Mario to June
And more!
Still have not been able to determine the relationship between the Miles Moore
family you descend from and the black Phillip Moor I pointed out earlier.
However, this situation might suit us just fine since this would give you a
perfectly legitimate reason to hypothesize on the possibility of a connection.
One reason why I myself am so intrigued by this Phillip Moor is the fact that
with a parcel of land some 12 rods by 3 miles in measurement approximately 80
acres, a fairly substantial tract to judge from the other deeds recorded - he
was probably the largest African American property owner in New England at this
particular time in history. His holdings, of course are nothing in comparison
to that which two other freed men, contemporaries of his, were able to
accumulate in Virginia. Benajmin Doyle was given a grant of 500 acres while
Anthony Johnson had accumulated close to 1,000 acres by the middle of the 17th
century.
I did find a Phillip Moore in a well documented Windson, Connecticut family.
Named after one of his maternal uncles, I thought for a while that this was our
man. However, this Goff/Moore marriage did not take place until 1664, a few
years too late to allow for a son old enough to be involved in anything like
the transaction to which Philip affixed his mark in 1677.
Another intriguing piece of data about this black family --but equally
problematic -- is the identity of the man Phillip's daughter married. Since
she is referred to as Susannah Sessions in her father's will, her husband is
either related to or in the service of the Sessions family, who would produce a
Rhode Island governor a couple of generations later. Here again, though, there
is a time line difficulty. Although the will is dated 1695, the only
publication on the Sessions genalogy relates that they did not arrive in
Connecticut for at least another decade. It was admitted, however, that there
was confusion over the first generation and it is quite possible to wonder,
therefore, whether another branch of the Sessions had migrated to Connecticut a
bit earlier than their cousins. Instead of Alexander who later descendants
described as the progenitor of the family, Governor Darius Sessions (b.1717),
for example, claimed that his grandfather was Samuel. Since documents do prove
that a Samuel who came to America with Governor Dudly in 1630 was the first of
the Sessions to do so, there is the distinct probability the Samuel Governor
Sessions refers to was a son of the first Samuel. If this were so we would be
able to argue, for instance, that Susannah Moore might have been the Governor's
grandmother.
Regarding the Peatross descendants of John Pedro I just discovered in Virginia,
there is a way you could include them if you cared to. Since those of your
ancestors who were in Plymouth that early, like the Hardings, for instance, in
all likelihood, knew John Pedro - and Abraham Pearce, for that matter, it would
not be a stretch if you used this acquaintance as your lead in to them. In
considering this possibility, do not forget that these two men were the first
people of colour to arrive in the American north and as John Pedro is supposed
to have come with Weston's expedition to Weymouth in 1622, his arrival predates
Abraham Pearce's by about a year.
The biographical sketches attached represent the highest level of national
prominence achieved by members of the Peatross family to date. This, of course
does not include the progenitor, who in 1655, becomes one of the first four
Americans, and an African American at that, to die for his Roman Catholic
faith. Neither does this include possible noteables who might have descended
from such female lines as those of the Terrell, Cobb, Coppock, Stanley,
Johnson, Campbell, Mitchell, Haley, Marshall, Alsop, Saunders, Chiles,
Thompson, Gatewood, Henderson, etc..
