Oops!

For 2023, I’m writing responses to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Days prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow on her ”Generations Café” website and Facebook page.

My “almost” 11th great-grandfather Christopher Newport

It was hard to select just one “oops” for this week’s essay.  I figure if you don’t make mistakes,  you’re not trying anything new.  So I have made my share of mistakes.

The one I decided to write about this week takes me deep into colonial Virginia.  If you’ve been reading my posts over the last couple of weeks, you’ve learned something about my 2^nd great-grandmother Mary Ann Botts (1838-1913).  The “oops” I’m writing about today is several generations back along her line – to her 3^rd great-grandfather John Walton (1709-1772).  My “oops” resulted from the fact that there were A LOT of people with the Walton surname in Virginia in the 17^th and 18^th centuries – and a lot of them had similar names. 

The first Walton ancestor on this line was my 8^th great-grandfather Edward Walton (1645-1720), who was born in New Kent County, Virginia.  Although some researchers think that they have identified his parents, there is no conclusive proof of their identity.  Edward had two children – Robert and Edward.  I am descended from Edward.  Edward had seven children – four of them boys, which is important only because it means there are more Waltons to come.  I am descended from Edward’s youngest son, John Walton (1709-1772).  But I had that wrong for about a year – I thought that I was descended from John’s older brother Thomas (1703-1772).  During the year that I was mistaken, I had found out a lot of very interesting stuff about Thomas – but more particularly, about Thomas’s wife, Martha Cox.  Martha had two very intriguing ancestors.

First, her paternal 2^nd great-grandfather (this would have made him my 10^th great-grandfather) was William Coxe, who came to Virginia on the Godspeed in 1610.  He was an indentured servant in the party of Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, who served as the first governor of the colony of Virginia.  William is identified by the Jamestowne Society as an “Ancient Planter of Virginia” – which meant he owned land in the colony before 1615.  This would have been interesting enough.

But wait, there’s more.  When I lost Martha Cox (Thomas Walton’s wife, above), I not only lost William Coxe the Jamestown indentured servant – I also lost her much more famous 3^rd great-grandfather, Christopher Newport (1561-1617).  He would have been my 11^th great-grandfather.  You may not know about Christopher Newport, so I’m going to tell you about him.

Christopher Newport was the son of a shipmaster, born in England in 1561.  He captained commercial ships and also was a privateer in the 1580s in the war between England and Spain.  His exploits were well known to the Virginia Company of London – so well known that in 1606  they appointed him to lead the voyage to the newly chartered colony of Virginia.  He made several trips between England and Virginia between 1607 and 1612.  One of his most famous trips was in 1609 on the Sea Venture.  This ship, intended to resupply and revive the failing colony, sailed into a hurricane and was shipwrecked on Bermuda.  After 10 months on the island, the castaways built two small boats which they sailed to Virginia, arriving almost a year after they had been shipwrecked.

This story fascinated people in England – in particular, one English playwright was so taken with the story that it became the basis for a play – The Tempest, Shakespeare’s last major play.

Newport left the employ of the Virginia Company in 1612 and entered the service of the East India Company.  He died off the coast of Java in August of 1617.

These two men are linked by more than their connection to Martha Cox; the Sea Venture was sailing to Virginia with the Godspeed (the ship William Coxe was on) when it was shipwrecked in Bermuda. If the voyage had gone as planned, they would have arrived in the Virginia colony on the same day in 1610.

But, alas.

When I lost Martha Cox, I also lost William Coxe and Christopher Newport.  That was an “oops” that had a sting.  I am very connected to Jamestown geographically, and I was excited to find ancestors who were there.  I live about two miles from Jamestown. My community is replete with street names that connect to the Jamestown colony.  My neighborhood is called Jamestown Hundred.  Jamestown High School is at the end of my street.  My street is called “Reade’s Way;” it’s named after James Read, who was a blacksmith who came to Jamestown on the Susan Constant when it made its first voyage to Virginia in 1607.  In the park behind my house there’s a multi-use path called “Greensprings Trail;” “Greensprings” was the name of the home of Sir William Berkeley, Virginia’s longest-serving governor (1641-1652, 1660-1677). 

William Coxe and Christopher Newport are still my collateral ancestors. William Coxe is the 2^nd great-grandfather of the wife of my 7^th great-uncle; Christopher Newport is the 3^rd great-grandfather of the wife of my 7^th great-uncle.  It would have been way cooler if I could say that William Coxe was my 10^th great-grandfather and Christopher Newport was my 11^th great-grandfather.

Oh well. Oops.