The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne | Page 4

that we know certainly is that Governor Winthrop landed about the
middle of June, 1630, and that his son arrived two weeks later in the
"Talbot," and was drowned July 2, while attempting to cross one of the
tide rivers at Salem. Who arrived in the thirteen other vessels that year
we know not. Ten years later Sir Richard Saltonstall emigrated to
Boston with the Phillips and Warren families in the "Arbella" (or
"Arabella"), and there is no telling how much longer she sailed the
ocean.
Hawthorne himself states that his ancestors came from Wig Castle in
Wigton in Warwickshire, [Footnote: Diary, August 22, 1837.] but no
such castle has been discovered, and the only Wigton in England
appears to be located in Cumberland. [Footnote: Lathrop's "Study of

Hawthorne," 46.] He does not tell us where he obtained this
information, and it certainly could not have been from authentic
documents,--more likely from conversation with an English traveller.
Hawthorne never troubled himself much concerning his ancestry,
English or American; while he was consul at Liverpool, he had
exceptional advantages for investigating the subject, but whatever
attempt he made there resulted in nothing. It is only recently that Mr.
Henry F. Waters, who spent fifteen years in England searching out the
records of old New England families, succeeded in discovering the
connecting link between the first American Hawthornes and their
relatives in the old country. It was a bill of exchange for one hundred
pounds drawn by William Hathorne, of Salem, payable to Robert
Hathorne in London, and dated October 19, 1651, which first gave Mr.
Waters the clue to his discovery. Robert not only accepted his brother's
draft, but wrote him this simple and business- like but truly affectionate
epistle in return:
"GOOD BROTHER: Remember my love to my sister, my brother John
and sister, my brother Davenport and sister and the rest of our friends.
"In haste I rest "Your loving brother,
"From Bray this 1 April, 1653. ROBERT HATHORNE."
From this it appears that Major William Hathorne not only had a
brother John, who established himself in Lynn, but a sister Elizabeth,
who married Richard Davenport, of Salem. Concerning Robert
Hathorne we only know further that he died in 1689; but in the probate
records of Berkshire, England, there is a will proved May 2, 1651, of
William Hathorne, of Binfield, who left all his lands, buildings and
tenements in that county to his son Robert, on condition that Robert
should pay to his father's eldest son, William, one hundred pounds, and
to his son John twenty pounds sterling. He also left to another son,
Edmund, thirty acres of land in Bray, and there are other legacies; but it
cannot be doubted that the hundred pounds mentioned in this will is the
same that Major William Hathorne drew for five months later, and that
we have identified here the last English ancestor of Nathaniel
Hawthorne. His wife's given name was Sarah, but her maiden name

still remains unknown. The family resided chiefly at Binfield, on the
borders of Windsor Park, and evidently were in comfortable
circumstances at that time. From William Hathorne, senior, their
genealogy has been traced back to John Hathorne (spelled at that time
Hothorne), who died in 1520, but little is known of their affairs, or how
they sustained themselves during the strenuous vicissitudes of the
Reformation. [Footnote: "Hawthorne Centenary at Salem," 81.]
Emmerton and Waters [Footnote: "English Records about New
England Families."] state that William Hathorne came to Massachusetts
Bay in 1630, and this is probable enough, though by no means certain,
for they give no authority for it. We first hear of him definitely as a
freeholder in the settlement of Dorchester in 1634, but his name is not
on the list of the first twenty-four Dorchester citizens, dated October 19,
1630. All accounts agree that he moved to Salem in 1636, or the year
following, and Nathaniel Hawthorne believed that he came to America
at that time. Upham, the historian of Salem witchcraft, who has made
the most thorough researches in the archives of old Salem families,
says of William Hathorne:
"William Hathorne appears on the church records as early as 1636. He
died in June, 1681, seventy-four years of age. No one in our annals fills
a larger space. As soldier, commanding important and difficult
expeditions, as counsel in cases before the courts, as judge on the bench,
and innumerable other positions requiring talent and intelligence, he
was constantly called to serve the public. He was distinguished as a
public speaker, and is the only person, I believe, of that period, whose
reputation as an orator has come down to us. He was an Assistant, that
is, in the upper branch of the Legislature, seventeen years. He was a
deputy twenty years. When the