Alvierican Ket'1yot~S
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AlvIERICAN KEt'1YOt~S Hi.story of Kenyons and Engli~ Connections of American Kenyons Genealogy of fhe American Kenyons of Rhode L,land Mi!!cellaneous Kenyon Material CAPTAIN HOWARD N. KENYON 1935 THE TUTTLE COMPANY RUTLAND. VERMONT THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY FATHER 7-{athaniel ealver Nnyon._, TABLE··OF CONTENTS Page Preface............................................ 9 The English Connections of the American Kenyons . 13 Kenyon Arms . 14 Kenyon of Kenyon . 15 Kenyons of Parkhead, Peel and Gredington. 16 Roger Kenyon . 18 Letter from James N. Arnold...... 26 Church and Court Records . 37 American Kenyons of Rhode Island . 4 7 Miscellaneous Kenyons . 24 7 Additions and Corrections. 251 Index of Names . 255 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Nathaniel Colver Kenyon, Lt. Col. U.S.V. ........... 5, 230 Kenyon Arms.. 14 Lord Lloyd Kenyon, Lord Chief Justice................ 25 Oldham Parish Church.............................. 37 Arms of Lloyd Kenyon, First Baron of Gredington...... 45 James Kenyon Millsite, Gilbert Stuart Birthplace. 48 Map of Rhode Island................................ 51 Mr. and :Mrs. Thomas W. Kenyon, Golden Wedding. 189 Rev. Archibald Kenyon.. 204 Jefferson Burr Kenyon. 213 Mrs. Mary K. Thurston. 222 PREFACE I present herewith all of the early Kenyon records that appear to be extant after a period of work on this subject covering nearly fifteen years. In making investigations of this family among the published genealogies of the United States I found it was one of the comparatively large families whose name appeared often in early records but one for whom no one person had ever prepared a complete report. A number of New England genealogical correspondents have stated that the history of the Rhode IslaDd Kenyons was a riddle no one had dared to start unraveling, due to the many contradictions in published references and to numer ous intermarriages among themselves. The worst and most misleading information published on the early Kenyons is that account in Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island by J. H. Beers, 1908. Many people have asked me of the origin of this account. I believe I have discovered the origin of the error, but do not wish to state whether it was made by such person or was the product of a genealog ical search he had had carried on in his behalf. In any event, this very erroneous history created much confusion. In several family accounts it appears that individuals of the same name in the same generation have been confused. The first published error was that of Mr. Austen in his assumption that the original Kenyon was named John and that the three Kenyons appearing in Rhode Island before 1690 were brothers. Records conclusively disprove both of these assumptions. I had the pleasure of carrying on a correspondence with Mr. James N. Arnold, Rhode Island his torian, before his death, and in 1922 visited him in Providence. He related to me that all accounts of the Kenyons in print had gotten off to a bad start and that the only way to handle them was to search the land, probate, church and town clerk records in Rhode Island. This undertaking then began, along with efforts to acquire and arrange all information in the hands of any family that had preserved vital records. The early spelling was "Kinyon," ~'Kinion" and occasionally "Kynion"; generally "Kenyon" after 1800. This work includes abstracts of all land and probate records of all Kenyons in Rhode Island down to 1810 and in many cases 10 AMERICAN KENYONS beyond that time. It includes the entries made in the town meeting records for the same period of time, and all town clerk records as published by Mr. Arnold (only two errors in copying noted in lvlr. Arnold's work). It includes all entries in the published Colonial Records of Rhode Island. It includes all military records in the state of Rhode Island down to after the Revolutionary \,Var, and all military records of the Kenyons on file in the New England states, New York State and in the files in Washington, D. C., for the same period. It includes the Rhode Island census of 1774, the Federal census of 1790 and the military census of 1777 in Rhode Island. The Federal census of 1790 was searched in all states in the Union at that time. It includes all known entries of the Kenyon family shown by the index files in the library of the Massachusetts Historical and Genealogical Society in Boston, Mass. It includes the work of all individuals who have beenknown or located with information on this family. The individuals who have greatly assisted in this work are: Miss Helen Kenyon, 1\iliss Amy Kenyon, Professor John S. Kenyon, Mrs. Mary Crane (Kenyon) Thurston and Mrs. John L. Kenyon of Wyoming, R. I. Particular mention is made of the work of all of these in their places in the book. One who is not included in the book or in the family is Mrs. La Clede Wood mansee, genealogist, of Westerly, R. I., who has rendered faithful and painstaking assistance at most reasonable fees for making copies of Kenyon entries in town records in Rhode Island: She has found the answer to many problems by her close inspection and accurate copying of the original entries upon which this work is based for those families in Rhode Island prior to 1800. The fact that few town clerks will do this work at all for any stipulated fee makes it necessary to have the records copied or do so in person. In my several years of working on Rhode Island records I have found l\1rs. "\Voodmansee the most efficient, most accurate and most reasonable in fees of any professional genealo gist doing any part of this work. I appreciate such excellent help. One feature that is most discouraging to any one is the fact that many people never make any form of reply to requests for information on family records. I am sorry to say that with my own comparatively close relatives the going has been slow PREFACE 11 in many cases. Naturally, much material is omitted from this publication not be.cause of any intent to do so but because replies have been so brief that the vital records amounted to nothing or there were no replies at all. If any reader of this book should wish to mail an account of his connection with the Kenyon family to me after publication, I shall be glad to retain such information until such time as an accumulation of more material might justify the further publication of a supplement to this work. Tradition will never be accepted or published. Unless material of record is available, either of public nature or from family accounts, it never pays to embalm a perhaps fatal error in print. In this chronicle of human lives there is no apology for their failings or boast of their successes. The pages of record have not been permitted to become vehicles of religious propaganda dealing with the godliness of the subjects, as so many efforts of this kind become. If any religious philosophy were to be served, it would be along such durable and majestic lines as expressed by Omar Khayyam. HOWARD N. KENYON GROWING OLD ROLLIN J. w ELLS A little more tired at close of day, A little less anxious to have our way; A little less ready to scold and blame; A little more care of a brother's name; And so we are nearing the _journey's end, Where time and eternity meet and blend. A little more love for the friends of youth, A little less zeal for established truth; A little more charity in our views, A little less thirst for the daily news; And so we are folding our tents away, And passing in silence at close of day. A little less care for bonds and gold, A little more zest in the days of old; A broader view and a saner mind, A little more love for all mankind; And so we are facing adown the way That leads to the gates of a better day. A little more leisure to sit and dream, A little more real the things unseen; A little nearer to those ahead, With visions of those long loved and dead; And so we are going, where all must go, To the place the living may never know. A little more laughter, a few more tears, And we shall have told our increasing years,· The book is closed, and the prayers are said, And we are part of the countless dead. Thrice happy if then some soul can say, "I live because he has passed my way." ehapter 0ne,.., THE ENGLISH CONNECTIONS OF THE AMERICAN KENYONS In a letter of 1900, the Hon. Mrs. Edward Kenyon of Greding ton, County Salop (Shropshire), England, to Mr. Duty Clarke Kenyon of Carbondale, Pa. (a second cousin of A. C. K.), is the statement that the first Kenyon in England was a Saxon who landed there in 449 A.D. at the head of a band who came with Henghist and Horsa to deliver the Britons from the Scots and Picts. The Saxons kept coming, and in that century, the fifth, they established themselves in their first kingdom, that of Kent. The Kenyons were rewarded for their services in some of the Saxon campaigns of the two following centuries by a large tract of land on the western border of England, in what is now Shropshire. The Kenyon title to this land has been recorded from that day to this, except in the intervals of Norman rule.