Ancestry of Sarah (Kirke) Gorham

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John Brandon

Ancestry of Sarah (Kirke) Gorham

Legg inn av John Brandon » 21 okt 2005 21:03:20

Away back in 2003, I posted on Sarah Kirk/ Kirke who married Joseph
Gorham of Stratford, Connecticut. The following source, from the BYU
online collection, seems to shed some light on the English ancestry of
the Kirkes.

http://tinyurl.com/ahcyp


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Brandon
Date: 21 Mar 2003 22:28:50 -0800
Subject: Who was Sarah Kirk, wife of Joseph Gorham of Stratford, CT?
To:

Elizabeth P. White, _John Howland of the Mayflower_, vol. 1, p. 97,
discusses the 1708 marriage of Joseph Gorham and Sarah Kirk:

"Joseph Gorham, called 'of Yarmouth,' married first, in Charlestown,
Mass., 9 Nov. 1708 SARAH KIRK of Charlestown, who may have been born
in Newfoundland about 1685, possibly the niece or younger sister of
David Kirk of Charlestown, called 'Gentleman from Newfoundland.'
Sarah's father's name may have been Joseph Kirk, the given name of her
grandson, son of her daughter, Mary (Gorham) Munson. Sarah died in
Stratford, Conn., 18 April 1722, in her 37th year, and was buried in
the Congregational Burying Place."

I suggest that "George" should be considered as a possibility for the
Christian name of Sarah's father, as her first son was actually named
"George," with the second being called "Joseph." Her daughter Mary
had a first son named "Joseph Kirk Munson," and a second son "George
Munson."

NEHGR, 28:124, the record book of the First Church of Charlestown,
Mass., shows the baptisms in 1694 of George and Mary Kirk, son and
daughter of "Mr. David and Mrs. Mary [Kirk] of Newfound Land."

_Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay_, 5:200,
mentions Thomas Kellond and Thomas Kirke, who had captured the
regicides Goffe and Whalley in Connecticut. "The court adds to what
yow answered therein, vizt, Mr. Tho Kirke, **related to Sr David
Kirke,** and Mr Thomas Kellond, yet living, will testify the same; nor
were Whaley and Goffe knoun here to us to be such offendors till his
majties proclamation came over ..." This was apparently the same
Thomas Kirke of Boston profiled in Savage's _Genealogical Dictionary_.

_The Dictionary of Canadian Biography_ 1:404-08, has biographies of
three of the Kirke brothers--Sir David, Sir Lewis, and Thomas--who
were very prominent in early Canadian history. Sir David Kirke was a
large-scale trader, explorer, Governor of Newfoundland, and a
Royalist, who transferred 5/6 of his rights in Newfoundland to
Cromwell's son-in-law Claypole, probably for political reasons.
Imprisoned for debt in England at the suit of Lord Baltimore, he died
in January 1654. "Apparently Lady Kirke and her sons, George, David,
and Philip, continued to reside in Newfoundland, but after the
Restoration Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, successfully
reclaimed his father's patent for Avalon though he never exercised his
rights. On behalf of his eldest nephew, George, Sir Lewis demanded
compensation for improvements made at Ferryland by the Kirkes. Lady
Kirke petitioned Charles II that George be made governor of
Newfoundland, an arrangement suggested by the Newfound-landers
themselves, but no resident governor was appointed. Lady Kirke and
her children were still in Ferryland in 1673 when a Dutch fleet sacked
and burned the settlement. A decade later, in 1683, Sir John Kirke,
whose daughter had married Radisson and who was himself a member of
Prince Rupert's Hudson's Bay Company, asked the king for compensation
to himself and the families of Sir David and Sir Lewis for the losses
incurred in the conquest of Canada in 1629, a claim that the French
had never paid. The last reference to George Kirke appears to be in
1680 when he was proposed as a collector of the toll levied on all
boats fishing in Newfoundland waters."

I don't know about any royal descents or medieval connections for this
family, the Kirkes, but there were several knights in the lower
branches of the family tree, and they seem just recently to have lost
a vast fortune. It would be very interesting if Sarah, wife of Joseph
Gorham, could be more exactly pinpointed in the family.

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