Sally,
You've raised several interesting issues here. First, by definition, I don't believe a "royalist" could be a "Puritan" (at least not strictly so) if you are referring to the political division in English society at the time of the English Civil War. After the Restoration, however, I suppose it might be possible that a Puritan might not necessarily be at odds with the monarchy itself and therefore one might be able to be both a Puritan, in terms of one's religious views, and a "royalist" to the extent that one was not actively opposed to the monarchy as an institution. Prior to and during the Civil War/English Revolution it's unlikely that an individual would be identified as both a Puritan and royalist, at least not in any meaningful political way. I've run across descriptions of Richard Cheyney/Cheney as a Puritan before, but I'm not sure how well-documented that is. For example, Richard Wells, another one of my ancestors (I'm also descended from Richard Cheyney/Cheney) who moved from Virginia to Maryland by the mid-1650s was a member of the (Puritan) Quorum in the Maryland assembly, but I'm not sure if there is anything like that to back up the claims about Richard Cheyney/Cheney. Also, as a Cheyney/Cheney descendant I'd be very curious as to the claims you've found about him belonging to a "wealthy" and/or "noble" family. As far as I'm aware, no one has ever been able to document anything about his ancestry, but I haven't really looked into the matter in several years, and now information does come to light from time to time so I'd be happy to know where to look or what to look for...
Cheers,
Jeff Duvall
-----Original Message-----
From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sally Phillips
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 9:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-ROOTS] Puritans in Early Virginia
One of my ancestors, Richard Cheyney, supposedly came from a wealthy, noble, royalist family in England. In the early 1600s, as the Puritans began to attain power, Richard and his family began to lose some of their influence and wealth. He supposedly came to Virginia about 1635, paying his own passage. A group of English Puritans in Virginia were forced out by the early Virginia government because of their religion. These Puritans and Richard Cheyney the Immigrant then moved over to Providence near present-day Annapolis, Maryland. I assume "a wealthy, noble, royalist" would not be a Puritan. His son was a member of the Episcopal All Hallows Church near Annapolis. So I'm not clear about these early Puritans and Cheyney's connection (or lack thereof) to them.
Does anyone know about these Puritans in early Virginia? Were they a cohesive group? Did they settle in one place? How were they forced out? Did they all go to Maryland? Maryland was supposed to be Catholic; why would Puritans choose to go there?
Clearly my knowledge of religious history needs work! Thanks in advance. --Sally Phillips
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