One of the most rewarding aspects of engaging in history is the privilege of researching the history of our ancestors to build upon our family trees. Many citizens of the United States who have ancestors dating back to the times of early British Colonial America sometimes find it difficult to trace their ancestors beyond a certain point due to a lack of historical records or a lack of records due to courthouses that burnt down during the American Revolution, or Civil War. Sometimes, there is just simply a lack of access to documents that uncover our true family history. However, this blog reveals how I uncovered two lines within my family tree by examining online databases, courthouse records, and records at archival libraries, including the Huntingdon Archives and Library in Huntingdon, England.
My family tree has often greatly inspired my travels abroad. This blog is purposed to encourage subscribers to dig more deeply into their genealogy and discover meaningful family connections to the history of their Christian faith and possibly international connections related to their early ancestors.
This blog delves into the family lines of my paternal and maternal ancestry, which are from Nickelsville, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. These are not just names on a page but my own family that positively impacted their early colonial American communities. I invite you to explore the Kilgore and Cromwell lineages that trace back to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England.
The Kilgore family originated in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, where the Land of Kilgour and Kilgour Craigs are located, just a few miles from the Falkland Palace. This family eventually moved to the Ulster Province of Northern Ireland in the early seventeenth century; members of the Kilgore family became leading elders of the Presbyterian church, a tradition the family brought with them when they immigrated to the British Colonies around 1730. Although this family arrived in West Chester County, Pennsylvania, they quickly moved southward and settled into Scott and Russell County, Virginia, where the family has made a lasting legacy. The Kilgore Fort House was built in 1786 by my fourth great-granduncle, Reverend Robert "Robin" Kilgore (1765-1884). Reverend Kilgore also founded the Good Intent School and the Regular Primitive Baptist Church in Nickelsville, Virginia, where he served as the pastor for over forty years. Reverend Robert "Robin" Kilgore was the son of my fifth great-grandfather, also named Robert Kilgore (1735-1782), a patriot who fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain under the regiment of Captain James Dysart.[1]
This blog also uncovers the connections that the seventeenth-century Cromwell family of Baltimore, Maryland, might have with families from Huntingdon, London, and Malmesbury, England. The Cromwell family of Maryland first arrived in British Colonial America around 1667. Brothers John and William Cromwell were the first two members of this family to immigrate from England. They first came to Calvert County, Maryland, wherein at least one of these brothers worked as an indentured servant for Henry Hosier, who had paid for the passage of twenty-one indentured servants, which allowed Hosier to obtain over one thousand acres of land from the Lord Proprietor Cecil Calvert, 2nd Barron of Baltimore, due to a headright system that was eventually abolished in 1683. Records indicate that William Cromwell had paid his own passage to Maryland, and by 1670, the two brothers owned 300 acres of land in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The younger siblings, Richard and Edith Cromwell, arrived in Maryland less than ten years later, and together, they became one of the wealthiest and most prominent families of what would become Baltimore, Maryland. My ninth great-grandmother, Edith Cromwell, married Christopher Gist, and they had one son, Richard Gist. In 1729, Richard Gist was the primary land surveyor who helped to establish Baltimore, Maryland. My ninth great-grandparents are listed, along with Richard Cromwell, as some of the earliest members of what is known today as Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church, one of only thirty parishes established in the Province of Maryland by the Church of England.
Regarding the Cromwell of Maryland genealogy, the family has reported a distant cousinship to the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, throughout the centuries. In the nineteenth century, a descendant of Richard Cromwell, also named Richard Cromwell (1807-1890), reported in The Baltimore Sun that the family was not a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector.[2] However, multiple sources indicate that the coat-of-arms found on the family silver brought from England matched that of Sir Oliver Cromwell, the uncle of Oliver Cromwell (1562-1655), who descended from the Cromwell-Williams line.[3] This is also the line of the sister of Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540), the primary advisor of King Henry VIII, Katherine Cromwell, who married Morgan Williams. One additional theory related to the genealogy of the Cromwell of Maryland includes a connection to a Cromwell family living in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, in the early seventeenth century, a theory proposed by Francis B. Culver in 1918.[4] The will of the patriarch of this family, John Cromwell ( 1579-1639), indicated that one of his sons had already immigrated to Massachusetts Bay during the Great Puritan Migration.[5] The names William, John, Richard, and Edith seem to be repeated in family records for what appears to be at least three generations. Records indicate that one member of the Huntingdon Cromwell family did have relatives and land in the West Country of England in Wiltshire County; however, these records do not identify the names of these kinsmen.[6] Additional records on John Cromwell (1579-1639) also indicate that he was a Burgess in the borough of Malmesbury, England, and thus, most likely a member of the House of Commons in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Overall, I had a blast attempting to retrace the steps of my ancestors in England. Although I did not discover the exact lineage of the Cromwell of Maryland, I did find some vital clues that have brought me closer to solving this mystery.
I hope you enjoy the vlog posted below and gain some helpful travel tips related to the Oliver Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon, England, and the UK Parliament in London. Thank you for visiting She Trips USA and Beyond and watching my vlog on genealogy-inspired travel!
Safe Travels!
Nadine Traveler
To view Genealogy Inspired Travel on my YouTube channel, click the video below:
Lewis, J. D., The Known Patriots at the Battle of Kings Mountain October 7, 1780, 48.
2. "Richard Cromwell (1807-1890),” Baltimore Sun, December 1, 1890, ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
3. “Cromwell’s Descendants: Marylanders Said to be Members of the Protector’s Family,” The Baltimore Sun, February 3, 1885, ProQuest Historical Newspapers; Waylan, James, House of Cromwell, London Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E. C., 1897, 258.
4. Culver, Francis, B., "Cromwell Family: A Possible Cromwell Clue," Maryland Historical Magazine, 13, no. 4 (1918), 386-403.
5. Cromwell, Lt-Colonel L. O.B. E, Some Pedigrees of the House of Cromwell, Unpublished,
Huntingdon Archives and Library, 16 and 33.
6. Cromwell, Lt-Colonel L. O.B. E, Some Pedigrees of the House of Cromwell, Unpublished,
Huntingdon Archives and Library, Notes to Pedigree IX.
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