Gabriel Westover Jr. and his wife Joanne Gifford had at least seven children. They lived at what would be considered center stage for the clashes between the Crown and the Puritans over the role of the Church of England and, specifically, of King Charles II. This Westover family, as with many other staunch Puritan families, relocated for a period of time to the Netherlands to escape the King’s tyranny. It was while they were living in the Netherlands that Gabriel and Joanne made the fateful decision to send at least two of their children to the New World.

John Westover III continued where his father left off, achieving the class of husbandman. This gave him a little greater prestige and a slightly higher class of living. John married Johanna Clapp and together they raised a large family, including another son named John, whose descendants would famously become the country doctors of Wedmore in Somerset County, England. These Westovers, who remained in England, would make a name for themselves for their medical service. Their journals, kept for over a century, would be studied by modern medical scholars and historians well into the 20th century (and can be seen in our document archive). While the search is still on for all the children of John and Johanna Westover we do know through tax records that John had three cows named Lily, Sparkle and Pickle.