Washburn Family Foundations In
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WASHBURN FAMILY FOUNDATIONS IN Normandy, England and America By MABEL THACHER ROSEMARY WASHBURN 1953 Press of the WM. MITCHELL PRINTING COMPANY Greenfield, Indiana Copyright, 1953 GEORGIA COOPER WASHBURN Washburn. Ar. on a fess betw. 6 martlets gu. thtee cinquefoils of the field. Crest-A coil of flax ar. surmounted with a wreath ar. and gu. thereon flames of fire ppr. Burke's General Armory. TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages THE FAMILY IN NORMANDY AND EARLY ENGLAND.................... 9-40 THE FAMILY IN ENGLAND--FOURTEENTH CENTURY-SEVEN- TEENTH CENTURY ................................................................ 41-55 THE FAMILY IN AMERICA-MASSACHUSETTS LINE (CHAD- WICK, THACHER, ETC.) AND IN VERMONT AND Omo.......... 56,82 NEW YORK LINE. CONNECTICUT, VERMONT, AND MINNE- SOTA ...................................................................................... 83-170 AUTHORITIES FOR NEW YORK LINE ........................................ 171-l 75 THOMPSON FAMILY ..................................................................176-177 HOGUE FAMILY .......................................................................... 178-182 OWEN FAMILY .......................................................................... 183-184 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Washburn Crest ................................................................ Frontispiece Mabel Thacher Rosemary Washburn............................................ 8 Chadwick Crest .............................................................................. 66 Lee Sherman Chadwick ................................................................ 68 Ethelyn Pearl (Rogers) Chadwick .............................................. 69 Hon. Reuben Washburn ................................................................ 72 Hannah Blaney (Thacher) Washburn ........................................ 72 Nathan Thompson ........................................................................ 153 Martha Hogue Washburn ............................... '. .............................. 154 Family of William and Martha Hogue Washburn ........................ 155 Will Owens Washburn (1905) .................................................... 162 Will Owens Washburn (1918) .................................................... 163 Will Owens Washburn (1928) .................................................... 164 Mrs. W. 0. Washburn and Children ............................................ 165 Children of W. 0. and Irene K. Washburn (1941) .................... 166 Joseph Hulley Washburn .............................................................. 167 Albert Owens Washburn .............................................................. 168 Will Owens Washburn, Jr............................................................. 169 W. 0. Washburn and Six Sons ...................................................... 170 Juneway Farm .............................................................................. 171 Scene in Juneway Farm Formal Garden (1935) .......................... 172 Will 0. and Irene K. Washburn at Florida Residence .................. 173 Residence of Will Owens Washburn, Miami Beach, Fla............. 174 Thompson Crest ............................................................................ 176 Hogue Crest .................................................................................... 178 WASHBURN FAMILY FOUNDATIONS IN NORMANDY AND EARLY ENGLAND This study of Washburn lineage, written by my sister, Mabel Th~cher Rosemary Washburn, is the result of years of research by her, and the generosity of two members of the family, Mr. Will Owens Washburn, of St. Paul, and Mr. Lee Sherman Chadwick, of Cleveland, who have made possible its publication. My sister wrote the portion on the family in Normandy and early England, supplementing her work on later generations in England and lines of descent in America. Her interest in her an cestry, especially in her Washburn descent, was almost throughout her life, for it first was awakened when she was a young girl, and continued until her death on May 26, 1950. GEORGIA COOPER WASHBURN. MABEL THACHER ROSEMARY WASHBURN WASHBURN FAMILY FOUNDATIONS IN NORMANDY AND EARLY ENGLAND TANCRED, the earliest known ancestor of the Washburn family, must have been born hardly later than the year of our Lord, 890, and may have been born considerably' earlier. It is probable he was twenty years old, at least, when, about 912, he is recorded as holding land in Normandy. The Norman lands, divided at this time among the companions of Rollo (Hrolf, Rou, etc.), were be stowed by him as to free and equal comrades, fellow-victors with him in the conquest of the part of France which commemorates the Norse Vikings, fierce, heathen ravagers during the Ninth and early Tenth Centuries, who, by 912, decided to become settlers instead of raiders, worshipers of Christ in place of Thor and Woden. The present Normandy, as to its general area, was ceded to Rollo by Charles the Simple, King of France, in 912, and he, in turn, gave generous shares to the friends and followers, who, of free choice, had chosen him as leader. The names given to their original lands recorded the names of these first Viking owners, followed by villa, Latin for town or place. In time, the hard Norse names became softened in French speech, and villa the French ville. Thus, the first Norman lands of Ansgod, Biorn, Grim, Harald, developed into Angeville, Borneville, Grimon ville, Heronville. Tancred's original land-holding, in the Latin chronicles called Tancredvilla, passed into Tancarville, also spelled, later, Tankerville; and this land-name became a family surname, both in Normandy and, after the Norman Conquest of England, there, also. As will be seen in this book, the surnames of the Wash burn ancestors were the names of the lands, lordships, fiefs, manors, which they owned or held feudally at different periods. The first of these land-surnames, known to us, is Tancarville, as the name is Washburn, in America, Washbourne, chiefly, in England. When Rollo and King Charles made their treaty of peace, at St. Clair-sur-Epte, in 912, the King's cession of land was balanced by the renunciation of paganism and conversion to the Christian Faith of Rollo and his companions. He was baptized by the Arch bishop of Rouen, France, and married the King's daughter, Princess Gisela. Both Baptism and Marriage were solemnized at Rouen, and, it seems probable, many of the other Norse converts there became Christian men. Perhaps Tancred was among them, as his fief, Tancarville, was not far from the city. The Normans had two characteristics of the Roman people in 10 WASHBURN FAMILY FOUNDATIONS their great period, the logical sense and respect for law. As they had raided and harried, burning and slaying, in their heathenism, so, cleansed by Baptism, and instructed in a religion of mercy and beneficence, they speedily became law-abiding, and, adopting the manner of life of their French wives, who, mothers of the next generation, impressed their children with the strong piety through history characteristic of the people of Normandy. Immediately af ter his Baptism, Rollo asked the Archbishop for the names of the greatest churches of the land of which, now, he was Duke, and which Saints were most deeply reverenced by the people of his new home-land. The Archbishop told him of six celebrated churches, and of the great devotion of the people to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Peter, and Saint Denis, Patron of France. Duke Rollo then announced: "Well, before dividing my land among my companions, I will give a part of it to God, to the Holy Mary, and to the other holy ones you have named.'' Dur ing the week following his Baptism and this resolve, during which time he wore a white habit to symbolize his purification in Baptism, he made daily gifts to the churches and for charity to the poor. There has been found no record of the wife of Tancred, the Vik ing, who became Tancred, the Christian feudal lord of the estates named for him, Tancarville. Undoubtedly, she was a Christian French woman, and her children and descendants in Normandy were loyal to the Church of Christ and benefactors in charity. Tancred, no doubt, died at Tancarville, but no date is known. RABEL DE TANCARVILLE was the son of Tancred. This personal name is uncommon, and, it seems probable, was of Norse derivation. He is mentioned as commemorated by the name of Rahel's Isle and Rahel's Foss. As Tancarville lies on the River Seine, it is to he supposed that the Isle was in the Seine. A foss or fosse is a moat or intrenchment, perhaps built for the added protection of the Castle at Tancarville. Rahel's Foss may have been the moat lying before the donjon of the Castle, the ruins of which donjon were there so late as 1930, when they were described as having been entered, in olden times, by a bridge. GERALD DE TANCARVILLE, recorded also as Geraldus and Gir aldus, is said, by the Duchess of Cleveland, in her valuable com pilation of data on many Anglo-Norman families, entitled "The Battle Abbey Roll," to have been "Baron de Tancarville toward the end of the tenth century." This would make him, it seems beyond reasonable question, son and successor of Rabel, who was son of Tancred, founder of this family in Normandy by 912. Gerald de Tancarville was father of Rabel II, described pres- NORMANDY AND EARLY ENGLAND ll ently, and, perhaps, had a younger son, Geraldus, but reference found to the latter is not clear. RABEL II DE TAN CARVILLE, son