Clint Eastwood’s maternal grandfather, W.E. Runner, was the son of
Charles Claude Runner and Sophia Aurelia Bartholomew (b. 1859), who
appears on p. 322 of the 1885 Record of the Bartholomew Family
by George Wells Bartholomew. Sophia Aurelia’s parents were Edward
Franklin Bartholomew, b. 1828 in Wallingford, Conn., later of Pueblo and
elsewhere in Colorado, and his wife Cordelia Kellogg, b. 1829 in
Egremont, Mass., who appears on pp. 584 and 1265 of The Kelloggs in
the Old World and the New, 3 vols. (1903) by Timothy Hopkins.
McGilligan cites the Bartholomew and Kellogg genealogies – he is a
bit of a genealogist himself – but from further printed sources, almost
the entire New England ancestry of Sophia Aurelia Bartholomew can be
traced. Not only were Edward Franklin Bartholomew and his parents born
in Wallingford, so too was Jane (Hall) Kellogg, the wife of Edward
Kellogg and mother of Cordelia. With adroit use of Families of
Ancient New Haven (9 vols., 1922-39, repr. 1974) by Donald Lines
Jacobus, The History of Wallingford (1870) by Charles H.S.
Davis, The Halls of New England (1883, Halls of Wallingford
section) by D.B. Hall, plus only a few more sources, we can readily
identify Sophia Aurelia’s grandparents as Noyes Dana Bartholomew and
Elizabeth Hall, and Edward Kellogg and Jane Hall; her great-grandparents
as Andrew Bartholomew and Rachel Royce, Samuel Hall (IV) and Elizabeth
Parsons, Ephraim Kellogg, Jr., and Jane Ashley, and Hezekiah Hall and
Esther Lewis; and her great-great-grandparents as Joseph Bartholomew and
Mary Sexton, Reuben Royce and Keziah Moss, Samuel Hall (III) and Sarah
Hull, John Parsons and Esther Hall (sister of Samuel [III]), Ephraim
Kellogg and Ruth Hosmer, William Ashley and Jane Dutcher, Samuel Hall
(IV) and Elizabeth Parsons again, and (probably) Samuel Lewis and Esther
Sperry.
Of the just-listed sixteen New England
great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of Clint Eastwood, Reuben
Royce was the son of Joseph Royce, Jr. and Anna Andrews, grandson of
Joseph Royce and Mary Porter, and of Samuel Andrews, Jr. and Anna Hall,
and great-grandson of Millard Fillmore forebears Nehemiah Royce (son of
my ancestors Robert and Mary [----] Royce, see column #58) and Hannah
Morgan (daughter of Princess of Wales forebears James Morgan and Margery
Hill), and of Samuel Andrews and Elizabeth Peck (again my ancestors,
see column #58). Keziah Moss, Reuben’s wife, was the daughter of John
Moss (III) and Elizabeth Hall, granddaughter of John Moss, Jr. and
Martha Lathrop, and great-granddaughter of U.S. Grant and FDR forebears
Samuel Lathrop and Elizabeth Scudder. Samuel’s parents, Rev. John
Lathrop and Hannah House, are also ancestors of the two Presidents Bush;
and the notable Lathrop progeny is the subject of column #56. Scudder
and Stoughton kinsmen of Mrs. Elizabeth Scudder Lathrop were the
subjects of columns #s 22and 23.
Samuel Hall (III) was the son of Samuel Hall, Jr. and Love Royce,
daughter of Nathaniel Royce (another son of Robert Royce and Mary ----)
and Sarah Lathrop (another daughter of Samuel Lathrop and Elizabeth
Scudder). Sarah Hull, wife of Samuel Hall (III), was the daughter of
Benjamin Hull and Elizabeth Andrews (another child of Samuel Andrews and
Elizabeth Peck). Esther (Hall) Parsons, as suggested above, was also a
child of Samuel Hall, Jr. and Love Royce.
Ruth Hosmer, wife of Ephraim Kellogg, was a daughter of Thomas Hosmer
and Susannah Steele, daughter of Thomas Steele (and Susannah Webster),
son of Samuel Steele and Mercy Bradford, daughter of William Bradford,
Jr. and Alice Richards. William Bradford, Jr. was of course the son of
Gov. William Bradford of the Mayflower and his wife Mrs. Alice
Carpenter Southworth, and Alice Richards was the daughter of FDR and
Bush ancestors Thomas and Wealthian (Loring?) Richards. William Ashley,
husband of Jane Dutcher, was the son of Aaron Ashley and Sarah Day,
daughter of John Day and Mary Smith, granddaughter of Thomas Day and
Sarah Cooper (ancestors of Hayes) and of John Smith and Mary Partridge
(ancestors of Hayes), and great-granddaughter of Robert Day and Editha
Stebbins (ancestors of Cleveland) and of Samuel Smith of South Hadley
and his wife Elizabeth Smith (ancestors of Cleveland and the two
Bushes).
Hezekiah Hall, husband of Esther Lewis and father of Jane (Hall)
Kellogg, was, as already noted, another child of Samuel Hall (IV) and
Elizabeth Parsons, so Royce-Lathrop-Scudder-Stoughton-Andrews-Peck and
Royce-Scudder-Lathrop descents are repeated. Esther Lewis, wife of
Hezekiah Hall, is probably the Esther listed on p. 1087 of Families
of Ancient New Haven, daughter of Samuel Lewis and Esther Sperry,
granddaughter of Ichabod Lewis and Esther Hall, and great-granddaughter
of Caleb Hall and Esther Humphreville. Esther Humphreville’s maternity
is uncertain, but her father Samuel Humphreville was the son of John
(H)Umfraville of New Haven (and ----), an immigrant for whom a royal
descent from Henry I of England (d. 1035) has recently been suggested
(see The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants to the American Colonies
or the United States Who Were Themselves Notable or Left Descendants
Notable in American History [2002 ed.], p. 657) by Anthony Hoskins
(see also TAG 72 [1997]: 15-19).
Thus the actor Clint Eastwood, a movie icon for almost 40 years, has a
likely royal descent, a Mayflower line (Bradford), ancestors in
common with the late Princess of Wales, Prince William, and Prince Harry
(James Morgan and Margery Hill), various presidential connections, and
numerous kinships to my own Wallingford-born
great-great-great-grandmother (Sarah [Hough] Root). In the next column, I
will treat the also-surprising New England ancestry, also brought to my
attention by Michael J. Wood, of a somewhat older California novelist,
several of whose works have become screen classics.