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- Larry Herbstritt?: Herbstritt-Snyder-Essex-Figg-Davey-Chase-Dunn-Ellison Family Descendants
5 hrs · 20170102
One interesting approach to tracing one's ancestors is to consider their religious beliefs. Elizabeth Lavey, married to Joseph Herbstritt must have held strong Catholic convictions to require her husband to also be a Catholic believer. Joseph, being of a Catholic family from the Baden area of Germany, traveled all the way, on a train, to Hodgenville, KY to meet and marry Elizabeth “Betty” Lavey.
I have discovered that Maryland was one of the few regions among the English colonies in North America that was predominantly Catholic. However, the 1646 defeat of the Royalists in the English Civil War led to stringent laws against Catholic education and the extradition of known Jesuits from the colony, including Andrew White, and the destruction of their school at Calverton Manor. During the greater part of the Maryland colonial period, Jesuits continued to conduct Catholic schools clandestinely.
Maryland was a rare example of religious toleration in a fairly intolerant age, particularly amongst other English colonies which frequently exhibited a militant Protestantism. The Maryland Toleration Act, issued in 1649, was one of the first laws that explicitly defined tolerance of varieties of Christianity. It has been considered a precursor to the First Amendment.
It is from Maryland we find the ancestral lineage of Elizabeth Lavey Herbstritt.
Her father, John Lavey, orphaned, at age 8 was placed in the St Thomas Catholic Orphanage and
her mother, Anna Essex, was descended from Catholics from Maryland. From the book titled, “Sunfish Edmonson County Kentucky: Oasis of Catholicism The Metcalf Family - By James Simon, we find the names of Anna's ancestors, Ignatius Metcalf and Elizabeth Coomes, who were some of the first Catholics to move to Kentucky from Maryland.
Elizabeth “Betsey” Coomes Metcalf was born 1760 in Coomes Purchase, Charles county, Maryland and died 29 December 1819 in Nelson county, KY.
Ignatius was born in 1750 in St Marys City, Maryland and died 15 July 1839 in Franklin county, KY.
Likewise, Elizabeth's parents, William J. Coomes & Frances J. Greenleaf, were from Charles county, Maryland and died in Bardstown, KY.
- Bardstown Road is the road that passes by the childhood home of Elizabeth Lavey Herbstritt and the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln.
After the death of Ignatius' mother in 1795, Elizabeth French Metcalf, his father, John Metcalf moved to Kentucky with Ignatius & Elizabeth.
Her parents, William & Frances Jane Greenleaf Coomes, had already moved to Kentucky. They followed the old Cumberland Trail to Pittsburgh. Using flatboats they poled them down the mighty Ohio River for several weeks until reaching Limestone (Present day Maysville, Kentucky). After a short stay, the group continued further down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Kentucky River. The party continued south on the Kentucky and made their first permanent camp at a place called Drilling's Lick. It was located on the river near the present day site of Frankfort, Kentucky.
Frances Jane Coomes, with the help of those not hunting, busied herself in making salt - believed a first in Kentucky. She also deserves attention in connection with pioneer medicine in Kentucky. She was the first female who practiced medicine in Kentucky and according to some she was the first of either sex to exercise the beneficent functions of the healing art in the State. She was physician, surgeon and obstetrician, and her fame and practice extended far and wide, even attracting patients from remote settlements, not only in Kentucky (then a part of Virginia), but in adjoining states. After being settled at Ft. Harrod, Mrs. Coomes opened a school which was attended by her own children and those of the other emigrants. It is widely believed that she was the first school teacher in the state of Kentucky.
Following the Revolutionary War, a Colonization League consisting of 60 Catholic families, mostly from the aforementioned St. Mary's County in Maryland, pledged to emigrate to Kentucky within a specified time because of scarcity of land and poor soil conditions due to constant tobacco crops. A spirit of adventure and vast amounts of good land available for almost nothing prompted the move.
William Coomes (1734 - 1824) was a pioneer, soldier, and hunter who helped explore and settle the area west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was the 7th child and 6th son of Thomas and Elizabeth Wharton Coomes of Port Tobacco, Charles, Maryland Colony.
He was born Aug 8, 1734 in the Maryland Colony.
He married Frances Jane Greenleaf
Thomas Coomes was born Abt. 1695 in Charles County, Maryland, and died January 1753.
He married ELIZABETH WHARTON 1719, daughter of JESSE WHARTON and MARY WHARTON.
She was born 1699, and died 1772.
Thomas Coomes, son of Richard Thomas Coomes II & Winifred Green, was a planter. Coomes Purchase, his plantation, was on the west side of Port Tobacco main branch in line of a tract of land called Greens Inheritance, and near the plantation of Alexander Hamilton. This was the home plantation of the Coomes family, and the place where all of Thomas and Elizabeth's children were born. They also had land called Christian Milford in Nanjem Hundred in Charles County, Maryland, relatively close by.
When Richard Thomas Coomes II was born in 1675 in Charles County, Maryland, his father, Richard, was 22 [b 1653 ] and his mother, Anne Shercliffe, was 20 [b 1655 ].
He married Winifred Green in Maryland.
He lived in Maryland in 1675, when tobacco was grown in fields in the state and plantation owners reaped the results.
They had nine children during their marriage.
He died on January 10, 1752, in Frederick, Maryland, having lived a long life of 77 years. [1675- stimmt -jcw20170102]
The first Coomes to come to Maryland were Catholic. In England, at this time, they could not hold office. Cecil Calvert, Lord of Baltimore, to settle the new land, recruited them. Cecil had married the daughter of the Earl of Arundel, a powerful Catholic. Cecil stayed in England to protect the interest of the new colony. His brother, Leonard, was put in charge of the 200 colonists. The colonists were to sail on the Ark and her sister ship, the Dove. As Catholics, the colonists could not take the oath of supremacy and this was a requirement by the Crown of all colonists leaving England. Therefore, in order not to embarrass Lord Baltimore, they waited on the Isle of Wight, and boarded there when the ships cleared London harbor. Several of the Coomes colonists settled in Maryland when the ships arrived in 1634.
Richard Coomes was one of these colonists. Edward Cooke transported Richard to the colonies in 1676. He settled in Charles County, Maryland, on a plantation he acquired called Christian Temple Manor, located on the Mattawoman Creek, and was involved in several business transactions in this area of the state. In a chancery proceeding concerning his property, Richard Coombes gave his age as 74, on June 24, 1727. [so... born 1654? -jcw20170102]
Richard Coombs I settled in Charles County, Maryland, in 1676. Ed. Cooke transplanted him; various depositions give his birth from 1652 to 1660. He was born about 1665. He had various business transactions 1714 to 1743.
He married Anne Shercliff, daughter of William Shercliffe and Mildred Thompson, widow Wheeler.
He died without leaving a will in 1752, at nearly a hundred years of age.
His inventory, Inv #33, pg 48, mentions kin:
son Ridhard II,
John Clement Coombs,
friend Dennis Doheny.
"Richard II married Winifred Green, daughter of Leonard Green, son of Governor Thomas Green and wife, Winifred.
The will of Leonard Green of Saint Mary's County dated January 10, 1687, probated July 4 1688, leaves
- to wife Ann, "Green's Rest", during her life.
- To son, Thomas, and heirs, said plantation at death of his mother.
Also 200 acres at Pangaish, Charles County, being part of "Green's Inheritance".
- To eldest daughter Winifred, and heirs, 200 acres, part of "Green's Inheritance".
- To daughter Margaret (md Jos Alvey) 200 acres, part of said tract. Maryland Rent Rolls, Charles and St Mary's Counties, page 30E, Annapolis, Maryland.
"Green's Inheritance surveyed January 8, 1666, for Leonard, Robert, and Francis Green.
Possession 800 acres Francis Green;
800 acres, Edward Clements;
Robert Green 200 acres;
Francis Wheeler 200 acres;
Thomas Green, son of Leonard, 200 acres;
Richard Coombs 200 acres,
Jos. Alvey, 200 acres.
[1,000 acres. Should this have totalled 800 acres? -jcw20170102]
"Richard Coombs left the following heirs:
Thomas Coombs, Jane Coombs, Sarah Coombs,
Leonard Coombs, and Eleanor Coombs.
"In 1719 "Coombs Purchase", 100 acres, was surveyed for Thomas Coombs. Thomas Coombs married Elizabeth Wharton. His will was proven January 19, 1753, and mentions son Thomas Wharton, to whom he wills "Coombs Purchase"; son Walter, part of "Green's Inheritance"; son Bennet, "all my whole and sole right to a part of land called "Green's Inheritance".
When William Shercliffe was born about 1638, in Maryland, his father, John, was 20 and his mother, Anne, was 23.
William was mention in his father's will, written between December 2nd, 1661 and March 26th, 1663.
"To my wife Anne, execx., 'Horton Hays', plantation on Bretton's Bay.
- To eldest son John Shercliffe, land on the northwest side of Bretton's Bay.
- To youngest son, William Shercliffe, land on St. Clement's Bay.
- To elder daughter, Mary Shercliffe, 100 acres of land. 'I give and bequeath unto my eldest daughter Mary, one hundred acres of land due unto the rights of importing of Josaphat Farazell, Eliz. Morgan, Jno. Bayly and Eliz. Abrahams.'
- TO COUSIN THOMAS SPALDING, land. "I give & beq. unto Mr. Francis Fitzherbert tobacco 300-400 pounds for his good Prayers and to pastor of Catholick Church at New Town and I desire Prayers of all Catholicks. In event of death of my children, estate to pass to Roman Catholic Church and friend Peter Mills."
- Overseers: Henry Spinke, brother-in-law & friend Peter Mills.
- Witnesses: EDWARD CLARKE, Edmond Smith, Leonard Green
- Adms: ANN SHERCLIFFE & WM SHERCLIFFE, St. Mary's Co, Aug 21, 1678.
He was married twice.
He died on July 1, 1707, in St Marys City, Maryland, at the age of 69.
When John Shircliffe was born on August 5, 1618, in Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, his father, Thomas, was 45 and his mother, Mary, was 38. John was transported in 1638, but was also listed as an "immigrant" in 1646. Anne & Mary Shercliffe, his daughters, were transported in 1657.[1]
He married Ann Spinke Goldsborough, sister of Henry Spinke, in 1634 in St Marys City, Maryland. [He then married Anne Goldsborough Spinke] and they had six children together.
He died on March 26, 1663, in Leonardtown, Maryland, at the age of 44.
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John Christy Wetzel Larry, did Joseph Herbstritt make the trip from Baden to Hodgenville, KY with the expressed purpose of meeting and marrying Elizabeth? Was it an arranged marriage? Or did he make this trip, happened to meet her and they got married? Just curious.
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John Christy Wetzel
John Christy Wetzel Ann Spinke Goldsborough was apparently a widow when she married John Shircliffe(?)
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