Ellen S Hammond

Ellen Sephronie Hammond was my great grandmother - my father’s grandmother. She was born August 2, 1875. She married twice, had two children, and died young, at age 27. Her first husband was Frank Mayer. Her first child, Durward Broughton, was born 13 months after her marriage to Frank, and that child became my grandfather - but, a grandfather I never knew. I don’t know what happened to Frank -- whether he died, divorced her, or deserted her, but he wasn’t around for long. I like to think she shot some bastard who was really annoying her, and Frank took the blame and hightailed it out West, but I doubt I will ever know. Her second husband was a man named Jones. Ellen died in 1903 at age 27. Married twice, dead at 27 ... I can’t help but think Ellen had a bit of a wild streak. That and her untimely death make her my favorite ancestor.

I know nothing about her first husband, Frank Mayer. I do have their marriage certificate: a yellowed official document dated 29th November, 1891.

Ellen's second marriage produced a child they named Leon Thomas Jones. He may have been named after his father or grandfather - or perhaps a famous ancestor. It may be coincidence, but there might be a connection to the Thomas Jones that captained the MayFlower on the Pilgrim voyage in 1620. Following that voyage, in 1621 he captained the Discovery to Virginia. I have an ancestor named William Dawson, born in England in 1599, that came to Virginia on the Discovery in 1621. I've seen the ship's manifest, although I can no longer find it on the Web. That ship was primarily carrying cargo, but there were about 20 passengers listed on the manifest as I recall.

Prior to the Pilgrim voyage, Thomas Jones was captain of the Falcon. He was under arrest for piracy, but the Earl of Warwick procured his release so that he could captain the MayFlower. After his return to England he took the Discovery to Virginia and then northward, trading along the coast. The Council of New England complained of him to the Virginia Company for "robbing the natives" on this voyage. He stopped at Plymouth (1622) and "taking advantage of the distress for food he found there, was extortionate in his prices." In July, 1625, he appeared at Jamestown, Virginia, in possession of a Spanish frigate. He was suspected of piracy but sickened and died before an investigation.

Here is a description of Captain Jones from the book The May-flower and her log, July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 chiefly from original sources By Azel Ames: "That Jones was a man of large experience and fully competent in his profession is beyond dispute. His disposition, character, and deeds have been the subject of much discussion. By most writers he is held to have been a man of coarse unsympathetic nature, a rough sea dog capable of good feeling and kindly impulses at times, but neither governed by them nor by principle. That he was a highwayman of the seas, a buccaneer and pirate, guilty of blood for gold, there can be no doubt. Certainly nothing could justify the estimate of him given by Professor Arber that he was both fair minded and friendly toward the Pilgrim Fathers, and he certainly stands alone among writers of reputation in that opinion. Jones's selfishness, threats, boorishness, and extortion, to say nothing of his exceedingly bad record as a pirate both in East and West Indian waters, compel a far different estimate of him as a man from that of Arber, however excellent he was as a mariner."