Ralph Wormeley (bef. 1616 - bef. 1651)

Born before 1616 in England

Ancestors

Husband of Agatha (Eltonhead) Chicheley — married 13 Jul 1645 in Northampton Co, Virginia

Descendants

Died before 16 Sep 1651 at about age 35 in Rosegill, Lancaster County (Middlesex in 1669), Virginia Colony

Biography

Ralph Wormeley was born in England.

Ralph Wormeley is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society

Ralph Wormeley was a Virginia colonist.

Captain Ralph Wormeley

Uncertain Origin

Ralph Wormeley, the immigrant, is said to have descended from Sir John de Wormeley of Hadfield, Yorkshire.^[1] Crozier falls short of identifying his parents, though he does call Ralph's son "Ralph Wormeley, 3rd." This error may have originated with Sir William Dugdale’s Wormeley family tree of 1666, and was then repeated by Crozier.

Dugdale did show him in his Eltonhead of Lancashire family tree, as the son of an earlier Ralph Wormeley of Yorkshire, but this could well have been a mistake by the head of the Eltonhead household who supplied the information. There is no other known evidence for any Ralph Wormeleys living in Britain in that time.^[2]

Some of the earlier authors report Ralph was a brother of Christopher Wormeley and Henry Wormeley.

However, more recent research by Nick and Kevin Wormley, question this ancestry. Ralph may have been a son of Christopher Wormeley (who married to Mary Adams in 1619), "perhaps by an earlier marriage in York?"^[2] Christopher Wormeley was at Tortuga as a privatier, and subsequently lived at York County in Virginia where he was justice of York County from 1636 to April 1642, was appointed to Charles I’s Council of Virginia in January 1637, and the Calendar of State Papers for that year show Colonel (sic) Christopher Wormeley as the military head of Middlesex County, Virginia.^[2] He was in command of Point Comfort Fort, near Jamestown, from 1637 to 1639; in 1639 and 1640, he was Commander-in-Chief of Elizabeth City and Charles River (York) Counties.^[2]

Christopher Wormeley's father died in 1589. Therefore, if Ralph was Christopher’s brother he would have been in his late 50's when he was married, and his son and heir would have been born when he was in his 60's. This seems doubtful, as Nick and Kevin Wormley point out, "he was wealthy and no doubt eligible in his younger years."^[2]

Christopher Wormeley's second known daughter, Elizabeth, married three times: first to the Secretary of State and Governor of Virginia Richard Kemp, secondly to Sir Thomas Lunsford, member of the Virginia Council, and third to Major General Robert Smith. "These marriages made her a Dame and one of the most important women then living in North America."^[2]

The belief that Ralph was Christopher's brother has been based on Richard Kemp’s will (who was the first husband of Elizabeth (Wormeley) (Kemp) in which Ralph was called "Uncle Ralph." The "Uncle" is usually believed to refer to Kemp's wife, Elizabeth, but his daughter was also named Elizabeth. If Ralph Wormeley was Kemp's daughter's uncle, then this interpretation would mean he was Christopher Wormeley's son.^[2]

No record of Ralph Wormeley has been found in England.^[2]

Ralph was probably born before 1616, probably at England. This date is based on his tenure as Justice in the Virginia court beginning in 1637 (when he must have been an adult).

Immigrated to York County, Virginia

There is no record of Ralph Wormeley's immigration, however he is said to have arrived about 1636 in Virginia,^[3] The first record of him anywhere was in 1637, when he was a justice in the Virginia court at York County.^[2] Ralph settled on the York River in 1639, "the first Wormeley to represent the prominent family" in the Virginia Colony.^[3]

Associations

Ralph Wormeley named in his will, his "dear friends and relations," Edmund Jenings , Robert Carter, Thomas and Gawin Corbin, and Edwin Thacker." As stated by Edmund Berkeley, "Wormeley's "dear friends" were complicated."

Wormeley and the Corbins were first cousins as their mothers were sisters, Alice and Agatha Eltonhead. A third Eltonhead sister, Eleanor, was Robert Carter's father's second (of five) wife. Gawin Corbin was also Wormeley's son-in-law, having married his daughter Katherine. Edmund Jenings was married to another daughter, Frances. Edwin Thacker was a cousin of Wormeley's through the Eltonheads.^[4]

Marriage and Children

Ralph Wormeley married before 18 September 1647 to Agatha (Eltonhead) Stubbins, daughter of Richard Eltonhead of Eltonhead, Lancashire, England,^[3] and widow of her 1st, Luke Stubbins of Northampton County.^[5] After Ralph Wormeley's death, Agatha married, as her 3rd, before 7 May 1653, to Henry Chichley, Knight, of Rappahannock, Lancaster County, and Rosegill, Virginia, later Governor of Virginia.^[5][1][6]

Ralph and Agatha had two sons:^[6]

1. William died young
2. Ralph of "Rosegill," Middlesex County, Va., b 1650, April 7, 1701 will proved, matriculated to Oriel College, Oxford, on July 14, 1665, was burgess for Middlesex in 1674, also a member of the council and Secretary of State for Virginia in 1693; mar Elizabeth.

Virginia Government and House of Burgesses

Ralph Wormeley^[7] served as a justice for York County in 1637 and in 1649.^[3] He was elected to the House of Burgesses for York County in October 1649 and was appointed by the King to the Virginia Council in 1650.^[6]

Rosegill, Lancaster County (Middlesex in 1669), Virginia

About 1642 or 1643, Christopher Wormeley, died and having no male heir (or no other male heir?), left his sizable Virginia estate to (brother or son?), Ralph. In 1649, Ralph was living near the present Yorktown on a coastal inlet near Rosegill Plantation, called "Wormeley's Creek."^[3]

Only two years before his death, Ralph patented the 3200 acres he inherited and relocated his family to Rosegill, in Lancaster (later Middlesex) County, located on the south side of the Rappahannock River along Urbanna Creek.^[8] There he built the grandest house in the colony at the time.

Interestingly, the Hurworth Wormeleys owned a remote manor house near Shap, on the edge of the Lake District, Westmorland (nowadays Cumbria), called Rosgill or Rosegill Hall. This manor was confiscated from the Hurworth Wormeleys in the 1640s as a punishment, because they were Catholics. Another connection is that Captain Hilton, senior governor of Tortuga, came from Hurworth. Remembering that Christopher Wormeley may have briefly replaced Hilton as Governor of Tortuga, this seems more than coincidence.^[2] Did Ralph Wormely build an even grander home in Virginia, and name it after his childhood home at Hurworth?

Death & Legacy

Ralph Wormeley's exact date of death is not known. According to Crozier in Virginia Heraldica ..., he died in 1649, but according to the Virginia Historical Society, he died in 1651.

We know that Ralph died before September 16, 1651 at Rosegill, Lancaster County (Middlesex in 1669), Virginia.^[6] Christopher wrote his will on January 4, 1649, and the will was proved on December 6, 1656.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Crozier, William Armstrong, Virginia Heraldica Being a Registry of Virginia Gentry Entitled to Coat Armor with Genealogical Notes ... Virginia County Record Series, (Vol. V, Pages 83-84). New York: The Genealogical Association, 1908, Archive.org accessed November 16, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Wormley, Nick and Kevin, "Wormley Family History", July, 2014, accessed November 16, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Virginia Historical Society, "Wormeley Family", accessed August 13, 2014
4. ↑ Berkeley, Edmund, transcriber, (10 Nov 2015) editor, and annotator, "The Diary, Correspondence, and Papers of Robert "King" Carter".
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, (2011), Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Royal Ancestry series, 2nd edition, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2011), volume II, page 122, ii.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4} "The Wormeley Family (Continued)." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan., 1928), pp. 98-101, JSTOR.org accessed November 16,2015.
7. ↑ Wormeley, Ralph - A9203; died by 1651, York: 1649 (Burgess); 1650-51 (Councillor). accessed 15 November 2021
8. ↑ National Register of Historic Places "Rosegill", November 27, 1973, Web accessed August 13, 2014

• "Royal Ancestry" 2013 Douglas Richardson Vol. II, p. 504

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Nick and Kevin Wormley for your comprehensive research and for publishing "Wormley Family History ."