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Wilkes Ancestries

The Renwick Family

Jane Jeffrey Renwick, grandmother to both John Wilkes and Jane Smedberg

William Renwick was born in Manchester, England on April 26, 1769. He came to America in 1783 and was naturalized in 1786. He married Jane Jeffrey on August 15, 1791. She was born in Ruthwell, Scotland on May 29, 1774. Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote the poem, “A Blue-Eyed Lassie” in her honor. William Renwick was a merchant and died in Greenwich Village in 1808. Jane Jeffrey Renwick died on October 6, 1850. Their children:

The Wilkes Family

Israel Wilkes (1722-1805) was the son of an English distiller, Israel Wilkes, and his wife Sarah Heaton Wilkes. His uncle was the famous British radical, John Wilkes. Israel, the younger, married Elizabeth DePonthieu (1727-1802), and the couple settled in New York City. They had three children including John de Ponthieu Wilkes (1755-1818) who married Mary Seton (1767-1801) in 1782. John was a successful banker and  became a prominent  fixture in New York society. John Wilkes and Mary Seton Wilkes had five children.

The Renwick-Wilkes Connection

Jane Jeffrey Renwick  (pictured) and Lieutenant Charles Wilkes married on April 26, 1826. The couple  eventually settled in Washington, DC, where they raised their four children:

The Renwick-Smedberg Connection

  • Charles Augustus Smedberg (1781-1845) (shown here at age 45) was born in Sweden. His family were prominent bankers and merchants. He came to New York in 1812 as a representative of the Bank of England. 
  • While in New York City, he met and married Isabella Renwick and like many enterprising young men became an importer or merchant of goods from overseas. The family lived among other leading merchants along Beech Street in what is now lower Manhattan.