White-Wesley connection
R. Battle
famous Wesley brothers, his father (John Wesley, c1635-1678) married a
daughter (unnamed) of John White (1575-1648), the "patriarch of
Dorchester." If this is true, that would make the Wesleys distant cousins
of a number of Americans (John White's sister, Martha (White) Cooke, was
ancestress of a number of American Waltons, Conants, etc.). Is anyone
aware of any more authoritative work that has been done to confirm or
disprove this connection?
Thanks,
Robert Battle
Shawn Potter
I too am interested in these White-Cooke-Walton-Conant families and
their relationship to the Wesley brothers. In 1988, Harold F. Porter,
Jr. published his research concerning the family of William Cooke in
the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register." Here are my
notes from this and other sources. Notice that there also was a
connection, albeit apparently by association not blood, between John
White and Richard Milton, grandfather of poet John Milton. Given
their academic and religious connections, I wonder where the
ancestries of William Cooke and Martha White lead.
Shawn Potter
--------------
William Cooke was born perhaps in Royston, Yorkshire, England, in
about 1575, received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Magdalen College at
Oxford University in England on November 3, 1582 and July 22, 1587,
was Praelector [Professor] of Hebrew at Magdalen College from 1589 to
1595, married Martha White in Staunton St. John, county Oxford,
England, on April 27, 1597, and was vicar-preacher [pastor] at
Crediton, county Devon, England, from September 20, 1595 until his
death there before June 26, 1615.
William Cooke's brother-in-law, Reverend John White, is described in
the following article. "John White, called the Patriarch of
Dorchester, son of John White who held a lease under New College,
Oxford, by his wife, Isabel, daughter of John Rawler [sic--should read
John Bawle] of Litchfield [and sister of Henry Bawle, D.D. Archdeacon
of Chichester], was baptized at Staunton, St. John, Oxfordshire, on 6
Jan., 1575. His eldest brother, Josias, was Rector of Horn Church,
Essex, 1614-1623, and father of James White, a wealthy merchant of
Boston, Mass.--(Essex Archaeo. Trans. MS. IV, 317) ... About 1624
White interested himself in sending out a colony of Dorset men to
settle Massachusetts, where such as were non-conformists might enjoy
liberty of conscience. Through his exertions the Massachusetts
Company, of which Sir Richard Saltonstall was a chief shareholder, was
formed and purchased their interest, 1800 pounds, payable in sums of
200 pounds, at the Royal Exchange, every Michaelmas from 1626...
White married Ann, daughter of John Burges, of Petersborough, sister
of Cornelius Burges (q.v.) and left four sons, John, Samuel, Josiah,
and Nathaniel; the eldest entered the ministry and became Rector of
Pimperne, Dorset." [Dictionary of National Biography, vol. lxi, ed.
by Sidney Lee]
William Cooke's father-in-law, John White, gentleman and warden of the
church in Staunton, as a Puritan, refused to attend the Archdeacon's
visitation in 1582 [his uncle, Thomas White, was Archdeacon of Berks
until June 11, 1588] and was excommunicated. Also excommunicated for
the same offense was Richard Milton--grandfather of poet John Milton.
Here is an abstract of William Cooke's will:
"William Cooke of Credyton in the Countie of Devon, Pastor there and
Precher of the worde of God, ... I commend my soule unto the mercifull
handes of my only Saviour Jesus Christ ...
To son Nathaniel fifty pounds at age of twenty-one ... and all my
bookes that are not bequeathed and given by me hereafter ...
To Elizabeth Cooke my daughter fifty pounds [at twenty-one or
marriage] yf shee be ruled and have the consent therein of her mother,
but yf my said Daughter doe marrye contrary to her mothers likinge,
before such tyme as shee shall accomplish the age of one and twentie
years ... she shall have no benefytt by this will nor bequests unto
her, but the porcion meant to be gyven unto her shall remayne to the
Residue of my children, equally amonst them to be Devided, [also] a
book entitled Mr. Gifford upon the Apocalips ...
To Susan my daughter [similarly conditioned] fifty pounds and Perkins
upon the Creed ...
To Mary my daughter [similarly conditioned] fifty pounds and a Bible
...
To Martha my daughter [similarly conditioned] fifty pounds and a Bible
...
My wife shall be at the charge of the education of all my said
Children, untill theire severall ages of one and twentie years ...
I ... Devise and bequeath unto my well-beloved wife Martha Cooke ...
those ... lands I lately purchased of Sir Robert Chichester, knight,
being that howse ... wherein I nowe ... Dwell, which performing all
the severall legacies and bequests aforesaid shee maye either sell or
keepe at her owne pleasure ... to my wife that hundred pounds which
remayneth in the hands of Mr. John White, my father-in-law, and was
promised me in marriage with her, as parte of her marriage porcion ...
All the rest of my leases, goods, and Chattles ... unto my said
well-beloved wife (the better to enable her to paye the aforesaid
legacies to my said Children) whome I ... make my sole Executrix ...
My brother-in-law Mr. John White, preacher of Gods word at Dorchester,
with myne olde friend Mr. Wilton, schoolmaster of Credyton, to be my
Overseers ..."
William Cooke wrote his will on February 7, 1614/5; and it was proved
in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on June 26, 1615.
[Harold F. Porter, Jr., "New England Historical and Genealogical
Register," July 1988, vol. cxlii, pp. 361-368]
R. Battle
> I was intrigued by this a few years ago, but checked a biography of
> John Wesley. It identified Wesley's maternal grandfather as a John
> White, M.P.(i.e., did not call him REV. John White). One of the
> volumes of _Proc. of the American Philosophical Society_ contains
> biographies of Members of Parliament during the Long Parliament, and
> has a sketch of this John White, M.P. (not a minister), who was
> apparently grandfather of the Wesleys. So the Wesley connection to
> New England doesn't seem to work out.
<snip>
Interesting. DNB has this John White, M.P., as the maternal grandfather
of Susanna Annesley, wife of Samuel Wesley and mother of Charles and John.
This portion of the descent is OT, but here is a brief AT of what can be
digested from the DNB:
1. John Wesley (1703-1791)
2. Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), m. c1690
3. Susanna Annesley (1669/70-1742)
4. John Wesley (c1635-1678)
5. ___ White
6. Samuel Annesley
7. ___ White
10. John White (1575-1648), "patriarch of Dorchester"
11. Ann Burgess
14. John White (1590-1645), M.P.
15. Winifred Blackwell
-Robert Battle
R. Battle
<snip>
> p. 186, note 6: "What amounts to almost certain refutation of the
> claim that John Wesley married a daughter of John White is given in
> Frances Rose-Troup's _John White, the Patriarch of Dorchester_ (1930),
> pp. 392-3."
Thanks for the pointer. I checked Rose-Troup's book, and it does indeed
appear that this connection must be considered to be false. The following
is what she had to say on the pages indicated above:
"It is well to notice certain positive statements contained in printed
books which either lack support of any evidence or else can be completely
disproved. 1. That John White had two daughters: a) one married to
Benjamin Way. But Way's wife was Martha, sister of Robert White of West
Stafford. b) The other married to John Wesley, becoming the ancestor of
John and Charles. John Wesley of Winterbourne Whitchurch was married
about 1656/7--wife's name not given. John White compiled his pedigree in
1634, giving him four sons, some with children, and a long line of
sisters, but no daughters; he married but once, and to have a daughter the
mother of her first child about 1657 is unlikely. He had a cousin Mary
Perrot who married a William Westley early in the 17th century."
So, the argument is that if John White had a daughter who married John
Wesley, she must have been born after he compiled his pedigree in 1634;
which is unlikely given the apparent age by then of his wife.
-Robert Battle