John Williamson, Sr.

   John Williamson came to America ca. 1707 and settled in Henrico County Virginia

   Sir John Williamson, Knight, son of an English Clergyman, b. 1630. Sir John purchased the estate of the Duke of Richmond in Kent County, England The county seat was named Cobham Hall. Sir John had a son:

   John Williamson, b. England; m. Rebecca Chamberlayne of New Kent Co., VA.

   John Williamson, son of Sir John Williamson, Knight; b. 1687, England; d. 1757; m. Rebecca Chamberlayne of New Kent Co., VA..

   Upon coming to Virginia, John Williamson settled opposite of Jamestown. He named his place Cobham Hall. He was a great influence in the country. He was in Henrico, Lunenburg and had descendants in Brunswick County as well. On 17 Jun 1735 he is shown as a vestryman of Curles Church. He was an educated man. He was a surveyor.

   John & Rebecca (Chamberlayne) Williamson had children:

   Thomas Williamson, b. 1718; d. 1757

   John[1] Williamson (b. 1687, d. 1757, elected vestryman of

   Curles Church, June 17, 1735), married Rebecca Chamberlayne

   of New Kent County, Va.

   Page 376 THE OLD FREE STATE

Sir Joseph Williamson The Virginia Williamson Connection Refuted The Williamsons of Virginia, descendants of John Williamson who married Rebecca Chamberlayne, are said to be descended from Sir Joseph Williamson, who was the son of an English Clergyman. Sir Joseph Williamson (1630-1701); married Catherine O”Brien Stuart, widow of Lord Henry O'Brien, of the House of Thomond, on February 2, 1679, . She was heiress to Charles Stuart, her brother, duke of Richmond and Lennox who died in 1672. She inherited the bulk of the dukes property which included Cobham Hall. Joseph Williamson later purchased Cobham Hall. The only evidence for John being the son of Sir Joseph, is that John named his estate opposite Jamestown, Cobham, and family tradition further supports this idea. A publication from the Pacific Transcript, Pacific, Mo, dated Friday Oct. 12, 1900 reads…."Sir Joseph Williamson, his descendants meet in Franklin County. Sir Joseph Williamson history (Archaeologia Cantiana, Kent Archaoelogical Society, pp. 274-304.) Highlights below. The church and vicarage at Bridekirk, in the county of Cumbria belonged to the monastery of Guisborough before the dissolution. Today, Bridekirk House (a country B&B) is an elegant Georgian Vicarage located in a in a small peaceful hamlet four minutes drive from Cockermouth center. Sir Joseph Williamson Knight, of Cobham Hall, was born at Bridekirk, near Cockermouth in 1633 and was baptized there on 4th August, 1633, by his father the vicar. He Attended St. Bees Grammar School in his early boyhood. His great abilities attracted the attention of Mr. Richard Tolson, MP who recommended him to Dr. Busby, head master of Westminster school, who later introduced him to Dr. Langbain, Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford. Williamson was admitted to Queen’s in Sept. 1650 when but seventeen years of age, and his support during university was paid for by the Provost himself, a kindness that was later reciprocated in the provisions of Joseph’s will. Joseph’s father, the Rev. Joseph Williamson, acquired the living at Great Broughton, Bridekirk Parish, Cumbria in the vale of Derwent in 1625 and was vicar there until1634. He died when Joseph was quite young and the family was relatively poor. He had one known brother, George, who was Coroner for Cumberland until 1662,and after that appointed Comptroller of Customs in that county. The Widow Williamson married 2nd, the Rev. John Ardrey and had at least one son and two daughters. In 1660 the son was at Kendal School. In January, 1667, one of the daughters, Elinor, who had married a Mr. Kilner, named her infant son Joseph after her stepbrother. Another daughter married a Mr. Hawker. Sir Joseph had three “cousins“, probably children of his brother George; Francis Williamson, Edward Williamson (who became schoolmaster in holy orders) and Joseph Williamson, and a cousin, Ann Pocock, daughter of Joseph.(all mentioned in his will). At the Restoration he entered the office of the Secretary of State as clerk. He worked his way up - first as keeper of the King's Library. His office soon put him in a position where he was able to make money, especially from suitors and petitioners. He became a commissioner for seizing prohibited goods and ran the Royal Oak lottery. His ability to acquire money seems to have been not the least of his skills. Another of Williamson's claims to fame was that he founded the London Gazette. This came about in dubious circumstances. In 1665 King Charles left London to escape the Great Plague and based himself in Oxford. There was seen to be a need for a newsletter and so the Oxford Gazette began publication. Williamson hijacked this and installed himself as editor. When the court returned to London, the title was changed to the London Gazette and it became the publication for official intelligence, ousting Roger L'Estrange's The Intelligencer for the monopoly of government news. To this day the London Gazette is the official journal of record, and has by law to publish certain legal notices. For 15 years Williamson was Secretary and then Principal Secretary to Sir Henry Bennett (Lord Arlington) who was then Secretary of State. This put Williamson right at the heart of government. His wealth grew, and the Dictionary of National Biography describes him as having a 'decidedly grasping and penurious spirit'. Pepys, the gossiping diarist, says of him, “I find him a pretty understanding and accomplished man, but a little conceited.” On another occasion Pepys says, “I find him a very logical man and a good speaker.” Williamson's aim was also to enter Parliament which, after several failed attempts, he managed in 1669, representing Thetford in Norfolk. In 1690 he was elected MP for Rochester as well. He became Secretary of State in 1671, paying the sum of £6,000 for the post. He charged his successor the same sum in 1679 when he left office. On January 23, 1672 he became a Clerk of the Council in Ordinary, and received the honor of Knighthood. His crest is an eagle issuing from a coronet, and his motto “sub umbra alarum tuarum” (Under the shade of your wing). Probably taken from the Psalms. He was out of the country from May 17, 1673 until the summer of 1674 as one of the British Plenipotentiaries for the negotiating the Treaty of Cologne. Letters to him during his absence have been printed by the Camden Society, in two volumes. Lady Catherine kept up a constant correspondence with Sir Joseph during his absence, but none of those letters survive. In December 1678, when forty five, he married Lady Catherine O’Brien, Baroness Clifton, whose husband Henry Lord O‘Brien had died the previous August. She had her husband had long been upon terms of intimate friendship with Sir Joseph, and the marriage proved to be very beneficial to her and to her children. Still her family thought the marriage beneath her. In 1679 Sir Joseph was briefly suspected of involvement in popish plotting and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for one day, but he was soon released by order of the King. In 1689 Sir Joseph made himself responsible to Duke Charles’ creditors and was permitted to take possession of the Dukes estates and in 1696 he agreed to pay 45,000 pound for Cobham and the Kentish lands, the transactions were not completed until after his death on 23 June 1702. . The management of his wife’s affairs, the arrangement of the late Duke of Richmond’s estates, and the business of his own large possessions in Kent, engrossed much of his time and attention during the last ten years of his life. As the Cobham estates extended to the town of Gravesend on the one side and to the city of Rochester on the other, the affairs and interests of both these municipalities claimed a large share of his attention. In later life Williamson took up the role of “veteran diplomatist”, attending foreign conferences and serving the House of Orange as he had served the Stuarts. He was also the second President of the Royal Society and was succeeded in that position by Sir Christopher Wren. Sir Joseph represented England at the congress of Nimwegen in 1697. As a member of William III’s privy council he spent nine months negotiating the Peace of Ryswick and the following year signed the first treaty for the partition of the Spanish monarchy. Joseph’s health was precarious, even in youth and early manhood. Throughout his life he was constantly ailing and in the doctor’s hands. In later years he suffered from gout. While at Ryswick the gout troubled him greatly. He made his will on the 16th of August 1701, and died on the 3rd of October, a few months after his 68th birthday at Cobham Hall. He was buried on the 14th October, 1701, in Westminster Abby, within the Duke of Richmond’s vault, at the southeast corner of Henry VII’s chapel. Catherine O’Brien, Countess of Clifton ,and wife of Sir Joseph and heiress to her brother Charles, 3rd Duke of Richmond died in November 1702 leaving only one living child, Catherine, by her first husband St. Henry O’Brien. In 1688, Catherine married Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury in a clandestine ceremony. She succeeded her mother in 1702 as 8th Baroness Clifton. Lady Cornbury died in New York on 11 August 1706 and is buried at Trinity Church, New York. The Williamsons from whom Sir Joseph Williamson descended came from the ancient family of Willyamson/Williamson who settled in an area of Cumbria called Crosthwaite. Writing of this district, Sandford says, “And here a very ffair house of ancient gentle family of Willyamson, the birthplace of that most ingenious mons'ir Sir Joseph Williamson and concerning Crosthwaite, he says," No great gentry hereabouts, but many substantial monasteries, and many of the Williamsons: and of some of these Tribes." E. Sandford MS. (circa 1675) On the dissolution of the monasteries there was a dispersion by grants and sales of the lands in the parish, which had belonged to Fountain's Abbey in Yorkshire. Though the Williamsons were yeomen farmers they were not notable as a family. John Williamson, Knight, was granted land in 1541 in Cumbria, Millbeck by Henry VIII to be held of the king in capite, by the service of one-twentieth part of one knight's fee, and in 1549 lands in Crosthwaite were granted by Edward VI. In 1592 a Nicholas Williamson was the owner of a farm in Millbeck (Sir Joseph is referred to by some sources as Sir Joseph Williamson of Millbeck) near Millbeck Hall. In 1625 Millbeck Hall is acquired by the family of Brownrigg. The name of Williamson is also associated with a house in the valley of St. John's, called Lowthwaite Hall or Farm. In his will Joseph made many charitable donations and endowments as well as leaving legacies to a number of people including an Ann Hornsby who may have been his mistress at one time. Her son Joseph Hornsby, would appear to be a natural born son of Joseph‘s as he refers to Ann‘s husband, Joseph Hornsby the elder, as “the father of my kinsman“, Thomas Hornsby is the son of Joseph Hornsby the younger and Mary ,as mentioned in Catherine’s will. (The Hornsby’s and several Williamson cousins, kinsmen and women are all referenced in his will). Two Thirds of his estate he let to his wife and one-third passed to Joseph Hornsby the younger , then to a Mary Hornsby, widow and then to their heirs. After a tedious suit, the estate was purchased by Lord Darnley in 1731 (heir by marriage of Lady Catherine, daughter of Catherine by her first husband Lord Henry O’Brien) for the sum of 51,000 pounds. One might speculate that Ann Hornsby was Joseph’s sister, but I find this highly unlikely, as he never referred to her as kinswoman as he did with her son and his cousins and other Williamson relations. From several different sources, I have concluded that Ann was probably head housekeeper of the Cobham estate, at least during the time that Joseph lived there, or some similar type of person with considerable influence and trust. In Catherine’s will she leaves Ann Hornsby 20 pounds and her diamond heart locket with Sir Williamson’s hair in it, and to her son George Hornsby, Catherine’s Page, one annuity or yearly sum of five pounds during his life. Ann’s son, Joseph Hornsby by Sir William, married a Mary, their son was Thomas and he would later take possession of Joseph’s Cumberland estates as referenced in Catherine O’Brien’s will. Other Supporting data: In April 1681 a theft occurred at Cobham when Lady Catherine was in Dublin. Her daughter Mary went down to Cobham in the company of the late Duke of Richmond‘s executors, and others to examine all the rooms. They found nothing missing save two “rich beds” and some small things, The incident is related by John Paige in a letter dated 23rd April 1681. …on the 16th of this month I gave Sir Joseph Williamson a large account of our journey to Cobham where by appointment we met your daughter, sir Charles Bickerstaffe and Mrs Horneby……A am heartly glad it was not worse, we did persuade Mrs Hornsby to remaine at Cobham for 14 days til we hear from you. For to say the truth the house considering its great value and goods ought to have a man and a woman of great integrity to be there, least a second disaster should prove worse. I have conveyed your Ladyships leave to Mrs. Horneby at Cobham with mine and my wife’s humble service… From the Medway Council City Archives City Ark (Medway area of Kent and also the parish records of north-west Kent and Cobham Hall). I have found references to subsequent Hornsby’s who received legacies from Sir Joseph Williamson’s will. They are as follows: Settlement on marriage of Richard Hornsby and Elizabeth Knight 1745 , Settlement on marriage of John Oxtoby and Mary Hornsby 1747, Settlement on marriage of Sills Gibbons and Jane Hornsby 1778, Letters of Administration (Sir Joseph Williamson) 1774 and 1794, Letters of Administration (Joseph Hornsby) 1774 and 1792, Letters of Administration [with will attached] (Richard Hornsby) 1792, Probate of will of John Hornsby 1739 , Probate of will of Richard Hornsby 1773 , Probate of will of Fanny Hornsby 1793. I have not seen these documents, only the highlights from the text). It would seem that none of these Hornsby descendants of Sir Williamson changed their name to Williamson and immigrated to America. From all of the above information I have made the following conclusions. Joseph Williamson had a son Joseph Hornsby the younger out of wedlock by Ann who married Joseph Hornsby the elder. Ann and Joseph Hornsby had three children of their own, George, and two daughters. Joseph Hornsby the younger married a Mary. He died before the sale of the 1/3 portion of the Cobham estate and his wife Mary was involved in those proceedings. Their son Thomas inherited the Cumberland estates of Sir Joseph, and their daughter, Catherine Hornsby, is mentioned in Catherine O‘Brien’s will. Thomas’ son was John (d. 1735). His son Richard (d.1772) md. Elizabeth Knight in 1745 and daughter Mary married John Oxtoby in 1747. Richard and Elizabeth’s daughter Jane married Sills Gibbons in 1778, and daughter Fanny Hornsby’s, who apparently did not marry, will was probated in 1793. Joseph’s will provided only for the inheritance by male heirs, so Fanny is the last connection with the Cobham estate. Of the other Williamsons mentioned in Sir Joseph’s will as “Kinsmen and women“, Thomas and Mrs. Peace may have been his siblings. The “cousins“, possibly used as a loose term, might have been the sons of brother George, who is not mentioned in the will. Of a Richard Williamson, supposed brother of Sir Joseph’s father born in 1593, I find no mention. The Brooke Connection Refuted Originally it was the Brooke family who had held the title of Lords of Cobham for 400 years until the title became forfit to the Crown in 1619. The de Cobham family occupied a house in Kent during the Middle Ages but the modern history of Cobham Hall began with William Brooke, 10th Lord Cobham, an important figure at Queen Elizabeth's court. The 10th Lord added the two red-brick wings to the old house. From the start of the thirteenth century, the history of the parish becomes closely linked with the families who owned the land, the first of these being the de Cobhams, who acquired their lands in Cobham and Shorne from the de Quartermeres during the reign of King John. For the next 400 years, they and their heirs the Brookes dominated the village and generously endowed the church. As lawyers, the de Cobhams and the Brookes were connected with the Court. As soldiers they fought for the Cross in the Holy Land, and for the King in France and Britain. No doubt many men of Cobham accompanied them, but of these there is no record After the Brookes, King James I gave Cobham to his cousins the Stuarts, of whom perhaps the best known is la Belle Stuart, the original Britannia on the old penny coin. Catherine Stewart O’Brien’s brother, Charles, 3rd Duke of Richmond, sold the Cobham estate to his brother in law, Joseph Williamson. The last Stuart heiress was Catherine Cornbury, and upon her death the title passed to her husband Edward Lord Cornbury and upon his death in 1713 it passed to his sister Theodesia who afterwards married John Bligh, esq. who became Earl of Darnley in 1725. Upon the Earls death in 1728 the Hornsby heirs brought the bill forward to be paid in full. It was purchased by Lord Darnley for the sum of 51,000 pounds, to the third part of which Mrs. Hornsby became entitled. In 1731 the Darnley’s came into possession of the entire manor and it is this family which still has such strong associations with Cobham and some of whom continue to reside in the Parish.. One of the last Brooke heirs, the nephew of the 11th Earl, was a William Brooke, but alas, he had only daughters (no William, son of William to change his name to Williamson). So here the Brooke name ends and the title was later invested by King George I in 1718 to Richard Temple, who became Viscount Cobham and 1st Baron Cobham (a descendant of Margaret Brooke, daughter of the 10th Earl Cobham). Williamsons in Virginia The history of our Williamson Family is rather convoluted, but based on all the above evidence, I don’t believe any of the Brooke descendants could have been our Williamsons of Cobham Hall Virginia. Sir Joseph William as progenitor of our clan is unsupportable as well, and the notion that a Richard Williamson was Sir Joseph’s uncle does not hold any substance, but I have found no evidence one way or the other. However, Kent is in southeast England and the area were the Williamsons, ancestors of Sir Joseph, settled, was in the northeast of England. So any Williamsons connected with Kent in 1593 would most surely not be related to Joseph. It would seem that three different Williamsons came from England at about the same time and all three named their homestead Cobham. I think our ancestors probably came to America from England near London sometime between1635 and 1640, and settled around Jamestown on the James and Rappahanock Rivers; those from Jamestown going up the River about 1680 to Henrico Co., near what is now Richmond, those from the Rappahanock moving on into the Carolinas. I am inclined to think that we are descended either from Henry Williamson who was reported to have been born at Cobham, Kent, England in about 1605, John Williamson born about 1604 and immigrated in 1640 settling near Jamestown, or Richard Williamson born about 1593 who settled in Isle of Wright County. John Williamson of Surrey, Virginia, who died 1731 and John Williamson of Henrico, Virginia, who died 1757 were not the same person, although they were probably related as they seem to have many of the same names repeated in both their families. This could reflect a social selection of the times, but could just as well support family name preferences. I would put them both as descendants of any of these Williamsons. As to the relationship, if any, of these original Williamsons, I have found no evidence. Our Williamsons were probably not people of high social station or even second sons of the British gentry, they were most likely lesser positioned individuals. Virginia was a plantation colony, created as a commercial enterprise. This would have suited people who were being crowded out of opportunities in the Old Word. Immigration to the New World would have given them and their descendants a chance for a better life. Lastly, Why and how Cobham Hall became so important to generations of American Williamsons is a mystery that may never be resolved. Christine Patton Bruhn 6/21/2009