Recently I submitted my line to John Nevill, the original immigrant, through James Nevill and expressed some confidence about that lineage, Gabe responded with a brief note not be TOO sure about James. He indicated that there were others in the group "well versed in the whys and why nots". Gabe raised the only argument I have heard which is that, although Boogher showed James in his 1902 very first genealogy of the Neville family, other respected genealogist like H.W. Newman did not. The only work I know about by Newman was his "The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate" in 1984, in which he devoted 7 pages to John and his children. In it Newman observes that John's last will, probated 1665, identified only one son, William, one daughter, Ellen Lambert, and one grandson, John Lambert. He mentioned that William may have married late in life, and that there was also a court record of a Thomas Nevill who may or may not have been William's son. Newman positively identified no male descendant of John in this work. He did find another daughter, Rachael, who was not shown in his will. By his will, John left his son William the plantation on which he (John) lived. The will also mentions a separate deed of gift to his wife Joanna. We know John had several plantations and more children (at least Rachael) than were shown in the will -- probably because they had been provided for earlier. I do not see anything in Newman's writing that precludes the existance of another son, James. In fact, Newman leaves with no Nevill ancestor at all that explains where any of us came from -- unless he had other writings of which I am not aware. On the other hand, Boogher states: "James Neville, first of John and Bridget, born in 1640, at the Clefts in Calveert Co., MD; settled in Northampton Co. VA in 1660-1, where on March 22, 1662, he obtrained a warrant for 1300 acres of land (See Liber 4, Folio 339, Land Office of Richmond, VA) and where he doubtless married; settling later in Isle of Wight County. On March 6, 1674, James Neville, Sr., purchased 100 acres of land in Gloucester County, VA, in the name of his son Joh, then a minor, from Duncan Bohannan, formerly of Charles County, MD. It would appear from the records that the said 100 acres of land were deeded by Bohannan in settlement of the suit brought by his father, John Neville, Sr., against the said Duncan Bohannan, in Charles County, MD,in 1662. (See Liber 6, folio 549, Land Office, Richmond, VA)." This statement was quoted in footnote 1 to page 6 of J.B. Neville's "370-year History." I'll admit I did not look up those specific land transactions and the Bohanon suit to see if I would come to the same conclusion as Boogher did regarding the relationships between John Nevill, Sr., James and grandson John. Until somebody does make that analysis and comes to a different conculusion it seems to me we have to accept Boogher's findings. Joseph B. Nevill seems to indicate that he did look at this evidence and concurred with Boogher's findings. I think that this is a very important question of fact that will affect the work of probably a majority of the people in this group. I hope it will stimulate a discussion of the pros and cons of the validity of the descent from John to James. If we are to establish a state of the art Neville Database, we will have to make decisions, hopefully with full group participation, about questions like this. Do we include James in the descent, or not? If not, how does the descent run? Could it be we are descended from James, but not the original John? Maybe we include James (or John) with some kind of a label to indicate only qualified acceptance, such as "probably" or whatever. I realize there may be a lot more to the question than what little I know about it, so I would really appreciate hearing from any and all of you who may have other pieces of information to help us/me reach a firm conclusion. Jim Walker