Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of William Sonair AKA Jessup

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Descendants of William Sonair AKA Jessup

Generation No. 1

1. WILLIAM SONAIR AKA¹ JESSUP¹ was born 05 Apr 1579 in Kirkburton, Yorkshire Co., England¹, and died Bef. 15 May 1649 in Yorkshire Co., England ². He married DOROTHY IRELAND³ 14 Feb 1601/02 in Yorkshire Co., England³, daughter of LAURENCE IRELAND and JENNET BROADHEAD. She was born Abt. May 1580 in Yorkshire Co., England³, and died 15 May 1649 in Yorkshire Co., England³.

Notes for WILLIAM SONAIR AKA JESSUP:
The book "The Ancestry of Allen Grinnell Cleaver and Martha Irene Jessup" compiled by William Jessup Cleaver, published for the author by Gateway Press, of Baltimore, MD, gives us the following information.

The name Jessup is said to have been derived from Joseph or the Italian equivalent Giuseppe. This in turn has been extended in the family tradition in Yorkshire that the first Jessups were Roman soldiers of the fourth century occupation of Britain. Kirkburton Church, where early records of this family are found, was erected in the thirteenth century and during a later restoration the uncovering of a broken crucifix gives evidence of a fourth century Christianity. One of the first names in the Kirkburton parish registers which date from 1540-41 is Johana Jesope. Conjecture about the origin of any name has to be no more than conjecture. Some early wills are signed Joseph alias Jessop, however the name does not appear to be Anglo-Saxon or Norman.

By the seventeenth century several branches of the family had acquired large estates. Charles II granted an Irish estate, Doory Hall, to Yorkshire and Derbyshire Jessops and William Jessop, son of Richard inherited Broom Hall in Sheffield, Yorkshire, acquired through his mother, Ann Swift. The pedigree of this family, though incomplete because it was concerned primarily with land tenure, reveals some interesting characters, but no link to any emigrants to America.

Of the emigrants to America, a Jesope Joyner (this last name perhaps a trade), age 22, sailed from Weymouth bound for New England in March 1635/36 and Walter Jesop, a weaver, age 21, sailed at the same time. A Thomas Jesopp, age 18, sailed from London in 1634 in a merchant vessel bound for VA, but the first emigrant for which any descent is known was John Jessop who came to Hartford, CT in 1637, probably from Yorkshire. He was associated with strong Puritans there. The southern branch that we descend from was started by Thomas Jessup of Rawcliffe, Yorkshire, who came from Leeds in 1722 with his son, Thomas to New Bern, NC.

William Sonair Jessop, son of William, was a carpenter or joyner. Surnames were just settling into common usage in this section of rural Yorkshire and parish records contain many alias names as well as indication of considerable childbirth outside recognized wedlock.

The Last Will and Testament of William Sonair Jessup: (copied in exact wording)

In the name of God Amen the thirteenth day of February in the year of our Lord God 1649 I William Jessope of Great Lepton in the County of York, Joyner sick in body but of good and parfict remembrance God be praysed for the same I doe make this my last will and testament in manor and forme as followeth first and prencipally I bequeath my Soule unto God my Savior and redeemer hoping for pardon and forgiveness of all my sins and my body to the earth from which it came as touching my worldy goods wherewith god of his mercy hath blessed me with all my wish and will is that all my just and lawfull debts be first paid and my funerall expenses discharged out of my whole goods and I doe give unto Thomas Jessope my elder son all my tytle and interest which I have in the house where my dwell and in the grownde now in the tenor (?) and occupation of John Howroyd till Christmas in favor of portion with his wife being my daughter and I doe will John Jessope, my younger son twenty shillings and I doe forgive him for five pounds...... years by past which he owed for the money left him by my son William Jessope, deceased and I doe give Elizabeth Howroyd my daughter three shillings four pence in a full affection for hir child part or portion and I doe make Thomas Jessope my son my executor trusting him with the execution of it. In witness hereof I have this put my hand the day and year first above affixed.

Will was witnessed by: Joseph Wood, John Lanckfeld, William Lyley and Thomas Headon.

Notes for DOROTHY IRELAND:
Found the following information on World Family Tree CD - Vol. 3, Pedigree 678 - "Dorothie Ireland received one pece of graye cloth to make her two kirtles and one red petticoat from her Grandmother, Jennet Bever. Jennet also instructed William, her son and executor, to put aside thirtyne shillings foure pence to encrease at the dyscrecon of William towards the payment of the children porcon (of the person) of said Dorothie Ireland when she come to lawfull age."

Children of WILLIAM JESSUP and DOROTHY IRELAND are:

2.	i.		THOMAS² JESSUP, b. 1602, Yorkshire Co., England; d. Unknown.
	ii.		WILLIAM SONAIR JESSUP³, b. 21 Mar 1603/04, Kirkburton, Yorkshire Co., England³; d. Mar 1640/41, Yorkshire Co., England ⁴.

More About WILLIAM SONAIR JESSUP:
Burial: Unknown, Kirkburton, Yorkshire Co., Eng.

	iii.		ELIZABETH SONAIR JESSUP⁵, b. 23 Aug 1607, Kirkburton, Yorkshire Co., England⁵; d. Unknown; m. JOHN HOWROYD⁵; d. Unknown.
	iv.		JOHN SONAIR JESSUP⁵, b. 04 Jun 1609, Kirkburton, Yorkshire Co., England⁵; d. Unknown.
	v.		JOSEPH JESSUP⁵, b. 1611, Kirkburton, Yorkshire Co., England; d. Abt. 15 Oct 1650 ⁶; m. MARY UNKNOWN; d. Unknown.

Notes for JOSEPH JESSUP:
According to Kirkburton Parish, Yorkshire records copied by J. N. Thompson, Joseph Jessop of Shelley in Parish of Kirkburton was a mason who died leaving a will dated 15 Oct 1650 naming a wife Mary; son -in-law Robert Morton with his son Richard; and John Jessop, son of Thomas, son of William.

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