Early Stewards of England and Virginia
STEWARDS OF ENGLAND AND EARLY-DAY VIRGINIA
The earliest records of the name in England (sometimes of baptismal origin) are those of Martin Steuhard, who was living in Norfolk County in 1273; Adam le Stiuuard of Gloucestershire in 1273; Hugh le Stiward of Norfolk in the same year; Nicholas Staward of Somersetshire in 1327; and Willelmus or William Stuard of Yorkshire in 1379.
The greater part of the family of the name in Norfolk is believed, however, to be descended from the ancient Scottish line. Sir John(6) Steward, son of John(5), the "Scot-Angle" married (1) a daughter of Sir Thomas Kiriel and (2) a daughter of Sir John Hamerton. His children were Richard(7), who married the daughter and heir of John Burley; Thomas(7); and Galfrid(7). Richard(7)'s sons were Nicol(8), a lawyer of the Middle Temple who married Cecilia, daughter of John Baskerville; and Thomas(8). Nicol(8) or Nicholas' children were William(9); Richard(9); Robert(9), the prior, Simon(9), Nicol(9), and others. Of this family, Nicholas(10), son of Richard Stywart(9), was a resident about the beginning of the sixteenth century at Well, County Norfolk. His sons were Richard, Robert, Nicholas, and Symon. Of these, Richard married Elizabeth Cossyn, (Comyn)? by whom he was the father of Jeffrey, Richard, Thomas, and William; Nicholas left issue by his wife, Elizabeth Lucas, of Sir William Steward, of the Isle of Ely, who was the father of Sir Thomas Steward, High Sheriff of Cambridge and Huntingdon; and Symon was the father of Robert, Edward, Marcus, John, Thomas, Augustine, and Nicholas Styward or Steward, whose descendant were numerous in Norfolk, Suffolk, and the County of Cambridge.
The Stuarts of Hampshire, England, trace their descent from Sir Alexander Stuart, a younger son of the ancient Scottish family. Of this line, Nicholas Stuart of Hartley, in Hampshire, was advanced to the dignity of Baronet in 1660. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Miles Sandys, of Gloucestershire, and was the father by her of Nicholas, Miles, Charles, and numerous daughters. (THE NAME AND FAMILY OF STEWARD, STUART, AND STEWART, Manuscript No. 2520, Roots Research Bureau, Ltd., 1884)
AUGUSTINE STEWARD, a member of the Virginia Company, was in the Virginia Colony in 1611 and 1612. (IGI - North America, LDS Records) Augustine(1) Steward, nephew of Robert(10), prior of Ely cathedral in Cambridge shire, England, married Anne, aunt of Sir Samuel Argall as recounted in THE GENESIS OF THE UNITED STATES. "Sir Samuel Argall (c. 1580-1626), English administrator of Virginia, 1617-19: defeated Indians, 1612; French in Nova Scotia, 1613; and assisted in attack on Cadiz, 1625-26." (WORLD'S POPULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA)
Sir Samuel Argall was granted some of the "land of New England by lotts, Cape Cod, and into the maine {high sea}" in a distribution made probably about May 1622. He was an early voyager to America, 1609, 1613, etc.
Augustine (10) Steward owned the site of Barking abbey, Essex shire, down the Thames river a short distance from London, a shrine "long since in ruins," which had been granted to him in 1605 by King James I. He was of the company to whom the Third Charter of Virginia was granted on March 12, 1612, by King James I. This document stated, were "all citizens of London, who, since our last letters patent, are becoming adventures," etc. An ‘adventurer' was one who embarked on a ‘bold undertaking.' Augustine put up 37 Pounds and 10 shillings as his share of the capital stock. He assigned three shares to Sir Henry Jones on Dec. 15, 1619. He was still a member in April 1623. He died in 1628. Augustine Steward was the father of William Steward born in 1630. (Edson, STEWART CLAN MAGAZINE, Tome J, December 1968, p. 23)
In the parish records of England are found other births which might provide clues to the origins of English Stewards into America. In Cambridge shire in 1600 another William Steward was born to yet another Augustine Steward. An Augustine Steward was born about in 1650 in London. {The writer believes her great-grandfather's middle name is Augustine—James A. Stewart (1851-1905).}
In pursuit of the name Charles in English parish records one finds Charles born in 1544 in London; another with a death record in Suffolk in 1584. A Charles, son of Charles, was born in Suffolk in 1616, and a Charles was born in Oxford shire in 1620, son of Richard Stewart. Charles Steward of Cambridge shire married Ann Pettit in 1644, reference William Durran.
(IGI - British Isles, LDS Records)
One of the first of the STEWART name in America was JAMES STEWART OR STEWARD (often STUART), London, who came in the ship FORTUNE to Plymouth, Mass., in 1621. James died before 1627, without progeny. (Edson, STEWARD CLAN MAGAZINE, Tome J, p. 51)
Some of the other early-day Stewarts include Charles Steward or Stewart of Henrico County, VA, 1635-1638, who was affiliated with Edward Osborne and Christopher Branch (IMMIGRANTS TO VIRGINIA); John Steward of Upper Norfolk County, VA, in 1639; William Steward in Barbadoes in 1635 (HOTTEN, IMMIGRANTS AND OTHER . . . PERSONS OF QUALITY); Charles Stuart, who was living in Maryland in 1642; James Stuard who was in Lower New Norfolk County, VA in 1651; David Steward of Northampton County, VA in 1652; Robert Stuart of Gloucester Co, VA, and Oneale Stuart of Isle of Wight County, VA, in 1652; Walter and Henry Stuart in Northumberland Co, VA in 1653; Roger, Neal, and Patrick Steward, who came to Virginia in 1655, the first settling in Nansemond County and the last in Lancaster County; and Andrew Steward of Surry County, Va in 1656. (THE NAME AND FAMILY OF THE STEWARDS, STEWARTS, AND STUARTS, Manuscript Number 2520, Roots Research Bureau, Ltd., 1984)
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