Hertfordshire England Genealogy

Biographical Sketch of Charles W. Meek

Without dispute some of our most worthy and progressive and thrifty citizens have come to us from England whence also sprang the subject of this sketch whose life of commendable activity and successful enterprise in business relations, coupled with stanch and unswerving integrity and high moral qualities of intrinsic worth, justly entitle him to a representation in this volume of Wallowa’s abiding chronicles, and it is with pleasure that we incorporate his name here with a brief review of his eventful career. Charles W. was born to Charles and Sarah (Sparks) Meek in Hertfordshire, England, in the year 1850. There … Read more

Ancestry of Joshua Bates of Bridgewater Massachusetts

Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts

Joshua Bates, son of Samuel Ward Bates, was born Jan. 7, 1842, in Bridgewater, and was educated in the local schools, in Bridgewater Academy, and in a private school under the tutorship of the Hon. John A. Shaw, of Bridgewater. Although engaged in the commission business in Boston, he made his home in Bridgewater, where he died Aug. 17, 1886.

Biography of Cecil Rhodes

Colonist. The Rhodes family can be traced back to sturdy English yeoman stock. In the eighteenth century they had held land in North London. Cecil’s father was vicar of Bishop’s Stortford, a quiet country town in Hertfordshire on the Essex border; he was a man of mark, wealthy, liberal, and unconventional, with the rare gift of preaching ten-minute sermons which were well worth hearing. Of his eldest sons, Herbert went to Winchester, Frank to Eton; Cecil, the fifth son, born on July 5, 1853, was kept at home. He had part of his education at the local Grammar School, but … Read more

Descendants of Nathaniel Newcomb of Norton, MA

Mr. Newcomb was born April 12, 1797, of the sixth generation in descent from Francis Newcomb, who was born probably in Hertfordshire, England, about 1605, and came to America in the ship “Planter” in 1635, accompanied by his wife Rachel, then aged twenty, his daughter Rachel (aged two and a half years) and son John (aged nine months). After residing in Boston three years Francis Newcomb moved his little family to Braintree (now Quincy, Norfolk Co., Mass.), where he died May 27, 1692, his gravestone says “aged one hundred years.” Tradition says he came from Oxfordshire, England, and was of pure Saxon blood. He owned several tracts of land in Braintree. He had ten children.