The Stewart Legend

 The Stewart Family of North Stonington, Connecticut

"Two British sailors who had been pressed onto service jumped ship along the New England coast in the 1660's and lived with the Indians for a time to avoid being caught. According to Frank Church of Petersburg, New York, the two sailors, Church and Stewart formed a bond of friendship and swore the two families would always be closely associated. No hard evidence but Frank's mother lived to a "ripe" old age and his grandmother lived to be 103 years old, so the stories may have been handed down. William may have been descended from Elizabeth Stewart, Mother of Oliver Cromwell. "He acquired the title of Lieutenant and was a man of prominence. It is said that he knew the line of his ancestry back to the Kings and a set of dishes bearing a coat-of-arms was later in possession of his descendents"


[Research of Mamie Ford Smail, WorldConnect] From the [Stewart Clan Magazine May, 1926]


This interesting tale is in almost all the publications you may read about this family. If there is any fact to this, it would mean that Stewarts have been another generation back from Lieut. William Stewart.


Any sailor who jumped ship would not have dishes, so perhaps, if this is true, forbearers of Lieut. William came to America after this story.