Noel Currer-Briggs, _The Search for Mr. Thomas Kirbye, Gentleman_
(Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore, 1986), gives some information about
the Wormeleys. According to Currer-Briggs, Christopher Wormeley of
Hull and Marfleet (d. 1588) married Elizabeth Hogg, daughter of
Richard Hogg. Their children were Henry, Ralph, Christopher, Jane, and
Anne. Elizabeth's niece, Anne Hogg (b. 1617), m. Governor Richard
Kempe of Virginia, whose second wife was Elizabeth Wormeley, daughter
of Henry (above) and Margaret Consett. Ralph Wormeley (d. 1650/51) m.
Agatha Eltonhead in July 1645 in Northampton County, VA. I have found
only one wife for Capt. Christopher Wormeley, Mary Adams, though it is
possible that he had an earlier wife.

Currer-Briggs. p. 3: "Christopher Wormeley, the younger brother, was
born about 1590, and his land in Virginia was close to Thomas Kirbye's
and Lionel Rolston's. Ralph's, whch was granted somewhat later, was
north of the Rappahannock River, but part of it had at one time been
Andrew Kirby's.
"The mother of Ralph and Christopher Wormeley was Elizabeth Hogg,
whose niece, Anne Hogg, was Richard Kempe's first wife. [note: Parish
Registers of Kingston-upon-Hull] Christopher married his distant
cousin, Mary Adams; Ralph married Agatha Eltonhead, the widow of a
Virginia emigrant named William Kellaway. After the brothers' deaths
both widows remarried as was the custom in Virginia, where women were
in short supply and had no legal rights in the early 17th century."
P. 28: "During May and June 1631 the Providence Island Company
determined to send an expedition to Tortuga ... and appointed
Christopher Wormeley Deputy Governor.... This Christopher's brother,
Thomas, had married as his second wife Margaret Wray, a niced of Lord
Chief Justice Christopher Wray and a cousin of the Earl of Warwick's
[Robert Rich] second wife, Frances (Wray) St Pol.
"Christopher Wormeley sailed to Providence Island alone. Late in 1634
Association Island was captured by the Spanish... he was suspected of
negligence. On his way home, in 1653 [probably s/b 1635, as he died
1643], he called at Elizabeth City, and during his brief stay in
Virginia sold a pinnace to William Claiborne. Two years later,
Christopher Wormeley returned to Virginia, where he was granted a
large tract of land in York County."
P. 109: "In 1635 Christopher Wormeley settled on the east side of
Wormeley's Creek, near Yorktown, and at his death this property came
to his brother, Ralph."

Currer-Briggs, p. 3: "Richard Kempe, after the death of his first
wife, Anne Hogg, married Elizabeth Wormeley, the daughter of a third
brother, Henry Wormeley of Riccall; thus he was doubly related to
Ralph and Christopher Wormeley. By way of confirmation, it was
subsequently discovered that long after Christopher's widow, Mary,
married her second husband, Captain William Brocas, there was a
dispute over a consignment of tobacco, and the evidence showed that
Brocas was using Thomas Hogg, a kinsman of Elizabeth and Ann Hogg, as
his agent in England. [note: York Co, Virginia: Wills, Deeds and
Orders 1645-1649 (January 1647)]."
P. 5: "In January 1658, Robert Smith and Dame Elizabeth his wife,
'late Dame Elizabeth Lunsford, widow and executrix of Richard Kempe',
sued Edward Eltonhead in the Court of Chancery.... Several witnesses
testified that Richard Kempe died in 1649 and that Edward Eltonhead
was Captain Ralph Wormeley's London factor....
"There were several questions about the safe arrival of shipments of
tobacco.... All of them confirm that both Elizabeth Kempe and Captain
Ralph died, the former in Holborn (on the evidence of Henry Keylewaye
[Kellaway] of St Andrew, Holborn) at Christmas 1654, and the latter in
Virginia in 1652."

These families were intricately intertwined. Darrett B. and Anita H.
Rutman, _A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia, 1650-1750_ (New
York: W.W. Norton, 1984), pp. 49-50, say: "Just downriver from
Rosegill [home of Agatha Eltonhead Chicheley, widow of Ralph Wormeley]
was the property of Elizabeth Lunsford, daughter of Christopher
Wormeley, niece of Ralph, cousin to his sons, stepdaughter to William
Brocas [who was married to Elizabeth's aunt Eleanor Eltonhead], and
twice a widow, most recently of Sir Thomas Lunsford and prior to that
of Richard Kemp. The latter union related her to Edmund Kemp, whose
property lay south and east of her own, on the Piankatank. Kemp's
father, Edmund, had been Richard's brother. . . .
"We can . . . go beyond a mere recounting of relationships to suggest
a consciousness of the desirability of surrounding oneself with kin. .
. . The Lady Lunsford is [an example]. At the death of Sir Thomas she
came into control of more than three thousand acres far up the
Rappahannock and a separate parcel of but a third than number next to
her Wormeley-Chicheley relations. She chose to live on the latter."

Winifred E. Walsh, _Walsh, Erwin, and Allied Families_ (DAR Library),
p. 69: "Christopher Wormeley Jr, son of Christopher and Elizabeth
(Hogge) Wormeley, of Adwich-le-Street, Yorkshire, England, married
Mary Adams.
"Children:
1. Ann, married her cousin, Edward Wormeley.
2. Jane, married her cousin, John Wormeley.
3. Christopher, was Acting Governor of Tortugas Island; he settled in
Virginia in 1635 and in the following year he was justice of York
County, Virginia; in 1637 he was a member of the Virginia Council. He
probably died without male issue, as he left his land in Virginia to
his brother, Ralph.
4. Ralph(1), of whom further.
"(Sir William Dugdale: _Visitation of Yorkshire, 1665-66_, in
Publications of the Surtees Society, Vol. XXXVI, p. 211. _Virginia
Magazine of History and Biography_, Vol. XXXV, pp. 455-56; Vol. XXXVI,
pp. 98-99. H.E. Hayden: _Virginia Genealogies_, p. 230.)"

Hope this helps.
Kathleen Much

On 12/26/05, Charles K. Ortel wrote:

> I have been studying English records to try to get a better understanding of
> the origins of Christopher Wormeley, Robert Beverley and Robert Smith. I
> would be interested to compare notes with others who may have knowledge
> concerning these gentlemen.
>
> In the case of Wormeley, I believe, but can not yet prove that Ralph
> Wormeley (father of the Secretary) was actually Christopher Wormeley' son
> from a first marriage. I believe Christopher Wormeley sailed to many places
> before reaching Association Island and then Virginia, possibly in concert
> with his brother-in-law from his second marriage to Mary Adams (Capt. Yonge
> or Young).

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