William Arnold (settler) - Notes

Notes

a. ^ The date as written in the original record reads "1622/3." This is because England and her colonies were still using the Julian calendar, and the year began and ended in March. However, clerks and record keepers realized that much of Europe had switched over to the Gregorian calendar (beginning in 1582), with the new year beginning on 1 January, so for the months of January, February and part of March, they wrote the dual year, meaning 1622 in the old calendar and 1623 in the new, even though England would not switch to the Gregorian calendar until the middle of the 18th century.
b. ^ Written 1583/4 in the original records. See note a.
c. ^ Written 1571/2 in the original records. See note a.
d. ^ Another (or possibly the same) Thomas Arnold was of Watertown, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later of Providence and has erroneously been labeled as the half-brother of William. William did have a younger half-brother named Thomas, but this half-brother lived and presumably died in England, with no record of his ever having been in New England. The possible parentage of Thomas Arnold of Watertown and Providence was published in 1915 by E. S. Jones, who narrowed down the father of Thomas to two candidates. Fred Arnold, in 1921, was more definitive about Thomas Arnold's parentage, calling him the son of Richard Arnold, goldsmith of London and grandson of William and Katherine Arnold of Kelsale, Suffolk, England.
e. ^ See, for example, Richard Sears (pilgrim), concerning Rev. Edward Hamilton Sears.
f. ^ These original documents include the Arnold family record, the Northover parish register, the bishop's transcript of Ilchester parish records sent to Wells in 1622 (and signed by William Arnold), and the will of Nicholas Arnold.
g. ^ So thorough was Fred Arnold's treatment of the genealogy of William Arnold in 1921, that his work was included verbatim in Elisha S. Arnold's 1935 genealogy of the descendants of William Arnold. Even a modern account of the Arnold family, created from all known published sources and then published under the Great Migration project in 1999 shows no difference in the structure of the family from what was published in 1921, and shows no known ancestry for Nicholas Arnold.
h. ^ Somerby had the family living in Monmouthshire, Gloucester, Wiltshire, and Dorset, as well as a part of Somerset that does not include the Ilchester area. No record has been found to support the claims that the family of William Arnold ever lived in any of these places.
i. ^ Written 1620/1 in the original records. See note a.
j. ^ Written 1692/3 in the original records. See note a.