by
Carol May
Yes, still here and with news. I have been busy with Chandler Family Association business, the Chandler Y-DNA project, queries, Edmund research, which includes a strong lead on Edmund’s parents (see story below), and more. Also, I have been attending DNA lectures — still so much more to learn! Both Barb and I have written stories for the CFA newsletter. The busier I get, the more the Courier gets neglected.
First, the Chandler Family Association, of which we are Chapter 13, will have its annual meeting at the Woburn Hilton in Massachusetts which is near Boston this September 6th and 7th. For $20 you can join the CFA, if you have not done so already and bring guests and attend one or both days for research, assistance, and use the Chandler library. The formal part of the meeting will be on Saturday at 10 AM. All Chandler families not just Edmund’s descendants are welcome. Woburn is north of Duxbury, our Chandler ancestral home in the US. For more information contact me (Carol) and I will put you in touch with Helen.
Next issue, I will try to bring everyone up to date on my trip to Maine a while back, the Woburn meeting news, other Chandler research, DNA news, Billie’s book, news about the plaque, and about a book that was just published called “A World of Partings Excerpts from the Diary of Nancy Chandler Derby 1857-1869.” Nancy, an Edmund descendant, was the daughter of Joel Chandler of Maine.
Lastly, some of you may not have read about Dick Chandler’s passing in September of last year in the CFA newsletter. Dick was a tireless worker and an encyclopedia of worldwide Chandler knowledge. Although he did not descend from Edmund as Dick was English, he helped us so much with our Edmund research. We all miss Dick.
We have solved many Chandler mysteries and broken through many brick walls, but Edmund’s English origin is our biggest challenge. DNA research continues, English parish records have been researched, and now the search has been expanded into the history of the Separatists in England and Holland. If any of you still have John Chandler and Jane Gitton as Edmund’s parents remove them! They are not our Edmund’s parents. One of the members of the CFA researched them and their son, also named Edmund, and found that he was not our Edmund Chandler. You can read Dick’s story researching Edmund’s origins on this web site.
In a previous issue I mentioned that there was a book by James Battles entitled “Clinton Delos Bundy: his Ancestors and Descendants.” He claims that Roger was born in Colchester and that Roger Chandler and Edmund Chandler were brothers. We think that they are probably related and likely brothers, but there are no records cited by Battles that they were brothers. Battles wrote that Edmund and Roger arrived in Leiden which included a group from Colchester in 1610. They well may have, but again there were no sources that I could find.
Battles also wrote that they had a sister named Catherine who whose will Edmund witnessed. There is a record of that will with Edmund witnessing it in Leiden town records, but the idea that Catherine was their sister came from an earlier, erroneous translation from the Dutch. In the corrected version there was only one Chandler and that was Edmund in that Dutch record. Dutch records do show Roger being from Colchester on the marriage record, but as Dick pointed out in his story about Edmund’s origins, that does not mean that he was born there. Dick also found a reference to Roger being born in Rochester, Kent, England. For a new and very promising lead about Edmund’s English origins, read the story below.
JOHN CHANDLER, SEPARATIST
Dick is the one who first mentioned that there was a John Chandler who was an English Separatist in London in the 1500s who had children and died in prison, but that was about all. Separately, I came across a Deaconess Chandler in Amsterdam, but could not find anything more about her other than she kept children in line in church with a stick. Both were just tantalizing bits of unconnected information. Amsterdam is where the Pilgrim Separatists first moved to before going to Leiden.
John Chandler was a Separatist who was probably born in the 1530s as he had eight children by 1587. He was a shipwright. Unfortunately, we don’t know the names of his children, although writer and scholar, Leland H. Carlson, speculated that he may have had a son named Edward Chandler. John’s wife was Alice, or Alyce, but we don’t know what her last name was. John was from Stepney which then was in Middlesex, but today is part of the East End of London. If you watch the TV show “Call the Midwife” on PBS, Stepney is next door to Poplar in the East End. Stepney, on the Thames River, was the home to many shipwrights in the 1500s. Edward was also a shipwright and preached in secret in the woods in the same area. Ordinary people would preach and share Separatist teachings much to the displeasure of the educated ministers of the Church of England and to the Crown.
John and Alice were “Brownists” or “Barrowists” which was what the early Separatists were called. Although later on, the pastor of the Pilgrims, John Robinson rejected the term “Brownist” because he thought it seemed like the worship centered on a man rather than God. Also, the Separatists considered Browne a Judas and “backslider” after he left the Separatists and returned to the Church of England. John Robinson, pastor of the Pilgrims called the members of his congregation “saints.”
Robert Browne is considered the founder of Separatism during the Elizabethan era of England. Both John Greenwood and Henry Barrow wrote tracts on Separatism based on Browne’s teaching and kept notes on what was going on with the Separatists. These preserved writings can be found in “The Writings of John Greenwood and Henry Barrow 1591-1593” edited by Leland H. Carlson.
It wasn’t long after King Henry the Eighth split from the Catholic Church and declared himself the head of the Church of England in 1533, that a movement started by those who wanted to “purify” the Church of England of Papist trappings. They were called Puritans. Browne was originally a Puritan, but later opposed them saying that they were worse than the “tyrannical bishops” of the Church of England and believed that the only solution was to completely separate from the Church. Browne also had been imprisoned by the Puritans which probably added to his dislike of them. More extreme Separatists even wanted to destroy the Church of England.
The Separatists were trying to get back to what they felt were the teachings of the Bible. Out went vestments, ornamentation, alters, fancy churches, the church hierarchy of bishops, and sacraments other than baptism and the Holy Supper which were mentioned in the Bible. The power remained in the congregation not in a church hierarchy of bishops. The Bible came before the King which was treasonous. The Congregationalist Church is the descendant of the Separatist churches.
As they did not recognize the Church of England as a valid church, they refused to be baptized or married in that church. They felt that wedding rings were a “circle of the devil.” Marriage was considered a civil matter and if recorded at all, was recorded in government records. Church parish records are incomplete when Edmund and Roger were born, but if their parents were Separatists their births would not have been recorded in the parish records, because their parents would not have had them baptized in the Church of England. We see Roger’s marriage recorded as a civil document in Holland, but so far have not found a record of Edmund’s marriage. If he married in England and was a Separatist at the time, there would be no record of the marriage in parish books.
Robert Browne took his congregation which consisted of 30 to 40 people and left England for Middelburg, Netherlands in 1579. This group included John Chandler and most likely his wife and family. They didn’t stay long in Middelburg. Browne and some of his group first went to Scotland briefly (1583-1584) and then the congregation re-grouped in London, England which proved to have deadly consequences for John Chandler.
When Robert Browne left the Separatists in 1585 and re-joined the Church of England leaving his followers behind, Francis Johnson became their pastor in London. Francis Johnson was an alumnus of Corpus Christi College of Cambridge as was Robert Browne, John Greenwood and John Robinson. John Robinson became the pastor of the Pilgrims in Holland. This was the church that both Edmund and Roger belonged. Johnson came down from the Scrooby, Nottinghamshire which was where many of the Pilgrims came from to be the pastor of the London Separatist church. The Separatists in John Robinson’s congregation came from all over England, but the main group which included Elder William Brewster, came from Scrooby.
The Pilgrim Separatists followed the writings of John Calvin. They believed in pre-destination and that the ones who were to go to heaven were chosen before they were born. However, they felt that God would not have chosen people who do bad things to be part of the elect. This caused a lot of scrutinizing and speculating on one’s neighbors for ungodly behavior.
From the book “John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition,” by Timothy George he quotes Barrow and Greenwood’s writings about what happened to John Chandler and Alice.”
“On Oct. 8, 1587, twenty-one so called “Brownestes” were arrested and examined for holding a private conventicle (secret, forbidden meeting) in Henry Martin’s house in St. Andrews in the Wardrobe (where king’s accoutrements were stored) near St. Paul. One of them was John Chandler, a former member of Browne’s Middelburg church.” The leader of the conventicle was John Greenwood, a Norfolk clergyman.
John Chandler was imprisoned in the Counter Poultry (aka Poultry Counter or compter). It was a prison for petty criminals, not the infamous Tower of London where royalty and aristocrats were incarcerated. Other Separatists were jailed in the “Clink” and in Fleet Street. He was soon joined in prison by his wife Alice. John died before May 1589. John and Alice’s older children may have already been either apprenticed or on their own, but were the younger ones taken in by relatives other Separatists? We don’t know. His wife was released on bond after he died.
One writer called imprisonment of dissenters in those days “judicial murder” as conditions there were so appalling – filth, disease, chains and leg irons. They were treated even worse than the common criminals. They were not given bedding or even straw to sleep on. Friends and relatives had to bring them food. John Chandler’s only “crime” was attending a Separatist service. He and others were held for months or years without being charged or tried. These kinds of injustices were the reason that our Constitution guarantees people a speedy trial.
On April 4, 1593 (and several years after the death of John Chandler) from the writings of Greenwood and Barrow came this passage about Edward Chandler, “Edw William Mason of Wappinge shipwright was examined in prison. He said that he was persuaded by Edward Chandler shipwright and went into the woods with Roger Drippon and had been at their assemblies at Nicholas Lane, Roger Drippon’s house (at Southwark) at Detford Wood and woods by Ishington also Danyell Buck, a scrivener by Aldgate. He heard Edward Chandler and read some of Barrows and Greenwood”.
This Edward appears to have been too old to have been our Edmund, although Dick wrote that sometimes the names Edmund and Edward were interchanged. However, could he have been Edmund’s father and John and Alice have been Edmund’s grandparents? This is speculation.
Both Greenwood and Barrows were imprisoned and then hung in 1593 for their beliefs. It was the law that all people over the age of 16 must attend the Church of England or be subject to arrest. Distributing and printing Separatist literature was forbidden, which got many Separatists in trouble including Elder William Brewster. Persecution of the Separatists waxed and waned depending on who was in power, but the persecution was intensifying. Separatists began fleeing in greater numbers to Holland. Some were banished, some got permission, but many had to sneak out and some of them were arrested trying to leave.
Women were in an odd position during those times because they were considered, along with their children, as the property of their husbands. A group of Separatist women were captured trying to flee England, but were finally sent on their way to Holland to join their husbands because the authorities couldn’t prosecute their husbands who were considered responsible for the women and they couldn’t send them “home” because their homes were sold to finance the voyage.
Alice most likely fled to Holland with the London congregation about 1593. Did she go with some of her children? Did she join another Separatist household? Could Edmund and Roger have gone with her if they were her children? Could some of her children, now maybe adults, have come over later? We don’t have answers to those questions. No record has been found so far showing that Edmund or Roger lived in Amsterdam, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t there. This merits further research.
It is the opinion of several authors of books written about the Separatists that Alice was the widow Chandler who served in a Separatist church in Amsterdam as the deaconess. She used her “birchen rod” to keep the small children “in great awe” from disturbing the congregation. Carlson is more cautious writing that he believes that while Barrow and Greenwood’s writings refer to an ancient “widow Ch” Carlson writes that she may be Alice. The congregation was originally was small so it is unlikely that there were other ancient widows with the “Ch’ as the first letters of their last name. Apparently, the original text was not completely readable and only the “Ch” was visible. The Deaconess was considered “mother in Israel and an officer of Christ.” She also tended to the women in the congregation. The practice of having a deaconess apparently died out with the Pilgrims.
Francis Johnson’s congregation was not the only congregation who fled to Holland. Separatists on their own, and in groups, had been fleeing to Holland for years. However while the members of the congregations may have been able to flee, their leaders weren’t. The leaders were arrested and imprisoned in England and had to continue to lead their congregations from jail through letters and instructions given to their visitors. This continued for several years until they were released and could join their congregations in Holland. The pastor of Alice’s church, Francis Johnson, arrived in Amsterdam to lead the congregation in 1608. This church became known as the Ancient Church and William Bradford, the governor of the Pilgrims, referred to it as such many years later when he wrote his book. The Ancient Church is considered the forerunner of the Pilgrim church led by Pastor John Robinson.
Holland and especially Amsterdam was a bustling tolerant city, rich with trade and commerce. It was attractive to not only English Separatists, but other religious dissenters such as the Walloons and Huguenots.
There were several Separatist congregations in Amsterdam. There was the Ancient Church and also the Pilgrim congregation. Both Edmund and Roger were documented as members of this congregation later in Leiden.
While the Pilgrims were only in Amsterdam a short time and shared a church, they probably did not combine the churches. The time in Amsterdam was tumultuous and filled with controversy. There was scandal, there were petty attacks, and there were religious arguments especially about baptism. The scandals and trouble did not stay contained in the churches, but spilled out into the Dutch records. Some of the arguments were silly and petty. Francis Johnson married a well-off widow of a haberdasher. She wore five gold rings, fine clothes and got up at 9 o’clock in the morning which really stirred up the ire of members of the congregation. The scandals were much worse involving sex and money management. Then there were religious arguments. One of the ministers declared that his baptism by the Church of England was not valid because they were not truly a church of God and re-baptized himself. Half of one congregation ex-communicated the other half then argued over who was entitled to the church. One Separatist accused another of having a “crak’ed brain.” Francis Johnson was very authoritarian and did not get along with the Dutch Reformed Church.
John Robinson, according to historians, had a gentle nature and quickly had enough of the scandal and fighting amongst the other Separatists and took his congregation, the Pilgrims, to Leiden c. 1609 where they remained peacefully and according the Dutch, were good members of the community who stayed out of trouble and kept their word. Robinson was highly thought of by the Dutch and by the Separatists back in Amsterdam. He was educated at Cambridge, but commenced further study at the University of Leiden. John Robinson also took a more moderate tone and eventually did not consider meeting with members of other churches forbidden and eventually did not believe that all members of other churches were damned.
The Pilgrims decided to leave Holland for several reasons, they were afraid that their children were being too influenced by the Dutch and that they were so overworked that even the “children were decrepit” according to Plymouth Colony governor, William Bradford. Lastly, although not mentioned frequently, the Dutch treaty with the Spanish was about to run out. There was worry that there could be a war. If the Spanish invaded Holland the Spanish Inquisition could be upon them.
The first group of pastor, John Robinson’s congregation came on the Mayflower, more came in subsequent boats. Edmund and Roger left Leiden and arrived in Duxbury c. 1630 probably on the last, or one of the last boats, to take the remaining members of the congregation who wished leave. John Robinson had planned to come, but sadly died in 1624.
This is not the definitive answer as to where Edmund Chandler came from nor who his parents were, but a strong possibility. He and Roger may have been born in Colchester or elsewhere and he may not be related to John, Alice or Edward, but they are strong candidates and deserve further research.
Edmund's Community Courier 
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