Comments on Francis West Esq.

Question

Any thoughts on detaching this Francis as the son of West-420?

On 11 Jun 2020 Traci Thiessen wrote on West-1685:

[[West-420|Francis West]] was dropped from the Jamestowne Society's list of Qualifying Ancestors because "primary records do not exist as far as we know for his children". See [http://www.jamestowne.org/added-and-dropped-ancestors.html Jamestowne.org]. Richardson states that Francis West-420 had a son Francis, but whether he married and had children is not proved. Regardless, Francis West-420 married his first wife by 1625 ... almost 2 decades after the birth of this Francis. Also, son Francis was under age 21 when his father's will was proved in 1634 (so son Francis was born after 1613). See ''Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers'' page 735 for other Francis Wests ([https://books.google.com/books?id=orDbMGpInaQC&pg=PA140#v=onepage&q=francis%20west&f=false Google Books]). I suggest detaching the parents of this Francis West.

Comments

And it's also exceedingly rare to see relationships between New England and Virginia. Unless they were mariners or actively engaged in trade along the eastern seaboard.

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(I swapped southern_pioneers for PGM since southern_pioneers is predominantly post-1776; and this particular profile appears to be PGM-era.)

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Francis West of Virginia was a mariner of sorts and in 1622 was named Admiral of New England.

Answer 1

I've wanted to have that link disconnected for years. It's not true, and it gives me all sorts of illustrious "ancestors" who aren't really mine.

Answer 2

I'm going to detach him as the son of Francis West and Margaret "Stitts". He can always be reattached to these parents if proof is found. Richardson and the Jamestown Society don't believe they should be connected and there is no primary proof.

Answer 3

Richardson states that Francis West of Virginia had a son Francis. Francis West of Virginia married his first wife before 1625/6. He would have been 40 years old in 1626 so presumably his marriage could have been as early as 1606 when he was 20 years old, a common age to marry at that time. The 1606 birth date for Francis of Duxbury is approximate and there are no known records of his birth.

Francis of Virginia left a will that was dated 17 December, 1629^[8] and in it he refers to his son Francis as being under 21 years, making his son's birth year after about 1608, not that different from the 1606 approximate birth date of Francis of Duxbury. 

Just making these points to show that, timeline-wise, it is entirely possibly for Francis of Duxbury to have been the son of Francis of Virginia, perhaps born out of wedlock.