27 June 2009

John Boyse of Halifax, Yorkshire, England - Ancestor of Mary Prudden, wife of Reverend Zechariah Walker of Boston

I left some loose ends in my New England ancestors because I was exhausting the resources I had available. Every once in a while I do a Google Book search to check if any new books had been added to Google Books containing information I'm seeking. I found some great information about Rev. John Boyse and his father, also named John Boyse. I found that John Boyse, the elder, was the son of a William Boyse. All three, son, father and grandson, were well-educated men.

Before I found this information, all I knew was that the younger Reverend John Boyse had a daughter, who married Reverend Peter Prudden, and their daughter, Mary Prudden married my great grandmother, Cecilia Walker's, ancestor, Zechariah Walker. I will try to update my genealogy pages sometime this summer, but until then, I wanted to add my new information here.


John Boyse, or Boys, whose share in the translation of the Bible and Sir Henry Saville's noble edition of Chrysoston, will always make his name remembered, was the grandson of a clothier at halifax, in Yorkshire. His father, William Boyse, was born at Halifax, educated at St. John's, Cambridge, and ultimately took up his residence in Nettleshead, in Suffolk, where his son, John Boyse, was born in 1560. He was sent in due time, like his father, to St. John's, where he became of the most learned scholars of his day, and was chief Greek Lecturer in the College ten years together. His eminence in learning caused him to be selected not merely as one of the translators of the Bible, but also of the committee of six who had to revise the whole translation. He was sone of the principal assistants of Sir Henry Saville in his edition of Chrysostom, printed at Eton College and published in 1613 in 8 volumes, folio.

Boyse became, afterward, Rector of Boxworth and Prebendary of Ely, and, continuing an indefatigable student to the last, died at a good old age in 1643. After his death, his "Veteris Interpretis cum Bez collatio" was published at London in 2655, and is a sufficient evidence of his erudition and critical skill. A biography of Boyse has been written by Dr. Anthony Walker, published for the first time in the Peck's Desiderat Lib. 8, folio ed., pp. 36-58.

Boyse married a wife of the name of Holt, but, "he minding nothing but his book, his wife, through want of age and experience not being able sufficiently to manage other things aright, he was, ere he was aware, fallen into debt; the weight whereof when he began to feel, he forthwith parted with his darling (I mean his library). This caused some discontent betwixt him and his wife; insomuch that I have heard that he did once intent to travel beyond the seas. But religion and conscience soon gave those thoughts the check, and made it be with him and his wife, as chirugeons say it is with a broken bone, if once well set the stronger for a fracture." He seems afterwards to have lived very happily with her. The worthy biographer's summing up on the occasion is admirable: "His own name and his wife's (before she married) were both by interpretation, one; Bois in French, and Holt in Dutch, signifying wood. And as he was here a pillar in God's house, a great plank in the ark, so I trust they are both now timber for the building of that house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

~ The Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington, pp. 96-97, footnote (2)



Halifax Parish Church

From Chapters on the Early Registers of Halifax Parish Church, p. 102:

1620 April 30 John Boies minister of Hallifax Church who gave by will beard date 14 Jul 1619, eight pounds to be lent to ye poore of Hallifax at ye discretion of his overseers who were Dr. Favou Will Boyse, his brother. John Boyse of Halifax, Humphrey Drake, Sam Lister, John Whitley and Will: Whitaker.

John Boyses' Will from p. 103:

His will was made 14 Jul 1619 and proved 8 Feb 1620/21, he being styled John Boyse of Halifax, preacher of God's word.

"I give the some of viijii, to be lent to the poore of Hallifax, at the discresation of my overseers, hereafter named, or the greater part of them : and I request that the be p'vision that may be, be made for the contynuance thereof. from tyme to tyme for ever. Item. I give to the poor of Elston where my land lyeth, ffortie shillinges."

He bequeathed the residue to his five daughters, equally. One third of all lands in Welburne and Edston, to descend to his elder son Samuel; and also another third, after the decease of his wife Johan. Out of the remaining third, £6 13s. 4d. a year for ten years, was to be paid to his five daughters, and the remained to his younger son John Boyse. He bequeathed £5, to his brother William Boyse, and 40s. to :-

"John Stawe of Biddingden, my wive's brother, if and when he shall come to Hallifax, to the comforting of my said wife."

From pages 103-104:

Jane Boyes of Halifax, widow, made her will 21 Jun 1630, which was proved 28 Apr 1631. She appointed the wardship of her son John; to her son-in-law Mr. Robert Symondes of Sowerby, her brother-in-law William Boyes, to thomas Bynnes and Humphrey Drake of Halifax, and to John Mitchell of Boothes towne. She bequeathed to her son-in-law Symonds, £80 which she promised him in marriage with her daughter, to be paid him in £20 a year, at every Christ tyde, during four yeares next comynge; to her daughters Sylence, Anna, and Joane, as much money as will make up their portions, left by their father, to £200 each; and the residue to her four daughter. She directed her:-
"son John to be brought up at learninge, yf that by and at the discretion of my said ffyve ffreindes before named, he shalbe found capable and fitt therunto, to whose wisdome and religious care, I refer the same.”

Halifax Parish Church -
Originally uploaded by pluralzed






22 June 2009

Life Since 2008, Part III, Genealogy

I'm still finishing up my Medieval genealogy, but I've reached a point where I've exhausted the resources at hand. It is amazing the obscure people I have found by searching through Google Books and British History Online. During the last few weeks of school, when life at work was pretty intense, I started finding people through the Victoria County Histories on British History Online, especially in the History of Lancaster. Having searched and read through the other Victoria County Histories, I have to say that the A History of the County of Lancaster is the best of the series. I must comment that this series was edited by a man named William Farrer whose name I often find as editor of various documents that came from the British Records Office. For me, his name signals a reliable source to search through.

Now I am afraid I'm near the end of such wonderful discoveries. I'm going back to people and places that I put aside because they were very frustrating for some reason or another. For some of these folks, say for instance Nichola le Bird, wife of Peter Bulkeley, the information was right there in Ormerod's History of Cheshire. I just hadn't scoured through the index as well as I should have the last time I was looking. It is always good to go back and look through records and the web pages I have for each individual because looking back through the Bulkeley line I found new ancestors I hadn't previously found, and I found some pretty horrific mistakes. Other places, I found that something made me lose focus, and I had left entries without sufficient sources.

Since I first started dabbling in genealogy, sometime around 2003, I have used a program called Legacy. I think I began with Legacy 3 with the current version being Legacy 7. I originally was drawn to Legacy because at the time it was the only genealogy program that also created web pages. My love for html and building web pages began in 1994 when I made my first home page. My passion for researching genealogy came much later.

Legacy has proven to be a great program and its creators keep adding lots of nice "bells and whistles" to each new upgrade. It holds far more people than I could ever enter in its data base. I love the way it keeps track of sources and its flexibility to set it up to the users needs as well as the users preferences. I have mine set up with the same background that I use for my genealogy web pages. Legacy even incorporated GIS technology so you can find where in the world your ancestors lived. It would take pages to describe all the tools and uses for Legacy, in fact I'm not sure I have even begun to utilize all the great tools it has. I recommend downloading the it for trial and playing with it for a while.

I love the fact that Legacy will generate 1000s of web pages in about ten minutes, especially since I keep updating my pages. One problem is that the numbering on my source pages changes as I add new sources, which requires that I edit each new page. I don't mind this since as I said my love for html hasn't dwindled over the years. Of course if I just uploaded all new pages I wouldn't have this problem. Again, I love html, and since my second set of web page outputs, I've been editing pages and including photos. It just is easier for me to edit the new pages.

Here are some screen clips I took of my Legacy program:




Pedigree view starting with Me


Descendant view showing the descendants
of Franciso Muños - Notice that the
Sánchez de Iñigo family began in New México
with Fray Francisco Muñoz, a Franciscan priest



Family view showing my father's parents



Location Widow open and showing
Cartaya, Andulucia, España where my
ancestor Francisco Vásquez was born.



SMiLeS

I'm just putting this here so I can always find it when I need something to make me smile.





19 June 2009

Life Since 2008, Part II, Gatos

Our three feral cats, Sophie, Juan and Nambe, have survived another winter. They have been sticking close by since we have made sure to make our front yard and garage hospitable for them. We wanted to ensure that they would have a safe place, and we make sure to provide them with plenty to eat. Often, they will sleep on our front porch in a chair my husband sits when he is outside. They are there in the morning when I leave for work, and they come out to see me when I come home for work. When we open the door, they love to visit with Pojaoque (a.k.a. Pokie), Laguna (a.k.a. Goony) and Cassie (a.k.a. Casita). They even will come to my door to look inside if they hear my voice. Despite their closeness with Jim, our cats and myself, they still are feral cats.


Feral cats, Nambe & Sophie looking in at Pojaoque & Laguna

Jim and I both would love to hold or get close enough to pet our feral cats. Juan is the shiest, and he always maintains his distance. Sophie and Nambe are the least shy. Nambe especially will let me get very close, as long as I don't get closer than about two feet or dare to reach out to him. I've been madly in love with this cat since I first set eyes on him. I worry about all our feral cats, and loving them can be very painful. Juan's fraternal sisters disappeared sometime last autumn, which was was miserable for us.

Recently this spring, Nambe disappeared for a while, but finally came out to eat, all the while with one of his eyes closed. I knew he had a corneal abrasion. I had one once that I suffered from and Tesuque, one of my earlier cats had one too. There is nothing to do but let time heal. Trying to capture Nambe and dragging him off to a vet, if we could find one who would deal with feral cats, was probably going to be more traumatic than letting time heal his eye. It didn't mean that I didn't suffer along with him. A few weeks later, Juan disappeared, later to show up with a chunk of hair off his backside where he was bitten. The wound was healing and looked good, but again, it is miserable that we can't get close enough to pet them an do something to help make them feel better.


Laguna climbing up the screen in the backyard


Our house cats own the backyard. We put a high fence in our backyard to keep our cats in when Jim and I brought our two household of cats together. We wanted to give the five "his and my" cats more space. Of those five, Cassie is the last surviving cat. At fourteen years of age, she is still very healthy and has adapted to the new comers, despite the fact that they are annoyingly young. Pojaoque is about two years and Laguna is about one year old. We love them all so much, and even though they never can replace the ones we loved and lost, they have become the sun and moon for us both.





Cassie trying to reclaim her spot on the futon


17 June 2009

Life since 2008, Part I, Teaching

It is in the middle of June, and I’m think I’m totally rested and ready to return to school. It usually takes me an entire month longer. I’m not sure why this summer is different. Maybe the fact that this past school year was less stressful than the few previous school years were. I wasn’t conflicting with the administration as much, which is great. Overall, all my students were wonderful, which I might add, AS USUAL! Or maybe it was all the green tea I was drinking this year.

One day I saw Bonnie, a fellow teacher about my age, smiling and relaxed. I asked her what made her look so happy and relaxed. Her answer was green tea. So I started drinking green tea every morning and every afternoon. I already take a handful of vitamins and supplements, and I firmly believe they help me stay well and keep going straight from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. or later. Between the flu shot, the vitamins & supplements and the Green Tea, I was healthy all school year.

Anyone who spends their days with 12 and 13-year-old people will probably agree with me that they can be very challenging. I should add exciting, fun and never boring. Oh yes, and frustrating. Not everyone should work with kids this age, but there are those of us who thrive doing so. It takes patience, a lot of love and a strange sense of humor. It takes faith that no matter how unlikely it seems, somehow your work is meaningful no matter what parent yelled at that day, or student who tells you they hate you, or even an administrator who is angry because they want “easy” & you prefer “right” over “easy.”

This year I had some twelve-year-old female screamers. Every once in a while I’ll have a girl in the seventh grade that screams when she interacts, but this year I had three in a class. Screamers always remind me of María, a student of mine who was in my class over 15 years ago. As a seventh grader she drove me nuts because the only way I could interact with her was with mutual screaming. I wondered if there are some people who need to be yelled at for assurance that they are cared about. A big part of it is being twelve and having hormones bouncing around that one isn’t use to yet.

María ended up being in my eighth grade U.S. class the next year. I held my breath as I saw her walk into my class at the beginning of our second year together. She was one of the best eighth grade students I’ve ever had. If one of my students even started giving me a hard time, María was right there scolding them to not disrespect Ms. López. I love you María. I was already about halfway through my teaching career, yet I learned so much from you.

I don’t usually like to write about my job, especially in the middle of the school year and to anyone who happens upon CyBeRGaTa the BLoG. I just left school this year, my 34½ year, feeling so positive. No matter how tough the end of the year is, and containing twenty-seven twelve and thirteen year old people in a classroom with summer break around the corner is pretty tough, the end of the year is great when your students have been working hard and learned so much.

Anyone who teaches knows the feeling. The feeling when a student comes back and remembers how cool it was learning about the Aztecs or Benjamin Franklin. The feeling when a student with a puzzled look on their face asks a great question, and you reply with a question, then the look on their face when the question makes them see the answer, and maybe beyond. The feeling when a student tells you they did “better than the smart kids” on a test in high school because of what they learned in your class. Or looking at your students, all engaged in what they are doing. Or when a student tells you that they never realize how many cool things happened here in New Mexico. My father, also a teacher, called this feeling a “physic paychecks.” I call it the reason teachers keep coming back year after year after year.

Holloween as an Alien at Taylor Middle
School, late 1970s or early 1980s.


Me at Jefferson Middle School,
late 1980s early 1990s.



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