List of Americans of English descent
The inclusion of certain items in this list
is currently being disputed . Please see the relevant discussion on the article's
talk page .
(December 2023 )
This is a list of notable Americans of English descent , including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are English American or must have references showing they are English American and are notable.
List
Visual artists
Assassins, outlaws, and criminals
Astronauts
Astronomers
Directors, producers
Descendants of Mayflower passengers
Alec Baldwin [ 1]
Jordana Brewster – actress
Chevy Chase – Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and television and film actor
Bing Crosby – actor and singer
Seth MacFarlane – actor, animator and writer; notable for creating Family Guy and American Dad
Clint Eastwood [ 1] – actor
Nick Folk [ 2] – football player
Jodie Foster – actress
Richard Gere – actor
Martha Graham – dancer
Ulysses S. Grant – Union Army general; U.S. President[ 1]
Hugh Hefner – founder, majority owner, editor-in-chief, and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises[ 1]
Susan Fales-Hill
Ashley Judd – actress
John Lithgow – actor
Christopher Lloyd – actor[ 3]
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – poet[ 3]
George B. McClellan [ 1] – Union Army general
Marilyn Monroe – actress [ 1]
Anna Mary Robertson Moses
Anthony Perkins – actor
Anne Ramsey – actress
Christopher Reeve – actor [ 1]
Bill Richardson [ 4] – Governor of New Mexico
Franklin D. Roosevelt – U.S. President
Victoria Rowell – actress
Benjamin Spock [ 3] – pediatrician and author, Baby and Child Care
Dick Van Dyke – [ 1]
Noah Webster – American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, word enthusiast, and editor
Actors
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I-J
K
L
M
N-O
P-Q
R
S
T
U-V
W-Z
Authors and writers
Musicians
Entrepreneurs, executives
First Ladies of the United States
(in order by their husband's presidency)
Governors of states
Mormon pioneers
Inventors
Journalists
Military
Models
American pornographic film actors
Presidents of the United States
A number of the presidents of the United States have English ancestry. The extent of English ancestry varies in the presidents with earlier presidents being predominantly of colonial English Yankee stock. Later U.S. presidents ancestry can often be traced to ancestors from multiple nations in Europe, including England.
George Washington (English)
1st President 1789–97 (great-grandfather , John Washington from Purleigh , Essex , England)[ 51] [ 52]
John Adams (English)
2nd President 1797–1801 (great-great-grandfather, Henry Adams, born 1583, Barton St David , Somerset , England, immigrated to Boston , Massachusetts )[ 53]
Thomas Jefferson (English)
3rd President 1801–1809 (maternal English ancestry from William Randolph )
James Madison (English)
4th President 1809–17[ 54]
John Quincy Adams (English)
6th President 1825–29 (Henry Adams born 1583 Barton St David , Somerset , England)[ 53]
William Henry Harrison (English)
9th President 1841–1841[ 55]
John Tyler (English)
10th President 1841–1845[ 56]
Zachary Taylor (English)
12th President 1849–50
Millard Fillmore (English)
13th President 1850–1853[ 57]
Franklin Pierce (English)
14th President 1853–1857[ 58]
Abraham Lincoln (English and Welsh)
16th President 1861–65 (Samuel Lincoln baptised 1622 in Hingham, Norfolk , England, died in Hingham, Massachusetts ).[ 59] [ 60]
Andrew Johnson (Scotch-Irish and English)
17th President 1865–1869[ 61]
Ulysses S. Grant (Scotch-Irish, Scottish, and English)
18th President 1869–77
Rutherford Hayes (English)
19th President 1877–1881[ 62]
James A. Garfield (English and French)
20th President 1881–81[ 63]
Chester A. Arthur (Scotch-Irish and English)
21st President 1881–85
Grover Cleveland (Scotch-Irish and English)
22nd and 24th President 1885–89, 1893–97
Benjamin Harrison (Scotch-Irish and English)
23rd President 1889–93
William McKinley (Scotch-Irish, English and German)
25th President 1897–1901
Theodore Roosevelt (Dutch, Scottish, English and Scotch-Irish)
26th President 1901–1909
William Howard Taft (English)
27th President 1909–1913
Warren G. Harding (English, Scottish, Dutch and Welsh)
29th President 1921–23
Calvin Coolidge (English)
30th President 1923–1929[ 64]
Herbert Hoover (German, Swiss, Scots-Irish, English)
31st President 1929–1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt (English, Dutch and Scottish)
32nd President 1933–45
Harry S Truman (Scotch-Irish, English and German)
33rd President 1945–53
Lyndon B. Johnson (English, Scotch-Irish and German)
36th President 1963–69
Richard Nixon (English and Scotch-Irish)
37th President 1969–74
Gerald Ford (English)
38th President 1974–77
Jimmy Carter (Scotch-Irish and English)
39th President 1977–81 (Thomas Carter Sr. emigrated from England to Isle of Wight County, Virginia )[ 65]
Ronald Reagan (Scotch-Irish, Irish, English & Scottish)
40th President 1981–1989[ 66]
George H. W. Bush (Scotch-Irish and English)
41st President 1989–93
Bill Clinton (Scotch-Irish and English)
42nd President 1993–2001
George W. Bush (Scotch-Irish and English)
43rd President 2001–2009 (Reynold Bush from Messing , Essex , England emigrated in 1631 to Cambridge, Massachusetts )[ 67]
Barack Obama (Luo, English)
44th President 2009–2017 (his mother Ann Dunham 's heritage is mostly English)[ 68]
Joe Biden (Irish, French, and English)
46th President 2021-present (William Biden from Sussex , England emigrated before 1822 to Baltimore, Maryland )
Vice presidents of the United States
Members of the United States House of Representatives
Scientists, researchers
Senators
Nelson W. Aldrich , Rhode Island
Samuel G. Arnold , Rhode Island
Augustus Octavius Bacon , Georgia
Edward Dickinson Baker , Oregon
William T. Barry , Kentucky
Max Baucus , Montana
Michael Bennet , Colorado
Bob Bennett , Utah
Wallace F. Bennett , Utah
Thomas H. Benton , Missouri
William Blount , Tennessee
Lemuel J. Bowden , Virginia
Stephen R. Bradley , Vermont
John Breckinridge , Kentucky
Orville Hickman Browning , Illinois
Frank O. Briggs , New Jersey
Joseph R. Burton , Kansas
Prescott Bush , Connecticut
Andrew Butler , South Carolina
Matthew Butler , South Carolina
Harry F. Byrd Jr. , Virginia
Howard Cannon , Nevada
Dudley Chase , Vermont
Rufus Choate , Massachusetts
John M. Clayton , Delaware
Thomas Clayton , Delaware
Dan Coats , Indiana
William Cocke , Tennessee
Susan Collins , Maine
Walter T. Colquitt , Georgia
Marcus A. Coolidge , Massachusetts
Chris Coons , Delaware
James Cooper , Pennsylvania
Henry W. Corbett , Oregon
Charles Curtis , Kansas
David Daggett , Connecticut
Chauncey Depew , New York
Bob Dole , Kansas
Charles E. Dudley , New York
John Edwards , North Carolina
Mike Enzi , Wyoming
John Wayles Eppes , Virginia
William Few , Georgia
Richard Stockton Field , New Jersey
James Fisk , Vermont
George G. Fogg , New Hampshire
Peter G. Gerry , Rhode Island
Nicholas Gilman , New Hampshire
Barry Goldwater , Arizona
Ray Greene , Rhode Island
Mark Hanna , Ohio
Alexander C. Hanson , Maryland
Orrin Hatch , Utah
Benjamin Hawkins , North Carolina
Carl Hayden , Arizona
Jesse Helms , North Carolina
Nathaniel P. Hill , Colorado
James Hillhouse , Connecticut
Irving Ives , New York
Ralph Izard , South Carolina
John W. Johnston , Virginia
John P. Jones , Nevada
Hamilton Fish Kean , New Jersey
John Kerry , Massachusetts
William H. King , Utah
Paul G. Kirk , Massachusetts
John Laurance , New York
Luke Lea , Tennessee
Blair Lee I , Maryland
Mike Lee , Utah
John McCain , Arizona
Lee Mantle , Montana
Armistead Mason , Virginia
Stevens T. Mason , Virginia
Mitch McConnell , Kentucky
Roger Q. Mills , Texas
Robert Morris , Pennsylvania
Bill Nelson , Florida
Robert C. Nicholas , Louisiana
William North , New York
William A. Palmer , Vermont
Thomas W. Palmer , Michigan
Nahum Parker , New Hampshire
Frank C. Partridge , Vermont
Samuel Pasco , Florida
George H. Pendleton , Ohio
Lawrence C. Phipps , Colorado
Rob Portman , Ohio
Jennings Randolph , West Virginia
Harry Reid , Nevada
Jim Risch , Idaho[ 69]
Terry Sanford North Carolina
Jeff Sessions , Alabama
John Smith , New York
Samuel M. Shortridge , California
Margaret Chase Smith , Maine
Reed Smoot , Utah
John P. Stockton , New Jersey
John E. Sununu , New Hampshire
Kingsley A. Taft , Ohio
Robert A. Taft , Ohio
Robert Taft Jr. , Ohio
James Taliaferro , Florida
Littleton Waller Tazewell , Virginia
Jon Tester , Montana
Robert Toombs , Georgia
Mark Udall , Colorado
Tom Udall , New Mexico
Malcolm Wallop , Wyoming
Elizabeth Warren , Massachusetts
Daniel Webster , Massachusetts
Edward Douglass White , Louisiana
David Wilmot , Pennsylvania
Sports
United States Supreme Court justices
Other
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External links
Media related to Americans of English descent at Wikimedia Commons