Great Are the Promises of the Lord

by Don R. Hender


     ". . . Great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea . . ." And that England be, an isle of the sea. Divided, fought for, and fought against, still she does remain. My grandfather was born in England, that is Cornwall to be precise.

Divided? Yes and still is. When one hears 'England' many consider it to be the whole of the British Isles. It is technically NOT. Even by the more encompassing name title of Great Britian, not all the British Isles are to be offically included. What are the major divisions? Well there is Scotland, Wales, Enland, Ireland, which is basically two, North Ireland and Ireland. And then such as the 'Cornish' might further contend that they ought to be so technically divided from being included in 'England' themselves. And as for the 'Isle of Man' in the Irish sea, it is but its own independant nation still.

So where do I fall? Well, I am an American, upon one of those Isles of the sea which Jacob, Nephi's brother, sets out to be included in the 'Isles of the Sea' spoken of scripturally. And I suppose that I am a variety though primarily British. My sir name, 'Hender', is derived from Wales, from the name Hendower meaning 'old tower', then Hendour and now Hender. In the 1300s my Welsh ancestor married into the English family of Cornwall named 'Cornwall'. After which that part of the 'Hendower' line settled in Cornwall from Wales. That family's coat of arms depicts that they were sojourers, from Wales to Cornwall. Their crest is a lion rampant amid an array (7) escolop shells with backgroud azure or blue and lion and shells of gold which the 1st David de Hendower/Hendour had upon his marriage to Isabella/Sybella de Cornwall and entering into Cornwall. The crest with 8 shells as at the left would be that of David's son David, who is said to have married Elizabeth Devereu. The additional escolope being added per the additional generation removed, likely from their descent from the royal Princes of Powys/Powis in Wales. And thus their crest or shield being a statement or representation of who they were, descendants of the royal house of Powys, 7 or 8 generation removed. It is a crest identifiable to one particular generation and not handed down without the relevent considered atteration. Any Hender today would have to have their lion upon an entire sea bed of shells they'd be so many generations removed.

And now after my family, its 'younger' lines for the 'heir-ship' elder line became 'extinct' in have but females and no males to carry on the 'crested' family; so after the 'Hender' family has been in Cornwall from the 1300s, they will have of course become thourghly 'related' to the Cornish by marriages or the hundreds of years there. And now that I am of American extract, even some we bits of Scotish, Irish and even 'French-British' have been added to the mix of myself and further now per my wife, my children are full fledges heirs to all the blessings, which are great, to those who live upon the Isles of the sea.