Suffolk and Norfolk

The distribution of the Stewards today(map from Spatial-Literacy.org) live largely in Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Essex, having lived there since at least the 16th C.

Steward & Patteson, Pockthorpe Brewery, Great Yarmouth

Working back in time, this story starts with the Steward family of Great Yarmouth  , brewers, merchants and privateers. Timothy Steward (1696-1769) moved to Yarmouth from Wells-next-the-Sea  , presumably in the early 1700s. Our familiy connection is with Mary Steward, the wife of Charles Josselyn, who was Timothy's great-great-granddaughter.

Through their connection with the Norwich brewery of Steward and Patteson, the Steward family is documented in considerable detail in the book "Norfolk Beers from English Barley - A History of Steward and Patteson 1793-1963" by Terry Gourvish (ref 1). The Yarmouth Steward family is documented here.

From Timothy we jump back 200 years to the early 16th century: "They can be traced to Nicholas Steward of Wells-next-the-Sea (died c.l52O)" (ref 1). Gourvish probably did not detail this part of the family history as it fell outside the scope of the book, but it is likely that that this is based on details in his sources for the Steward family history: "The Perlustration of Great Yarmouth" (ref 3) and "The Steward Pedigree Book" (ref 4) and so hopefully this gap in the family tree can be filled.

Nicholas Steward headed "an established Norfolk family of minor gentry" (ref 2). Oliver Cromwell's mother was Elizabeth Steward, great grand daughter of Nicholas. One son, Robert Steward (c.1500-1557), was the last prior and first dean of Ely cathedral at the time of the reformation. As a result there is a lot of information surviving about them.

"The family was convinced that they descended from the Stewart royal house, via Sir John Steward, the so-called Scot-Angle, who moved to England in the service of Henry V. In 1511 the heralds prepared a full, if questionable, genealogy for them, and this became a document of obsessive importance for the family." (ref 2)

This Royal connection was probably also important to Oliver Cromwell (in to establish a royal heritage) and so the genealogy may also have been 'massaged' by his spin doctors. As a result this part of the story must be treated with some caution.

If true, the Steward genealogy connects the family to Sir John Steward, who came to England from Scotland with the future James I of Scotland in 1406, and then back to Alexander Steward ( -1283), 4th Steward of Scotland and grandfather of Robert II of Scotland, the first of the Stuart Kings of Scotland and England.

An alternative view is expressed by another researcher:

Descent was claimed from a Scottish prince shipwrecked in 1406 on the Norfolk coast, who could not find his way home. Most contemporaries believed Stywards of Swaffham and Wells, Norfolk, Norwell in Nottinghamshire, Ramsey, Ely, and Putney originally hailed from Calais, and noted that their arms made no allusion to arms of the Scottish Stuarts, which one would expect of a cadet of the royal house.

This is not an accurate description of the Steward's claim (descent was not claimed to be from the Prince but from his companion and third cousin) and the rest is unsubstantiated, therefore it is hard to know how to judge this statement.

With that brief introduction and warning let's start back in the 13th century and look at the details of the Steward story looking at both the family version and the contemporary recorded history.

Scottish Royalty? 1000 to 1406

The position of Lord High Steward of England is the first of the Great Officers of State. Although initially the position was largely an honorary one, over time it grew in importance until its holder became one of the most powerful men of the kingdom.

In Scotland, the hereditary position of High Steward or Great Steward was given in the 12th century to Walter Fitzalan, whose descendants became the Stewart/Steward family. In 1371, the last High Steward, Robert Steward, inherited the throne, becoming Robert II of Scotland (1316-1390) starting a continuous line of descent ending in 1685 with the death of Charles II. See the panel opposite.

If we are to believe the Steward genealogy, the Norfolk Steward family are descendants of a younger son of the 4th High Steward, Alexander. There are a number of accounts on this and the following extract of the book "Wadsworth or The Charter Oak" by W.H. Gocher in 1904 is representative:

Genealogists have shown that Oliver Cromwell and Charles I. were distantly related. Both of them were descended from Alexander, the Lord High Steward of Scotland. He had three sons, James, John and Andrew.

James succeeded to the hereditary office of his father and transmitted it on his death to his son Walter, who brought the Scottish crown into the family by marrying Margery, the eldest daughter of Robert Bruce and heiress of his brother David, who died without issue. Their son was Robert II, King of Scotland, the line of succession from him to Charles I being through Robert III, James I, James II, James III, James IV, James V, Mary and James VI, who was James I of England and father of Charles I.

The second branch of Alexander's descendants through his son John are known in history as the Earls and Dukes of Lennox, and was joined with the royal line when Lord Darnley married Mary, Queen of Scots, whose only child was the first of the ill-fated Stuarts to ascend the throne of England.

Andrew, the third son, lived at Dundavale. His grandson was appointed one of the attendants of James I. when he was sent to France to evade the intrigues of his uncle, the Duke of Albany. The vessel in which they sailed was driven on the English coast and Henry IV. detained the prince and his suite as prisoners. Growing restless under restraint this member of the Steward family, whose name was John, consented to fix his residence in England if released. He married advantageously and was knighted.

While Alexander's first two sons, James and John, are well documented, I have found no record of Alexander having a third son, Andrew. It is likely that Alexander had a large family and so it is possible that this Andrew existed.

There are a number of accounts of the Steward family genealogy on the web, unfortunately almost all include glaring errors and none give sources. I suspect that most of these accounts are corrupted versions of the genealogy shown below, from the website of Penny Givens. This was prepared by E. S. Stewart in the 1930s and published in the Stewart Clan Magazine. While this also lacks source references, unlike most of these accounts it seems to be relatively consistent with historical events and the generations fit. However as we will see, it does not agree with some contemporary documents and so even as a 'mythology' it may be inaccurate.

From Andrew the line of descent is as follows (most accounts start numbering the Steward generations from Alexander Steward (1) and to be consistent I will do the same):

Andrew Steward (2), third son of the fourth high steward, had a son Alexander. The position of this Andrew in the pedigree was formerly a matter of dispute among historians, but his place is now generally accepted.

Alexander Steward (3), called "the fierce," is said to have killed a lion with a club, and on that account he received an addition to his arms.

John Steward (4), second cousin to King Robert II was one of the attendants of Prince James Stuart (1395-1437) when he was captured by the English {accounts differ; alternatively he was shipwrecked, captured by the English or taken by pirates} near Flamborough Head on March 30 1406 on his way to France (ie at age 11), while attempting to escape from the Duke of Albany. James was imprisoned by Henry IV in Windsor Castle for 19 years. On 4 April 1406, just days after James' capture, Robert III died and James became James I of Scotland, he wasn't crowned until his release in 1424.

John Steward remained in England, and in 1408 he was knighted by King Henry IV, he was called the Scot-Angle. He fought in the English army in France and is believed to have perished in the battle of Agincourt, 1415

(note: John was Robert III's second cousin and so he was certainly older than James, probably 20-30 in 1406, ie born 1376 +/- 10 years)

Unfortunately, even this account cannot be an accurate transcription of Robert Steward's genealogy as it disagrees with the origin of the Stywarde family arms (text below), which Robert was aware of, where it is Andrew and not Alexander who slew the Lion:

"The drawing illustrates the incident in which the Stewart family allegedly gained the arms of argent a lion gules debruised by a ragged staff, when Andrew Stewart slew the lion of Balliol with a ragged staff and in return received from Charles VI, king of France, the right to bear the lion and staff as an augmentation of honour on the Stewart arms." (full text at end of page)

The Origins of the Stewarts and StewardsThe following are extracts from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ref 2).

Walter Fitzalan (c.1110-1177), third son of Alan son of Flaald, was a favoured supporter of Henry I, who was descended from the hereditary stewards of Dol in Brittany. Walter's elder brother William was lord of Oswestry and Clun in Shropshire, and ancestor of the Fitzalans who were later earls of Arundel. Walter entered the service of David I, king of Scots, about 1136, and towards the end of David's reign became the king's dapifer, or steward, an office which was to be held heritably.

Walter died in 1177, his heir, from his marriage to Eschina, evidently of a family native to southern0 Scotland, being Alan (c.1150-1204), who served William the Lion (r. 1165–1214) as dapifer until his death in 1204 and whose daughter Avelina married Duncan, sometime earl of Carrick.

Walter son of Alan (c.1198-1241), was the third hereditary steward and adopted the more dignified title senescallus on reaching his majority c.1219. He was a considerable benefactor of Paisley Abbey and held office as justiciar of Scotia (that is, Scotland north of Forth) between 1232 and 1241. A close alliance between the families of Stewart and Bruce, lords of Annandale, may be traced from Walter's time and continued until the early fourteenth century. Both his sons played a prominent part in the national life of mid-thirteenth-century Scotland. His younger son Walter, was the first to adopt the name Stewart.

Walter's elder son, Alexander of Dundonald (c.1220-1282), the fourth steward, held the stewardship from 1241 until about the time of his death. He seems to have commanded the armed force which, at Largs, in October 1263, successfully defended Scotland against attempted invasion by Hákon IV, king of Norway. Alexander's oldest surviving son was baptized James, hitherto an uncommon personal name in Scotland.

James Stewart (c.1260-1309), the fifth steward, was in the forefront of Scottish politics throughout his tenure of the stewardship. His younger brother, Sir John Stewart of Jedburgh, married the heir to the barony of Bunkle in Berwickshire and was ancestor of the Stewarts of Bunkle.

James Stewart's younger son was Sir Walter Stewart (c.1296-1327), who commanded one of the four Scottish brigades at Bannockburn in 1314, after which battle he was knighted. A year later Walter was given the eldest child of Robert I (Robert the Bruce), Marjorie Bruce (c.1296-1316), in marriage. In December 1318 Walter was present in parliament when the succession to the throne was entailed upon his son Robert (born probably on 2 March 1316), failing male heirs of Robert I's body. When Robert I's son, David II, having reigned for over half a century and been married twice, died childless in 1371, Robert Stewart duly succeeded, as King Robert II.

The Anglo-Stewards, 1400 to 1500

Continuing Steward story in England (still from the E.S. Steward / Givens account):

John Steward , son of the first Sir John, was knighted in 1420 by King Henry V, and was given a gilt cup by Queen Catherine at her coronation. {Note the ODB seems to merge the two Johns, which is correct?}

Thomas Steward, son of the second Sir John, settled at Swaffham, Norfolk, and became a famous mariner. He died in 1470.

Richard Steward, son of Thomas, married a daughter of John Boreley.

The Norfolk Stewards, 1500 to 1700

Nicholas Steward (8), the son of Richard (7), married Cecilia, daughter of John Baskerville, and died in 1520. He is referred to variously as Nicholas Steward of Wells, of Outwell, and of Upwell. They had at least 4 sons:

 Nicholas Steward ( -1520)= Cecelia Baskerville  

Robert Steward ( -1557)Nicholas Steward ( - ) = Elizabeth Lucas

Richard Steward (1467- ) = Elizabeth Cossyn (or Coslyn)

Simon Steward ( -1568) = ? Bestney

"The family was convinced that they descended from the Stewart royal house, via Sir John Steward, the so-called Scotangle, who moved to England in the service of Henry V. In 1511 the heralds prepared a full, if questionable, genealogy for them, and this became a document of obsessive importance for the family."

 it seems likely that this Nicholas was the ancestor of the Great Yarmouth Stewards. It is of course possible that the Yarmouth Stewards were repeating history and claiming this connection for similar reasons to Nicholas's claim of the connection to the Scottish Royal family.

Robert Steward ( -1557)

Robert Cromwell ( - )  no issue

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and ?? others

Nicholas received in 1548 a lease of the rectory of Ely from his brother, the dean. His son William (10) was also buried in Ely cathedral, he had the lease of Ely Rectory renewed to him in 1665. William was the father of Sir Thomas Steward(11) of Cambridge, who married Bridget, daughter of John Poole of Cheshire, and was knighted by King James VI in 1604; Elizabeth Steward (11), sister of Sir Thomas, was the mother of Oliver Cromwell.

From the book "The King and the Gentleman" (ref 5)(Robert Cromwell was Oliver Cromwell's father):

"......Robert [Cromwell], the brother who had come into the world little more than a year after the first-born, began his married life on about £300 a year, which meant that he was comfortably off by the standards of the day, but by no means wealthy. He had gone through Queens' and Lincoln's Inn with his elder brother, then returned home and begun casting around for a marriage that would bring him more property and enable him to boost his income.

The woman he had found came from a family whose connections with the Cromwells extended back over several decades. When Sir Richard [Williams/Cromwell, knighted in 1537, married to Frances Murfyn of London] had reported in 1537 to Mr. Secretary [Thomas, later Earl of Essex] Cromwell that the Prior of Ely was 'forward' [progressive, or nationalistic in disputes with Papal authority in such matters as divorce] in outlook he had been referring to Robert Styward (or Steward) alias Wells, a pliant religious who supported the King's spoliation of the Church and was rewarded by being appointed Dean of Ely after the secularization of the monastic foundation.

Steward, who obligingly amended his religious opinions on the accession of Queen Mary, ensured that his family did well out of the Dissolution: they had a grant of former monastic lands and Robert's elder brother became hereditary steward of the cathedral's remaining properties. By the end of the sixteenth century these lucrative responsibilities had devolved upon Sir Thomas Steward who, trading upon the similarity of his name to that of the prospective heir to the throne traced a connection with the royal house of Scotland.

It was Elizabeth, niece of this Thomas Steward, whom Robert [Williams/Cromwell] married about 1591. She was already the widow of a certain John Lynne of Bassingbourn, near Cambridge, and brought to her second marriage a jointure of some sixty pounds a year......"

The Steward Family

Oliver Cromwell descended from the Steward family. To legitimise his position he was keen to establish royal links.

The Steward family maintain they were descended from the Scotish royal family and through James I of England (James VI of Scotland) he had a mandate to rule.