When researching Wathen family trees online, you'll frequently encounter claims that our ancestor, John Wathen, was the son of John Wathen and Mary Mullet, and the grandson of Sir Charles Wathen. These assertions have been around for so long that they are often taken as fact.
In The Wathens of Southern Maryland: Their Genealogy & History, I debunked the theory that our John Wathen is the son of John Wathen Sr. and Mary Mullet. As Carol Collins demonstrated decades ago in her book, this stubbornly persistent idea is based on a misreading of the wills of John Waltum of Virginia and Winifred Mullet of Charles County. See "Barking Up the Wrong Family Tree: Refuting an Old Theory" on page 10 of my book for more details. If you have John Wathen Sr. and Mary Mullet on your family tree, it's time to remove them.
The origin of "Sir Charles Wathen," however, has remained a mystery. Why have so many people claimed that he is the grandfather of our ancestor John Wathen? The name is not found in colonial Maryland records, so where did it come from?
I think I’ve finally solved the puzzle.
An important clue is found on a very old, photocopied document in the Lyons Collection Family Files at The Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky (See the header image above).[i] Although Sir Charles Wathen is not mentioned by name, we see John Wathen Sr. and Mary Mullett featured prominently on the top of the page. We also see a family coat of arms with the description, “A dexter cubit arm erect vested sa., cuffed arg., holding in the hand ppr. a cinquefoil slipped or.” On the righthand side of the page is a family motto, “Fortiter, fideliter, feliciter” These heraldic signs subtly hint at the origin of the name of Sir Charles Wathen, as we’ll see.
It's important to know that the average family in seventeenth century England — when our ancestor John sailed from Bristol — would not have had a family coat of arms. Heraldic symbols on shields, coats, and armor were a way for nobility and knights to show their higher social status, and there were official rules dictating who had permission to display them. The royal College of Arms granted coats of arms to individuals, and only direct descendants of those individuals had the right to use them.
In other words, there was no “Wathen” coat of arms that every Wathen in England could freely use. A Wathen could use a coat of arms only if he or she had a direct ancestor that had been granted that privilege as a knight or nobleman. Since the 1800s, books like Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland have documented whose descendants have been granted the right to use coats of arms.
If you look at the fourth edition of Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1905, you’ll see just one Wathen with a registered coat of arms: “Wathen, the late Sir Charles, of Ashley Down, Bristol.” Fairbairn’s Book of Crests then describes the crest and motto of Sir Charles Wathen: “a dexter cubit arm erect vested sa., cuffed arg., holding in the hand ppr. a cinquefoil slipped or. Fortiter fideliter felicite.”[ii] Here’s how Fairbairn’s Book of Crests depicts the coat of arms of Sir Charles Wathen:[iii]
If you look at the the Wathen Family Tree from the Lyons Collection Family Files (see top of page) it's almost certain that its author was copying from Fairbairn’s Book of Crests. This enthusiastic genealogist, wanting to include a Wathen family coat of arms and motto, decided to use the arms and motto of Sir Charles Wathen. This genealogist or another who was using Fairbairn’s Book of Crests most likely speculated that our John Wathen, who sailed from Bristol in 1670, was the direct descendant of Sir Charles Wathen of Bristol. Once that speculation made it into writing, it would spread from one genealogist’s notes to another, down to our own day.
Further investigation into Sir Charles of Bristol makes it very clear that he is not the ancestor of Southern Maryland’s John Wathen. An online biography states:
Sir Charles Wathen (19 March 1833 - 14 February 1893) was a prominent Victorian wool merchant who from 1865 to 1887 ran the well-known British clothing firm of Wathen Gardiner & Co, and served six times as Mayor of Bristol.
He was knighted for his accomplishments on 1 January 1889 during his fourth term as mayor by Queen Victoria. He died on 14 February 1893….[iv]
It turns out that Sir Charles Wathen lived just before the fourth edition of Fairbairn’s Book of Crests was published. Sir Charles, who was knighted and granted heraldic arms in the late 1800s, was obviously not the grandfather of our John Wathen, who sailed to Southern Maryland in 1670.
If you have Sir Charles Wathen as the ancestor of John Wathen on your online family trees, it’s officially time to delete his name.
[i] Wathen Family Tree, “WATHEN, HENRY B.” folder 2, Lysons Collection Family Files, Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky; consulted as “WATHEN, HENRY B. folder 2,” The Filson Historical Society (https://filsonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/Lyons_Wathen4_HenryH.pdf : accessed 18 September 2024).
[ii] James Fairbairn, Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume I, 4th ed. (London, England: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1905), 578; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/embed/fairbairnsbookof01fair : accessed 18 September 2024). The unabbreviated crest description would read, "A dexter [right] cubit arm erect [raised upward] vested sable [black], cuffed argent [silver], holding in the hand proper [natural-colored] a cinquefoil [five-petaled flower] slipped or [golden]."
[iii] James Fairbairn, Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume II, 4th ed. (London, England: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1905), unnumbered page, “PLATE 205”; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/embed/fairbairnsbookof01fair : accessed 18 September 2024).
[iv] “Charles Wathen,” Wikiwand, (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Charles_Wathen : accessed September 18, 2024).