Page 87 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

9th Cousin

1 time removed

Common Ancestor

Father: Robert Blott
Podington, Bedfordshire, England
1582 - 1665
Born: Died:
Mother: Joan Seymore September 5, 1847 April 3, 1882
Harrold, Podington, Bedfordshire, England Near Kearney, Missouri St. Joseph, Missouri
1584 - 1659
Jesse Woodson James was an American
outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla, and leader
of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little
Dixie" area of western Missouri, James and his
family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He
and his brother Frank James joined pro-
Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers"
operating in Missouri and Kansas during
the American Civil War. As followers of William
Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were
accused of participating in atrocities against Union
soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including
the Centralia Massacre in 1864.
After the war, as members of various gangs of
outlaws, Jesse and Frank robbed banks,
stagecoaches, and trains across the Midwest,
gaining national fame and often popular sympathy
despite the brutality of their crimes. The James
brothers were most active as members of their
own gang from about 1866 until 1876, when as a
result of their attempted robbery of a bank in

Northfield, Minnesota, several members of the gang were captured or killed. They continued in
crime for several years afterward, recruiting new members, but came under increasing pressure
from law enforcement seeking to bring them to justice. On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was shot
and killed by Robert Ford, a new recruit to the gang who hoped to collect a reward on James'
head and a promised amnesty for his previous crimes. Already a celebrity in life, James became
a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death.
Despite popular portrayals of James as an embodiment of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich
and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang shared any loot from their
robberies with anyone outside their close kinship network. Scholars and historians have
characterized James as one of many criminals inspired by the regional insurgencies of ex-

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