Thank you very much for your kind and detailed
response.

I am rushing around dealing with my ski-mad children
at the moment so I cannot respond with details just
yet. But, the English records I have reviewed do not
show any evidence of a "Ralph" Wormeley in the
generation you mention. These records include digests
of Y.C.C. wills as well as Visitations and Pedigrees.
A major issue I have is that the Christopher who
married Mary Adams certainly had other heirs so I
cannot understand why he would have left significant
bequests of Virginia assets to a brother, as opposed
to his own children.

A further point requiring clarification is that the
Ralph Wormeley who married Agatha Eltonhead married
her after she had been a widow of Luke Stubbins (this
is very clear from Northampton Co, VA records and I
can provide citations in a few days). I have not been
able to find proof of her possible first marriage to
William Kellaway, though this is certainly possible.
If true, this first marriage is interesting because it
links her to Massachusetts as well as Virginia
settlers.

I will provide further detailed comments in 2-3 days
and also would be happy to discuss this by telephone.

Happy New Year.

C.

--- Kathleen Much <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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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>


Charles K. Ortel
42 Route 343
Millbrook, N.Y. 12545

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