Harwood DNA project

A FAMILY RESEARCH group in the United States is seeking members of the Harwood family in the Bourne area in an attempt to establish a direct connection through DNA research.

Any male with that name or its derivatives, such as Harewood or Hereward, is being offered a test free of charge in the hope of tracing their ancestry back to those who achieved fame in the colonies during the 17th century.

The earliest known member was William Harwood who lived at Thurlby, near Bourne, where he died in 1568. His son, also William, was the father of Sir Edward Harwood (1581-1632) who distinguished himself in the army and was knighted for bravery in the field while serving in the Low Countries during the Thirty Years War.

By 1620, Sir Edward had been promoted lieutenant-colonel and in 1626 he was a full colonel commanding an English regiment, thus becoming one of the premier English soldiers of the day. In that year, he took part in the disastrous English expedition to Cadiz and got the rearguard away safely, returning to the Netherlands where he served for the rest of his life.

He was shot and mortally wounded at the Battle of La Felt during the siege of Maastricht on 11th August 1632, pierced through by three successive bullets and in 1636 one of his officers, Captain Nicholas Byron, erected a monument to his memory in the Hague where he was buried on the instructions of Prince Maurice of Nassau, captain-general of the United Provinces who had regarded him as a loyal servant and is believed to have been responsible for his knighthood.

Sir Edward was a pious man, known for his courage both on the battlefield and in sieges, and was reputed to have abjured all duelling, having been penitent over one in which he had killed a man and this determined him to forego personal quarrels in the future. Thomas Fuller referred to this in his book The History of the Worthies of England (1662) in which he wrote: “Death was so civil to him as to allow him to rise on his knees and to cry ‘Lord, have mercy upon me’.”

In his will, Edward bequeathed his entire estate worth £500 to his elder brother, George, who had left home in 1588 to seek his fortune. Ten years later, he met and married Catherine Pheasant, daughter of Thomas Pheasant, of Dublin, who had moved with his family to London. They had four sons, William (born 1599), Thomas (1600), John (circa 1601) and George (circa 1603).

By this time George had become a successful merchant with commercial interests in the American colonies and in August 1620, at the age of twenty, William sailed for the New World aboard the ship Francis Bonaventure to develop the business at Jamestown, Virginia, surviving the Good Friday Indian Massacre of 1622 and eventually being elected Governor of Martin’s Hundred Colony. He is believed to have died in Charles City County in 1644.

Thomas, who had followed him to Virginia in 1622, died in Warwick County before October 1652. It is not known when or where John and George junior died. After his wife Catherine died, George senior crossed the Atlantic to be with his sons and purchased land adjoining William’s 2,000-acre Weyanoke Plantation which he had helped finance in 1644. He was still living there in 1661 at the age of 81, although it is not known when he died.

Their descendents are now spread throughout the United States and many are working on a massive family tree to produce an historical perspective of their movements and achievements. Investigations into the origins of the family and the Bourne connection have been going on for several years and the research group, which is based at Dallas, Texas, is now anxious to take advantage of the latest medical science to advance their findings. John Guittard, the group administrator, said that they planned to use modern DNA testing science to trace and connect all of the major Harwood families in America and Britain back to their earliest detectable origins, mainly in Lincolnshire but also in Lancashire and Northumberland, or wherever the trail may lead.

Ancestry DNA or genetic genealogy has now become an accepted tool in family research and enables people to discover their anthropological roots, where their forbears originated and travelled, and can even identify the ethnic group, community, clan and village where they lived, so enabling links to be made with later generations.

Harwoods are known to have lived at Haconby as well as Thurlby but there are quite likely to have been others living in Bourne itself and the surrounding villages and it is hoped to trace descendants who have reasonable proof of their ancestry. They will then be asked to participate in the research which is offered free of charge. The group is using a special kit which will be sent by post to the homes of males with the Harwood surname and the test is quick and easy, requiring only three cheek swabs of sixty seconds each. No blood test is necessary and no medical information need be supplied.

“We want to contact anyone with the Harwood name who have lived in or have a direct connection with the stated areas for as long as their families can remember and naturally we will share the results of our researches with them”, said Mr Guittard.

He is also optimistic that perhaps Harwood is a derivative of that used by one of Bourne’s most famous sons, Hereward the Wake, and further research might even provide a link to him. “It would be fascinating from a broader historical perspective if there were a connection”, he said. “It might be proven if two or three Harwood tests in the United Kingdom all matched with virtually the same profile and from the Scandinavian/Viking group that also matched the Virginia line of Governor William Harwood and such a match might be able to identify a DNA profile extending back to Hereward or his siblings or cousins. After all, some of the new tests are so powerful that they can trace all the way back to a Eurasian Adam. In any case, the group thinks that it would be exciting and most interesting to see what we might learn from applying the new science to the Harwood family tree and to this interesting chapter of English history.”

If anyone fits the requirements to join this unusual quest for information about the Harwood family then please contact The Local or send me an email and your details will be passed on to the research group in Dallas.

See also The The Harwood DNA project