Norwood Family The following Norwood family information is a collection from several sources I have received over the years. They consist first A letter of Sep 14, 1959, Sue Norwood Pickens, of Jefferson City, TN who sent a history of the Norwood Family to my Aunt Ethel Warren Allen Blankenship. Page 2. A history from Audrey Warren of Pontotoc, Mississippi with a connection and then a history of General John Norwood and Related Line from the Birmingham Public Library. Page 7. A Family Tree Maker file of the Descendants of Earl of Wessex Godwin the Norwood Family from Cousin Tom Burch [email protected] related to the same Norwoods on his father’s side. Tom collected his information from several Internet and book sources that he documents throughout his file. I have modified Tom’s Descendants of Earl of Wessex Godwin the Norwood Family with footnotes to tie the supporting information into the appropriate places as you go down the Generations. Page 23. Last “General” John Norwood and Related Lines 1964. Page 110. Ronnie Warren August 7, 2002 [email protected] 1 Norwood Family On September 14, 1959, Sue Norwood Pickens, of Jefferson City, Tennessee sent a history of the Norwood Family to Ethel Warren Allen Blankenship. Ethel’s mother, Viola Demastus Warren’s mother, was a Norwood. The following letter was sent with the history: Jefferson City, Tenn. Sept. 14, 1959 Dear Ethel, I told you once that I would send you a copy of the Norwood kin that I have collected if you could give me some records. I am sorry to have been so long in getting them to you but I kept hoping that I would get more to send. As you see it is not anywhere complete but I was afraid that if I waited I would not get them to you at all. I do want all our folks to have all I can find out about them. I would like so much to have a complete record even to the third and fourth cousins and their children. If I can not have it printed, I want to have everything ready for some one who can. Hope you will fill in where I have left it blank, if you know the answers and add to all you know on the Demastus and Warren sides of your family. I am enclosing a copy of the things you sent to me. If you can add anything or correct what I have typed I hope you will send it to me sometime. It is the loose sheet I am sending. We always enjoy our trips back to Alabama but have not been able to make one for about four years for Carl is not able to be out. He is doing very well but can not exert himself much. He has not been out of the house since June. Give my love to Viola, maybe she will think of something else to tell you about the family. Sincerely Sue Norwood Pickens. The Norwood Family From the pamphlet The Norwoods of Kent by M. C. Sawtelle, the Visitations of Glousesteur 1623, Country Genealogies by William Berry, British Records Society, and various English parish records, the following is written: The Norwood name was originally North wood, having been assumed by Sir Stephen de Sheppy, son of John to whom King Henry II, of England, gave the manor of Northwood Chasteners in Kent. Stephen de Sheppy then became known as Sir Stephen de Northwood and built a large manor which for many years remained in the possession of his descendants. The name through the years became contracted to Norwood. Records of the family are traced back to the thirteenth century form an ancient parchment scroll found in an iron bound oak chest among the rubbish in the lumber room of a castle in Kent written in a fourteenth century hand. 2 The following table in abbreviated form shows the line of descent from: 1. Sir Stephen de Northwood 2. Sir Roger de Northwood who died November 9, 1286, and married Bona Fitzbernard. He took an active part in the wars of Henry II and Edward I, his brother Sir John married Joan de Baldemere who died May 26, 1319, leaving a son John. 3. Sir John was among the barons of the realm summoned to the first Parliament in England in 1295. 4. Sir John who married Agnes daughter of Sir William Grandison 5. Sir Roger who married Julianna daughter of Sir Geoffrey de Say, Feb. 20, 1328 and died Nov. 6, 1361. 6. Sir John born 1321, married Joan, daughter of Robert Hare of Faversiam, died Feb. 27, 1379. 7. James, living in 1379 and married Jane daughter of Clynton. 8. Myles, whom Captain Tyre says removed from Kent to Glousesstershire and began the Lockhampton branch of the Norwood family. After two centuries in Kent the Norwoods took root in Glousesstershire. Captain Tyre, writing from the Grotto, Lockhampton, to Dr. Norwood date Feb. 22, 1923, says, “I have been able to trace Norwoods Lockhampton back to Myles Norwood and believe this man is the first actual connection link, but I am not certain. I am supported in my view by the fact that the Arms of the Norwoods of Kent without any difference, were confirmed by the Herald’s College to the Norwoods of Lockhampton. From the Visitations of Glousesstershirs. Harlean Society, London, 1885, pages 177; Genealogist’s Guide, by G.W. Marshall, privately printed, Gilford England. 1905, we are able to continue the line from Miles as follows: 9. John who died 1509 and was marries to Elinor Gifford. 10. Roger who married a daughter of Sir John Butler, of Badminton, Glousesstershire. 11. Raffe who married a daughter of a Knight of Sherewsbury. 12. Henry who married Catherine, a daughter of Sir Robert Throgmorton, of Worcestershire. 13. William who married Elizabeth, daughter of William Lygoun of Kadisfield. With William we have reached the period when parish records were kept and in the Lockhampton Parish records (Glousesstershire 7; 23) we read that William Norwood and Elizabeth married Oct. 18, 1589, and had among their children, Elizabeth. 14. Richard who married Elizabeth daughter of Nicholas Steward. 15. John married Francis 16. Thomas married Dorothy. This concludes the early information in England. The first Norwoods of our family came to America early in the seventeen century. There were three brothers, a silversmith, a carpenter and a blacksmith. They were in Massachusetts for a while, then part of them went to Virginia and part to North Carolina. The parents of Burwell Norwood (our for father) lived in Culpeper County, Virginia. They may have been in N. C. or S. C. for a 3 while but they are said to have been moved from Culpeper to Alabama. The census shows that all the children were born in Virginia. Some of Burwell’s brothers went to Mississippi and some to Tennessee. Part of the family was in Alabama when the Indians were moved west in 1829. Those in Alabama shown by the 1830 census are: William Norwood, page. 29, age 50-60 George Norwood next to him, 1m.15-20, f, 15-20. Jonathan Norwood, page.12, 30-40 Census of 1840: Jonathan Norwood, page.10, 2m- 5, 2m 5-10, 2 15-20, 1m 30-40, 1f 15-20, 1f 20-30, 1f 30-40, 1f 70-80. George Norwood, page25; William Norwood and John Norwood, page 38. Elizabeth Norwood, page 40. (Elizabeth Glover Norwood, Papa’s grandmother.) The father of Burwell Norwood (Nathaniel Norwood) was killed by two drunken slaves in his own still house in Cilpeper County, Virginia. Burwell Norwood and several of his brothers moved to Morgan County, Alabama between the years 1832 and 1840. Some of them came even sooner. His name does not appear on the 1840 census but that of his wife does appear as head of the household. We do not know the date of his death as the Bible records were destroyed by fire. A short time before the beginning of the compiling of these records my sister went to Elliot Cemetery to copy records but could not find the stone. Some one near the cemetery told her that only a short time before a man was seen taking away a truck full of tombstones to make a foundation for a house. The ones of Burwell and his wife were part of those taken. The Sheriff of Morgan County offered a reward for the offender but was not successful in finding him. Burwell Norwood was born about 1789 and died about 1837, He married Elizabeth Glover November 10, 1810, according to Hitshoock’s Bible Analysis, once owned by Richard Weaver Norwood, my grandfather, and given to me by Papa. Elizabeth was born 1791 and died about 1877. They had sixteen children: 1. Julia born September 21, 1811 in Virginia, married Jack J. Ray, lived at Courtland, Alabama. 2. William born December 7, 1812, married Eliza McBuffie on August 28, 1851 by Minister Alex NeSmith. 3. Benjamin G. born December 22, 1813. He was in Co. 1, Forty third Regular Mississippi Infantry, C.S.A. 4. Elizabeth born July 21, 1816 5. James W. born July 21, 1816, married first Sarah Tucker on July 7, 851, second Martha McKelvy on January 14, 1864 by Joseph Shackleford, minister. 6. Burwell G. born December 12, 1818. 7. Mary Ann Frances born April 22, 1820, married John Demastus parents of George Demastus and father of Viol Demastus Warren. 8. Rebecca G., born January 18, 1822 and married a Demastus.