New-York tribune., 1901-08-18

earliest settlement of the Devonians. and as
| serts that. il has remained until this Gay a
! stronghold of the clans For a century before
| English colonists at Plymouth the
James River the of Bideford and Barn
stable shared the dangers and the profits of the
! cod. whale and seal fisheries off Newfoundland:
and when the Spanish Armada menaced Eng
| land with ruin they abandoned their cruises
westward and fought goriously under Richard
| Whitbourne of Exmouth. against the enemy. off
| their coast. That was a parable with tie
| promise of the potency of the ralIying of the
young lion cubs from every cline earth
around the old lion in South Africa" The men
| of Devon, who built good ships and sailed them
| bravely, kept Newfoundland for England gem
GRAFTON after generation and ruled over thou
sands Of foreign fishermen. The colony has
never lost its distinctive character as New
Devon. All the old families are of Dcyonian
origin, and the island has remained the heritage
! of the historic shire.
Among the Devonians Of the United States
| clannish feeling has been even stronger than in
| Newfoundland and Canada They have traced
! the beginnings of organized colonization under
Raleigh Gilbert and Gorges preserved the ira
ditions Of those stirring times founded powerful
associations. searched British records as wei
as their own, and have even erected monuments
Oh English soil II Devcnan heroes. ssIr Roper
Lethbrdge points that these American
tory OF their British ancestors cannot be- slis-
pected Of doing so from any vulgar desire #
constructing an ostentatious pedigree or Of con-
hectInS themselves with forebears more highly
iia'eo than themselves in the social scale He
c"i'SiuerS IL remarkable proof IF the deep love
"i the motherland that hundreds of Devonian
ia"heS settled IN the New World for centuries
. should keep up the record of their connectia,
, with the old country in elaborate registers of
, ne ariU
, found powerful associations and hold periodicaI
elan meetings. There are over five thousand
registered descendants II Tristram Conyn in
inc United states and Canada and as many a.,
Hiteeh hundred of them have assembled at o..
time in Nantucket. The Tileys are also scat
tered over America. and the Conants have in
creased and multiplied in the New World Will,
they have disappeared from the face OF OH
Devon tn" Endicotts. formerly accredited to
. MY Thomas Hardy's Dorchester. in Wess,.x in
reality came from the tin mines of South Taw-
t"n' and they are almost widely represented
IN America as the Woodbury. clan. OF Devon
Crock"rs. Crokers or Crnokers there are three
thousand in the United States alone: and there
are full musters of the PeppereIls the TuttI,s
the brakes. the Frusts the Salters the Pom
eroys. the Cabells the Ridgways the Bartows
the Lethhridges the Adamses the Grants AMI
many more Devonian clans. At least thr..
American Presidents have borne old Dcvoniar.
names. and have had in their veins the bIot
Of the famous shire
Hands are indeed stretched across the sea
To remind old Devon Of its family heirloo.ns
Thee American geueaogies and books OF tn
clans contain in many instances the best ac.
counts which the natives OF the county caa
receive OF their own ancestry The character
!stic family names. such as Tristram Coffin
Roger Condut ana Eltweed POmeroy are ~.
p"ated in these g"n"alogias from generation &C.
generation. and ON the tombstuncs of the Dc
vonian hurchyor,!s the same names are 70 he
read. The men Of Devon who went To- New
foundland. Massachusetts, Connecticut. Canada
and Australia carried with them the names cf
the farms. villages and towns of tho old shire:
and the map Of the world fairly bristes with
them. There forty Plymouths across seas
and as many EXet-rs: and there Dait-
mouths. BidefoTds. Barnstabcs Tavistocks.
Torrrgtons. Tivertons and Hartlands 10y the
score. There are marriages of TreEeares with
! Werri1Gtous in DeVonshire ana in Australia,
and while Brteld WOollcombe. justice of the
peace. recently died IT Ashbury in the shire.
there is another IeIield WoolIcombe sitting
the bench Justice of the peace i'll Ashbury,
NewZealand. The old names keep the memory of
Devonshirc green among of English blood
as the merry world goes round. and the pleas
ure taken by descendants after many genera