UNITED STATES – MARCH 18: Reagan Family/Burt Reynolds (Photo by The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A Rose Among The Woodwoses

by

John Presco

My cousin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, died believing she descended from a bunch of hillbillies, and hicks. What are hicks? If I had not taken a DNA test, this would be the case. It should be of interest to her children, grandchildren, and the children of the Thespians she married, that a mutual great grandfather, Thomas Wilson, acted with the Queen Elizabeth’s Men. Elizabeth Taylor’s Men were known for their egos, too.

Richard Burton was a famous Shakespearean Actor, and a Wild Man. He married a Wild Rose, twice! The names Taylor and Burton were on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the 60’s. If any two people were born to herald the end of Puritanical America, it was these two Hollywood Stars. Now that my blood test has put much of Hollywood in the Rosamond Family, Tree where the Webb Family be, then Thank God I am a historian who cares to plant Shakespeare’s Family Tree – in Wild America!

In my historic-fiction I have our kindred, Mary Wilson Webb, naming the Mayflower. She was a good friend of the ship builder’s wife, who wanted to name this famous ship ‘Heather’. This made all the men present, cringe. Countless women have suggested this name. There was a heated argument. Feelings were hurt. Mary spoke.

“Heather is a flower that blooms in May. Why not the name, Mayflower? This way everyone gets their way!”

When the ship that Mary and Alexander Webb sailed to the New World, in, was built, Mary’s good advice was sought. Roseflower was launched, and, more history would be made as the Puritan’s sailed West over the horizon. Gone with the tide and the wind.

***

It is time to finish, and publish my book.

http://www.people.vcu.edu/~nsharp/wilsded1.htm

“And therefore the Poets do feign, that Hercules being a man of great wisdom, had all men linked together by the ears in a chain, to draw them and lead them even as he lusted. For his wit was so great, his tongue so eloquent, and his experience such, that no one man was able to withstand his reason, but every one was rather driven to do that which he would, and to will that which he did; agreeing to his advice both in word and work in all that ever they were able.”

Sarah Wilson Rosamond (Willson) MP

SIR ALEXANDER WEBB JR., son of SIR ALEXANDER WEBB and MARGARET ARDEN, was born on August 20, 1559 in Stratford, Warwickshire, England, died after 1629 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts and was buried in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. He married MARY WILSON about 1579 in Stratford, Warwickshire, England. Mary was born about 1561 in Stratford, Warwick, England.

Children of SIR ALEXANDER WEBB JR. and MARY WILSON are:
RICHARD WEBB SR.
WILLIAM MICAJAH WEBB
ELIZABETH WEBB
JOHN WEBB, born on Oct 23 1597 in Stratford, Warwick, England; died on April 5, 1660 in Siterly, Hampshire, England.
CHRISTOPHER WEBB SR.
HENRY WEBB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth%27s_Men

It has been proposed that Elizabeth had a specific political motive behind the formation of the company. Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford were using their companies of players to compete for attention and prestige at each year’s Christmas festivities at Court; Elizabeth and her councilors apparently judged the competition, and the noblemen’s egos, to be getting out of hand. By culling the best players in their troupes to form her own, she slapped down ambitious aristocrats and asserted her own priority.^[4]

Richard Burton, CBE (/ˈbɜːrtən/; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor.^[1] Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice,^[2][3] Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable performance of Hamlet in 1964. He was called “the natural successor to Olivier” by critic and dramaturge Kenneth Tynan. An alcoholic,^[3] Burton’s failure to live up to those expectations^[4] disappointed critics and colleagues and fuelled his legend as a great thespian wastrel.^[3][5]

Burton was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but never won an Oscar. He was a recipient of BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and Tony Awards for Best Actor. In the mid-1960s, Burton ascended into the ranks of the top box office stars.^[6] By the late 1960s, Burton was one of the highest-paid actors in the world, receiving fees of $1 million or more plus a share of the gross receipts.^[7] Burton remains closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. The couple’s turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news.^[8]

Mary Arden was the mother of William Shakespeare. Mary’s date of birth is unknown; she was likely to have been born between the years 1536-8. She was the youngest of eight daughters and lived in a farmhouse that was built in 1514. Mary’s father, Robert Arden, was a member of the Guild of the Holy Cross, an important communal Stratford institution. Upon his death, Robert left Mary a significant amount of land in Wilmcote together with a sum of £6 13s 4d (equivalent to £30,000 in current value).

Probably about a year after her father’s death in late 1556, Mary married John Shakespeare and moved to live with him in a house on Henley Street. She was between 19-21 years old when she got married and left her father’s home. There was no mention of their engagement before Robert’s death, so the marriage was likely her choice. John was an upcoming businessman with a house in Stratford at that time.

Mary and John had eight children together, although three of their children died young. William was the oldest surviving child of John and Mary Shakespeare, who lost two infant daughters before William was born. William’s younger siblings were Gilbert (born in 1566), Joan (1569), Anne (1571), Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580). Ann died at the age of eight, but the others lived into their adulthood.

There is evidence to suggest that Mary would have been a literate woman, as she is mentioned as the executor of her father’s will. She would have benefited from a degree of education when carrying out her duties as the daughter of a farmer. This is all certainly knowledge that could have been used in the raising of a young William Shakespeare.

Later in life, after her husband’s death in 1601, Mary may have lived with William and his family at New Place. However, it is also possible that she may have stayed with her daughter, Joan Hart, in Henley Street.

Mary Shakespeare died in 1608.

Mary Margaret Webb (Wilson), of Bramcote MP

   Alexander Webb Jr married Mary Wilson and came to America with four sons: Christopher, Richard, John and William. This was the beginning of the WEBB family in America.

Mary Morton Rosemond of Iowa