Martha Eugenia Boatwright

My paternal Grandmother, Martha (Mattie) Eugenia Boatwright, was born on July 26th, 1891 in Franklin, Stone County, Arkansas.  Her father, Marcellus, was 42 and her mother, Mary Hooper, was 40.  She married my grandfather, Walter William Rockholt on April 24th, 1908, three months short of her seventeenth birthday.  (27 July 2014:  I have since determined that grandfather's name was actually William Walter, not Walter William.)

In 1910 (U.S. Census, May 1910) my grandparents are living with Mattie's family in Martin Township, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, along with my father, William Franklin who is just a little over a year old.  1920 census has the family, Walter, Mattie, William (Dad), and two brothers, Fred and Robert, sister, Arbie Lee, and Grandfather's brother, Uncle Clint, in Diamond, Haskell County, Oklahoma.

Grandmother died on the 25th of May, 1928 in Sebastian County Arkansas.  Dad had already left home, the other children were scattered about with friends and family.  Granddad, a gospel minister, bounced around a lot, often spending time with his children and their families.  He died in Arizona October 1980.

The Boatwright line traces back to England in the mid 1600's, and probably (but unproven) to the early Viking settlements in Northern France in the late 9th century.  The Normans were Vikings who began to settle in northern France in the late 9th century. They soon adopted the French language and Christianity. The Normans protected the French coast from foreign attacks. In the year 1066 an army of Normans under Duke William (later called "the Conqueror" crossed the English Channel and defeated the English king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Among the Normans were ship carpenters known as "Boatwrights". The earliest reference to this surname dates back to the fifteenth century where one John Botewright is recorded as living in Suffolk County, England in 1469.  The family name is found as Botewright, Botrite, Boatwright and Boatright in various documents and records.

In the late 1640's England was in turmoil.  The English civil war had just ended, the victorious Puritans would soon behead King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell was having fits trying to establish his protectorate. Supporters of the monarchy found that England was no longer a safe haven for them.  They could loose their wealth and even their lives if they remained in England.

I believe "our" John Boatwright is the same John Boatwright baptized on October 8th, 1609  at All Saints Church, Thorpe Abbots, Norfolk, England, the son of Robert and Elizabeth.  This is based on the fact that Robert and Elizabeth had a daughter Lettice and when John grew up and married Elizabeth Cropley, they named their second daughter Lettice, probably in honor of John's sister.  The name is unusual enough that this surely is a connection.  John and Elizabeth had three children, Elizabeth, John and Lattice; Elizabeth and the girls were all buried at Saint Edward King and Martyr Church in Cambridge, England.

While I can only surmise the reasoning for John Boatwright Jr. to leave England for the new world, he did leave, arriving in Virginia as an indentured servant in 1654.  Three years later he imported eight individuals including two uncles (Thomas and William Cropley - younger brothers of his mother, Elizabeth Cropley) and his father, John Botwright, Sr. Branches of the family migrated west in Virginia, to the counties of Cumberland and then Buckingham, then into North Carolina and South Carolina during the second half of the 1700s.  Martha's great grandfather, Daniel David was established in Elbert County Georgia in 1813 when he married Elizabeth Carpenter, their son, Joshua, married Angeline Drake in 1848.  Martha's father, Marcellus Chesley Boatwright, married Mary Elizabeth Hooper on September 30th, 1880, Jackson County Alabama.  Martha was born in Franklin, Stone County Arkansas, she and Granddad were married in Franklin County.