Like Something From Dickens

    The story I am about to attempt to tell is one I have wanted to share for a while. I think it is a fascinating story, like something from the Masterpiece Theater. There are so many historical details that are important that I will never be able to cover it all in this short story format but I will do my best to hit the highlights. I have learned so much about history through my genealogy research but the politics of Western Europe during the 15th -17th centuries is over my head.

     The Home/Hume family is one of the oldest families in Scotland. They are descended from the Saxon

Clan Home Tartan

kings of England who ruled from about 800-1100 A.D. The Homes had a very turbulent time, falling in and out of favor with rulers of their time. George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar (1556-1611) was the most prominent and most influential Scotsman in England. He was the chief Scottish advisor to King James.

     In 1715 there was an attempt to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the House of Stuart later to be called the Jacobite Rising of 1715. James Hume, son of Charles, 6th Earl of Hume, was "true to his religion" and took part in the rebellion and consequently was forced to forfeit his estate.

     Forced to flea religious persecution, James, his wife, Marjorie, and their daughter, Barbara, set sail on the ship Caledonia for New York City. They had plans to stay with Marjorie's aunt and uncle. Disease broke out on the ship and James and Marjorie died leaving Barbara in the care of a family friend, William Hoge. William left young Barbara with her relatives in New York City and went to make his home in New Jersey.

    William eventually married Barbara and they went on to have 9 children who were leaders in the Shenandoah frontier.

    Maybe I am romanticizing it. The wealthy family that loses everything for fighting for what they believe; the parents dying on the ship and never reaching American and their second chance; the young girl, left in the care of a young man who eventually becomes her husband. It just sounds like something Charles Dickens would have written.

     James Hume is my 9th great-grandfather. I suppose that also means that I am descended from the Saxon kings.


Sources:

• Taylor, James. The Great Historic Families of Scotland. Vol. 1, J.S. Virtue & Co, London, 1887, http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hume/histfaml.htm
• Johnston, David E. A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory. Standard PTC. & PUB. Co., Huntington, West Virgina. 1906. p 412-414
• Kendall, Hazel May Middleton. The descendants of William Gregg, the Friend immigrant to Delaware, 1682: from which nucleus disseminated nests of Greggs to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Anderson, Indiana: H.M. Kendall, 1944, pp. 26-28. Note: This is a link to download the whole book in PDF format.
• SR James Hume (1639-1682) - Find A Grave Memorial.” Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/171262969/james-hume.
• Clan Home. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Home