By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Michael Bates was curious about his family’s background — and his grandfather’s paternal ancestry in particular, because there wasn’t much information passed on about it.
Mr. Bates, who is a patent attorney, knew a little bit and wanted to fill in the gaps. Little did he know that his research would lead him back 800 years — to his descent from eight of the English barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta.
Studying the lives of his English ancestors, Mr. Bates learned that he was descended from the Claypoole family that had settled in Delaware in the late 1600s. The Claypoole family had descended from eight of the Magna Carta barons.
“It was quite a surprise to discover that I could trace my direct ancestral line back 800 years,” Mr. Bates said. “I never had any preconceived idea of how far back I would be able to trace my family tree. I started my journey because I simply wanted to find out more about my grandfather’s paternal ancestry.”
Princeton architect T. Jeffery Clarke, on the other hand, was aware of his ancestral ties to several of the Magna Carta barons. He also is a descendant of William Marshall, who was the regent for King Henry III — King John’s son — until the young king reached adulthood and could rule on his own.
Mr. Clarke said his grandfather was interested in his grandmother’s genealogy, and that led him to trace her ancestry to William Arnold. He immigrated around 1630 to the Rhode Island colony, and was associated with Roger Williams. Research led the family back to several of the Magna Carta barons, and to William Marshall.
Although Mr. Bates and Mr. Clarke live in the neighboring towns of Montgomery Township and Princeton, they only recently became acquainted through the National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons. Mr. Bates joined in 2012 and Mr. Clarke became a member in 1986. Members must prove descent from the barons.
The National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons’ mission is to develop an awareness of the Magna Charta — or “Great Charter” — that is also known as the Magna Carta. Its goal is to make the Magna Carta known and accessible to everyone.
To that end, Mr. Bates and Mr. Clarke appeared in front of the Montgomery Township Committee to receive a proclamation acknowledging June 15 as Magna Carta Day, in recognition of its 800th anniversary. The Princeton Council approved a similar proclamation, which was accepted by Mr. Clarke.
“We are not doing this to shine a light on ourselves,” Mr. Bates said. “It is to shine a light on the Magna Carta. We want everyone in this country, regardless of background, to understand that his or her basic freedoms originated in the Magna Carta 800 years ago. We are just shining a light on it.”
The Magna Carta was a series of demands presented to King John by the barons. The barons were the lowest level of nobles in England, created by William the Conqueror, or King William I, to reward those who fought with him in 1066.
The barons were allowed to acquire land, and to leave it to their heirs. In return, they owed military service to the king on demand. They could pay scutage, which was a fee paid in lieu of military service.
King John assumed the throne in 1199. He made war on France, Mr. Clarke said. He increased scutage, seeking it from the barons who had not supported that war. The barons were unhappy and despised King John, who was considered to be a despot and a tyrant.
The barons moved against the king militarily and forced him to agree to the terms of the Magna Carta, most of them specific to the barons and the times. It also made the king subject to law. King John had no choice but to put his great seal on it in the meadow at Runnymede on June 15,1215 — 800 years ago.
While the Magna Carta dealt with the barons and their specific grievances with King John in 1215, there are elements of the Magna Carta contained in the U.S. Constitution that was drafted hundreds of years later, Mr. Bates and Mr. Clarke said.
Many of the Founding Fathers were familiar with the Magna Carta through their studies of the work of Sir Edward Coke, a 17th-century jurist who applied the principles of the Magna Carta to English common law. The colonists said they were Englishmen, too, and derived their rights from the Magna Carta, Mr. Clarke said.
In the U.S. Constitution, the concept of due process comes from the Magna Carta. If someone is arrested, he must be told what the charge is and cannot be held in prison indefinitely. This is derived from the Magna Carta, which states that a man cannot be arrested or imprisoned, or his property taken from him, “except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.”
“Everyone needs to understand that due process — the protection against arbitrary denial of life, liberty or property by the government — owes its origins to the Magna Carta. Certainly, immigrants to this country from tyrannical regimes can connect to the Magna Carta better than any attorney,” Mr. Bates said.
Mr. Clarke added that “what we owe our children are roots and wings. We owe them an explanation of roots.” It is not necessarily “family roots,” but why the United States is so special — the roots of liberty, and the wings to fly on their own, he said.
“I think today, most people focus on the present and the future. Our society is that way, as well. But we should not forget our roots. If you ask a person to give up freedom and rights for safety, most would say ‘yes.’ People are more eager to give away freedom for safety, without recognition of how hard-won (freedom) is,” Mr. Clarke said.
“I believe in the ideals embodied in the Magna Carta,” Mr. Clarke said.
