Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Jerry W. Willis Speaking Engagements
April 24, 2007 - Mr. Willis presented the key concepts of his book to the Rogers and Headley Dental Group in Overland Park, KS, one of the top dental practices in the nation.
May 3, 2007 - Mr. Willis presented his proposal for a revolutionary new Summer Camp program based upon Coach John Wooden's principles to members of the Bay Head Speakers Guild.
Mr. Willis is scheduled to make a presentation at the June meeting of the ‘DocVinoDinero's Best of Wine and Travel Club’ on Thursday, June 21, 2007.
May 3, 2007 - Mr. Willis presented his proposal for a revolutionary new Summer Camp program based upon Coach John Wooden's principles to members of the Bay Head Speakers Guild.
Mr. Willis is scheduled to make a presentation at the June meeting of the ‘DocVinoDinero's Best of Wine and Travel Club’ on Thursday, June 21, 2007.
About Jerry W. Willis
New York, March 02, 2007
Jerry W. Willis, ( http://jerrywwillis.com ) is a full-time author and speaker. He resides in Kansas City where he has lived for the last 19 years.
Mr. Willis devotes his time to speaking to different groups around the country about how the Principles and Concepts used by the legendary John Wooden to create outstanding and successful teams can be used to create outstanding and successful families!
Mr. Willis' new book “Coaching the Rest of Us - Applying John Wooden's principles to Your Life” shows how Coach Wooden's principles can be applied to creating a powerful Purpose in your life that leads to greater self-confidence, peace of mind, productivity and Happiness.
Jerry W. Willis, ( http://jerrywwillis.com ) is a full-time author and speaker. He resides in Kansas City where he has lived for the last 19 years.
Mr. Willis devotes his time to speaking to different groups around the country about how the Principles and Concepts used by the legendary John Wooden to create outstanding and successful teams can be used to create outstanding and successful families!
Mr. Willis' new book “Coaching the Rest of Us - Applying John Wooden's principles to Your Life” shows how Coach Wooden's principles can be applied to creating a powerful Purpose in your life that leads to greater self-confidence, peace of mind, productivity and Happiness.
Willis and Shakespeare
jww 11/16/05 - Willis with Shakespeare
This is a note that I wrote to my family in November, 2005.
On a trip to Greenville, S.C., last weekend I bought the book ‘Will in the World’ by Stephen Greenblatt which is about William Shakespeare. Will was born in the town called Stratford-on-Avon (Avon is a river running by or through the town) April 26, 1564 about the time our oldest known ancestor was a young man just beginning his family and career in Wiltshire county an estimated 50 miles to the Southwest.
I have never been interested in reading William Shakespeare plays because the little bit that I read seemed so silly and boring to me. But this book caught my eye as a way to learn about the times when our earliest known ancestors were in that area and at the same time to learn something about the most famous writer in history. I have been enjoying the book very much so far and recommend it to you. And then, to my great surprise and pleasure, I found a reference to one of our relatives in the book. So I am quoting here from the book to show the reference and to give you the pleasure of learning a little about the times and explore whether or not you might want to purchase the book, and to learn a bit about the plays of that time and the likely circumstances of our relatives.
Beginning on Page 30 there is a discussion about Will’s Dad being the equivalent of the Mayor in their home town. As such he had to approve any theatrical groups and their presentation before it could be offered to the public. So there is the probability that Will was introduced to traveling Theatrical groups from an early age.
Page 30 - “In his old age, a man named Willis, born the same year as Will, recalled a play (now lost), called The Cradle of Security, that he saw in Gloucester-thirty-eight miles from Stratford, when he was a child. On arriving in town, the players, Willis wrote, followed the usual routine: they presented themselves to the mayor, informed him what nobleman’s servants they were, and requested a license for performing in public. The mayor granted the license and appointed the company to give their first performance before the aldermen and other officials of the town. ‘At such a play,’ Willis remembered, ‘my father took me with him and made me stand between his legs, as he sat upon one of the benches, where we saw and heard very well.’ The experience was a remarkably intense one for Willis: ‘This sight took such an impression in me,’ he wrote, ‘that when I came towards man’s estate, it was as fresh in my memory as if I had seen it newly acted.’
My thoughts from reading the above:
This Willis was born in 1564 so was probably the son of our oldest known ancestor.
His Dad was probably our oldest known ancestor.
His Dad was a town alderman or other official of the town since he attended the special performance.
This Willis family lived in Gloucester at that time and possibly had for a number of years or even generations.
Willis knows about the routines of obtaining permission and licenses so he was probably taught and learned as a young man.
This Willis must have been well educated to be able to write about his memories.
His Dad was also probably well educated and that is why he was an alderman or town official.
This Willis’ writings must still be available and might contain a lot of additional interesting information!!
As I have thought, our ancestors were probably pretty well-to-do since Henry was able to become a Friend’s church minister in London after the great fire and then to move to Oyster Bay in Long Island for a number of months and then to buy a tract of land and have a family and be a supporter of the Friends religious group.
Shakespeare and his plays were touring the countryside and were probably in our ancestor’s home town and seen by them.
There must have been a playhouse with benches like those of the famous Globe theatre in London.
The theatre must have been full since young Willis had to stand. Plays were very popular during the period especially Shakespeare’s.
Since the experience was so intense for young Willis, he may have been an artistic type person himself.
Page 31 - “For his part, Shakespeare’s contemporary Willis remembered all his life what he had seen at Gloucester: a king lured away from his sober, pious counselors by three seductive ladies. “In the end they got him to lie down in a cradle upon the stage,” he recalled, “where these three ladies, joining in a sweet song, rocked him asleep, that he snorted again; and in the meantime closely conveyed under the cloths wherewithal he was covered, a vizard, like a swine’s snout, upon his face, with three wire chains fastened thereunto, the other end whereof being holden severally by those three ladies, who fall to singing again, and then discovered his face that the spectators might see how they had transformed him.’ The spectators must have found it very exciting. Some of the older ones probably remembered the swinish face of Henry VIII, and all in the audience knew that it was only under special circumstances that they could publicly share the thought that the monarch was a swine.”
My Thoughts on the above:
Willis was a contemporary meaning he lived in the same time and in approximately the same place and circumstances.
Gloucester must have been the home of our relative at the time.
Willis was old enough to remember the play yet small enough to stand between his Dad’s legs as he sat upon the bench. Probably about 1570 when he was 6 years old.
Since Willis said they were able to hear and see very well they must have had seats close to the front. That probably means they were at the higher end of the important men of the town.
It also means that the theatre must have been fairly large and had some seats where one could not see and hear well.
King Henry VIII was the one that formed the Church of England, The Anglican Church, breaking away from the pope and the Roman Catholic church. He was the father of the Queen Bloody Mary who unbelievably viciously tortured and killed all the Protestants she could find.
Bloody Mary was an ancestor of King James who authorized and had printed the King James version of the Holy Bible.
Page 31 - “Young Will is likely to have seen something similar. The plays in repertory in the 1560s and 70s were for the most part ‘morality plays,” or “moral interludes,” secular sermons designed to show the terrible consequences of disobedience, idleness, or dissipation. Typically, a character-an embodied abstraction with a name like Mankind or Youth-turns away from a proper guide such as Honest Recreation or Virtuous Life and begins to spend his time with Ignorance, All-for-Money, or Riot.
‘Huffa, huffa! Who calleth after me?
I am Riot, full of jollity.
My heart is light as the wind,
And all on riot is my mind. ‘
(The Interlude of Youth)
“It is rapidly downhill from here-Riot introduces Youth to his friend Pride; Pride introduces him to his glamorous sister Lechery; Lechery lures him to the tavern-and it looks like it will all end badly. Sometimes it does end badly-in the play Willis saw, the king who is transformed into a swine is later carried away to punishment by wicked spirits-but more typically, something happens to awaken the hero’s slumbering conscience just in time. In The Interlude of Youth, Charity, reminding the sinner of Jesus’ great gift to him, frees him from the influence of Riot and restores him to the company of Humility. In The Castle of Perseverance, Penance touches Mankind’s heart with his lance and saves him from his wicked companions, the Severn Deadly Sins. In Wit and Science, the hero Wit, asleep in the lap of Idleness, is transformed into a fool, complete with cap and bells, but he is saved when he catches sight of himself in a mirror and realizes that he looks ‘like a very ass!’ Only after he is sharply whipped by Shame and taught by a group of strict schoolmasters-Instruction, Study, and Diligence-is Wit restored to his proper appearance and able to celebrate his marriage to Lady Science.”
My thoughts on the above:
Obviously Willis wrote more about the play since it has been lost and yet he quotes here what Willis saw in the play.
So we have an author early in the history of our family that has a body of work we haven’t yet seen!
Since Willis wrote so much about this play he was probably financially secure to be able to devote his time and thought to plays.
That was a sign of a ‘Gentleman’ to have the ability to entertain oneself with plays and idleness.
Actually Shakespeare’s plays might be kind of fun if someone would translate them into modern English since they would give an almost perfect insight into the lifestyles of the times.
The English language is quite changed over the last 500 years and you must know the history of the words and conditions before you can appreciate all that is in the plays.
Religion has been a very significant factor in the history of mankind and our family.
The advent of the Church of England probably began the change in religions by showing that everyone did not have to be subject to the Pope and the Catholic religion.
Protestant religions began to come into being and caused great turmoil for centuries as religious groups have fought.
The Muslim faith had caused great wars prior to the Protestants coming into being.
There was a great need to break free of complete submission to the King and these plays and their acceptance began to show that need.
Our ancestors broke with both of the standard religions of the day and became devoted Friends (later to be called Quakers).
George Fox the founder of the Friends church was in the area and converted our ancestors about 1660.
Our ancestors were leaders in the Friends church.
The more rapid transmission of ideas through plays and the written word changed the world just as it is doing today.
There are a number of Bibliographical notes about source material that will be interesting to research. Here is just a little bit of several pages of them.
L.B.Wright’s Middle-Class Culture in Elizabethan England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1935) is a classic, if contested, guide to Elizabethan social structures, as is Lawrence Stone’s The Crisis of the Aristocracy: 1558-1641 (London: Oxford University Press, 1986). See also Felicity Heal and Clive Holmes, The Gentry in England and Wales, 1500-1700 (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1994) and Joyce Youings, Sixteenth Century England: The Penguid Social History of Britain (London: Penguin, 1984). On yeomen, the social class from which Shakespeare descended, see Mildred Campbell, The Enlish Yeoman under Elizabeth and the Early Stuarts (New Haven: Yale University Press
The above points to a map of England that shows Gloucester and not too far away is Devizes where our earliest ancestors lived.
<<>>
Notice Devizes which is due East of Bath about 15-20 miles and it is about
50 miles Southwest of Gloucester.
<<>>
In the above map We can see Westbury just Southwest of Devizes about 10-15 miles.
Henry Willis named the town of Westbury, NY after this town in England which was close to his home of Devizes and probably was his home for a period of years.
The following gives some interesting history of the area:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER
By Tim Lambert
ROMAN GLOUCESTER
Gloucester began as a Roman town. It lies at the first point where the river Severn can be easily crossed so it was a natural place to build a town. About 49 AD the Romans built a fort to guard the river crossing at Kingsholm. In 64 AD they built a new fort on the site of Gloucester town centre.
About 75 AD the Roman army moved on but the site of the fort was turned into a town for retired soldiers. The new town was called Glevum. The Roman town was laid out in a grid pattern. In the centre of the town was a forum. This was a market place lined with shops and public buildings. However in the 4th century Roman civilisation went into decline. The last Roman soldiers left Britain in 407 AD. Afterwards most Roman towns were abandoned.
For more information about Roman Britain click here.
SAXON GLOUCESTER
After the Romans left Britain Gloucester was probably abandoned although there may have been a small number of farmers living inside the walls and farming the land outside.
The Saxons captured Gloucester in 577 AD after they won a battle against the native Celts. We do not know if there were people living in Gloucester at that time.
In the late 7th century the Saxons founded a monastery at Gloucester and the town began to revive. Craftsmen and merchants came to live in Gloucester once again. In the early 8th century a writer called Gloucester 'one of the noblest cities in the kingdom'.
In the late 9th century the Saxons created a network of fortified towns called burghs. In the event of a Danish attack all the men in the area would gather in the burgh to fight. Gloucester was made a burgh. In 915 AD men from Gloucestershire gathered in the town then went out to fight the Danes and defeated them in battle.
Gloucester flourished in the 10th century and it had a mint. A suburb grew up outside the North gate.
In 909 AD the remains of St Oswald were brought to Gloucester. In those days people would go on long journeys called pilgrimages to visit the remains of saints. Many people came to Gloucester to visit the remains of St Oswald and they spent money in the town. In 1153 the church which housed St Oswald's shrine was turned into a priory (a small abbey).
For more information about Saxon England click here.
GLOUCESTER IN THE MIDDLE AGES
William the Conqueror came to Gloucester in 1085 and while he was there he ordered that the Domesday Book be written.
Gloucester may have had a population of about 3,500 in the Middle Ages. By the standards of the time it was a fairly large town. (In those days towns were much smaller than they are today). Gloucester, it was said, ranked 10th in among the towns of England for wealth.
In the late 11th century the Normans built a wooden castle in Gloucester. In the 12th century it was rebuilt in stone. Gloucester was strategically important in the 12th and 13th centuries because there was frequent warfare between the Welsh and the English. The people of Gloucester benefited from the warfare because the garrison of the castle provided a market for their goods.
In 1155 the king gave Gloucester a charter (a document giving the townspeople certain rights).
The main industry in Gloucester was making wool. Raw wool was brought to the town from the Cotswolds. In Gloucester the wool was woven then fulled. That means the wool was cleaned and thickened by pounding it in water and clay. When the wool dried it was dyed.
There was also a large leather industry in Gloucester in the Middle Ages. There were tanners and craftsmen who made things of leather, such as cappers, glovers, shoemakers and glovers. In Gloucester iron was worked to make nails, weapons and tools. Cloth and grain were exported from Gloucester and wine was imported from France. There was also a considerable fishing industry in the Severn.
In towns in the Middle Ages fire was a constant risk since most buildings of wood with thatched roofs. In 1223 a fire destroyed part of Gloucester. As a result thatched roofs were banned.
There was a community of Jews in Gloucester in the 12th century. They were falsely accused of a ritual murder in 1268. In 1275 all Jews were forced to leave Gloucester and go to Bristol.
In the 13th century the friars arrived in Gloucester. Friars were like monks but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars arrived in 1231. They were called Grey friars because of the colour of their costumes. Dominican friars, known as Blackfriars, followed in 1239.
In 1327 the body of king Edward II was buried at St Peters Abbey. Afterwards there was a stream of visitors to his tomb, which added to the prosperity of Gloucester.
In the early 15th century the New Inn was built. It was built on the site of an earlier inn, hence the name. However Gloucester declined in the 15th century and the town entered a long economic depression. The main reason was probably increasing competition from other towns in the wool trade. An additional reason may have been the fact that Wales had now been conquered and Gloucester was no longer in a strategic position.
In 1483 Richard III gave Gloucester a new charter. This time the merchants were given the right to elect a mayor and 12 aldermen.
GLOUCESTER IN THE 16th AND 17th CENTURIES
The Fleece Hotel was built as an inn about 1500.
In 1541 Gloucester was given a bishop and the Abbey Church was made the new cathedral. Henry VIII 1509-47 and his son Edward 1547-53 introduced religious changes to England. However Henry's daughter Mary, tried to undo the changes. She burned many Protestants. One of them was John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, who was burned for heresy in St Marys Square in 1555.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the wool trade continued to decline. Gloucester also suffered from frequent outbreaks of plague. There were epidemics in 1565, 1573, 1577, 1580, 1593 and 1637.
By the early 17th century Gloucester was less important than it had once been. Nevertheless it was still a fair sized town with a population of about 4,000 in the 16th century.
Gloucester was still a busy port and a market town for the surrounding region. Furthermore although the cloth industry declined pin making boomed in the 17th century.
By the late 17th century the population of Gloucester was probably about 5,000.
In 1540 a grammar school called the Crypt School opened. In 1668 a blue coat charity school opened (it was called that because of the blue school uniforms).
Gloucester suffered severely in the civil war between king and parliament, which lasted from 1642 to 1646. Most of the Southwest supported the king but Gloucester went supported parliament. The people demolished the houses outside the walls to deny cover to the enemy and erected some earthwork defences. In 1643 the king's army laid siege and their cannon fired into Gloucester. Nevertheless Gloucester held out and the royalists withdrew when they heard that a parliamentary army was coming.
Gloucester gained its first fire engine in 1648.
In 1662 the city erected a statue of Charles I to curry favour. King Charles was not impressed however and he ordered the destruction of the city's walls.
GLOUCESTER IN THE 18th CENTURY
Ladybellgate house was built around 1704.
In 1751 the cross which had stood in the town centre for centuries was demolished. An infirmary was opened in 1761. The East gate was demolished in 1778 to make it easier for traffic to enter and leave the town.
In 1768 two new market sites were created to house all the stalls that were impeding traffic and causing congestion. One was in Eastgate, the other in Southgate. In the 1780s North Gate, Outer North Gate and South Gate were all demolished to make way for traffic. In 1791 a new prison was opened on the site of the castle.
In the 18th century the wool industry died out altogether in Gloucester but pin making flourished.
Jerry W. Willis
This is a note that I wrote to my family in November, 2005.
On a trip to Greenville, S.C., last weekend I bought the book ‘Will in the World’ by Stephen Greenblatt which is about William Shakespeare. Will was born in the town called Stratford-on-Avon (Avon is a river running by or through the town) April 26, 1564 about the time our oldest known ancestor was a young man just beginning his family and career in Wiltshire county an estimated 50 miles to the Southwest.
I have never been interested in reading William Shakespeare plays because the little bit that I read seemed so silly and boring to me. But this book caught my eye as a way to learn about the times when our earliest known ancestors were in that area and at the same time to learn something about the most famous writer in history. I have been enjoying the book very much so far and recommend it to you. And then, to my great surprise and pleasure, I found a reference to one of our relatives in the book. So I am quoting here from the book to show the reference and to give you the pleasure of learning a little about the times and explore whether or not you might want to purchase the book, and to learn a bit about the plays of that time and the likely circumstances of our relatives.
Beginning on Page 30 there is a discussion about Will’s Dad being the equivalent of the Mayor in their home town. As such he had to approve any theatrical groups and their presentation before it could be offered to the public. So there is the probability that Will was introduced to traveling Theatrical groups from an early age.
Page 30 - “In his old age, a man named Willis, born the same year as Will, recalled a play (now lost), called The Cradle of Security, that he saw in Gloucester-thirty-eight miles from Stratford, when he was a child. On arriving in town, the players, Willis wrote, followed the usual routine: they presented themselves to the mayor, informed him what nobleman’s servants they were, and requested a license for performing in public. The mayor granted the license and appointed the company to give their first performance before the aldermen and other officials of the town. ‘At such a play,’ Willis remembered, ‘my father took me with him and made me stand between his legs, as he sat upon one of the benches, where we saw and heard very well.’ The experience was a remarkably intense one for Willis: ‘This sight took such an impression in me,’ he wrote, ‘that when I came towards man’s estate, it was as fresh in my memory as if I had seen it newly acted.’
My thoughts from reading the above:
This Willis was born in 1564 so was probably the son of our oldest known ancestor.
His Dad was probably our oldest known ancestor.
His Dad was a town alderman or other official of the town since he attended the special performance.
This Willis family lived in Gloucester at that time and possibly had for a number of years or even generations.
Willis knows about the routines of obtaining permission and licenses so he was probably taught and learned as a young man.
This Willis must have been well educated to be able to write about his memories.
His Dad was also probably well educated and that is why he was an alderman or town official.
This Willis’ writings must still be available and might contain a lot of additional interesting information!!
As I have thought, our ancestors were probably pretty well-to-do since Henry was able to become a Friend’s church minister in London after the great fire and then to move to Oyster Bay in Long Island for a number of months and then to buy a tract of land and have a family and be a supporter of the Friends religious group.
Shakespeare and his plays were touring the countryside and were probably in our ancestor’s home town and seen by them.
There must have been a playhouse with benches like those of the famous Globe theatre in London.
The theatre must have been full since young Willis had to stand. Plays were very popular during the period especially Shakespeare’s.
Since the experience was so intense for young Willis, he may have been an artistic type person himself.
Page 31 - “For his part, Shakespeare’s contemporary Willis remembered all his life what he had seen at Gloucester: a king lured away from his sober, pious counselors by three seductive ladies. “In the end they got him to lie down in a cradle upon the stage,” he recalled, “where these three ladies, joining in a sweet song, rocked him asleep, that he snorted again; and in the meantime closely conveyed under the cloths wherewithal he was covered, a vizard, like a swine’s snout, upon his face, with three wire chains fastened thereunto, the other end whereof being holden severally by those three ladies, who fall to singing again, and then discovered his face that the spectators might see how they had transformed him.’ The spectators must have found it very exciting. Some of the older ones probably remembered the swinish face of Henry VIII, and all in the audience knew that it was only under special circumstances that they could publicly share the thought that the monarch was a swine.”
My Thoughts on the above:
Willis was a contemporary meaning he lived in the same time and in approximately the same place and circumstances.
Gloucester must have been the home of our relative at the time.
Willis was old enough to remember the play yet small enough to stand between his Dad’s legs as he sat upon the bench. Probably about 1570 when he was 6 years old.
Since Willis said they were able to hear and see very well they must have had seats close to the front. That probably means they were at the higher end of the important men of the town.
It also means that the theatre must have been fairly large and had some seats where one could not see and hear well.
King Henry VIII was the one that formed the Church of England, The Anglican Church, breaking away from the pope and the Roman Catholic church. He was the father of the Queen Bloody Mary who unbelievably viciously tortured and killed all the Protestants she could find.
Bloody Mary was an ancestor of King James who authorized and had printed the King James version of the Holy Bible.
Page 31 - “Young Will is likely to have seen something similar. The plays in repertory in the 1560s and 70s were for the most part ‘morality plays,” or “moral interludes,” secular sermons designed to show the terrible consequences of disobedience, idleness, or dissipation. Typically, a character-an embodied abstraction with a name like Mankind or Youth-turns away from a proper guide such as Honest Recreation or Virtuous Life and begins to spend his time with Ignorance, All-for-Money, or Riot.
‘Huffa, huffa! Who calleth after me?
I am Riot, full of jollity.
My heart is light as the wind,
And all on riot is my mind. ‘
(The Interlude of Youth)
“It is rapidly downhill from here-Riot introduces Youth to his friend Pride; Pride introduces him to his glamorous sister Lechery; Lechery lures him to the tavern-and it looks like it will all end badly. Sometimes it does end badly-in the play Willis saw, the king who is transformed into a swine is later carried away to punishment by wicked spirits-but more typically, something happens to awaken the hero’s slumbering conscience just in time. In The Interlude of Youth, Charity, reminding the sinner of Jesus’ great gift to him, frees him from the influence of Riot and restores him to the company of Humility. In The Castle of Perseverance, Penance touches Mankind’s heart with his lance and saves him from his wicked companions, the Severn Deadly Sins. In Wit and Science, the hero Wit, asleep in the lap of Idleness, is transformed into a fool, complete with cap and bells, but he is saved when he catches sight of himself in a mirror and realizes that he looks ‘like a very ass!’ Only after he is sharply whipped by Shame and taught by a group of strict schoolmasters-Instruction, Study, and Diligence-is Wit restored to his proper appearance and able to celebrate his marriage to Lady Science.”
My thoughts on the above:
Obviously Willis wrote more about the play since it has been lost and yet he quotes here what Willis saw in the play.
So we have an author early in the history of our family that has a body of work we haven’t yet seen!
Since Willis wrote so much about this play he was probably financially secure to be able to devote his time and thought to plays.
That was a sign of a ‘Gentleman’ to have the ability to entertain oneself with plays and idleness.
Actually Shakespeare’s plays might be kind of fun if someone would translate them into modern English since they would give an almost perfect insight into the lifestyles of the times.
The English language is quite changed over the last 500 years and you must know the history of the words and conditions before you can appreciate all that is in the plays.
Religion has been a very significant factor in the history of mankind and our family.
The advent of the Church of England probably began the change in religions by showing that everyone did not have to be subject to the Pope and the Catholic religion.
Protestant religions began to come into being and caused great turmoil for centuries as religious groups have fought.
The Muslim faith had caused great wars prior to the Protestants coming into being.
There was a great need to break free of complete submission to the King and these plays and their acceptance began to show that need.
Our ancestors broke with both of the standard religions of the day and became devoted Friends (later to be called Quakers).
George Fox the founder of the Friends church was in the area and converted our ancestors about 1660.
Our ancestors were leaders in the Friends church.
The more rapid transmission of ideas through plays and the written word changed the world just as it is doing today.
There are a number of Bibliographical notes about source material that will be interesting to research. Here is just a little bit of several pages of them.
L.B.Wright’s Middle-Class Culture in Elizabethan England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1935) is a classic, if contested, guide to Elizabethan social structures, as is Lawrence Stone’s The Crisis of the Aristocracy: 1558-1641 (London: Oxford University Press, 1986). See also Felicity Heal and Clive Holmes, The Gentry in England and Wales, 1500-1700 (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1994) and Joyce Youings, Sixteenth Century England: The Penguid Social History of Britain (London: Penguin, 1984). On yeomen, the social class from which Shakespeare descended, see Mildred Campbell, The Enlish Yeoman under Elizabeth and the Early Stuarts (New Haven: Yale University Press
The above points to a map of England that shows Gloucester and not too far away is Devizes where our earliest ancestors lived.
<<>>
Notice Devizes which is due East of Bath about 15-20 miles and it is about
50 miles Southwest of Gloucester.
<<>>
In the above map We can see Westbury just Southwest of Devizes about 10-15 miles.
Henry Willis named the town of Westbury, NY after this town in England which was close to his home of Devizes and probably was his home for a period of years.
The following gives some interesting history of the area:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GLOUCESTER
By Tim Lambert
ROMAN GLOUCESTER
Gloucester began as a Roman town. It lies at the first point where the river Severn can be easily crossed so it was a natural place to build a town. About 49 AD the Romans built a fort to guard the river crossing at Kingsholm. In 64 AD they built a new fort on the site of Gloucester town centre.
About 75 AD the Roman army moved on but the site of the fort was turned into a town for retired soldiers. The new town was called Glevum. The Roman town was laid out in a grid pattern. In the centre of the town was a forum. This was a market place lined with shops and public buildings. However in the 4th century Roman civilisation went into decline. The last Roman soldiers left Britain in 407 AD. Afterwards most Roman towns were abandoned.
For more information about Roman Britain click here.
SAXON GLOUCESTER
After the Romans left Britain Gloucester was probably abandoned although there may have been a small number of farmers living inside the walls and farming the land outside.
The Saxons captured Gloucester in 577 AD after they won a battle against the native Celts. We do not know if there were people living in Gloucester at that time.
In the late 7th century the Saxons founded a monastery at Gloucester and the town began to revive. Craftsmen and merchants came to live in Gloucester once again. In the early 8th century a writer called Gloucester 'one of the noblest cities in the kingdom'.
In the late 9th century the Saxons created a network of fortified towns called burghs. In the event of a Danish attack all the men in the area would gather in the burgh to fight. Gloucester was made a burgh. In 915 AD men from Gloucestershire gathered in the town then went out to fight the Danes and defeated them in battle.
Gloucester flourished in the 10th century and it had a mint. A suburb grew up outside the North gate.
In 909 AD the remains of St Oswald were brought to Gloucester. In those days people would go on long journeys called pilgrimages to visit the remains of saints. Many people came to Gloucester to visit the remains of St Oswald and they spent money in the town. In 1153 the church which housed St Oswald's shrine was turned into a priory (a small abbey).
For more information about Saxon England click here.
GLOUCESTER IN THE MIDDLE AGES
William the Conqueror came to Gloucester in 1085 and while he was there he ordered that the Domesday Book be written.
Gloucester may have had a population of about 3,500 in the Middle Ages. By the standards of the time it was a fairly large town. (In those days towns were much smaller than they are today). Gloucester, it was said, ranked 10th in among the towns of England for wealth.
In the late 11th century the Normans built a wooden castle in Gloucester. In the 12th century it was rebuilt in stone. Gloucester was strategically important in the 12th and 13th centuries because there was frequent warfare between the Welsh and the English. The people of Gloucester benefited from the warfare because the garrison of the castle provided a market for their goods.
In 1155 the king gave Gloucester a charter (a document giving the townspeople certain rights).
The main industry in Gloucester was making wool. Raw wool was brought to the town from the Cotswolds. In Gloucester the wool was woven then fulled. That means the wool was cleaned and thickened by pounding it in water and clay. When the wool dried it was dyed.
There was also a large leather industry in Gloucester in the Middle Ages. There were tanners and craftsmen who made things of leather, such as cappers, glovers, shoemakers and glovers. In Gloucester iron was worked to make nails, weapons and tools. Cloth and grain were exported from Gloucester and wine was imported from France. There was also a considerable fishing industry in the Severn.
In towns in the Middle Ages fire was a constant risk since most buildings of wood with thatched roofs. In 1223 a fire destroyed part of Gloucester. As a result thatched roofs were banned.
There was a community of Jews in Gloucester in the 12th century. They were falsely accused of a ritual murder in 1268. In 1275 all Jews were forced to leave Gloucester and go to Bristol.
In the 13th century the friars arrived in Gloucester. Friars were like monks but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars arrived in 1231. They were called Grey friars because of the colour of their costumes. Dominican friars, known as Blackfriars, followed in 1239.
In 1327 the body of king Edward II was buried at St Peters Abbey. Afterwards there was a stream of visitors to his tomb, which added to the prosperity of Gloucester.
In the early 15th century the New Inn was built. It was built on the site of an earlier inn, hence the name. However Gloucester declined in the 15th century and the town entered a long economic depression. The main reason was probably increasing competition from other towns in the wool trade. An additional reason may have been the fact that Wales had now been conquered and Gloucester was no longer in a strategic position.
In 1483 Richard III gave Gloucester a new charter. This time the merchants were given the right to elect a mayor and 12 aldermen.
GLOUCESTER IN THE 16th AND 17th CENTURIES
The Fleece Hotel was built as an inn about 1500.
In 1541 Gloucester was given a bishop and the Abbey Church was made the new cathedral. Henry VIII 1509-47 and his son Edward 1547-53 introduced religious changes to England. However Henry's daughter Mary, tried to undo the changes. She burned many Protestants. One of them was John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, who was burned for heresy in St Marys Square in 1555.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the wool trade continued to decline. Gloucester also suffered from frequent outbreaks of plague. There were epidemics in 1565, 1573, 1577, 1580, 1593 and 1637.
By the early 17th century Gloucester was less important than it had once been. Nevertheless it was still a fair sized town with a population of about 4,000 in the 16th century.
Gloucester was still a busy port and a market town for the surrounding region. Furthermore although the cloth industry declined pin making boomed in the 17th century.
By the late 17th century the population of Gloucester was probably about 5,000.
In 1540 a grammar school called the Crypt School opened. In 1668 a blue coat charity school opened (it was called that because of the blue school uniforms).
Gloucester suffered severely in the civil war between king and parliament, which lasted from 1642 to 1646. Most of the Southwest supported the king but Gloucester went supported parliament. The people demolished the houses outside the walls to deny cover to the enemy and erected some earthwork defences. In 1643 the king's army laid siege and their cannon fired into Gloucester. Nevertheless Gloucester held out and the royalists withdrew when they heard that a parliamentary army was coming.
Gloucester gained its first fire engine in 1648.
In 1662 the city erected a statue of Charles I to curry favour. King Charles was not impressed however and he ordered the destruction of the city's walls.
GLOUCESTER IN THE 18th CENTURY
Ladybellgate house was built around 1704.
In 1751 the cross which had stood in the town centre for centuries was demolished. An infirmary was opened in 1761. The East gate was demolished in 1778 to make it easier for traffic to enter and leave the town.
In 1768 two new market sites were created to house all the stalls that were impeding traffic and causing congestion. One was in Eastgate, the other in Southgate. In the 1780s North Gate, Outer North Gate and South Gate were all demolished to make way for traffic. In 1791 a new prison was opened on the site of the castle.
In the 18th century the wool industry died out altogether in Gloucester but pin making flourished.
Jerry W. Willis
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