{"id":87647,"date":"2022-11-04T12:49:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T16:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=87647"},"modified":"2023-10-26T13:54:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:54:04","slug":"jamestown-descendants-whos-who-part-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/jamestown-descendants-whos-who-part-15.html","title":{"rendered":"Jamestown Descendants: Who\u2019s Who, Part 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on descendants of the Jamestown settlers, focusing on the lineage of disability rights activist Helen Keller. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I continue my \u201cJamestown Descendants: Who\u2019s Who\u201d series with a focus on the lineage of disability rights activist, social reformer, prolific author, and lecturer Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968), who was also a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. This is also a continuation of the story of the Aylett and allied families connected to Jamestown and royal lines.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Helen Keller at age 8 with her tutor Anne Sullivan on vacation in Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, July 1888. Credit: Family member of Thaxter P. Spencer, now part of the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, at the New England Historic Genealogical Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It would take many pages to truly introduce Helen Keller properly. She was an extraordinary woman, who went blind and deaf as a child at the age of 19 months \u2013 yet went on to become an author, lecturer, and advocate for disability rights. You can learn more about her by reading her autobiography \u201cThe Story of My Life<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to Arthur Henley Keller (a Civil War Confederate Army captain, editor of the North Alabamian<\/em> newspaper, and U. S. Marshal for the Northern District of Alabama) and his wife Catherine \u201cKate\u201d Everett Adams (daughter of Confederate General Charles William Adams and Lucy Helen Everett).<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Helen Keller\u2019s parents Arthur Henley Keller and Catherine Everett Adams. Courtesy of Michelle Skolyak of Skolyak-Homer Family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her maternal line descends from the New England family lines of Sewall, Poor, Adams, Coffin<\/a>, Knight, Greenleaf, Thurlow, and Noyes \u2013 all first settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts<\/a>. This makes Keller kin cousins to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Winslow Homer.<\/p>\n

When Keller died in 1968, genealogist George Harrison Sanford King published some of Keller\u2019s ancestry in the Richmond Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), 9 June 1968, page 96<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reported:<\/p>\n

The recent death of the remarkable Miss Helen Keller brings to mind her many ties with some of the most aristocratic families of colonial Virginia, of which connections she was mindful.<\/p>\n

Her paternal grandmother Mary Fairfax (Moore) Keller, was born in Virginia in 1796, the daughter of Alexander Spotswood Moore (1763-1799) and his wife, nee Elizabeth Aylett (1769-1832), who were married in 1787 in King William County; they were distant cousins.<\/p>\n

Alexander Spotswood Moore was the brother of Anne Butler Moore, who married in 1770 Col. Charles Carter of \u201cShirley,\u201d Charles City County, and became the grandmother of Gen. Robert E. Lee. They were the children of the Hon. Col. Bernard Moore of \u201cChelsea,\u201d King William County, and his wife nee Anna Catharine Spotswood, daughter of the Hon. Alexander Spotswood (1676-1740), governor of Virginia 1710-1722.<\/p>\n

Miss Keller\u2019s Virginia connections through her great-grandmother, the aforementioned Elizabeth (Aylett) Moore (1769-1832), are equally as conspicuous; this lady was a double cousin of Mrs. George Washington (nee Martha Dandridge), they both being descendants of the Dandridge and Macon families of New Kent County. Elizabeth (Aylett) Moore was the daughter of Col. William Aylett (1742-1781) of \u201cFairfield,\u201d King William County, and his wife nee Mary Macon and granddaughter of Col. Philip and Martha (Dandridge) Aylett and Col. James and Elizabeth (Moore) Macon. Martha (Dandridge) Aylett (first cousin of Mrs. George Washington) was the daughter of the Hon. William Dandridge and his wife, nee Unity West, great-granddaughter of Capt. John West (1590-1659) of \u201cWest Point,\u201d who was governor of Virginia 1635-1637. Elizabeth (Moore) Macon and the Hon. Bernard Moore were children of Col. Augustine Moore who built handsome \u201cChelsea\u201d in 1709.<\/p>\n

The English ancestry of several of Miss Keller\u2019s Virginia forebears is likewise exceptionally distinguished and interesting. Her ancestor Gov. John West (1590-1659) was the grandson of Sir Francis Knollys (c. 1515-1596), treasurer of the household of Queen Elizabeth I, and his wife The Right Honorable Lady Catherine (Cary) Knollys, chief lady of the bedchamber to her Majesty, and which couple are buried in Westminster Abbey. Lady Catherine was the niece of Queen Anne (nee Boleyn), wife of King Henry VIII, and accompanied that ill-fated lady to the scaffold. (See \u201cEnglish Royalty, Boleyn Lineage, and Jamestown Connections<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you trace Keller\u2019s line back further, you will find Charlemagne and William the Conqueror. (See Famous Kin<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: Augustine Moore (1685-1743), one of the wealthiest planters in the colony, who built the \u201cChelsea\u201d plantation in 1709. He was the father of Bernard Moore and ancestor of Helen Keller. Courtesy of More Aylett Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lineage for Helen Keller:<\/p>\n