It’s as common as rain for family historians to incorporate myth into the telling of their story.  As it turns out, we Knowltons have acted in kind.  In our case, the myth has been fostered by the ambitious work of an historian, published in 1897, and titled, The History and Genealogy of the Knowltons of England and North America.  Written by Rev. Charles Henry Wright Stocking, D.D., it’s an impressive compilation of Knowlton ancestry information and has been used by genealogy buffs for decades.  It should yet be considered a valuable tool for us, though it contains errors… as Rev. Stocking himself anticipated.  The ‘grandaddy’ of errors, however, is his identification of Richard of Kent as our earliest known English progenitor.  It’s our myth.  The descent of all Knowltons from this personage through one Capt. William Knowlton and his family in Ipswich, Ma. in 1593 is a genealogical item that cannot be verified.  In fact, Capt. William himself, whose grave is said to have been found by a surveyor in Nova Scotia, may himself be a myth.

While myths such as this are fun to consider, the propagation of them runs counter to serious genealogy.  Through the efforts of our own, winspeare and others, several years ago we were able to ‘let go’ of all things Dorset (manor, church, henge) and work adrift, having no proven English progenitor to Stocking’s ‘Ipswich brothers’.  And then something astounding happened…

DNA testing enters the world of genealogy and some daring Knowltons decided to submit to testing.  It soon became irrefutable that all Knowltons do not belong to the same dna group – even though they are descended from documented brothers.  Amid speculations of adoption or ‘hanky-panky’, it became even more urgent that John and William’s English parentage be discovered.  The challenge was taken up by our own, thetreedr.  Skillfully delving into the confusing archives of England, a family was found which contained three brothers matching the names, birth dates, and birth order of the ‘Ipswich Three’:  John, William, and Thomas.  Thomas never sired children.  The dna anomaly notwithstanding,  it seems highly likely that these brothers emigrated to America on their own and not aboard their father’s sailing vessel.