Person:Martha Strode (4)

Note: Some sources gives Martha's birth year as 1678. However, this year would have made her over 50 by 1728 with three children still to be born to her. (BJC)

Martha Strode, a Huguenot, whose father was probably a descendant of Sir William Strode, one of the five members who condemned Charles 1 and signed his death warrant. The Strodes had previously left Holland and gone to France to escape religious persecution because of their Protestant faith. From France they migrated to England and from England to Pa. After the death of her parents on board ship to America, Martha Strode and her brothers were cared for by the other passengers.

The "Boone Scout", January 1957, pg. 8 has this to say about Martha Strode:

"A dramatic figure of early America was Martha Strode, probably a descendant of Sir William Strode, on of the five members of the Star Chamber who in 1649 condemned and signed the death warrant of King Charles I of England."

In 1846 Jeremiah Strode wrote a sketch later published in the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, stating that his great-great-grandfather chartered a vessel, the "Paysay" and set sail for America 160 years before the writing of this article: that he died at sea leaving William, George, Samuel, Edward, and a daughter Martha; that this information was received by my uncle, Captain James Strode of Berkeley County, Virginia, and John Strode of Culpepper who procured the records A.D. 1791; that the Mansion House still stands eleven miles south of Strasbourg in France; that they were of noble and ancient family, belonging to the Huguenots, the Protestants of France.

"Authorities agree that the family came from France to England and from Strodeville, County Devonshire, England to Pennsylvania then to Virginia."

Source: (Death) Title: Bryan Papers, #3 Author: Shane Collection Publication: Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA Media: Book

Note: #3 of Bryan Papers in Shane Collection, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia Death: 29 AUG 1762 Bryan's Station, Rowan Co., North Carolina Reference: 249

1. ↑ Project from Ancestry.com (Web).
2.   Brad Atherton web page, February, 2000.