Dave Aldworth

WILLIAM COX, of Pemaquid, [*] is the first person of this name in New England, of whom we have any record. He is supposed to have come from the vicinity of Bristol, in England, where the name is common, and from which place the present town of Bristol, Maine (which includes the location of the Pemaquid settlement), derives its name. Even the Christian names common in the early generations of the family here were the prevailing ones among the Coxes there in the early part of the seventeenth century. He first appears at Pemaquid as a witness to the "first deed of conveyance of American soil, " [~] dated July 15, 1625, by which Captain John Somerset [+] and Unnongoit, Indian sagamores, convey to " John Brown of New Harbor " a tract of land

"Beginning at Pemaquid Falls and so running a direct course to the head of New Harbor, from thence to the south end of Muscongus Island, taking in the island, and so running five and twenty miles into the country north and by east, and thence eight miles northwest and by west, and then turning and running south and by west, to Pemaquid where first begun." [--]

[*] Pemaquid.--Westward from Penobscott (which is the Southermost Fort in Nova Scotia) fourteen leagues off is Pemaquid in which River Alderman Alworth of Bristole, setled a Company of People in the yeare 1625, which Plantation hath continued and many families are now [1660] settled there.There was a Patent granted for it by his Maties' Royall Grandfather and by vertue of that Patent they hold the Islands of Monahegan and Damerells Coue, and other small ones adjacent Commodious for fishing.
[~] Thornton's Ancient Pemaquid, p.63. Maine Hist. Coll., v., 195.
[+] The "Samoset" who welcomed the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
[--] Maverick's Description of New England, Genealogical Register, xxxix, 34. ]

About this time the Council proceeded to make new grants of the eastern part of Laconia, as if no former ones existed.
The Biddeford patent to Richard Vines and John Oldham covered a tract on the south side of the Saco river, by sea four miles, and eight miles up into the mainland, or very nearly the present bounds of Biddeford.
Another patent of a similar tract on the other side of the river, covering rather more than the present area of Saco, was made to Thomas Lewis and Capt. Richard Bonython. These two grants were dated Feby. 12, 1629 O. S., and Vines took formal possession of his tract June 25, 1630, and Lewis of his June 28, 1631.
About the time of these grants the Council made one called the Plough Patent, and which later formed the Province of Lygonia.
It was intended to embrace a territory forty miles square, but fell short of it, for it was bounded on the east by Cape Elizabeth, or Casco, and on the west by Cape Porpoise, a distance of thirty miles on the sea coast, and extending forty miles into the interior. It will be noticed that this grant includes territory granted about the same time to Vines and Lewis, but as the Plough patentees made no attempt to take immediate possession the trouble over conflicting titles did not develop until over a dozen years later.

Two other grants in this vicinity were also made in 1631, one of fifteen hundred acres between Spurwink and Black Point rivers, in the eastern part of Scarborough, including Black Point, of which Capt. Thomas Cammock was sole patentee: he was a nephew of the Earl of Warwick. The second one was a grant to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, in 1631, of a tract extending from the mouth of the Spurwink river, between Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth, fifteen miles into the interior, thence crossing eastwardly to Presumpscot river and down to the sea. It included the present site of Portland.

Several grants were also made about this time to the eastward, one of them of 12,000 acres, known as the Pemaquid grant, to the two British merchants already referred to, Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge of Bristol. Some of these grants were later the cause of long and angry contention, owing, in part, to the indefinite terms used in describing their limits, due largely to the ignorance in England of the geography of this country, and also to the neglect of some of the early proprietors to enter upon and mark out the bounds of their lands. So intimate, and indeed allied in business affairs were Mason and Gorges that it is difficult to distinguish their separate ownership in the two districts of Maine and New Hampshire. Surveys were few and inexact, and the bounds of their granted monopolies very indistinct. Consequently the patents and charters which they sold or gave away soon conflicted with one another, and were for a century after a cause of litigation and appeal to the English Crown.

14 (9) 1646. Bee it knowne unto all men by these pntes that I Abraham Shurt of the Citty of Bristoll Mercht have remised released & for mee my exer adminst & assignes & every of them forever quite claimed unto Giles Elbridge of the same Citty mercht (execut of the last will & testament of Robert Aldworth late of the same Citty mercht deceased) his heires exer & adminst & every of them All & all manner of accounts suites plaints debts debates quarrells accounts reckonings books bills bonds obligacons Judgments executions & demands whatsoever wch I now have or may have against him the said Giles Elbridge his heires exrcs or administrators for any matter thing or cause whatsoever from the beginning of the world till the date hereof. Witnes my hand & seale the Eleventh day of November

Anno R Caroli Angl &c: undecimo 1635.
Abraham Shurt &a
Seale.
Sealed & Dd in the prsence
of William Cock
William Wallweynd
H Weaver Scre:

This is a true Copie of the Originall as it was presented to me the public Notary the 28 (9) 1646.

To all Christian people to whom these pesents & shall come to be seene or reade We the Major & Aldermen of the Citty of Bristoll in the Kingdome of England send greeting in or Lord God everlasting. Know yee that on the day of the date hereof Joseph Perry of the Citty aforesaid Mercer aged twenty two yeares or therabouts came and personally appeared before us the said Major & Aldermen in the Comon place of Audience called the Tolzey of Bristoll & did depose & affirme uppon his corporall oath voluntarily taken uppon the holy Evangelists of God, that he this Deponent on or about the nineth day of Aprill Anno Dni 1639 was present & did see one John Oliver then of this Citty Linnen Draper but sithence deceased in New England (as is informed) seale & Deliver as his act & deed in due forme of lawe one penall or obligatory Bill Beareing date the said nienth day of Aprill 1639 by wch the said John Oliver standeth Bound in the summe of sixty pounds of lawfull monie of England for the payment of the sume of thirty fyve pounds three shillings & sixe pence of like lawfull money to Richard Aldworth & John Yong of the said Citty Mercers at or uppon the niene & twentieth day of September in the yeare one thousand sixe hundred fourty & one Now past, as by the same Bill to wch this Deponent & one John Stone then subscribed theire names as witnesses to the sealing & delivery thereof, may appeare, wch Bill being now pduced & shewen forth & this Deponent haveing seene the same doth prcisely now to be the same bill so sealed & Delivered as aforesaid, the Copie whereof agreeable word for word wth the originall & now compared by us, is hereunto annexed. In testimonie of all wch, wee the said Major & Aldermen have caused the Comon seale of this Cittie in like cases used to be hereunto affixed, & I the said Major have subscribed my name.

Yeoven this sixteenth day of January Anno R Carol &c: Decimo octavo 1642

Thes
Ri: Aldworth Major:
This Bill bindeth me John Oliver
[Page 38.]
30. (9) 1646. An Attest unto a Copie of a Certificate of the Major of Bristoll under his hand & the seale of the Citty wherein Joseph Perry testifieth uppon oath that he was present & a witnes when John Oliver late of Bristoll now of Newberry (9th April 1639) did seale & dd unto Richard Aldworth & John Yong a bill obl of 60li sterl for the paymt of 35li. 3s. 6d. curt English money uppon the 29th of Sept 1641. next ensueing.
Also a Copie of the said Bill.
Also a Copie of Richard Aldworth & John Yongs tre to Mr Brewster to Receive the said Bill of the widdow of John Oliver.
Also ffrancis Brewsters tre to Mr Gerish that married the said widdow for the payment of it to Mr ffrancis Norton.
Also ffrancis Brewsters tre to Mr ffrancis Norton to receive what was due of the said Bill & to acquitt Mr Gerish, wth a receipt uppon the back side of 25li Recd by Robert Sedgwicke.
Also an Affidavit of John Oliver & another of Thomas Millard wherin they testify that they demanded a part of goods from the ship mary Rose ere she was blowne up & it was denyed them because Mr Benet was not then present.

"William Aldworth, of Garford, Marcham, Berkshire, who was living in 1585, had issue one son,
Richard Aldworth, described as "verderer" of Stowwood Forest, Oxon, died in 1608, having had two sons,"

Sir Richard married Ellen Poer and died without children in 1629. He was knighted about 1612 and appointed Provost-Marshal (later Vice-President) of Munster 3 May 1610. This man appears to be the first Aldworth to obtain lands in Ireland. He obtained grants of land for settlement at Short Castle, County Cork, during the years 1610 to 1615.
The elder son, William of Stowwood, had two sons:
Richard,
William, who survived his brother.
Richard survived his uncle in Short Castle of County Cork. He was baptized August 10, 1596, and married Anne Mervyn, of Duhallow, County Cork, and settled at Newmarket and Ballyhooley, County Cork (confirmed 1638). He died without children.
William, who survived his brother Richard, married (unknown) and had issue. The children of William and his wife were:
Sir Richard, of Newmarket, County Cork, married (settlement date was October 21, 1656) Martha, widow of Captain Robert Stannard (died 1655), of Kilmallock. According to Burke's (7) she was the younger daughter of Sir Robert Travers which is significant only for this: Sir Robert Travers' wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Boyle, Bishop of Cork, 1633, and Archbishop of Tuam, 1638, who was nephew (where some [Burke's] say he was "ancestor") of the first Earl of Cork. Elizabeth's brother, Michael, was Bishop of Cork, 1660, and Archbishop of Armagh, 1678. So it was from Elizabeth, and her daughter Martha, supposedly, that the prestigious name of Boyle entered the Aldworth family, and from them it was carried through generations of Saint Leger of Doneraile, too. But did Sir Richard Aldworth marry Martha, or her 1st cousin, Margaret, the daughter of Zachary Travers? Descendants of Sir Robert Travers and his wife Elizabeth Boyle have always believed that Sir Richard Aldworth married a niece, the daughter of Zachary Travers. What possible reason could people have to falsify their own pedigree? Perhaps, in those troubled and tyrannical times, it was an advantage to falsely claim descent from icons of church and military society. We must smile, however, if the Travers history is accurate, because the Aldworth and Saint Leger families have carried the name Boyle through succeeding generations with such pride.
"The family of Travers were settled in the reign of Edward I, at Natesby, in Lancashire, which estate they held in direct succession from father to son, till the reign of Philip and Mary, when it descended to Brian Travers, who mortgaged it to George Strickland, who sold it. This Brian Travers afterwards settled at Pill, near Bristol, having inherited the estate of Pill in right of his wife. His son, John Travers, who was the first of the family to settle in Ireland, married Sarah Spenser, sister of Edmund Spenser, the poet. They had two sons, Robert, afterwards Sir Robert, who married Elizabeth, daughter of the Primate Boyle (ancestor of the Earls of Cork and Orrery, and the Earls of Shannon), who inherited and purchased several estates in co. Cork. He was killed in the rebellion of 1641 at Knocknaness. His younger brother, Zachary Travers, left two sons, Richard and John, and two daughters, Margaret, who married Sir Richard Aldworth, ancestor of the present Lord Doneraile, and Elizabeth, who married Sir John Meade, the ancestor of the present Earl of Clanwilliam. Richard, Sir Robert's eldest son, married Ellen Stawell, and had five sons, the eldest of whom, Robert, married Hester Hodder, and had Boyle Travers, who married Anna Maria Moore. Boyle left two sons, John Moore Travers, who died without children, and Robert Travers, who left three sons, the writer, (General) Boyle Travers, and Thomas Otho, a captain in the H.E.I. Co.'s service, who died 1844." (8)
Sir Richard Aldworth died about 1692, leaving issue. He was Knighted 1666, Freeman of Cork 1666, High Sheriff 1665 and 1666, Chief Secretary of Ireland May 27, 1695-96 (an office held between the Lord Deputyship of Henry, Lord Capel and the joint Lord Justiceship of Viscount Blessington and William Worsley, thus making Sir Richard, in effect, Chief Governor in Ireland).

Sir Richard and his wife, Martha or Margaret, had among their other children, an eldest son named Boyle who in turn named his eldest son Boyle. The second Boyle Aldworth drowned while on a voyage to England March 6, 1697, but not before he fathered Richard (of Newmarket) who was born 1694 and who married April 1713, the Honourable Elizabeth Saint Leger, whose ancestor was the Lady Mary Chichester of Donegal. Elizabeth Saint Leger was the first lady Freemason. This last Richard was High Sheriff of Cork 1724. He died 25 April, 1776.

Jane Aldworth, the daughter of William and his unknown wife, is our ancestor. She married as his first wife, Reverend Thomas Palmer, of Glanerough, County Kerry, Judge of the Admiralty Court of Munster and Consistorial Court of Ardfert, and their eldest daughter, Isabella Palmer, married Richard Orpen of Killowen, County Kerry.

 

1. Burke's Irish Family Records, "Aldworth", page 6
2. Some Materials Towards A History of the Early Cox Families of New England," by Rev. John H. Cox, of Lexington, Mass. page 1.
3. One Branch of the Booth Family, Page 130
4. A Volume relating to the Early History of Boston, Recorded by William Aspinwall , Page 37.
5. Ibid.
6. Burke's -Ibid.
7. Burke's -Ibid.
8. The Clerical and Parochial Records of the Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross: extract from a letter of Mr. John Moore Travers, of Clifton, co. Cork, . Vol. i, pp. 351 and 352. 1864