The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America: About the Wyeth / Wythe Book

Thursday, June 6, 2019

About the Wyeth / Wythe Book

The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America

Seven Generations of the Descendants of Nicholas Wyeth

The Wyeth / Wythe family is American history in action. The family has been on the forefront of the American story since Nicholas Wyeth came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony around the time of the Great Migration. They struggled through King Philip’s War, suffered cruelly in the Salem Witch Trials, protested taxation without representation in the Boston Tea Party, marched as minutemen on the first day of the American Revolution, served in General George Washington’s Continental Army, and battled for both the North and the South in the Civil War.

Striving to thrive in times of war and peace, Wyeth / Wythe families helped build America. Their occupations ranged from masons to farmers, from teachers to undertakers, from architects to drug company founders and from well-known explorers to iconic artists.

Family stories are wide ranging as well. George McClelland Wyeth stealing chickens in Monongahela, Pennsylvania to feed his ten motherless children in 1906 is light years away from the 1910 high society party of George Edward Wyeth’s debutante daughter, Charlotte Grosvenor Wyeth, on 42nd Street in New York City, New York. Nevertheless, their stories are equally American.

The family stories in this book were born of the aspirations of one man, Nicholas Wyeth, when he bravely set his sights on a strange new world over 3,000 miles away from the familiar golden fields of his home in Suffolk County, England.

The book is enhanced with numerous photographs, documents, end notes, a bibliography and a name index. It is divided into two sections. The first section includes theories for the connection of Declaration of Independence signer George Wythe to Nicholas Wyeth, a history of the bigamy charge brought against one of Cambridge’s most affluent Wyeths, and details for some of Nicholas Wyeth’s famous descendants. The second section uses the register numbering format to name and give statistics for the descendants of Nicholas Wyeth from his children to his fifth great grandchildren.

THE WYETH AND WYTHE FAMILIES OF AMERICA

Written by Christina Wyeth Baker and published by Heritage Books of Berwyn Heights, MD, 2019, 8½x11, paperback, 558 pages, B5897, ISBN-10 0788458973 is $55.00 plus shipping and handling. To buy the book and have it inscribed by the author, please click here to email Christina Wyeth Baker. Additionally, the publisher, Heritage Books, sells the book on their website as well as through several well-known booksellers. For more information, please check out and like our Facebook site @WyethWythefamilies

About Jeff Wyeth

In 1977, while stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany, Jeff began writing letters of inquiry to family all over the U.S. One of the first responses came from Palm Beach architect Marion Sims Wyeth who designed the exterior of Mar-a-Lago. Marion sent Jeff his privately published booklet detailing the discovery of Nicholas Wyeth's birthplace in Saxtead. On page three of the booklet, Marion said he “is issuing this account at the present time in its very incomplete condition for fear that the notes might be … lost to some other member of the family who may be interested in carrying on this search.” Jeff took the word "search" literally. Finally after 33 years of searching, in 2010, Jeff convinced his sister to write a book based on his collections. Jeff and Christina are from the line of Nicholas' 3rd great grandson, Stephen Wyeth, who transplanted the Wyeth name from MA to OH. Stephen’s father Ebenezer Wyeth III, the oldest child of Ebenezer Wyeth Jr. and Mary Winship, grew up on the shores of Cambridge’s Fresh Pond. In 2020, Jeff and his wife Teresa celebrated 40 years of marriage. They are the proud parents and grandparents of one son and three grandchildren. Jeff serves as an evangelist for the Church of Christ in Grayling, MI.

ABOUT JAMIE WYETH

Celebrated artist, James Browning “Jamie” Wyeth really needs no introduction. Undoubtedly, Jamie is now the most famous Wyeth-named descendant of Nicholas Wyeth. For over six decades, Jamie has painted portraits of pigs, presidents and ballet dancers with equal skill. Walking in the legendary footsteps of his father, Andrew, and grandfather, Newell Convers "N. C.", Jamie has distinguished himself in his own right as a contemporary realist painter. Like his father and grandfather, Jamie’s creativity thrives in the unique environments of the Brandywine region of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as the mid-coast of Maine. Jamie descends from Nicholas Wyeth’s great grandson, Noah Wyeth. Interestingly, when her mother died, Jamie’s third great grandmother, Lydia Convers Francis, age nine, went to live with Christina and Jeff’s ancestors, Ebenezer Wyeth Jr. and Mary Winship, on the shores of Cambridge’s Fresh Pond. At age 25, Lydia married the nephew of her benefactors, Captain Job Wyeth.

Library Holdings for Christina Wyeth Baker's Book

The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America is owned by The Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN; the Saint Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO; the Mid-Continent Public Library Independence, MO; the Wichita Public Library, Wichita, KS; the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, DC; the Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge, MA and the Licking County Genealogical Society at the Licking County Library, Newark, OH.