John Clarke

Here comes my next ancestor for the week, my cousin Sheena, has been wanting me to write about him since I started this journey of writing about a different ancestor every week this year.  So for week #43 here he is, John Clarke, master’s mate and navigator of the Mayflower and my 10^th great-grandfather on my Daddy’s side of the family through his mother, my grandmother Jessie Doss.

I do not have an actual birth date for John Clarke, but I do have his christening date which was March 26, 1575 in Rotherhithe, Surrey, England.  Most children in England were christened within a few weeks of their birth up to the age of two, though you will find some christened when they were older as well, so I am assuming for now that John was born between 1573 and  1575 before his christening date of March 26^th.   John was the son of William Clarke and Margaret Walker and grandson of Sir Thomas Clarke who was a knight in the courts of England.  Since this is so far back I have not really done any looking yet to see what if any brothers and sisters, John might have had.  John’s parents were probably born in the mid to late 1540’s as they were married January 22, 1570 in Fowlmere, Hertfordshire, England.  I have yet to find any christening dates for John’s parents, but the records do start to get a little slim once you are back this far.  John’s grandfather is as far back as I have gotten to date on this line, and since John’s grandfather was a knight, his line is bound to tie back into royalty somewhere, but I just don’t have the time to search right now to see if I can find such a link.

I don’t know much about John’s growing up years, but again I am assuming that he went to school and when he was old enough he must have started his maritime/naval training.  Since his grandfather was a knight the family would have had a little better set of circumstances in which John would have been privy too.  Again, assumptions, but I figure he finished his training and then probably got assigned to his first ship.  Then, after this time, he met and got married to Mary Morton on February 18, 1598 in Stepney, Middlesex, England.  I do not know anything about Mary Morton yet, she was probably born about 1575 to 1577 in England, but who her parents or any siblings were I do not know at this time.

Just a little history about what a Master’s Mate/Navigator was and what his duties would have been was found at www.Wikepedia.com and reads as follows: “Master's mates was a rating for experienced seamen, and were usually selected from the ranks of the quartermasters, who they supervised, or from the ranks of midshipmen who wanted more responsibility aboard ship; they were less commonly selected from other mates of warrant officers and able seamen. Master's mates were allowed to command vessels, walk the quarterdeck, and mess in the gunroom with the other warrant officers.

Master's mates were responsible for fitting out the ship, and making sure they had all the sailing supplies necessary for the voyage. They hoisted and lowered the anchor, and docked and undocked the ship. They would examine the ship daily, notifying the master if there were problems with the sails, masts, ropes, or pulleys. They executed the orders of the master, and would command in his place if he was sick or absent.

Normally master's mates worked on a three-watch system, with the lieutenants, so that one served as the deputy to the lieutenant on each watch. Master's mates generally assisted the master in navigating the ship and directly supervised the quartermasters in steering the ship. The master's mate with the highest seniority was appointed the head of the midshipman's berth and was responsible for teaching mathematics, navigation, and sailing lore.  Master's mates had to keep detailed logs similar to midshipmen.  They were also responsible for the division of the crew that included the petty officers.”  That seems like a lot of responsibility for a young man.

John Clarke and Mary Morton soon became the parents of at least two known sons, Thomas Clarke 1599-1697, who married Susan Ring, and then Mrs. Alice Hallett Nichols.  Thomas Clarke came to Plymouth, Massachusetts from England in the ship Anne, in 1623 and he was also one of the original proprietors of Harwich, Massachusetts.  John and Mary’s other known son was my 9^th great-grandfather, Edward Clarke, 1602-before April 1666, I have yet to find his wife’s name and I know of only one child, Michael Clarke who was my 8^th great-grandfather.  Edward was listed as a planter of Virginia in February 1623.  In 1624, he was awarded 200 acres by the Virginia Company, as a result of his late father's service.  He evidently returned to England for some reason, settling at Thriplow, Cambridgeshire, England where he died before April 1666.

The historic counties of Great Britain are shown here in the following map which I found at this link: http://www.picturesofengland.com/mapofengland/historic-uk-counties.html  I have circled the counties/shires in England that my Clarke family lived in before coming to America.

John’s wife Mary Morton apparently died sometime before April of 1610 and possibly even in childbirth with my direct line Edward, since I only know of the two children she and John had together and no others.  I do know that John remarried on April 18, 1610 in Rotherhithe, Surrey, England to Sibil Farr.  If they had any children together I have yet to find any. 

As I stated previously John was a master’s mate, ship navigator and or pilot on a number of ships throughout his career.  At www.findagrave.com I found this little bio about him that states: “He made several voyages to Jamestown, Virginia as early as 1609.  On about June 21, 1611 just three months after arriving in Virginia from London, he was taken captive by the Spanish, at Point Comfort, whereupon he was taken to Havana and interrogated, and then on to Seville and then Madrid, where he remained a prisoner until January 26, 1616 when he was released in a prisoner exchange.  After returning to England, he piloted the Falcon in 1619, under command of Captain, Thomas Jones, a sometimes pirate, to Virginia.  After returning to England again, he was then hired as master's mate on the Mayflower, setting sail in August 1620, carrying the Pilgrims on their historic voyage to Plymouth Colony.  Clark's Island in Duxbury Bay is named after him, because he miraculously brought the shallop ashore during a strong storm on one of these expeditions.  He returned to England in the spring of 1621.   In early 1622, "for his good service in many voyages to Virginia", the Virginia Company bestowed upon him two shares of land there.  He again sailed to Virginia on April 10, 1623, on Daniel Gookin's ship, the "Providence" but died shortly after his arrival in Jamestown.” 

These two shares of land is probably what his two sons, Thomas and Edward received, since John did not live long enough to do anything with them himself.  For those that might not know what a shallop was, I found a definition in an online dictionary that states the following: “Any of various vessels formerly used for sailing or rowing in shallow waters, especially a two-masted, gaff-rigged vessel of the 17th and 18th centuries.”   I found the following picture of a replica of the Mayflower and its shallop at this link: https://www.woodenboat.com/pilgrim-shallop-ii

There are many, many sites that will tell you about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims and their voyage to America, so I won’t even begin to go there.  There are also tons of sites that talk about Jamestown and the things that went on there as well.  To think that one of my ancestors stood there when Plymouth and Jamestown were just starting is mind blowing to me and so exciting.  Don’t you wish you could have a time machine and go back and see your ancestors making history so to speak.  The following pictures I thought were kind of cool and were found at these links: http://aenet.esuhsd.org/citizenship_lessons/new/mayflower.gif & http://www.britannica.com/place/Jamestown-Colony

392 years since his death and I am sure his descendant’s number in the hundreds of thousands by now.  His descendants have been state governors, explorers, military leaders, teachers, farmers and I am sure a scoundrel or two as well, but what a legacy he left and the stories he could have told of his voyages across the seas and the people he met along the way.  Just think he would have met and known William Bradford, Edward Winslow, John Alden, Priscilla Mullens and John Smith to name a few and maybe even Chief Powhatan and his daughter, Pocahontas.  I mention Pocahontas because for years family stories said that she was one of our ggggg-grandmothers through one of her descendants, somewhere on this Clarke line, but unfortunately that is not the case, though it would have been pretty cool to call her our grandmother.  The following picture of Pocahontas I found at www.Wikipedia.com and was done by Simon de Passe in 1616.

John Clarke’s name is on a plaque called “The First Encounter Monument” and it is located at the end of Samoset Road at First Encounter Beach on Cape Cod Bay.  It reads as follows: On this spot hostile Indians had their first encounter, December 8, 1620 with Myles Standish, John Carver, William Bradford, John Tilley, Edward Winslow, John Howland, Edward Tilley, Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins, Edward Dotey, John Allerton, Thomas English, Master Mate Clark, Master Gunner Copin and three sailors of the Mayflower Company.  Provincetown Tercentenary 1620 commission 1920, John F. Paramino, sculpture, 1922 Boston, Massachusetts.  The following picture of that monument I found at this link and it follows: http://www.capecodgravestones.com/easthampixweb/firenccove.html

For such a short life span, only about 48 to 50 years old when he died, John Clarke saw and witness some of the defining moments in American History.  He was there for Jamestown, Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims, but he apparently missed that first Thanksgiving, as records say he left in the spring of 1621, to go back to England, and that first Thanksgiving was held in the fall of that year.  Records say that John Clarke, died shortly after his arrival back in Jamestown on April 10, 1623 and so he is probably buried somewhere near Jamestown in an unknown grave.  He is an ancestor I am proud to say belongs to me.

Robert Hosey Davis

This week’s ancestor is my 3^rd great-grandfather, Robert Hosey Davis, from my Mom’s side of the family.  I wrote about his daughter, Anna Susan Hall Penninger Floyd, my 2^nd great-grandmother on week 5, this year.  Robert Hosey Davis was born on November 20, 1825 in Wayne County, North Carolina and was the youngest child and son of William Davis and Lavina Hosey.

According to a history I found about Robert, he was one of ten children that his parents had together, but so far I can only find the names of two of these ten children, besides my grandpa Robert and they are the following:  George Washington Davis, 1815-1858, he married Elizabeth Hileman who was a sister to Susan Hileman, Robert’s first wife; and Mary E. Davis, 1821-after 1887, she married Elijah J. Cross in 1839.   The history said there were three of these ten children living in 1887, so I am assuming they are talking about Robert and Mary, but I don’t know who the third one was yet.  I have tried to locate a will for his father hoping to find children’s names listed, but so far I have not had any luck doing so.

The history I mentioned in the above paragraph, reads as follows and was taken from the "History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties of Illinois"  -1887-  "Robert H. Davis, farmer, was born in 1824 in Wayne County, North Carolina the youngest of ten children (three living) of William and Lavina Hosey Davis.  The father, of English-Irish descent, born about 1765 in Georgia, left home at twenty-two, and went to North Carolina, where he married.  When our subject was three years old they went to Union County, Illinois and engaged in farming, but in 1828 finally settled in Alexander County, where he died two years later.  The mother, of English origin, born in North Carolina about 1775, then lived with her daughter, Mrs. Cross, in Union County, until her death about 1840.  Our subject was, after his father's death, hired out to squatters to support the family until he was eighteen, when he married Hannah Hileman and settled eighty acres in Union County.  Two of their five children are living------Elizabeth, wife of W. (William P.) Marshall and Mary, wife of L. (Levi Cowan) Pettinger (It is actually Penninger).  After his wife's death in 1852 he moved to Cape Girardeau County, Missouri where he bought a 100 acre woodland tract on the Mississippi River, near Hamburg Landing and established a wood yard for furnishing fuel for steamboats.  About a year and a quarter later he went to Pope County, Illinois and settled on 110 acres.  In 1860 he married Susan, daughter of Howard and Juliet (Pierson) Gaskins, near Harrisburg.  Their seven children are Levi; Harriet, wife of George Burnett; Juliet, wife of Augustus Bright; Ardenia, wife of John Smith; Florence; Delia and Warren E. and a boy and girl both deceased.  In October 1873, he traded his Pope County farm for his present farm of 110 acres, well improved, and has become one of the first farmers of the county from his beginning as a squatter's servant.  Formerly a Democrat, he has since 1860 been a Republican, first voting for Cass.  He is also a Prohibitionist.  In 1882 B. & Thomas Garner made him their manager for clearing and buying $7,000 worth of land, and he now has charge of 700 acres for them, 65 acres of which are cleared.  He has also loaned money for the Saline County Bank, with the same success in managing as he has shown in his other enterprises."

You will notice the above little bio does not mention all of his children by name, nor all of his wives, so I will do that now.  Robert’s first wife and I don’t have a date for this marriage but probably around 1843-1844 and possibly in Union County, Illinois was to Hannah Hileman, 1826-1852, and they had at least five children according to the history, but I only know the names of four of them all girls, named: Luticia Jane Davis, 1845-before 1887; Mary Catherine Davis, 1847-1931, married Levi Cowan Penninger in 1864; Elizabeth L. Davis, 1850-after 1918, married William P. Marshall and then Lyman W. Wilcox; and Caroline Davis, 1852-after 1860.  I am assuming that Hannah died in childbirth or shortly thereafter with their daughter Caroline.

Second, Robert married Mrs. Martha Nash, 1820-before 1858, on January 16, 1853 in Union County, Illinois.  Martha apparently died or they were divorced, but I know nothing else about her, maybe they had a child together and she died in childbirth too.

Third, Robert possibly married and then divorced, my ancestor Mary ‘Polly’ Anna Tullum Hall, 1839-after 1879, around 1858, and they had their only known child, a daughter who was my 2^nd great-grandmother, Anna Susan Davis, 1859-1919.  Anna married first in 1878 in Stonefort, Miles Giles Penninger, 1857-1931, he was a younger brother to Levi Cowan Penninger who married Anna’s half-sister, Mary Catherine Davis, and they were divorced before 1885.  She then married second in 1885, to my 2^nd great-grandfather, John Henry Floyd, 1853-1937.  Mary ‘Polly’ Anna Tullum Hall, was also supposed to have been married to Henry Seal(s) in about 1861, but again I cannot find a marriage record for her to him, but I know they had at least six children together, William Fountain Seal, George Seal, Frona Seal, Florence Marion Seal, James Melvin Seal and Lula O. Seal.

Fourth, Robert married Susan Gaskins, 1840-1890, on April 15, 1860 in Saline County, Illinois.  They became the parents of nine children according to the history, but I have the names for only eight of them.  These children were: Levi Davis, 1861-1922, married Mary Florence Clarinda Gaines in 1884; Harriet J. Davis, 1864-1911, married George Ewing Burnett in 1880; Juliet J. Davis, 1865-1919, married Augustus Henry Bright in 1884; Hardinia Davis, 1867-after 1919, married John Matthew Smith in 1884; Eli Davis, 1869-before 1880 (family stories say he wondered off into the woods and was never seen again); Florence Mana Davis, 1872-1956, married John William Lindle in 1899; Delia A. Davis, 1875-1962, married James Wise in 1893; and Warren Ewing Davis, 1880-1905, census records say that he was mentally handicapped in some way.

Fifth, Robert married, Mrs. Sarah E. Turner Travelstead, 1836-after 1900, on December 4, 1890 in Saline County, Illinois.  They did not have any children together, but she had at least eleven children by Mr. Travelstead according to the 1900 census anyway.

When Robert got married for the last time, he said he had only been married 3 times.  I only have marriage dates for three of these women, but there were at least five women he was with throughout his life.  How Robert had time to work with all the wives and children he had is beyond me, J  but he apparently did quite well for himself, for the time period and the area he lived in.

I am going to concentrate on my direct line and not all of the other children that Robert had, for this little bio.  In 1860, Robert is listed in Stonefort, the part that was in Pope County and Robert’s daughter Mary Catherine Davis and her husband Levi Penninger are buried in the Joyner Cemetery in Stonefort in Saline County.  The Joyner’s tie into the Hall family as George Washington Joyner married Martha Ann Hall, sister to my Mary ‘Polly’ Anna Tullum Hall.  These families definitely knew each other and when my Anna Susan Davis married, both times she said her father was Robert H. Davis on the marriage register.   I also have a copy of a letter written by William Marion Joyner, 1851-1946, son of George Washington Joyner and Martha Ann Hall that he wrote to Louise Floyd, daughter of Luther Floyd, and granddaughter of Anna Susan Davis and John H. Floyd, which was written on March 12, 1945.  William tells about the Hall family, where they were from and who was still alive of his first cousins in 1945.  He said he was the oldest living cousin and that Lula Seal, was the youngest living cousin.   I met Louise and her sister Helen Floyd at a Floyd family reunion in Kentucky in 1995 and she mailed me a copy of that letter that she had kept all these years.  If I hadn’t gotten this letter from Helen I would not have ever known about the Seal(s) children.  Following is the letter I am talking about.

I know that my direct line wife, Mary ‘Polly’ Anna Tullum Hall, lived in the Stonefort area in Saline County, Illinois and Robert also lived in the Stonefort area for a time, but he ended up in the Texas City (Plainview area) area of Saline County by 1880.  Now when you map quest these two little towns they are only about 26 miles apart, Stonefort is in the southwest corner of the county and Texas City is in the northeast corner of the county.   The following map shows just Saline County and the major towns in that county as well as a state map showing all the counties circled in red that Robert lived in.

Why my Anna Susan is never with her father, Robert Hosey Davis, on census records I do not know.  She is also not with her mother on the 1870 census either when her mother is with Henry Seal and their first two children.  I have found a Mary Hall on the 1860 census that would work to be my Mary Hall, but she doesn’t have my Anna Susan with her there either, if that is indeed her.  I have my Anna Susan’s two marriage records and I have her on the 1900 and 1910 census and her 1919 death certificate, but other than these records and the old letter, I really don’t know anything about her childhood or her parent’s exact relationship.  My grandmother was not quite two years old when her grandmother, Anna Susan died, so she did not remember her and really did not know anymore then what I have found.

Robert acknowledge and named nine of his children in the little bio that was published in 1887, but if the totals were correct in that bio he had 12 children, since he said that three of them were deceased at that time.  However, with all of the children I have names for, plus the three deceased ones mentioned but not named, he ended up having at the least 13 or 14 children with all of his wives, but he only acknowledge having children with wife number one and wife number four.  This makes me believe that he may not have ever been married to my, Mary Hall and that may be why she was never listed with him on the census records.

While I was getting ready to write this bio, I always do some more digging first to see if any new records have come to light since my last searching for an individual on the different ones I have written about this year and so I did the same with Robert.  I am glad I did, because I did not know when Robert had died, except that it was before 1910 in Texas City.  I found him listed on www.findagrave.com with this picture of his tombstone and the full dates on the stone for his birth and death.  I knew he was born in November of 1825, now I know the day was the 20^th and now, I also know that he died on March 15, 1902.  He was living in Texas City at the time of his death and was buried at the Poplar Church Cemetery which is located just across the Saline County line in Gallatin County, Illinois up by Texas City.   His fourth wife, Susan, and at least four of his known children, a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law are also buried there.  Thanks goes to those who go through cemeteries across the country and post these pictures and information, it is very much appreciated.

Sometimes we have a hard time finding information, sometimes we find things we wish we hadn’t and sometimes we find things that make us scratch our head and wonder what in the world were they thinking.  But if things were all straight down the line and no one ever did anything wrong or out of the ordinary we probably wouldn’t keep looking, and so it is with my Robert.  He apparently didn’t like to be alone, so he would up and marry almost before the last one was cold in the ground.  But you do have to take into consideration the fact he was left with little children, some just babes in arms and so he had to do what he had to do and if that meant marry almost immediately, that is what he did and maybe for whatever unknown reason he didn’t marry my 3^rd great-grandmother.  I at least hope they loved each other at the time and that it wasn’t something else that may have happened.  Somethings I guess are best left unknown or to the imagination.