Messon Go Traders
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=111 511M 3111111 MN MIN Mill Mill MEI 111111 MEI !MN THE MESSON GO TRADERS A Family History by Mary Frances Carey I II .ts I. II 1111111 RN MN NM 11111 11111 MI 11E1 1011 1=1 MN MN NEIN MINI 11111 MN MN Inn Published by EDWARD L: TRADER Melbourne, Florida Copyright 01980 by Mary Frances Carey 'Produced by TYPE-O-GRAPHICS, 1906 Municipal Lane, Melbourne, Florida 32901 Printed and Bound by GRAPHIC ARTS CENTER INC., 903 E. New Haven Ave., Melbourne, Fl. 32901 MINI MINI MIMI 7.MI IMO MIN Tracing the Traders has been a labor of love . a tribute to the memory of my father, Samuel L. Trader (1885 - 1961). MIN MINI MOM MEI MINI MN MI =I MI Mil MN NM WWI MIN NM PREFACE Most of the material used for the following write-up of the Traders was collected from county records in 1961, 1962 and 1963. Mr. R. V. Trader of Long Island, New York stopped, in late 1961, on his way to Florida, and asked to contact someone of this area to do local research on the Traders. He could trace his family back to a Staten Trader in Worcester County, Maryland; and felt sure he was a descendant of Henry Armitradinge of Hungers Creek, who came to America in 1635. At that time, there was no certified genealogist in Accomack County. Mr. Henry Bell, Sr. of Pitts' Wharf was the closest and best-qualified ama- teur, as he traced family trees as a hobby. I contacted him and, over the three year period, he copied and brought back every reference to a Trader, Armey Trader, Armitrader or Armitradinge on the records at the Accomack Court House, covering wills, deeds, orders, orphan's accounts and surveys. I copied and indexed all that he brought. We also went to Eastville, Virginia twice; to Snow Hill, Maryland; and to Princess Anne, Maryland for records of the Traders in Northampton County, Virginia; Worcester County, Maryland; and Somerset County, Maryland. We made a trip to Parksley, Virginia to talk to Mr. Mark Lewis, who had marriage records from Richmond which were not available locally. We never did find a tie-in with the Staten Trader of Worcester County, Maryland for Mr. R. V. Trader but, with the earliest Traders in Northampton and Accomack and the help of a genealogist in Annapolis, Maryland, he has completed his family line. Mr. Bell not only copied all the references from Accomack, but studied them and showed how they fitted together. I found him a very interesting ww. 1111111 IIIIII MI MI MI MI MI MI Mind Pa le grielil logist!IIMs wi liwould have been impossible without him. We were both completely convinced, from early in the compilation of Trader records, that all the Traders in Accomack and Northampton Coun- ties are related, as are all those in the United States. A chart was drawn showing Trader interrelations, but nothing more was done until this winter. Last October, a cousin, Edward L. Trader, who is a lawyer in Melbourne, Florida, asked to see these records. This seemed a good time to put them into a form that family members could read. I have had help, this winter, from a number of people. I sincerely thank Miss Virginia Williams, Deputy Clerk of Court for Northampton County, Virginia; as well as Mrs. Bagwell of the Accomack County Clerk's Office. I INTRODUCTION would also like to thank Mrs. Esther Evans and Mr. Miles Barnes of the Eastern Shore Public Library. My special thanks to Mrs. Nora Miller Turman of Parksley, Virginia, Certified Genealogist, who spent a morning studying this material and offering suggestions as to where to look for proof at the two weak spots. Her suggestions were followed, but no new material was found. Mrs. Harry L. Wessells, Sr. of Messongo gave background material on that area; as did Mrs. Vernon Miles of Horsey. The first records for "Ye Kingdom of Accowmacke", as the Eastern Shore Family members who have helped include our aunt, Mrs. Nettie of Virginia was called, were started on January 7, 1633 in what is now lower Simkins of Pocomoke, Maryland; and her brother, our uncle, Mr. Renzy Northampton County. The entire Shore was named Accomack in 1634 when Trader, who died last fall at the age of 92. it became one of the eight shires or counties of the Colony of Virginia. In Mrs. Daisey Stant, of the Salisbury Nursing Home, and Mrs. Norman 1643, the name was changed to Northampton County, by an Act of the Wessells, of Accomack, also supplied family information, as did Mr. Dorsey Assembly. In 1663, Accomack County was formed from the northern and Trader of Bloxom. larger portion and court records were started here. The records for both coun- Also, thanks to Mrs. Jeanette Marshall for typing all this. ties are continuous, and are the oldest such in English speaking America. The material for tracing this branch of the Traders was taken from these March 25, 1980 records, primarily. In instances where the original records were not used, the M. F. Carey source was reference books found in the Eastern Shore Public Library at Accomack, Virginia. These reference books have been compiled by geneal- 1\04.A1- cLL ogists arid historians from the original county records and, at times, contain information that was recorded at the state capitol in Richmond and which is not available locally. A point of interest is that the Accomack County census for the year 1800 is the only census for the state of Virginia in that year. The census was taken throughout the state, but was unavoidably destroyed. Census records for the county through 1900 are on microfilm at the Eastern Shore Public Library. It will be noted that there are two places in the ten generation write-up where there is no conclusive proof of descent. The first is between the second and third generations. Other genealogical writers assume the line is direct here without offering proof,' so we are not too concerned at this seeming break. 1. Edwards, Lucy Ames: Ames, Mears and Allied Lines of Accomack County, Virginia, Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society, 1967, page 227; and Whitelaw, Ralph T.: Virginia's Eastern Shore, Richmond, Virginia Historical Society, 1951, page 359. 1 MEI NMI IIIIIII Mil Mill Mil 11111111 11011 NMI NM Mill UM 2111111 SIM 1111111 =I WI 2111111 There were no other Armitradinge families on the Eastern Shore and there is enough circumstantial evidence to be sure that Henry and Richard were the sons of Arthur. The proof of descent between William of the fifth generation and Henry of the sixth is not as easy to assume. Our line is proven back to this Henry, who bought land in the Messongo area in 1799. The first Traders to live in this vicinity were William and Littleton of the fourth generation, who in- herited land nearby from their father in 1735. Both of these men left wills naming their children. One of these children had to be the father of Henry of the sixth generation. Since there is no direct proof, we have tried to show indirectly that des- HENRY ARMITRADINGE cent came from William, of the fourth generation, through his son, William, fo Henry, by eliminating all other Traders in the area of whom we have pos- The First Generation itive data as to their descendants. Again, there is a wealth of circumstantial evidence to back up the fitting together of the Traders in this manner. The family names that fathers gave their sons indicate this kinship. The ages of the sons, taken from census re- cords, compared to the fathers', mesh; as do marriage record ages. Neighbors who witnessed wills and deeds, those whose lands adjoined the Traders', and those who were appointed guardians, have family names which continue through these three Trader generations. Much of the land in Virginia and Maryland and other parts of the South In the body of the wills and deeds taken from the original records, the was granted to early settlers by the "headright" method. Under this system, spellings, punctuations and capitalizations have been copied as they appear a man could bring into the colony a number of people and receive fifty acres in the instrument. The family name also appears as it was written at the time. of land for each "head". Often, the settler had paid the passage fee for his Henry Armitradinge, the forefather of Traders in America, came from people and they had agreed to become indentured servants for a period of Mansfield, England.2 His forefathers were French Huguenots, who settled time to pay back this charge, usually a period of three years. After working in England from Flanders because of French persecution. off their indenture, these "servants" were free to patent land in their own The Huguenots of Flanders were wool growers and weavers, who were names. famous for their cloth and tapestries. Many of them went to England with As with other countries in periods of expansion, the American colonies William the Conqueror and taught the English to make these cloths from wool received a large number of "ne'er-do-wells", men and women who were tried in the area around Mansfield. for some crime and deported, rather than given a jail term, and the dregs of The name, being French, appears originally as "de Armitriding". Arm- society. These terms did not usually apply to indentured servants. Jennings itradinge, as it appears in England, was an occupational name given to a fam- Cropper Wise, in his book, The Early History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, ily appointed to the position of tax collectors for the support of the King's states:1 "gentlemen were frequently listed as servants, and many young men army.