Sir Alexander Webb, Jr., Kt. - Debunking Alexander Webb’s Parentage

Marriage

Sir Thomas Wilson, Private Secretary of Queen Elizabeth I, did, in fact, have a daughter named Mary. However, it is well established that Sir Thomas Wilson's daughter Mary Wilson married Robert Burdett of Bramcote, Warwickshire, who was a Member of Parliament.[9] No record or other reliable evidence has been found for the marriage between this profile's Alexander Webb and a Mary Wilson or an other woman.

Debunking of Sir Alexander Webb II's Parentage of the Four Webb Immigrants

The fact that the older unsourced printed family genealogies and modern online family genealogy pages for this profile's Alexander Webb all provide precise dates of birth for his sons suggests that there are birth records that establish those dates. No birth or baptismal record for any of the four Webb immigrants (Richard, William, Christopher or Henry) has, however, ever been cited, provided or discovered. In fact, no reliable evidence of any kind has been found that indicates that any of the four Webb immigrants were the sons of an Alexander Webb of Warwickshire. Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration Begins contains a profile of Richard Webb of Norwalk. If there were reliable evidence of his origin or parentage, Anderson would have included it in his profile. However, Anderson states that Richard's origin is unknown and does not mention his parentage.[10] The origin of Christopher Webb of Braintree has now been established with a reasonably high degree of confidence. He lived in Crediton, Devonshire. There is no reason to believe that he somehow moved there from the Stratford-on-Avon area of Warwickshire. No reliable evidence has been found that connects any of the four Webb immigrants to each other. In fact, YDNA evidence to date finds no connection between any of the 20+ unrelated Webb branches that originated in the South and the descendants of Christopher Webb or any of the other 10+ unrelated Webb branches that originated in the North.[11] As is the case with most other surnames in the United States, the evidence indicates that the various Webb branches are descended from dozens of different unrelated immigrants.

Debunking of Sir Alexander Webb II's Immigration

No reliable evidence has been found of anyone meeting the description of Sir Alexander Webb II having immigrated to New England. The lack of any such evidence is confirmed by the fact that there is no entry for anyone close to his description in Robert Charles Anderson's 2015 The Great Migration Directory, which lists every person for which Anderson found evidence that they immigrated to New England in or before 1640.[12]

Debunking of Sir Alexander Webb II's Existence

In addition to the fact that, as discussed above, most of the information relating to Alexander is demonstrably false, there appears to be no reliable evidence that he existed at all. If he had existed, one would expect to find some shards of reliable evidence of this existence, such as parish records, court records, tax records, deeds or contracts, or estate records. However, no such reliable evidence of his existence has been cited, produced or discovered. Moreover, it he had existed, it is highly likely that he would have been mentioned by one of the many reputable Shakespeare researchers who have studied Shakespeare's relatives, since he would have been one of William Shakespeare's cousins; but he is not.[13][14][15][16][17][18] It therefore seems highly probable that he never existed and was instead created to serve as a link between the very real Alexander Webb of Bearley/Snitterfield and the four Webb immigrants (Richard, William, Christopher and Henry.) A nice story, but fictional.

Apparently Sir Henry Alexander Webb, {Fictional} & Grace Webb, {Fictional} are also fictional.

The four Webb immigrants - Richard, William, Christopher & Henry.

Richard Webb, of Norwalk

The fraudulent pedigree is written out here:

• Norwalk. By Charles Melbourne Selleck. Page 403. < GoogleBooks > Spurious pedigree.

Pretty sure none of the following is true. Lordy!

WEBB-INTERPAGE.

Sir Alexander Webb, born 1484, was an officer of rank in the army of King Henry Eighth and had Henry, Mary and Abigail. His oldest son, Sir Henry Webb, born May 11, 1510, was an usher of the Court of Catharine Parr, Queen of Henry Eighth. He was a gentleman of Worship and married Grace Arden, sister of Robert Arden. These lived at Hampton Court after 1544 and had Alexander2nd and Agnes. Alexander2nd, born in Warwickshire, England, December 24, 1534, was the oldest son of Sir Henry Webb of Hampton Court by his wife Grace Arden. He married his cousin Margaret Arden and settled in Birmingham, England, his children being Robert, born in Warwickshire March 5, 1556, Margaret, born June 9, 1558, and Alexanderård, born August 20, 1559.

Alexander Webberd, born August 20, 1559, was the youngest son of Alexander Webb2nd and Margaret Arden. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Wilson, Private Secretary of Queen Elizabeth of England.

Their children were:

Richardus, born in Warwickshire May 5, 1580, came to Norwalk;
William, born in Warwickshire January 9, 1588;
John, born in Warwickshire October 23, 1597 ;
Christopher, born in Warwickshire April 15, 1599;
Henry, born in Warwickshire October 12, 1601.

Richard Webb, Sr., born in Warwickshire May 8, 1580, married, first, May, 1610, Grace, daughter of John Wilson, and had one son, Richard Webb, Jr., who may have Norwalk dwelt for a short time, but who went early to Stamford. The mother of Richard Webb, Jr., and first wife of Richard Webb, Sr., died soon after the birth of her son, Richard Webb, Jr., and with his brothers William, Christopher and Henry, Richard Webblat came to America in 1626. He married, second, in America, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Gregory, Esq., a prominent citizen of Boston, and a sister of John Gregorylst of Norwalk. He went in 1636 to Hartford, Conn., with Rev. Thomas Hooker, where he was a leading man in the church and well known in the state.

He died at Norwalk, having accumulated a good property. Richard, Jr., born in Birmingham, England, January 9, 1611, came to America in 1626 with his father. He settled first in Massachusetts. He possibly joined his father at Norwalk, but moved on at once to Stamford, Conn.

The family in England resided mostly in Warwickshire before coming to America. Alexanderård, settled at Birmingham, while Robert, his older brother, remained on the estate near Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire. This estate was also the home of their father, Alexander2ud, and grandfather Sir Henry Webb of Hampton Court from 1544, after his marriage to Grace, sister of Robert Arden, who married, first, Mary, sister of Sir Henry Webb.

Richard Webb, of Norwalk profile was updated 30 July 2022. Changes included:

• Detached as grandson of Alexander Webb & Margaret Cornwall
• Detached as son of Sir Alexander Webb, Jr., Kt. {Fictional} & Lady Agnes Myleward (Millward) Webb or Mary Burdett
• Detached as husband of Sarah Webb & Grace Webb, {Fictional}
• Detached as father of Richard Webb, of Stamford Elizabeth Stone John Webb, of Northampton
• Elizabeth Webb was connected to her first husband, Seth Grant and their children, Elizabeth Warner & Sarah Holmes
• Sarah Hayward was connected as “foster daughter.”

Hatte Rubenstein Blejer you curate Elizabeth Webb - please take a look.

I am so grateful to you, Erica Howton, for pulling this all together so clearly.

There are many points at which pedigrees get invented, sometimes in full knowledge that they are untrue, sometimes purely by hopeful mistake -- and the point at which the English get involved in North America is a very fruitful one for False Pedigrees That Break Hearts And Create Headaches.

This is all very clear. Gratitude.

https://www.familytreedna.com/public/webbdna?iframe=yresults

May help some Webbs with their pedigrees.

Detagged from Mary Arden as Alexander Webb, Jr. Did not exist; Mary Wilson was married to a different guy; and Richard Webb didn’t have children, so it’s a useless pedigree in any event.

Christopher Webb, of Braintree - unrelated emigrant.

John Webb, of Northampton - unrelated emigrant.

Henry Webb, of Boston - unrelated emigrant.

“WEBB FAMILY GENEALOGY - Life is the Past Lane” (2007) archived at https://archive.ph/wuaaw on 28 Jan 2014

See especially:

Webb is a quite common name throughout southwestern part of that nation. The Webb families are primarily concentrated in the English Counties of Somerset, Wiltshire, Hants, Suffolk, Norhampton and Worchestershire. The name Webb literally means "one who weaves" or "weaver". A great many Webbs migrated to America when the colonies offered good wages to men with craft skills and to those who would build a new life. In 1790, when president George Washington authorized the first Census, there were 395 Webb families listed with an average of 5.7 members per family. There were also 1864 adult and single Webbs not member of these households. These were primarily young men seeking their fortunes on the frontier. A later count, taken in 1960, revealed that the Webb name is the 121st most common name in America. At that time there were approximately 148,000 adult Webbs in the United States. (Source , the Webb Family, published by the American Genealogical Research Institute, 1973)

And further down:

EMAIL from Anne Webb Nelson ; 9-26-2006 Webb Surname DNA Project. I am about to publish the results of some research I have been doing into the WEBB legends.This will be published on the Webb Surname DNA Project website (www.webbsurnamedna.org) in the public area.

While I have not completed this research, the first segment will be posted as soon as our webmaster can get it up. This section concerns the Sir Henry Webb, Queen Katherine Parr's usher. This Sir Henry Webb had but one child, a daughter who married George Peckham. Sir Henry died in 1553, and his daughter died in 1555. He is buried at St. Katheryn Colman's in London, and she is buried at Biddlesden -- her tombstone names her as both George Peckham's wife Susan, and as the "only heir of Henry Webbe." So this portion of your website is in error. Whoever was granted the coat of arms in 1577, it was NOT this Sir Henry Webbe, as he was dead by then.

Furthermore, the DNA Project has pretty well blown the Alexander Webb and his four sons theory out of the water. We have DNA for Christopher Webb and it doesn't match RIchard Webb of CT nor ANY Southern Webb line (i.e., the William Micajah line of VA).

The status of Y DNA testing:

< “Webb Surname DNA Project” > Project Overview - 2022

The WEBB Surname DNA Project began in February of 2002 with two participants who were hopeful of a match. Other participants quickly followed as Webb researchers learned about the potential of this valuable genealogical tool. In its earliest stages, the project mainly focused on Webb families of the Southeast. Over the years it has expanded to include hundreds of members from all regions of the United States, as well as participants from England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. We now enjoy a membership of over 650 participants.

Included in the list of the many successes of the project are the establishment in 2004 of the Christopher Webb line of Baintree, Massachusetts, and the Jonathan Webb line of Stamford, Connecticut.

In 2005 our first trans-Atlantic match occurred when a Wiltshire, England participant matched a Southern Webb family. We continue to make new trans-Atlantic matches.

In 2012 a descendant of Humphrey Webb b. c1600 of Oxfordshire, England made a DNA match to several Virginia members, and descendants of John Webb b. 1694 m. Mary Boone of Pennsylvania made a DNA match to a descendant of John Webb b. 1795 of Co. Armagh, Ireland.

Link to Y DNA test results chart:

https://www.familytreedna.com/public/webbdna?iframe=yresults