“Magnas” at a Glance
A rundown of temporal attributes and historical peers shared by many Bifocals
As part of my ongoing “Jigsaw Gens” series, I profile the various American generations (and “microgenerations”) identified by historians.
In This Installment
Featured Generation: “Magnas” (aka Bifocals, Lobster Shells, Wild Yeomans, First Defenders, Unifiers)
Who they are: The generation who came-of-age during the Anglo-Dutch Wars, witnessing waves of decreased royalist influence throughout the American Colonies due to emphasis on the Magna Carta
When they were born: Approximately between 1645–1656
Key Members
Enforcers: William Randolph I of Henrico County, Joseph Dudley, Oneco, Thomas Pound, Nicholas Noyes, Anthony Armistead, William Digges, Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer, Ralph Wormeley Jr., Anthony Brockholls, William Partridge, Henry Darnall I, Richard Lee II of Northcumberland County, Francis Nicholson, Lionel Copley, Humphrey Morrey, Governor Thomas Miller of North Carolina, Colonel William Tayloe of Richmond County, Burgess John Carter Jr. of Virginia Colony, Burgess Thomas Mason of Lower Norfolk County, Burgess Christopher Robinson of Middlesex County, Captain John Dent Sr.
Debaters: Nathaniel Bacon, Elizabeth Knapp, Juan Sabeata, Robert Calef, Abraham & Derick op den Graeff, Sarah Good, John Coode, Godfridius Dellius, Jacob Milborne, Elizabeth Proctor, Deodat Lawson, Abigail Faulkner, Deliverance Dane, Samuel Parris, Martha Carrier, Thomas Putnam, William Byrd I, John Nelson of Boston, Alice Parker of Salem
Scholars: Samuel Sewall, James Blair, Kateri Tekakwitha, Robert Barclay, Francis Daniel Pastorius, Hannah Swarton, George Burroughs, John Hansson Steelman, Elihu Yale, Gideon Macon, Louis Jolliet, Nathaniel Cary
Creators: William Phips, Justus Engelhardt Kühn, Martin Chartier, Alida Schuyler, Jeremiah Dummer, Peleg Slocum, John Coney, William Churchill, Jacques Le Tort, Robert Livingston the Elder, John Foster of Dorchester, Thomas Smith of Boston
Cusp Cohorts
Preceding Microgeneration: “Emerald Knights” (1640–1644)
Prominent “Emerald Knights”: Jacob Leisler, John Hathorne, Samuel Willard, John Lederer, Cockacoeske, Sarah Osborne, Jonathan Corwin, Jan Jansen Bleecker, Benjamin Fletcher, Samuel Wardwell, Augustine Warner Jr., Solomon Stoddard, William Rittenhouse, Edward Taylor of Westfield, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Herman Isacks op den Graeff, Sarah Cloyce, Daniel Coxem, John Pell, Nicholas Bayard, Matthew Mayhew, Diego de Vargas, Bartholomew Gedney, Jonathan Singletary Dunham, Wait Winthrop, René-Robert Cavelier (Sieur de La Salle), Lieutenant Governor Thomas Lloyd of Pennsylvania Province, Governor Patrick Gordon of Pennsylvania Province, Rice Hooe II, Peter Sergeant, Francis Howard (5th Baron Howard of Effingham)
Subsequent Microgeneration: “Royal Raiders” (1657–1661)
Prominent “Royal Raiders”: Thomas Brattle, Edmund Jenings, Pieter Schuyler, Hendrick Tejonihokarawa, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, Laetitia Corbin Lee, Josiah Franklin, Thomas Brooke Jr., Rip Van Dam, John Willard, Hannah Duston, Thomas Batts, Lawrence Washington of Warner Hall, George Mason II, Charles Carroll the Settler, Johannes Cuyler, Rice Hooe III, Abraham de Peyster, Daniel Fisher, Edward Nott, Hugh Drysdale, Jonathan Remington, Charles Gookin
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