Stil/lwell Family Origins...
One Story
The Stillwell surname first appeared in a village of Meriden, in the county of Surry located about thirty miles south of London in the 1500's. There are springs of water that are constantly flowing in this area. In Old English, Stille = constant and Wiella = a spring. The area became known as High Stillwells. So tradition has it that the original Stillwells took their name from the springs in this area.
There are a few theories regarding the history of the Stillwell family in England. There are colorful accounts of how the three Stillwell brothers, Nicholas, Jasper and John were driven from their home. Religious and civil persecution forced them to flee to Holland, and eventually to New Amsterdam. According to this tradition, their surname was originally Cooke. Unfortunately, this theory has not been proven. English history does tell about a John Cooke who was a lawyer in England who helped in the trial of King Charles I for treason against England. Charles I was found guilty and executed. When Charles II came into power, John and his brothers had to flee to Holland and on to New Amsterdam. The brothers are referred to as Cooke in England, Holland and New Amsterdam.
In John E. Stillwell's book, The History of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell, published 1929, He disputed this theory saying there wasn't any “….proof in existence that Nicholas Stillwell was either a relative, friend or acquaintance of John Cooke, the Regicide…” JES does have a lot of supporting evidence for his point of view.
My Forefathers, their history from records & traditions - Chapter 1
“The Three Brothers Nicholas, John and Jasper.” The Stillwell Family, which has been distinguished for nearly three centuries in the field, at the Bar, and Among the delegates and representatives of fellow-citizens, is descended from two of three brothers, the history of whose early years and parentage and even of their surname appear to have died with them. Nicholas, Jasper, and John, whatever their birth and station may have been, were three men of education, ability, and polished manners, as is evident from the fact that one was a courtier, and another became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. (The suggestion recently made that John Cooke and Nicholas Stillwell were not brothers but merely friends, is not only contrary to many family traditions, but is irreconcilable with the last letter of John Cooke written when he was condemned to death in which he addresses Nicholas as “My dear Brother,” and speaks of (second) wife of Nicholas (Ann Van Dyke) as My dear Sister.
In the reign of James I. We learn that Nicholas, a zealous Protestant and withal a soldier and courtier, left England to enter the service of Frederick V., Elector Palatine of the Rhine, who, being a Protestant prince, had been elected King by the States of Bohemia, then in revolt against the Roman Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II., for the defense of their religious liberties. The Elector had an English regiment of 2,400 men, commanded by the great Sir Horatio Vere (afterwards Lord Vere of Tilbury), under whom, says Burke, the greatest general were proud to have served.
The Elector---or King of Bohemia, as he was now styled---had married the Princess Elizabeth of England, daughter of James I., who henceforward was known as the Queen of Bohemia. Young Nicholas received an appointment which placed him among the Queen's entourage (some say that she brought him from England as her Page), and thus it came about that, in the intervals of his military duties, he paid court to her maid of honour, Abigail Hopton, who, with her brother, Ralph, had followed in the suite of the English Princess.
Ralph Hopton and Nicholas were young men of about the same age … Thrown together by their duties at a foreign court, friendship soon sprang up between young Englishmen, and Nicholas lost his heart to Hopton's sister.
In 1620, when the news was brought of the battle of Prague, so disastrous alike to the “Winter King' of Bohemia and to the Protestant cause in that kingdom, of which he was the champion. The Queen and her ladies prepared for flight. The English gentlemen of her household gallantly formed themselves into an escort, and among them were Ralph Hopton and young Nicholas. They set out in all haste, the carriages containing the Queen and her ladies being surrounded by their mounted cavaliers. They were, however, immediately pursued, and were in danger of being overtaken on account of the bad state of the roads; whereon, perceiving their peril, the fair occupants were induced to abandon the carriages and mount the horses of their escort. The Queen herself mounted behind Ralph Hopton, whilst his sister, the maid of honour, was similarly taken care of by Nicholas, and the royal party thus escaped, reaching their destination, the town of Breslau, in safety.
Hopton and Nicholas---who was most probably serving under his real name of Cooke, of Coke, having as yet no cause for disguise were now among those faithful adherents who followed the ill-fated Sovereigns of Bohemia to the Netherlands. Ralph Hopton may have been prompted to some extent by a desire to see his sister, who was there still in attendance on the fugitive Queen, and the same influence doubtless guided his friend Nicholas in no less a degree. …
Years of stirring incident has passed since the romantic flight to Breslau, when at last Nicholas claimed the hand of Abigail Hopton, whose Royal mistress had been compelled to disperse the exile court which she had held in Holland. (Sir Ralph and his sister Abigail, the wife of Nicholas, were the children of Robert Hopton, of Wytham, Somersetshire, by Jane, daughter of Rowland Keymish, of Wardry, Monmouthshire.)
Amongst those who were the victims of the tyranny and persecution of Charles I's adviser, Archbishop Laud, were the Rev. Henry Whitfield and his followers. Of the latter none were more earnest and staunch than Jasper and John Cooke, the brothers of Nicholas, and they were persecuted accordingly.
When Whitfield and many of his flock were driven to seek refuge in the newly founded Colony of New Haven, Jasper and John fled to Holland, where they joined their brother of Nicholas.
It is said to have been about this period that these tree brothers, having exposed themselves to the intolerant abused of the High Commission Court, and of the Star Chamber by their religious and political convictions, firs sought the expediency of concealing their identity by the adoption of the watch word for the purpose of communicating with each other and with their friends.
That watchword was “Still Well” a message which they agreed to send whenever either of them should succeed in finding a safe retreat. In their long years of exile, during which they dared not avow their real names, they became known by the message, and finally found in it a safer designation than that to which they were born.
Of the several traditions concerning them, the one generally accepted or, at least, the one which has been handed down among the descendants of Deborah Stillwell is that they were the sons of an English country gentleman, named Cooke the name by which John, later on, figured so conspicuously. (It appears probable that they were cadets of the distinguished family of Coke, founded by Sir Edward Coke, the celebrated lawyer, who was Lord Chief Justice, etc… in the reign of James I., and represented by the Earls of Leicester.) Some say that not only were their lives threatened by the misgovernment of Charles I., but that they were deprived of an old English country seat, where their father had been the squire. It has also been said that their aged mother lived to see their persecution, and that she was one of those who, in England, received that welcome message---“Still Well”---which became the surname of their descendants.
There is a tradition, maintained for generations by one branch of the Stillwells, to the effect that the name originally borne by the three mysterious brothers was Stuart, and that paternally they ranked among the unacknowledged members of that Royal House, at whose hands they suffered so much in the reign of King Charles. (I do not know how this tradition is reconciled with the established fact that the name of Cooke was borne by one of the brothers, John, at the trial of Charles I.)
Another tradition is that, whatever their paternity, their mother was of the family of Still, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, which removed thence to Wells, one of them, the Right Reverend John Still, having been appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells, by the Queen Elizabeth, in 1592. Thus, when in seeking for some of those springs which abound near Bath, the Bishop discovered a lead mine of considerable value, and was induced to contribute therefrom for the restoration of the Cathedral roof, Sir Arthur Hopton, his relative, who had persuaded him thereto, observed: “Still's well, though dry, hath still welled a greater stream than any of the famous springs of Bath or Wells, for it is the only one that has ever covered the roof of the Cathedral.” (Several other anecdotes are told of the puns made on the Bishop's name. He died in 1607, and was buried in that Cathedral.)
References
- Stilwell, Benjamin Marshall. (1878). Early Memoirs Of The Stilwell Family, Comprising The Life And Times Of Nicholas Stilwell, The Common Ancestor Of The Numerous Families Bearing That Surname, With Some Account Of His Brothers John And Jasper, And Incidentally A Sketch Of The History Of Manhattan Island And Its Vicinity, Under The Dutch, With Some Contributions To A Genealogy Of The Family. New York: The National Printing Company. (BMS)
- Stillwell, William H. (1883). Notes On The Descendants Of Nicholas Stillwell The Ancestor Of The Stillwell Family In America. New York: E. W. Nash. (WHS)
- Stillwell, John E., M.D. (1929). The History Of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell Progenitor Of The Stillwell Family In America With Some Notices Of The Family In The Kingdom Of Great Britian (Volume 1). New York: no publisher listed. (JES)
- Bradhurst, A. Maunsell. (1910). My Forefathers, their history from records & traditions. pp 135-143
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