One night this week I was looking online to see if a book that I had made notes from way back in the 1970s was available electronically. (Some books with expired copyrights have been put online during the last few years for reading and/or downloading.) I did find the book and was trying to locate the pages of interest, when I found myself at the back of the book among the publisher’s ads for other books he was selling. Would you believe that I spotted A Memoir of William Carvosso — and then it all fell into place for me! I think that my gg-grandfather Henry M. BRETT named his son for this popular Methodist advocate. Here’s how I came to that conclusion.
First of all, I knew that in the mid-1800s it was common for parents to name their newborn after an admired or famous person. For example, one of my g-grandfathers was John William Zachary Taylor BEALE, no less. ‘John’ was probably for his father John L. BEALE; the origin of ‘William’ is not yet known; however, the source of ‘Zachary Taylor’ is obvious. I’ve seen various spellings of ‘Zachary’ (‘Zacharius’ and ‘Zachariah’, for example) but I’m certain, given my g-grandfather’s birth in 1849 and President Taylor’s inauguration earlier that year, that his namesake was none other than the new President.
Secondly, I had surmised, via my research, that Henry M. BRETT was an early and strong supporter of the new church in his neighborhood – New Hope Methodist, founded ca 1833. In fact, his father (Jonathan T. BRITT) and mother-in-law (Temperance WILLIAMS) had given the land on which the church was established. Along with his ‘inspirational’ trunk [See my 1st post.], I also found in a box of books at Gran’s, Henry’s personal copy of a Methodist hymnal (copyright ca 1875). It has no notes — only words AND his signature!
So when Henry’s son was born, he chose to name him after the very influential writer — thus, William Carvosso BRETT. The middle name has been spelled differently at times, but this spelling matches what was written in the family Bible by Gran. Perhaps one day we’ll discover another explanation of how our g-grandfather came to have such a curious name. For now, I’ll settle for this explanation — and I’ll ponder the serendipity of finding this information in such a random fashion as I did!
Tags: Brett History, Family