Religious Nonconformity in Wales
The Welsh often chose nonconformity in religion from the very start of their encounter with other groups. Since the time of the Romans, the Welsh had found themselves on the wrong side of the power structure, and used religion as a way to oppose the ruling force–whether that be Roman, Saxon, or Norman. This trend began with their continued adherence to druidism, even after the Romans attempted to wipe it out, through Pelagianism and other ‘heresies’ opposed by the Roman Church, to the Cistercian religious order, which defied the Pope in order to support the aspirations and independence of the Welsh princes. In a sense, it culminated in the 1600s with the puritan movement that brought so many Welsh across the Atlantic to Massachusetts, while their co-religionists attempted to reform the Church in Wales.“I returned to Bristol. I have seen Read more…
Woodbury Genealogy
Woodbury genealogy in the United States is not complicated for the most part. All of us are descended from John and William Woodbury (brothers or cousins, it’s not clear) who came to Salem, Massachusetts in the 1620’s. John was first. He was part of a fishing consortium–not a Puritan–and traveled across the Atlantic on the Zouch Phenix in 1624 as part of the Dorchester Company. He settled in Cape Ann, which is basically a barren rock, and then moved to become one of the five founders of Salem, Massachusetts (along with Conant, Balch, Trask, and Palfrey). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Planters_(Massachusetts) He then was granted 200 acres in what is now Beverly, Massachusetts in 1635. http://dougsinclairsarchives.com/woodbury/johnwoodbury1.htm My grandfather was born in Beverly three hundred years later. Not an adventurous bunch, apparently, once they got to Massachusetts. Terrifyingly, I am descended from John and William Read more…
^