The Hollyman English Ancestry Quest 2019, Part 14

by Glenn N. Holliman

11th Stop

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England

May 19, 2019 

The Hartwell House, What Could Have Been

The last ancestral stop on our weekend journey to our family's past was to drive a few miles further north from Dinton to a National Trust Hotel, that English organization that for several generations has been saving and preserving valuable historical properties.  One of their properties was a home of the Lee family thanks be to Thomas Lee, d 1626, a first cousin of my generation's 8th great grandfather, Thomas Hollyman of Sherington and Bedfordshire (abt 1581-abt 1650).

 
We arrived in time for afternoon tea with our own private room.  Pricey but this was the last stop as an extended family, so a celebration was had - an English High Tea!  This did hold us for the ride back to Moreton-in-Marsh.

This Thomas Lee was the brother of my generation's 9th great grandmother Margaret Lee Holliman, wife of Christopher Hollyman, d 1589 in Sherington.  Margaret's brother married well, one Eleanor Hampden, a sister of wealthy Sir Alexander Hampden. 

When Alexander died, his home, the Hartwell estate, passed through Eleanor into the Lee family.

And there it stayed for generations while future Lees served in the British government.

Below the 'modest' back lawn of the Hartwell House.

The marriage of Eleanor Hampden Lee to Thomas must have been a happy one.  Eleanor, one of our great aunts by marriage, bore 24, that's right, no typo, 24 children.  No doubt the family eventually welcomed a house the size of Hartwell!

The House is not anything if not ornate!  Below Mary Holliman Fenske poses on the stairs.  A U.S. president and French kings have climbed these steps during the life time of the home.  It was delight to explore this stately manor 'hotel'.

Below, Marcia Holliman presents 'the Hollyman Ancestry Quest' coach to Glenn N. Holliman, a much appreciated remembrance gift of our weekend ancestral journey.

One has to ask what the fate of Lee/Holliman descendants visiting Hartwell House in May 2019 might have been if Christopher Hollyman had married a Hampden rather than a Lee?  

Oh, what could have been, but then we might not be on this earth, certainly in our present DNA format.

And so after this historic site, we mounted our coach and headed back to our Cotswold Hotel

Going Forward

by Glenn N. Holliman

Thoughts to Share and Feedback Welcome

Our first national gathering of the Christopher Hollyman Families Society was held March 31 - April 2, 2016 in Smithfield, Virginia.  Judging from the comments and photographs posted on Face Book, it proved to be the grand experience the organizers hoped it would be.  Allen Holleman and I met with Sarah Barlow Wright, Joe Barlow and Billy Joe Holleman in October 2015 to carve the outlines of a three day event.  Allen kindly took on the job of coordinating meeting and residence space and registration.

Left, part of the group at our gathering space for our meetings, Billy Joe Holleman in the blue shirt and Brenda Holloman, right, in white.

The Smithfield Inn, where we had dinner on March 31st, had the only private room in town with a restaurant attached (or the other way around).  We originally thought the service and space would be fine for say 25 or so who might attend, even believing the rooms available at the Smithfield Inn would be sufficient for out-of-towners.

Wow, did you surprise us!  Almost sixty persons registered (some could not make it at the last minute) pleasantly forcing Allen to reach out to the Hampton Inn for lodging, meeting space and to bring in a food truck for meals.  And he did all this from Raleigh, North Carolina, a lot of work for which we are all grateful.  
  

Right, Mike Holliman, Jimmy Holliman, Norman Holliman and Becky Holliman Payne, all with Alabama roots.

And Billy Joe and wife went over the top, not only escorting us around the Holleman House, providing a hay ride to the possible resting place of Christopher Hollyman and other descendants, but then feeding us Smithfield Ham, cookies and hot and cold drinks at the Mill Swamp Baptist Church.  That church is the first Baptist Church planted in Virginia and was founded in part by the Hollemans.  The land for the cemetery adjacent to the church was donated by Hollemans from Christopher's original 1,020 acres.

Joe Parker, center in the light blue shirt, helped 'supervise' the generous ham sandwich snack at Mill Swamp.   

Besides the emotional experience of standing on historic Hollyman ground and the delightful opportunity to meet so many new cousins, the conference provided education on mutual family history and discussion on formalizing a Hollyman society.  Some of these outcomes I reported in the recent April  5, 2016 post.  

One thought in particular was the desire to meet again, to hold another Gathering, perhaps in two years, and perhaps even in England, the ancestral European home of Christopher's descendants. 

So the purpose of this blog is really a questionnaire asking for your feed back.  May I ask you to send your comments to glennhistory@gmail.com please.  Whether you attended earlier this month or not, we would welcome your opinion as we go forward in planning.

1. If and when another Gathering is held, where should it be?

2. Should we meet at a conference hotel with an in-house restaurant, meeting rooms and an indoor pool for children who might attend with parents and/or grandparents?  

3. Or should we hold the Gathering at a less expensive conference center in the woods, perhaps a bit more rustic setting and facilities but at a lower cost?  And such might not be near an Interstate Highway or airport.

4. Should it be held at or near a historic Holliman landmark, such as Samuel Holliman's 1741 restored home in Edgecombe County, North Carolina?  Or should we stay in the Jamestown/Richmond, Virginia area, our common American ancestral home?

5. Would one have an interest in holding a Gathering in Buckinghamshire, England and visit historic sites in High Wycombe, Cuddington, Dinton, Sherington and Bedford, Bedfordshire?  Obviously this would require a lot of planning and appropriate expense.

Below in 2014, Carolyn Stonham, owner of the 1699 Holyman House in Cuddington, Buckingshire, England with cousins Lindsay Holliman of England and Glenn Holliman of Pennsylvania, USA.  This thatch cottage would be an important stop on a Hollyman ancestral tour of England.

In my next post, I will get into agenda building.  As one plans a conference, one wants to offer subject matter that is meaningful to as many as possible.  That is why we met in Isle of Wight County, Virginia and began our program with the latest research on our English roots. Everyone there had that interest in common.  

So more thoughts and opinion seeking in the next blog.  Enough for now.  Please take a moment to respond to the above questions.  

Again, just write me at glennhistory@gmail.com or leave a comment below. I will 'combine' thoughts and share the findings.

From the Galaxy of Holliman Cousins and Great Uncles and Aunts

by Glenn N. Holliman

This continues the series on Dr. Rhodes B. Holliman and his ancestors and associated families....

Below in 2002, my son, Christopher S. Holliman rendezvoused in Virginia with Dr. Rhodes Holliman, who passed along to Chris a book shelf constructed by Ulyss S. Holliman  (1884-1965) in the 1920s.  Ulyss was Chris's great grandfather and Rhodes's great, great uncle.  Chris is a librarian and Rhodes, a Ph.D. in biology, who chronicles the history of the Holliman family with emphasis on Alabama since 1836.

 

 Rhodes's great grandfather was James Monroe Holliman.  James was the first of the Holliman sons of John Thomas and Martha Jane Walker Holliman to leave farming as a profession and enter a service industry - an attorney-at-law.  Until 1920, half of all Americans, according to the Census of that year, lived in a rural environment.  But the industrialization of the country, the decline in farm prices and more than anything, the rise of modern transportation, revolutionised how people earned their livings,

 

 In the lives of sons of John Thomas Holliman, four of the six left farming for other pursuits at the turn of the 20th Century.  Their father, caught up in the seemingly never ending farm crisis's of the 1890s and 1920s  died in near poverty in 1930 at a time of no Social Security and no modern safety net for seniors.

 

James Monroe Holliman (1878- 1938) was determined to earn his living by his mind and mental talents. He also married well - Elizabeth Ann Baker, a descendant of another Fayette County, Alabama pioneer family.

 

Below, James Monroe and Elizabeth Baker Holliman in October 1899 leave Newtonville, Alabama for their honey moon.  Note the clothing styles and the buggy that carried them away to married life.

 

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The 19th Century pictures above are from the collection of Dr. Rhodes Holliman, who received them from his father, Cecil and grandfather, James Monroe Holliman.  In 1899, the horse and buggy world was about to give way to gasoline and automobiles.  Cruelly, James would die of infection when his finger were caught in a slamming car door in 1938.  He was only age 60, but he left behind a legacy of descendants to carry on the family names and service to the communities in which they lived.

Next post...more on Fayette, Alabama and one of its citizens....

Our Family's Colonial Era, Part XIV

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Observations of Historian John Bennett Boddie

In 1938, Virginian historian John Bennett Boddie published Seventeenth Century, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. My 1994 reprint by the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore, Maryland is brimming with abstracts of county records and Boddie's own history of this part of Virginia in the 1600s. Yes, there are many Holymans, including Christopher Holyman, Sr. and Jr., recorded in this volume, and much to study and upon which to reflect. In the next few postings, I shall pull out and examine some findings that reflect on our family and our country.

Isle of Wight Country had its first English settlers in 1619, one Captain Christopher Lawne responsible for a few pioneers. He represented his fledgling county in the historic first House of Burgess's meeting in 1619. Lawne's settlement floundered, but one Robert Bennett transported 120 settlers to Isle of Wight by 1621.

As I have recorded in earlier posts, the Powhatan Indian Confederacy launched an uprising on Good Friday, March 1622. After the day of murder, only 50 or so English remained in Isle of Wight Country, and 950 so English in the entire colony. English Virginia barely survived, but in recovering the settlers launched all out war on the Native Americans. From 1622 to 1632, annual forays into Indian territory resulted in destruction of many villages and food supplies.

Colonial Virginia was safer for current and future English settlers, and the amount of available land taken by a decade of conquest considerably enlarged frontier borders. The Warascoyak's tribe of Isle of Wight Country was destroyed in the extensive conflict.

In recording the above, Broddie on pages 84 to 86 notes three important precedents established by the Virginia House of Burgess in that ten year war. I thought them so important to understanding the future of our country, that I record them here.

1624 - Virginia General Assembly required 'that those shall be hurt on service shall be cured at public charge and the lame to be maintained by the county according to his person and quality'.

The care of veterans wounded in combat is enshrined into legislation very early in our history!

1629 - The Assembly gave Plantation commanders the authority and power 'to levy men to fall upon the Indians'. This is the first conscription or 'draft' law in colonial America, a precedent that all future draftees (such as myself in 1968) can appreciate!

1632 - Assembly required that no man shall attend church without carrying firearms or work ground with out arms and a sentinel. In a foreshadowing of the 2nd Amendment to the 1789 U.S. Constitution, later Assembly laws required that white males own a musket, shot and powder. This requirement provided an instant militia and saved money by not requiring a central armory for each county.

More on Colonial Virginia and our family in the next posting....

Our Family's Colonial Era, Part XI

by Glenn N. Holliman

Some 17th Century Holymans - Who Were They?

Most of us reading this blog are descendants from Christopher Holyman (Holliman, etc.) who was born in England, immigrated in 1650 to Jamestown with a person named Judith, presumed to be his sister, both from either Bedford or Tring, England. Judith disappears from the story, but we know Christopher, Sr. died in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in 1691, having prospered as a planter.

In other blogs, I have shared research by others on Thomas Holeman who in 1635 purchased land at Martin's Hundred, south of Jamestown. There was also one Robert Hollman, who in March 1635 owned land in Henrico County, along the James River. Then there is John Holyman who died in Southampton, Virginia in 1650, a possible brother of our Christopher Holyman and the above Thomas Holeman.

There are still more Hollimans!

Beside the descendants of Christopher Holliman, Sr., other Hollimans also were arriving in the New World. Here is a list I have put together so far, and of course, welcome information, additions and clarification.

1653 - Another Judith Holyman and a second Christopher Holyman arrived three years after our Christopher Holyman Sr. and the original Judith Holyman stepped ashore at Jamestown. Most genealogists believe they were relatives, perhaps a son, a daughter or a mother?

1656 - On April 25, 1656 one William Holliman arrived, transported courtesy of Thomas Rolfe. Who was Thomas Rolfe? None other than the son of John Rolfe and his famous wife, Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the tribes when Jamestown was founded. Well....my goodness....By 1658, William Holliman was a land owner. All this from Nell Nugent, Volume 1, pages 328 and 377, Cavaliers and Pioneers.

Above in this 1994 photograph, my son, Christopher S. Holliman and my nephew, Bryan Payne, pose at Jamestown in front of the statue of Pocahontas. Both are direct descendants from their multi-great grandfather, Christopher Holyman, Sr., who landed at this site in 1650.

1658 - February 26, one John Hollman transported by John Dorrant. A Holliman simply slightly misspelled?

1659 - How about some indentured servants, poor people who bought their passage to Virginia in exchange for years of work? Labor to work tobacco fields was very scarce in the colony. There was Jane Hollyman, unknown family, who on September 10th was ordered to serve her master an extra year at the end of her indenture for running away. This freedom loving female Hollyman had escaped for six months from one William Cox. The county was York, Virginia. Interesting, our Christopher Holliman, Sr. was transported in 1650 by one John Cox. Relationship?

1675 and 1681 - The names of Thomas Hollyman pop up twice, both times in Lancaster County, Virginia as indentured servants. Are they the same person or two named Thomas Hollyman? The second in 1681 is listed as a servant of Lt. Colonel John Carter, ah ha, of the famous Carter family. Later the Carters will cease using indentured servants and instead utilize African slaves. This John Carter will die early eventually leaving the entire family estate to Robert "King" Carter who will become the wealthiest man in Colonial Virginia, acquiring over 300,000 acres and 1,000 slaves. This John Carter got his start in Isle of Wight County in the 1640s, the same country were our direct great grandparents would put down roots.

For citations on Jane and the two Thomas Hollymans, go to the Immigrant Servants Database on the web. Citations in original records are given. A very neat web site where one can cross check numerous family trails.

From whence did these Hollymans come? Bedford or Tring, England? Some other part of the England? Are these distant cousins? Perhaps, probably, perhaps. Joe Parker has identified even more Hollimans who lived in Virginia in the second half of the 17th Century. So there are more stories to tell.

More on Colonial Virginia and the Family of Christopher Holyman, Sr. in the next post....

Yes, Christopher Holliman Still Lives In Virginia!

by Christopher S. Holliman

At right is Christopher Holliman (b 1978), a 9th great grandson of Christopher Holliman, Sr. (d 1691) dressed in his Colonial reenactment costume at St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia. Chris gives tours to visitors at this historic site on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer months.

St. John's Church is a National Historic Landmark in recognition of it being the site where Patrick Henry gave his famous "Liberty or Death" speech. With such men as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in the audience, St. John's Church was, for a few days in March 1775, the center of the American Revolution. Visitors come to reconnect with this historical moment, and I'm lucky to be one of the people that they may meet while they are here.

A typical day here includes giving tours to school groups, walking tourists around the cemetery and church, and generally interpreting history for them. My favorite part of the job is meeting people that come from all over the world and care deeply about history.

On Sunday afternoons in the summer we provide a reenactment of Patrick Henry's speech at the church. Costumed actors perform the various roles of the famous patriots. We pack the church for each performance, and the energy in the room is absolutely electric. It's like watching history come to life.

So, if you are traveling in Virginia this vacation season, stop by Richmond and meet both Patrick Henry and me, Christopher Holliman, a relative of those who read this Weblog. For information on and directions to this Colonial history site, visit http://www.historicstjohnschurch.org/. Hope to see you soon! "

When not providing historical interpretations, Chris is a librarian with the Henrico County Library system. His three-year-old daughter, Camille, is a 10th, possibly 11th generation American (if we count John Holyman, d 1650 as the first generation). Yes, Chris is the brother of Grace Holliman, and son of Glenn Holliman, who prepare this blog.

Our Family's Colonial Era, 1607 - 1775, Part I

The following five colonial history posts are put together from a number of sources including published historical works, internet sites, and from the research of our contributors Dr. Rhodes Holliman, Maxine Wright, Glenda Norris, Ron Holliman, the late Walt Holliman and other family members who came before them. Those who have additional information or ideas for genealogy posts, please let us hear from you. Only by researching, critiquing, and listening to one other can our understanding of the past increase.

"From where did we come" is one of the oldest questions we humans ask. For Hollimans, our American experience began in Jamestown, Virginia where English America was founded by some adventurous colonialists from London in 1607. In this post we begin an on-going series about the first decades of our family in American.

By: Glenn N. Holliman

The map right identifies Smithfield, Virginia, where Christopher Holliman, Sr. settled by 1661. Jamestown is not marked but is just south of Williamsburg, where one can catch a ferry to Isle of Wight County on the south side of the James River.


By any measure, the life of Christopher Holliman, Sr. (ca. 1630 - 1691) was one of adventure and economic success. We know he sailed over on a ship that was sponsored by John Coxe of London. Christopher stepped onto American soil in Jamestown, Virginia on May 22, 165o. He was only 19 or 20 years of age when he began his adventure in the "new world."

Christopher Sr.'s first wife was named Anne, last name unknown, and of that union, six children grew to maturity. Those of us reading this are descended from their eldest, Christopher, Jr. (You can review the "lineage" page at the top of this blog to refresh your memory.)

There is no other record of Christopher Sr. until 1661, when a deed states that he purchased land near what is now Smithfield, Virginia, across from Jamestown on the south side of the James River. He farmed several hundred acres along Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Pagan, which itself runs into the James River. From this body of water, Christopher, Sr. easily loaded hogsheads of tobacco onto ships which would transport his cash crop to England. He purchased more land along Cypress Swamp in 1668.

He did well economically because in 1684, now in his 50s, he patented a large amount of land from the Royal Governor between the Mill Swamp and the Blackwater River. The Blackwater River is the western boarder of Isle of Wight County. The plantation, as he styled it in his will, was large - 1,020 acres, a large farm for the time and place. When he died in 1691, his will divided the land among his children and his second wife, Mary Gray Holliman.

Where is the exact location of the original site? The deeds, dependent upon landmarks now gone, except for the Swamp and Blackwater River, are unclear. A family friend and professional geographer who also traces his family back to Isle of Wight County, Paul Fly, suggested I look along the border of Surry and Southampton Counties.

In March 2010 my wife, Barb, our oldest granddaughter, Holly, age 4 1/2, and I took a day trip from Richmond, Virginia down Highway 460 past Wakefield, Virginia to the hamlet of Ivor. There we turned east on Proctor Bridge Road, crossed the Blackwater River and made some interesting 'discoveries' that I will share with you next week!


The Blackwater River (pictured right) flows southward into North Carolina. It is deep and wide enough for boats to carry tobacco casts to ships bound for England. Tobacco was the cash crop of Virginia and was the mainstay of its colonial economy. In his 1691 will, Christopher Holliman Sr. records that he had tobacco barns, confirming tobacco too was his financial foundation.