Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Monday, October 3, 2022
1764-1771- John Henry Pryor and the Regulators
John Henry Pryor was the son of Robert Pryor (b 1663 England d 29 Oct 1757 Gloucester, Va) and Elizabeth Virginia Greene (b 1667 Gloucester Va d 1761 Gloucester Va) It is thought that Robert Pryor was in Virginia by 1674.
In 1775, John Henry Pryor was 60 years old and living in Orange County, NC.
His wife was Margaret Gaines. In 1777 they were in Caswell County NC.
We know a great deal about John Pryor from the will he wrote in September 1771 in Orange County, NC. He was a wealthy man. Besides lands beyond his plantation, totaling over 1,000 acres, he leaves at least 26 slaves to his children and grandchildren. He lists furniture including numerous feather beds, and extensive livestock including horses and cows. To his wife Margaret he leaves the plantation, 12 slaves, two stills, and his stock. David Womack and William Stone (his son in laws) were named executors of his will.
The Womacks and Pryors lived in the frontier of western NC. There was friction between these frontiersmen and the eastern colonial government in NC led by Gov. Wm. Tryon. The western settlers felt they were excessively taxed and ruled by dishonest officials. They rebelled against the taxes and fees. Tryon, who had built himself an exhorbitant palace, and was seen as corrupt by the settlers, sent out over 1000 men in 1768 to meet a force of Regulators numbering nearly 4,000. Several leaders of the Regulators were arrested but released without bloodshed.
Herman Husbands (who was considered the chief agitator of the Regulators) and John Pryor both represented Orange County in the NC House of Burgesses.https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr08-0068
http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org/mckstmerreg2.htm
In 1769, John Pryor was a county representative in the colonial assembly in NC as well as a prominent Regulator. In September 1770, the court met at Hillsborough, and was disrupted by the Regulators which drove the crown's attorney, Edmund Fanning, out of town. Governor Tryon sent out a military expedition with 1000 men and met the Regulators at Alamance, where they fought. 15 Regulators were taken prisoner and 7 of these were executed at Hillsborough.
Many of the frontiersmen fled from NC after this battle and would become patriots in the American Revolution several years later.
Herman Husbands and John Pryor were leaders of the movement, but Herman Husbands was expelled from the House of Burgesses in 1770 while John Pryor was allowed to remain.
John Pryor died while serving in the House of Burgesses in New Bern in 1771.
His daughter, Mildred, was married to David Womack, son of Richard Womack III. In 1777 and 1780 they were living in Caswell County, NC. where David's name was on a petition to the House of Burgesses in 1779., In 1800 they were living in Hillsborough, NC.
David migrated to Burke County Georgia, where in 1792 he had 100 acres and in 1793 he added an additional 200 acres of land. He and his brother John were chain carriers (surveyors.)
Mildred may have died in Beaufort, SC in 1804.
By 1804 the family had moved to Greensburg in St. Helena Parish, La., where David died.
Their children, born between 1764 and 1785 were Richard Mansel, Dorothy Pryor, David II, Abner, Abraham, Jacob Green and William Washington Womack. The children of David Womack II would migrate to Trinity County Texas.
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Early Womack and Puckett settlers in ChesterfieldCounty and Swift Creek
Eastern part of Chesterfield County- tidewater
1622 massacre in the area include John Rolfe, former husband of Pocahontas and father of the tobacco industry
1673 plague and severe winter which killed 50,000 cattle in Virginia
Cattle were more common than horses, and hogs the most common farm animal of all. Wolves were numerous and ravaged the livestock. Negroes and Indians commonly stole hogs for food. In 1669 the Indian tribes were required by law to deliver 145 wolf heads
The settlers depended heavily on imports from England; yarn and thread and material for clothing, table linens and napkins, blankets, shoes, stockings, metal items such as razors, scissors, candlesticks, pots and pans,lanterns and lamps, fishing hooks and lines, farming implements, nails, gunpowder.
1656- Orphans and the sons of poor men were apprenticed by the parishes to be trained until the age of 21. Spinning wheels were used to make home spun cloth. William Byrd had a millstone at Falling Creek
For the wealthy, English laws of primogeniture held in England, but younger sons could be sent to Virginia to get land patents. Once established, however, primogeniture again took hold.
There were two classes; gentlemen (often planters or merchants) and servants or laborers.
1679-Richard Kennon marked himself as a merchant, Martin Elam and John Bowman called themselves planters.
Drinking was done heavily, card playing and betting a universal pastime,
Horse racing was the most popular diversion and social gathering event and breeding for sport encouraged as early as 1643. By 1663 importing horses was prohibited although export was allowed. There was a track at Bermuda Hundred. Racing disputes were common. In 1688 Abram Womack and Richard Ligon held a race with Womack's horse ridden by Thomas Cocke and Ligon's by Joseph Tanner, a servant of Thomas Chamberlaine, who was the starter. Abram Childres was the judge. Womack's horse shied from the track and Ligon's horse won the race, resulting in a dispute. Heavy betting was common at such events, and disputes went to the court.
1680- John Piggot (puckett) won 300 pounds of tobacco while playing cards with Martin Elam and claimed he was owed more
Thomas Cocke kept a tavern in 1685, but was also a planter. Hospitality at good inns and taverns were matched by the residences of wealthy landowners, who lived as if on an English estate. The landed gentry ruled the county and the state.
People traveled from one plantation to another on boats or sloops along the rivers and streams; even bridle paths were basic in those times. The settlements were limited to the rivers and creeks. The lands beyond the fall line of the James River were heavily forested and inhabited by savages.
William Farrar settled in 1656
John Puckett and John Burton settled in 1665
Abraham and William Womack (Womecke) about the same time as John Puckett
Richard Kennon settled in 1665 at Conjurer's Neck- at the junction of Swift Creek and the Appomattox river
By the 1680's land patents began gradually going westward along Swift Creek.
In 1682 William Puckett and Thomas Puckett received 750 acres in Bristol parish, north of the Appomattox river.
In 1683, Joseph Tanner and Richard Womack received a patent for 260 acres on the north side of the Appomattox river. James Baugh got a patent for 119 acres on the north of the Appomattox.
In 1690 Henry Walthall got a patent for 320 acres on the north side of swift creek in Bristol Parish. A few years later Richard Kennon, Francis Epes, Joseph Royal and George Archer got patents on the north side of the Appomatox at Winterpock Creek. In 1703 more families moved there.
Early Chesterfield county settlers
continue p. 63
Saturday, May 15, 2021
Baugh family and marriage of Elizabeth Womack
(see Womack to far left)
Baugh Plantation- Ashton Creek, a branch of the Appomattox River
William Baugh Sr. arrived in Virginia from London in 1638. He was a widower and married Elizabeth Sharpe Parker about 1639 in Henrico County.
Elizabeth had arrived in Virginia on the "Francis Bonaventure" in August 1620. She married Sgt. William Sharpe (an "ancient planter in the time of Thomas Dale" and in 1624 they were living on the Bermuda Hundred with their sons Isaac and Samuel. William had 40 acres of land and was elected Burgess for Bermuda Hundred.
After his death Elizabeth married Thomas Parker, who was living with Thomas Baugh at the West and Sherley Hundred. Thomas was thought to be the son of John Baugh, and nephew of William Baugh, Sr. Thomas Baugh emigrated from Bristol, England on the "Supply" which arrived in Virginia on 29 Feb. 1621. By January 1625 he had relocated to the "College Lands." The 1624 muster recorded Thomas Parker there as well, under Thomas Osborne's command. Thomas Parker arrived in Virginia on the "Neptune" in 1618, along with William Farrar. After his marriage to Elizabeth, he died prior to July 1836.
Elizabeth was now a wealthy widow, and in July 1636 she patented 500 acres in Henrico between the Curles and Varina, part of a total of 950 acres patented in August 1637 from headrights due to transportations of 13 servants for Sharpe. This land was in Varina, east of Henricus.
Elizabeth married William Baugh Sr. in about 1639 and died before Feb 1, 1650, when her will was recorded.
William Baugh Sr.
William Baugh Sr. arrived in Virginia from London in 1638. He was a widower and married Elizabeth Sharpe Parker about 1639 in Henrico County. He lived at Kingsland and Proctor's Creek prior to 1668, when he received a land grant for 577 acres near his brother, John Baugh. He received 600 acres for transportation of 12 persons to Virginia, including his son, William Baugh, Jr. , who arrived in Jamestown about 1660. This land was on the south side of the James River, and the north side of Appomattox river near Ashton Creek. His brother, John Baugh, had a 1638 land patent near Johnson Creek.
William Baugh Jr. married Jane Hatcher Branch in 1661 but died prior to 1678 and she remarried. One of her daughters, Priscilla Baugh, married William Farrar III, and William Baugh Sr. left her a tract of land.
William Baugh Sr. married a third time after the death of Elizabeth, to Elizabeth Womack. Their children were Katherine Baugh born 1653 who married a Jones and James Baugh I born 1655 who married Elizabeth Ashbrook and Mary Baugh. Mary Baugh married 1- Thomas Howlett and 2- Thomas Byrd, the brother of William Byrd I of Westover. Thomas Byrd died in March 1710 and Mary died on May 16, 1710 and her son Thomas Howlett Jr. administered her estate with Capt. Thomas Jefferson giving security.
William Baugh Sr. was buried at the Baugh family cemetery near Ashton Creek.
Read further
http://arslanmb.org/baugh/baugh.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914683?seq=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914991?seq=1
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/henrico/bios/earlyfam2.txt
Source:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119190420/william-baugh by Gresham Farrar
1) "Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635" by Martha W. McCartney, 2007, pp. 120, 528, 529, 631 ,632.
2) "The Farrar's Island Family" by Alvahn Holmes, 1972, p. 145.
3) "Virginia Magazine of History & Biography" Vol. 13, p58.
4) "Virginia Gleanings in England Abstracts of 17th and 18th Century English Wills and Administrations Relating to Virginia and Virginians" by Lothrop Withington, 2007, p113.
5) "Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5" by John Frederick Dorman, 4th Ed., Vol. I, 2004, pp8,12,367,930.
6) "Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5" by John Frederick Dorman, 4th Ed., Vol. 3, 2007, p153.
7) "Cavaliers and Pioneers. Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants" Vol. I by Nell Marion Nugent, 1983, p549.
8) "Virginia Vital Records" Indexed by Judith McGhan, 1984, p9.
"The Correspondence of the Three Byrds of Westover
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Bristol Parish Virginia
Bristol Parish was established in 1643. It included the parts of the Westover and Weynoake Parishes on the south side of the James River. A new chapel was erected in Bristol Parish. In 1752, it became the parish for Dinwiddie County as well.
Westover Parish on the north side of the James was established in 1613. The current church was built in 1730, before that the church was on Westover Plantation; built between 1630 and 1637. The church was destroyed during the Civil war when it was used as a stable for federal troops, who used the gravestones as tent floors.
Charles City County was one of the four corporations set up by the London Company in 1618. When the Virginia Colony was divided in 1634, the county included land both to the north and south of the James River, from James City to Henrico County. In 1703, the territory south of the river was formed into Prince George County.
The first colony was Charles City, established in 1612 as a fortification from the Indians on the south bank of the Appomattox. About the same time, on the north side of the James, about 12 miles from Jamestown, Governor Dale founded the plantations of West and Shirley Hundred, as part of his New Bermudas, around the main settlement of Bermuda Hundred. In 1617, Weyanoke was given to Sir George Yeardley by Opechancanough, with 2200 acres on the north bank of the James between Mapsico and Queen's Creeks. In 1618, Smith's Hundred was established- 100,000 acres between the Weyanoke and Chichahominy river on the north side of the James, but this plantation was anihiliated in the Indian massacre of 1622. Weyanoke plantation also extended south of the James River from Westover plantation on the east to Kennon's Creek on the north and Upper Chippokes Creek on the south.
Westover plantation was originally on land granted to Thomas West (Lord de la Warr) and his brothers on the West and Shirley Hundred, which was united by marriage of Thomas West to Cecily Shirley. This lay on both sides of the James River from Henrico County (Gunn's Run) on the north to Flowerdew Hundred on the south.
On the south side of the river, Martin's Brandon plantation and Merchants Hope were established by Captain John Martin in 1618 and 1620 and later passed on to John Sadler, Thomas Quiney and associates in 1643.
The earliest church was St. Mary's in Smith's Hundred (later Southampton Hundred) by 1619, but most parishioners were affected by the massacre of 1622.
Wallingford Parish church, a brick building on Chickahominy Creek near Kennon's Creek was likely built around 1648 but the parish was added to Westover in 1720.
Blandford church also had outlying wood frame chapels; the Ferry Chapel, near the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Kennon's brick house at Conjurers Neck, and another at Sapponey.
William and Martha Womack
Wm born Sept 10, 1723 bapt Jan 19, 1724
Laurana dtr of Eliz Womack b 20 March 1728
Ephaim son of Womack and Mable Pucket born 24 Jan bap 10 April 1721
Isham son of Womack and Mable Pucket born 14 Oct 1723 bap 23 April 1724
Richard son of Richard and Martha Pucket born 17 March 1718
Phebe dau of John and Judith Pucket b 11 Jan bap March 5 1720
Wm son of John and Judith Puckett b 15 Sept bap 17 Dec 1720
Sources:
Vestry Book and Register of Bristol Parish 1720-1789
Chamberlain's Colonial Churches- Blandford Church
Meade's History of Bristol Parish
Births from Bristol Parish Register- Chamberlayne (Ancestry.com)
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
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