Gordon Stewart: An Ancestry DNA Story

In two genealogy books -  The John Lastinger Family of America by Aurora Shaw (link here) and Jesse Greene Williams', The Prosperity of Marmaduke Williams  - the mother of George 'Henry' Merritt is given as Lydia (Pittman) Webb. But we found William Stewart, a family researcher, on ancestry.com. His family tree claimed our * (see relationship notes below) second great-grandmother.

Jesse Greene Williams
1894-1967

John David Musgrove & Eliza Cox

The Atlanta Constitution

March 31, 1894

SHE TOOK STRYCHNINE

Mrs. Musgrove Was an Invalid & Despondent

The Atlanta Constitution
March 31, 1894

Great-aunt Louise (Musgrove) Tillman* (see relationship notes below) says her grandmother, Elizabeth Arissa 'Betty' (Collins) Musgrove, got sick from a spider bite. According to the paper,

She said she wanted to die, and that death would be a relief. Mrs. Musgrove had been an invalid for eighteen months. She complained of being in the way and said she had no hopes of recovering (Find-a-Grave link here).

Cuthbert's Only Son: John Musgrove I

Cuthbert Musgrave and his son, John, are counted in the book Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors of Members of the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, page 180.

Musgrove, Cuthbert (c 1653-87) Md.: m. Dorothy ___   Landowner 

John Musgrove (1685-1746) Md.-Va. m. ___   Landowner

 

We blogged about it here. Cuthbert died in 1687, two years after John Musgrove I was born.

Cuthbert: Our First American Musgrove

Cuthbert Musgrave was born June 1, 1644, in Crookdake,  England, to William and Dorothy Musgrave. He was named after St. Cuthbert, who was...

 ...a monk, who grew in merit and in the intensity of his devotion. He was elected to the bishopric of the church of Lindisfarne. 

St Cuthbert b 634 - d 687

George Leonard Merritt: Yankee Rich Kid

The quote from Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's fictionalized biography of Thomas Cromwell, under the family banner on this blog...

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. 

But they are all good stories.

 ...is 'tongue-in-cheek' recognition that errors and lore creep into any life story. And, early on, the first mistake crept in when we blogged about our Little Drummer Boy grandpa Merritt. That's been corrected.

George Merritt 1807-1873

John and Mary Musgrove: Before Marriage

Our last post was about the year John and Mary Musgrove were separated (link here). John spent most of 1734 in England, translating for Oglethorpe and a delegation of Indians led by Tomichichi. 

Team Musgrove: John and Mary

Previously, we blogged about John Musgrove, Jr. When James Oglethorpe arrived in what would become Savannah, Georgia, Musgrove translated his meeting with the local Indian chief, Tomichichi. (post)

George Leonard Merritt: Wounded in Action

His Civil war service record shows our second great grandfather,  George Leonard Merritt, joined Connecticut's 6th Infantry on September 5, 1861. (see relationship notes below) He was wounded on July 10, 1863, at Morris Island, South Carolina, and discharged on September 11, 1864; when his term of enlistment expired.

George Leonard Merritt: Ware County, Georgia

March 2014 Ancestry.com message:

Calvin Wesley 'Pops' Merritt

Hi David, 

"...your grandmother, Carrie, was a sister to my grandfather, Calvin Wesley Merritt. ...about the Cherokee family rumors. I heard the same thing growing up, but in my research, I found no connection and there is not one family member I've met who can answer that question."

Then she wrote about George Leonard Merritt.

Georgia/Florida Musgroves: Y-DNA Update

My father, Melvin Musgrove, took the Family Tree Y-DNA (FTDNA) test for the descendants of our great, great grandfather, John 'David' Musgrove, of Pierce County, Georgia. * (see relationship notes below)

Melvin and David Musgrove - 1959

Ballad of Little Musgrave: Minstrels

The battle started with a song. In 1066, the first fatal blow struck in William the Conqueror's take-over of England was by a minstrel.

"At the Battle of Hastings, Taillefer sang the Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland ed.) at the English troops while juggling with his sword. An English soldier ran out to challenge him and was killed by Taillefer, who then charged the English lines and was engulfed." Wikipedia

He's mostly lost to history, but the song he sang that day formed British society. It was number one in England for centuries. And it was the fuel that sent the Ballad of Little Musgrave to the Blackfriar's Theater in 1607. The vehicle? Minstrels, all the way down.

Ballad of Little Musgrave: Story

The Ballad of Little Musgrave:

"...is a Border ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a man and a woman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them." Wikipedia

Barnard Castle, Durham, England

An 'educated guess,' from Simon Fury on the Traditional Ballad Index website.

"Little Musgrave and Great Musgrave both still exist in Cumbria, in what used to be Westmorland... and are about 20 miles from Barnard Castle in County Durham. So what we have in the song IMHO is a simple bit of hanky-panky between the wife of the lord of Barnard Castle (the ancient seat of the de Balliol family) and a landowner in Little Musgrave."

We think he's almost right. We'll explore the historical characters and setting of this story in this post.

Ballad of Little Musgrave: Author

We are working on the assumption that The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard was based on a historical event; first written in the reign of Henry VIII. It was changed in James I of England's reign. This post asks who was there to write the original version.

Little Musgrave

The Musgraves were,

"A powerful family of Cumberland who had a long record of service to the English Crown, both as soldiers and March officers. ...One of the two 'greatest names' of the West Wardenry (the other was Salkfield), the Musgraves were constantly at feud on the Scottish side, and had a three century vendetta with their fellow Cumbrians, the Dacres."

Steel Bonnets page 63 Kindle Unlimited 

That's not their only feud with fellow Englishmen.

Ballad of Little Musgrave: Origin

We're blogging on the border Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard. It's a song about a love triangle between a Lord, his Lady and Little Musgrave. It ends violently. The background for this post is the historical setting of and the earliest text for this ballad we've previously established.

Holy Day Gathering

Ballad of Little Musgrave: Text

Our family surname is derived from Musgrave. We've posted on The Ballad of Little Musgrave. We believe some event is the basis for this ballad.

Our last post, on the historical setting, dated the events to the reign of King Henry VIII and his Reformation; the move from a Catholic to a Protestant England. In this post, we'll attempt to uncover the original story.

Ballad of Little Musgrave: History

                       

1930s AAA road sign preserved
on display in the village

The Ballad of Little Musgrave, known in the USA as Matty Groves:

...is a Border ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a man and a woman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. Wikipedia

Our Musgrove surname derives from Musgrave, a family from Great and Little Musgrave in Westmoreland - now incorporated by Cumbria -  on the English/Scottish border. More than just a great old ballad, this is part of our family's oral history. In this series of posts, we attempt to bring that perspective to the Ballad of Little Musgrave.

Ballad of Little Musgrave: Versions

Our Musgrove surname derives from the Musgraves of Cumbria, England. We've blogged about the 'Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard'; a tale of infidelity, passion, and murder.

 

'The Roud Folk Song Index contains over 300 instances of this ballad, and shows that the ballad has been collected mostly in North America: 113 versions listed in Roud were found in the USA, with the bulk in North Carolina (24), the Virginias (24), Kentucky (23), New England (16) and Tennessee (9). In Canada, 18 versions were found, the majority in Nova Scotia. Scotland produced 9 versions, and England; only 2.'  Wikipedia

In this post, we share a variety of musical versions of this song.

The Ballad of Little Musgrave

We've blogged about the Musgrave family's surname; their castles, their treasures and their legacy. We've explored their Border-Reiver heritage.

Ancient ruins and the Luck of Edenhall are the physical remains of the Musgrave clan. The Border-Reivers left their legacy on our language with the phrases 'Blackmail' and 'Red Handed.' But the real legacy of the border-reivers is their ballads.

This post is about The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.

The Musgraves: Border Reiver Clan

What do Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Billy Graham, and Neil Armstrong - the first man on the moon - have in common with the Musgroves? We all come from families along the English/Scottish border. These clan members were known as Border-Reivers.

L to R: Lyndon Johnson,
Richard Nixon and Billy Graham

Musgrave: Distinguished Surname

Our name, Musgrove, was originally Musgrave.

"This distinguished surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name deriving from a pair of villages near Kirkby Stephen in Westmorland, called Great and Little Musgrave." Surname Database

This post follows our Musgrove family's journey and what remains of their landmarks.