Library of Congress

No . 32 The Fou n f Amer i ca St e a df a s t f o r Go d a n d Co u n t r y A N A D D R E SS B Y H E FITC B L. WIN HEST R . C , M e m b e r o f N e w Y o rk So c i e ty o f F o u n de rs a n d P a tr io t s : M e m b e r o f N e w Y o r k Hi s to ri c a l So c i e ty ; R e gi s tra r o f t h e N e w Y o rk e i a l a n d i o a h i c a l Soc i e t E t c . G e n a l o g c B gr p y , D ELI VER ED B E F O R E The New York Society O F T HE Order of th e Founders and Patriots of Ameri ca AT T HE r H o te l M a n h a tta n , N e w Yo k 1 2 J a n u a r y 1 0 , 1 9 O ffi c e r s of t h e Ne w York Soc i et y O rder of t h e Fo u nders a n d Pa t ri ot s of Am eri c a , - 1 91 1 1 91 2 . Govern or TH EODORE GILMAN , 55 i a m o . W lli Street , New Y rk Depu ty Gov ern or EDGAR ABEL TURRELL . 76 i lia m o . W l Street , New Y rk Cha lai n MA REV. M . GREE N LYMAN , i h on . 68 i n on A v e . t I Cl t , New Br g , S , N Y Secreta ry WILLIAM EDWARD FITCH , M . D . 355 . 1 45 h t o . W t Stree , New Y rk Tr ea su r er MATTH EW H I NMAN , 4 1 6 oa a o . Br dw y , New Y rk Sta te A ttor n ey G OODWI N BROWN , 1 35 oa a o . Br dw y , New Y rk Regi stra r JOH N C . COLEMAN , 1 00 oa a o . Br dw y , New Y rk Gen ealogi st K JOHN ELDER I N , 1 1 0 . 57t h t t o . W S ree , New Y rk Hi stori a n Z . R EAR ADM I RAL EBENE ER S PRI M E , U . S N . n i n t on on sla n . Hu t g , L g I d Cou n ci llors 1 909 - 1 2 E . K . G . MAJ . G N FREDERIC D RANT, U S . A . K G G HOWARD IN COOLI D E , THO M AS REDFIELD PROCTOR . 1 9 1 0 - 1 3 REV. EDWARD PAYSON JOHNSON , D D THEODORE F ITCH , COL . GEORGE E . DEWEY . 1 9 1 1 - 1 4 COL . RALPH EARL PRI M E , G G . EOR E CLI NTON BATCHELLOR , L L D . LOUIS ANN I N AMES . T h e F o u n de r s of A m e r i c a NCHESTER F WI ITCH, B . L . M e m b er of N e w Y or k S oc i e t y of Fou n d e r s a n d Pa t r i o t s ; M e m b e r of Ne w Y or k Hi st o ric a l S oc i e t y ; Regist ra r o f t h e New Yor k G e n e a lo c a l a n d c t gi Biogr a ph i c a l S o ie y , Et c . PART I . Although a new country , ours is an old civilization . As the inspiration of American music is not to be found in the savage chants of Aborigines , but in the development of the musical ideas of our ancestors ; so in one sense our history does not begin with Columbus , but at the first chapter of the Bible , which was the Puritan Code , or at the latest , with Archbishop Langton and the barons of Runnymede , who wrested M agna Charta from King J ohn , A . D . I n reviewing the history of modern Europe there are certain years marked by such events that they have become landmarks of progress . The fall of Constantinople , the invention of the ’ mariner s compass which facilitated voyages of discovery , the use of printing which revived learning and distributed the Bible , the Renaissance , the work of Savonarola and the Humanists of 1 43 1 Florence where Pulci ( like Seneca and Strabo , fore told the discovery of the New World ; the end of the Wars of the 1 5 1 7 1 689 Roses , the Reformation from to , the growth of indus o f tries , the rise the middle class , the defeat of the Spanish 1 Armada in 588 , the heroic struggle of Holland , aided by Eng land , against the obsolete and horrible tyranny of Spain and the ’ i n de e n I nquisition , ending by Spain s recognition of Dutch p dence in 1 609 ; the rise of the Scotch covenanters in 1 639 the English contest against the Stuarts ending like the Reformation Z in 1 689 ; the noble struggle of wingli , Calvin , Coligny and ’ C oli n s Conde in Switzerland and France , g y unsuccessful pro 1 2 j e c t of 56 when he sent Ribault to settle Carolina , the heroism ’ 1 572 of the Huguenots on St . Bartholomew s Day in , encouraged only to be abandoned by Henry of Navarre , whose edict of Nantes in 1 598 was revoked in 1 685 when hideous atrocities and outrageous persecutions sent forty thousand fugitives to England 2 5 and many to America , depriving France in years of a million people ; the splendid story of the Bohemian , German and Scan di n a v i a n princes , peasants and protestants ; the end of the 3 British War with France in 1 763 ; it is such events as these that ' keep certain years memorable for good or ill . These great landmarks in the history of the Europe of our ancestors , should be celebrated as American holidays , as well as the great anniversaries that are associated with our own soil . Some of the actors in these events seem akin to us , as if they had been Americans before the discovery of the New World ; and the study of their family history rewards us by proving that their blood flowed in the veins of some of those who become Founders of America . Their great ideas flashing through the brains of their friends and followers , resulted in the realization in the New World of what they had merely dreamed in the Old . Roger Bacon , the Father of Modern Science ; Simon de Mont - i n - fort , the Patriot ; Chaucer , the brother law of John of Gaunt , f Ru e c h li n the protector of Wycli fe ; Caxton and Tyndale ; , r o n G c y , Linacre , Fisher , Colet , Sir Thomas M ore and Erasmus , Roman Catholics , but not bigots ; the thirteenth and fifteenth Earls of Oxford ; Sir William Locke , Sir Thomas Gresham , Sir “ Edward Osborne , the clothier or manufacturer of woolen cloth , whose descendants were D ukes of Leeds , some of the Wa lde ra v e s Wi n fie lds Cloptons , g and Joslyns ; Willoughbys , g W e n t wor t h s and ; Sir Charles Brandon , Sir Thomas Wroth , Lady Jane Grey , Sir John Gates , Sir Thomas Wyatt , the M arian exiles and martyrs , Sir Philip Sidney , the perfect knight , an aristocrat with a democratic heart , who secured a map of Amer ica in 1 582 from M ichael Locke ; the heroic Coligny ; the Earl of Lincoln , Lord Say and Sele , Lord Brooke , Lord Rich , the Edw n second Earl of Warwick ; Sir y Sandys , Sir Walter M ild may , the fighting Veres , Lord Bacon , Archbishop Grindall and ’ his chaplain Alexander Nowell , Dean of St . Paul s , Shakespeare and his patron the Earl of Southampton who was also the patron Gosn old D e sb oro of and Weymouth ; , Hampden , Vane , Honey Ha sle ri wood , g , Fleetwood , Eliot , Pym , Fairfax , Ludlow , M ilton and Cromwell ; all these had more or less of what is now ’ e di re e s n a m e known as the American spirit , and American p g g many of their kinsmen , friends and followers . The Wars of the Roses were the close of the feudal era and well authenticated American pedigrees prove that some of the soldiers of Richmond , the representative of progress , were descendants of crusaders V and forbears of early settlers in America . The ictory at Bos 1 4 worth Field in 85 was an American victory . The accession of King Henry VI I , the patron of the Cabots , was not only the introduction of new industries , the revival of learning , and the i renaissance into the u pper c rcles of the English people , but the triumph of principles that held the germs of democracy . Not withstanding the conservatism of the English maj ority and the O ppressive policies of the Tudors and Stuarts , the development of these principles could not be arrested , but led to the settlement of the new world and the accession of William and M ary .

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