Thomas West (1577 - 1618)

Born 9 Jul 1577 in England

Ancestors

Husband of Cecily (Shirley) West — married about 25 Nov 1596 in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West Church, London, England

Descendants

Died 7 Jun 1618 at age 40 in Port La Hève, Acadia, Nouvelle France

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Biography

Birth and Parentage

Thomas West, Knt., 3rd Lord La Warr (or De La Warr), second but first surviving son and heir of Thomas West, Knt., 2nd Lord La Warr (or De La Warr) and Anne Knolles (or Knollys, Knowles), was born 9 July 1577 and baptised at Wherwell, Hampshire.^[1][2][3][4]

Life

Thomas studied at Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating 9 March 1591/2 and obtaining a M.A. degree 30 August 1605.^[1][3][4]

In 1597/8 he was one of the burgesses representing Lymington, Hampshire in the House of Commons.^[1][3][4][5] He went on to serve with the forces of the Earl of Essex in Ireland^[4][5] and was knighted by the Earl in Dublin, Ireland on 12 July 1599.^[1][3][4][5] He sided with the Earl of Essex during his 1602 rebellion, and was briefly imprisoned when the rebellion failed,^[4][5] securing his freedom by giving a bond for £2000 and, subsequently, paying a fine of 1000 marks.^[5]

Following his father's death in 1602 he became 3rd Baron de la Warr,^[4] though he had some difficulty gaining full possession of his inheritance.^[5] He served as a Privy Councillor^[1] to both Elizabeth I and James I.^[4]

In 1605 his estates were seized for non-payment of a bond given to Queen Elizabeth I,^[1] which he had entered into as part of the price of securing his release in 1601.^[5]

From 1606 he was closely involved with Virginia. On 20 November 1606 he was appointed to the King's Council for Virginia.^[4] On 28 February 1609/10 the Virginia Company appointed him the first Lord Governor and Captain General of Virginia^[1][3] for life.^[4] He reached Virginia, at the end of June 1610, at a point when the colony was in a serious struggle to survive.^[1][4] During his governorship the future of Virginia became more secure.^[4] But ill-health meant that he spent only eleven months there, much of it aboard a ship, suffering from sickness, and he returned to England in 1611,^[1][4] with Deputy Governors taking over.^[4] To reassure investors, the Virginia Company issued an explanation by him of the reasons for his unexpected return.^[4]

His name appears on The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23, 1609.

In 1618 he left England to deal with a political crisis in Virginia,^[4] but died at sea on 7 June 1618^[3] off Port La Have, Nova Scotia.^[1] His Inquisition Post Mortem was held at Andover 3 April 1619.^[3] On 1 July 1620 his widow was granted the administration of his estate,^[1] his son Henry, aged 14, succeeding him.^[5] Cecily, his widow, was buried at Wherwell, Hampshire 31 July 1662.^[1][3]

Marriage and Children

On 25 November 1596 Thomas married Cecily Shirley at St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London (see Research Note, below).^[1] Cecily was the 6th and youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley^[4] of Winston, Sussex, and his wife, Anne Kempe.^[1][3] They had one son and six daughters:

• Henry,^[5] Knt., 4th Lord La Warr (or De La Warr),^[1] born 3 October 1603, died 1 June 1628, married Isabella Edmunds, heir was son, Charles^[3]
• Jane^[1]
• Elizabeth^[1]
• Anne^[1]
• Cecily, wife of Sir Francis Bindloss and of Sir John Byron, 1st Lord Byron of Rochdale^[1]
• Lucy, wife of Sir Robert Byron^[1]
• Catherine^[1]

None of their children seems to have settled in North America.^[1]

Legacy

The State of Delaware is named after the River Delaware, which itself was named after him.^[6]

Research Notes

Sir Philip Sidney's Funeral

Tudor Place states that Thomas was one of the bearers of Sir Philip Sidney's bier in 1587.^[7] This is extremely unlikely to be true. Thomas was only ten at the time, too young to be a pallbearer. The bearers of the coffin were some of Philip Sidney's yeomen, not relatives. Though a Thomas West was one of the mourners' assistants in the elaborate State funeral procession,^[8] this was probably the father of the Thomas of this profile.

Date of Marriage

Cokayne, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and History of Parliament Online give the date of his marriage to Cecily Shirley as 25 November 1602;^[3][4][5] Douglas Richardson, as 25 November 1596.^[1]

Questionable Children

A daughter Alice, wife of Thomas Lake Harris, has previously been attached to Thomas. There appears to be no sourcing to support the relationship, and she has been detached. There were two, duplicate, profiles for her on 13 June 2019: West-1333 and West-1603. The profile at West-1603 makes clear the lack of information about Alice's parentage. ~ Note by Michael Cayley, 13 June 2019

When accessed on 12 June 2020, Wikipedia^[9] listed two other children:

• Robert, husband of Elizabeth Coch, with no live link to a source
• Martha, wife of William Woodward, with a footnote that the source is not reliable

Matachana and Totopotomoi

FindAGrave,^[10] some trees on the web, and an unsourced pedigree in a 2014 book called Shawnee Heritage IV^[11] suggest that Thomas West entered into a relationship with Matachanna Powhatan and that they were parents of Totopotomoi (Pamunkey) Powhatan. There is no good evidence to support these claims. See Totopotomoi's profile for more information.

DNA Notes

Type: Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1b2 per the West Y-DNA project, proved through his nephew Francis West born 1606.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), volume IV, pp. 326-327, WEST 15.ii
2. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013), vol. V, pages 354-355, WEST 15.ii (same data as MCA).
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10} George Edward Cokayne and Vicary Gibbs ed. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. IV: Dacre - Dysart, 2nd edition. (London, 1916). Online at Archive.org, pages 160-161, DE LA WARR XII.
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17} J. Frederick Fausz. "West, Thomas, third Baron De La Warr (1577–1618)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography', (4 Oct 2008). Online with subscription at ODNB, accessed 12 Jun 2020.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9} History of Parliament Online, West, Thomas III
6. ↑ Wikipedia: Delaware.
7. ↑ Tudor Place, entry for Thomas West
8. ↑ Malcolm William Wallace. The Life of Sir Philip Sidney. (Cambridge: University Press, 1915). Online at Archive.org, page 396.
9. ↑ Wikipedia: Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
10. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #137571059
11. ↑ Don Greene. Shawnee Heritage IV, self-published on lulu.com, 2014, p. 387, Google Books

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City: the author, 2011. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013. See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry.
• Cokayne, George Edward and Vicary Gibbs ed. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. IV: Dacre - Dysart, 2nd edition. (London, 1916). Online at Archive.org, pages 160-161, DE LA WARR XII.
• Fausz, J. Frederick. "West, Thomas, third Baron De La Warr (1577–1618)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography', (4 Oct 2008). Online with subscription at ODNB, accessed 12 Jun 2020.

See also:

• Pedigrees from the Visitation of Hampshire, (Harleian Society, 1913). Online at Archive.org, pages 58-59.
• Wickwire, Arthur Manley. Genealogy of the Wickware Family, ( New York and Meriden: Curtiss-Way Co., 1909). Online at Archive.org, pages 31-32.
• Brown, Alexander. Sir Thomas West, Third Lord De La Warr, in Magazine of American History, Vol. 9 no. 1 (Jan 1883), pp. 18-30, Internet Archive. A revised list of children was given by Brown in a later issue: Vol. 9 no. 6 (Jun 1883), pp. 462-464, Internet Archive. This is said to be a verbatim transcription of a family document, the "Bennet Roll", and now shows two daughters called Anne, but only one called Elizabeth. This same list was given by Brown, with his own footnotes added, in The Genesis of the United States, Houghton, Mifflin and Co, Vol. II, 1897, p. 1045, Internet Archive.
• Brown, Alexander. "West, Thomas", in Genesis of the United States, Vol. 2, page 1048.
• Letter of Lord Delaware to the Patentees (after his arrival in Virginia), in Strachey's The History of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, ed. Major, Hakluyt Society (1849), p. xxiii.

Acknowledgements

See the Changes tab for details of edits to this profile. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed and approved for the Magna Carta Project 12 June 2020 by Thiessen-117.

Thomas West, along with his siblings Francis West, John West, Nathaniel West, and Elizabeth (West) Saltonstall, are listed in Richardson's Magna Carta Ancestry as Gateway Ancestors (I:xxiii-xxix "List of Colonial Immigrants") and are in trails badged by the Magna Carta Project in May 2015 (and re-reviewed in June 2020) to surety barons William de Mowbray, Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, John de Lacy, Saher de Quincy, Hugh le Bigod and Roger Bigod. The trails are outlined in the Magna Carta Trails section of John West's profile.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".