I've been working on researching the upper branches of this Wilson family and related families (especially Eidson and Jacobus) for the past few days and have made some changes to the tree. I've spent a lot of time in the West Yorkshire archival documents as well as those from Old Rappahannock and Richmond Counties in Virginia, trying to find documentation and get away from "Internet tree" syndrome. As a curator, I've mastered most of the profiles that had evidence to back them up and added a lot of text to About sections.
If any of you find any additional documents or evidence about these people from the 1500-1700s, please let me know. Also, you should find the notes interesting for Elias and others. I've learned a lot about these West Yorkshire towns. These families of the 1500-early 1600s were not rural but were city dwellers and engaged in these early industries and trade. Elias is noted several times as a yeoman and is involved in a number of land transactions with partners. This places him and his family in a social class below the gentry but above the peasants--a sort of a middle class at that time (though not called middle class). He was probably literate enough to transact business and was perhaps a small entrepreneur. Many of this class were weavers or tanners, etc. We know that Elland (his town) was the center of a textile and wool industry.
He and his presumed brother Henry seem to have migrated to Virginia in the mid-1660s. One might ask why? Since I seem to have a number of significant ancestors who migrated at that exact time, I did some research to try to understand the conditions in England at the time. Elias' early lifetime was very politically tumultuous, with the Civil Wars between the Royalists (supporters of King Charles I, who tried to abolish Parliament) and the Parliamentarians, who executed the King (1649), exiled his son, and replaced the monarchy with first a Commonwealth (1649-53) and then a Protectorate overseen by Oliver Cromwell (1653-58). The religious aspect of all this was that Cromwell and his followers were Puritans, who sought to rid the Church of England of its ecclesiastical and Catholic elements and become more like the Scottish Presbyterians. The monarchy was restored in 1660 when Charles II returned to retake the throne. Those who had supported the Protectorate and/or were Puritans and Presbyterians were now rebels against the crown.
These Wilsons were Protestant families, members of the Church of England. However, the parish in which Elias was baptized (Halifax Parish) was a Puritan stronghold during these years: "Halifax Parish Church witnessed further upheavals during the English Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, a period of bitter conflict, which caused severe disruption to the local textile trade. A Puritan stronghold, Halifax suffered occupation by both Royalist troops after the Royalist victory at Adwalton Moor in 1643 and by Parliamentarian forces after the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor." (see more, and pictures of the church, at http://www.halifaxminster.org.uk/century-of-revolution).
The other factor was the Bubonic Plague, which had its final epidemic in 1665-1666, which was the worst since the Black Death of the mid-1300s.
So either politics, religion, or avoiding the plague may have contributed to emigration to America.
One final note on DNA. My late father, who is a presumed direct descendant of Elias Wilson, did extensive yDNA testing. If you are a direct male descendant, please contact me so we can compare Wilson DNA results.
Cheers,
Pam
