Some
Root Connections
Recently
I was doing some further research into my wife’s family tree and while tracing
the lines from her mother (born Mary Ellen Wright), I ran into a distant
ancestor by the name of Hannah Root (1662-1706) who lived most of her life in
Connecticut. This especially interested me because my grandfather, Harold Pierpont,
had a step-mother, Anna Root, with that same last name (*1). I wondered if the
two Root women might be related and so I began tracing those two lines. The
answers took me down some very interesting paths.
Hannah’s
grandfather was Thomas Root (1605-1694) and her great-grandparents were John
Root and Mary Ann Russell (1574-1683). Anna’s Root line went back to John Root
(1608-1684) who was a younger brother of Thomas. So not only was my wife a
distant cousin of my grandfather’s step-mother, but there was a Russell
connection as well. Some further investigation was definitely called for.
The
Russell Links
Mary
Ann Russell was the daughter of Francis Russell (1554-1585) who was the 4th
child of Francis Russell (1527-1585). Her marriage to John Root[e] is
documented in (*2). But this latter Francis was the 2nd Earl of Bedford.
This means that Francis, 2nd Earl of Bedford, is the great*11
grandfather of my wife as well as my step-great*11 grandfather.
But
there are other connections to the Earls of Bedford that I have previously
investigated (*3).
First,
going through my grandmother, Sarah [Blackman] Pierpont, and following her
ancestral line from Blackman to Talmadge to Sperry to Russell – Sarah’s great*2
grandmother is Mary Russell (1786-1857)). Mary is descended from Lord Edward
Russell (1572-1627), the older brother of Mary Ann, and the 3rd Earl
of Bedford. Through this path Francis, 2nd Earl of Bedford, is my
great*14 grandfather.
Finally,
my Pierpont great*6 grandfather, Joseph Pierpont, married Hannah Russell.
Hannah is descended from William Russell, the 5th child of Francis
(*4). Through this path, Francis, 2nd Earl of Bedford, is my
great*10 grandfather.
What
an amazing number of connections to this significant family in England!
The
current Duke of Bedford, Andrew Henry Ian Russell, is the 15th Duke
of Bedford. His line of descent from the Earls and prior Dukes of Bedford is a
somewhat complicated one (*5), but Francis, 2nd Earl of Bedford, is
his great*13 grandfather. This means that he is my 11th cousin, 3
times removed (as well as my step-12th cousin twice removed and my
14th cousin, once removed) and he is also the 12th
cousin, twice removed of my wife.
Connections
among the various Russell groups
While
I have mentioned some of the connections between the Bedford Russells, the
Kingston Russells, the Scottish Russell ancestors in my direct Russell line,
and the origin of the family name in Normandy (*3), I’d like to explore that a
little more.
The
biography of the first Earl of Bedford, John Russell (*6), claims that his
father was Sir James Russell, his grandfather was most likely John Russell, his
great-grandfather was Sir Henry Russell, and his great-great-grandfather was
Sir Stephen Russell. It then notes that “It was long believed that the family
was descended from the ancient family of Russell of Kingston Russell in Dorset,
which descent was declared unproven by Gladys Scott Thomson in 1930.”
Similarly,
the writeup on the Bedford Russell coat of arms in (*5) notes that “The arms
show a claim to be descended from the medieval lord Hugh de Rozel, which has
been debunked, especially by J. Horace Round in his essay The Rozels of
Bedford (1999). The family tree on the website of Woburn Abbey only refers
to the descent from the provable Stephen Russell in 1394.”
However,
in (*7), it notes that recent research shows that Sir Theobald Russell
(1301-1340) was a direct ancestor of John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford,
and documents the line of descent in great detail. Thus, it appears that more
recent research, with all the advances in DNA analysis and using the Internet
to pull together resources that were previously unavailable, has superseded the
prior conclusions.
Since
the Kingston Russells trace their lineage back to the time of William the
Conqueror, this would also mean that all the connections I have documented above
take my lineage back to Norman times and prior to that to the Vikings who conquered
Normandy in the 900s (and which accounts for the small percentage of Swedish DNA
in my blood (*8)).
Finally,
my direct Russell ancestors through my father go back to Robert Russell who
immigrated to New York from Scotland around 1750. He would have been part of
the Clan Russell, an armigerous clan in Scotland (*9). While there is no
complete family documented from this clan, they claim connections back to the
original Baron Rozel in Normandy through individuals who arrived in Scotland as
early as the mid-1100s.
Notes:
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