Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:36:56 -0330 (NST)
From: David Pike 
To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Subject: Pikes of Carbonear, Newfoundland



Hi everybody.

This message is going to be a bit long, so let me start with a table of 
contents:

1. some history of the Pikes of Carbonear
2. the results of a recent DNA test
3. a few words about Pikes from Poole
4. Pike coats of arms
5. a plea for donations to our Sponsorship Fund

On past occasions when I have discussed the Pikes of Carbonear, 
Newfoundland, I have pointed out that an abundance of Pike families are 
immediately evident when the local church records begin around the year 
1800.  This stems from Pikes having already been present for at least 100 
years.  But unfortunately there are too few records from before 1800 to 
easily determine just how the various Pike families that are found in the 
records after 1800 are related to one another (that is, *if* they're 
related at all).

Over the years since our project began, several of these families have had 
members join our project, and aside from one case in which an adoption or 
illegitimacy is suspected, so far every Pike with Carbonear ancestry who 
has joined our project has matched with our project's "Group 2" genetic 
cluster.  Moreover, this cluster so far only includes Pikes with ancestry 
from the Carbonear area.

Nevertheless, several Pike families from Carbonear remain to be tested. 
Up until now, one of these untested lines was the family that is probably 
the best documented of the pre-1800 families.  Specifically, this is the 
family of a Francis Pike who was a fish culler by trade and went by the 
nickname of "Gentleman Franky".  Although I don't yet have birth or death 
dates for Franky, he and his wife Julia (nee Pike) had nine children from 
about 1811 to 1830.

Franky's mother is mentioned in several documents, not by name but rather 
as "Madam Pike", which conveys that she held high social status.  Indeed, 
it has been suggested that she is somehow related to aristocracy. 
Unfortunately I don't yet know her name, and so I am hindered in trying to 
learn more about her.

The name of her husband (and father of Franky) is seldom mentioned in 
documents.  However, Franky's spinster sister Eliza seems to have left us 
a few clues.  She wrote a will in July 1816 in which she settles her 
affairs prior to departing Carbonear to retire in Poole, Dorset.  She 
names several family members such as nieces and nephews, and gives enough 
detail for us to be confident that she is indeed Franky's sister.

While going through some records at the provincial registry of deeds a few 
years ago, I found a real estate transaction from August 1816 in which 
Eliza Pike identifies herself as being the executrix of the estate of her 
late father John Pike, who had been a merchant.  Moreover, it is stated 
that letters of admin were granted to her on 14 September 1792.  I haven't 
yet been able to find the corresponding court records, but when I do, 
hopefully they will provide some further clues about John and his 
ancestry.

Up until recently we did not have test results from any members of this 
particular Pike family in our project.  But we now do:  a great great 
grandson of Franky's son Woodbine Pike has had 25 markers tested.  His 
results (kit number 98146) are a perfect 25-marker match with several 
other Pikes with Carbonear ancestry.

So we now have another piece of evidence that suggests that the Pikes of 
Carbonear are really one big family (even though we don't know just how 
the branches of the family tree fit into the tree).  But more than that, 
Franky's line is among the best documented lines, and so it stands the 
best chance of being able to be successfully traced further back in time. 
And since Franky's line is now known to match with many other Carbonear 
Pike lines, we can be assured that by focussing on Franky's line we will 
ultimately end up revealing the origins of the other less-documented Pikes 
of Carbonear.

Let me also mention that I have been working on trying to trace the 
descendants of Thomas Pike, a mariner of Poole, who wrote a will about 
1703 just prior to making a voyage to Newfoundland.  Thomas married in 
1680 to Susanna Bird and is known to have had four sons:  Thomas, John, 
William, and Samuel.  Thomas jr was a "Newfoundland Planter" by trade 
although his primary place of residence was Poole, where his son John was 
a prominent merchant in the 1700s.  John (grandson of mariner Thomas) died 
in Poole in 1775, but refers to his own son John in his will.  References 
that I've found elsewhere state that John jr was in Newfoundland, and so 
he might be the same John Pike that was the father of Gentleman Franky 
(but I haven't yet found conclusive evidence).

As for mariner Thomas' three other sons, I know nothing about Samuel. 
William moved to Portsmouth in Hampshire where he became a wealthy brewer 
and had two daughters who married into the Bonham and Carter families 
(descendants of whom later adopted the Bonham-Carter surname).  Thanks to 
records left behind by William and some of his family, I have been able to 
learn that William's brother John had a large family as follows:

- Susanna, who married Joseph Lee and died in 1808.  She lived in Portsmouth.
- Timothy, who had seven children.  He lived in Portsmouth.
- Moses, who died in July 1813 and had at least one child, a daughter Elizabeth.
- Francis, who was a captain and lived at Newport on the Isle of Wight.
- John
- William
- Mary, who was the wife of Christopher Spencer of Newfoundland
- Edward, who had at least one child, a daughter Ann

I do not know where the members of this family were born, nor do I know 
where most of them lived.  My suspicion though is that at least a few of 
them and/or their children probably lived in Carbonear, meaning that they 
could be responsible for many of the Pikes found there.

At the risk of getting verbose, let me also share a curious discovery that 
I made while at the Dorset History Centre in July.  Specifically, I found 
a real estate transaction from 1718 that was signed and sealed by Thomas 
Pike (who I'll clarify as being Thomas jr ... that is, the Newfoundland 
planter whose father was mariner Thomas).  You can view a photograph that 
I took of the wax seal on this document, which I have now put online on a 
webpage about Pike family Coats of Arms: 
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=arms.html 
It is the second photo from the top of the page.

In particular, notice the similarity with the first image, which is a coat 
of arms used by John Pike who settled in Massachusetts in 1635.  Given 
that coats of arms were hereditary, this suggests that there may be a 
relationship between Thomas (and the Pikes of Carbonear) and the 
descendants of John.  However, we know from DNA testing that the Pikes of 
Carbonear and the descendants of John carry different genetic 
signatures... the Carbonear Pikes are our project's "Group 2" and John's 
descendants are all in "Group 1".  Why unrelated Pikes would be using the 
same coat of arms is a riddle that remains to be answered.

Back to Carbonear for a moment before I finish, I should point out that 
several Pike lineages there have yet to be tested.  I am slowly trying to 
recruit members of each of them to participate in our project.  The first 
challenge here is locating living family members, and the second is 
convincing them to participate, which can be sometimes be difficult, 
especially if they don't have much interest in genealogy.  In some cases 
the main obstacle is the cost of doing the DNA analysis.  On that note I 
would like to say that being able to offer some assistance from our 
project's Sponsorship Fund can make a difference.  This applies to all 
Pike lineages, not just those from Carbonear, although in the case of 
Carbonear I recently was in touch with a fellow who is a college student 
and isn't in a position to be able to cover the full cost of a DNA test. 
If anybody wants to make a contribution (even if only a small one) to help 
in cases like this, then some information on how to do so can be found at 
the bottom of this page: 
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=join.html

Thanks,

- David.