I’ve pieced together information from a variety of sources, since sources about different aspects of his life have not been so good about providing a full biography, including some articles in historical society journals, old newspaper articles, among others. The most complete biography is a doctoral dissertation: David Diamond. “Migrations: Henderson Luelling and the Cultivated Apple, 1822-1854”, Northern Arizona University, 2004. I hadn’t looked it in some time and hadn’t paid attention to the White Winter Pearmain. In Table 1 on page 205, Diamond indicates Henderson Lewelling’s source of the White Pearmain [he uses this name, not White Winter Pearmain] was “Ann Jessup’s Imports.” Back on page 52, he writes that “Ann Jessop was a Quaker minister who demonstrated her devotion to horticulture while on a religious visit to Friends in England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1790 to 1792.” On her return home she brought "many kinds of standard varieties of apples, pears, and grape cuttings and employed Abijah Pinson, an expert in grafting from Guilford County, NC, to graft her cuttings into seedling stocks, in the spring of 1793. Jessop and Pinson disseminated their stock to the Quaker community in the area which would have included Henderson Lewelling’s family. Diamond’s source was Addison Coffin, “Early Settlement of Friends in North Carolina: Traditions and Reminiscences,” The Southern Friend 5.(1983): 27-38. He states that we “cannot be sure that Lewelling’s trees derived specifically from Jessup’s English scions, but it seems likely that at least some descended from her imported wood.” The author also indicates that many migrants from North Carolina to Indiana brought with them trees that could be traced back to Ann Jessop’s original English imports.
Fruit from the old days
This indicates White (Winter) Pearmain likely arose in NC circa 1800, to give time for the tree to produce, its merits determined, and grafts begun. Several times I’ve read about Brits complaining WWP is not the British Winter Pearmain, which is documented to 1200 BC, and reddish even in weak English light.
Rambour Franc is the first triploid apple to offer a crop on my ground. I’ll keep an eye on its seeds in years to come to confirm your assertion. I had never seen that in print before.
Will also look into Gravenstein apples to check for viable seeds, as it is a fairly common triploid.
I never thought that was a big secrete I read up on the apple before ordering scions last year.
https://www.acnursery.com/fruit-trees/apple-trees/5/summer-rambo
Gravenstien is a little weird. Most people claim its Triploid but other claim they regularly get viable seeds. My guese its somewhere in the middle more then 2 sets of chromosomes and less then 3.