Colonial Genealogy 



the old world did not nourish, but threatened to crush their 

 manliness, they came to the wilderness to show, on a back- 

 ground of ice, granite, and famine, that humble devotion to 

 duty, reverence for the right, and the vigorous will, will make 

 men masters of the world, and compel the storm winds, the 

 bleak shore, and the untamed forests to welcome and cherish 

 their spirits and ideas. 



Historically, as Dr. Charles W. Wendte has shown, 

 the Puritans were the ancestors of one third the popu- 

 lation of the United States a century later, and of nearly 

 one fifth today. From 1630 to 1635, 21,200 persons 

 (4000 families) came over from England "largely 

 country squires and yeomen, thrifty, industrious, deco- 

 rous, liberty-loving, and religious." To this day their 

 influence and institutions predominate in the civic, edu- 

 cational, and religious life of the American community. 



Studies of Puritan ancestry in New England show 

 clearly the effects of the law of primogeniture upon the 

 English people. The eldest sons of "good families" or of 

 the nobility naturally developed into Royalists and 

 Cavaliers; younger sons and daughters' sons, left without 

 inheritance, became as easily Roundheads, Dissenters, 

 and Puritans. The legend on one of Cromwell's battle 

 flags asked: "Why should the elder son have everything 

 and we nothing?" To put it another way, why should 

 "blue blood" be supposed to flow in the veins of the 

 first born only? 



Fortunately, those exposed to the deteriorating influ- 

 ences of ease and unearned power were few in number, 

 a conspicuous minority. The others became part of the 

 mass of commoners who have made England great. 

 Samuel Johnson once cynically observed that primo- 

 geniture is an excellent thing, as "it ensures that there 

 shall be but one fool in the family!" Happily it also 



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