Henry Dykes (died 7 Sep 1637, Virginia? or Sussex, England); did he actually exist?

Question

Today I adopted the orphaned profile of Henry Dykes who is said to have died on 07 September 1637 in Virginia or in Sussex, England.  It has been proposed that he be merged with William Dykes (Dykes-545).  However, because of the very different death dates (and perhaps different places), I made it a postponed match until I can get some feedback on this issue.  Any opinions on whether they are two separate men, or is Henry just a fabrication that should be merged with William Dykes?

Comments

I have researched as many sites as possible online including Ancestry, FamilySearch, Geni, etc. I am working on my uncle's genealogy and he descends from the Dykes family in Tennesse and North Carolina which led me to some kind of "iffy" connections to the Dykes Family of Warthall. I tend to think that someone placed a bogus connection of "Henry" Dykes or Dikes or Dawkes to the aristocratic family of Dykes. I have found it in multiple sites and other public trees but I don't see ANY Henry Dykes listed in the Dykes of Warthall pedigree that was published by the Vistations- The primary names in that family were William, Leonard and Thomas - all repeated in multiple generations. Then suddenly someone connected them to multiple generations of "Henrys". So I have to conclude that the Henry Dawkes or Dykes that came here had unknown origins in England. So I have left it there.... I believe there is a link on this site to the Vistation lineage that was published years ago...

Regards, Katie Werner Smith

Answer 1

Check this record:

Name:	Henry Dawkes
Arrival Year:	1608
Arrival Place:	Virginia
Primary Immigrant:	Dawkes, Henry
Source Publication Code:	6219
Annotation:	Date and place where land was patented and record was created listing those transported/imported. Only the names of those to be transported were indexed. Abstracted from Land Office records located at the Virginia State Library. See also source numbers 62
Source Bibliography:	NUGENT, NELL M. Cavaliers and Pioneers: A Calendar of Virginia Land Grants, 1623-1800. Vol. 1:1-6. Richmond, VA: Dietz Printing Co., [1929-1931. Although vol. 6 ends with the year 1695, no other volumes were published.]
Household Members:	Name Relation Henry Dawkes

Source Citation

Place: Virginia; Year: 1608; Page Number: 6

Source Information

Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2012.

Comments

As RJ mentions, contacting the Jamestown Foundation in James City County, VA will be helpful. I don't believe the parents listed on the profile (Thomas) is his father).

Answer 2

I added sources to his profile. I'm not sure Henry & William are the same person, but Mary( listed on William's profile) is Henry's sister.

Comments

Hi Doug,

     Excellent. Thank you for the work you did on his profile, and also for creating a profile for his son Henry Jr.  And thanks to Liz for her additions.

Answer 3

Old story.  Find your immigrant, then make a beeline for the richest family in England with the same name.  Or failing that, any vaguely similar name.

An attempt has been made to connect the Dawkeses of Virginia to the Dykeses of Cumberland using the Dyke family of Frant as a bridge.  None of those families are related.

Then the cake has been iced by marrying a Dyke (a yeoman) to an Earl's daughter.  I think that bit came from one of those newsletters - Monroe County Ancestor News or whatever.  But it's just an unsourced fantasy just-so story.

Comments

I guess that is why the profile for Henry's sister Mary ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dykes-97 ) lists those two Kent-Sussex parents as uncertain.  

If those parents are that uncertain, perhaps those two parents should now be disconnected.  Perhaps a new profile should be made for an "Unknown Dawkes" as father of Henry and sister Mary.

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Marie Daucks and Henry Dawkes, $4.95 each

https://historicjamestowne.org/product-category/genealogy-records/d/

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Story seems to be that William Dawkes claimed land in 1632 on his father's rights as an investor and ancient planter.

A Henry Dawkes is on the list of investors in the 1609 charter.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/va02.asp

But there are no Dawkeses in the census or the muster.

Nugent says Henry immigrated in 1608 but I don't see where that comes from.  There was a John Dauxe on the 2nd Supply list, according to this

http://www.virtualjamestown.org/census4a.html

But I doubt if many of the early settlers went back to England and reinvested, apart from John Smith.  Mostly they just died.

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Apparently in 1608 he got a bill of "personal adventure" to say he was going to Virginia, but there's no record of him sailing or ever being in Virginia, apart from his son's statement.

The 1609 charter list seems to include personal adventurers as well as investors, so he's probably on it on the strength of this 1608 document.

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A Henry Dikes is listed on the Primrose from Gravesend in 1635.  But he was presumably an actual Dikes.

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Not sure if this will help or not, but the source below mentions the ship "2nd Supply", saying that:  "Henry and Mary Dyke"Dawkes", each invested 25 pds and came on the ship, "2nd Supply" arriving in Jamestown in October 1608. 

Source:  https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/dyke/704/ 

The weblink doesn't seem to be working, but I found it by googling for "Henry Dawkes" 1637  and it was the third result (re: John Dike of England).

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https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/dyke/704/

but I don't believe much of it.  Starting with Thomas Smith being Captain John Smith's father.

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But now I'm wondering if the Dawkeses were only roped in as a bridge for some Dikeses.

And hey guess what, we have Puritans roped in as well

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dyke-497

Isabel Pennington married Thomas Dykes of Warthall and had Leonard.  They certainly didn't have Thomas Dyke of Kent.  Who John Edward is, I have no clue.  Probably two people, and one of them a Yorkshireman.

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Dyke baronets

https://books.google.com/books?id=7W4UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA608

https://books.google.com/books?id=6vzUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA5

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/dyke-sir-thomas-1619-69