William Claiborne- Wilkes

1536. William Claiborne, born Aug 10, 1600 in Craford-Kent Co. England356; died 1683 in New Kent Virginia356. He was the son of 3072. Thomas Claiborne, Jr. and 3073. Sarah Smyth-James. He married 1537. Jane Elizabeth Butler 1638 in London, Middlesex, England357.

1537. Jane Elizabeth Butler357, born 1610 in Roxwell, Essex, England357; died 1676 in King William Co., VA357. She was the daughter of 3074. John Butler II and 3075. Jane Elliott.

Notes for William Claiborne:
[ulsterboydWmClaiborne.FTW]

I would appreciate any errors that you encounter, that you contact me immediately. Thanks for sharing freely!This is the only ancestor not proven to be ours.
Harold Claiborne
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A Memorial to William Claiborne in Jamestown, VA reads as follows:

To the glory of God and to the honored memory of WILLIAM CLAIBORNE son of Thomas Cleyborne of Crayford, Kent, Gentleman, and Sara Smith-James. Born 1587 settled in Virginia 1621 member of Council 1625-60, Treasurer 1642-50, Deputy Governor 1653. Commanded expeditions against the Indians 1629-1644. At Kent Island he made the first settlement with the present boundary of Maryland.


Also another excellent book about William Claiborne is "Chesapeake Conflict", The Troublesome Early Days of Maryland, by Gene Williamson, published by Heritage Books, Inc, 1995. In it he states "Maryland's troubles began before there was a Maryland- in 21, the year William Claiborne of England arrived in VA. Soon he discovered, purchased, named, and settled Kent Island in upper Chesapeake Bay. It led to the first serious boundary controversy in America when later Lord Baltimore's province was carved out of the territory originally granted to VA. This historic dispute, primarily between the parliamentarian Claiborne and the royalist Baltimore, was a colonial episode in the English Civil War and involved the first naval conflict in American waters. Houg parliament's overthrow of Charles I and the English monarchy in 1649 was a victory for Claiborne, resolution of the war in England and recognition of Charles II in 1660 restored Maryland to the Baltimore family.
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From Bolling Batte Papers Card 89 of 127 (See Source)

Claiborne, William (C-3)
B: Ca 1600 England
Settled Romancoke
Par:
Mar: London Jane? Elizabeth Butler
Arrived in Va. 162l on the "George" settled Kent Island, later in
Maryland; Secretary of State of Va. 1625-1638; 1652-1658;
Treasurer of Virginia; Colonel; member of Council;
D: Ca 1678 Romancoke New Kent, County
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From Genealogy of Wilkinson and Kindred Families Pg18:

Col. William Claiborn, born in Westmoreland, England, 1587, came as surveyor for the Virginia Company of
London with Gov. Wyatt in 1621; member of the Governor's Council from 1625 to 1669; secretary 1625
and treasurer of the Virginia Colony; had one grant of 24000 acres of land in King William County;
established a trading post at Kent Island in 1631 which was later claimed by Gov. Leonard Calvert as
belonging to Maryland Claiborne was appointed one of the three commissioners to rule Virginia under
Cromwell. they arrived at the head of an English expedition in March 1652, overthrew the Cavalier
Government and established a Roundhead Government over Maryland and Virginia with Richard Bennett as Governor and Claiborne as Secretary of State. In 1658 the Province of Maryland was restored to Lord
Baltimore. William Claiborne was colonel of a command against the Indians and in 1653 deputy governor.
Seated at "Romancoke", King William County, he died 1676, having married in London about 1638 Jane
Buller.
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From WILLIAM CLAIBORNE: HIS PARENTAGE AND PEDIGREE

By S. H. Lee Washington, M.A., F.I.A.G., of Trinity College, Cambridge
Sent by Gretchen Eggum, Mesa, AZ.
Reported reading the following in N.C. Library in May 2000:

It has long been taken for granted, both in America and England, that William Claiborne who died in 1676, the celebrated "Rebel" and Secretary of the Virginia Colony, was identical with William, the second son of Edmund Cleburne, of Cleburne, now spelt Cliburn, near Appleby, county Westmorland, who had married Grace, daughter of Alan Bellingham, Esq., of Levens.(1) However, the College records of Cambridge University not only entirely disprove this assumption, but demonstrate that William, the second son of Edmund Cleburne and Grace Bellingham, was a priest in Holy Orders. The facts are as follows:-William "Cleborne" was admitted as a scholar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in January 1600-1, being described in the College Books as Filius Edmund Cleborne nuper de Cleborne in comitatu Westmonasteriensis. He received his B. A. degree in 1604-5, became M. A. in 1608, and in 1611 was incorporated at Oxford. That he had entered Holy Orders by 1615 is evident from the circumstance that in that year St. John's College, Cambridge, conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Divinity; and I am indebted to my old friend, the Rev. H. Isham Longden, for two entries in the Peterborough diocesan records which show that he was ordained deacon 18 December, 1614, and priest on the day following. In 1617 he was presented to the vicarage of Nidd, in Yorkshire; and he died in 1660 as Vicar of Nidd and Prebendary of Ripon, - some sixteen years prior to the death of his namesake, William Claiborne, in Virginia.
It is thus clear that the Virginian William Claiborne was not identical with the second son of Edmund Cleburne of Westmorland; and the only remaining clue to his origin, of a direct nature, would seem to be Governor Harvey's statement, made to Lord Dorchester in a letter of 29 May, 1630, that his brother was a stocking-seller in London on Ludgate Hill. (2)
Nevertheless, the tomb of one of William Claiborne's own sons, Col. Thomas Claiborne, who died in 1683, which still exists at "Romancoke," King William county, bears the arms of the Cleburnes of Westmorland; and there can be little question that William himself belonged to a cadet branch of the same ancient house. (3) It may therefore be worth calling attention to the fact that the alleged derivation of the English Cleburnes from the feudal lords of Ravensworth, and through them, from Alan, Count of Penthievre in Brittany, is quite illusory; and in reality, they would appear to have been descendants of the Westmorland Family of Le Fraunceys. (4) The earlier portion of the Cleburne pedigree ought, in fact, they run as follows:- Robert (1) Le Fraunceys of Cleburne, Clibburn, county Westmorland, living 1259, had issue: John (2) Le Fraunceys of Cleburne, living 1292, who had: Robert (3) Le Fraunceys of Cleburne, living in 1317 Beatrice, daughter of Robert Le Boteler of Newby, and had: Robert (5) Le Fraunceys of Cleburne, living 1359, who had: John (6) Le Fraunceys, died vita patris, married Margaret, who married secondly Thomas de Warcop, daughter and heiress of Walter de Bolton, and had: Robert (7) de Cleburne of Cleburne, living 1366, de Bolton, and had: Robert (7) de Cleburne of Cleburne, living 1366, married Margaret de Cundale. The later descents from this Robert (7) de Cleburne, alias Le Fraunceys- who was never knighted, but served as Knight of the Shire, Member of Parliament, for Westmorland in 1383 and 1386- will be found in J. H. Claiborne's Willaim Claiborne of Virginia, ;;. 6et seg.; also in Va. Mag. of History and Biog., vol. 1, pp. 313-4. The surname 'Le francais: and there was a contemporary Westmorland family bearing the name of 'Le Engleys,' ' the Englishman,' which flourished for several generations in a neighboring parish. Robert (1) Le Fraunceys, the founder of the English Cleburnes, was probably grandson of an earlier Adam Le Fraunceys who occurs in the Westmorland Pipe Roll of 1200. Another of this Adam's immediate descendants, Gilbert Le Fraunceys, other of this Adam's immediate descendants, Gilbert Le Fraunceys, married Hawise de Vernon, and became an ancestor in the male line of the Vernons of Haddon Hall.
Meanwhile now that it has been demonstrated that William Claiborne of Virginia was not a son of Edmund Cleburn and Grace Bellingham, his real parentage still remains to be determined by future research.

(1)The latter, although often called "sir" Alan by modern writers, was actually never knighted. Bruce, Social Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 87-8; J. H. Claiborne, William Claiborne of Virginia; and Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian Society, new series, vol. 28, p. 192.
(2)Bruck, Social Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, p. 87.
(3)A William Cleburne was admitted to the Middle Temple, London, 11 June, 1605.
(4)See the admirable article be the late Canon Ragg, " Cliburn Hervy and Cliburn Tailbois, " in Trans. Cumb and Westd. Soc., new series, vol.28. Compare this with the usual version, 3.g., that in J. H. Claiborne's William Claiborne, pp. 1-6.

More About William Claiborne:
Name 2: William CLAIBOURN358,359
Name 3: William C. Claibourne360
Name 4: William Clayborne
Date born 2: 1587, England361
Date born 3: 1587, Of, London, England361
Date born 4: Aug 10, 1600, Crayford, co. Kent, England362
Died 2: Abt. 1677, Virginia or MD363
Died 3: Bet. 1677 - 1678, "Romancoke", New Kent Co., King William Co., VA364
Education: May 31, 1617, Pembroke College
Immigration 1: Jun 13, 1621, Virginia on the George365,366
Immigration 2: Oct 1621, Arrived in Jamestown aboard th "George"
Occupation 1: Bet. 1625 - 1638, Secretary of Virginia
Occupation 2: Treasurer of Virginia; Member of Council
Occupation 3: Jun 13, 1621, Chosen by Virginia Company to be Surveyor
Occupation 4: Apr 06, 1642, Appointed Treasurer of Virginia for life.367
Occupation 5: Bet. 1652 - 1658, Secretary of Virginia