Francis Thornton, Sr. - Francis Thornton's offspring

Mark Hale

The corrections you pointed out should all be done, if you don't mind a double check.

I have found an issue with the parentage of Francis Thornton (1651-1727) 1st wife Alice Savage.

She is noted in some compilations as the daughter of Capt Anthony Savage & Alice Stafford, and the connection of the Thornton's & Savages, neighbors in Gloucester VA, seems well established & repeating.

However according to Gary Boyd Roberts in The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants (2004), Alice was "probably" the daughter of Capt Anthony Savage, the emigrant to VA, born 1623 (not 1605), & Sarah Constable - their only known child.

Private User you curate "nearby" profiles, especially in the Constables & Lees, so wanted to make sure you were aware of the Savage family questions. I believe there are some (historic, not Geni) mixups.

I forgot to mention there is an excellent wedding record for Anthony Savage b 1623 & Sarah Constable added to their profiles. Not able so far to find any records for Alice Stafford of better quality than the Millenium file.

Also tagging James Hutchison. My thinking is that Alice Stafford b 1610 was the wife of a different Anthony Savage - there were quite a few of them - & they were the parents of Dorothy Savage b 1636. She was "said" to be a daughter of Anthony Savage - perhaps she accompanied him to Virginia abt 1650 & lived in his household.

This is another Savage whose parents seem (historically) incorrect - Dorothy Strother

But if we accept that 1) she was born in Egland, not VA as seen 2) she is not the daughter of THIS Anthony, but another, who did not come to VA 3) and she did accompany (the perhaps widowed) Capt Anthony, when he bought land from the Lees ...

You see? Now if there are records to support the logic ....

I spent a couple of months around Christmas time 2012 trying to resolve issues around Anthony Savage and wrote a rather complex report of many thousands of words, which I'll be glad to share if you'd like. The bottom line is that I prefer Sarah Constable as his wife but still think Gary Roberts' & Douglas Richardson's evidence is still too weak to state definitively that Constable was Mrs. Savage. I think Alice Stafford is an even more remote possibility.

As to Dorothy Strother being Anthony's daughter, there is not one shred of documentary evidence (only tradition) to support the claim. My own logical argument against it is that, Anthony Savage and William Strother (father & son) were in different parts of Virginia at the time Dorothy (surname unknown) became Mrs. Strother.

Back to Francis Thornton 1st, his will was proved in October 1726, making that the year of his death, rather than 1727. Thanks so much for cooperating with my hoped for corrections. There is so much bad information repeated again and again that I usually just don't get involved, but I think geni.com is the best of the several online sites and I'm grateful to be involved. ...Mark

Thank you for the head's up, Erica.

Mark - death year for Francis Thornton updated as requested.

I believe I've found Alice Stafford, she married a John Savage who died on 1605, as detailed here:

The reliquary; A depository for precious relics-legendary, biographical and historical, Illustrative of the habits, customs and pursuits of our forefathers: Edited by Llewellynn Jewitt, Volume 2 (Google eBook) Llewellynn Jewitt
John Russell Smith. Derby: Bemrose & sons, 1862. Page 223

I'm updating profiles accordingly, unless a better source can be found. But this explains the confabulated genealogies to my mind.

Mark - and Alice Stafford as mother of daughter of Dorothy, who married William Strother, seems pretty thoroughly UN accepted by the researchers as soc.Gen.med as of 2005

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.genealogy.medieval/...

I have Thornton in my line.

I am of the Savage and Thornton lines...

I am related to Thornton's AND Savage's.....