r&rms.-Ar. n fc!ls gn. bctwet>n tbN'e poptnJnyii vcrt. eollnrcdt bcnkcd nnd mcmbt•red of the >1l'COntl. ~tcst.-A l'clican• ln her nest fl•edlng her young ppr. E."'(t'I..\S,\TIOS. Thl' fr11s !T'tlr$ wu.~ u~c-d by u mcmbt•r of th" fumlly who the nnthor ~Up• pn~•••l w11.~ our 11ncel'tor, nnd thi,i coat of urm11 hill, but ,inb'4·qucnt rc,i1•urche11 luwe pro,·t-d thut ll cl1~01, !Jftlcs wn,i uiol"jl by hi/I- nncc~tor,i, und the correc­ tion nmy l,c• n111de 1111 ~oon u~ the connecting Uuk bctwt•cn tllc Engli,;h 1111d ~\nwric:m funiillcs l,i ioubl'tuntiutf'd. A nothcr lhm of the fan.Illy, b1•fore A.D. lGOO, plnet!d 3 ucallops ar. on tlie feics. In 1584, 11 du:rron WWI Ull<'d In pince of the {N!/1- by the ThwenF fumillr11 of Uppt.•r Udm/1-lt•v 11nd Ilcworth: at prc/1-t•nt thc~c faruillcl! (nccording to Burke) Lcur 07' a red s~tiel,l II !Jold popi11jay•. • 0M'rz1'18 nlu:r,1111 <lrmi, thui birrl 1ritlt ,,,.,. 1ring11 enrlor11rd, 1c01111rli119 her l,r,:m1t 1cith lier IJCJrl:. 1r!,cn iti Ji.er nest, fcc1li11!J lier you110 will, lzt:r bwod, .</1,: iA :;/,i;l lo /,c I !i I um l"l ·~·n·. TH WING: A GENEALOGICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY. HY \VALTER ELIOT TH'\VING. BOSTON: D •.\VID CLAPP &: SON, PRINTERS. 1883. CoPYRIGI-IT, 1S83, BY \VALTER ELIOT THWING. INTRODUCTION. OF those w]10 have never undertaken n. work like this, few c.1.n realize what a vast nmount of research and patient labor is re­ quired properly to trncc out a Family Tree or Genealogy. It is not t11c work of a few mont11s only, but often occupies several years. It is only within a few years that public record~ of births, mnrring~s :i.nd deaths hal'e been properly kept, even in Ne,v England, nnd still in many parts of this country the keeping of such records is very impcrfoct, especially in the South and 1Vest. It is a matter of regret that thie_ important branch of history has been so much neglected, as a great deal of vnluable material is thereby forever lost. Those of our family who live in the South will underst:md this to be the reason why their records arc so meagre, for I ha,·e availecl myself of every opportunity at my commnnd to obtain all the information possible, and the result i$ contained in the following pages. • .A ,·illnge bearing the nam~ of Thwing lies forty miles cast of tl1e city of York, about which Rev. Edward Pa'yson Thwing, in his ~ Out-door Life in Europe,'' writes as follows : '' One little lmmlct, ten miles distant, wns my ~!ceca this ti~c, the town of Thwing. It was sought with the zeal of an :mtiquary simply, inasmuch as a volume bearing this humble monosyllable is in 1 4 INTRODUCTION. prcpnration by a kinsmnn. Stopping nt the rectory, my horse and driver were bouscd, for it wns raining hard, nnd I strolled out for n. wnlk to the venerable church nnd grnveynrd. At the ColJcgc of Arms I hnd learned about Sir Robert de Thwing, knight, Lord of Kilton Cnstle, 1237, and his descendants who were cngngcd with Edward I. in the wnrs with ·scotlnnd. Herc over the nltnr ~s a memorial window bearing the names of Arch- · bishop Lamplough ·and Baron de Thwing. l\Iural tablets record other names. The stone :figure of a priest holding n. sncrnmcntnl cup lies in the chancel, nnd there is a large baptismnl font which• is supposed to be seven hundred years old. The carvings of the stone porch are ,·cry clnbornte, ::md hernlclic insignia embellish the walls. The living is 900 pounds n ycnr. The population of Thwing is but 365, and no resident has been kn.own for years bearing this family name. The wolds, high open tracts, surround the village, and the fields show evidence of high cultivatio~- The cottages of the farm lnborers are one story, stone, thatched or covered with earthen tiles." The name is derived from the Danish Twinge, to force, mnstcr, subdue ; or a name perhaps given from dexterity in archery. The name ·has been spelt in many ways, as follows: Twinge, Twcnge, Twynge, Thwenge, Thwyngc, Thwcng, Thwingc, Thwing. As most of the family continue to keep the spelling ns our mutunl ancestor Benjamin Thwing, who died about A.D. 1672, wrote his name, I have concluded to adopt that mode of ijpelling in the genealogy of the American branches of the family, desig­ nating where another mode of spelling is used as far ns I can. Those who have dropped the tt H" in the name are in Springfield, '\Va.ltham, and l\iionterey, :Oiase. ; Barre, Vt. ; New York City ; Boone, Iowa; "\Vhitewater, 1V1S. INTRODUCTION. 5 The Cont of Arms, which I hn.vc placed on a previous page, ia thnt of the family in England, of whose history a· sketch is given on a subsequent page, but without la.ying clnim to either as belonging to the American branch of the family, because I cannot connect the English family and that of Benjamin Thwing, the first to bcnr our name in this country, though I have little · doubt that he was descended f~om the same stock. I have long wished to :find out his immediate ancestry, but my efforts to estab­ lish the connection have been hitherto unsuccessful. I hope that hercnfter it may be accomplished by another, if no; by myself. I have printed this historical sketch somewhat earlier than I had at first intended, in the hope of awakening an interest in mem­ bers of the family to become acquainted with the facts I_ now have, to rectify errors and furnish me with further information on the subject. It has been thought that a meeting of the difi"erent branches of this family would be of interest. Four of the family have al­ ready tried t~ bring about such a reunion, but so far without success. I sincerely hope that the sight of these records will stir the family to acco~plish what that effort has foiled to do. No doubt my book will be found incomplete, but I shall esteem it a favor if any omissions or errors arc pointed out to · me by those who find them. With regard to the matter of n.rranging the order and descent of generations and families, the plan adopted in this work com­ prises a full list of the children of each head of a family directly under his or her name. ,vhcrc the information concerning tl1C'sc children is small and their posterity not numerous, the whole record is generaliy gi,·cn at once; when otherwise, the name id ciesignate<l by a number, n.n<l, carried forward rmd placed on ::i future page in brackets, it makes the starting point of a nc,v 6 I:" TRODUCTION. frunily. The Itnlic n~cs enclosed in parentheses n.t tl1e begin­ ning of cnch new family carry the line back to the original nnccs­ tor, in gcnc:tlogical order, ns dcsignn.tcd by the :figures nt tho right of cnch nn.mc and above tl1c line. These smnll figures nt the right of £-imily names should be carefully noted in trncing out each record. I now ta.kc occasion to thank all who have assisted me in this work, a.nd hope to continue to hear from them as often ns they haye anything to communicate. I shill always continue my interest in this genealogy, and shall add to it a.ny facts I may receive, to appear in a future edition, or to assist the future compiler of a similar work. THE THWING FAMILY. THE TWENGE FAMILY IN ENGLAND. THE first of the no.me mentioned in history is Sir ROBERT DE TWENGE, n. knight, and Lord of Kilton Castle, Cumberland County, England, about the year 1231. He is called a bold Yorkshire knight, n.nd put himself at the head of a. secret associa­ tion formed to resist the intrusion of Italian ecclesiastics into English bcne.ficcs under the aut}.lority of Papal "Provisions/' He had been deprived of his right of nomination to the one living or benefice he possessed, that of Luton, by a "Pro-rision," and the movement which he led was secretly encouraged by the Barons and the Clergy.· Threatening letters were addressed to the foreign priests; the nuncios and other officers of the Pope were seized and one was kil!cd; tl1e Pope's bulls were trampled under foot. The Pope Gregory IX. issued an angry bull (A.D. 1232) in reference to these excesses which continued for some months, and Henry III. was alarmed. Twenge went to Rome, not as a penitent, but to plead manfully the cause be had taken in ha.nd. He was the bearer of a remonstrance from the Earls of Chester, Winchester and other nobles. ~ The Pope listened to the reasonable plea, and Twengc obtained the acknowledgment of his right to nominate to his family living, and a declaration that the Pope would not again usurp the rights of the lay patrons. He was sent by Richard, Earl of Cornwal1, to Emperor Frederick, 8 TIIE TWENGE F.AJ\IILY IN ENGLAND. II. ( l 240), nnd with En,.