outlawpoet: (Default)
outlawpoet ([personal profile] outlawpoet) wrote2008-12-12 11:57 am

a thread on whitechapel got me thinking about my roots

descended from:

Judge Jonathan Corwin: head judge, Salem witch trials

Governor Thomas Corwin: of Ohio, mostly famous for sponsoring the so called Corwin Amendment, to protect Slavery in perpetuity from Constitutional Amendment and Federal Law.

Sir Gilbert II of Culwen: the culwen/curwens are where the modern Corwin comes from. He was a border dude who fought on the English side at Falkirk, personally saving the life of Edward the Longshanks, coining the Corwin motto: SI JE NESTOY "If not for me" or "If I were not there.."

Marcus Valerious Corvinus and/or Valerious Corvinus. Respectively, a politician aligned with Brutus by way of Cicero, survived the transition from Republic to Empire, and an older military guy, who was named dictator of Rome twice, and is the namesake of corvids, because of a battle where a Raven legendarily perched on his shield.

Generally we Corwins seem to be on the wrong side of history, or just bastards.

[identity profile] outlawpoet.livejournal.com 2008-12-13 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
could be, although the Corwin Amendment was pretty craven, by any standard. Thomas Corwin didn't even believe in slavery himself, he described it in his notes as an attempt to prevent the Civil War. It was a copy of an earlier amendment by Seward that had been rejected.

[identity profile] wren08.livejournal.com 2008-12-14 10:32 am (UTC)(link)
He was trying to prevent a war? Seen from this end of history, it's not exactly good... but he may have had the best of intentions.