Ancestors of HAMILTON FISH and JULIA URSIN NIEMCEWICZ K.E.t-..N, HIS WIFE. The Ennln1 Poat Job PrtnUncOmce. Ioc .. 154 J'ulton St.. New York, N. Y. The within data relative to the Fish Family in England and in America, and the families into which its various members have married from time to time, so far as could be ascertained, have been compiled from a vast collection of books, manuscripts, letters, wills, legal documents, and records in family Bibles, as well as the official public records of Newtown, L. I. and towns near Cape Cod, Mass. My principal object in doing this work has been to collect and preserve the available material and make a start at what may in time, after additions, amendments and revisions prove to be a really valuable and authoritative genealogy. While care has been taken to preserve clearness and accuracy, in a work of this sort errors are bound to occur. Those who note any such are requested to call the attention of the author thereto. Authorities and References have been given throughout. STUYVESANT fISH, 11 Broad Street, New York, N. Y. August 7, 1929. 3 DIVISION I. THE£_1SH FAMILY OF GREAT BOWDEN IN LEICESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND. In the early settlement of the English colonies in America, there were at least eight individual immigrants, bearing the name of Fish, who settled themselves during the seventeenth century, in different localities, and became the progenitors of the numerous families of that name which at the present time are widely scat­ tered through many states of the Union. These eight were Jonathan, John and Nathaniel Fish, among the first comers, in 1637, to Sandwich on Cape Cod, and who received grants of land there in the first distribution in 1640: Thomas Fish who received a grant of land in Portsmouth, R. I., in 1643, and who died there in 1687: William Fish who was of Windsor, Conn., in 1642, and as late as 1675: John Fish, who was living in Connecticut in 1651, probably at Wethersfield or Stratford, and who was afterwards of Mystic, in the Town of Stonington, where he died about 1689: Joseph Fish of Stamford, Conn, as early as 1651, and a soldier in the Great Swamp fight at Kingston, R. I., in 1676; and Edward Fish, of Talbot County, Md., prior to 1669, and who died 1696. There was also a Gabriel Fish of Exeter and Boston, Mass., between 1638 and 1646, engaged temporarily in the fisheries. But, it is believed that he did not take root in this soil. Several children were born to him in this country, who died at an early age, and he returned to his native land. The three earliest comers of the above, Jonathan, John, and Nathaniel Fish, were brothers, and scarcely more than boys. Jonathan, the oldest, was only about hventy-one years of age in 1637. They were sons of Thomas Fish of Wedgnock Park in Warwickshire, and grandchildren of John and Margaret Fish of Great Bowden in Leicestershire. William Fish of Windsor, Conn., was a cousin of the three above named, being a grandson 4 of John and Margaret through their oldest son Augustine. He was of about the same age as Jonathan, but seems to have come to this land at a later date. Two other cousins, grandsons of the same John and Margaret of Great Bowden, through their daughter, Alice, who had married Robert Fish of Market Har­ borough, probably of a nearly related collateral branch of the family, were Thomas Fish who settled in Portsmouth, R. I., and John Fish of Mystic, Conn., (Stonington). These six cousins were of a family which for several generations had lived in the parish of Great Bowden in Leicestershire, and in other near by parishes in that county and in Northamptonshire. The parish of Great Bowden, having an area of about 3120 acres, and a population in 1901 of 7735 souls, is located almost in the centre of England, in the midst of a fertile farming district. It lies on the south-easterly border of Leicestershire, separated from Northamptonshire by the River \Velland. Its chief com­ munity or town is called Market Harborough, which is a thrifty business centre where dwell at least three quarters of the inhabi­ tants of the parish. Leicestershire is separated on its south west border from Warwickshire by the ancient Roman Road, \Vatling. Street, which forms the boundary line between them. This Imperial highway, extending from Dover, through London, to the border of the Empire on the Welsh coast, was constructed, as it was the Roman custom to do in every province, soon after their occupation of Britain in the first century. In 1645, King Charles I. fixed his headquarters at Market Harborough immediately previous to the battle of Naseby where on an adjoining field he had his last contest with the Parlia­ mentarian army and was decisively defeated. In the days of the Roman Catholic Church, and of Popish supremacy in England, this ancient parish bore the Latin name of Bowden Magna; and a tablet in the porch of the present parish church contains a list of priests and rectors of the parish com­ mencing with the year 1215, and coming down continuously to the present time. Among them was one who became an Arch­ bishop of York, and another was the celebrated early English historian, Polydore Vergil. There are three church buildings belonging to the parish. The church of old Roman Catholic days was dedicated to St. Mary-in- 5 Arden, and a portion of the old structure still remains, surrounded by a large burial ground containing many ancient stones. About the middle of the seventeenth century this church was badly wrecked by the falling of the spire, but it was subsequently rebuilt. The present parish church, standing on the north side of the public green in the little village of Great Bowden, is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. It is a long, low and picturesque building of stone, with a square tower at the west end surmounted by a short octagonal spire. Its chief entrance is through a south porch which is reached over a path fenced in on either side by a row of old and elaborately carved tomb-stones, their inscriptions being now almost undecipherable. Inside, on the north wall of the chancel, is the Fish tablet, erected to the memory of Henrietta, wife of Augustine Fish, gent., and daughter of Sir Edward Farmer of Middlesex, knight, who died in 1703. Upon this monument are the arms of husband and wife impaled :-Farmer, "Sable, on a chevron between three lamps argent burning with flame proper, three mullets sable": Fish, "A chevron engrailed, between three owls." This Augustine Fish was a cousin twice removed of the Cape Cod immigrants, and a great-grand nephew of William Fish of Windsor, Conn. The more numerous and important community of Market Harborough has only a chapel of ease, which is dedicated to St. Dionysius. This chapelry, however, is very ancient, being mentioned as early as 1344, in an ecclesiastical record, as "a parcel of the Rectory of Bowden Magna." Its present chapel is a large and handsome edifice. It was not until after Henry VIII had thrown off the yoke of Rome, and had re-established the independence of the Anglican church, that, in 1538, the king ordered the adoption throughout the kingdom of the system of parish registers of baptisms, mar­ riages and burials, which is in use up to the present time. In many places this order was not promptly complied with. The registers of Great Bowden commence only with the year 1559, and from this period only can we clearly and certainly construct the family pedigree. Although the records of consecutive generations are lacking previous to the introduction of the parish registers, it would seem that the Fish family were numerous in Yorkshire for three and 6 a half centuries at least, prior thereto. The earliest record we have found of a person of the name of Fish in England is that of Yvo Fisch about the year 1200, when he was a tenant of lands and meadow "in the territory of Huntewick" in Yorkshire, which Hugh de Towleston at that time, according to the Nostell Priory Coucher, "for the health of his soule and of all his ancestors and successors", granted and "confirmed to God and the Church of St. Oswalds of Nostell, and the canons of the same place." In 1310, John Fische was one of the Aldermen of the city of York. In 1317, John Fishe, doubtless the same person as afore­ said, was one of the Bailiffs of York. In 1323, Alice, late the wife of John Fish of York, is mentioned, and in the same year, Alice Fisshe and her son William. Between 1333 and 1337, William Fish appears several times on the records as Bailiff of York. In 1332, \Vill Fische was an Alderman of York, and again in 1367, Will Fyssh was Alderman. The spelling of the name varied constantly, but never beyond recognition. In 1444, Edmund Fisshe, "a Tailliour", was admitted to citi­ zenship in York. He was apparently prosperous, and a loyal adherent of King Henry VI, who bestowed upon him knighthood. He became Sir Edmund Fyssh. At the battle of Hexham, in 1464, between the followers of Henry VI and Edward IV, which terminated the struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York, while King Henry and his consort secured their lives by flight, very disastrous indeed was the fate of their adherents. The Duke of Somerset and four of his retainers were captured after the battle, and were immediately beheaded, one of them being Sir Edmund Fyshe.