War II, died Friday, Sept. 18, 1992, at her Los Altos Hills home of lung cancer. She was 76.

A native of San Francisco, Dr. Arnold was reared in Marin County and was the oldest grandchild of Rep. William Kent, for whom the city of Kentfield was named.

The daughter of a prominent San Francisco attorney, Eugene Arnold, she attended the Katherine Branson School in Ross and graduated first in her class in 1932. The school later named a day in her honor after she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Vassar College in her junior year.

After graduating from Vassar in 1937, Dr. Arnold earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1941.

During World War II, Dr. Arnold was recruited by the Navy and worked on a team of cryptographers cracking Japanese codes, for which she received a Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

In the 1960s, Dr. Arnold worked on machine language translation at Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. Inc.

After her retirement in 1969, Dr. Arnold helped establish a recycling center in Los Altos and worked with Wildlife Rescue, helping injured animals.

Dr. Arnold is survived by her husband of 46 years, Dr. William Francis Whitmore of Los Altos; four sons, Charles Whitmore of Washington, D.C., Edward Whitmore of San Francisco, Thomas Whitmore of Oakland and Peter Whitmore of Victoria, B.C. Also surviving are her brothers, George Stanleigh Arnold of Kentfield, Peter Arnold of Grass Valley and Anthony Arnold of Novato.

-----

Note that the above obituary is in error in two respects. Her father was George Stanleigh Arnold, not Eugene Arnold; and her family nickname was "Bibba", not "Bibbs."

Her page at the Mathematics Genealogy Project is here, showing her to be a generation of advisors closer to Felix Klein than her husband was.

-----

Elizabeth Sherman Arnold and William Francis Whitmore were 7th cousins, both being 6XG-grandchildren of Col. John Lane (1661-1715) and Susanna Whipple (1661-1713).

Elizabeth married William Francis Whitmore on 1 Nov 1946. William (son of Charles Edward Whitmore and Elizabeth Manning Gardiner) was born on 6 Jan 1916 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 6 Jan 1996. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]