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One of the many old letters I have in the attic,LauraL.Jackson
William Whaley Jackson
Eau Claire. Wis.
Box 556
Ancestral Sketch
of the
Whaley-Jackson Family
data gathered by
Earl Edmond Jackson
(LLJ not related to Whaley, cousins)
“The first Cromwell that appears in history was Thomas Cromwell, who was the son of a blacksmith, and was clerk in business at Antwerp and Naples in his youth and devoted himself to the study of languages at night and finally after being secretary to Wolsey, at his death, became Henry VIII religious adviser and afterwards Secretary of State, Lord Chamberlain, Earl of Essex Master of the Rolls etc, etc, and although he had no direct descendants founded the family being great-uncle several times removed – First half of sixteenth century.
The son of his sister was Richard Williams, who on his fathers’ side traced his ancestry __________ William Swan (an estimable gentleman ___________ although I can find nothing about him) up to the Barons of the 11th century.
Richard Williams took the name of Cromwell on his Uncles death. His son was Sir Henry Cromwell, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and I find in Greens history “founded the great family of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hircehinbrook”, Sir Henry had at least four children – one son and three daughters.
The son Sir Robert Cromwell proprietor of the borough of Huntington, was a young son. He represented his borough many terms in the House of Commons, and his son was Oliver Cromwell, who went to Cambridge near Huntington and became General of the armies, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth etc. He. (O.C.) was born April 25, 1599. The three daughters’ sons were, Oliver St. John, John Hampden, and Edward Whalley, the four cousins, St. John, Whalley, Hampden and Cromwell being almost the very heart of the ______________which founded the First Commonwealth since Rome and which resulted in our own Republic.
Our ancestry is traced to Whalley. Any history will give all about Hampden and Cromwell and St. John but I happened to find some articles in the old Atlantic monthly volumes which you will probably see, but which I will sketch of special interest to us. I find that Whalley was “born of a good family” and followed the trade of tailoring. His mother I noted was born of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hircehinbrook. The first I can find of the Whalley in history – our great – etc uncles Thomas Cromwell beheaded the two Abbots of Whalley near the date 1530. The parish of Whalley includes Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire to the north of Wales.
I can find nothing more definite but I understand that the family of Whalley is the very root of the Welsh race, which resisted so long the Barons of the 11th century and is quite a sturdy stock and the name Wales is in relation to it.
Cromwell organized his regiment “Ironsides” and was very discriminating about his officers that they might draw good men to his standard. The first of Whalley in conjunction with Cromwell, he is Captain in Cromwell’s regiment at Mars ton Moor and Naseby and distinguished himself and was made Colonel of Cavalry in the new army which Cromwell then organized, himself coming to the front by virtue of those battles Whalley commanded at the siege of Bar bury and distinguished himself again at the capture of Dunbar on Cromwell’s invasion into Scotland and was left in Scotland in command of four regiments of house. He was one of the judges who sat at the execution of Charles I and signed the death warrant.
He sat in the lower parliament from the inauguration of the Commonwealth and took a seat in the Other House or upper body when that was organized.
On Cromwell dividing the country into ten military districts, he (Whalley) became one of the ten Major–Generals and his son–in–law Coffee(Coffe) was another. Whalley had the district in the middle – east around Lincoln, Derby, Leister etc, and Coffe had one of the southern districts.
An article entitled “A
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