Family of William Jennings and Mary Woodley
Details
Henry Jennings, son of William and Mary, husband of Anne Godwin and Margaret Busse, and father of Isaac and Sarah Jennings
Isaac Jennings, son of William and Mary, husband of Mary Bucknall, and father of Mary, Mary, Alice, Sarah, and Margaret
Controversies
Myth Busters
Sarah Jennings
The most perpetuated myth in Jennings family history is that Henry, a tailor in London, conducted a courtship, with Sarah Jennings, the daughter of a Birmingham ironmonger that lived 127 miles northwest of London.
According to the legend, Henry married Sarah, his cousin, in 1663. Sarah gave birth to Isaac in 1664, with Sarah following in 1665. Sarah, Henry’s wife died of the plague, leaving Henry with two infant children. Rev. Caleb E. Smith took the fabrication further by stating that Isaac appeared to be a gentleman of a fine education “such as was only given in those days to the sons of wealth.”
Rev Smith continues, ” So it seems as safe a guess to say that Sarah Jennings young children were carefully raised by someone of their mother’s people, on the money from her rights in her father’s estate (See page 2)-and that may have been why Isaac and his sister did not come to American when Henry am Margaret came. Tradition has always been insistent that Isaac was the rightful Jennings heir through his mother’s rights, but because Sarah’s marriage had displeased her folks, her son was not permitted to come into his own. No further records are found of Isaac’s daughter Margaret). He died in 1758.”
Anne Godwin
St. Clements of the Danes Parish records indicate Henry married Anne Godwin in 1663 and that she died in 1665 of the plague. She left behind two children, Isaac and Sarah that are later mentioned in Margaret Busse’s will.
Margaret Busse and Religious Society of Friends
A few months following Anne’s death, Henry married Margaret Busse of the St Botolph’s without Bishopgate parish in a Religious Society of Friends ceremony. Anne Godwin’s parents were witnesses to the marriage.
Education Claim
As an English dissenter, neither Henry nor his children were eligible for education, which further refutes Rev Smith’s assertions.
Henry’s Will
In 1850 and beyond, opponents to the claim of kinship between Henry and Isaac used Henry’s failure to mention his children in his will as proof that he had no other children than the stillborn child with Margaret.
Margaret’s will addresses small gifts and legacies. However, she leaves the rest of her estate to her husband’s “reputed” children Isaac and Sarah, divided equally between them.
The standard practice of the time was to consider wives and children “chattel” or personal property. In a father’s will, sons inherit the real estate; daughters receive money or similar legacies. Wives execute the wills that require them to turn over their homes and lands to their sons within a specified period.
Henry, however, appears to be an ardent believer in the teachings of George Fox. Fox declared, “that those living in the Light had no need for the domination of husbands over wives. Once perfected by Christ, husband, and wife could be equal “helpmeets,” he proclaimed in his writings and practiced in his marriage to Margaret Fell. Not all Friends agreed, and Quakers debated the issue in their pamphlets. In the surrounding world, male leadership was assumed, and some Quaker men advocated conventionally hierarchical marriages.”
Henry’s will reflects George Fox’s teachings. Like Margaret, he left small legacies to people that mattered. The rest went to his help meet Margaret. In his mindset and that of George Fox, it was equally hers.
The language of Margaret’s will, which refers to Henry’s “reputed” children, is a legal term to indicate that the children were not her issue, but her husband’s.
During Henry and Margaret’s time in West Jersey, a typical yeoman’s plantation was about 150 acres, the same amount that Henry left his brother, Isaac. Through Margaret’s will, Henry and Margaret provided Isaac and Sarah approximately 1884 acres to be shared between them.
Henry’s Children
What happened to Isaac and Sarah after his marriage to Margaret Busse is unknown. If Isaac were the elder child, he would have been about fourteen and Sarah thirteen when Henry and Margaret left for West Jersey. seeking, “another good life.”
Children of tradesmen were placed into apprenticeships or service, with young men entering an apprenticeship at the age of fourteen and young women engaging in service from the age of twelve.
Historical Context
Civil war erupted between the July births and the staggered baptisms of twins Henry and Robert in September and October of 1642.
Consequentially, England became a republic under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protectorate when Henry was in his early teens.
Following the monarchy’s restoration in 1660, Henry married in 1663 and celebrated his first child’s birth in 1664.
However, when the first of two comets streaked across the December sky a few months later, many in England feared the evil to come.
Soon after, the Great Plague claimed its first victim. That fall, Anne Godwin, Henry’s wife, succumbed to the plague at nineteen years.
Six months after the death of Anne, Henry remarried Margaret Busse in a Quaker ceremony. Anne’s parents stood as witnesses at the marriage.
A second comet portended more ill, and the Great Fire of London broke out in the fall of 1666, triggering Henry and Margaret’s move to Ditton on Thames. They would reside in the London suburbs until they set sail for West Jersey aboard the Kent in 1677.
Later, a fellow follower of George Fox’s teachings, William Penn, received Pennsylvania’s charter in March of 1681. He intended to provide new hope, new land for the persecuted Friends in England.
1641
The first of several English civil wars erupt in August between the Royalist “Cavaliers and the Parliamentarian “Round Heads”
1652
George Fox and the Quaker Movement arise along with other dissenters and non-conformist religions.
1654
Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protectorate over the Commonwealth of England.
1660
Restoration of the monarch to Charles II, of the house of Stuart.
1665
The Great Plague, a pandemic, sweeps through London beginning in the Spring of 1665
1666
The Great Fire of London destroys most of the city. According to the Museum of London, “The damage caused by the Great Fire was immense: 436 acres of London were destroyed, including 13,200 houses and 87 out of 109 churches.”