Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Witherspoon/Pressley Acquaintance


A couple of months ago, I made an acquaintance with a Witherspoon descendent who had run across my website. His name is John Renning Phillips, a very nice gentlemen who I exchanged several emails with.

He has written a book called, "The Good Intent: The Story and Heritage of a Fresno Family.” His book has information about his father’s family, which includes the Witherspoon and the Pressley families of Williamsburg County, South Carolina so he thought I would be interested in reading it.

I am very interested and have started but not yet finished reading it. However, John brought it to my attention that the Pressley and Witherspoons have several connections including the marriage of Ann Pressley to marry James Witherspoon, the great-grandfather of Boykin Witherspoon.

John has documented the family’s journey in 1734 on the ship called “The Good Intent” from Ireland to South Carolina. The family was originally from Scotland.

John also confirmed with me information about the prestigious family line that the Witherspoons in particular descended from including John Knox (The Divine), Robert the Bruce, kinship to Mary Queen of Scots and modern day actress, Reese Witherspoon.

I am very grateful to John Renning Phillips for the information he has shared with me and look forward to finishing his book. In fact, another friend of mine says she had heard good things about it and planned to read it as well.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy, you can do so by clicking on to the link below.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JEYhPU7EtNAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Renning+Phillips&sig=g4AbWYi7QesSG42ZQMwIu4inD3Y

1 comment:

shayshay said...

According to the 1920 Census my family was from Desoto Parish. Any information on the last names Right, Wright, Landrum, Cotton, Vallery, Hayward, would be very helpful. My great grandfather was Will Right born in 1890.