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Katherine Banks Royall Isham (1627-1686)

Stats[]

  • Born: 1627 Canterbury, County Kent, England
  • Died: 1 December 1686 Bermuda Hundred, Turkey Island, Henrico Co, Virginia
  • Burial: Randolph Family Cemetery, Turkey Island, Henrico Co, Virginia

Parents[]

  • Father: Christopher Banks (1603- )
  • Mother:

Marriage 1[]

  • Joseph Royall (1618-1658)
1645 Henrico Co, Virginia

Children[]

  1. daughter
  2. daughter
  3. ♂John Royall
  4. ♀Sarah Royall
  5. ♂Joseph Royall (1646-1732)
  6. ♀Katherine Royall (1654- )

Marriage 2[]

1659 Virginia

Children[]

  1. Phoebe Isham (1648- )
  2. Mary Isham (1659-1735) founder of William & Mary College, 'grandmother to Thomas Jefferson
  3. ♀Anne Fitzhugh Isham (1665-1718)
  4. ♂Henry Isham (1667-1679)

Notes and references[]

Katherine was known as the wealthiest woman in the Colonies during the 1600s. Katherine is the great grandmother of President Thomas Jefferson, 3G grandmother of Chief Justice John Marshall, and 4G grandmother of General Robert E Lee. Also among her descendants are Preseidents John Fitzgerald Kennedy and James Earl Carter; first lady Edith Eilson; authors William Faulkner, Willa Cather, Robert Penn Warren, and Ray Bradbury; and Booker Talieferro Washington.

Her father, Christopher Banks, financed the Jamestown settlement. The first English coach to come over to the Colonies was the one given to Katherine by her father. It held 6 passengers. It boasted a cream-colored cloth lining, silver trimmings, cords, and tassels, and and exquisitely ornamented exterior.

WARNING: This entry includes many serious errors and undocumented claims:

  1. There is no evidence that Katherine Banks Royall Isham had a daughter named Phoebe--despite the abundance of claims on the Internet. There is also no evidence that Mrs. Phoebe Belcher, mother of Isham Belcher, had the maiden name Isham. The claim that Katherine had a daughter named Phoebe Isham is certainly false, given that Phoebe's birth year is given as 1648--10 years before the death of Katherine's first husband Joseph Royall. If Katherine had borne a child via Isham during Royall's lifetime, her reputation would have been destroyed. Some suggest that Henry Isham may have had a previous wife who was Phoebe's mother; but, again, there is no accepted documentary evidence of this doubtful claim. It just seems to be one of a number of desperate speculations, whose only purpose is to establish that Phoebe Belcher was born a daughter of Henry Isham. If she was, it remains to be proven.
  2. Katherine's daughter Mary Isham, wife of William Randolph, was not a founder of the College of William and Mary. Its long-acknowledged and undoubted founders were a different William and Mary--the British King William III and Queen Mary II.
  3. The information in the first two paragraphs under "Notes and references" comes from a highly spurious newspaper article which gave no sources for its several doubtful or impossible claims--unfortunately widely copied on the Internet (though the original article seems to be long gone):
    1. Katherine was not "known as the wealthiest woman in the Colonies during the 1600s" because the data on which to base such a claim did not exist (there was no Forbes 500 or equivalent in the 1600s) and the means of communication needed to share them were also non-existent. (The first newspaper in Virginia was not founded until 1736.)
    2. While there are documented, recognized descents from Katherine for Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Robert E. Lee, and Edith Wilson, there is no evidence that her descendants include the others listed above. The JFK claim is obviously inaccurate, as biographies of him acknowledge, explicitly or implicitly, that all of his 17th century ancestors were in Ireland.
    3. Christopher Banks is not identified as a financier of the Jamestown Settlement.
    4. There is also no evidence to support the story of a luxurious coach given to Katherine by her father. Katherine's life was quite extraordinary enough and her posterity is impressive enough without exaggerating them.


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