Metcalf and Allied Families. Joseph John McDonald Somerville, NJ 1938 Eft(J,lnj E.&. Wilua.m.s i! Bro. UY. Metcalf and Allied F anii1es BY J. J. McDONALD, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Metcalf Arms-Argent, on a fesse wavy, between three calves, passant s3:ble, .a sword · f esseways. ' Crest-A-talbot sejant sable the dexV!r paw supporting a shield or, thereon a hand issuing from clouds, hoiding a pen. (Matthews: "'American Armoury.") · . T has been impossible to determine with certainty the origin of the name Metcalf. There are several theories, the most p:ropable being thal: it is a modification of Medcraft, or Medcroft, from mer}e, l\,fiddle English for a mowed gra~s­ :field, and craft or croft, meaning a small farm .. This earlier name appeared in the fourteenth cenn1ry in Yorkshire records, and there­ after in such varying forms that it could easily become tv1etcalf by the beginning of the following century, when it is found in records. The varieties in the first spelling confir.m this idea-Medcalf, Meadcalfe, and Metkalff. (Bardsley: "Dictionary of English and \Velsh Surnames.") Ralph Metcalf, whose biography .ippears in Generation IX of the family in America, has carefully preserved records which are the result of the labors of his father, Alfred Metcalf. These are· com­ plete through the Eng!ish Pedigree and through the first of the line in An1erica. For others of the generations, in addition to _r\.1fred Metcalf's work, we quote from authorities, these being plainly noted at the end of each generation. The original seat of t_he family in \England was in Yorkshire, where the name is still very common.. The late William wf~ Metc~lf, Esquire, of y-ork, England, born in 1839, -claimed that he had traced the line back in regular descent to Arkefrith, the Dane, · who came from Denmark with King Canute in 1016~ and, after the conquest of England> was rewarded by Canute with lands in Northwest Yorkshire and the title ''Lord of Dent, Sedburg, and ...'\$-krigg, H which names are still to be fqund on maps of Yorkshire.. The-descent from Arkefrith is set forth as follows: .i _r\rkefrith Io I 6 ~ Arkell, who appears in Doomsday Book of Ed1.vard the Confessor. ..,~40 .,, METCALF AND ALLIED FAMILIES Gospatrick Dolfin William Richard Adam, 1252 Adam, 1278. It is recorded that in the reign of Edward I Adam de Medekalf was killed by one Steynebrigge in single combat. Adam Medecalfe, of Baynbridge · Adam Medecalfe, of Thornton Richard Metcalf, of Baynbridge Thomas Metcalf, of Bayn-bridge John Metcalf, married Alice of Ireby.· _ James Metcalf, of N~ppa, married Gelsone of Ireby, was captain at the battle of Agincourt under Henry V-in 1415. He endowed the· Chapel of Saint Anne at Askrigg in which is still to be seen a marble· slab dating from its construction. His children_ were ·Reginald; Brian; Myles, who was in Parliament in 1478; Thomas, who was Chancellor of the Kingdom under Edward IV and Richard III; Joan, who mar­ ried Marmaduke; and Cicely, who was prioress of Marrich Abbey in Iraledale, and of St. Andrew in Marrich. The American Metcalfs descended from Brian of Beare Park, son_ of James. He was the Bryan of Beare, the champion who appears in Scott's "Rokeby." He married Johanna, of Boughton. Their sons were: Richard, Leonard, Nicholas, and Roger. Leonard, in 1569, joined the uprising for Mary, Queens of Scots, was condemned and narrowly escaped the scaffold. All his estates were confiscated; he left Yorkshire and settled in Norfolk. He had been a zealous Catho­ lic, but he gave-up Catholicism with his estates, and later he-or his· son, Leonard, the record is not clear-became rector of the parish of Tatterford, Church of England. The earliest records of this par­ ish, in the registry of the Archdeaconry of Norfolk, commence about 1560. Several genealogists in England have accepted the Danish descent and published the tree starting with Arkefrith, as shown above. As surnames were not used until a century or two after the time of Arke­ frith, and there are no records of lineage, it is impossible to authenti­ cate this line o.f descent. Nor is there definite proof that Leonard Metcalf, father of the New England immigrant, was the son of Leon­ ard Metcalf. It has been suggested that he was a nephew of Leonard, son of the latter's brother, William. It is certain that he was of the 35° METCALF AND ALLIED FAMILIES Metcalf family of Yorkshire and in descent from Bryan .Metcalf, of Beare Park. A great deal of the genealogy of the family in America here fol­ lowing is from the records of Alfred Metcalf (II26I433), of Provi­ dence, -Rhode Island, who was l?orn in 1828 and died in 1904. He gathered a number of Metcalf genealogies that had been prepared for different branches of the family" during the I 84o's, 18 5o's, I 86o's, and later, and devoted a great deal of time and painstaking effort to verify­ .ing and revising, over a long period of years.- Unlike the English and Danish trees, the American genealogy starting with Michael Metcalf, the immigrant·of 1637, is probably as nearly accurate as such a record can be. Ralph Metcalf, his son (II26l433I), of Tacoma, Washington, has prepared this genealogy for publication, and has devised an original system of numbering which identifies every -Metcalf listed at a glance, as follows : The original Michael is Number I, his oldest grown son Number II, his second grown son Number 12, third Number I3, etc. The first daughter is IA, second IB, etc. Children dying before manhood or womanhood, are not numbered, but listed in small type. Thus, Joel Metcalf, who married Lucy Gay, is II26I4, that is, the fourth son of the eldest son of the sixth son of the second son of· the eldest son of the original emigrant. The generation is shown by the number of figures in the number, and the degree of relationship by the agree­ ment in the figures. Thus, II26I4II2A and II26I433IA would be girls of the tenth generation, the great-grandfather of the first being the oldest son and the great-grandfather of the secWld the third son of the great-great-grandfather of both. While this -system cannot be used in a work of this nature, which carries a direct lineage and col­ lateral lines, its worth is evident and worthy of note. I. Michael Metcalf, son ( or nephew) of the Reverend Leonard Metcalf, of Norwich, England, was born at Tatterford, County Nor­ folk, England, in I 5 8 7. The earliest records of this parish, in the registry of the Archdeaconry of Norfolk, commence about 156q, and they show that Michael Metcalf, son of Leonard Metcalf, was bap­ tized on June 17, 1587. Michael Metcalf was a weaver of dornix, a kind of tapestry used for hangings or heavy curtains. His factory was in Norwich and is supposed to have employed a hundred o:,; more men. He was a very 35 1 METCALF AND ALLIED F"'AMILIES zealous non-Conformist and was one of the Puritans bitterly perse­ cuted by Wren, Bishop of Norwich. T'his persecution was one of the charges on which Bishop Wren was tried before Parliament· twenty years later when Cromwell was in power. "Howell's Stat~! Trials," Vol. IV, p. 33, .cites _Article XVI of the Articles of Impea:~hment: That by suppressing means of knowledge and salvation, and intro­ ducing ignorance, superstition and profaneness, many of his majesty's subjects, which used.trades, spinning, weaving and knitting, and mak­ ing of cloth, stuffs and ·other manufactures of wool-that is to say Daniel Sonning, Michael J\1etcalf, John Besant, Nicholas Metcalf and many others, some of them setting a hundred poor people to work, have removed them~elves into Holland and other partes beyond the seas, and there set up and taught the natives the said manufactures, to the great hinderance of trade in this kingdom, and to the impoverish­ ing and bringing to extreme want of very many who were by these parties set on work, to the great prejudice of his Majesty and of his people. The·defense of Bishop \Vren alleged that "Michael and Nicholas Metcalf had uttered dangerous words against the King, and the said Michael had ·slipped away to New England." J\'lichael's own state­ ment, taken from the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," Vol. VI, p. I 7 I, is as follows: • I was.persecuted in the land of my fathers' sepulchres for not bow.:. ing at the name of Jesus and observing the ceremonies inforced upon me at the instance of Bishop "\V ren of Norwich, and his Chancellor, Dr. Corbet, whose violent measures troubled me in the Bishop's court a.nd returned me into the High Commissioner's court. · Suffering many times for the cause of religion, I w·as forced for the sake of the liberty of my conscience to flee from my wife and children to go into New England; taking ship for the voyage at London, r 7th September, 1636, and being by tempests tossed up and down the seas till the Christmas following; and then veering about to Plymouth i_n old England. Leaving the ship I wep.t down to Yarmouth in County N orfoL\, whence I finaliy shipped myself and farnily to come to New England; sailed _April I 5, I 6 3 7, and arrived three qays before midsummer with · my wife, nine children, and a servant, Thomas Comberbach.