Robert Beheathland

Here's a story for the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, which we observe this month.

My ancestor Robert Beheathland has the unique distinction of being the only original settler of Jamestown, VA who is known to have left descendants in the New World. He arrived with Captain John Smith on 13 May 1607, some thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

In the list of passengers, he was listed as a "Gentleman". He was a member of the party that accompanied Captain Smith on two visits to chief Powhatan in 1607 and 1608. He died by 1627, we know because by then his wife Mary had remarried.

His daughter Mary married Capt. Thomas Bernard, and they had a daughter named Beheathland Bernard.

She married Major Andrew Gilson, and they had a son, Thomas Gilson.

Thomas married Elizabeth Newton, and they had a daughter named Beheathland Gilson.

She married John Berryman, and they had a son named Gilson Berryman.

Gilson was the great-grandfather of Martha Berryman (Thomas), see the post below, "Gray/Thomas family plot, Woodlawn cemetery, Independence, MO". That makes Robert Beheathland my 11th great-grandfather (due to some intermarriage, he may be in there more than once, depending on which Berryman experts you talk to)

Interestingly, the name Gilson Berryman has come down in the family to the present day, as a first and middle name. It's pronounced "Jill-son" rather than "Gill-son".