Bartholomew West and Katherine Almy

From the book; Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey Vol 1 The name of West is of English origin, and families bearing it are still numerous in England. Among the nobility is the House of Delaware, founded by Thomas West, who was a member of Parliament as Baron West in 1342, and the eleventh in succession from the founder of this line was Thomas West, Lord Delaware, who was governor of Virginia, and from whom the Delaware river and bay were named. Wests were early settlers of Virginia and South Carolina, and prominent there. They also came to Pennsylvania and to West Jersey, but the line of the family of which this sketch treats are descended from Matthew West (1), who came from England in 1636, and located at Lynn, Massachusetts, afterwards going to Rhode Island. His children were Nathaniel, John, Robert, Bartholomew and Francis. Bartholomew West (2) married Katherine Almy, daughter of William Almy, of Rhode Island, about the year 1650. Her brother, Christopher Almy, was chosen governor of Rhode Island, but declined to serve. The children of Bartholomew and Katherine (Almy) West were: Bartholomew, William, John, Stephen, Audrey, and perhaps another daughter, who may have been the wife of Joseph Parker, of Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Bartholomew and Katherine (Almy) West, with most of their family, came to Monmouth county, New Jersey, about the year 1666, and were among the founders of the new settlements that took the name of Shrewsbury and other well known names. Bartholomew West was a member of the first Assembly of East New Jersey, which met December 14, 1667. He died about the year 1672, and was buried on his land in Shrewsbury township in a half acre not far from a branch of the Shrewsbury river, and several others of the family were also buried there, and it is highly probable that at least two generations of the Wests were also buried there. Near this burial plot was the burial plot of Robert West, Sr., another of the Wests who came from Rhode Island. In deeds executed in 1697 and 1703, these burial plots were "reserved forever," but all traces of them are now lost.