Limerick, Ireland Phelps -excerpts from The Phelps Family in America and Their English Ancestors

 By Judge Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin.

(Eagle Publishing Company of Pittsfield, Mass., 1899)   A PDF file

Click here to see the pdf  pages from the book

Here are comments about the author and related items, from Margaret Swanson, former head of the Phelps Connections..

The author of the Phelps Genealogy (1899), Oliver Seymour Phelps, was born in Ludlowville, Tompkins Co., [Town of Lansing]N.Y. 12 Jan. 1816, he later moved to St. Catharines, C.W. [Canada West or Ontario]. In 1869 he removed to Portland, Oregon. he was a judge (justice of the peace) and a grocer. [NOT A LAWYER] and had one child, by his 2nd wife. He was a descendant of WILLIAM PHELPS. His brother-in-law, Andrew Tinkham Servin, was his co-author. He lived in Lenox, Mass.

We had an interesting experience in Phelps Connections in his connection. I can't remember the details, but somehow one of our members made contact with a young great or great-great grandson of Oliver Seymour Phelps. We tried to find out if the original manuscript for the genealogy still existed and where it was located. He did not know.  O.S. Phelps was interested in genealogy and carried on what seems to be an extensive correspondence with Phelps descendants in England,and particularly William Phelps Prior, British Chaplain of Vevey, Switzerland. At that time there were men who were interested in providing genealogical information from various sources and while they may have carefully transcribed the records they found and they information was about Phelps (or other surnames) there was NO attempt to "prove" the relevance of the information found to the actual ancestors desired--no great scholarship involved. Nancy and I just dismissed the information in the first 70+ pages of the genealogy as we were interested in the Phelps in the U.S. We figured that someone who was really interested in the early English Phelps could do that project. Bill Phelps, Phelps Connections Vice-President did do some research around BroadWindsor when he was on a trip to England and shared it with us. He photocopied some early church records and provided a transcription on the back of the sheets. He also helped organize the Phelps participants in the two Mary and John conferences (early 80's). Since the Phelps organization was in its early days, and the White family (descendants of the Rev. John White, leader of the immigrants who sailed on the Mary and John 1630) had a much larger group of member and descendants and had provided Burt Spear's Mary and John Clearing House considerable funds for English research on the White family, William Phelps was only briefly discussed at the 2nd MJ Conference which I attended in San Francisco. (The first conference was held it Windsor, CT). Robin Bush was the featured speaker. Robin was the town crier of Yeoville and a researcher at Somerset House. He was a most fascinating speaker. He told a story about one of my ancestors, Thomas Trowbridge, who was tried and convicted in ecclesiastical court [I think it was Canterbury] for throwing the cushion he was kneeling on and hitting the bishop in the head during a church service. Robin died many years ago unfortunately. One of the things he did say about my William, was that he was "probably" a mercer (seller of drygoods) what one would call a substantial upper middleclass business man, but not of the educational background or social status of the Rev. John White. We have a coat of arms--probably spurious---with a lion rampant and the motto Veritas sine Timore (Truth without Fear). My great-great-grandfather's 2nd wife painted a platter and a dozen service plates with the arms. My brother has the platter and six plates. When my father's younger brother was married, my mother decided Uncle John should have six of the plates. Sorry I can't be of help with an Irish connection. Proceed with caution!