Ruth Crawley Champion's book The Champion Family 350 Years in America was
published for the author by Gateway Press Inc, 1001 N> Calvert St., Baltimore
MD 21202 in 1984. I purchased my copy from her daughter in 1993 and she had
few copies left; however I first learned about this book from the LDS Famly
History Library which (fortunately for me) had this book on film.
Mrs. Champion was a Champion descendant married to a Champion. Her book
does not deal with the Saybrook Champions or the Virginia Champions. It
deals primarily with the descendants of THOMAS CHAMPION of Ashford, England,
Sandwich County, Kent, who "did sail 12th of March for the plantation called
New England on the sailing ship Hercules bound for the land known as America"
in 1634. He did not sail alone but with a male servant.
These Champions were first found (1655) around Hempstead, Long Island, and
then went to West Jersey. My bunch were found around Tuckahoe, NJ until
1846 or so, when they moved to Sangamon County, IL. Others of the same
family (Mrs. Crawley's bunch) migrated from NJ to Hamilton County, Ohio
(11800), Montgomery Co KY (1793), Morgan County IN (1837), and Clayton Co IL
(1873). Some stayed in the Philadelphia area.
Whether there is any connection between these NJ/LI/PA Champions and those in
VA or CT isn't clear. My NJ Champions were Quakers; I don't know whether
that was true of other Champions or even all the NJ Champions.
However, a son of Thomas Champion c1675-1731/32, namely Thomas Champion b
c1707 "may have gone to N.C." after selling land inherited from his father
1733. And another Champion daughter of another branch "was one of the
Quaker exiles to VA during the Revolution," leaving a published diary which
might be of interest to some. That was Mary Champion Jarvis or Jervis, and
the diary was printed in 1889, edited by Henry D. Biddle. And there's an
Elias Champion who went to Ontario Co. NY.
One of the stories I'd like to know more about is about my direct line
ancestors. Nathaniel Champion c1741-1775/77, s/o John Champion & Elizabeth
Boone, married Catherine Scull 4 July 1762 by "Governor's License." (What
might that mean?) They had 7 children. After Nathaniel's death, his widow,
Catherine married John Collins in 1777. When Collins died, "Catherine
bound out her daughter and returned to Great Egg harbor with two small
children..." Catherine married an Ingersoll in 1790, and in the early 1790s
bound out two small children and moved to Cincinnati OH. How do I learn
more about to whom they were bound out? What were they supposed to learn
and from whom?
Incidentally, one of the 7 children of Nathaniel & the thrice-married
Catherine Scull was a daughter named Catherine who "could have been the
Catharine in the Kentucky Census p 74".
Jan T