Complicated Pennington Connections

There are a lot of complicated family lines that I have studied through the years…some have well established family lines that have been documented and stretch back to Europe.  Others are fortunate if they stretch back to the mid 1700’s.  DNA has told us that the Pennington's who came from the Ashe Co., NC area are genetically linked…but once you get back a generation or two in the 1700’s, there hasn’t been any documentation located yet that establishes a clear relationship.  So, having said that, I decided many years ago to concentrate on all of the Pennington's who came through Ashe Co., NC and not just the family that I descend from…you might say I started this because of a tie between my Dollar family and the Pennington family.

I have written before about the two Andrews Penningtons (A Tale of Two Andrews…) and you might say that I am revisiting one of those lines.  Research has told me that if I am looking at a family who lives in the Washington Co., VA area or nearby, I am looking at a descendant of Group 30 and most likely one of Andrew Pennington and Hester Ann Blevins.  Andrew lived to be 71 years of age and Hester was 78 when she passed.  Both were buried in the Laurel Cemetery in Smyth Co., VA.  They had eleven children and while they all lived relatively near their parents…they were scattered around Ashe Co., NC, Johnson Co., TN, Washington Co., VA and Smyth Co., VA.  I found one of these daughters of Andrew and Hester while researching my Dollar family.

Mary Matilda Pennington was born 11 Jul 1842 in Ashe Co., NC and died on 2 Mar 1920 at Little Fall, Ashe Co., NC.  She married Calvin Calhoun Davis on 25 Jul 1861.  Calvin was the son of Jordan Anderson Davis and Cynthia Lynch.  It looks as if Calvin and Mary Matilda Pennington married and then he left to fight in the Civil War.  Of course that might have been when the marriage had a license or bond that was obtained…their oldest child was born on 6 May 1861 in Ashe Co., NC…a few months preceding their marriage license.  Calvin evidently went to the war and ended up a prisoner at Elmira prison…for their next child appears on 19 Dec 1865.  You might say that Mary Matilda Pennington was one of the reasons that I started researching all of the Penningtons in the area.  I kept running into Penningtons that I couldn’t identify and it was frustrating.  Mary Matilda’s son, Ezra Edward Davis had a daughter named Ethel Davis.  (She just died a few years ago at the age of almost 102)  Ethel was married to Chester Lyall, who was the son of Amanda Jane Dollar and William Davis Lyall.  One of my habits is to try and find the parents of a spouse in case the information might prove useful in the future.  This information proved very useful. 

Amanda Dollar was the older sister of my great great grandfather, John Dula Dollar and they were both children of Alexander Monroe Dollar and Elizabeth Pennington.  So, when Amanda Dollar’s son married a Pennington descendant (Ethel Davis), I got curious. I was told by Ethel’s son that his grandparents were Ezra Edward Davis and Sina Miller and that he had heard of a Pennington connection.  So, I tried to take it a bit further.  Ezra was the son of a Tildie Pennington and C. C. Davis.  After more research I discovered that their full names were Mary Matilda Pennington and Calvin Calhoun Davis.  While Mary Matilda was mostly referred to as Matilda or Tildie….that was her full name.  So, her parents were Andrew Pennington and Hester Blevins…so now I started working on that family tree.  Just because I always like to include the parents, I did a little more checking and found out that Sina E. Miller was the daughter of Eli Miller and Allie Hart…I couldn’t help looking further and found out that Sina’s grandmother was a Blevins and when I put her name into my genealogy program it popped out a red flag and asked me if the Bathsheba Blevins was the same one who married Isaac Miller.  I found out that she was…and found yet again another Pennington link.  Bathsheba was the daughter of Elizabeth Pennington and Wells Blevins.  Elizabeth was Andrew Pennington’s sister…and Wells Blevins was Hester’s brother…so now the tree became even more complicated.

Most who have studied the Pennington family have stayed with their own particular line.  Going straight back as far as they could and not looking at the siblings and their families.  It don’t know if it is a sickness of mine…but I have hard time not poking around to see what else I might discover.  So, my research is almost always in a state of flux and I doubt that I will ever have a complete picture of the Penningtons of Ashe Co., NC.  There are too many branches that have yet to be explored.  You might say it all started when I discovered that Amanda Dollar’s son married a granddaughter of a Pennington…and I just had to figure out who it was!

"Coffin Maker" in New England

Mom and I agreed that Kenelm would have been a dandy name to keep in the family.  After all, neither one of us ever knew a Kenelm while we were growing up and before we saw the name on a family tree, we had never heard of the name.  Kenelm’s older brother was famous for being the third governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and arriving on the Mayflower in 1620 and beings the third signer of the Mayflower Compact.  Kenelm to leave England for the New World until and held the dubious title to those of us in the modern world as coffin maker.

Kenelm was the third son of Edward Winslow and his wife Magdalene Ollyver.  He was born in Droitwich, Worcester, England on 29 Apr 1599 as the fourth of eight children.   Both of his parents were dead by 1620 and of the eight children in his family, two daughters died very young, a sister and brother remained in England and brothers Edward, John, Kenelm and Josiah lived out their lives in the America. Edward lived in Plymouth, John settled in Boston, Josiah in Marshfield and Kenelm became one of the founders of Assonet, MA or Freetown, MA as it is known today.  There must not have been much left for the brothers in England and the opportunities in the New World must have been irresistible.  We learn in history that many of the earliest immigrants came to America in search of religious freedom.  I’m sure that this was a main component for most, but after those first few colonies were established, I’m sure word got back about the opportunity for land and so called riches that were available for any willing to take the risk.  England is a small island with a generation of sons looking for these new opportunities.  By the time, Kenelm and his brother Josiah arrived in 1629, there was already a thriving English community on American soil.

I’m sure that Kenelm probably enjoyed his status as being the brother of an important man in the colony.  He probably had some responsibilities that arose from his brother’s position.  I know that Kenelm was a surveyor of highways for a time and was fined for neglecting his job.  His name also appears on a few legal matters where he didn’t come out the winner.  One of the more interesting things that I read about Kenelm that he was committed to prison for “uttering opprobrious words against the church at Marshfield, saying that they were all liars.”  Kenelm ended up in jail and probably offended most of the town of Marshifield…which might explain why he moved to Assonet, MA. 

I found it rather fascinating to see Kenelm Winslow labeled as a coffin maker.  As it turns out, it meant that he was an excellent carpenter.  In fact, he was probably one of the first carpenters that had been trained in England to bring his craft to the America and train other craftsman here.  There is an interesting article online on at http://www.antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=835 that talks about Kenelm Winslow.  There is supposedly some furniture that was made by Kenelm Winslow in the Metropolitan Museum of Art but as I read it, there is no proof that Kenelm was the actual carpenter. 

Kenelm married in Jun 1634 to a widow, Eleanor Newton Adams.  He and his wife had three sons and a daughter who all lived to adulthood.  Kenelm, himself lived to be 73 years old and died on 13 Sep 1672 while on a visit to Salem, Essex Co., MA.  His wife died in 1681 in Marshfield, MA.  So…thanks to the immigration of my 9^th great grandparents and their four children, there are many Winslows in America who can trace their lineage back to a coffin maker in New England.

Descendants of Kenelm WINSLOW, Esq.

Generation No. 1

1.  KENELM⁹ WINSLOW, ESQ.  (EDWARD⁸, KENELM⁷, WILLIAM⁶, THOMAS⁵, THOMAS WILLIAM⁴, WILLIAM³ WYNCELOW, JOHN² WYNSLOWE, WILLIAM¹ WYNCELOWE) was born 29 Apr 1599 in Droitwich, Worcester, England, and died 13 Sep 1672 in Salem, Essex Co., MA.    He married ELEANOR NEWTON Jun 1634 in Assonet, Freetown, MA.  She was born Jun 1598 in Hertferdshire, England, and died 05 Dec 1681 in Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA.

     

Children of KENELM WINSLOW and ELEANOR NEWTON are:

               i.   KENELM¹⁰ WINSLOW, b. 29 Apr 1635, Plymouth, Plymouth Co., MA; d. 11 Nov 1715, Harwich, Barnstable Co., MA; m. (1) MERCY WORDEN, 23 Sep 1667, Yarmouth, Barnstable Co., MA; b. Abt. 1640, Yarmouth, Barnstable Co., MA; d. 22 Sep 1688, Dennis, Barnstable Co., MA; m. (2) DAMARIS EAMES, Bef. 1693; d. Aft. 27 Mar 1729.

More About KENELM WINSLOW:

Burial: Nov 1715, Winslow Cemetery, Dennis, Barnstable Co., MA

Military service: King Philips War

More About MERCY WORDEN:

Burial: Sep 1688, Winslow Cemetery, Dennis, Barnstable Co., MA

              ii.   ELEANOR "ELLEN" WINSLOW, b. 1637, Plymouth, Plymouth Co., MA; d. 27 Aug 1676, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA; m. SAMUEL BAKER, 29 Dec 1656, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA; b. 02 Oct 1638; d. 14 Feb 1699, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA.

More About ELEANOR "ELLEN" WINSLOW:

Burial: Winslow Cemetery, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA

             iii.   NATHANIEL WINSLOW, b. Abt. 1639, Plymouth, Plymouth Co., MA; d. 01 Dec 1710, Freetown, Bristol Co., MA; m. FAITH MILLER, 03 Aug 1664, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA; b. Abt. 1645, Yarmouth, Barnstable Co., MA; d. 09 Nov 1729, MA.

More About NATHANIEL WINSLOW:

Burial: Burying Hill, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA

             iv.   JOB WINSLOW, b. 1641, Marshfield, Plymouth Co., MA; d. 14 Jul 1720, Freetown, Bristol Co., MA; m. RUTH CHASE COLE, 1673, Swansee, Bristol Co., MA; b. 15 Apr 1651, Eastham, Barnstable Co., MA; d. Aft. Jul 1720.