James II & VII Stuart, KG (1633 – 1701) Duke of York, Earl of Ulster, Duke of Albany, King of England, Ireland and Scotland

In his autobiography, Life of King James II, King of England (p. 35), York mentions the assistance Messrs Howard and Tripp, both recusants, rendering assistance in his escape from St James’s Palace to take refuge in France in 1648. The duke was only a teenager at the time and wouldn’t ascend to the throne until 1685.

In 1664 York’s brother Charles II awarded him dominion over a region of land encompassing most of the Mid-Atlantic states of America. Later that year four English sailing ships commanded by Col Richard Nicholls (1624 – 1672) anchored in New Amsterdam Harbour to represent York’s surrender demand to Petrus Stuyvesant (1602 – 1672), the Director-General of New Netherland. Lacking fortifications and military support, Stuyvesant capitulated without a fight soon afterward. The capital of the former Dutch colony was subsequently renamed New York in York’s honor. Beverwijck, the fur trading settlement to the north of the city, was renamed Albany, also in his honor as the Duke of Albany.

Governor Nicholls, who was the son of a Middle Temple Inn barrister, implemented the first system of legal codes based on English law. First proclaimed as law in English settlements of the province (Long Island, Staten Island, and Westchester), the Dutch settlements gradually adopted “Duke’s Law” by incorporating its basic tenets into the Dutch system of jurisprudence. By the time of the American Revolution, a distinct and unique code of American law and jurisprudence had evolved. The first civil court judges of the new republic, such as Captain Jan Outwater (1646 – 1823), adopted the resulting system of jurisprudence as the law of the land.

Eleven years after the Duchess of York‘s passing in 1677, her brother Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, recanted his support of the reinstatement of exiled King James’ monarchy during the Glorious Revolution. After declaring an oath of allegiance, William and Mary restored his favor in the royal court as well as his membership in the Privy Council.

Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, the mother of both York and his brother Charles II, is the eponym of the US state of Maryland. A highly influential Catholic of her time, who may have precipitated the English Civil War, she spent the last years of her life as an exile in the court of her nephew King Louis XIV after the execution of her husband King Charles I in 1649.

Oliver Cromwell was a lead co-signatory of Charles I‘s death warrant in 1649. Nearly four years later Cromwell ruled Britain as the 1st Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. Though the Stuart monarchy was restored in 1660 with the return of Charles II from exile in France, Cromwell’s legacy as a strident Parliamentarian detractor of the monarchy ultimately led to James’ deposition in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution after a reign of fewer than five years. Afterward, the monarchy never regained its absolute hold on the British government, and the Anglican Church never lost its gains as the national religious institution.

York was an agnatic descendant of Conan Meriadog, Cynan Meriadoc ap Gereint, Founder of Brittany (305 – 367), and Robert II Stewart (1316 – 1390) 1st House of Stewart King of Scotland.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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