John "The Immigrant" (Chewe) Chew, IV

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L718-DF8
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chew-25
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150118179/john-chew

John Chew was an early settler at Jamestown, Virginia, the first English colony in North America, established in 1607. The Chews became at once identified with the growing colony, serving as sheriffs, clerks, and esquires of the county besides participating in every war from the first Indian battles to the close of the Revolutionary War, Civil War and War of 1812.

John was born in 1587, and came from Whalley, Lancashire, England. John was a descendent of the Chews of the village of Chew Magna. The Chew seat in England was about 15 miles southeast of the Severn River and a slightly greater distance south of Baristo in Chewton Township in Somersetshire where the village is located, containing the manorial mansion Chew Court. Not far Southward are the ruins of Chew Priory established by Edward III in the 14th century.

John Chew IV was born the 1st of seven children in Chewton, Somerset, England. Chewton probably derives from 'Chew town'. As the Chew's were previous Norman Lords in Southern England. He emigrated to Jamestown,Virginia.

Chew family were Quakers

Robert Chew's Book: The evolution of the Chew family name was from the following : 1050 de Cheux from Normandy; 1086 le Cu from Devonshire; 1100 de Chyu from Somersetshire; 1150 del Cho from Lancashire; 1220 del Chue from Lancashire; 1250 le Keu from Suffolk; 1280 de chue from Somersetshire; 1320 de Chewe from Somersetshire; 1390 Chewe from Worcestershire; 1500 Chewe from Lancashire; 1630 Chew from Virginia; 1700 Chew from New Jersey.

The word CHEW generally means winding water, the EW being a variant of the French EAU meaning water. The word CHEWER is a Western dialect for a narrow passage and CHARE is Old English for turning. The River Chew that runs through Somerset to the River Avon is a narrow, twisting river of water.

Many believe that the name CHEW began in Normandy as CHEUX, and came to England with the Norman Conquest during the 11th century. The earliest record of the name CHEW is in the Domesday Survey, the name CHEW appears as CHIWE when it states that the Bishop of Wells holds Chiwe. The city of Wells is in Somersetshire about forty miles from the Devonshire boundary. The belief that CHIWE refers to Chew Magna located about fifteen miles to the north. Note that Devonshire is where Le Cu was granted land (bounded by Somersetshire to the northeast). The name also appears as Chyu in 1164 at Bath, as Keu in 1260 at Suffolk and as Chewe as far north as Lancashire in 1430. It isn't certain when the surname CHEW or CHEWE became permanently adopted, but it was about the last half of the 14th century. There is a John Chewe at Salisbury in 1383. About 300 years after the name was Chiwe Magna was mentioned by the Bishop of Wells. It is believed that the name was taken from place names like CHEW MAGNA or CHEWTON.

However, there are no records that support this view. The Chew family of Virginia and Maryland can be traced back to the Chew family of Lancashire, England. It is possible that this family had origins in Somerset; however, this cannot be proved.

Genealogies...from the Maryland Historical Magazine 975.2 M369 V.1 John Chew came to Virginia in the Ship "Charity" or "Charitie" in 1621 or 1622 and his wife Sarah came about a year later in the "Sea Flower." Both were living at Hog Island, opposite Jamestown, in 1624 (Hotten's "Emigrants," page 237). He was a merchant and was evidently a man of substance since he owned a house at Jamestown shortly after his arrival, as is shown by a grant in 1624 to "John Crew, merchant," of one rood, nine poles, near his dwelling house in James City (Va. Mag., I. 87). In 1636 he had grants for some 1200 acres "in the County of Charles River," later called York County, and had probably been living in that locality for some years previously (Va. Mag., V.341-342). He represented Hogg Island in the Virginia House of Burgesses 1623-1624 and 1617, and was a member for York County 1642-1644 (Colonial Va. Register, pages 53, 54, 63). He was also one of the justices of York County in 1624 and 1652 (Va. Mag., I.197). His first wife Sarah died before 1651, and in that year he executed a deed (recorded in York County) in view of his intended marriage with Mrs Rachel Constable (Va. Mag., I. 197). His sons Samuel and Joseph Chew are mentioned in the York County records 1657 and 1659 respectively, and it appears from the same records that in 1668 John Chew was dead and his son Samuel was living in Anne Arundel Co., Maryland.

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Came to Virginia in 1622. Member of House of Burgess.

JOHN CHEW, said to be a cadet of the family of CHEW of Chewton, in Somersetshire, England, who was a member of the Virginia House of Assembly in 1623 as a Burgess from Jamestown, appears to have been the first of this name in America. In a land grant of the same year he is described as "John Crew, Merchant."

He is said to have come over in the "Charitie" and his wife SARAH, to have followed him in the "Sea Flower" which returned to England in 1622. He was afterward a Burgess from Hogg's Island, and was in the Assembly until 1643. John and Sarah Chrew had issue: SAMUEL and JOSEPH

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John Chew of Jamestown, VA (1587-1668) was born in Whalley Parish, Lancashire, England. A merchant, he may have been with John Smith as early as 1607, when the first permanent English settlement in the new World was founded at Jamestown. It was certain that John Chew received land granted from the Virginia Company in 1618. He married Sarah Gale in England, and returned to Virginia in 1622 on the ship Charity, which was owned by his wife's family. He operated a tobacco plantation on Hogg Island, across the James River from Jamestown. His wife, indentured servants and oldest chilren immigrated from Chewton, Somersetshire, England on the ship Seaflower to join him in 1623. John built a house, warehouse and store in Jamestown, where he dealt in wine, corn and tobacco. He was a member and secretary of the Virginia House of Burgesses. By 1642, he also owned 1200 acres in York County. When the Virginia Governor oppressed Puritans in support of the Church of England, the family migrated to Anne Arundel County, Maryland. John used Virginia tobacco to buy 500 acres near Annapolis. When his wife died in Maryland, John returned to Virginia. He was the oldest son of John Chewe of Bewdley, Worcestershire, England. _________________________________________________________

The Chew family were among the earliest to settle Virginia, the immigrant John Chew, Larkin Sr.’s grandfather, arriving at Jamestown first in 1618 and more permanently in 1622 in the ship Charitie. His wife Sarah Gale arrived with their son John the following year in the Seafloure. According to some sources, at the time of their immigration, the family had been resident in Chewton Mendip, Somerset. Some family histories relate that the Charitie belonged to the family of Sarah Gale, and that John brought bricks for his intended home at Jamestown as ballast in that ship’s hold.

Born in Whalley Parish, Lancashire on July 16, 1587, the immigrant John Chew’s possible residence in Somerset (which may have been the home county of his mother, Anne Broddyll Chew; in fact, some early histories and genealogies placed John’s birth in Chewton Mendip) would have put him in contact with the significant promoters of the Virginia colony based in the West Country of England. According to Thomas Chew’s son Joseph, Sir William Berkeley, the Somerset-born Royalist Governor whose administration molded colonial Virginia into its most lasting and defining forms, had a “particular regard” for John who was described by another governor, Sir John Harvey, as “one of the ablest merchants in Virginia” in 162 . Burgess for Hogg Island (1623-39), Burgess from York County (1632-44) and Justice of York (1634-52), John’s rising prosperity coincided with Berkeley’s promotion of Virginia as a Cavalier refuge from England’s Civil War during his first administration of 1642-52.

An historical marker placed in the Jamestown National Historic Site relates that:

John Chew, like several of his immediate neighbors, was a merchant, one of the oldest in the Colony. He acquired the small plot here “backstreet” in 1624, and put up a ‘house by him now erected and builded in Newtowne within the precincts of James City.’

The historian Philip Bruce, in his The Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, notes that in “the early history of the Colony, merchant planters in many instances had residences and storehouses at Jamestown while holding and cultivating large estates elsewhere; this was the case with John Chew” who kept his plantation home on Hogg Island:

Among those engaged in business in Virginia, at a very early date . . . were George Menifie, John Chew and Abraham Piersey . . . . All three rose to wealth and prominence in the Colony and at least one, Chew, founded a family of distinction and influence.

Following the death of his first wife, John remarried in 1651 to Rachel Constable, younger sister of Anne Constable Lee, the wife of the immigrant Richard Lee, founder of the Lee family in Virginia and Rachel’s guardian at the time of her marriage. According to some genealogists, Rachel Constable’s family were also from Chewton Mendip.

Sometime around 1644, at the time of the Second Indian Uprising, John removed his family to Ann Arundel County, Maryland in spite of Berkeley’s attempts to dissuade him. Although John returned to Virginia after the death of his second wife, his oldest son Samuel (1634-76) remained in Maryland, residing at his estate “Herrington” at Herring Bay Calvert County. Married to Ann Ayers of Nansemond County, Virginia in 1658, Samuel, a physician by profession, served as a burgess in the Maryland assembly, colonel of the Provincial Forces, Chancellor and Secretary of the Province and was appointed to Maryland’s upper legislative chamber, the Governor’s Council, in 1669, an appointment he retained until his death. From Samuel and Ann Ayers Chew were descended the Chews of Philadelphia, most notable among whom were the Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania, Judge Benjamin Chew (1722-1810) builder of “Cliveden” (see separate article in this issue). Samuel’s younger brother Joseph, who also lived in Maryland, and his wife Ruth Larkin of Annapolis were the parents of Larkin Chew Sr. Sometime before 1700, this Joseph returned to Virginia where he died in 1716 in what would later become Spotsylvania County.

From: Courses of Empire: The Thomas Chew Family of Orange County and the Colonial Virginia Recessional
By Frederick Madison Smith, secretary ____________________________________________________

A brief biosketch of John Chew by Wayne Hepburn, August 2007

By the time my grandfather, (nine generations removed) John was born, his forebears had been established on the British Isle for four hundred years. The family had four centuries in which to proliferate and prosper. They did, mightily.

He was born in 1587 at Chewton, Somerset[shire], England, where the Chew River flows through the Chew Valley. There are some who claim his birth at Whalley Parish, Lancashire, in 1587 or in 1590. It is possible but I'm inclined to side with the vast majority who choose Somerset.

There apparently was a Johannes Chew baptized at Whalley Parish about 1600 but as there many Chews in England, and few with Germanic names, we discount that event as not applying to our John, though he may have relocated to Lancashire, his mother's birthplace, where he married Sarah in 1610.

Sarah, whether Sarah Bond, Sarah Gale, or Sarah Gale Bond, was born about 1590 in Lancashire. her pparentageis not readily apparent. As of this writing I have not tracked down her father or mother with any degree of certitude. The 1610 marriage is widely recorded and assumed to be more or less accurate. There are quite a few family histories claiming she was born in 1600, which would have made her age 10 at marriage. This is not impossible if the marriage was arranged but not cconsummateduntil later in life, but highly improbable. There are also some trees which claim she was born in Virginia. Many claims of a marriage in Virginia in 1628.

The trees using the 1628 marriage date usually name her as Sarah Bond while the trees and histories giving a 1610 marriage usually name her Sarah Gale.

In 1618 John received a land grant in Virginia Coloby from the Virginia Company of London. Some historical publications say her arrived in Virginia in 1622 and many passenger and immigration / emigration records support this. In one document he is said to have been well received in Virginia by others "of his name" [Chew] who had arrived before he did, and another "by family members already in Virginia". There are no records so far uncovered of any Chew taking passage from England prior to 1622, other than a single entry for John Chew in 1621. He may in fact have crossed the Atlantic many times during his life.

In Any case, by 1623 he was established on lands at Hogg Island, a peninsula rather than an island, across from James Cittie, Virginia. Commonly referred to as Jamestown now, the site is inside the National Colonial Historic Park of the United States NPS. There is a James City in Virginia but it is not the same site on the James River as the original settlement. [As an aside, James I was King of England and much was named for him. He died in 1625 and was succeeded by James II.]

John sailed into the harbor of James Cittie aboard the vessel "Charitie" and brought with him three servants. Some historians mention in passing that he sailed on a ship "which was owned by his wife's parents". Interesting, in as much as none of them mention who her parents were. To date, I've not found any information to support the notion that Sarah's family owned the ship "Charitie".

John was almost immediately caught up in business and political activity. Historical sources record that he built a home and a warehouse and became the representative of Hogg Island in the Virginia House of Burgesses. [I have stood in the Burgesses' chamber at Williamsburg wholly ignorant of the fact that my grandfather sat in that same room conducting the business of Virginia Colony 360 years before my visit.] John was among the signers of a complaint to the king concerning corruption in the leadership of the colony. The king and courts of England ended up revoking the private charter of the Virginia Company, imprisoned a principle, and made Virginia a Royal Colony ruled by the king's appointed governor.

Sarah arrived in Virginia the year following John's arrival, 1624. She is recorded as having taken passage aboard "Seafloure" or Sea Flower, whichever is the correct name and she traveled under the name Sarah Chew. If records are correct, she had with her two young sons, John and Nathaniel, both born in England in 1616 and 1620 respectively. In Virginia, Sarah would bear John four more children, Sarah, Jonathan, Samuel [my direct ancestor] and Joseph; the latter, born in 1637, possibly being the proximate cause of his mother's demise. Some records say Sarah died in Virginia in 1651; others say 1637.

John did marry again after Sarah's death. By 1652 when he married widow Rachel Constable, he had already moved from Virginia to Maryland. Other Chew descendants would spread into neighboring Pennsylvania and Delaware where they achieved prominence. My direct line remained in Maryland through the revolution and into statehood.

It may be that Sarah died in childbirth in 1737. If she did, John wwaitedfifteen more years before marrying again. Such behavior is atypical of people of the times. All my research shows widowed spouses remarrying within two years or not at all. I believe Sarah made the move to Maryland between 1644 and 1649 and died there. I have no knowledge, at present, of the burial locations for John or Sarah.

THE FOUNDERS OF ANNE ARUNDEL AND HOWARD COUNTIES, MARYLAND (a Genealogical and Biographical Review from wills, deeds and church records.); J. D. WARFIELD, A. M.; KOHN & POLLOCK, Publishers, Baltimore, MD,. 1905.

Page 109 CHEW.

John Chew, of "Chewtown," Somersetshire, England, came to Virginia in the " Sea Flower," in 1622, and was gladly received there by members of his family, who had preceded him, in 1618, in the ship "Charitie." He settled at James City, built a house for his wife, Sarah, and was a member of the House of Burgesses. He is there recorded as a prosperous merchant.

He removed to Maryland with his neighbors, in 1649, and received a grant for five hundred acres, paid for in Virginia tobacco. With him came his wife, Sarah, and two sons, Samuel and Joseph. Descendants of the latter, through a daughter of John Larkin, are still residents of Virginia.

Samuel Chew laid out " Herrington," on Herring Creek. In 1650, a grant was issued to him as "his Lordship's well-beloved Samuel Chew, Esq." In 1669, he was sworn in as one of the justices

Page 110 of the chancery and provincial courts. His name appears in both Houses of the Assembly until his death, in 1676. In 1675, he was Colonel Samuel Chew, and was ordered, with Colonel William Burgess, to go against the Indians at the head of the Severn. His will, of 1676, bequeathed the Town of Herrington, negroes, able-bodied Englishmen, and hogsheads of tobacco, to his heirs, and made his wife, Ann (Ayres) Chew, his executrix She was the Quakeress daughter of William Ayres, thus recorded in Virginia: " William Ayres received two hundred and fifty acres on the main creek of Nansemond River, in 1635, for transportating five persons." Perhaps this patentee was related to Thomas Ayres, associated with Edward Bennett in a plantation in this county." Lower Norfolk, "records a power of attorney from Samuel Chew, of Herringtown, and Anne, his wife, sole daughter and heiress of William Ayres, of. Nansemond County."

Colonel Samuel and Ann Chew had a large family. Their daughter, Sarah, is recorded in the Chew records, as the wife of "a Burges." She married Captain Edward Burgess, oldest son of Colonel William. Samuel Chew, Jr., was located on " Poplar Ridge." From him descended Colonel Samuel Chew, of " Upper Bennett," a member of the "Federation of Freemen," and Colonel of Militia. He married, first, Miss Weems, and second, Priscilla Clagett, daughter of Rev. Samuel Clagett. She was a sister of Bishop Clagett.

Colonel John Hamilton Chew, married his cousin Priscilla, daughter of Bishop Claggett. Dr. Samuel Chew, of Baltimore, and Rev. John Chew, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, were his heirs. Captain Samuel Chew, of Herring Bay, and Colonel Philemon Lloyd Chew were sons of, Samuel Chew and Henrietta Maria Lloyd, his wife, whose three daughters were, Henrietta Maria, wife of Captain Edward Dorsey, of the " Tuesday Club;" Mary, wife of Governor William Paca; Margaret, wife of John Beale Bordley. These three daughters resided in Annapolis.

The homestead of John Beale Bordley is now held by the Randall family. Retiring to Joppa, on the Gunpowder, and still later to " Bordley Island," John Beale Bordley ordered champagne by the cask, and Madeira by the pipe. It was an ideal home of an age when spinning wheels and looms were going incessantly; when brickyards, windmills and rope walks were in operation; when a brewery converted the hops which Governor Sharpe had imported. Colonel Philemon Lloyd Chew married Henrietta Maria, daughter of Edward Tilghman.

Major Richard Chew, of Calvert, married Margaret Mackall, daughter of General James John Mackall. Their son married Anne Bowie, sister of Governor Robert Bowie.

Benjamin Chew, fifth son of Samuel and Anne Ayres, married Elizabeth Benson. Their son was Dr. Samuel Chew, of " Maidstone," near Annapolis, who married, first, Mary Galloway, of Samuel, of "Tulip Hill," and had Benjamin Chew, of "Cleveden;" Elizabeth, wife of Colonel Edward Tilghman, and Anne, wife of Samuel Galloway.

Dr. Samuel Chew married, secondly, Mary, daughter of Aquilla Paca, and widow of Richard Galloway. Their son was Judge Samuel Chew, who married Anna Maria Frisby, and died at Chestertown without issue. He was of the Supreme Court of Delaware.

Dr. Samuel Chew, of "Maidstone," removed to Dover, and became Judge of the three lower counties, now Delaware. He was called the fighting Quaker, and was immortalized as follows:

"Immortal Chew first set pur Quakers right; He made it plain they might resist and fight; And the gravest Dons agreed to what he said, And freely gave their cast for the King's aid, For war successful, and for peace and trade."

For sustaining the law passed by the Assembly of the three lower counties, as a militia law, he was expelled from the Quaker Society. In commenting upon it, he wrote: "Their bills of excommunication are as full fraught with fire and brimstone and other church artillery, as those even of the Church of Rome."

The offense of Judge Chew was his decision that "self-defense was not only lawful, but obligatory upon God's citizens."

His son, Benjamin Chew, born 1722, rose rapidly in law and became eminent. He was Speaker of the House of Delegates in Dover, and was a neighbor of Judge Nicholas Ridgely.

In 1755, he was Attorney-General of Pennsylvania. In 1756, he was Recorder of Philadelphia. In 1774, he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. His definition of high treason has become historical. Said he, " Opposition, by force of arms, to the lawful authority of the King is high treason; but, in the moment, when the King, or his Ministers, shall exceed the constitutional authority vested in them by the constitution, submission to their mandates becomes treason." His object was reform rather than revolution.

His homestead, "Cliveden," on the old Germantown Road, became still more celebrated. In it had gathered the British forces, who sent out a fire of musketry upon the American forces. The delay caused by trying to drive the British from their stronghold, occasioned the loss of the battle of Germantown.

Judge Chew's four daughters were celebrated for their beauty. "Peggy" was the special admiration of Major Andre, a favorite guest at "Cliveden." Upon her his poetic pen recorded many complimentary verses, still extant. When Colonel John Eager Howard, the hero of the Revolution, had won "Peggy Chew" as his wife, she remarked to some distinguished French officers, who were guests at Belvidere, "That major Andre was a most witty and cultivated gentleman." Her patriotic husband added: "He was a spy, sir, nothing but a spy."

"The old homestead, with its rough walls of stone, its entrance guarded by marble lions, is now blinded and defaced by age. In its halls hang portraits older than the house."—(marion Harland.)

Harriet Chew, of "Cliveden," presided at "Homewood," of Charles Carroll, only son of the signer. Juliana became Mrs. Philip Nicklin and Sophia was Mrs. Henry Phillips.

From Benjamin Chew, the younger, through Katherine Banning, came Benjamin, who married a daughter of Chief Justice Tilghman. Eliza—James Murray Mason, father of Catherine, wife of John T. B. Dorsey.

Henry Banning Chew married Harriet Ridgely, of Hampton.

Their descendants reside near Towson.

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Came to Virginia on the Ship "Charitie"

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John Chew & descendents (I) John Chewe, with three servants, in 1620 or 1622, came to Virginia in the ship "Charitie," and landed at Hogg's Island, opposite Jamestown. His wife, Sarah, followed him in the ship "Seafloure," the next year. (See "Our Early Emigrant Ancestors, 1600-1700," by T. C. Hotten.) Evidently he was a man of some substance, building a house in "James City" at once, and styled in the grant of land made to him in 1623, "John Chewe, merchant." He is said to have built the first brick house in Jamestown. A deed of 1624 granted him "for the better conveniencie and comodotie of his new house," a rood and nine perches of land lying about it. He was a burgess from Hogg's Island in 1623, 1624-29; agent, managing the business of Robert Benet in James City, in November, 1622. Governor Harvey, in 1625, calls him one of "the ablest merchants in Virginia." He was commissioned at some time a colonel of the Provincial forces, and was a burgess from York county, 1642-43-44; a justice of the same county, 1634 to 1652. In 1651, in view of his intended marriage to Mrs. Rachel Constable, he makes a deed for certain land recorded in that county. Much of the data upon which the remainder of this sketch is based has been furnished through the courtesy of Frank Chew Osborn, attorney at law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His descendant, Joseph Chew, of Montreal, secretary for Indian affairs, writing to his cousin, Joseph Chew, of Connecticut, September 28, 1797, states that about 1643 (1653?), he removed to Maryland, notwithstanding Governor, Sir William Berkeley, of Virginia, who had a particular regard for him, endeavored to dissuade him from doing so in letters which the writer declares he had seen among the family papers. He appears to have had two sons, Samuel, see forward, and Joseph, and from these are descended the several branches of the name to be found in Canada, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Louisiana. Some authorities mention other sons, especially a John. Joseph Chew, supposed to have been the second son, was living in York county, Virginia, in 1659. On November 17, 1685, at the house of Ann Chew, at Herring Creek, Maryland, he married Mary Smith. He died in the same province, February 12, 1715-16. He is also said to have married a Miss Larkin, and to have had by her a son, Larkin Chew, whose descendants are the Spottsylvania county Chews, of the present day. (II) Samuel Chew, son of John and Sarah Chewe, was of Herrington, Anne Arundel county, Maryland, died March 15, 1677, and his will was dated July 26, 1676. He was a resident of Maryland as early as 1648, though he was residing in Virginia in 1657. In 1659 he was a member of the Maryland house of burgesses as Samuel Chew, Gentleman. December 17, 1669, he was sworn one of the justices of the provincial court and the court of chancery, as Samuel Chew, Esquire; July 28, 1669, he was commissioned a member of the governor's council, sworn in October 22, 1669, and remained as such until his death. He was a prominent member of the provincial government, described the year before his death as "Colonel Samuel Chew, chancellor and secretary"; and was a tobacco planter, possessing land and considerable wealth. He resided at Herring Bay, on land granted him in 1650; and called himself "Samuel Chew of Herrington," in his will, by which he left the half of his landed estate to his oldest son, dividing the remainder between his two younger sons; and leaving his daughters and other sons shares in his personal property, white and black servants, and tobacco. He also bequeaths to his brother, Joseph Chew, his "seale gold ring." He married, about 1658-59, Anne, only daughter and heiress of William Ayres, of Nansemond county, Virginia. She died April 13, 1695, and her will is dated February 20, 1694-95. She was a prominent member of the Society of Friends, and their monthly meetings were held at her house on Herring Bay. Children: Samuel, born 1660; Joseph, see forward; Nathaniel, died after February 20, 1695-96; William; Benjamin, born April 12, 1671, from whom the Chews of Philadelphia are descended; John, died May 19, 1696-97; Caleb, died May 8, 1698; Sarah, married a Burger; Anne, died January 28, 1699-1700. For further information concerning these children see "The Thomas Book by Lawrence Buckley Thomas." (III) Joseph, son of Samuel and Anne (Ayres) Chew, was born after 1660, died February 1, 1705, his will being dated January 24, 1704, and probated June 7, 1705. He was of Anne Arundel county, Maryland, and left Yarrow and Yarrow Head, one thousand acres in Prince George county, Maryland, to his son, Joseph Chew, and this land descended to Roger Chew, of Alexandria, Virginia, by the law of entail. Joseph Chew married, about 1692-93, Elizabeth (Hanslap) Battee, who died about May, 1716. She was the daughter of Henry Hanslap and the widow of Samuel Seaborne Battee. Children: Joseph, see forward; Henry; possibly a daughter.

Among the many and variously scattered descendants of the original Chew family of Virginia may be mentioned Coleby Chew, of Spottsylvania, killed at Fort Duquesne in 1758, and his brother, Larkin Chew, lieutenant of Byrd's Second Virginia Regiment, who was wounded in May, 1754; John Chew, of Spottsylvania, an officer in the revolutionary war, wounded at the battle of Camden; Samuel Chew, of New Haven, Connecticut, said to have been killed while in command of an American ship during the revolution; Harry Chew, who served as an adjutant in the Spottsylvania militia during the same war; and at a later date we have Colonel Roger Preston Chew, of Jefferson county, West Virginia, of whom there is further mention; and Robert S. Chew, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who also held the rank of colonel in the Confederate army.

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Chew Family

In his Historic Families of America, Spooner says of the Chews: "They belong to that remarkable group of families which, founded in the Southern Colonies by ancestors of excellent birth and breeding, assumed at once a position of social and public consequence, and subsequent generations, by the merits and character of their members, as well as by influential alliances, steadily maintained and strengthened their original prestige."

Our ancestor, John Chew, came over from England around 1621. His 3rd Great Grandaughter married William Paca, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. This website has the above quote: http://www.colonialhall.com/paca/pacaMary.php

le Cu of Normandy (c1050, Devonshire, England)

Many intervening generations (complete ancestry known for male line) John Chew (1587, Somersetshire, England-1668, Jamestown, Virginia or Maryland) married Sarah Bond (1600, England-1650, Anne Arundel County, Maryland)

The Chew family was one of the most ancient and prominent free holding families in England. The ancestral home is Chew Court. The first Chews were Normans from France; the name originally was de Cheux or le Cu. In the 13th century, Henry del Cho is on record as receiving a grant of land from Adam de Bilyngton and the two families of Cho and Bilyngton were allied in marriage. In subsequent generations, the descendants variously bore the surname del Cho, Choo, Chee and Chew. Chewton, a township of Somersetshire was the place from which the Chews of Maryland and Pennsylvania came. In Chewton are the villages of Chew Magna, Shew Stoke and Chew Mendip, and at Chew Magna is Chew Court, the ancient ancestral mansion of the family.

There is a direct line of this family from 1050 down to John Chew who came to Jamestown. John Chew is said to have been in one of Capt. John Smith’s companies of adventurers of 1607 but it is known for certain that he came to Virginia with three servants in the ship CHARITY in 1621 or 1622. His wife Sarah Bond came a year later in the ship SEA FLOWER.

John Chew landed on Hoggs Island opposite Jamestown and in the year after arriving built a house at James Citie. He was a merchant of prominence, Governor Harvey calling him one of the ablest merchants in Virginia. John Chew was colonel of the provincial forces at one time and represented York County in the Virginia House of Burgesses where he was notable for his attendance and as Secretary. He was the only member who never missed a meeting for eight years. His minutes are still preserved at Yorktown. He also was a Justice of York County for many years. http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NICHOLSON/2000-01/0948381556

Generation No. 19

21. RICHARD19 CHEW (JOHN18, JOHN17, JOHN18 CHEWE, ROBERT15, RICHARD14, WLLIAM13, THOMAS12, JOHN11, JOHN10, JOHN, WLLIAM8 DE CHEWE, JOHN7 DE CHEWE, ADAM6 LE KUE, WLLIAM6 DEL CHUE, RICHARD4 DEL CHO, WLLELMUS3 DEL CHYU, ALVRED2 DE CHYU, OF

NORMANDY1 LE Cu

Notes for RICHARD CHEW:

1699 Richard Chue of Flushing upon Long Island alias Nassau in the Province of New York, yeoman, for twenty eight pounds and ten shillings current silver money bought of Daniel Cooper a tract containing three hundred acres of land by the Southerly Branch of Gloucester River.

May 1, 1700 Purchased the James Whiteall Plantation of Upton on the Gloucester River. 1722 Deeded it to son Thomas.

March 2, 1701 purchased of James Whiteall of Red Bank for ten pounds current silver money one hundred acres.

These three purchased equaled over 700 acres in Gloucester County, all within 3 years and three months, showing he came to West New Jersey with a considerable sum of money. All the land was deeded to his sons John, Nathanial, Richard, Henry, and Thomas.

Burial: Old Chew Graveyard

             Emigration: 1684, To America

58. CHARITY CHEW (RiCHARD20, RICHARD19, JoHN18, JOHN17, JOHN16 CHE WE, ROBERT15, RICHARD14, WLLIAM13, THOMAS12, JOHN1 1, JOHN10, JOHN9, WLLIAM6 DECHEWE, JOHN7 DE CHEWE, ADAM6 LE KUE, WLLIAM6 DEL CHUE, RICHARD4 DEL CHO, WLLELMUS3 DEL CHU, ALVRED2 DE CHUE, ? OF NORMANDY1 LE Cu) was born 1718, and died Aft. 1779. She married RICHARD POWELL, JR 1740, son of RICHARD POWELL and MARY WOOD.

Notes for CHARITY CHEW:

Her gravestone read: Some have children, some have none, here lies the mother of 21.

Two of the children of CHARITY CHEW and RICHARD POWELL are:

xi. ABRAHAM POWELL, d. 1778.

Notes for ABRAHAM POWELL:

Captured at the fall of Fort Washington and confined in the prison ship “Jersey” where he died of starvation and was burled at Fort Green Cemetery.

Burial: Fort Green Cemetery

Military service: Capt. David Lenox Co. Penn

xii. ELIZABETH POWELL.

Notes for ELIZABETH POWELL:

Died at about age 14. Legend is she was taking lunch to her brothers and father working in

the field and was frightened by a wild animal, dying a few days later from fright.

John Chew (internet) John Chew Jamestown settler

John Chew was an early settler at Jamestown, Virginia, the first English colony in North America, established in 1607. The Chews became at once identified with the growing colony, serving as sheriffs, clerks, and esquires of the county besides participating in every war from the first Indian battles to the close of the Revolutionary War, Civil War and War of 1812.

John was born in 1587, and came from Whalley, Lancashire, England. John was a descendent of the Chews of the village of Chew Magna. The Chew seat in England was about 15 miles southeast of the Severn River and a slightly greater distance south of Baristo in Chewton Township in Somersetshire where the village is located, containing the manorial mansion Chew Court. Not far Southward are the ruins of Chew Priory established by Edward III in the 14th century.

In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region. 108 settlers sailed from London to settle Virginia, find gold and a water route to the Orient. In 1607, the explorers established the colony on the banks of the James River 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Almost immediately, the colonists were under attack from the Algonquian natives, and in 1622, the Indian massacre on Good Friday 1622 left a quarter of Virginia’s population dead, though a last minute warning spared Jamestown. Virginia became a crown colony in 1624.

John came to Jamestown in 1622 with three servants in the ship Charitie . His wife Sarah followed him to Virginia in 1623 with at least one son and a number of servants in the ship Seaflower . His eldest son John did not emigrate to Virginia until 1636. Other sons born in England--Nathaniel and Jonathan--would also emigrate to Virginia, where sons Samuel and Joseph were born.

He arrived in Jamestown shortly before the Indian massacre of 1622. He was active in affairs of the infant colony in the trying times following the settlement. He lived at Hogg Island, opposite Jamestown, in 1624.

He represented Hogg Island in the Virginia House of Burgesses for 1623-1624, 1627, and 1629 and was a member for York County for 1642-1644. He was also one of the justices of York County in 1624 and 1652. He was secretary for four years and his minutes are still preserved in Yorktown. He was the only member who never missed a meeting for eight years.

In 1624, Chew joined members of the Virginia assembly in denouncing the rule of Governor Thomas Smith, which they said caused "great want and misery under most severe and Cruel laws sent over in print." The complaints were grim: "So lamentable was our scarcity that we were constrained to eat Dogs, Cats, rats, Snakes, Toadstools, horse hides and whatnot, one man out of the misery that he endured, killing his wife powdered her up to eat her, for which he was burned. Many besides fed on the Corpses of dead men...."

For many years he was active in Virginia as a successful merchant. He dealt in wine, meal, corn and tobacco. He rented out his store to Mr. Lemoyne. In an unfortunate incident, in 1625, Chew was imprisoned until he could give satisfaction to a Mr. Pott for five barrels of corn.

A map of old Jamestown shows a plot of land granted to John Chew in 1624, slightly back from the shore of the James River and separated by only one tract on the west from the land used later for the Governor's Mansion by Sir William Berkeley until 1656 and then by Richard Bennet. Chew's dwelling lay within the precincts of James City. In 1636 he had grants for some 1200 acres "in the County of Charles River," later called York County, and had probably been living in there for some years.

In 1642 John Chew was a resident of both Virginia and Maryland. We find him in Governor Berkley’s first assembly of 1642, voting a gift to the governor and levying taxes with a proviso that the taxes could be paid in Indian corn, wheat, meat, malt, beef, pork, hens, capons, cheese, geese, turkey, and kids, which is evidence of what the colonists were raising in quantities at the time.

Chew took part in 1642 in passing a law expelling all those who did not conform to the Church of England. Being a Puritan at heart, his conscience must have been on fire or perhaps, like Reverend Thomas Harrison, he did not awaken to the sinfulness of the established church until the massacre of 1644 convinced him that the Lord preferred Puritans. The religious freedom of Maryland was a powerful magnet and when his friend Bennett established control of that colony in 1652, Chew made this his permanent home in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

In Maryland, the Chews occupied a large tract of land granted to them by Lord Baltimore, a part of which, "Upper Bebbet," they occupy to this day. Chew became the ancestor of many distinguished families in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

His first wife Sarah died before 1651, and in that year he executed a deed (recorded in York County) in view of his intended marriage to Mrs. Rachel Constable. His sons Samuel and Joseph Chew are mentioned in the York County records 1657 and 1659 respectively, and it appears from the same records that in 1668 John Chew was dead and his son Samuel was living in Anne Arundel Co., Maryland. Samuel Chew headed the Delaware and Pennsylvania line of Chews.

In the county records of Spotsylvania, the name Chew appears on most every page, being associated with such noted families as Spottswood, Beverleys, Randolf, Stannard, etc. They were also under the command of Washington and Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. The Chews were close friends of the Madison family, the Chew name being mentioned many times in Madison papers. Milly Chew and others are recognized as godmother and godfather to Madison family.

In 1644, Chew sent his sons John and Nathaniel from Virginia to the New England colony in pursuit of three runaway servants. It is not known whether that mission succeeded, but in New England son John met and married Ann Gates, daughter of Stephen and Ann Hill Gates of Hingham, formerly of Norwich England. Along with other English colonists from New England, they migrated to Long Island, helping to establish the first English settlement in the Hempstead vicinity, from 1650-1666. John's farm was about 100 acres at Flushing. He was the oldest of five sons of John Chew of Virginia.

NOTE: The Chew name.

The Chew name evolved as follows: 1050 de Cheux from Normandy; 1086 le Cu from Devonshire; 1100 de Chyu from Somersetshire; 1150 del Cho from Lancashire; 1220 del Chue from Lancashire; 1250 le Keu from Suffolk; 1280 de chue from Somersetshire; 1320 de Chewe from Somersetshire; 1390 Chewe from Worcestershire; 1500 Chewe from Lancashire; 1630 Chew from Virginia; 1700 Chew from New Jersey.

The word CHEW generally means winding water, the EW being a variant of the French EAU meaning water. The word CHEWER is a Western dialect for a narrow passage and CHARE is Old English for turning. The River Chew that runs through Somerset to the River Avon is a narrow, twisting river of water.

Many believe that the name CHEW began in Normandy as CHEUX, and came to England with the Norman Conquest during the 11th century. The earliest record of the name CHEW is in the Domesday Survey. The name CHEW appears as CHIWE when it states that the Bishop of Wells holds Chiwe. The city of Wells is in Somersetshire about 40 miles from the Devonshire boundary. The belief is that CHIWE refers to Chew Magna located about 15 miles to the north. Note that Devonshire is where Le Cu was granted land (bounded by Somersetshire to the northeast). The name also appears as Chyu in 1164 at Bath, as Keu in 1260 at Suffolk and as Chewe as far north as Lancashire in 1430. It isn't certain when the surname CHEW or CHEWE became permanently adopted, but it was about the last half of the 14th century. There is a John Chewe at Salisbury in 1383. About 300 years after the name was Chiwe Magna was mentioned by the Bishop of Wells. It is believed that the name was taken from place names like CHEW MAGNA or CHEWTON.

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Sources: 1989 Wilson Family Record and Johnston of Caroline by Elbert Felton Johnston, PhD.

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Left England in April, 1622 in Charitie for Jamestown, Virginia.

Served in General Assembly 1624-1629.