Archive:The Ancestry of John Whitney, Chapter I, Part 2

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Melville, Henry, A.M., LL.B., The Ancestry of John Whitney: Who, with His Wife Elinor, and Sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jonathan, Emigrated from London, England, in the Year 1635, and Settled in Watertown, Massachusetts; the First of the Name in America, and the One from Whom a Great Majority of the Whitneys Now Living in the United States Are Descended (New York, NY: The De Vinne Press, 1896).

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               Origin and Early History             37

   In this connection it is proper to call attention to
a story which others who have written of the Whit-
neys have published, purporting to account for these
arms. It has not been ascertained when it originated
and perhaps it cannot be traced to any responsible
source. Still, it may be substantially true. There is
nothing improbable about it. The quotation is from
the work of Mr. Phoenix.1
   Sir Randolph de Whitney, the grandson of Eustace, ac-
companied Richard Coeur de Lion to the Crusades, and dis-
tinguished himself greatly by his personal strength and
great courage. On one occasion he was sent by Richard
on a mission to the French commander, and, as he was leav-
ing the British camp, the brother of Saladin (whom he had
twice before defeated) followed him with two Saracens in
his company, and, riding round a small hill, made a furious
attack upon De Whitney, who defended himself with the
greatest vigor . but his assailants were gaining upon him,
when a furious Spanish bull, which was feeding near the
field of conflict, was attracted by the red dresses of the Sa-
racens, and becoming angry at the color flitting before him,
made so vigorous an attack upon them that they were di-
verted from their intended prey, and sought safety in flight.
Sir Randolph soon succeeded in wounding his single as-
sailant, whom he left for dead, and then, overtaking tine two
Saracens, dispatched them and proceeded upon his mission
from the King.
   According to the superstition of that time, Sir Randolph
attributed the event to the especial interposition of the
Virgin, a medal of whom, consecrated by the Pope, he had
continually worn upon his breast.

1 "The Whitney Family of Connecticut," by Stephen Whitney Phoenix,
Being an account of the descendants of Henry Whitney, who emigrated
from England at a later date than John, and was only distantly re-
lated to him.

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38           The Ancestry of John Whitney

   It has been said that, after those mentioned, there
are no more authentic records of the Whitneys till
about 1250. By this it is not meant that there is no
record of any kind. There is a manuscript which
even attempts to give the complete line of descent
and every marriage. This is the so-called "The Golden
Grove," an immense collection of Welsh pedigrees
compiled by Hugh Thomas about 1703, now belong-
ing to the Earl of Cawder, and deposited by him in
the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London.
Mr. Phoenix, in his account of the Whitney family
of Connecticut, has given it a qualified approval. It
undoubtedly contains much truth, but truth so mixed
with error, that genealogists, as a rule, consider it of
no value, unless confirmed by other records. As re-
gards the Whitneys, it is not improbable that, as
there stated, they married daughters or descendants
of such distinguished people as Sir Hugh de la Hay,
Sir William Eyton, Gilbert Lord Talbot, Sir Rolf
Villers, Sir Eustace Le Grose, Rolf Lord Stafford, Sir
Hugh Mortimer, Sir Jasper Croft, Sir Rolf Cromwell,
Sir Thomas Oldcastle, Sir Thomas Russell, Sir John
Ludlow, Sir John Lingen, and James Lord Audley;
but some generations are omitted, and in several in-
stances the relationship of parties can be proved to
have been otherwise than therein set out.
   There is an absurd mistake at the very beginning
in attributing to the Whitneys a Welsh origin.
   It evidently occurred to the author, however, that
Eustace, Robert, and Baldwin, the Christian names
given to almost the entire line, were peculiar desig-
nations for Welshmen, and that, as the Britons had
no surnames, the De Wytteneye also required expla-
nation, so he put them in with what he calls the "Ad-

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               Origin and Early History             39

venae" of Radnor, i.e., Normans who had seized upon
estates there, the Mortimers, De Lacys, and others,
adding this explanatory note:

   I have also inserted in this place ye Whitneys, not but
yt I think them British originally but in regard yt they
soon turn'd their names according to ye Norman method I
thought fitt to place them among the Adventurers and
Advenae.

   The idea of a Welshman turning his name to Eus-
tace de Wytteneye and acquiring estates and castles
in the Marches is a little laughable to any one familiar
with the history of the times. Fortunately there is
conclusive proof just what their origin was. Not
only did they come in with the Norman invasion,
but even according to the "The Golden Grove" most of
their marriage alliances were with Norman families.
   However worthless historically, some of this class
of pedigrees are quite interesting as literary curiosi-
ties. They were evolved by the Welsh bards out of
their inner consciousness, and, as it was just as easy
to make one that would flatter the vanity of their
patrons, the line invariably went back to the legend-
ary heroes of Britain. For example, the Whitney
pedigree was made to include "Sir Predyr Efrog Kt
of ye round Table to K. Arthyr's time he lived att
his castle at Coedmore in Cardiganshire." Arch-
deacon Bevan has one of his own family that, after
exhausting the famous insular names, brings in those
of the Continent, and, going through the list of heroes
of Roman, Grecian, Trojan, and Biblical history,
winds up with the patriarch Noah. He says that he
has seen others that are even more ambitious, and
deem it necessary, when they stop with Adam and

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40           The Ancestry of John Whitney

Eve, to append the following note--"About this
time the world was made."
   An illustration of an element of distorted truth, as
occasionally found, is seen in the fact that the Round
Table knight and other early Whitneys are located
at "Ewyas Castle," which, we have noted, at the Con-
quest came into the possession of the great Norman
Baron Alured de Merleberge, the maternal grand-
father of the first Eustace.
   Such, then, was the origin of the Whitney family, and
the life and environment of the early members of it.
Trained to arms for generation after generation, need-
ing to have every faculty constantly alert to secure
the safety of life and property, the strongest alone
being able to survive the frequent personal encoun-
ters, a race of men was developed in the Marches
equal if not superior physically and mentally to any
in England. Their characteristic traits were trans-
mitted. The Puritan John of the seventeenth cen-
tury was probably much the same as the Knight
Eustace of the thirteenth. An emigrant with the
task of subduing the wilderness could have come
from no better stock.

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