Of the Felgh Family in America and Wales
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THE MEMORIAL H I S TO R Y O F TH E EL H FA ILY I N AMERIC AND WALES F G M A . T — H E R S N L A TE S T OR 1 6 1 188 1. EA LIE T A D REC DS , 4 B Y . RR N H C O L UMBUS HIO W FA A D FELC , O . I R PR NTED F O TH E AUTHOR . h mb s h io . Press of J F E t 8: C o . Col u u O , ar ar . , 1881 we In Cambria are born , and gentlemen u Further to boast were neither tr e nor modest , I . w e M N . Unless add , are honest CY BELI E w a s But , somehow my soul ever lifting itself up , and gazing a s f i forward upon posterity , if, when it should depart rom th s TH E . life it would then begin to live. ELDER CATO The stream is brightest at its spring , And blood is not like wine Nor honored less than he wh o heirs h o . Is he w founds a line JOHN G . WHITTIER INTRODUCTORY . As the life of an individual furnishes , upon the whole , the most agreeable of all literary subjects , other than the merely m a o ritv mantic , to the j of readers , so the life of a family , duly su l m a tter traced and authenticated , ought to pp y of no common utility , both for amusement and instruction . It has often been r — Va l e rii remarked how the great Gentes of Roman histo y the , C l a udii — the , the Scipios , and others seemed to prolong , gene i i rat on after generat on , particular types , not only of political sen time nt and conduct , but of personal character ; and the same has been observed in respect to the English races which have taken from father to son so large a share in political and social ‘ C lifi o rds O ld life , the Percys , Mortimers , and in the days , the G re nville s Howards , Russells , , and many more in later times , t have consti uted not merely households but castes . As much l m ay be said of our later civi ization in America , with respect to the families of Adams , Winthrop , Randolph , Lee , Hancock , as well as many others we might mention . “ How true then is the observation of a recent writer : A fa in ily may be considered a man of larger , longer growth , of char acter vastly m ore rich , complex , and pregnant , but of no less ’ t in dis inct an individuality than ordinary men s . The fa ily is young , grows up , and prospers or dies , its years are genera tions , each with its event and experience , inevitably earing " b t . upon the fu ure After all , the tastes , interests , family attach ments , personal hopes and fears of men , do not vary so much in the course of cent uries as Our first fancies would lead us to ' . meta l is d ff imagine The the same , the setting only i erent . When we look back at the nobility of the Old World , with ri h admiration , it is proper that our p de s ould not fail to recog nize the outgrowth of these older civilizations in our o wn coun . But try , for family pride like charity should begin at home - ours is not a nation of hero worshippers . The reason Ameri can genealogy has not won for itself a right to be respected is C i vfliz atio n not merely because ours is a conglomerate , nor be cause its beginnings were so recent , but because our hasty pro o gress does not permit us to l ok very far into the past , and our hurried m o de of life does not allow us time to collect into suit able and enduring forms the records of the Past . i i m It is not unusual to find family records , but they are n an O f perfect state , on stray pieces paper , liable to be lost , or in the family Bible , generally incomplete and illogical in arrangement . o f As a people , Americans have little pride ancestry , and are quite too busy with the present to think or care much for the past wh o an d yet the past had much to do with our present , and we are n o w upon the stage of action will have quite as much to do in moulding the characters of those who come after us . We inherit much besides worldly estate and physical consti t utio n from parents and progenitors a little s tudy of this inh eri tance will profit us as much as our other worldly concerns . PREFACE . o b e ct t Our i in presenting this Memorial , a work of grati ude and respect , is to foster and cherish the memory of our progeni tors . Let it not be supposed that we desire to create a false ' family pride , not at all commensurate with the achievements of our ancestors , or of those of later times . We merely consider ‘ our self-imposed task as a duty we owe to those who shall rise up after us , as well as an act of reverence to those who have but gone before . Our researches , extending over a period of ten e f y ars , have given us su ficient reasons for inferring that the dis tinguishing traits of our fore-fathers were inherited by each and rk every branch . Our quiet family annals are really rema able w e in the sense that such as were at the origin , such we have always remained , as regards distinguishing qualities . Our ancestors never acquired any peculiar renown , and never t . had grea ness thrust upon them , in the popular sense of the term tu We have never deviated into litera re or art , until late years w e have recruited the legal and clerical , but very seldom the medical profession . There are , however , frequent examples of the heroic to be found in our annals . Our family has sent its ’ quota to maintain our country s honor : at the capture of L o uis burg , Cape Breton Island ; in the Revolutionary war ; the war o f 18 12 the war with Mexico and in the recent rebellion . In other respects we are not behind families of co -extensive ‘ progress . Our ancestors were pioneers in settling some of the : oldest towns of New England Boston , Gloucester , Watertown , R , , , , , , eading Weston Waltham I Newton Natick Royalston and Walpole , as well as FELCHV LLE in Massachusetts Seabrook , N ew VI Weare , and other towns in Hampshire ; FELCH LLE in r Ve mont , Canterbury in Connecticut , and useful , and honorable o . citizens of a hundred other towns , through ut the land Our history numbers here Some names and scenes to long remembrance dear And summer verdure clothes the lowly breast Of the small hillock where our fathers rest . T heirs was the dauntless heart , the hand the voice , That bade the desert blossom and rejoice . ‘ A I N MEMORIAM M JO R UM . THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF THE g fif fi ra g amfi g . PART FIRST TH E COLONI AL PERIOD . R N . CHA PTER I . O U EMIGRA T ANCESTORS If we tried To sink the past beneath ou"r feet , be sure The future would not stand . W ELI"AB ETH BARRE TT BRO NING . We know little inregard to our Emigrant Ancestor , Henry F fel ch , Felch , or , previous to his emigration to America but we o f have now in progress an extensive investigation , the results which will be made known before this History is completed . We first find Henry Felch Senior , one of the earliest settlers , t 16 1 and proprietors of Gloucester, Massachuse ts , in 4 , and of 1 2 Watertown in 64 . The earliest record we have relates indi G lo u i . rectly to his res dence in Gloucester It is found in the cester records “ Samuel H a iew ard married to daughter of Henry r H aiewa d , 2 d 16 1. Felch , March 4 Samuell , sonne of S amuell ' n sonne H a th 16 2 . o h borne by his wife , Jann 4 4 J , of Samuell 2 r : , iewa d , borne by his wife , Decem 4 r According to the will of Hen y Felch Senior , he had other daughters one who married Samuel Dunton of Reading , and " wh o W iburn one married John , mariner besides a son , Henry ' F el ch unio r : . J , of Reading all born in Wales , probably The : family name has various permutations in this country FELCH , F A L C H MC F A L C H F E L TC H . , , , and FELCH In Wales it is also E H subject to considerable change , and is written F LC S , FOUL C H E s F O U L C Ks , and , being of the same descent as the Hughes E d ei rn i o n family , Barons of , County Merioneth , Wales , which derives a royal lineage through th e ancient Princes of Powys and the monarchs of North and South Wales , from Roderick R h o dri - the Great , or Mawr , twenty eight descents , as given elsewhere in this Record . ’ th e In Babson s History of Gloucester , following is found i 16 2 a n d . Henry Felch was here n 4 , was the owner of six acres of hoed ground , of which there is no grant in the records .