Ronald's Ancestry

Ronald Hearn’s Ancestry

     Ronald Hearn has earned an enviable world-wide reputation over the last sixty years with his unique approach to Mediumship, particularly with his spectacularly successful pre-cognition tests for television and newspapers in the UK, USA and Canada and his ground-breaking 'proxy' tape recorded readings which he pioneered.  In the early days of his career, a Medium holding a ring belonging to his mother, said the owner was descended from French Royalty. His Mother thought this most unlikely as she came from generations of gentlemen farmers in Devon.  Over fifty years later Ronald decided to have his family tree traced and was eventually directed to a lady in Australia who has a list of Yeo descendants (his Mother's maiden name) and informed him he was a direct descendant of  William the Conqueror, thus confirming his Mother's link with French Royalty.

     The list, together with an extensive search on the Internet, revealed he is related to virtually all the Royal Houses of Europe, several Kings of England and through Matilda of Flanders (wife of The Conqueror) descended from successive Counts of Flanders, King Alfred the Great, King Egbert and back as far as Cerdic, first documented King of Wessex in 6th century, a distant descendant to Queen Elizabeth II.  

     Through Edith (Matilda) of Scotland, wife of King Henry 1st, his line traces directly back to Kenneth McAlpin, who is regarded as founder of the monarchy, as well as six other Scottish Kings.  Macbeth, grandson of Kenneth II, is a distant cousin.  The bloodline continues down through King Henry II, King John, King Henry III and King Edward 1st.  It also includes William Tracey, one of Thomas A'Becket's assassins as well as the Earls of Hertford & Essex, Gloucester, Salisbury and Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon who was created Knight of the Garter and buried in Exeter Cathedral, where his tomb can  be seen.  William Courtenay (b.1342) is a distant cousin and was Archbishop of Canterbury.  He fought hard and successfully to obtain much needed reform of the church.  There is also a distant link to Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh.

     Princess Diana and her sons, Princes William and Harry, share a common line of descent with Ronald from William the Conqueror down to William Grenville and Phillipa Bonville in the 1400's. Their son Thomas married Elizabeth Gorges and their line continues down to Princess Diana. Their daughter Ellen Grenville married William Yeo, a gentleman farmer in Devon and that line continues down to Ronald.  Their son Edmund acquired the tenancy of Huish Manor for the Yeos.  In 1580 the Yeos purchased farmland, which included Stone and Stone Farm which became his grandfather Henry's ancestral home near Barnstaple.  It remained in the Yeo family of gentlemen farmers until 1900 and still stands.

     Ronald's maternal Grandfather, Henry Yeo of Landkey, Devon was a school teacher who moved to Stockport near Manchester.  He worked as a journalist and became manager of the Stockport Advertiser and worked for several metropolitan and provincial newspapers until 1891, when he was the brainchild behind "The Spy", an independent satirical newspaper. Among other good causes Henry Yeo exposed ill-treatment in a home for boys, a dishonest solicitor, and ill-treatment in an asylum.   His fearless exposures upset the corrupt authorities and he was jailed and sentenced to 18 months hard labour.  He died soon after, a broken man.  Fortunately Henry’s work lives on and has been the subject of study and lectures, and Henry Yeo is now hailed as a hero.  Ronald's Mother told him he was very much like him and he follows in his Grandfather's footsteps through his exceptional teaching and writing skills and the fearless way he offered himself as a hostage of fate with his pioneering experimental work.

Peter Ingold

More information about Ronald’s ancestry can be found on the Yeo Family History Website

Addendum by Ronald Hearn:

     When I wrote my biography, I mentioned several psychic incidents concerning a 'nameless' Archbishop who could not  be identified.   Many readers may be curious to know who he was but at the time of writing I had no clue.   Since publication I have discovered he is a distant cousin of mine by the name of William Courtenay, an Archbishop of Canterbury, who was related to Edward 1st.  He fought long and hard for church reform and despite strong opposition he finally won through and was famous for it.  Having had many mediums giving me vague messages about an Archbishop it would seem this distant relative had been trying to contact me for many years before my family tree finally provided the last piece of the puzzle.  Since tracing my ancestry I have found many people and incidents that help me identify myself as I realize many genes have been passed on to me.  The search still goes on.

     All these years later some interesting information came to light about my connection with King Charles II and two soldiers from royal families, but first I must tell you as to how this came about.  

     So much has been written about my ghost hunt with Hans Holzer when I contacted Nell Gwynne in a London "strip club", which was given to Nell Gwynne by King Charles II.   The story ended with Nell's lover, Captain Molyneux, being killed by a member of the King's Guard, Lieutenant Fortescue.  When doing the ghost hunt, once inside the club with Holzer and the club proprietor, he asked me to come up the back stairs and out on to the roof.   The two men got out onto the roof without realizing that I was not right behind them and was having a dreadful feeling that something bad had happened on these stairs.   For me it was like torture trying to get to the top, my whole body felt as heavy as lead.  I could hardly move and at the same time I had a dreadful feeling that something bad had happened on these stairs. Thankfully the feeling passed when I finally got onto the roof, and I explained to the two men how I felt strongly that something bad had happened and that I felt there had been some sort of fight and a death on these stairs.

     Later when we were about to hold a séance in one of the rooms, we heard a loud noise which sounded like swords clashing and footsteps running up and down stairs which could have been a re-enactment of what had happened, but when Holzer and others rushed to the back stairs in the hopes of witnessing something, they could not see or hear anything.   As for me, I wanted to go with them but felt paralyzed and unable to get out of my chair, and when they returned, all was back to normal.   During the séance Nell was contacted and answered many questions about what had happened when she said that her lover, John Molyneux, had been killed in a sword fight by Lieutenant Fortescue.

     At a later date, Hans Holzer was able to access Army Records and verified that two men of those names and ranks were in service at that time.  It was also known that King Charles II was a very jealous man and Nell had fallen out of favour with him at that time.  I would like to make it known that when Holzer accessed these army records they were highly specialized knowledge of history and not taught in schools or found in well-known books about that period, so I could not have any prior knowledge of them in my subconscious.

     I often heard my Mother and her cousin whispering about the name of Fortescue but I never thought anything more about it and at that point would not have been interested to take the matter further.   It was only after my family had passed on that I decided to have my genealogy researched but when I did I was amazed to discover there were so many royal connections.   Charles II would have been a distant cousin and I discovered in the lines of descent that the name of Fortescue appears so I decided to investigate that name further and found Lieutenant Fortescue was also a distant cousin.   This led me to trace further and I came across Captain John Molyneux, who was Nell's lover, who also turned out to be another distant cousin.   Both men were members of Royalist families who fought for King Charles II and were well known as ardent supporters of the Monarchy.