Edward Small (Smalley) - Edward Small's Parents

Interesting comments on the real mother of Edward Smalley are as follows. Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I had an affair in which a child, Edward, was the result. The queen could not acknowledge this child. Sir Walter supposedly had a shipmate named Smalley in Devon who agreed to raise the child. It is rumored that the Queen and Sir Walter visited the child on several occasions. Many people denied the story but others felt that Sir Walter Raleigh was the father. Since he was quite the ladies man, it seemed likely it could have happened but looking at the time of the birth the queen would have been too old to have a child. Another source says the basic story is true except that the mother of Edward was Throckmorton, a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth, not the Queen herself. The attendants required her permission to marry which the Queen was unlikely to grant since Walter was one of her favorite gentlemen.

Edward Small Came to America about 1632 probably from Dartmouth, England where the family had been one of high character and position. He is said to have come under the auspices of his kinsman, Sir Ferdinando Gorges. He, with Champernown and others, founded Piscataqua, which was afterwards divided into Maine towns of Kittery, Eliot, South Berwich and Berwick.

He was on a grand jury in 1640 in Saco and a magistrate in Falmouth in 1645 and later went to the Isle of Shoals. Although he built a house in Piscataqua, before 1643, as a grant of one hundred acres made to him by Thomas Gorges, the deputy governor of the Province of Maine, he lived in it for five years and then sold it and probably returned to England since no records could be found after the sale.

I would appreciate sourcing for the accounts provided, if anyone would be so kind...
~• Mike vB vol. curator

Looks like another case of wishful thinking. Have added him to "Spurious Pedigrees Project."

Charlene Newport

On the subject of (any) action to be taken:
Do you feel that Edward Small should be disconnected from SIr Walter and his wife?

~ I use "wife" loosely... :)

Yes, I do think he should be disconnected. There is no documentary evidence to prove he was a son.

Also, there was no Edward Small baptized or buried in Bideford, Devon before 1766.

I added this note

Disconnected from Sir Walter Raleigh & Elizabeth Raleigh May 2016

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I have several ancestors who worked for Sir Ferdinando in Maine. The "best born" of them had property granted to him from his fiefdom, and he was a "gent" only.

I'd like to see some real history of what Edward Small or Smalley was doing in Maine. It wasn't a place for courtiers.

Erica: I like your technique of cross-referencing this in such fashion: Very gentile, and deserving for a courtier..

I would like to read up on the retinue of Thomas Gorges as there may be a clue as to why there is this propensity for adding high-born histories to this part of the tree.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gorges_(Maine)

Thanks Erica, a good way to disconnect by adding a note and the date on the profile.

I have also added a note about his supposed birth and death place.

Yes I date stamped the disconnect, because I've done it before. :).

John Smalley was disconnected from his parents Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth (Throckmorton) Raleigh and siblings Walter Raleigh, Damerei Raleigh and Carew Raleigh by Erica Isabel Howton.
Sep 23, 2014 at 5:47 AM

Edward Small was disconnected from his parents Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth (Throckmorton) Raleigh and siblings Walter Raleigh, Damerei Raleigh, Carew Raleigh and John Smalley by Erica Isabel Howton.
Sep 23, 2014 at 5:46 AM

The portrait for Edward Small was also incorrect. It's Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Have removed it.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Kt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Gilbert

I thought it was unlikely looking....

The article beginning here

http://archive.org/stream/descendantsedwa03undegoog#page/n57/mode/1up (pages are attached profiles as sources) has mention of Sir Humphrey Gilbert - he was nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh.

http://archive.org/stream/descendantsedwa03undegoog#page/n61/mode/1up

On this page several of my (I think my) ancestors are mentioned in the first court . Notice the honorific distinction

Geo. Cleeve, gent.
Arthur Macworth, gent.
Mr. Edward Smale

And Edward Small is named as magistrate.

As an aside, Deputy President George Cleeve was not particularly well born, he was a vintner of Shropshire, and "earned" his way into the gent designation, I think. Arthur Mackworth was landed gentry in (I think Shropshire but I have to look it up).

What's so interesting about Maine settlement is that it more resembles the Jamestown experiment than the settlement at Plymouth, with issues in common with Jamestown; disproportionate men / women ratio resulting in a more disorderly society; unprepared for the weather; under equipped; relations breaking down with the indigenous peoples. However unlike Jamestown they weren't seeking gold, it was fur and fish that was the portable asset. And in that Sir Ferdinando was most prescient.

A couple more studies

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~smalljd/ri/edofme.htm

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http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Edward_Small_(2)_

According to WFT CD#10 Tree #839, and "family tradition", Edward Small was a son of Sir Walter Raleigh II, but there is no concrete evidence to prove this, based upon research by several recognized genealogists.

There is also much speculation that Edward Small was a brother to John Small, who migrated to New England in the early 1600's, but recent DNA testing seems to have ruled this out. Several DNA tests for descendants for both Edward and John Small have not shown common genetic markers.

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http://www.laronde.info/Descendants%20of%20Walter%20Raleigh.doc

Has the unlikely Sir Walter story & the disproved brother John Smalle of Cape Cod

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https://books.google.com/books?id=LDryyTRj8tgC&pg=PA80&lpg=...

This has the fluffy "valiant & ancient ancestry" and vague "somewhere in Devonshire"

https://books.google.com/books?id=NE9IAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA360&lpg... articles draw connections between Smale, Champernowne, and Raleigh. Leaving out the supposed Gorges kinsman deal. :)

A point, again by analogy to George Cleeves, also Maverick, Gorges' competent servant / eventual deputy.

If I remember correctly, Maverick was likely the child of a widowed serving woman in Sir Ferdinando's household; he had been apprenticed as an apothecary and in fact practiced. He married the daughter of a ship owner who helped him get started in that enterprise. Between the two sponsorships he earned his way into such power that if he had survived (he drowned as still a young man) the property lines of New England might be different today.

More of a meritocracy than we realize.

I was doing my Small genealogy and was shocked to see the green leaf say Sir Walter Raleigh as my ancestor's father. With all of the dna donors now, I am wondering if there have been any updates. Otherwise, I am at a dead end on the Small, Smally side of my tree. I am an 11th generation Cape Codder and would really like to know.

That last post from Dorothy Sheehan Leary is not my correct name. I am helping her with her tree and didn't realize that he email was attached to Geni. The email address rjmjj2018@gmail.com is my email if anyone wants to post directly to me.