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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b> Origins of Jennings�
Peregrinations:</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b> The Infamous
Jennings Brothers of Early Colonial America</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center">
Nicholas E. Hollis</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">One of the more intriguing and endearing
features of tracing the lives of long departed family ancestors are the real
time visits to areas they once inhabited, traveling along routes of their
migrations and revisiting their histories at museums, historical societies and
libraries. This past summer, as a descendant of one of America�s oldest colonial
families, I had such an opportunity while visiting the Hamptons on Long Island .
I was not there to hob knob with the elite and famous- or to linger on the
beaches but rather to gather information on one my family�s early settlers- John
Jennings of Southampton (1617-1686)�whose life forms a study in contrasts
perplexing many genealogists and family historians over more than three
centuries.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">Records from the Connecticut Colony at
Hartford reveal John Jennings arrived in the New World in 1635 with his father
(also named John) and a brother, Joshua . His older brother, Nicholas, had
immigrated from England a year earlier on the �<i>Francis�</i> which had sailed
from Ipswich and landed at Agawan on the Connecticut River. Nicholas later
gained property at Hartford for his service in the Pequot Wars (1636-39). .
Shortly after their father died around 1641, the brothers� lives began
unraveling. From a similarity of their behavior patterns, all three appear to
have been non-conformist, headstrong rebels and the puritanical nature of the
colony authority inspired run-ins with elders. This resulted in a series of
minor charges � from beating a cow, slander, and dereliction of guard duties �
finally leading to a serious charge of �fornication� leveled at the older
brother Nicholas and an indentured woman (Margaret), who later became his wife.
The couple relocated to Old Saybrook. In 1650, a Hartford court fined John
Jennings heavily for resisting duties (presumably as some kind of indentured
servant) and profanity- which resulted in his relocation to Old Saybrook-
possibly to be near his more propertied brother Nicholas and his family.<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">1/</span>
The same year the Hartford court fined two friends of Joshua Jennings for
assisting his escape from the �power of authority�. Joshua soon reappeared in
Fairfield, Connecticut, settled down and began an illustrious legacy, with Mary
Williams, who he had married several years before.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">
Across the sparkling waters of the Sound on the horizon stretched the fertile
coast of Long Island- visible on a clear day. Its promise of new beginnings
afforded John Jennings all the rationale he needed for a relocation to
Southampton � and his name appears on a list of inhabitants in 1657 settled in
the hamlet of North Sea on the shore of Peconic Bay. North Sea had provided a
safe haven for debarkation of the original Hampton settlers some years earlier
and at the �Old Town� several miles to the south.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left"> </div>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">1/Evidence
exists that Nicholas Jennings owned property in Old Lyme and Saybrook, but his
tenuous hold on respectability was shattered in 1661 when he and his wife were
accused/tried for witchcraft. Although acquitted. Nicholas/Margaret�s family was
broken up. They were forced to sell property and their children were apprenticed</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">North Sea was the first significant extension
of �Old Town� by 1650- two years after the permanent location at Southampton
village was established on its present site. East Hampton had been settled in
1649, but was not an offshoot of Southampton. The actual founder of North Sea,
occasionally referred to as �Faversham�, was John Ogden, who appears in the 1657
list of inhabitants.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">North Sea initially flourished as a whaling
port and its oil was shipped to New England, and possibly even to England
itself- before other ports at Sagg and Hecox emerged as more convenient. All
ports carried on lively trade with Boston and other New England ports as well as
the West Indies- more than one hundred years before the emergence of New Bedford
as the dominant whaling center. There was little commerce with New York (New
Amsterdam) while it remained under Dutch influence, and even after England took
control. Lord Cornbury, complaining to the House of Lords in 1703 stated that
�Indeed the people of the East End of Long Island are not very willing to be
persuaded that they belong to this province. They are full of New England
principles. They choose rather to trade with the people of Boston, Connecticut
and Rhode Island than with the people of New York�</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">
Town records reveal in 1662 John Jennings purchased the homestead of John
Oldfields. Two years later he made a brief contract with the Town of
Easthampton as indicated by its town record (Vol. I, p. 176) where he was
�granted liberty to dig a cellar to dwell in some convenient place near the
school house which was to be built with the proviso that when he was finished
with its use, the site would revert to the town � he having no interest
therein except to procure an acceptable habitat�
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">2/</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">
John Jennings reappears in 1666 linked with the North Sea settlement whaling
list and later in 1672 Jennings was appointed as a customs collector with John
Laughton due to �abuses in the landing of tobacco� � presumably duty-free-
which became identified as a problem by Governor Richard Nicoll in 1668.
Jennings also purchased (December 13) from the same John Laughton (for L50)
the right of commonage at North Sea, reserving the right to pasture a calf or
yearling on the little neck of land.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">
Almost four years earlier Jennings had accelerated his public social standing
by petitioning his neighbors successfully to allow him the right to fence a
meadow on the north side of the Nyack River as part of his property. If
afterward when others divided their holdings and he had preempted too much �he
agreed to relocate the fence. On April 20, 1670, John Jennings and others sold
the property to John David for L50 of commonage in Southampton �not within the
lyne of a hamlet commonly called and known as North Sea� Later, that same year
Jennings served as an appraiser in the inventory of the estate of Thomas
Sayre.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">By
the 1680s our Jennings subject was still buying and selling, largely divesting
his real</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left">
Estate- and his will is probated in 1686 with five children named, including
another John</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in" align="left"> </div>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">2/ <u>History
of the Town of Southampton</u>, James Truslow Adams, p.82</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">Lt. William, Joanna, Sarah and Samuel.
Jennings had shed his earlier image and</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> became a pillar of the community. All his
children remained at Southampton, and prospered with large families of their
own. By the outbreak of the American Revolution no fewer than nine households in
Southampton were headed by Jennings.<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">3/</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">The two remaining subjects of this inquiry-
both direct descendants of the first John Jennings of Southampton- demonstrate
his youthful rebellious tendencies- as a family trait- did not lie dormant for
long.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><b><i>Refusing the �Loyalty Oath�</i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><b><i> </i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">The example of Israel Jennings, a thirty year
old farmer living near Southampton as the clouds of the Revolution gathered, is
provided. British raiding parties had begun arriving to collect dairy and
foodstuffs for General Howe�s British army besieged in Boston in late 1775.
Farmers like Jennings were threatened with demands that included they swear
allegiances to the Crown or suffer complete confiscation of all property.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">Pressure mounted in 1776 as Howe deployed for
his invasion of New York and used the Hamptons as a staging area with the
British Navy while the main body mobilized in Nova Scotia. The Jennings family,
known for its revolutionary zeal, had substantial property. Israel Jennings,
great grandson of the original John, refused the oath and was forced to flee
across to Connecticut where the family had an even stronger enclave at Fairfield
along the �Revolutionary Road�. In July 1779, in reprisal for its reputation as
a hotbed of patriotism, the British attacked and burned Fairfield, forcing
Israel Jennings to gather his family (Charity Freeman and infant son, Israel)
and begin a tortuous migration west. Eventually, he traveled down the Ohio to
Maysville, Kentucky and later purchased property, settling in Brown county, Ohio
east of Cincinnati in the small town of Georgetown. Israel turned his agrarian
skills into a prosperous farm north of town and lived until 1830. It is likely
he and his family did business with Jesse Grant, a local tanner, whose son,
Ulysses often assisted with tending (and riding) the horses. Young Ulysses would
later graduate from West Point, become the hero of the Union in the Civil War
and 18<sup>th</sup> president of the United States. Israel�s son (also Israel)
had also grown up, married (Mary Waters) and moved west near Salem, Illinois
outside St. Louis. He too became a prosperous farmer, got elected to the State
legislature and fathered a number of children, one of whom, Charles Waters
Jennings, became the father of William Jennings Bryan�s mother (Mariah Elizabeth
Jennings, 1834-1896). Israel lived to be ninety-six and is buried next to his
son Charles (1802-1872) in a quiet cemetery east of Salem along old U.S. route
50. Their graves are only a stone�s throw from Mariah�s � the woman who birthed
America�s greatest populist, William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)- three time
Democratic presidential nominee known for his silver tongued oratory and
lifelong battle against the moneyed classes of Wall Street. One of Bryan�s
cousins, William Sherman Jennings, (1863-1920)- also born at Salem- grew up to
become a famous populist governor of Florida at the turn of the century.
Jennings fought Henry Flagler and the railroad lobby and played an important
role in the development of South Florida, while protecting the Everglades.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">
________________________</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">3<u>/ History
of Southampton, LI</u> <u>New York w/Genealogies</u>, George Rogers Howell, p.
330</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><b><i>On the Revolutionary Road � Marching
West</i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><b><i> </i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">Another great grandson of John Jennings,
Jacob, (1744-1813) begin life in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, became a physician
in Hunterdon county. His father, and at least three other Jennings� brothers (or
cousins) had survived a shipwreck off Perth Amboy in 1726 by swimming to shore
to begin their westward move from Long Island.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">Dr. Jacob Jennings became a leading
revolutionary, marched with General George Washington and was wounded at
Trenton. He later became a minister in southwestern Pennsylvania near Uniontown.
His offspring included several illustrious politicians, including Jonathan
Jennings, Indiana�s first governor (1784-1834), Obadiah (1778-1832) a lawyer
turned ordained minister, who later became Andrew Jackson�s preacher in
Nashville, Tennessee and David Jennings (1787-1834), who became a U.S.
Congressman from Belmont, Ohio. Another brother from this famous brood, Samuel
Kennedy Jennings, became a surgeon and founder of the Washington Medical College
in Baltimore, Maryland.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">Chasing these ancestral wanderings in modern
times � with high gas prices, and reduced library hours � can be frustrating,
yet still inspirational . I would not trade my research travels along America�s
byways, great rivers, parks and wonderful old towns forgotten in the freeway
rush � for anything. With internet resources and the assistance of local
historians and librarians, teasing the genealogical threads is much easier. On
the downside, with old stones crumbling and private grave plots overgrown in
brambles, even the symbolic (physical) markers of their pioneering lives,
well-lived, are now often indecipherable and fading.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left">A few years ago I was invited to speak at a
Memorial Day program dedicating a new monument to a forgotten farmer-soldier
from the War of 1812 in central Kentucky (Lt. Colonel William Jennings,
1771-1831). En route I took a detour near Huntington, West Virginia, climbed
into some bluffs and discovered a small family plot where William Jennings Bryan
himself once placed carved stones honoring his paternal grandparents. Bryan knew
the character value of appreciation to his ancestors and he had retraced their
steps to a remote hilltop off U.S. Route 60. This discovery inspired me to
revisit central Illinois under a boiling August sun to locate the grave of
Israel Jennings- born in Southampton, Long Island and buried in Salem,
Illinois�and thus confirm the link between my rebellious Jennings ancestors and
the Great Commoner � Bryan. The thermostat reached over the century mark, but
through the perspiration there was a feeling of triumph and exaltation. I was
reminded of the old proverb: To discover one�s ancestor is a marvelous thing.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt">�
Our ancestors, whether we know who they were or not, roll away </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">
At gathering speed into the past, at times taking us with
them</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">
From our summit, turning back to look, we can see them fading</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">
Into the distance, the perspective diminishing head by head,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">
Individuals merging into the crowd and beyond that into the
misty</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt">Ramifications
of history- East of us, is a synthesis of his race�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt">
(Sir
Robert Stillwell)</span></p>
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