Virginia Branch Governor Virginia Hurtes Rouse

Inside Vol. XIX, No. 2 July 2016

Page 1- Greetings from the VA Branch Governor

Page 2- March 6, 2016 Meeting

Page 3- New Members 108th General Court Page 4 – Registrar’s Update Chaplain’s Report Membership Page 5- Branch Outreach Pages 6 and 7- Our Pilgrim Ancestors Page 8 - Meeting Call: 16 Oct 2016

Greetings from the Branch Governor

The Virginia Branch NSSD Pilgrims was represented well at General Court by Jacque-Lynn Schulman (National Captain General), Chuck Poland (First Deputy), Paul Walden (Branch Historian & Honorary Branch Governor), and new member, Allison Hoopes.

Due to unexpected car trouble, I was not able to attend, but am very pleased with the presentation and issues that our Branch brought up and discussed at General Court. We did remind the National Officers and delegates that our bylaws do provide for Chapters and that dividing States instead of establishing Chapters is a dangerous precedence to follow for the future and growth of our National Society. The VA South Branch and Texas South Branch were voted on and approved. This makes three states now that this has happened to (Nevada, Texas and Virginia) and New York will be next. As for our Virginia Branch, we haven’t missed a step.

We are still growing with 93 members (3 Junior) and won the Award for most New Members -18. We also won an Honorable Mention-2015 The Sarah O’Dunaway Award and another for Dedication to the Societies Growth.

Our meeting at the Electric Palm on March 6th was delightful. There were crab legs and prime rib for everyone and well attended. We were the first society to have speaker, John Mullen, Thunderbird’s principal archaeologist on the Indigo Hotel site for the pre-Revolutionary War ship. He is an engaging speaker and worth hearing again as test results are completed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/preserved-in-a-watery-grave/2016/01/04/e2fe6188-afd4-11e5-9ab0-884d1cc4b33e_story.html

Our Next meeting will be at the Bavarian Chef in Fredericksburg, VA on Oct 16th.

We always bring canned goods for the less fortunate and last time we had 89 pounds given to“Food for Others.” That is almost doubled from before. Let’s see if we can do it once again. Thank you all. Look forward to another great meeting and visiting with everyone after a wonderful summer.

Virginia Hurtes Rouse Virginia Branch Governor NSSDP

Pilgrim’s Progress Virginia Branch, National Society, Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims

Vol. XIX, No. 2 July, 2016 http://virginianssdp.weebly.com

Paul Walden – Editor

1

Spring Branch Meeting-March 6, 2016

Electric Palm, Woodbridge, VA We had a wonderful turnout at our fall meeting with 33 in attendance at a new venue for our branch, the Electric Palm, overlooking the scenic Occoquan River. We enjoyed a sumptuous brunch buffet, including crab legs and an omelet station. Our speaker was John P. Mullen, Principal Archeologist with Wetland Studies and Solutions, who discussed the recent discovery and preservation of a colonial-era ship discovered at a hotel site on the Old Town Alexandria waterfront.

(News article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/preserved-in-a-watery-grave/2016/01/04/e2fe6188-afd4-11e5-9ab0-884d1cc4b33e_story.html)

Mr. Mullen has 25 years of experience in cultural resource management in the Mid-Atlantic Region. His projects have included pre-historic sites up to Civil War era sites. He has a M.S. from the Catholic University of America and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Guest Speaker Mullen, Branch Governor Rouse, Branch Governor Rouse presides over meeting and 2nd VP Poland

Meeting Attendees on the dock overlooking the Occoquan

2

Members Inducted & Prospectives Voted on at March Meeting

Left to Right: Prospective Member Mary "Van" Lee, New Member Allison Hoopes, Pending Member Donna Porcaro, Registrar Donna Hall, New Member Anne Terio, Branch Governor Virginia Rouse

General Court Delegates at the 108th General Court, 18 Apr 2016 at the University Club, Washington DC

Left to Right: Paul Walden, Jacque-Lynn Schulman, Chuck Poland, Allison Hoopes 3

Treasurer - Owen Jacobs, reports all is well

Chaplain’s Report – Donna Hubner No deaths

Registrar’s Update – Donna Hall

We welcome members approved for membership since Pilgrim's Progress, Vol. XIX, No. 1

1. Rodney Dean Wilson-Admitted 25 Jan 2016, National #12364, VA Branch #246 2. Natalie Schwoyer Ardoline-Admitted 30 Mar 2016, National #12396, VA Branch #247 3. Donna Lee Lorance Porcaro-Admitted 30 Mar 2016, National #12395, VA Branch #248 4. Michael Paul Pillsbury-Admitted 24 Apr 2016, National #12404, VA Branch #249

Supplementals Approved:

1. Laura Ann Miller Womack – ancestor Stephen Greenleaf, #12154S04, approved 26 Jan 2016 2. Laura Ann Miller Womack – ancestor Elizabeth Coffin, #12154S05, approved 26 Jan 2016 3. Laura Ann Miller Womack – ancestor Tristram Coffin, #12154S06, approved 30 Mar 2016

Paul Walden 6 & Laura Womack 6

Membership March 6, 2016

4

Branch Outreach

Virginia Branch Governor Virginia Hurtes Rouse and Outreach Chairman Sandra Esty deliver 89 pounds of food donated at the March, 2016 meeting to “Food for Others” in Fairfax Va., ( www.foodforothers.org/)

17 Sep 2015: Virginia Branch Governor, Virginia Hurtes Rouse rings the bell at the colonial-era Pohick Church, Lorton, VA in commemoration of beginning of Constitution Week, which is also Citizenship Day, when many become new U.S. citizens.

4 Jul 2016: Virginia Branch Historian Paul Walden leads the Pledge of Allegiance as part of the Naturalization Ceremony of 100 new United States citizens at Mount Vernon

5

Our Pilgrim Ancestors

John Alden (of the Mayflower), Ancestor of Sandra J. Esty

John Alden House, Duxbury, MA

Through my mother's ancestral line of Otis it traces back to my 10th great grandfather, John Alden, through his daughter Elizabeth Alden who married William Pabodie. He was among those on the board the ship Mayflower when it finally arrived in New England in November, 1620, he was a young man about 21 years old. He had been hired as the cooper for the group. There was no refrigeration at that time, so food that would spoil was stored in barrels in a special preservative. So John Alden was their barrel maker, their cooper as the occupation was called at the time. The Alden house in Duxbury, Massachusetts, which you can visit today, shows evidence of his skill with wood.

The voyage from Holland to America had been planned by a religious group called Separatists. They had been punished in their home country of England for their religious beliefs. Many of them went to Holland, where there was greater religious toleration. But work was difficult to find, and they were very poor. Also, they did not approve of the Dutch way of life and how it was affecting their children. Today we call this small group of people who founded Plymouth Colony the Pilgrims.

John was originally a part of that religious group, and he probably did not plan to remain in this desolate country. But he married Priscilla Mullins, a Mayflower passenger, about 1623. She was also very young, perhaps only 18 to 20 years old at the time. Her brother and her parents all died during the first terrible winter in Plymouth as half of those who had just arrived did not survive.

The young couple received a grant of land in what is now Duxbury. John would cultivate his crops during summer, but they returned to Plymouth in winter so they could attend church. John became a respected citizen of the community and served in many public capacities over the years to include Deputy Governor of Plymouth Colony. He acquired a considerable amount of land, which he distributed to his sons before his death on September 12, 1687, as the last surviving signer of the Mayflower Compact. This famous historic document was signed on board the Mayflower before they landed, an example of our country's first democratic government. John and Priscilla were both buried in the old Duxbury burying ground.

John and Priscilla Alden had 10 children: 1) Elizabeth married William Pabodie, 2) John, 3) Joseph, 4) Sarah married Alexander Standish, 5) Jonathan, 6) Ruth married John Bass, 7) Rebecca married Thomas DeLano, 8) Mary, 9) Priscilla, and 10) David married Mary Southworth.

6

Our Pilgrim Ancestors John Chew, Ancestor of Nancy Hill

Excerpts taken from “Adventurers of Purse and Person VIRGINIA, 1607-1624, Fourth Edition

Compiled and Edited by John Frederick Dorman, F.A.S.G.

John Chew came to Virginia in the Charitie, which left England in April 1622, according to the muster of 1624/5, when he and his wife Sarah and three servants were living at Hog Island on the south side of the James River. Sarah came in the Seaflower in 1621. As a merchant trading in commodities shipped from England in exchange for those obtained in the colony, he maintained a house and operated a store at Jamestown.

Shortly after his arrival in Virginia, Chew was placed in charge of the business affairs of Robert Bennett, who died, 1623, soon after his arrival as manager of the Wariscoyack plantation of his brother Edward Bennett, an English merchant. John Chew represented Wariscoyack in the General Assembly, 1624, and Hog Island in 1625, 1628 and 1629. He was commissioned commander of Hog Island, 7 March 1628/9.

Referred to by Governor Sir John Harvey and the Virginia Council in 1636 as one of the “ablest merchants in Virginia”, Chew seized an opportunity in 1636 to acquire for himself a landed estate. At that time Governor John West and the Council opened a “tract of land called the forest bordering upon the chief residence of the Pamunkey King, the most dangerous head of the Indian enemy.” John Chew’s patent for 500 acres in the area, 6 July 1636, shows that he adventured himself and nine settlers the first year. Additional patents were issued to him 7 July 1636, 9 Aug 1637, 18 Feb 1638/9, 22 Feb 1638/9 and 10 Feb 1641/2. On 16 Feb 1642/3, he sold to Robert Kinsey and Henry Lowdy, churchwardens, 200 acres to be used as a glebe for York Parish. This was the west side of the present site of Yorktown. Appointed justice of York County, 1634, he held that office until 1652. With his neighbors John Cheesman and Christopher Calthorpe, also early settlers in York, he represented that county in 1643 and 1644.

His wife, Sarah, having died, on 3 April 1651, he signed a marriage contract, deeding “the Plantation and houses whereon I now live” to George Ludlowe and Richard Lee, Esqrs., in trust for “Mrs. Rachaell Counstable whome I intend (by God’s grace) shortly to make my wife. John Chew probably died about 1652.

John and Sarah Chew had two sons, Samuel and Joseph. My family descends from Joseph Chew.

7

Virginia Branch National Society Sons and Daughters of Pilgrims

Call to the Fall 2016 Branch Meeting

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Bavarian Chef, Fredericksburg, VA http://www.thebavarianchef.com/fredericksburg.html

200 Lafayette Blvd, Fredericksburg, VA 22401

Please bring canned goods and non-perishable food items for our Outreach Program

Speaker to be announced

$25.00 per person

Order off of the special menu

Please send checks, payable to Virginia Branch NSSDP, and this form to:

Thomas Owen Jacobs, Treasurer, VA Branch NSSDP

Deadline for RSVP is October 1, 2016

Names: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8