| OCR Text |
Show Appendix A The Leavitt Coat of Arms F AMILIES WHO CAN boast a coat of arms are usually very proud, for this indicates that long, long ago - three hundred years before Columbus discovered America - an ancestor of theirs had earned distinction in the Crusades. These were organized expeditions of warriors from the Christian nations, England, France, and Germany, against the Moslems, who had possession of the Holy Land. Each Crusade meant a long grueling journey, whether by sailboat or overland, and bloody fighting when they arrived. In those days war was hand-to-hand with sword or knife or ax if the combatants were on foot; it was spear and lance if they were horseback. In either event, survival depended on speed, skill, courage, and endurance. To survive at all was a distinction. Each warrior had as a very important part of his equipment a shield fastened to his left arm, and on his skillful use of this his very life depended. When he entered the service, he carried a blank shield with no inscription. At the end of the undertaking he was awarded his military honors in the form of an inscription on his shield. The different symbols had different meanings; the colors of the backgrounds were often different, all indicating the rank of the owner in the royal retinue. The Leavitt coat of arms is especially impressive. On a field of blue is pictured in black and white a Lion Rampant wearing a crown - all symbolic of the 164 The Leavitt Coat of Arms British nobility. Swords with the Christian cross on the handles indicate the various crusades and battles, and an inscription in large capital letters along the bottom describes the personal qualities of the wearer. On the Leavitt shield these are: MENS, which is Latin for mind or intellect; CONSCIA, Latin for sensitivity, awareness, empathy RECTI, uprightness, honesty, fair dealing All are qualities which men of every age and clime will do well to emulate. The coat of arms is clear evidence that the Leavitt family was closely identified with the royalty; in fact, one researcher says that our ancestors came from the mainland with William the Conqueror in the year 1066. For our purpose here, the most important source of information is a book, The Leavitts of America, compiled for and published by Mrs. Jane Jennings Eldridge of Woods Cross, Utah, in 1924. Since it includes all the Leavitts of America, our part is very small, but it is important for us to see our line in its place among all the others. In order to make it workable, the family is divided into sections A,B,C,D,E, representing the five brothers who came first to America, and F for scattered individuals not accounted for elsewhere. Besides this division, every head of a family is given a number by which he can be identified and can be placed in relation to the family into which he was born, and later the family of which he is the head. Every female is also numbered, so that the total named adds up to more than 3,500 persons. Our first immediate ancestor was Deacon John Leavitt, who came to America about 1636, married and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, where he lived all his life. He died in 1691. He had thirteen children by two wives, our ancestor being Moses, second son of the second wife. Moses Leavitt married Dorothy Dudley, daughter of Reverend Samuel Dudley and granddaughter of Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts. This brings the On the Ragged Edge 165 Dudley name into the family. Moses' son Joseph, his fifth son of six, is our ancestor. Joseph Leavitt married and had eight children, his eldest, Nathaniel (married) being our ancestor. Sometime during the opening years of the American Revolution, the family moved into Canada, for our next ancestor, Jeremiah Leavitt I was buried in Hatley, Canada, about 1762. He married red-haired Sarah Shannon, of Irish descent. She was the first of the Leavitt family to be baptized into the Mormon Church. Her second son, Jeremiah II and his wife, Sarah Studervant Leavitt, are the parents of Dudley, the central figure of this book. LEAVITT |
