Many American descendants of Major Robert Beverley, who emigrated from
Yorkshire to Jamestown, Virginia, where he died in 1687, put great
stock in the possibility that he could have been the grandson of
Robert Beverley, the third son of Thomas Beverley of Selby and Ellen
Vincent. One Robert Fairfax of the parish of "Fisketon",
Nottinghamshire is said to have married in 1597, Frances Fairfax,
daughter of Henry Fairfax "of Bilboro". She is said to have been the
younger daughter of Henry Fairfax of Street Houses, Bilbrough, Yorks.,
by his wife Dorothy Aske (and thus a descendant of Edward III). There
is record of a Henry Fairfax naming his son-in-law Robert Beverley
trustee under his Will, which was dated 29 April 1599, pr. 31 Jan.
1600.
From
http://kykinfolks.tripod.com/parker/one.htm
"In 1650, William Beverley, the grandson of Robert Beverley and
Frances Fairfax, the Immigrants, went to England with his wife and his
son and daughter and Mrs. Beverley's nephew, Robert Munford and
William Henry Fairfax, son of Col. Wm. Fairfax of Belvoir of the Lord
Fairfax family of VA. The brief diary kept by William Beverley on this
trip shows that they visited the Fairfax home "Toulson" in Yorkshire
and that they later went to the city of Hull where they met a cousin,
Mrs. Phoebe Beverley, and received a letter from another, a William
Beverley, then living in Norwich. William Beverley (who made the trip
to England as aforesaid) was named by Lord Fairfax as one of the
commissioners in VA in the great Northern Neck land controversy and
the association of the families appears to have been very close,
leading to the surmise that Major Robert Beverley may have descended
from the Robert Beverley who married Frances Fairfax."
The identity of Frances Fairfax sounds promising, but it seems
unlikely that her husband Robert Beverley of 'Fisketon' could be the
third son of Thomas Beverley of Selby and Ellen Vincent, as there is
record of a Robert Beverley "of Smeton" being admitted to Gray's Inn
on 25 November 1605, who almost certainly would be their son. I don't
know how usual it was for a man to attend Gray's Inn six years after
getting married or how the Nottinghamshire parish of Fisketon ties in
with the Beverleys of Great Smeaton. Still, further research may
yield another Yorkshire gentry emigrant to 17th-century Virginia with
an Edward III descent.
The first established Beverley of Great Smeaton to marry into the
Edward III bloodline was John Beverley (c.1618-1680), the son and heir
of Vincent Beverley and Mary Twisleton. John succeeded his father to
Great Smeaton when he was only age 16, and in 1637 a marriage was
arranged for him with Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Beaumont of
Whitley, but she died childless. When war broke out between the King
and Parliament, John Beverley became the master of the West Riding
muster, and was a Major of a regiment of foot for Charles I. After
Parliament triumphed, John Beverley was fined £200 for his Royalist
loyalty. Probably after 1650, he took for his second wife, Mary,
elder daughter of John Dalton of Hawkswell. Her seven lines of
descent from Edward III thru Joan Beaufort are given below. The fact
that her father had been killed in action in 1644 as a Royalist
officer may have contributed to the match, but the major factor was
that her maternal uncle Conyers, Lord Darcy (later Earl of Holderness)
was seated at Hornby, less than 2 miles N.E. of Great Smeaton.
John Beverley and Mary Dalton had two sons and four daughters by the
pedigree of the family taken by Sir William Dugdale at his 1665
Visitation: Dorothy (born 1654), John (born 1656), Thomas, Elizabeth,
Mary and Anne. Despite his well-connected marriage, John Beverley
ended up falling into financial difficulties. He left Great Smeaton
and moved the family to Jervaulx Abbey. In about 1679 he arranged a
marriage for his son and heir John Beverley the younger, to Katharine,
daughter of John Stockdale of Kirk Hammerton, and died the following
year on 7 October 1680. His wife Mary survived him, but I've yet to
track down a death date for her. Continued financial worries
compelled their son and heir John Beverley to sell the Great Smeaton
estate for £1030 to Thomas Cust of Little Danby in 1692, and ended up
in a Chancery lawsuit (Beverley v. Cust, 1694) for Cust's "trickery"
during the sale's progress. The family enters complete obscurity
following this, and the fate of John Beverley and his siblings, or for
how many generations male-line descendants of John Beverley and Mary
Dalton continued, remains unknown.
Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (c.1379-1440) had one son (C1)
and three daughters (A1, D1 & E1)
A1) Elizabeth Ferrers, Lady Greystoke (1393-1434), who had (with B2
below),
A2) Joan Greystoke (c.1410-aft. 1472) m. Sir John Darcy of Temple
Hurst, Yorks. (1404-1458), and had
A3) Richard Darcy (c.1424-c.1450) m. Eleanor Scrope, and had
A4) Sir William Darcy of Temple Hurst (1443-1488) m. 1461 Euphemia
Langton, and had
A5) Thomas Darcy, 1st Lord Darcy (c.1467-1537), m. 1)Dowsabel Tempest,
and had
A6) Sir Arthur Darcy of Brimham, Yorks., 3rd son (c.1505-1561) m. Mary
Carew (descended from Edward III but not thru Joan Beaufort), and had
A7) Thomas Darcy of Hornby, 2nd son (d. 1605) m. 1)by 1567 Elizabeth
Conyers (see B7 below), and had
A8) Conyers Darcy, Lord Darcy and Conyers (1570-1654) m. 1594 Dorothy
Belasyse (see D9 below), and had
A9) Dorothy Darcy (c.1605-1663) m. 1627 John Dalton of Hawkswell,
Yorks. (1603-1644), and had
A10) Mary Dalton (c.1630-aft.1680) m. by 1653 John Beverley of Great
Smeaton, Yorks. (c.1618-1680), and had
A11) John Beverley of Jervaulx Abbey (1656-aft.1694)
B2) Ralph, 5th Lord Greystoke (c.1414-1487), who had
B3) Sir Robert Greystoke (d. 1483) m. 1) Elizabeth Grey (see G3
below), and had
B4) Elizabeth Greystoke (1471-1516) m. Thomas, 3rd Lord Dacre
(1467-1525), and had
B5) Anne Dacre (d. 1548) m. 1515 Christopher, 2nd Lord Conyers (see C4
below)
B6) John Conyers, 3rd Lord Conyers (1524-1557) m. 1537 Lady Maud
Clifford (see F6 below), and had
B7) Elizabeth Conyers (by 1552-1572) m. by 1567 Thomas Darcy of Hornby
(see A7 above)
C1) William Nevill, Earl of Kent (c.1408-1463), who had
C2) Alice Nevill (c.1437-by 1490) m. Sir John Conyers of Hornby (c.
1435-1469), and had
C3) William, 1st Lord Conyers (1468-1524) m. Anne Nevill (descended
from Edward III, but not thru Joan Beaufort), and had
C4) Christopher, 2nd Lord Conyers (by 1503-1538) m. 1515 Anne Dacre
(see B5 above)
D1) Mary Ferrers, Lady Neville of Oversley (1394-1458), had
D2) John Neville of Oversley (d. 1482), who had
D3) Joan Neville m. Sir William Gascoigne (d. 1463), and had
D4) Sir William Gascoigne (c.1450-1487) m. Margaret Percy (see E3
below), and had
D5) Anne Gascoigne m. Sir Thomas Fairfax of Gilling (c.1476-1520), and
had
D6) Sir Nicholas Fairfax of Gilling (c.1499-1571) m. 1) Jane Palmes,
and had
D7) Margaret Fairfax (d. 1577) m. by 1550 Sir William Belasyse of
Henknoll (1523-1604), and had
D8) Sir Henry Belasyse, 1st Baronet (1555-1624) m. by 1575 Ursula
Fairfax (descendant of Edward I), and had
D9) Dorothy Belasyse (d. 1653) m. 1594 Conyers Darcy, Lord Darcy and
Conyers (see A8 above)
E1) Eleanor Nevill, Countess of Northumberland (d. 1473), who had
(with G2 below)
E2) Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland (1421-1461), who had (with
F3 below)
E3) Margaret Percy m. Sir William Gascoigne (see D4 above)
F3) Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland (1449-1489) m. 1472 Maud
Herbert, and had
F4) Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland (1478-1527) m. c.1490
Katherine Spencer (1477-1542, descendant of Edward III but not thru
Joan Beaufort), and had
F5) Lady Margaret Percy (c.1495-1540) m. 1513 Henry Clifford, 1st Earl
of Cumberland (c.1493-1542, descendant of Edward III but not thru Joan
Beaufort), and had
F6) Lady Maud Clifford m. 1537 John, 3rd Lord Conyers (see B6 above)
G2) Katherine Percy, Countess of Kent (1423-1504), who had
G3) Elizabeth Grey (d. 1472) m. Sir Robert Greystoke (see B3 above)
Cheers, -----Brad
According to an article by Brent Tarter in the Virginia Genealogical
Quarterly, volume 31, No. 3, August 1993, Major Robert Beverley's
parents were Peter Beverley and Susannah Hollis (or Hollice) of Hull,
probably married circa 1633. Therefore it is highly unlikely that
Major Robert Beverley could have been a descendant of Robert Beverley
and Frances Fairfax. It would be interesting to explore Major Robert
Beverley's roots to see how he may be related to the other Beverley
families of Yorkshire.
Chuck Owens
Will
Hi Will,
You're right. I should have included Major Robert Beverley's
christening date in my post. I think it is highly unlikely that
Robert Beverley and Frances Fairfax who were married in 1597 could
have been Major Robert Beverley's grandparents given the tight
chronology since Major Robert Beverley was christened in 1634/1635.
So between the 1597 marriage and his christening, we are looking at
about 37-38 years, not impossible but unlikely in my opinion.
Chuck
Actually my conclusion is wrong. I was mentally inserting an extra
generation in the 37-38 years. It is possible that Robert Beverley
and Frances Fairfax could have been Major Robert Beverley's
grandparents.
Chuck