Thomas, William, Joseph and John Ferebee (born 1505, 1550, 1600, & 1642)
My Maternal 10th, 9th, 8th & 7th Great Grandfathers
Henry VIII referred to my 10th great-grandfather, Thomas Feriby, as “my Good Squire Ferriby”. When the sheriff of London produced a list of 48 names to serve on the Grand Jury to indict and convict Anne Bolelyn, Thomas was on the list of potential jurors. Anne Boleyn, the 2nd wife of Henry VIII, had entered marriage six months pregnant with Henry’s child with great reluctance. After three years of marriage, the birth of their daughter Elizabeth and two miscarriages, Anne was accused of trumped up adultery charges with five men, including incest with her brother and the king’s closest friend Sir Henry Norris. The proof of her sins – the court musician was tortured and confessed that he had had sexual relations with Anne. In reality Henry VIII had become besotted with Jane Seymour, Anne’s “lady-in-waiting,” and wanted to move on to another wife - one he hoped would produce a son.
[Painting: Anne Boleyn, the 2nd wife of Henry VIII]
In a depraved test of loyalty, the final jury selection included Anne’s father and uncle. Thomas Feriby was selected to serve. The Grand Jury finding was unanimous. No one dared defy the king by voting against him. Anne was found guilty and was beheaded at 8AM on May 19, 1536. When the king got the news that the deed was done, he went off to play tennis and twenty four hours later married Jane. During his evil reign of terror he went through six wives and executed an estimated 72,000 people.
[Painting: Anne Boleyn saying good-bye to her daughter, Princess Elizabeth by Gustave Wappers}
Four months before Anne’s shocking death, Henry suffered a massive head trauma in a jousting accident. He was unseated by a lance blow and his horse fell on him. Some medical professionals today claim it changed his personality and drove him to tyranny and cruelty. He became extremely obese and later in life, had to be hoisted out of his bed using a pulley system. Henry died at the age of 55 in 1547 covered in boils with a severe case of gout.
The “good squire” Thomas Feriby outlived the king and when Thomas died in 1565, Elizabeth I (Anne Boleyn’s daughter) was on the throne. Thomas had a son named William, my 9th great grandfather(1550-1614), who in turn had a son named Joseph, my 8th great grandfather(1600-1660) who in turn had a son named John, my 7th great grandfather (1642-1715) who immigrated to America in about 1660. John Ferebee, who was referred to by the title “Gent” (a man of noble birth), settled in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. John was a surveyor, a Deputy Clerk of the Court and a landowner who managed to amass at least 3,862 acres of land during his lifetime. He married a widow, Elizabeth Joyce Ellis, and they had four children George, Mary, James and Thomas, my 6th great-grandfather. John did not leave a will but in 1704 he gifted land to his wife and four children. He died in 1715. Thomas’ story is told in a separate blog.
Thomas Ferebee’s older brother, James (1683-1753), my 6th great granduncle, was the patriarch of a family line whose descendants were involved in a very controversial event. James had a son named Peter (1704-1786), who in turn had a son named Thomas (1774-1849), who in turn had a son named Thomas (1811-1887), who in turn had a son named William Calvin (1851-1926), followed by William Flavious (1892-1979), followed by Thomas Wilson Ferebee (1918-2000), my 6th cousin twice removed. A knee injury kept Thomas out of the infantry in World War II so he decided to enter flight school instead. He flew 60 bombing missions over Europe before being recruited by Colonel Paul Tibbets for a special secret mission.
At 8:15 on August 6, 1945, Thomas Wilson Ferebee, the bombardier on the Enola Gay, pulled the trigger that dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima. It took 53 seconds for the bomb to fall 31,060 feet to its destination height above the city. The plane was named after the pilot’s mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. The bomb was named “Little Boy.” The firestorm that followed covered a five square mile radius. The death count, most of whom were civilians, is unknown due to the immense destruction and confusion that followed the blast. The results were horrific. The casualness of this photo is somehow chilling. Thomas went on to serve in Vietnam and when he retired in 1970 he became a real estate agent. He never expressed regret about the bombing, saying it was “a job that had to be done.”
[Photo: Thomas Wilson Ferebee, on the right]