Not all Wyeths and Wythes Across the Globe are Descended from Nicholas Wyeth

V. J. Wythe died in World War II

You will not find information on every Wyeth or Wythe across the globe in this book.  If you want to verify a relationship to Nicholas Wyeth, please contact the author at the Gmail address above right to find out if and how you are related to Nicholas. The name V. J. Wythe appears on this monument honoring war dead between 1939 and 1945 from St. Michael's church in Framlingham, Suffolk County, England. We don’t know how, but V. J. Wythe is likely descended from a brother or cousin of Nicholas Wyeth of Saxtead who came to Cambridge, MA circa 1644.  St. Michael’s in Framlingham joined with All Saints in Saxtead long before Nicholas was baptized in Saxtead in 1600.  Early Suffolk County probate records show a proliferation of Wyeths and Wythes with similar first names.  Of course, many people did not leave wills.  However, for those who did, it would be impossible to determine how the families match, even if all recorded wills were read.  This is why researchers have not been able to verify the legend that Nicholas Wyeth was related to Declaration of Independence signer George Wythe.  For theories of their connection, please see pages nine through 16 of The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America.

Risking Everything for an Abstract Ideal called Democracy

Battle of Lexington by William Barnes Wollen, 1910

Today marks the 246th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution. Burdened by increasing taxes and diminishing liberties, at least 14 descendants of Nicholas Wyeth were among the patriots on 19 Apr 1775 willing to risk everything for an abstract ideal called democracy.  Nicholas Wyeth's great grandson, Thomas Fessenden III, present on Lexington Green, heard Lexington Militia captain John Parker order his men to disperse after seeing his troops vastly outnumbered by the British.  Thomas later testified the Red Coats shot first in the battle that killed eight Americans.  While the British continued their fight at Concord, Parker assembled his survivors and the newly arrived Cambridge Militia near the Lexington and Lincoln town line.  Joseph Wyeth, brothers Jonas Wyeth, Noah Wyeth and Ebenezer Wyeth Jr. and Ebenezer’s son, Jonas Wyeth Jr. were Cambridge minutemen present in the battle which came to be known as “Parker’s Revenge.” The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America book details family heroism in the Revolutionary War on pages 57-72.

Remembering the World War I Service of Mary Elizabeth Wyeth

Mary Elizabeth Wyeth (insert) and the Army Nurse Corps, Base Hospital 68, A. E. F.

For Women’s History Month 2021, we honor World War I nurse, Mary Elizabeth Wyeth.  Mary was named for her great, great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Brewer, the wife of Boston Tea Party and Continental Army veteran, Joshua Wyeth.  

A few years after graduating from Union Hospital’s nursing program in Terre Haute, Indiana, 27-year-old Mary set sail on 16 Sep 1918 for France with 100 other young women of the Army Nurse Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces.  Their destination was the newly purposed Base Hospital No. 68 in Mars-sur-Allier. 

Since the sea crossing took place at the height of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, Mary’s nursing work for the Corps actually began aboard ship.  Once in France, none of Mary’s nursing experience prepared her emotionally or physically for caring for the vast numbers of soldiers wounded by high-explosive artillery shells, poison gas burns and "shell shock" who arrived by the trainload at No. 68.  Many men were sickened by flu that in turn took the lives of several of Mary's fellow nurses.  

When Hospital No. 68 closed on 15 Jan 1919, Mary transferred to Base Hospital No. 93 in Cannes, France.  There in May 1919, Pvt. John McLaughlin, a young man from her hometown, on leave from the 8th Battalion, 20th Engineers, wrote his mother about seeing Nurse Mary on the sunny coast.  After 59 years of marriage, Mr. and Mrs. John McLaughlin and their military tombstones now rest side by side in Terre Haute’s Highland Lawn Cemetery.  

Sources: Ethel Ross Wyeth Canion; Alpha Sawyer, US Base Hospital 68 A.E.F (Boston: Griffith-Stilling Press, 1920), 26, 40, 43 and 124; Christina Wyeth Baker, The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2019), 211; and the Terre Haute Saturday Spectator, 17 May 1919, 24.

The Daughter of Rebecca Parks Andrew Wyeth Fox is Depicted in Thomkins Matteson's 1855 Painting

Thomkins Matteson painting from Wikimedia Commons

On 26 May 1698, Mary Wyeth, the 49-year-old unmarried daughter of Nicholas Wyeth and Rebecca Parks Andrew Wyeth Fox, wrote in her last will and testament that anything “due from the estate of my Father Wyeth and my Mother Fox my will is it be disposed of to my five Brothers Thomas Andrew, Daniel Andrew, Nicolas (sic) Wyeth, John Wyeth and William Wyeth and to my sisters Sarah Fiske and Rebecca Jacobs.” The sister Mary mentioned, Rebecca Andrew Frost Jacobs, is shown here with her hands raised in anger at her daughter Margaret for accusing her grandfather George Jacobs Sr. of witchcraft. This painting has been widely used to depict the trials that started on 1 Mar 1692 in Salem, MA. For more information on Mary’s will and her siblings accused of witchcraft, please see pages 41-56 and 153-154 of The Wyeth and Wythe Families of America book. 

First Lieutenant Peter Wyeth Johnson was a True American Patriot

Vietnam Wall Memorial, Washington, DC

Today on 13 Feb 1968, 23-year-old 1st Lt. Peter Wyeth Johnson, U. S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, was killed instantly by rifle fire while leading an assault on enemy positions near Qui Nhon, Vietnam.  Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, World War I veteran Marion Sims Wyeth, Peter also was a true American patriot.  John Kerry, now U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, in his book, Every Day Is Extra remembered his high school classmate, Peter, as a good friend who loved to read and write poetry.  See this link to the Wall-of-Faces for more on Peter's service.