History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I
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History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I THIS DOCUMENT IS PRESENTLY BEING EDITED FROM GOOGLE SCANNED PAGES OF THE BOOK. IT IS NOT FINISHED AND LIKELY CONTAINS ERRORS NOT IN THE ORIGINAL BOOK. THIS PAGE WILL BE REMOVED WHEN THE EDITING IS COMPLETE. Page 1 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I WHITFIELD, BRYAN, SMITH, AND RELATED FAMILIES BOOK ONE WHITFIELD Compiled by EMMA MOREHEAD WHITFIELD Assisted by Many Members of These Families Edited by THEODORE MARSHALL WHITFIELD Page 2 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I DEDICATED To Those Ancestors WHO HAVE HONORED THE LORD SERVED THEIR COUNTRY AND PASSED THE NAME UNSULLIED. Page 3 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground: Another race the following spring supplies, They fall successive, and successive rise; So generations in their course decay, So flourish these, when those are past away. The Illiad translation by Alexander Pope Page 4 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I Table of Contents EDITOR’S FOREWORD.................................................................6 FOREWORD..........................................................................7 ABBREVIATIONS AND NUMBER SYSTEM...................................................9 PART I WHITFIELD IN ENGLAND......................................................11 WHITFIELD OF WHITFIELD........................................................11 THE GENEALOGY OF WHITFIELD IN ENGLAND.........................................16 ENGLISH PEDIGREE..............................................................18 WHITFIELD OF WHITFIELD Senior Line – Northumberland.........................18 WHITFIELD.....................................................................21 WHITFIELD OF SUSSEX AND KENT................................................21 NORMAN FAMILIES...............................................................24 de Clare - Lancaster........................................................24 Grentesmaisnil – Bigod......................................................26 de Buslie...................................................................27 SAXON EARLS OF MERCIA.........................................................28 de Vipont...................................................................28 PART II WHITFIELD IN THE WEST INDIES AND VIRGINIA................................30 WHITFIELD IN THE WEST INDIES..................................................30 WHITFIELD IN THE WEST INDIES..................................................32 WHITFIELD IMMIGRANTS TO VIRGINIA..............................................35 VIRGINIA COUNTY AND CHURCH RECORDS............................................40 ELIZABETH CITY COUNTY.......................................................40 ISLE OF WIGHT...............................................................40 NANSEMOND COUNTY............................................................47 NORFOLK COUNTY..............................................................48 SUSSEX COUNTY...............................................................48 YORK COUNTY.................................................................48 SOME VIRGINIA FAMILIES........................................................49 DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS WHITFIELD...............................................52 PART III DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM WHITFIELD AND ELIZABETH GOODMAN..................55 WHITFIELD: FIRST AND SECOND GENERATIONS.......................................55 WHITFIELD: THIRD GENERATION...................................................67 WHITFIELD: FOURTH GENERATION..................................................87 WHITFIELD: FIFTH GENERATION..................................................123 WHITFIELD: SIXTH GENERATION..................................................182 WHITFIELD: SEVENTH GENERATION................................................249 Page 5 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I EDITOR’S FOREWORD Emma Morehead Whitfield died in Richmond,VA.. May 6, 1932. She had hoped to publish this genealogy in the early ’30s. She labored long and intensely over the preparation of the manuscript and believed it almost ready for the press. The economic depression of those years and her death prevented the realization of this hope. Often during the years preceding her death Emma M. Whitfield talked with me about the whole matter and expressed the desire that I should complete the task if she were prevented. This I have undertaken, and while additions and revisions have been made, this genealogy remains essentially hers. At the time of her death, Emma. M. Whitfield left a modest sum to publish this book. Others in the family had indicated their desire to share this burden, but with the passage of years many of these persons died and it became necessary to seek new support. Most recently we have had both advances in cash and promises of support. Thanks to this support, we have closed our record and given it to the printer that you may read and glean therein whatever of joy and benefit you find. THEODORE M. WHITFIELD. Westminster, Md. 1948 Page 6 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I FOREWORD A slip from a genealogical tree when transplanted to new soil resembles the parent tree as surely as does a cutting from any of Nature’s forest: so With Whitfield in England and America. A resemblance is found in the Christian names borne by the English and American families of Whitfield. Charts compiled by Ralph C. V. Whitfield, Esq., of Red Car, York, and Middlesex, England, show a repetition of the names William, Matthew, and Thomas. Charts of Whitfields in the Southern States show the same names repeated with persistence from 1636 to our day. The Whitfields on both sides of the water have other characteristics in common. From the first Whitfield whose name emerged from obscurity there have been divines among them. The calls of medicine and law have not been unanswered and the fields cultivated by Whitfields have been wide and fruitful. Learning has ever had their support, and councils of state have been wiser for their presence. 0n fields of valor sons sprung from the barons of Runnymeade have proved their devotion to country and justice, while at the knees of devoted mothers, children learned to worship God and to regulate their lives with due regard for honesty, industry, and sympathy for their fellows. Despite constant effort of many years running no documentary evidence has been found to establish the link between the two branches of the family. fire, war, and time have combined to block the search in both the Indies and Virginia, the earliest homes of Whitfield in America. Study in England has ' been as yet as unproductive as in this country, but in the recovery of manuscripts long lost or forgot there is room for hope that this connection may yet be found. This genealogical record will be largely confined to persons in the southern and western portions of the United States. By reason of its very magnitude this study is the product of years of patient research and loving toil of many people. While it has been my privilege to contribute to each of these, it is my purpose freely to declare to any who reads these pages that he is debtor to many. Much of the material for the Whitfields and Bryans in North Carolina came from the notes of Nathan Bryan Whitfield (71), Bryan Watkins (260), William A. Whitfield (65), and Gen. R. C. Martin, of Louisiana. In the Bryan records the work of John Bryan Williams (B 225), stands in unequaled importance. Working a score of years, he touched sources in some cases no longer available. He made several copies of his notes which he graciously lent or save to members of the family including ourselves. Mrs. Jesse S. Claypoole (BE 504) in addition to contributing much material kindly read much, if not the whole, of the Bryan manuscript and made suggestions for improving the manuscript at other points. Ralph C. V. Whitfield, head of the senior Northumberland line in England contributed a sketch of Whitfield of Whitfield, and charts and data relative to lines mingling with those of Whitfield in early times. Mr. Benjamin Grady, of Washington, D. C., furnished the greater part of the Grady material and permitted us large use of his John Grady of Dobbs and Duplin. We, like Page 7 of 294 History Whitfield Bryan Smith Vol I Mr. Grady, have had the assistance of Mr. L. Carr Henry, of Washington. Besides sending materials he read parts of the manuscript. Probably the contributor of the greatest mass of material during the last years has been the Rev. James W. Marshall. While his special interest has been the Smith section his study has ranged far over into the Whitfield and Bryan families. The very magnitude of the material he collected, arranged, and sent us makes us greatly his debtor. His study has been chiefly in the later generations many of which he has brought down to his own day. If merit be worthy of note or selfless devotion deserve remembrance, then may this record claim justification in the lives of the men and women it records. Enough there was of martial valor and human sympathy, of unflinching loyalty and self abasement, of patient effort and transparent honesty among these folk to instruct their sons and daughters and quicken the hearts of those to whom their sires are more than names. They came; they toiled; they helped to build a nation founded upon belief in God and justice for every man. They loved their country and-defended it with their