'f/A'-'V /f ^ 9J^/ 4- S 71 L863 |909a lopy 1 f CS71 Colonial families of America BY ELEANOR LEXINGTON Seven volumes, 12mo., cloth; each volume illus- trated by a frontisj)iece and forty or more Coats-of- Arms. Each volume contains historical sketches of forty American families, each sketch illustrated by at least one Coat-of-Arms, and occasionally by two. The main points covered in these family sketches are: (1) the origin of the family surname; (2) some ac- count of the early history of the family in Europe; (3) the different American families of the same name, with accounts of the immigrant-founders and of some of their descendants; (4) members of the family who have figured prominently in Colonial times; (5) Rev- olutionary soldiers; and (6) Coats-of-Arms. Since the two hundred and eighty families treated in this series of seven volumes bear names which are widespread (for example, the sixty "common names of the world," as enumerated by Lower, are all included in the list), there are few Americans of Colonial stock who will not discover, as they trace out their lines of descent, that at least ten or twenty of their ancestral families have been included in these books. The volumes are sold singly or in sets. Price, per volume, $2.00; carriage, 10 cents. Price, per set of seven volumes, $10; carriage, 70 cents. The sketch of each family, printed by itself, with Coat-of-Arms, and bound in paper cover, $1.00; two copies, $1.50; three copies, $2.00; five copies, $3.00; ten copies, $5.00; twenty-five copies, $10.00. Any purchaser of the sketch of a single family for $1.00 may purchase the volume containing this sketch by the payment of $1.00 additional, plus the cost of carriage; or may purchase the set for $9.00, plus the cost of carriage. The families treated in the several volumes of the series will be found listed on the inside back cover. LOOMIS FAMILY 1 CoomI LOOMIS FAMILY N"ame Found Throughout the World — Theories Regarding Origin of Name — Poets, Artists, Professional Men and One Martyr — Family Records in British Museum and American Historical Societies Joseph Loomis, a woolen draper of Braintree, Essex County, England, with five sons and three daughters, sought a home in the New World in 1638. They came over in the ship Susan and Ellen, and settled in Wind- sor, Conn., the following year. The record of his first years in the colony is preserved by the Historical So- ciety of Connecticut. He died, 1658, aged about seventy years. His land at Windsor was upon what was called "the Island." The place is still owned by descendants and is believed to be the oldest homestead now standing in the United States. Over one and one-half million dollars have been left by Joseph's lineal descendants, of the last few generations, to convert the estate into an educa- tional institute for boys and girls. Edward Lomas, another pilgrim, settled in Ipswich, Mass., in 1648. He was born in London about 1606. He had six children. His descendants, found in many States, vary the orthography of the name, although Lummis is the usual form. Some write themselves down Loomis, others, without much rhyme or reason, it would seem, are Lamos. The descendants of Joseph are mostly known as Loomis. He and his sons, doubt- less thinking "variety the spice of life," used a num- ber of forms, ringing the changes on Looms, Loomes, Loomas, Lomis, Loomax, Lumax, and Lomys. The will of Deacon John, son of Joseph, dated August 27, 1688, is signed Loomys. His is one of the oldest monu- ments in the Windsor Cemetery. He was a representa- tive to the Legislature for many years. The names of Joseph's five sons are mentioned prominently in old 5 6 COLONIAL FAMILIES OF AMERICA records of both Windsor and Hartford, as "selectmen, jurors and troopers." Of Edward's four sons, one, also named Edward, settled in New Jersey. Lummus and Lomaks are speci- mens of the way they thought their names should be written upon occasions. True to their coat-armor, which symbolizes^ among other things, military strength, we find the Loomis family have their war record. In Great Britain there was James Lumax, lieuten- ant-general. To the home of their adoption they proved loyal. Joseph, a descendant of Joseph the first, was in the Continental Army of the Revolution ; also Benja- min of Windsor, whose wife was Chloe, daughter of Josiah Brown, a Revolutionary soldier; Jonathan, of Vermont, was a corporal, who played his part manfully, and Gustavus, of Vermont, was in the War of 1812. Nor must we forget Benaiah, a Revolutionary soldier. Before the third decade of the nineteenth century ten of the name had been graduated from college. The law seems to have been a favorite profession. Ar- phaxed Loomis, born in Winchester, Conn., in 1798, was a judge, an able speaker and a writer. Dwight Loomis, also from the land of steady habits, was another judge. James was Mayor and (Connecticut State) Senator. Osbert was an artist of renown. Elias Loomis was the scientific man of the family. He was born in Connecticut in 1811. A graduate and professor of Yale College, he wrote many valuable text books, and was the first American to see Halley's comet on its return in 1835. One of the poets of the family was Harvey Worthing- ton Loomis, who wrote "The Flag Goes By." "Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky. Hats off, The flag is passing by!" LOOMIS FAMILY 7 It is not easy to believe that a name of such modest proportions as Loomis, started out as Lumhalghes. That such is a fact has been proved to the satisfaction of many members of the Loomis family. They trace the name to Oliverus de Lumhalghes, who held lands in Lancaster County, England, in 1435. The name also appears as "del Lumhalghe," in records of the time of Henry VI. Eadus del Lumhalghes was a landowner in Bury, Lancaster, about the middle of the fifteenth century. The supposition is that this name, which looks so ponderous, was pronounced in two syllables; "h" is only an aspirate and the final "e" is silent. This gives a word Lumalg or Lumalgs, and it is the easiest thing in the world to pronounce this Loomis, is it not ? Perhaps not at the first attempt, for there are other variants of the name in old records — Lomax, Lomas, Lommes, Lommas and Lomatz being examples. For the benefit of the skeptic, who rejects this the- ory of the origin of the name, another one is given which seems more plausible. Loma is a Spanish word meaning a little hill, the plural being lomas. The first of the Lomas family was one who lived in Spain, and on or near a loma. In support of this theory it may be said that the name, variously spelled, is common in Spain, and also in Italy. Lomas was a Spanish poet of the sixteenth century. Lomazzo was an Italian painter of the same century. He took his name from the village of Lomazzo, near Lake Como. He was sum- moned to Florence by Cosmo de Medicis, who made him guardian of a gallery of 4,000 paintings. Lomazzi is another Italian form of the name. One of the gov- ernors of the province of Saragossa was Eduardo de la Lomas. The name in France is Lomas; in Germany, Lommatsch. The advocates of the theory of a Spanish origin of the name say it can be traced to the year 1400, to one Loma, and that his descendants went to Italy and to England. The name has always been prominent in 8 COLONIAL FAMILIES OF AMEEICA England. In the Manchester records of 1497 a Lawrens Lomatz is mentioned. The arms of Lawrent Lomax, of Eye, Suffolk County, are recorded in a Visitation which has a place in the British Museum. The pedi- gree of Joshua Lomax, who died in 1685, is found in Pedigrees of Hertfordshire. He was the owner of a manor. The family has its martyr, in the person of John Lomas, burned at Canterbury for heresy, its mem- bers of Parliament, and its graduates of Oxford and Eton. Forms of the name have been favorites for geo- graphical nomenclature. For example, Lomiswyl, or Lomisville, is the name of a village in Switzerland; in Saxony there is a town called Lommatsch; in Africa we find Loma Hill; in the Argentine Eepublic, Lomas, and Point Loma at San Diego, California. The illustrated arms are : Argent, between two palets, gules, three fleur-de-lis in pale, sable, a chief, azure. Crest: On a chapeau, a pelican vulning herself, proper. Motto: Ne cede malis — "Yield not to adversity." This coat-armor was used by Joseph, the Windsor forefather, who spelled his name indifferently, Loomis or Lomas. Regarding the symbolism, palet, a diminutive of the pale, has the same meaning as pale, namely, military strength and fortitude, and was given to those who had impaled or otherwise defended cities, or who had supported the government of their sovereigns, "by stand- ing up uprightly for prince and country." Fleur-de-lis were often granted to those who had taken part in the French wars. The pelican signifies devoted and self-sac- rificing charity. The pelican, feeding her young, adorned the altars of many Egyptian temples, and was represented as vulning or wounding herself with her beak, or "in her piety," that is, surrounded by her young, whom she was feeding. The pelican is the de- vice of the inner Temple, London. COLONIAL FAR^ILlEg VOLUME OP AMERICA I. • Bacon Cary Freeman Merritt Bewail Bailey- Conway Goodridge Miner Smith Baldwin Dickinson Griffith Montgomery Todd Ball Dubois Hawley Osgood Wallace Bancroft Edwards Horton Phillips Wendell Bradford Field -Loomis Read Wilson Brooks Fisher Manning Roopevelt Winslow Brown Fox . Martin VOLUME Savage IL Wright Adams Cooper Hayes Page Taylor Anderson Daniel Hubbard Parker Tracy Ballon Draper Jennings Perkins Walker Booth Eliot Jones Putnam Walworth Briggs Fairbanks Lapham Rawson Washington Cabell French Morgan Roberts Welles Clapp Gilbert Neale Robinson Wheeler Clendenin Hatch Neville VOLUME Sinclair III. Woodhouse Alexander Cooke Goode Knox Sharp Barker Cushman Graham Lawson Stevens Barrington Davis Hart Maxwell St. John Beardsley Downing Hill Osborne Thomas Branch Eaton Holmes Peery Tompkins Cannon Fitzhugh Howe Rockwell Valentine Chapman Franklin Jenkins Rogers Williams Child Clifford King VOLUME Saunders IV. Young Barton Courtenay Hammond Luce Ross Bass Cox Harris Mann Shannon Bates Fletcher Heiskell Marshall Stark Bird Godfrey Henderson McDonald Thompson Blake Grant Hoskins More Tuttle Chase Graves Ives Morrison Wade Clark Green Jackson Pope Wetmore Cole Hall Knight VOLUME Preston V. Wood Abell Goodwin Kendall Morris Proctor Barnes Gray Lamb Morse Richardson Bassett Hamer Landen Moultrie Ridley Bennett Hamilton Langford Newhouse Russell Carter Hamlin Lee Newport Scott Digges Hull McCormick Oakes Staples Fay Hume Merryman Parsons Tilton Fuller Kearns Mitchell VOLUME Pratt yi. Watson Austin Cathcart Gardiner Marsh Shaw Bernard Christian Hoyt McAllister Simpson Bliss Crane Hunt Meade Sprague Borden Curtis Jessup Odell Turner Breeden Douglas Lamprey Pease Ward Brodie Dudley Lawrence Reynolds Webster Butler Fleming Lewis Richards White Campbell Foster Madison VOLUME Ryan VII. Whitney Allen Carpenter Flournoy Law Porter Andrews Chambers Fowler Lloyd Price Anthony Gumming Hopkins Lucas Sherman Baker Cunningham Hughes Mason Stone Bartholomew Davies Humphrey Moore Tait Belcher Drake James Morton Warren Benton Ely Johnson Palmer Witherspoon Boone Evans Lano PiercQ fuiiie(Ewell) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 549 736 7 ANCESTRY TRACED HERALDIC RESEARCH GENEALOGIES PRINTED AND PUBLISHED COATS OF ARMS EMBLAZONED FRANK ALLABEN GENEALOGICAL COMPANY Three West Forty-Second Street New York Persons interested in families which might appropriately he in- cluded in future volumes of Colonial Families of America are in- vited to correspond ivith the Publishers. I