The story of the Cromwell Family is rich in history. When I was growing up, I was told that our family line had been traced back to a connection with Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England. When I began my research in the 1990s, I was able to get back as far as the late 1700s when the United Empire Loyalists came to Canada in 1783. I also did research from Oliver Cromwell backwards several generations through the Welsh connections. I was still missing the 150 years from Oliver and Richard Cromwell to Henry Cromwell in New Brunswick. In 2011, Bert and Mary Wood provided the connecting information, filling in the missing links to have a complete tree back to the 1100s. What a thrill that has been as I have continued to add information and background information. I am the 14th generation from Sir Philip Cromwell (1578-1630), the brother of Robert Cromwell who was the father of Oliver Cromwell who became Lord Protector of England. This begins the 150 year link that was missing from my research for many years. The Cromwell kindred got their name from the village of Cromwell which is about five miles north of Newark in Nottinghamshire. With my interest in royalty, I have included a chapter on the Sovereigns of Britain from William the Conqueror to the present Queen Elizabeth and interconnect them with the Cromwells living during their reigns. Walter Cromwell twice discharged the office of "Constable of Putney," in 1495 and 1496, a parochial office that was held in turn by the principal householders in a parish. Three children survived him - Katharine, born about 1477; Thomas, about 1485; and Elizabeth, about 1487. Katharine Cromwell married a man of Welsh extraction named Morgan Williams. From the issue of this marriage sprung in the fourth generation the Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell. Katharine Cromwell and Morgan Williams had a son named Richard. He most likely joined the royal bodyguard of Welshmen and became proficient in the use of arms. At a grand tournament held by the King in 1539 he was successful in defeating a Mr. Culpeper and two of the bravest foreign champions who had been invited from the Continent to take part in the royal festivities. Henry VII was delighted with Cromwell's success in beating the two foreigners and gave him a ring from his own finger and made him his knight. Richard abandoned his father's surname "Williams" and assumed that of his mother's family "Cromwell," proclaiming his close kinship to the king's chief advisor and minister Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. In memory of the great tournament, Sir Richard Cromwell and his descendants adopted as their crest a lion rampant holding up a ring in his right paw. When monasteries, abbeys and priories were suppressed and their broad acres and immense wealth seized by King Henry and his minister Thomas Cromwell, his nephew Sir Richard and his heirs secured the possession of extensive estates and manors in the county of Huntingdon by royal favour. Three members of the family were knighted by three successive sovereigns - Richard by Henry VIII, Henry by Queen Elizabeth, and Oliver by James I. Discover the interconnections throughout history tying the family into historical events that helped shape the English world.