The Garfield Connection

One of the families appearing in the earliest registers of St Peter’s Church are the Garfield family. Over the years there have been attempts by genealogists to link this family with the Garfield Family of America that arrived there around 1630 and lived in Watertown, Massachusetts. The links from the family traced in Watertown to James A Garfield (1831-1881), the 20th President of the USA are well established, unlike the various theories linking the original emigrant with England. That is believed to be Edward Garfield, born around 1583.

Most theories link Edward with Warwickshire, but unproven theories link him with Hillmorton and Willenhall, and these theories seem to have overtaken earlier thoughts of a link with the Garfields of Church Lawford. There is no obvious baptism of an Edward Garfield at St Peters around that time.

It is also noted that the Garfield family of Church Lawford did not use Edward as a family christian name – in those days there was much repetition of preferred names, so it might have been expected to see a later generation using that name.

Of course there may have been earlier links between the Church Lawford Garfield Family and those found in Hillmorton or Willenhall, but this would be difficult to establish as it would pre-date available records.

The Garfield Records for the village during their time locally are as follows: