6 THE WHEATLEY GENEALOGY.
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here is a moral and philosophical respect for our ancestors,which elevates the character and inspires the heart. The prideof ancestry is the foundation of the pride of character, withoutwhich no man can be great. Our family is eminently a domestic race; loving their homesand firesides; shunning notoriety; not aspiring to political orother public favors; but faithful, honest, industrious and econ-omical. The rogue’s gallery or the police reports are the lastplaces to look for a Wheatley. Rather disposed to keep theirown counsel; and somewhat stubborn when opposed. The family hasan honorable record in all our country’swars, from the early colonial times. All four of Capt. JohnWheatley’s sons served in the Revolutionary army. The Revo-lutionary Rolls, State papers of several states, and the pensionand war departments at Washington, have aided in furnishingvaluable history. It seems that the Wheatleighs were Protestants early inthe 17th century. In the fall of 1626, Charles I of Englandsenta naval force to Dieppe for the use of Lewis, King of France,against the Huguenots at La Rochelle. The sailors discoveredhis purpose and objected. They drew up a remonstrance toPennington, their commander, and signing all their names in acircle lest he should discover the ring-leaders, they laid it underhis prayer book. This we believe to be the first record of a ‘Round Robin.”In this circle we find the name of A. Wheatleigh, from Wells,Somerset, England. Admiral Pennington declared “that hewould rather be hanged in England for disobedience, than fightagainst his brother Protestants on the continent.” And thewhole squadron sailed for home. But La Rochelle, the Hugue-nots headquarters, fell into the hands of the French in 1628, andthey were scattered, many coming to Maryland, Virginia andSouth Carolina. In these settlements were several Wheat-leighs. Many of their descendants ‘still live in these localities.Three Wheatleys are known to have come to New England.Their posterity have scattered over these states, and spread toNew York and the West. THE WHEATLEY GENEALOGY. ‘ James Wheatleigh settled at Wethers-field, Conn., in 1638, Capt. John Wheat-ley or Wheatleigh settled in Norwich,Conn., in 1732, and merchant John Wheat-ley lived in Boston, Mass., from 1745 to1774. James Wheatleigh assisted indrawing up a constitution for the govern-ment of Connecticut Colony, which wasadopted in January, 1639. Among hispapers we find the coat of arms heregiven. ; Whether they are to be legitimately borne by the descen-dents of John Wheatley may be problematical. This is not described in Burke’s General Armory, althoughthere are eight separate Wheatley arms and borne by ten differ-ent families, recorded in this Encyclopedia of Heraldry. Thefirst one was granted by Edward III to John Wheatley Esq., ofCastle-Bromwich, Co. Leicester, in 1356. About fifty years laterhis son William Wheatley Esq. gained additional favors fromKing Henry IV. William Wheatley Fsq. left no son to bearthe name, so the arms were preserved to his daughter Thomas-ine Wheatley, and she married John Dannot. Records of coats of arms of some other families mentionsdin this history can be found in the appendix. In Burke’s Gen-eral Armory there are records of families of the following names.Some have one or two, while others have several. The Woodfamily has one hundred and two records. They are: AbbottAllen, Archer, Austin, Bach, Barker, Barnes, Bell, Bowman,Brown, Carpenter, Clark, Craig, French, Foss, Hall, Hastings,Hodge, Hutchinson, Loveland, Paine, Pellet, Shepherd, Skinner,Waterman, Welch, Wheeler, White, Wilcox, Wingate and Wood. Our branch being directly interested only in those of SirNathaniel Wheatley (11) of Frome, Somersetshire; and of Will-iam Wheatley Esq., (77) of Echingtield, Co. Sussex. ie)
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