OUR KINDRED PAST

Our first known Gresham relative was Sir Ralph de Branch, born about 1030 in Normandy. The de Branch family estates were in Pays de Caux, a district on the north side of the Seine Estuary. Sir Ralph was a knight who owed fiety to his liege Lord William de Warrenne and accompanied him to England in 1066 in the invasion called The Norman Conquest. 

William de Warrenne and his knight warriors , including Sir Ralph, were engaged in the Battle of Hastings. The knight warriors fought well, slaying enough Saxons and burning enough roof trees to be well rewarded when William the Conqueror became King William 1st of England. The king granted Sir Ralph de Branche a fief of two  knight’ fees in Norfolk County,  including the villages of Aylmerton and Gresham, the latter being the chief seat of his grant and where he took up residence. His castle in Gresham, now in ruins, was a moated square tower with corner turrets, said to be much like the White Tower, also called the Tower of London. The Branche family resided in Norfolk County for generations to come, some in Gresham and Aylmerton, and some in Holt, another village nearby.

The family members remaining in Normandy retained the de Branche holdings and surname, while the English branch divided into two parts. In the case of the Greshams, our branch of the family is named after the village in the family holdings.

Sir Peter de Branche of Gresham was the sixth generation. He had two sons, Roger and Nicholas. Sir Nicholas de Branche retained the Branche name and carried on this line. Roger, the first born, took the surname of de Gresham, becoming Sir Roger de Gresham of Gresham. Both sons kept the same coat of arms, the one we still have today. Our family’s order of descent follows Sir Roger, who took the Gresham name.

Sir Edward de Gresham,  our ninth-generation  member, had a son, an only child named John Gresham. “Just plain John,” as I call him, was the first to drop the “de Gresham” from his surname. 

His son, called Sir John Gresham the Younger (the eleventh generation), was followed by two additional Sir John Greshams,  totaling four descendants with the same name.

(How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm?)

Sir John Gresham was born in 1455. Until this generation, the Gresham families remained mostly in Norfolk County in the villages of Gresham, Alymerton and Holt, but Sir John had a residence in London. Of his four sons,  William, Richard, John and Thomas, the first two also lived in London.

Sir William , the first son, was a Mercer and Governor  of the England merchants at Antwerp from 1530 to 1542. (something very interesting here about his leaving). Records state, and I quote here: “He left the town in fear of some people from the Guilders. “Thus he abandoned his post and his countrymen and didn’t provide for them, their property or the privileges of the English merchant community. When he returned to England, he was put in prison by the order of King Henry VIII. He probably would have received a worse fate if his brothers, Sir Richard and Sir John Gresham were not so eminent in court.”

(I was surprised we had “union problem” that early on. They gave Sir William a lot of grief.

Sir Richard Gresham, the second son, had an interesting career. He became a Mercer in 1507, became Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1531-1532 (as did his older brother)and was knighted in 1531.”He attended at the tower May 19, 1536 at the execution of Anne Boleyn. The following year, he was appointed Lord Mayor of London. He was a fast friend of Cardinal Wolsey. Through his trade, mostly with Antwerp, he supplied King Henry VIII with velvets and satins. The records state that “he amassed a sizeable fortune.” 

Sir John Gresham of the fourteenth generation was also a Mercer and worked with his older brothers Sir William and Sir Richard, trading textiles, wine and grain. Like his brother William before him, he became Sheriff of London and Middlesex 1537-1538 and was knighted the same year. “He attended the meeting between King Henry VIII and his new bride, Ann of Cleves in 1540.” In 1547 he became Lord Mayor of London. He also acted as an agent for both Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell.  He married Mary Ipswell, who bore him twelve children, six of which were male. 

The previous several generations of the Greshams and future ones held forth in London, and in Surry County, and some also kept their manor houses in Norfolk.    Sir John’s fourteenth generation marked the move of family members from Norfolk County to the London area. The generations which followed him there held government positions, were in banking and in parliament.  One of them, a cousin named Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579), founded the Royal Exchange in London.

The Greshams flourished from generation to generation and multiplied their numbers. In their early (known) history the families produced few children, but later the families became larger. Examples include Sir John Gresham of the thirteenth generation who had five children. Sir John Gresham the Younger, head of the fourteenth generation, had twelve children, and Sir Thomas Gresham of the sixteenth generation had ten. Sir George Gresham of the twentieth generation had eleven children, ten of which were male.

In the Gresham family crest, a golden grasshopper on a grassy knoll, hovers over the head of a knight’s helmet. The grasshopper symbolizes many different things, including luck, abundance,  fertility and stability. As fertility symbols, grasshoppers are thought to be, more specifically, omens of the birth of a son. I believe the grasshopper is a fitting symbol for the Gresham family. (Fertility personified.)

Sir Edward Gresham of the seventeenth generation  inherited his father’s and uncle’s wealth, was one of the King’s body guards, and was knighted in 1617.  He was placed on the king’s Roll of Gentlemen Pensioners in 1618. His family marked the continuing dispersal of the Greshams beyond Norfolk County, London, and Surry County where he lived, to the colonies in America.

With his first wife, Mary Clerke, Sir Edward had three sons: John, Thomas and Edward. Following the death of his wife, he disinherited their son Thomas. The last known location of Thomas was the Fleet Prison in London where he died. The other two sons emigrated to America in 1635.   Sir John  settled in Northumberland  County, the Commonwealth of Virginia. His brother, Sir Edward (II) emigrated the same year, at the age of seventeen,  to New Kent County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The brothers were the first Greshams in the American Colony.

Sir Edward (the father) remained in England, where he lived his entire.

Edward Gresham  (II) of the Eighteenth Generation  emigrated in 1635 to  New Kent County, Commonwealth of Virginia. He had four sons, Edward, John, George and Thomas. Although the Greshams settled first in Amelia and New Kent counties, Edward’s sons were born and lived in King and Queen County of Virginia. The records show that all the Greshams in Virginia rented land from the king, and their names appear in the recorded land patents, deed books  and other records show Greshams owning lands in Amelia, New Kent, Halifax, Northumberland and Mecklenburg counties of the colony of Virginia.

Example: One patent to  Edward Gresham in 1749 was for 380 acres. Grantor (the king) was “George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King Defender of the Faith…in consideration of the sum of forty shillings of good and lawful money paid to our Colony and Dominion of Virginia…do give, grant and confirm unto Edward Gresham one parcel of land containing three hundred and eighty acres in the County of Amelia , … of land and the rivers waters and water courses therein contained together with the privileges of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling and all profits, commodities and hereditaments to hold possess and enjoy unto the said Edward Gresham his heirs and assigns forever to be held…”

The land patents required the annual payment of one shilling for every fifty acres and required cultivation and improvement of three acres of every fifty acres of the parcel. Gresham names appear as landholders in multiple counties in Virginia, usually multiple parcels with acreages between 130 and 516 acres.  Thomas Gresham, Sir Edward’s second son, was granted 1,525 acres in King and Queen County.

During the next two generations of George Gresham I of the nineteenth generation (1660) and George Gresham II of the Twentieth generation (1690), remained in Virginia renting land from the king and operating as planters. Of the eleven children of George Gresham II and his wife Sarah, Ten of the eleven were male.

His traded acreages ranging from 186 to 460, and many trades involved payment in chattels. An example would be the sale of 186 acres by William Gresham to a Mr. Roger Gregory for 15,000 pounds of crop tobacco. Will records show that in 1802 to 1804, he and his wife Jean

William Gresham of the twenty First generation, was very active in trading land. Records in land books show he bought and sold numerous parcels, mostly in Fairfax County Virginia where he lived. The records indicate he also held and traded land in Amelia, Mecklenburg and Lunenburg counties in Virginia. between 1757 and 1792. He traded acreages ranging from 186 to 460, and many trades involved payments in chattels. An example would be the sale by William Gresham of 186 acres to Mr. Roger Gregory for 15,000 pounds of crop tobacco. Will records show that in 1802 to 1804, he and his wife Jean willed land parcels to relatives Ralph, Anthony, Moses and Benony Gresham. William Gresham had two children, Sara and George, and his was the last generation of Greshams in Virginia  before dispersal of the families to Lincoln, Christian and Caldwell counties, Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Moza (Moses) Gresham , our twenty-second Generation , with his wife Elizabeth Boyd, their five boys and three girls, moved from Halifax County, Virginia in 1815 to Christian County, Kentucky. Also living there was George Gresham, a brother to Moses, who had married Jane Boyd, a sister to Moses’ wife Elizabeth. Two brothers married two sisters.

It’s of some interest for the Greshams to have merged with the Boyd family, as the two families had a similar arch of history. The de Boyds were also of Anglo-Norman descent from Northern France. Robert de Boyd went to England from Normandy to join William the Conqueror. After the battle of Hastings Robert settled in England, later moving to Ireland. The Irish branch were protestants and among those families which left Ireland for America. A branch of that family ended up in Trigg County, Kentucky and intermarried with the Greshams. The two families from Normandy ended up in Kentucky. 

Moses Gresham fathered six boys and three girls. Among these was Anderson Boyd Gresham, their seventh child, who later moved from Hickman VA to Cleburne County Arkansas.

In the 1840’s, Anderson Boyd Gresham of the twenty-third Generation, moved  his family, along with his wife’s family, the Claytons, from Christian County Kentucky to the town of Hickman, in Fulton County Kentucky, on the Mississippi River. Hickman and the remainder of western Kentucky experienced significant health challenges continuing well into the post-Civil War period.  Malaria was endemic; yellow fever and cholera epidemics occurred, and the usual diseases like pneumonia, whooping cough, smallpox and measles were frequent. Two of the Clayton sons died of cholera. Shortly after 1850, Anderson B. Gresham himself died at the age of 31 leaving his wife, Minerva Hamilton Clayton Gresham with six children. In 1855, James Clayton, his daughter Minerva and her children, Alpha Clayton Baldridge and her family moved from the unhealthy Hickman Kentucky to Cleburne County (Formerly Van Buren County) Arkansas. They settled in the town of Pearson, where Minerva purchased 300 acres, built a house, ran a farm and raised her children. Their sixth child was John Anderson “A” Gresham, my great great grandfather.

John Anderson “A” Gresham  of our twenty-fourth Generation  married Martha Fowlkes in 1874 and had eight children. Their third child was John Anderson Gresham, my grandfather.

John Anderson Gresham, our  Twenty-fifth Generation and my grandfather, Married Sarah Helen Thompson, and had six children. Their first born was my mother, Melba Adrid Gresham Moore. The second born was her brother, Wendell Anderson Gresham.

My Uncle Wendell married Annie M. Gay, and had three children, Thomas Harold being the first born. The family moved to Louisiana where Wendell   was engaged in timber harvesting and owned sawmills. 

Thomas Harold Gresham Twenty-seventh Generation (1931)

My cousin Thomas Harold had two children, Tommy Lee and Gary Wayne. It was Gary Wayne who  compiled this history of our Gresham family from Normandy in 1030 to Cleburne County Arkansas in the present time.

Gary Wayne Gresham is our twenty-eight generation. He married Dona Huth, and they have four children.