EASTWOODS IN AMERICA

The first settler bearing the surname Eastwood, or any variable spelling of the family name, appears to be Richard Eastwood and his young wife, Elizabeth, who boarded a ship in 1642 destined for the first English colony in the "New World", Jamestown. Surviving the perilous voyage, the young couple purchased a large parcel of land in what was to become Norfolk County in Virginia. The pioneering, young couple were parents to four children who were born in the growing new English colony, and they provided the second generation of seeds for the newly created ...
 
Richard Eastwood Jr. was the couple's first born male offspring, born before 1652 in Western Branch, Norfolk, Virginia. The couple's first female child, Judith, was also born in Western Branch around the same time as Richard Jr. She became the first Eastwood female to marry in America when she wedded Jonathan Granger in Western Branch, VA around 1673. The couple's third and fourth children were both male, Thomas and John. While Judith became the first generation mother in the American Granger family tree, the three boys began the growth of the second generation of the Eastwood tree.

While it's the family tree of Richard and Elizabeth Eastwood that will be explored throughout this website, there were other Eastwood families who migrated to America from various regions of the British Isles and the surrounding areas. Among them was Sarah Eastwood who was an early settler in what became South Carolina, in 1774. Although, like Judith Eastwood, she was unable to expand the surname, "Eastwood" in America, the migration of Abraham, Daniel, David, Thomas, Walter and William Eastwood, who all settled in the Pennsylvania region in the mid-1800's, more than made up for the minor setback of the Eastwood name expansion in the United States of America.

The first Eastwood descendent to achieve real prominence in the USA was the third son born to Lewis Eastwood (1746-1829), Asa Eastwood, who was born Feb. 20, 1781, in Allentown, New Jersey.  Allentown was in close proximity to the City of New York which had become the largest city in the United States. It was also close to the new nation's largest seaport. Both of these locations would provide the background for the future careers of young Asa Eastwood.
Asa Eastwood became an honored US Naval officer, respected businessman, holder of several political appointments (at civil, state, and national levels), a prominent member of the early Freemasons (Masonic Lodge), a New York State Legislator, a member of NY's famed Tammany Hall, and a nationally respected Jeffersonian Democrat who was one of the first outspoken abolitionists in the New World.

Of course, in more recent years, there is America's famed, prolific actor, director, and producer,