Post by 1dave on Dec 20, 2020 9:15:46 GMT -7
Calvin Warby ADDED INFORMATION:
JOHN WOOD AND HIS WIFE, PHILADELPHIA THOMPSON- THE MYSTERIES CONTINUE
John Wood, our 4th Great-grandfather, lived to the ripe old age of 105 and died a few months after the 1851 census was taken. The 1851 census tells us that he was born on the seas, but we don't know where his parents came from or the circumstances of him being born on the seas. A clue as to his parents' possible origin is that he lived in a military town, Hythe, Kent, England along the English channel, so it is Quite possible that his father was a soldier returning from a military conflict. His mother may have been in the employ of the military support as a washer woman or cook, or perhaps his mother may have met his father while he was performing his soldier duties. So today, I have been looking for what may have happened in world events in 1745-1746 that might be a clue as to his parents origin. Here are some possibilities:
1745-1746, the two years in which he may have been born, were the years of Scotland's Jacobite Rebellion in which Scottish clansmen attempted to break from English rule. Wood was a common name in Scotland, the Wood clan being driven from Leicestershire, England in King William's ascension to the throne. It seems that King William had wanted the land owned by the Woods. The Wood's claim to that land has been traced to William the Conqueror and his invasion from Normandy, after which King William gave the land to the ancestors of the Wood family. That family had first held the surname of de Bosco, which means Wood or Woods.
Other possibilities to which it may be tied include a 1745 conflict between New England and Nova Scotia and King George's War. They may also have been simply returning to England from a British colony. Many of the Woods from Scotland migrated to the Isle of Man and to Ireland as well, so those are possibilities.
An indexed record identifies John as a Sailor. However, this is an error in interpretation of handwriting. The handwriting indicates that John was a laborer. This doesn't prove, however, that he may not have been a sailor earlier in his life, since the record is associated with his daughter's (Mary [Wood] Warby's Austrailian immigration records. John would have been in his upper 80's at that time. Given that he lived in Hythe, a military port and army garrison, however, we cannot exclude the possibility that he may have been either a sailor or soldier in his younger days, as may have been his father.
His wife, Philadelphia Thompson, also remains somewhat of a mystery. A single record identifies her maiden surname and, since Mary couldn't read and always signed her name with a mark, it is quite possible that the record keeper did not hear the surname correctly and wrote the name incorrectly. Regardless, the family has been unable to find a marriage record between a John Wood and a Philadelphia Thompson. Another possible reason that we may not have identified a record of their marriage is that Philadelphia may have been married previous to marrying John. If so, her surname at the time of her marriage to John would have been the surname of her deceased husband, rather than her maiden surname.
Had John been a career soldier or an officer, he could very well have fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War. If so, Philadelphia could have been from the United States, and at the time, Philadelphia was a popular name in the New England area in particular. This would fit well with the birth of the couple's first known child in 1783.
