The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
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In reply to:
Re: Origin of Godfrey Dearborn
Terry Dearborn 4/11/00
Hello
The following is a collection of comments, distilled by Terry Dearborn, from recent correspondence with David C. Dearborn, F.A.S.G. He is a Reference Librarian at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). The subject is the possible sources of the "legend" that Godfrey Dearborn came from Exeter, Devonshire, England.
The first written appearance of the "legend" may have been in Edmund B. Dearborn's article on the Dearborn family that appeared in Vol 2 (1848) of the NEHG Register. He simply stated that there was a "tradition" that Godfrey was from Exeter in Devonshire, and the author elaborates no further on the matter. He was just passing on what he had heard and did not do any reasearch to check the theory. James Savage wrote the same story in his 1862 Genealogical Dictionary. The Exeter "legend" is repeated in 1884 with Daniel Goodwin's article, "The Dearborn's". Goodwin may have copied what E.B.D had said in the Register, or was in actual correspondence with him. Finally we have Joseph Dow's "History of Hampton". It was first published in 1892. Reprints, beginning in 1960 still repeat the "legend". Since Joseph Dow and Edmund Dearborn were correspondents it is quite possible that Joseph got the story from Edmund. The "legend" is even written in stone upon the Godfrey Dearborn obelisk in High Street Cemetery, Hampton, NH.
In the early 1900s Victor Channing Sanborn published his clues to Godfrey's Lincolnshire origin in Vols 60 and 68 of the Register. Virtually everyone familiar with Sanborn's work agrees, though the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire cautiously says "came from Hannay, 3 m. from Bilsby, co. Lincoln, with Wheelwright, presum. the same bp. in Willoughby, 5 m. dist."
Regards from Terry
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More Replies:
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
phyllis dearborn 8/01/00
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
Phyllis Dearborn 5/02/09
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
Terry Dearborn 6/19/01
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
phyllis dearborn 6/20/01
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin
Terry Dearborn 8/13/00
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Re: The "final word" on Godfrey's origin