A Preacher in Royalist Virginia: The Faith and Fortune of Rev. William Thompson

 

Every genealogist knows the satisfaction of uncovering an ancestor whose life intersected with the defining trials of early America. A newly confirmed line on our tree leads directly to Rev. William Thompson (c. 1598–1666), my 10th great-grandfather—an Oxford-educated Puritan firebrand whose journey took him from Lancashire to the wilderness of New England, and ultimately into a dangerous missionary adventure in 17th-century Virginia.

The Call to New England

Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, William Thompson spent his early career preaching in the north of England. But as King Charles I and Archbishop William Laud tightened their grip on the Church of England, silencing Nonconformist ministers, Thompson chose exile over compromise. In 1637, he boarded a ship for Massachusetts Bay.

By 1639, he was chosen as the first pastor of the newly gathered church at Mount Wollaston, soon re-named Braintree. Cotton Mather, the famed New England chronicler, later described Thompson as a man of "godly zeal," possessed of a sharp mind and a powerful voice that could move the most hardened congregation.

The Mission to the Nansemond Wilderness

In 1642, an urgent request arrived in Boston from the southern reaches of Chesapeake Bay. A pocket of Puritan settlers in Nansemond County, Virginia, was starving for ordained spiritual leadership.

Despite the risks—and the well-known hostility of Virginia’s staunchly Royalist Governor, Sir William Berkeley—Rev. Thompson volunteered to go.

Along with two fellow ministers, Thompson set sail for the South. The journey was hazardous, ending in a shipwreck off the Virginia coast, but the ministers survived and made their way to Nansemond. There, in the swampy pine woods and along the tidal creeks, Thompson preached to overflowing crowds, converting hundreds and establishing a firm foothold for his faith in the Old Dominion.

Governor Berkeley was not pleased. Viewing these New England preachers as political agitators and religious dissidents, Berkeley persuaded the Virginia Assembly to pass an act requiring all ministers to conform strictly to the Church of England. Refusing to bend the knee, Thompson was eventually forced out of Virginia—but not before leaving behind his young son, Roger Thompson, who would make Nansemond his permanent home.

From Nansemond to the Potomac

While Rev. Thompson returned to Braintree to finish his ministry, the Thompson family took deep root in Virginia soil.

My 9th great-grandfather, Roger Thompson (1640–1700), grew up among the tobacco fields of Nansemond. His son, Stephens Thomson (1670–1745), pushed further north into Stafford County along the Potomac River, placing the family in the immediate neighborhood of early Virginia planters like the Masons and Washingtons.

When Stephens’ daughter Jane Thomson (1692–1745) married William Mason, two pioneering Virginia lines were joined. Their daughter, Margaret Mason, married William Boyd, carrying this colonial heritage down through our Boyd and Bailey ancestors straight to my mother, Velma.

Living the Legacy

It is a striking thought: nearly four centuries before I rode the trails of Chatsworth or traced our family back to the New World pioneers, my 10th great-grandfather was stepping off a wooden ship into the tidewater swamps of Virginia, Bible in hand, defying a Royal Governor to preach what he believed.

Whether riding horses through the Santa Susanas or following a 17th-century paper trail through Braintree and Nansemond, the instinct to explore and stand one's ground clearly runs deep in the blood.

Biographical Notes on Our Thompson/Thomson Ancestors

1. Rev. William Thompson (c. 1598–1666) — 10th Great-Grandfather

• Historical Background: Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (B.A. 1619), William Thompson served as a Puritan minister in Lancashire and Yorkshire before persecution under Archbishop Laud drove him to New England in 1637.
• The Braintree Ministry: In 1639, he was ordained as the first minister of the church at Mount Wollaston (incorporated in 1640 as Braintree, Massachusetts). Cotton Mather wrote extensively about him in his Magnalia Christi Americana, praising his powerful pulpit style and pious leadership.
• The Mission to Virginia (1642): In 1642, the Virginia colony sent a plea to Massachusetts for Puritan ministers to preach in Nansemond County. Rev. Thompson, along with Rev. John Knowles and Rev. Thomas James, volunteered and sailed south. Despite hostility from Virginia’s Royalist Governor, Sir William Berkeley—who eventually banned Nonconformist ministers—Thompson’s preaching attracted large congregations in Nansemond and planted the Puritan presence in early tidewater Virginia.
• Later Life: Returning to Braintree, he suffered in his later years from severe melancholia (depression), a trial famously chronicled by Mather, before passing away in 1666.

2. Roger Thompson (1640–1700) — 9th Great-Grandfather

• Frontier Roots in Nansemond: Born right around the time of his father’s southern missionary journey, Roger remained in or returned to Nansemond County, Virginia.
• Tidewater Planter: Operating along the Nansemond River during a period marked by Indian skirmishes, Bacon’s Rebellion (1676), and political tension between tobacco planters and the Crown, Roger established the family's tobacco planting operations in the tidewater region.

3. Stephens (Stevens) Thomson (1670–1745) — 8th Great-Grandfather

• Attorney General connection (Name Clarification): In Virginia colonial records, Stephens Thomson is often conflated with Sir Stephens Thomson, the Royal Attorney General of Virginia under Governor Alexander Spotswood. Our ancestor Stephens Thomson was a contemporary landowner who established his family seat further north in Stafford County along the Potomac River.
• Stafford County Planter: Moving up from Nansemond to Stafford County, Stephens accumulated land holdings near Aquia Creek and Northern Neck, positioning the family directly alongside prominent Northern Neck dynasties like the Masons, Washingtons, and Lees.

4. Jane Thomson (1692–1745) — 7th Great-Grandmother

• The Alliance with the Masons: Jane’s marriage to William Mason (1692–1745) merged two influential Potomac families. Their daughter Margaret Mason (1725–1752) married William Boyd, bringing this early Virginia lineage into our direct Boyds/Baileys branch.

Who was Cotton Matter

Cotton Mather (1663–1728) was one of the most prominent, influential, and complex figures in early American history. A New England Puritan minister, prolific author, and political force, he stood at the center of Boston’s intellectual, religious, and political life during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

1. Puritan Intellectual Royalty

Cotton Mather was born into New England’s foremost religious dynasty. His grandfathers, John Cotton and Richard Mather, were foundational leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his father, Increase Mather, was the long-serving pastor of Boston's Second Church and President of Harvard College.

Cotton entered Harvard at age 12 (the youngest student ever admitted at the time) and graduated at 15. He went on to serve alongside his father at the Second Church of Boston, where he remained pastor for the rest of his life.

2. The Famed Chronicler: Magnalia Christi Americana

Mather was an extraordinarily prolific writer, publishing over 450 books and pamphlets in his lifetime. His crowning literary achievement was Magnalia Christi Americana (The Great Works of Christ in America), published in 1702.

This massive, seven-volume work was part ecclesiastical history, part biographical collection, and part theological defense of the Puritan mission. In it, Mather chronicled the lives of early New England governors, ministers, and pioneers—including figures like your 10th great-grandfather, Rev. William Thompson—framing their hardships and triumphs as part of a divine plan in the wilderness of the New World. It remains one of the primary historical sources for 17th-century American colonial history.

3. The Salem Witch Trials (1692)

Mather’s legacy is forever tied to the Salem Witch Trials. Prior to 1692, he had published Memorable Providences (1689), which detailed alleged cases of witchcraft and demonic possession, helping to stoke public fascination and paranoia.

During the Salem trials, Mather did not sit on the judges' bench, but he actively communicated with the court. While he famously urged caution against relying too heavily on "spectral evidence" (dreams and visions of spirits), he never condemned the proceedings themselves. In 1693, he published Wonders of the Invisible World, defending the court's verdicts and framing the trials as a spiritual battle between God and the Devil for New England.

4. A Pioneer of Science & Public Health

Despite his deep involvement in religious mysticism and witchcraft, Mather was also a pioneer of modern science and a fellow of the Royal Society of London (one of the first Americans elected).

During the devastating Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721, Mather was a fearless advocate for inoculation—a primitive form of vaccination he learned about from Onesimus, an enslaved West African man in his household, as well as from reports out of the Ottoman Empire. Mather partnered with Dr. Zabdiel Boylston (our 1st cousin 10x removed) to inoculate hundreds of Bostonians, saving countless lives despite facing severe public backlash, death threats, and even a small bomb thrown through his window.

Summary

Cotton Mather embodied the transition of New England from a devout, isolated 17th-century Puritan commonwealth into the early Age of Enlightenment. He was a man of contradictions: a keeper of ancient religious orthodoxies who defended witch trials, yet a forward-thinking scientist who helped introduce modern preventive medicine to America.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Our English Savage–French–Mason Lines

 

From Cheshire Knights to the Montana Frontiersmen

In the turbulent Cheshire of the mid-15th century, Sir John Savage of Clifton navigated the shifting loyalties of the Wars of the Roses. A substantial landowner linked by marriage to the powerful Stanleys, he raised a large family whose sons served successive kings. One of them, Christopher, carried the family name into Gloucestershire manors and died fighting the Scots at Flodden in 1513 under Henry VIII.

A generation or two later, in the market town of Pershore in the fertile Vale of Evesham, the French family—local gentry and manor lords—intermarried with a Savage daughter named Susan. Their son George French became a counsellor-at-law and lord of the manors of Old and New Pershore in the early 17th century, a period of rising religious and political tension that culminated in civil war. From this same Pershore community came Ann French, who married the yeoman Thomas Mason. Their son George, baptized at the Abbey Church of the Holy Cross in 1629, grew up amid Royalist sympathies. After the defeat of Charles I’s cause, the young Cavalier emigrated to Virginia around 1652, carving out a plantation on the Potomac frontier, serving as burgess and militia officer, and founding a family that would later produce a key author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Collateral or later Mason lines, if the proposed connections hold, moved with the westward flow of settlement. By the late 18th century, descendants or related families appear among the Overmountain Men and East Tennessee militia who defended the frontier against Cherokee raids and British-aligned forces, and who later served in the War of 1812 under local colonels such as Edwin Booth. One such line produced Valentine Boyd, who left Tennessee for Ohio and then Iowa. His daughter Sophia married into the Bailey family; their descendants pushed farther west. Franklin Jackson Bailey, born on the Nebraska plains in 1886, homesteaded near Kalispell, Montana, in the early 20th century—raising cattle and timber with Belgian horses, hunting elk, and later farming wheat in Idaho—embodying the final continental reach of a story that began with Cheshire knights and Worcestershire manor lords.

Genealogy Notes:

The early English portion (Savage–French–Mason) has partial support in secondary genealogical sources and family association charts, but includes gaps, disputed parentage, and date mismatches; the later American Boyd–Bailey portion aligns better with available records, especially where DNA matches are noted. Primary documentation is sparse for several links, and user-tree or visitation-based claims should be treated cautiously pending further primary evidence (parish registers, wills, land records, or stronger DNA triangulation).  

Early Savage line

Sir John Savage (c. 1422/1423–1495) of Clifton, Cheshire, is well-attested. He was a prominent Cheshire landowner, mayor-related figure, and participant in the Wars of the Roses era; he married Katherine Stanley and had numerous children, including Christopher (or Christoffer) Savage (c. 1468/1473–1513). Christopher was a knight who held manors in Gloucestershire (including Chipping Campden area), served under the early Tudors, and was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field. A Richard Savage (c. 1512–c. 1551/1553) is sometimes claimed as a son of Christopher in secondary trees and appears linked in some FamilySearch/WikiTree discussions to a daughter Susan. However, standard lists of Christopher’s children emphasize other sons (notably another Christopher who married Anne Lygon); the Richard–Susan link is described in genealogical forums as previously undocumented or needing stronger sourcing. 

Susan Savage (c. 1550) is recorded in French Family Association charts and Worcestershire visitation-derived material as marrying Edward French of Pershore (mid/late 1500s). Their children include a George French (c. 1570–1647), a counsellor-at-law and lord of the manors of Old and New Pershore who married Cecily/Cecilia Grey.

French–Mason connection

George Mason I (baptized 10 June 1629, Pershore, Worcestershire–1686, Stafford County, Virginia), the immigrant progenitor of the prominent Virginia Mason family (great-grandfather of Founding Father George Mason IV), was the son of yeoman Thomas Mason and Ann French of Pershore. He was a Royalist/Cavalier who emigrated (likely on the Assurance around 1651–52) after the English Civil War, settled in what became Stafford County, served as a justice, burgess, and militia officer, and helped defend the frontier. 

Ann French’s exact parentage is disputed across sources. Some secondary accounts and trees place her as a daughter of George French (c. 1570–1647) and Cecily Grey; French Family Association charts more often assign an Ann French (who married Thomas Mason in 1624/25 at Pershore Abbey) to George’s brother Dennis French. Geographic and social ties in Pershore support a close French–Mason connection in either case, and the families intermarried further (e.g., George Mason I also married a Mary French). Dates and sibling lists show inconsistencies across trees.

Mason descendants in the proposed line

George Mason I had sons including George Mason II (the main line leading to the statesman) and a Richard Mason (c. 1662–1693, by second wife Margaret Allerton in some accounts). The proposed Richard Mason (1670–1730) → William Mason (1692–1745) → Margaret Mason (1725–1752) does not match the best-documented children or the primary Gunston Hall/Virginia line. These later names may represent a collateral or poorly documented branch, or conflation with other Mason families; stronger primary evidence would be needed.

Boyd–Bailey segment

This portion has better corroboration in secondary and some primary-aligned records, consistent with the DNA-match notes:

• James Boyd (c. 1757–1791), Revolutionary War veteran, fits the profile of East Tennessee/Overmountain Men service under figures such as John Sevier (frontier ranging, Cherokee campaigns, etc.). A Lt. James Boyd (1783–1854) associated with Booth’s East Tennessee Militia (War of 1812 era, 5th Regiment under Colonel Edwin Booth, men from Knox/Blount/Sevier etc. counties) is plausible in the same regional militia context.
• Valentine Boyd (c. 1811/1813–1870), born Tennessee, married Sarah Catherine Groom (1835, Ohio), lived later in Iowa; children include Sophia Boyd (1836–1908).
• Sophia’s son David Jackson Bailey (1865–1949) and grandson Franklin Jackson Bailey (29 April 1886, Valley County, Nebraska–15 March 1968, California) match records of a Montana homesteader near Kalispell (c. 1912 era: cattle, logging, garden, hunting; later wheat farming near Kendrick, Idaho; Montana Militia service noted in family recollections).

These later links are more consistent with census, marriage, and local history traces, especially when supported by DNA.

Overall genealogy assessment

The lineage is a plausible multi-century chain in broad outline—Cheshire gentry Savages → Worcestershire French gentry → Pershore Masons → Virginia immigrant → frontier Tennessee/Ohio/Iowa movement → Nebraska/Montana homesteaders—but several mid-links (especially Richard Savage as father of Susan, Ann French’s precise father, and the post-George Mason I Mason generations) rest on secondary or user-compiled trees with acknowledged gaps or alternatives. DNA matches noted for the Boyds strengthen the American end. For rigorous verification, prioritize primary sources (Cheshire/Worcestershire parish registers and wills, Virginia land/court records, Tennessee militia pensions, U.S. censuses, and homestead patents) and autosomal/Y-DNA triangulation.

To the Teachers Who Taught Me How to Tell the Story: A Letter of Gratitude

 

As I look back across the trail of my life—approaching another milestone birthday—my mind often turns to the folks who helped shape the man I became. I’ve spent a lifetime as a horseman, a canoeist, a Western historian, and a genealogist tracing my family back twelve generations in North America. But through all those decades, whether sitting in a Visalia saddle or paddling a river, I have always been a storyteller.

And for that, I owe a debt of gratitude to a group of remarkable educators who taught me how to put thoughts to paper, respect the truth, and write with purpose: my journalism teachers.

I doubt any of them are still on this side of the Great Divide to read these words, but I feel a deep need to write this letter anyway. I want the world to know who they were and what they gave a young kid from the San Fernando Valley and the Sierra foothills.

The Newsroom Mentors Who Set the Foundation

Long before I ever self-published a book or launched a blog, these advisers handed me a press card, taught me how to dig for facts, and showed me the power of a tight paragraph:

• Mrs. Diane Shaw — Adviser for the Forty Niner student newspaper at John A. Sutter Junior High School in Canoga Park (1955–1957). She was the first to trust a young junior-high kid with a notebook and a deadline, teaching me that every story starts with asking the right questions.

1959 Sierra High School 'Tomahawk' Reporters

• Ms. Priscilla Mailey — Adviser for the Tomahawk at Sierra Joint Union High School in Tollhouse, California (1957–1958). In the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, she taught us precision, discipline, and pride in seeing our names on a printed masthead.
• Mr. Bob Scheibel — Adviser for the Roundup at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills (1970–1971). Returning to school after my military service, Mr. Scheibel refined my eye, showing me how to write with journalistic clarity, structure, and grit.

Decades later, in 2002, those same fundamental newsroom lessons came full circle when I served as reporter and editor for the Chatsworth Echo newsletter for the Chatsworth Equine Cultural Heritage Organization.

The Harvest of Their Instruction

They say a teacher’s influence never stops—it just echoes down the generations. When Mrs. Shaw, Ms. Mailey, and Mr. Scheibel were correcting my copy in blue pencil, I doubt they knew they were training an author who would go on to publish thousands of pages of history.

Because of the discipline they instilled in me, I went on to research, write, and publish stories I knew needed to be preserved:

• Genealogical Chronicles: Digging into our family roots with Back Trail of a Western Family (1998) and British Trail of a Western Family (1999).
• Western & Film History: Documenting the movie ranches and silver-screen heroes of my youth in Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas (2008) and Rendezvous at Boulder Pass - Hollywood's Fantasyland (2010).

• The Voyageur Legacy: Preserving the story of our French-Canadian fur trade ancestors across hundreds of pages in Ripples from La Prairie Voyageur Canoes (2017), La Prairie Voyageur Grandfathers (2019), and most recently, The River's Blood: The La Prairie Voyageur Legacy (2025).
• Over 1,200 Blog Posts: Writing nearly 1,000 articles on A Drifting Cowboy since 2011 to answer the questions I wish I had asked my granddad, and over 300 posts on Ripples from La Prairie Voyageur Canoes.

To My Teachers

To Mrs. Shaw, Ms. Mailey, and Mr. Scheibel:

You didn't just teach me grammar, inverted pyramids, or lead paragraphs. You taught me how to observe the world around me, how to honor the truth, and how to leave a paper trail for those coming down the road after me.

Every time I sit down at the keyboard to write about a good horse, a dusty Chatsworth trail, or an ancient ancestor who paddled a birchbark canoe, your lessons are right there in the room with me.

Thank you for your patience, your instruction, and your inspiration. The story turned out pretty good—and you helped me write it.

Happy trails,

Jerry England

A Drifting Cowboy

#30

A Story Twice Told:

 

• Epic Adventures with all the Ingredients for a Hollywood film adaptation.

• A synopsis from two different script writers.

• Which One do You Like Best?

BOOK I: Pelts of Empire 

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2026/09/book-i-pelts-of-empire.html

BOOK II: Empires of the Wilderness: The Bloodline of New France

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2026/09/book-ii-empires-of-wilderness-bloodline.html

Let me know: https://www.facebook.com/ENGLAND1942/

Links to further reading about the characters in "A Story Twice Told"

The Godefroy Brothers: Into the Silent Forest (1629–1632)

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-godefroy-brothers-into-silent.html

Generation Z / Founders

Robert LeBer (c. 1601–aft. 1651) and Colette Cavelier (c. 1605–1694)

Jacques Le Ber (dit Larose / later de Saint-Paul de Senneville)

Uncle Jacques Le Ber dit Larose 1633-1706: New France Fur Trader

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/11/uncle-jacques-le-ber-dit-larose-1633.html

Jeanne Le Ber (1662–1714)

Fascinating Lebers from the Fur Trade Era of New France

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/12/fascinating-lebers-from-fur-trade-era.html

Generation 1

François Leber (Le Ber / Lebert) (c. 1626–1694)

Rapids and Resolve: François Leber's Frontier Legacy in New France

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/01/rapids-and-resolve-francois-lebers.html

Generation 2

Marie Le Ber (1666–1756)

|

François Bourassa (c. 1659–1708)

François Bourassa: Conqueror of the Northern Waters

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/01/francois-bourassa-conqueror-of-northern.html

|

René Bourassa dit La Ronde (1688–1778)

René Bourassa dit LaRonde: A Prominent Voyageur and Fur Trader

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/11/rene-bourassa-dit-laronde-prominent.html

Generation 3

Marie Élisabeth Bourassa (1695–1766)

|

Jean dit Jacques Pinsonneault (Pinsonneau) dit Lafleur (c. 1682–1773)

Jacques Pinsonneault dit Lafleur’s marriage to Marie Élisabeth Bourassa

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/11/jacques-pinsonneault-dit-lafleurs.html

Generations 4–5

Joseph Pinsonneau (Pinsono / dit Lafleur) (1733–1799)

Joseph Pinsonneau dit Lafleur and His 1763 Voyage for Jacques Lasselle

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/11/joseph-pinsonneau-dit-lafleur-and-his.html

|

Gabriel Pinsonneau (Pinsono / dit Lafleur) (1770–1807)

The 1797 Contract: Gabriel Pinsonneau dit Lafleur and his Detroit Run

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-1797-contract-gabriel-pinsonneau.html

La Prairie Genealogy:

A Tale of La Prairie: Threads of Fur and Family, 1675 -- with Family Trees

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-tale-of-la-prairie-threads-of-fur-and.html

A BRUSH WITH DESTINY: TEMPESTS AND TRIUMPHS OF OUR LA PRAIRIE VOYAGEUR KIN

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-brush-with-destiny-tempests-and.html

The Canoe:

Voyageurs and Coureurs des Bois: Pioneers of the North American Fur Trade

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/11/voyageurs-and-coureurs-des-bois.html

Building Birchbark Canoes an essay from Grok xAI

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/05/building-birchbark-canoes-essay-from.html

Jérémie Duquet: La Prairie Voyageur and Canoe Builder

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/05/jeremie-duquet-la-prairie-voyageur-and.html