Fenton Research Resource Page

Lord de la Ware's Scarf
Fenton Lore from Mrs. Irvin Megargee James

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The following is an article I found in the Spruance Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, in a collection of papers read before the historical society.  I could find no date on the article, but judging by its estimate of the scarf's age, I'd say it was written during the first quarter of the last century.  I like the story it relates, and it would seem to me that there is some thread of truth running through it. William Fenton, Esq., of Buckingham, is indeed descended from a Fenton who settled in Burlington, NJ, during the 1600's - Eleazar ffenton.  I believe, however, that Eleazar ffenton arrived in America too late to have come over with Lord Delaware.  I have also read elsewhere of William's connection, through his mother's line, to the painter Benjamin West.  This article's suggestion that Benjamin West was William's mother's first cousin is entirely plausible, and any possible connection to Thomas West, Lord de la War, would probably be through this line.

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Lord de la Ware's Scarf
By Mrs. Irvin Megargee James

This scarf belonged to and was worn by Thomas West, 'Lord de-la-War', or Delaware, during colonial times when he was governor and captain general of Virginia. It was loaned to the historical society by Mrs. Elizabeth Doan Randall, a descendant of Lord Delaware through the Fentons. The first Fenton coming to this country came over with Lord Delaware. He was an only son, and came to America and settled at Burlington, supposedly because his mother, who had married a barrister for her second husband, cheated the son out of a great part of his vast estates in England. The stains on the scarf are probably blood stains, according to tradition in the family, but nothing definite has ever been related in regard to them, and as far as I can find in history no account is given of Lord Delaware ever having been wounded. William Fenton, a grandfather of the present owner of this relic, kept a record and genealogy of the family, also some interesting facts in regard o the sash but after his death the book was either lost or sold at a sale.

     A reliable woman, who now lives in Bucks county, told me that William Fenton, 'Squire of Buckingham, had told her of the direct line from Lord Delaware, also his connection to Benjamin West, who was a first cousin to his mother. This record is a verbal one, but has been handed down from one generation to another. As Lord Delaware came to America in 1609 this sash or scarf which was worn over one shoulder and under the other arm, is almost 300 years old.

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