ORIGIN OF THE WOMACKS

Author: Jean Stephenson

Womacks are found in the earliest annals of Wales, that country whereby land and by sea, race after race has come to make its hills their home. One race would be short and with black eyes and black hair; another would be tall, with blue eyes and fair hair. They came from different countries, and along different paths, but each race brought some good with it. Many came by sea and landed in Wales, but its most numerous ..............................native Britons who were pushed into this extreme western region by the invaders from across the English Channel.

The Celts used Wales as their.................durng the inroad of the Teutons. The hilly country proved an effective barrier to the invaders, and here the Welsh remained a more or less independent nation for many centuries--sticking to their old language, traditions and nationality. Gradually they emerged from their seclusion and became incorporated in the English race.

Throughout this early history of Wales, we find the name WOMACK frequently chronicled in their records. Churchmen of Norfolkshire.

By the middle of the sixteenth century the Womacks--this a people associated with Welsh history since its early time--had crossed England, and had settled in the most productive agricultural district in that country--

Norfolk Shire. In the middle of the sixteenth century William Womack is established as the head of a family in the historical old town of East Dorsham. We know nothing of his wife, and know of only one son, Arthur. Doubtlessly there are other, and more interesting, records, but as yet they have not come to light.

The fact that he was born in the shadows of St. Nicholas--on__ of England’s oldest cathredial-- may have influenced him to become a priest. In 1578 he was serving as rector at Lopham--a quaint old town whose claim to existence is its two ancient Norman-styled churches. No sooner had Arthur established himself in his parish than he went to Hargham--a small town just south of his original home--and married Miss Alice Rose, whose family was very prominant in that section.

An unusual thing occured in the burial of Alice and Arthur. The time honored custom, "Undivided in Death" was disregarded; for we find that was buried with her family in Hargham. The fact also suggests the probable prominence of Alice’s family. The date of her death was 1602. Five years later Arthur died, and was buried in his churchyard at Lopham. Probably his people loved him and wished him interred in their midst. Another indication that he was much loved is the fact that his son, Lawrence succeeded the father as rector in Lopham. "Like father, like son", Lawrence remained rector for thirty-five years when the care of Farafield, a nearby church, was added to his duties.

Two of Lawrence’s sons, Arthur and Lawrence, interest us. Lawrence is our main ancestor and Arthur’s grandson, another Lawrence was the Bishop’s heir. The fact that this young Lawrence was the son of an heiress of noble blood, and was high in church circles, probably influenced Bishop Womack when he made his will.

Bishop Womack

Arthur’s brother, Lawrence, ultimately became Bishop Womack, but he lived a lond and eventful life before he was apointed Bishop of St. David’s.This young man’s determined ambition was early evidenced in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He had been in college only three when he was appointed a Scholar-

Ship on Sir Nicholas Bacon’s fpundation.

After this, Lawrence became son-in-law to King Henry VIII and was made Duke of Albemarle, his large family occupied many places of prominence.

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In 1632, at the age of twenty, he received his B.A., was ordained a deacon two years later, and in 1639 - still ambitious - he began work on his Master’s Degree. He attracted the attention of Lord Pagot, and through his influence, obtained a benefice in the West of England where he aquired much fame by his preaching.

At this time England was torn by civil disturbances, Bishop Womack was of the losing faction, the Royalists. In 1649, when Charles was beheaded, all Episcopalians fell in disfavor, and many were executed. Although those Episcopalians already in possession of livings were not always dispossessed affectual, care was taken that no further livings fell to their lot. Since we hear nothing of Bishop Womack during the Commonwealth’s eleven years of power, we feel sure that he stayed true to his convictions.

In 1666 when the king was restored, the Episcopal Clergy was elevated. When Charles II came over from Holland, and finally made his public entry into London on the 29th of May, he found only nine Bishops living, and none were in possession of their Sees. Before two months had elapsed, he was appointed to an important place in Hereford Cathedral. The following December he was made assistant to the Bishop of Suffolk, with a title of Archdeacon of Suffolk. We follow his rapid progress as one rectorate after another was given him. In 1683 he was given on of the best preberidal stalls in Ely Cathedral, and in the same year was consecrated Bishop of Saint Davids.

Personally Bishop Womack must have called forth an admiration rather than love. He is described by a contempory as a "Tall man of plain and grave aspects." His family life seems to indicate a predominance of judgement rather than sentiment. His brilliant nephew was made his heir in preference to his son, and his two later marriages show increasing respect for rank. Of his last marriage we hear little except there was a son "Edward", born March 12, 1653. After the death of Edward’s mother, Lawrence married a wealthy widow. This date was November 18, 1668. They had one daughter named Ann-for her mother-who died in her sixteenth year. The third marriage solomanized(?) on April 25, 1670 at the Norman Cathedral of St. Bartholomew-in-London; probably reflected the dignity of the sedate bridegroom and the wealth of the prominent spinster, Catherine Crobett(Corbett?).

In England of today the Episcopal Bishops are all "Lords of Parliament." During the reign of Charles II, when the clergy was paid more deference than it is today, the rank of Bishop carried even greater dignity. Bishop Womack and his wife, in keeping with their distinguished position, maintained several establishments. The church provided the residence near St. David’s Cathedral in Wales, but one was a handsome residence in Westminister-that venerable town which was the busy spot before London had being. It was in this Westminister home that the Bishop died November 7, 1685. He was buried along with Sir Walter Raleigh and his son-Carew Raleigh- in St. Margaret’s church, a notable shrine situated between

Westminister Hall and Westminister Abbey.

When Edward, the Bishop’s son, selected a private, rather than a clerical career, his decision was probably influenced by the unsettled condition of the counttry. England was in turmoil, for the people were beginning to think for themselves, and to demand a right to self expression both in religious and secular affairs,When the Tory party dropped into entire disfavor in 1715, he probably encouraged his son, Abraham, to move to America where previous to this time, many relatives had established themselves.

WOMACKS IN AMERICA

In 1716 Abraham is registered as head of a family in Prince Edward Co., Virginia. His son Richard, who was a lad of six when the family moved to Virginia, lived there until past middle age. Then finding the country alive with political unrest, he moved further west. In 1765 he was pioneering in what is now Burke County, Georgia. Richard reared a large family who scatterred through Virginia and Georgia, and many of its members added glory to the name. It is with his son, Jesse, that we are concerned.

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Jesse Womack was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia in 1739 and moved with his father to St. George Parish, Burke County, Georgia. He was here at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and served creditably as a First Lieutenant of the tenth company under Captain Blasingame, Colonel John Thomas, and General John Twiggs. For his service he was awarded a large tract of land in Washington County, Georgia, but apparently he did not take up his grant.

When the Womacks settled in Georgia near the site of Augusta, then a trading village inhabited by Indians and white men, Indian traders who had married Indian wives and had been adopted into Indian tribes. It is probable that Dorothy Pryor-Jesse Womack’s first wife- is the daughter of a Choctaw Princess, and her father from that old and distinguished family of Virginia Pryors. Dorothy and Jesse Womack had a very large family of children. Among them we find (1) David and Richard Mansel, who moved into Louisiana, where he many descendants have done credit to the name. (2) John, who went with his wife’s people, the Colemans, into Alabama, and (3) William who remained in Georgia.

John married Frances Coleman, and from the cunsus roll of Baldwin County, Georgia, we learn that William Womack was living near Milledgeville, Georgia - a happy and prosperous man, the head of a promising young family: Mark, Green, William, Dignyehin, Abraham Minter and Mary. While Abraham Minter was quite a young boy, the father died. In due course of time the mother married again. Upon this turn of affairs, Mark, the oldest brother, took Abraham Minter to his home When the Mark Womacks moved to Mississippi, the younger brother accompanied them. When Abraham Minter grew up, he wandered back to Georgia and to Milledgeville. The girls of the older civilization were more to his fancy, and September 8, 1825 he married Miss Elizabeth Robinson.

Soon after this the Womacks were attracted by stories of Texas, the Empire of the West, its fertile valleys, boundless plains, and unlimited natural resources. The approaching slave war also suggested this state as a posssible haven for the large slave holders as it was still part of Mexico.

The Womacks responded to the call of the west in 1835, but were halted enroute by stories of the massacre of Goliad and the Alamo. They settled in Alabama two years, by which time the Republic of Texas was safely established, following the victory at San Jacinto in 1836 and the election of Burnett, the first president of the new republic.

Their journey was resumed in 1837, and the early part of that year found them happily settled near old Fanthrop, Montgomery County, where they were later joined by the Jesse Womacks and other friends and relatives.

There a great number of Womacks and their descendants still living from whom minute information may be had concerning the trials and hardships, attending their early residence in the state, their struggle through the Civil War period and the splendors and happiness coming with peace and prosperity later on.................

Lifted from Roger Womack’s page with permission.