The Jenks and Stormont lineages represent the arrivals in America of various persons immigrating for various reasons at various times - principally during religious persecutions (Puritan, Huguenot, Covenanter, etc.) of the 1600's; again in the late 1700's, when land utilization and ownership restrictions were imposed in Europe; and then again in the middle 1800's when successes in the "New World" encouraged immigration from Europe for general betterment.
The first of these migrations has been called "The Great Migration", in that the initial settlement of America and the formation of the American spirit stemmed from those who arrived in the early 17th Century.
The Great Migration, starting with the trips of the Pilgrim and Puritan fathers, was a great flight from conditions which had grown intolerable in England - it was not a movement of attraction to the New World, but was during the period that Whig historians called "the eleven years' tyranny", when Charles I tried to rule England without a Parliament, and when Archbishop William Laud purged the Anglican Church of its Puritan members.
These eleven years were also an era of economic depression, epidemic disease, and so may other sufferings that to John Winthrop, it seemed as if the land itself had grown "weary of her inhabitants, so as man which is most precious of all the Creatures, is here more vile and base than the earth they tread upon".
In this time of troubles, there were many reasons for leaving England, and many places to go. Perhaps 20,000 English (and Scottish) people moved to Ireland. Others in equal numbers left for the Netherlands and the Rhineland. Another 20,000 sailed to the West Indies (Barbados, Nevis, St. Kitts and the forgotten Puritan colony of Old Providence Island, off the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua).
A fourth contingent chose to settle in Massachusetts, and contributes not only to the founding of the continent of North America but contributed far beyond its numbers to the culture of North America.
Following the initial Pilgrim arrivals in the 1620's, another seventeen vessels that sailed to Massachusetts beginning in 1630 were the vanguard of nearly 200 ships during the next 10 years, each carrying about a hundred English souls. A leader in the new colony reckoned that there were about 21,000 immigrants in all during the time period from 1630 to the year
1641.
While this exodus from the Old World went on, the North Atlantic was a very busy place. In the year 1638, one immigrant sighted no fewer than thirteen other vessels in mid-passage between England and Massachusetts. Only one of the 198 vessels in the Great Migration was lost - the ship "Gabriel" on the coast of Maine.
After the year 1640, New England's Great Migration ended as abruptly as it began. The westward flow of population across the Atlantic suddenly stopped and ran in reverse, as many Massachusetts Puritans sailed home to serve in the English Civil War.
Migration did not resume on a large scale for many years - not until the mid-18th and 19th centuries.
The immigrants who came to Massachusetts became the breeding stock for America's Yankee population, doubling every generation for two centuries. Their numbers had increased to 100,000 by 1700; to at least 2 million by 1800; to six million by 1900; and to more than sixteen million by 1988 - all descended from 21,000 English immigrants who came to Massachusetts in the period from 1620 to 1640. The children of the Great Migration (our ancestors) moved rapidly beyond the borders of Massachusetts and occupied much of southern New England, southern New Jersey and central New York, then further West in succeeding generations.
In terms of social rank (contrary to the Jamestown population, which suffered due to the social strata) most immigrants to Massachusetts came from the middle layer of English society. The great majority were yeomen, husbandmen, artisans, craftsmen, merchants and traders - the sturdy middle class of England. They were not poor - nearly 3I4ths of adult Massachusetts immigrants paid their own passage - no small sum in 1630.
The cost of outfitting and moving a family of six across the Atlantic was reckoned at 50 pounds for the poorest accommodations, while the average income of an English yeoman was perhaps 40 to 60 pounds. Indeed, who today among us could afford (or would attempt) to immigrate at a cost of $30,000 to $60,000 (a year's income) for the trip, to face the unknown.
In summary, by comparison with other immigrant groups in American history, the Great Migration to Massachusetts was a remarkably homogeneous movement of English Puritans who came from the middle ranks of society and traveled in family groups. The heads of these families tended to be exceptionally literate, highly skilled, and heavily urban in their English origins. They were a people of substance, character and deep personal piety.
In researching the various lineages found in this document, one becomes increasingly aware of the many families that arrived in the very early period of the settlement of America.
Below, we have attempted to place those who could legitimately be called "founders" of the New World. Through research of others, particularly the Winthrop Society, we have a fairly good idea of the early ship arrivals to the New England part of the New World - the ship names as well as passenger names. Less documented are those arrivals in the Virginia area.
Ship "Mayflower" - 1620 - Massachusetts
William Brewster (Jayne Gnuse), Stephen Hopkins (Jenks), William Bradford (Lori Antonissen)
Ship "Fortune" - 1621 - Massachusetts
Thomas Prence (Jayne Gnuse)
Ship "Anne" - 1623 - Massachusetts
Nicholas Snow (Jenks)
Unknown ships - c. 1624 - Massachusetts
Thomas (Sheriff) Shreve (Jenks)
Higginson and Skelton Fleet - 1629- Salem MA
Simon Hoyt (Stormont), William Sprague (Jenks)
1630 Winthrop Fleet - Massachusetts
Eleven vessels brought "the Great Emigration" of 1630. Altogether, the Fleet brought about 700 passengers - five ships sailing from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, April 8,1630 and arrived in Salem, MA June 13,1630. The other 6 ships sailed in May and arrived in July at various dates. The ships identified in the Winthrop Fleet were "ArbelIa" (the flagship), "Ambrose", "William and Francis", "Talbot", "Hopewell", "Jewel", "Whale", "Charles", "Success", "Mayflower" (not the original Mayflower), and the "Trial". A complete passenger list, for each ship, has been difficult to compile.
By 1629, there were only a few small, scattered settlements m New England. The original Puritan group at Plymouth hung on, the remains of the Dorchester group remained at Salem, and the other adventurous souls were scattered here and there. But none of these settlements were thriving. At this same time, in England, John Winthrop and others of the Massachusetts Bay Company were contemplating a new Puritan settlement.
The Massachusetts Bay Company had, in 1628, as the New England Company, obtained a charter to settle and govern the area from three miles south of the Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimack. In March of 1629, a week before King Charles dissolved his last Parliament, the New England Company obtained a royal charter confirming the grant and changing the name of the company to the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England".
The major difference between the Massachusetts Bay Company and previous attempts was the ability of men like John Winthrop to plan for success. That, and to take advantage of a small loophole in their charter. The chartered trading corporations had powers of ownership and government over a specified area. Other chartered corporations had set in their charters meeting places for the government of their charters in English towns such as London or Plymouth. Whether by design or by error, Winthrop's charter omitted any specification of meeting place, and the founders and planners of the Bay Company took advantage of this - and the government of the colony was settled in the new colony-to-be.
Winthrop was chosen Governor and took charge of the planning and arrangements for the entire expedition. The members of the company could hardly have chosen better. Experienced in law and commerce, and devoted to the Puritan cause, Winthrop sifted through the lists of people wishing to join the new settlement to insure sufficient trades were represented, drummed up supporters and arranged for ships and provisions.
On April 8,1630, the flagship "Arbella" sailed, arriving at their destination, Plum Cove, on June 12,1630. Four hundred men, women and children from the "Arbella" and the three ships that accompanied her set foot on the New England shore. Six hundred more were to follow. Two hundred of these souls died that first winter, and perhaps more than that returned home to England. But over the next ten years, as the balance of the colony grew and thrived, thousands embarked in English ports bringing with them supplies needed desperately by the infant colony, as well as providing a market for their crops which the earlier settlers had raised. By the fall of 1631, when Winthrop's family joined him, the colony had left the possibility of starvation behind and celebrated accordingly. It is this colony that founded much of what became New England and later the United States of America's form of government.
Initial ancestors in this first Fleet
John Baker (Jenks), Nathaniel Bowman (Jenks), Richard Brackett (Jenks) Henry Bright (Jenks), William Chase (Jenks), Anthony Colby (Stormont)
JohnDoggett (Jenks), Thomas Dudley (Jenks), Garrett (Jarret) Haddon (Stormont) Thomas Harris (Jenks), Richard Palgrave (Jenks), Robert Parke (Jenks) Edward Rainsford (Jenks), Isaac Stearns (Jenks), John Warren (Jenks)
Roger Wellington (Jenks)
Unknown ships - 1630 - Virginia
Richard Hawkins (Burley)
Ship "Mary and John" - 1630- Massachusetts
Phillip Fowler (Stormont)
Ship "William and Francis" - 1631
Stephen Bachiler (Stormont)
Ship "Lyon" - 1632
John Brown (Jenks), John Perkins (Stormont)
Richard Brackett (Jenks) Edmund Hobart (Jenks), Robert Lord (Stormont)
William Sargent (Stormont), Jonathan West (Stormont)
Ship "Elizabeth" - 1634 - Massachusetts
John Barnard (Jenks), Henry Goldstone (Jenks), Thomas Hastings (Jenks)
Gabriel Mead (Jenks)
Unknown ships - 1634- Massachusetts
William Manning (Jenks), Robert Parker (Jenks), Phillip Sherman (Jenks)
Thomas Thayer (Jenks), John Woodbridge (Jenks)
Ship "Abigail" - 1635
Christopher Foster (Stormont)
Ship "Defence" - 1635- Massachusetts
John Wetmore (Jenks)
Ship "James" - 1635 - Massachusetts
William Ballard (Jenks)
Ship "Marygold" – 1635 - Massachusetts
Thomas Holbrook (Jenks)
Ship "Planter" – 1635 - Massachusetts
Thomas Lawrence (Jenks), William Wilcoxson (Jenks)
Ship "Susan and Ellen" - 1635 - Massachusetts
Simon Crosby (Jenks), John Proctor (Stormont)
Unknown ships - 1635 - Massachusetts
Anthony Eames (Jenks), William Eldridge (Stormont), Peter Hobart (Jenks)
John Hopkins (Jenks), Thomas Judd (Jenks), Thomas Makepeace (Jenks)
William Sprague (Jenks)
Unknown ships – by 1637 - Massachusetts
William Barnes (Stormont), Henry Dow (Stormont), Edmund Frost (Jenks)
John Hammond (Jenks), Jonas Humphrey (Jenks), Samuel Morse (Jenks)
Moulton (Stormont), Thomas Ruggles (Jenks), Richard Treat (Jenks)
Ship "Confidence" - 1638 - Massachusetts
Roger Eastman (Stormont)
Ship "John of London" - 1638
Thomas Crosby (Jenks)
Unknown ships - c. 1638
Thomas Leatherbury - Virginia - (Stormont), Edward Sturgis (Jenks)
Ship "Jonathan" - 1639- Massachusetts
Thomas Blanchard (Jenks)
Unknown ships - by 1639 - Massachusetts
Jeremy Adams (Jenks), William Barnes (Stormont), Samuel Bass (Jenks)
Nicholas Danforth (Jenks), John Frary (Jenks), Edward Griswold (Jenks)
George Hadley (Stormont), William Hayden (Jenks), William Hedge (Gnuse, Jenks)
John Hoyt (Stormont(, Robert Jennison (Jenks), Soloman Johnson (Jenks)
Thomas Keeney (Jenks), Thomas Lawrence (Jenks), George Martin (Stormont)
Joseph Merriam (Jenks), William Osgood (Stormont), Humphrey Reyner (Jenks)
John Whipple (Jenks), Samuel Winsley (Stormont)
Unknown ships - before 1642- Massachusetts
Henry Adams (Jenks), William Boynton (Stormont), Edward Denison (Jenks)
Joseph Jenks (Jenks), Francis Jordan (Stormont), Thomas Parrish (Jenks)
Thomas Pidge (Jenks), Michael Pinder (Stormont), Richard Risley (Jenks)
Richard Rockwood (Jenks), George Rogers (Stormont), Stephen Streeter (Jenks)
Thomas Tracy (Jenks), John Wattles (Jenks)
Unknown ships - before 1649- Massachusetts
Samuel Bagley (Stormont), Henry Bagwell (Stormont), James DeHenne/Eno (Jenks)
John Freeman (Gnuse), John Gould (Jenks), Robert Hicks (Jenks)
Thomas Holbrook (Jenks), Henry Kimball (Stormont), William Lumpkin (Stormont)
Richard North (Stormont), Valentine Rowell (Stormont), William Sambourne (Stormont)
Continue on to Genealogies Listings Page