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I was lucky enough to grow up in an area with a lot of people sharing my last name, but for it to be pretty uncommon beyond our town. That means a LOT of genealogy for my family was done for me when I made a school project of it back in middle school, and I really only needed to go back to my great grandfather to meet up with the documented line that just traveled on and on and on back. I just wrote all these names down when I was 12, but as an adult I've done more research on them and it's pretty rad! We start with Sir John Philpot, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1378, and quote:In 1378 he led a daring raid by fitting out a small squadron of ships with his own money, and with 1,000 men wrested from the Scottish pirate, Mercer, his cache of fifteen Spanish merchant vessels. This did not go over very well with the noblemen of the day who complained to the King the he was usurping his power. He was summoned by the Council to answer for acting without the King's leave. His reply was that he had spent his money and risked his men "not to shame the nobles or win knightly fame, but in pity for the misery of the people and country which, from being a noble realm and dominion over other nations, has through your supiness been exposed to the ravages of the vilest race. Since you would not lift a hand in its defense, I exposed myself and my property for the safety and deliverance of our country" He ended up building a chain across the Thames to keep out the French and there's a street named after him in London. A few hundred years of non-noble mercantile high-marrying later, Mr. John Philpot (an uncle) ended up in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. He came back from Europe a super-duper protestant, pissed off his judge by calling him a drunk and a liar. quote:Upon entering Smithfield, the ground was so muddy that two officers offered to carry him to the stake, but He also kept his own notes during his trial, and almost all of it is documented as pure dialogue (from his perspective, at least). A few generations of declining luck later, another John Philpot decided to try his luck, traveling on the Second Supply and arriving in Jamestown in the fall of 1608 ... a couple months before the winter turned cold and they turned to cannibalism. After that it's mostly moonshining and dying in the civil war, but we never strayed far from south central Virginia.
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Aug 24, 2017 22:16
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 07:38 |
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