Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 269, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1910 — Bartholomew Family [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Bartholomew Family

Bartholomew is a name, meaning son of Tholmai, or Talmai. To analyze it —bar, in Syriac, as ben in Hebrew means son, and tholmai or talmai is from a Hebrew root, meaning to furrow, or cut. __ _ The Tholmai, or one so named, was he who worked in the fields, and his son, was Ben, or Bar Tholmai, or Bartholmai, or Bartalmai in Hebrew, which in course *of time became the Bartholomew of today. From the same roots we have Bartelot. Bartll and Bartlett. Variations of Bartholomew are Barthelemy, Bartumly, Barthumley and Bartelmewe. In France the name is Bartholmee; In Spain, Bartolomeo; in Italy, Bartholomeo; in Portugal, Bartolmeu; in Russia, Varfolomei. A brother of Christopher Columbus, who was with him on his voyage of discovery, was named Bartolomeo, or Bartolome Colon, and this is a town In San Domingo, thus named for him. William Bartholomew, born, ICO2, at Burford, England, married Anna Lord, and they are the forebears of the line tracing back to New England. William came over in the “Griffin,” and was first at Boston; about 1636, he Was a freeman of Ipswich, where he had much land. He wrote his name indifferently Bartylmi, Bartholmew (without the second "o”), or Bartholomew (the letter having an extra flourish was the Pmidav spelling, maybe.) It is an ungrateful descendant who asks for a better record than William can give. He had been here only seevn months, when he was chosen to represent the town of Ipswich, at Boston. He was town clerk, and it is recorded that he was to be “payed for his pavnes.” He took part in the trial of Anne Hutchinson, whom he knew when she was in London, and he was free to acknowledge that the views she entertained were, to say the least, peculiar, although he was inclined to Judge her not too harshly. He died 1681, and the inventory of his property shows that among other articles, hejrad a “blew rugg, an olde carpett and two earthen juggs ” What hard work they made of spelling in those days! He is buried at Charlestown, near Boston, and bis grave is beside that of John Harvard William Bartholomew was a man of mark in his day; he had a good education, and acquired much property.

His wife died three years later, an£ they left three children. One, Mary, married, first, Matthew Whipple; second, Jacob Greene, Henry, brother of William the first, married, in 1640, Elizabeth Scudder, of Boston. Henry is called a London merchant before coming. here. He lived at Salem, where he numbered his acres by the hundreds, and held many offices. As town clerk,, his records were faithfully and correctly kept. He was generous and broadminded in a bigoted age. With one other—probably his brother William—he patriotically advanced

money to keep the commissioners court in existence. He had three daughters, Hannah, Abigail and Elizabeth, but probably no sons who married. Descendants of Tils daughters are found ih New York state, and In the v^est. William, son of the first William Bartholomew, lived at Woodstock, Conn. He may have been a soldier in Philip’s war. His daughter Abigail v(as carried by the,lndians to Canada, and kept a prisoner for nearly a year, or until ransomed for £2OO. He had a son Andrew, and his descendant of the fourth generation was Francis cook Bartholomew • of Wallingford, Coup., born 1821, who married Erry Anne Lee, and in due time, after her death, led to the altar, Jennie Harrison. family has always been represeuted in Maryland ahd Virginia. The coat-of-arms illustrated, is blazoned: Argent a chevron, engrailed, between three lions rampant, sable. This is the coat-armcr ascribed to William Bar- .? f Bd8 ' ton > and it is th« R . ch may be B een graven upon Bartholomew tombstonefcin BVtholomew chapel, at Burford '

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