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This page was last revised on November 20, 2017
Email John Knouse.
My great-grandfather John C. Clowdus told me the story. My name is Judy Andra Clowdus [Huntington]. . .The only story is the one from John C. Clowdus before he died. He said there were 2 brothers that stowed away on a ship and one brother came to Alabama and the other one stayed up north. There was a lot more to the story but I would rather not tell it the way he did. Harper Clowdus was one of the brothers that found his way from Pennsylvania through all the states and down to Alabama, where he settled in Oneonta.
I noticed you didn't know about the third brother. Well, as I was told, the third brother stayed in England and did not come to America. The two brothers who stowed away on a ship after killing that merchant man are the ones who came across, so there could be the reason why you can't find anything on a third brother. There is another Clowdus family [well, the spelling could be different over there] in England, who was supposed to have been the apple of his father's eye and was given a castle and land on the east side of his father's castle. I was told also they were not Irish but English! and the reason they were trying to escape from the English was due to the fact that the two brothers killed an English merchant and threw his body over the docks so he would not be found, but was discovered, anyway. They were a disgrace to their father and were banished from their father's castle, never again to be allowed inside the gates..... As the story was told, they stowed away and landed in America, one brother stay around up north for a while and the other brother drifted southwards and one descendant from him came to Alabama. Now, mind you, I was only told this story and do not know how much truth there is in it, so don't hold me responsible for it. You know how stories can be painted up and stretched to make them more interesting and a few more "tails" added...so please don't take my word for it.
Sincerely, Judy Clowdus Huntington
Note from John Knouse:
I am conjecturing that, in fact, the two "Clowdus" brothers who came across were William and George Croudas; they would have arrived somewhere from 1690 to 1708. I am further conjecturing that George, the apparent father of Harper who was recorded in the 1790 South Carolina census, was actually the eldest son of George Cloudas of Charlotte County, who was, in turn, the apparent grandson of the George Croudas who came over as a stowaway. It is known for certain that Harper was born in South Carolina and could not have been the stowaway. Also, the fact that the Cloudas line settled in Virginia would explain the "brother who stayed up north."