Our Family Connection: the Neale Family and the Cromwell Family through the marriage of John I Neale to Anna Cromwell, cousin of Oliver Cromwell… -Historic Figure of the English Civil War - [“Rebels” which included the Parliamentarians and the Puritans, against the “Royalists” -King Charles I] he became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England…
House of Cromwell Lineage:
William ap Yeven 1443-1468 m: Joan Tudor 1453-1479
House of Cromwell Lineage:
William ap Yeven 1443-1468 m: Joan Tudor 1453-1479
Morgan Williams 1479-1517 m: Katherine Cromwell 1483 - 1517
*Great-Great-Grandfather of Oliver Cromwell -Cromwell.org
Richard Williams aka Cromwall 1495-1550 m: Frances Murlfn 1509-1533 (m: 1518)
*Great-Grandfather of Oliver Cromwell -Cromwell.org
Richard Williams aka Cromwell b. 1502, Llanishen, Glamorganshire,Wales. d. 10/29/1544. He was eldest son and heir to Morgan Williams, an aspiring Welsh lawyer who moved from Glamorgan to Putney where he initially pursued his business of innkeeper and brewer. Williams' good fortune was to marry Katherine, the elder sister of Thomas Cromwell long before the commencement of latter's illustrious career as Henry VIII's great minister. In later life, Williams and his son would benefit financially from this relationship, receiving substantial landholdings confiscated from the church.
In 1541, he was appointed High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, he was also returned to parliament for Huntingdonshire [1542]. In this year Henry VIII gave him a grant of the monastery of St Mary's, in the town of Huntington, and St Neots Priory...
War in France: In 1543, Sir Richard was made one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber... A war breaking out with France in this year, he was sent over to that kingdom, as general of the infantry... This force, amounted to 6,000 men, having crossed the sea, marched out to Calais, to join the Emperor Charles V on 22 July in an attempt to retake Landrecies, which had lately been wrested from that monarch by the French King...
Sir Richard died on 10/29/1544. He had made his will on 6/20/1544, in which he styles himself Sir Richard Williams, otherwise called Sir Richard Cromwell, Knight and of his majesty's privy chamber, he directed his body should be buried in the place where he should die; and devises his estates in the counties of Cambridge, Huntington, Lincoln, and Bedford, to his eldest son Henry... his estates in Glamorganshire he devises to his son Francis... He also left three of his best great horses to the king, and the one other great horse to Lord Cromwell... His will was proved 11/28/1546.
Noble 1787, pp. 11,12 explains that the reason for Sir Richard Williams, the great grandfather of Oliver Cromwell, changing his name, from Williams to Cromwell. Henry VIII strongly recommended it to the Welsh (whom he incorporated with the English) to adopt the English practice in taking family names, instead of their manner of adding their father's, and perhaps grandfather's name to their own Christian one with nap or ap, as Morgan ap William, or Rich, ap Morgan ap William; i.e. Rich, the son of Morgan the son of Will, and the king was the more anxious as it was found so inconvenient in identifying persons in judicial matters. For these reasons, the Welsh, about this time, dropped the ap in many of their names; or, if it could be done with convenience as to pronunciation, left out the a, and joined the p to their father's Christian name (Camden's remains; from which it appears that many Christian names were appropriated to families; for the reasons above "we have the Williams's, Lewis's, Morgans, etc. etc. without number, and, by joining the p, the Pritchards, Powels, Parrys, i.e. ap Richard, ap Howell, ap Harry, etc. etc). Thus Mr Morgan ap William, Sir Richard's father, seems, from the pedigree, to have taken the family name of Williams; but, as the surname of Williams was of so late standing, his majesty recommended it to Sir Richard, to use that of Cromwell, in honour of his uncle Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, whose present greatness entirely obliterated his former meanness (Various lives of Oliver, lord protector, etc. as also Miss Cromwell's pedigree); and it is observable, that Sir Richard's brothers also changed their name to Cromwell (Will of Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell, prerogative-office, London, Allan 20. Pedigree of the Williams's, alias Cromwells, Harl. M.S.S. vol. 1174, and Harl. M.S.S. vol. 4135). Thus did the Williams's take, or super-add the surname of Cromwell to that of Williams; and, in almost all their deeds and wills, they constantly wrote themselves Williams, alias Cromwell, down to the seventeenth century.
Noble 1787, pp. 11,12 explains that the reason for Sir Richard Williams, the great grandfather of Oliver Cromwell, changing his name, from Williams to Cromwell. Henry VIII strongly recommended it to the Welsh (whom he incorporated with the English) to adopt the English practice in taking family names, instead of their manner of adding their father's, and perhaps grandfather's name to their own Christian one with nap or ap, as Morgan ap William, or Rich, ap Morgan ap William; i.e. Rich, the son of Morgan the son of Will, and the king was the more anxious as it was found so inconvenient in identifying persons in judicial matters. For these reasons, the Welsh, about this time, dropped the ap in many of their names; or, if it could be done with convenience as to pronunciation, left out the a, and joined the p to their father's Christian name (Camden's remains; from which it appears that many Christian names were appropriated to families; for the reasons above "we have the Williams's, Lewis's, Morgans, etc. etc. without number, and, by joining the p, the Pritchards, Powels, Parrys, i.e. ap Richard, ap Howell, ap Harry, etc. etc). Thus Mr Morgan ap William, Sir Richard's father, seems, from the pedigree, to have taken the family name of Williams; but, as the surname of Williams was of so late standing, his majesty recommended it to Sir Richard, to use that of Cromwell, in honour of his uncle Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, whose present greatness entirely obliterated his former meanness (Various lives of Oliver, lord protector, etc. as also Miss Cromwell's pedigree); and it is observable, that Sir Richard's brothers also changed their name to Cromwell (Will of Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell, prerogative-office, London, Allan 20. Pedigree of the Williams's, alias Cromwells, Harl. M.S.S. vol. 1174, and Harl. M.S.S. vol. 4135). Thus did the Williams's take, or super-add the surname of Cromwell to that of Williams; and, in almost all their deeds and wills, they constantly wrote themselves Williams, alias Cromwell, down to the seventeenth century.
Henry Williams aka Cromwell 1535-1604, m: Joan Warren 1545-1585
Grandfather of Oliver Cromwell -Cromwell.org
Sir Henry Williams, of Welsh descent, the eldest son and heir of Sir Richard Williams, was highly
esteemed by Queen Elizabeth I, who knighted him in 1563, and did him the honour of sleeping at his seat of Hinchingbrooke, on 18 August 1564, upon her return from visiting the University of Cambridge.
 |
| Hinchingbrooke House 1787 |
He was in the House of Commons in 1563, as one of the Knights of the Shire for Huntingdonshire, and was four times appointed Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingtonshire, by Elizabeth, viz. in the 7, 13, 22, and 34 years for her reign...
 |
| Hinchingbrooke House 2007 |
He was buried at All Saints' Church, in Huntington, 1/7/1604. An indication of the funeral pomp used at his interment can be found by the charges of the heralds, which were the same as those incurred at the burial of some of the greatest knights of his day.
[Author] Mark Noble stated that Sir William was called, from his liberality, the "golden knight"; and reported that in Ramsey it was said, that whenever Sir Henry came from Hinchingbrooke to that place, he threw considerable sums of money to the poor townsmen.
Married Joan Warren, daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, twice Lord Mayor of London; she died at Hinchingbrooke, and was buried at All Saints’ church, 1584.
- son, Robert Cromwell (1567-1617) married Elizabeth Steward (1560-1654) and they were the parents of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England, Scots, and Ireland.
- son, Henry Philip Cromwell 1567-1630 married Eluzai Jones 1567-1619; the daughter of Henry and Eluzai, Anna Cromwell 1618-1651 married John Neale 1612-1680 **the Neale and Cromwell Connection**
Lord Protector of England, Scots, and Ireland. Oliver Cromwell b. 4/25/1599, Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, England d. 9/3/1658 http://www.olivercromwell.org/faqs1.htm Cromwell was not directly descended from Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell, who was elevated to the earldom of Essex but was condemned and executed in 1540 when he fell from favour, though he was connected to him via Thomas’s sister. Oliver’s great-great-grandfather, Morgan Williams, had married Thomas Cromwell’s sister Katherine in 1497. Their three sons, Richard, another Richard and Walter, began the practice of calling themselves Cromwell in place of their true surname of Williams, in honour of their famous maternal uncle. Most of their descendants, in turn, used the surname Cromwell, or occasionally Williams-alias-Cromwell. After the Restoration, when it may have been unwise to be seen to have close links with Oliver Cromwell, some members of the family reverted for a time to calling themselves Williams, though generally just as a temporary measure.
The elder of the two Richards who were the sons of Morgan Williams and Katherine Cromwell was later knighted and had two sons, Henry and Francis, both of whom used the surname Cromwell. Henry, himself in due course knighted, had eleven children by his first wife (six sons and five daughters), most of whom survived into adulthood, married and had children of their own. Robert Cromwell (d 1617) was one of the younger sons of Sir Henry; he married Elizabeth, daughter of William Steward (d 1594).
Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth had ten children...Their eldest son was called Henry, presumably in honour of Robert’s own father, but he died soon after birth in 1595. Thus when their second son was born in 1599 and was christened Oliver, presumably in honor of Robert’s eldest brother Sir Oliver, he became the eldest surviving son and heir of Robert. A younger brother, Robert junior, was born in 1609 but he, too, quickly died. Thus in practice Oliver was effectively an only son, as he was the one son of Robert and Elizabeth to survive infancy. Young Oliver grew to manhood in a female-dominated environment, for while he had no surviving brothers and his father died quite young in 1617, his widowed mother (who lived on until the mid 1650s, but never remarried) became for a time head of a household which included seven growing daughters, sisters to young Oliver.
Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth had ten children...Their eldest son was called Henry, presumably in honour of Robert’s own father, but he died soon after birth in 1595. Thus when their second son was born in 1599 and was christened Oliver, presumably in honor of Robert’s eldest brother Sir Oliver, he became the eldest surviving son and heir of Robert. A younger brother, Robert junior, was born in 1609 but he, too, quickly died. Thus in practice Oliver was effectively an only son, as he was the one son of Robert and Elizabeth to survive infancy. Young Oliver grew to manhood in a female-dominated environment, for while he had no surviving brothers and his father died quite young in 1617, his widowed mother (who lived on until the mid 1650s, but never remarried) became for a time head of a household which included seven growing daughters, sisters to young Oliver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell Oliver Cromwell. Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. (1649)
Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599, to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. He descended from Katherine Cromwell (born c. 1482), an elder sister of Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485–1540), a leading minister of Henry VIII, whose family acquired considerable wealth by taking over monastery property during the Reformation. Katherine married Morgan ap William, son of William ap Yevan of Wales. The family line continued through Richard Williams, alias Cromwell, (c. 1500–1544), then to Oliver's father Robert Cromwell (c. 1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward (c. 1564–1654), probably in 1591. They had ten children; Oliver, the fifth child, was the only boy to survive infancy. Cromwell was also a distant relation of the Tudor Royal family and through them the Welsh Royal Family through his descent from Jasper Tudor through his younger daughter, Joan Tudor, as shown in the Genealogy of the Tudors. Jasper was the uncle of Henry VII and granduncle of Henry VIII.
Cromwell's paternal grandfather, Sir Henry Williams, was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwell's father Robert was of modest means but still a part of the gentry class. As a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes. Cromwell himself in 1654 said "I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity". He [Oliver Cromwell] was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St John's Church.
Other Resources for Hinchingbrooke House in Huntington
Blog Posts for Stephens/Stevens Family: http://gray-adamsfamily.blogspot.com/2016/07/blog-posts-for-stephensstevens-family.html (Jody Gray) created this Blog Post to provide links to all Blog Posts related to the Stephens/Stevens Family. The Gray-Piper Family Tree Trunk - The Stevens Family is connected to the Piper Family. Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599, to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. He descended from Katherine Cromwell (born c. 1482), an elder sister of Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485–1540), a leading minister of Henry VIII, whose family acquired considerable wealth by taking over monastery property during the Reformation. Katherine married Morgan ap William, son of William ap Yevan of Wales. The family line continued through Richard Williams, alias Cromwell, (c. 1500–1544), then to Oliver's father Robert Cromwell (c. 1560–1617), who married Elizabeth Steward (c. 1564–1654), probably in 1591. They had ten children; Oliver, the fifth child, was the only boy to survive infancy. Cromwell was also a distant relation of the Tudor Royal family and through them the Welsh Royal Family through his descent from Jasper Tudor through his younger daughter, Joan Tudor, as shown in the Genealogy of the Tudors. Jasper was the uncle of Henry VII and granduncle of Henry VIII.
Cromwell's paternal grandfather, Sir Henry Williams, was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwell's father Robert was of modest means but still a part of the gentry class. As a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes. Cromwell himself in 1654 said "I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity". He [Oliver Cromwell] was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St John's Church.
Other Resources for Hinchingbrooke House in Huntington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinchingbrooke_House Hinchingbrooke House - after the Reformation it passed into the hands of the Cromwell family…
http://www.hinchhouse.org.uk/crom/crom.html Hinchingbrooke House and Cromwell… Sir Oliver Cromwell, uncle of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was the last owner of Hinchingbrooke. The Priory closed, in 1538 Richard Williams ada Cromwell received a royal grant of the priory with its “church, steeple, churchyard and house and all lands.” Sir Richard’s father Morgan Williams had married Katherine Cromwell but Richard took the Cromwell name as a tribute to Katherine’s family. Katherine’s brother was Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex, executed in 1540. (Sir Richard does not seem to have lived at Hinchingbrooke.)xxx
