Records and Memorials of the Speed Family

RECORDS AND MEMORIALS OF THE SPEED FAMILY COLLECTED AND PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY THOMAS SPEED, AND PUBLISHED BY THE LOUISVILLEAND MEMPHIS FAMILIES, FOR DISTRIBUTION AMONG ALLTHE BRANCHES. • LOUISVILLE,KY.: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company, 1892. m C i i 4 *»SII 'bit" 1 V A On PREFACE. The records and memorials in this volume were collected by me during the past twenty years. Iwas moved to begin the work by the interest Ifeltin the family. While a young man there were a number of households in which Iwas always welcome and at home. That of my father, of course, and his brother, Dr. John J- Speed ; those of the four brothers in Louisville, James, Joshua, Philip and Smith Speed ; also those of their sisters, Mrs. Breckinridge, Mrs. Peay, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Adams. In all these homes Ifound that kindness which wins affection, and that high degree of intelligence which wins admiration. It was but natural to desire to have some published memorial of these most excellent families, and also of their immedi ate ancestors, Major Thomas Speed and Judge John Speed. Then appeared the striking fact that the father of these two, Captain James Speed, was one of a family of six brothers worthy of all praise, four of whom certainly, and perhaps all,having served their country in the Revolutionary war. They were sons of an honored father who was born inVir ginia and died, then an did man, 1785, he being the son of James Speed, who came to this country from England. To gather all that could be discovered about these became a work of real interest. It was a. work, however, which Icould not prosecute with any zeal, on account of the more pressing engagements of business. Gradually, the material Ihave came to my hands, and itis believed to be sufficiently extensive to justifypublication. Thesketches of individuals are not intended to be as fullas the subjects deserve, for the limits ofa volume willnot so admit. Nor is itclaimed that errors may not be found in the book, but enough has been collected to enable those who belong to 3 4 PREFACE. the family to trace their descent, and determine the rela tionship which exists among the various branches. Itwillbe observed that this book contains the history of the Speed— family during the entire period it has been in America a period of two hundred years. With this past history now furnished, all who desire to do so can, from this time, preserve their own respective descent on the lines given. The plan of the book is such as to enable the reader to find what it contains even without the use~ of the index. Each one of the children of John Speed and Mary Taylor, his wife,is regarded as the ancestor of a separate branch, and the descendants of that branch are given connectedly before another is taken up. Itis, perhaps, proper to explain that the space occupied b3^ the Louisville family is naturally considerable, for the reasons that itis numerically large and the acquaintance of the author withall its members. The publication is solely for private circulation among the members of the family. This fact justifies the remark that, as a general thing, the Speed people have possessed many excellent and worthy characteristics. They have stood wellin every community where they have lived, and, by industry and integrity, have made the name respected everywhere, so that all who bear it have a good passport and are presumed to be worthy. They are generally inde pendent and self-reliant, and depend more upon substantial qualities than upon display. Some of the family have achieved more than ordinary distinction, but ostentation is unknown. There is an evident partiality for the name shown not only in words spoken and written, but in the noticeable frequency itappears as a given name- A widely dispersed and numerous body of people now bear the Speed name or belong to its lineage. The publi cation of these records ought to have the effect to impress all, who are thus included, that they have a good inheri tance and family connection, and itshould stimulate them, especially the young, to so live as to reflect credit upon those to whom they are allied by the ties of kinship. PREFACE. 5 The Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, thanked the gods that he had good parents, grandparents and kinsfolk. Itis a proper subject for thankfulness, and itis a stimulus to correct living,proper ambition and earnest endeavor. With pride and affection we recall the excellent traits and worthy deeds of our ancestors. Thus we link the present with the past, and, whileremembering only the good intheir lives, we are reminded that we ought to be kind and gen erous inour treatment of the living. Some of the material in this book was found inmygrand father's papers. Many facts Iobtained from older mem bers of the familynow passed away. lam much indebted to several members of the family now living,who have put themselves to no little trouble to assist in the preparation of this book Iwillnot mention all, but can not refrain from acknowledging my indebtedness to Miss Sallie Peters Speed, of Slatersville Springs, New York ;Mrs Charles A. Cook, of Warrenton, N. C. ; Mrs. Eliza P. Raney, of Kittrell,N. C. ;Mrs Maria Harris, ofBuffalo Lithia Springs, Va.; Judge John Speed, of Detroit ;Mr. Robert A. Speed, of Laurel, N- C. ;Mrs. Susan F. S. Morrell, of Augusta, 111. ; Mr. and Mrs. John K. Speed, of Memphis, Term. ; General Speed S. Fry, of Harrod's Creek, Ky.; Judge Frederick Speed, of Vicksburg, Miss. ; Campbell H. John son, of Louisville,Ky. THOMAS SPEED. LouisviivLE,Ky.,July, 1892. JOHN SPEED, THE HISTORIAN. Fiom the eqgiaving in his History of England. JOHN SPEED, THE HISTORIAN. John Speed, of England, the historian, geographer and antiquarian, was born at Farrington, in the county of Cheshire, in the year 1552. Edward Sixth was then upon the English throne. It was six years before the accession of Elizabeth and sixty-eight years before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. In the same year, 1552, Walter Raleigh was born. One year later Shakespeare was born. America was then a solitude. Adventurous voyagers were onlyhovering about her coasts. Fifty-three years later the settlement at Jamestown was made, and one hundred and forty-three years later a descendant of John Speed, bearing the name of James Speed, left England and settled in the eastern part of Virginia This ancient John Speed lived in London, and the prin cipal feature of his life was his great work, the History of England. But he was the author of other works besides "of almost equal interest. His first publication he called A Cloud of Witnesses," being a tabulated account of the Scripture" genealogies. This was in 1593. He next pub lished A Defence of the Holy Genealogies." He next published a book of maps of England and Wales. This work he immediately "enlarged in a much more extensive form and entitled it The Theater of the Empire of Great Brittaine,Presenting an exact Geography of the Kyngdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland and the Isles adjoining, with the Shires, Hundreds, Cities and Shire Towns within the Kyngdom of England, Divided and Described by John Speed." This book ofmaps became apart ofhis Historic,or rather, the Historic was written as" a completion of his entire scheme which he called the The Theater of the Empire of Great Brittaine." He also published another book of 7 8 JOHN SPEED, THE ENGLISH HISTORIAN. " maps, entitled A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World." Some mention willhere be made of these several works, and then the estimate in which they were held by those who livedcotemporaneously withthe author willbe shown. Itis a most striking and interesting fact that the Tables of Scripture Genealogy were published in the first edition of King James' translation of the Bible, being contained in the first part of the book. They continued to be so pub lished inmany editions subsequent to the first, particularly the large folio,and quarto sizes. These tables were consid ered "authority for many years. Inthem the author shows, by a chain-like trail,"as he calls it,the descent of Christ from Adam through Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and a continuous line to the" Virgin" Mary. The title he gave to this work is as follows : The Genealogies Recorded in the Sacred Scriptures According to Every Family and Tribe, with the line of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, observed from Adam to the Blessed Virgin Mary." KingJames gave to John Speed a patent securing the property in these tables to him and his heirs. The maps of England, Scotland and Ireland, by counties, shires and hundreds, were published in the form of our largest and best modern atlases. They showed not only the counties but plans of the towns, cities and castles; and were accompanied with a large amount of descriptive mat ter which furnishes much curious and quaint information concerning the counties and shires and special localities, roaas, distances, forests, rivers, etc. The maps which were made to accompany the history are sixty-six innumber. " There are forty-four" maps of The Most Famous Parts of the World. They are also accompanied bydescriptions of the countries and statistical and explanatory matter. A curious fact about the map of Africa is that the source of the Nile is located in large lakes south of the equator, [The author of the present work has in his possession a Bible published in 1614 containing Speed's Genealogies.

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