A genealogy and a history of the descendants of John Cotton who lived in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in the late 1600's. He married Martha Godwin. The families lived in North Carolina, Louisiana, and elsewhere.

William Thrall was born in England in 1605, and came to America in 1630.

On April 14, 1865, the night of President Lincoln’s assassination, Booth’s conspirator Lewis Powell attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward in his home just blocks from Ford’s Theatre. The attack, which left Seward and his son seriously wounded, is recounted in poignant detail in Fanny Seward’s diary. Fanny, the beloved only daughter of Seward, was a keen observer, and her diary entries from 1858 to 1866 are the foundation of Krisher’s vivid portrait of the young girl who was an eyewitness to one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Fanny offers intimate observations on the politicians, generals, and artists of the time. She tells of attending dinner parties, visiting troops, and going to the theater, often alongside President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary. Through Fanny’s writings, Krisher not only skillfully brings to life the events and activities of a progressive political family but also illuminates the day-to-day drama of the war. Giving readers a previously unseen glimpse into the era, Fanny Seward: A Life broadens our understanding of Civil War America.

In her critical biography of Anna Seward (1742-1809), Teresa Barnard examines the poet's unpublished letters and manuscripts, providing a fresh perspective on Seward's life and historical milieu that restores and problematizes Seward's carefully constructed narrative of her life. Of the poet Anna Seward, it may be said with some veracity that hers was an epistolary life. What is known of Seward comes from six volumes of her letters and from juvenile letters that prefaced her books of poetry, all published posthumously. That Seward intended her correspondence to serve as her autobiography is clear, but she could not have anticipated that the letters she intended for publication would be drastically edited and censored by her literary editor, Walter Scott, and by her publisher, Archibald Constable. Stripped of their vitality and much of their significance, the published letters omit telling tales of the intricacies of the marriage market and Seward's own battles against gender inequality in the educational and workplace spheres. Seward's correspondents included Erasmus Darwin, William Hayley, Helen Maria Williams, and Robert Southey, and her letters are packed with stories and anecdotes about her friends' lives and characters, what they looked like, and how they lived. Particularly compelling is Barnard's discussion of Seward's astonishing last will and testament, a twenty-page document that summarizes her life, achievements, and self-definition as a writing woman. Barnard's biography not only challenges what is known about Seward, but provides new information about the lives and times of eighteenth-century writers.

This book is divided in two parts. The first, by far the larger, is a recording of events in the history of the Sherwood family, whose origins lie in the marriage of Frank P. Sherwood and Frances Howell on February 14, 1948. As might be anticipated, the first story is about a very happy honeymoon in San Francisco. The last story in Part One relates an experience of the family that grew out of the 1948 marriage, now numbering 11 people. They helped Frank and Frances celebrate their 50th anniversary with a weeks outing in Devon, England. In between these two quite delightful events, there were less welcome occasions when things did not go so well. The pets in the family, the experience with smoking, and the family finances also are subjects found in these chronicles. Part Two reverts to an earlier period before Frank was married, and it is essentially concerned with famous people he encountered as a young man. There are brief reports on President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the baseball star Ted Williams, and famed screen actress Ingrid Bergman, all of whom Frank met before his marriage in1948.

This book "Our Town---Seward, Pennsylvania" is written because of all the work Dave Patterson has been doing on "We miss the old Seward"-web site. He has been bringing old and new Seward residents together talking about the good old days and getting reacquainted after years of not seeing or speaking. All the proceeds from this book will be given to the Seward Volunteer Fire Company for their truck fund, which is much needed.