A brief history of the Stone family

John Stone's eldest son Richard Stone's six children from his first marriage with Emma Sedgeborrow were baptized in the Clayhanger church between 1602 and 1612. Some of the descendants emigrated to Albion, Illinois in 1818. Two of his three children from his second marriage with Eleanor Slocombe were baptized there in 1640 and 1647; some of those descendants emigrated to Australia and New Zealand in the 1830s. Richard's eight children were baptized at St. Peter's, Clayhanger, between 1602 and 1647, and many Stone family members are buried in the churchyard.

A brief summary of the Stone family

When this Stone–Rhodes archive was created in 2013 I felt certain I had reached the end of the line in tracing my early Stone ancestors. There was and remains no doubt that Richard Stone* of Clayhanger, born in the 1570s, was my ninth great grandfather, and the line of Stones from him to many present-day Stone families is well documented. In 2013, however, I did not know the identity of Richard's two wives. We have now identified both, and the identity of Richard's father is considered certain. Before Richard's father, John Stone of Hele (a Clayhanger property), there are several lines of Stones in Clayhanger going back to the 1490s who could be his forebears.

In Clayhanger, County Devon, there were abundant Stones in the 16th century — named in parish records from before 1540, in the 1543–1546 Devon Lay Subsidy rolls, and in the 1569 Devon muster roll. A John Stone "Senior" was named with a John "Junior" and other early Stones. John Stone Senior was buried in 1551, born perhaps about 1489. Of the thirty surviving Clayhanger wills in the London archives, nine of them are Stones.

As to Richard's parents, the documentation was weaker. A John Stone alias Venne of Chipstable wrote a will in 1617, but the will itself was lost. Our Stone family farmed the Venn farm in Chipstable as early as 1602 and probably earlier. There was also a John Stone alias Hele of Clayhanger who did have a son named Richard: in his 1588 will, John Stone alias Hele assigned the administration of his estate to his natural son Richard. Though a Clayhanger baptism for Richard has not been found, I now lean toward John Stone alias Hele as Richard's father. He appears in the Clayhanger records as father of twin daughters Alice and Johan, baptized in 1573.

With this circumstantial evidence, John Stone alias Hele is my current (if less well documented) choice for the father of Richard Stone — my 10th great grandfather. I now suggest Richard was born about 1575, not 1579 as in my earlier records; his first marriage in October 1599 fits a 1575 birth well.

One visitor and contributor to this archive provided documentation of the 1633 burial in Clayhanger of Richard's first wife, her name read as "Emmin." Another later discovered the 1599 marriage of Richard Stone and Emma Sedgeborrow in Burlescombe, Devon. Earlier still, another contributor identified Richard's second wife as Eleanor Slocombe*, who married Richard in Crowcombe, Somerset in 1639 and died in 1674. Thanks to these contributions, both of Richard's wives are known at last after many years of fruitless research.

Richard's and Emma's six children, born 1602–1612, were John*, Joane, William, Richard, Emanuel and Agnes. Only Joane, Emanuel and Agnes had children. Richord Stone's will is particularly valuable because she names all the children of her brother-in-law Emanuel Stone. One of Emanuel's lines of descent ran through his eldest son Richard 1640 of Chipstable and on through Robert (~1683), Thomas (1716), John (1739), Captain (1784), and Joseph (1816) — the line that emigrated to Illinois. In Edwards County, Illinois, Joseph Stone's descendants include James Scott Stone (1839) and John Charles Stone (1867).

Before 1814, Captain Stone and his family moved from Wiveliscombe, Somerset to the Marden Hill estate in Hertfordshire, where he served as Steward of the Farm for the Flower family. In 1818 two ships carried settlers to the "English Settlement" on the southern Illinois prairies; on the second, the Anne Marie, were the Flower family, the Captain Stone family, and others. They founded the town of Albion. Captain Stone died about 1821; his son Joseph married first Eliza Jane Boner/Bonner and later Jane Cortrecht. Joseph and Eliza Jane's first son was James Scott Stone, who married Elizabeth Sarah Hocking of a Cornish family that had emigrated to Edwards County. Their eldest son was John Charles Stone, born in Bone Gap in 1867, who married Gertrude Walser. Both were teachers; John became an eminent author of mathematics textbooks. Their children were Lucile Stone (married Walter Barry Mallon) and John Sydney Stone (married Mary Quarters Rhodes).

The children of Richard Stone's second family were born nearly forty years after their half-siblings. Richard and Eleanor Slocombe had a son Richard in 1640, a son William in 1643, and a daughter Hanna in 1647. Richard married Thomazine Waldron, and many of their descendants are in Australia and New Zealand — thousands of them.

Two members of the family named Richard Stone were christened in 1640, which can be a source of confusion. The younger Richard 1640 and his wife Thomazine Waldron* of Ashbrittle had five children. Their son Robert Stone* — born probably before 1670 — married Elizabeth Hill in Stawley, Somerset in 1705, and this family eventually acquired most of the Venn Farm in Chipstable that the Stones had leased since the 16th century. Robert and Elizabeth began a line whose descendants emigrated to Australia and New Zealand from London in 1834. Robert's great-great-great grandson, Charles Burrell Stone, in 1841 was the first white child born in Auckland, New Zealand, and was Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in 1887.

This history will be updated and enhanced from time to time. Wherever on this site you find reference to Richard Stone 1579, please read it as Richard Stone 1575 — the best current estimate.