OLD KING WILLIAM HOMES AND· FAMILIES AN ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE OLD HOMESTEADS AND FAMILIES OF KING WILLIAM COUNTY, Vm.- GINIA, FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT BY PEYTON NEALE CLARKE LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY LOUISVILLE JOHN P MORTON AND COMPANY 1897 The Collection of the matter Contained within this volume was suggested by a desire to Know something of my 1dnspeople, and Having learned so much that seems to be worth preserving­ it ts now published In loving memory of My Mo'ther, 3-ul)ttb l3rowne aiatbome °Reale, who was well known and beloved by Many whose names are recorded herein. INTRODUCTION. •• He who careth not whence he came, careth little whither he goeth." O apology is needed for a work like this. It is only intended N for those who are directly interested in its contents. There can, assuredly, be no harm in setting down a list of one's family connections, if only as a matter of curious, if not useful, information, and it really does not concern the general public at all. If any of those whose acts are recorded here deprecate the linking ' of their names with others of less renown perhaps, it should be remembered that we are, after all, merely one great family, inter­ minably interwoven, and all springing originally from a common stock. No pretense of illustrious ancestry is affected, nor thought of superi­ ority entertained, because of the certain knowledge that descent can be traced back several generations. Experience abundantly teaches that such evidence is uncertain, if not useless, as many celebrated characters in the world's history rest on no such foun­ dation. , , Honor and shame from no condition rise, Act well your part ; there all the honor lies. " The information recorded here was collected with much labor and infinite pains by Thomas Henry Edwards, of West Point, Virginia, and Peyton Neale Clarke, of Louisville, Kentucky, with the assistance and co-operation of numerous correspondents, and a personal visit to the old homesteads by Mr. C. A. Morrison, to whom we are indebted for the photographic views. ILLUSTRATIONS. ACQUINTON CHURCH •.•••••••••••.•••••• Opposite page 8 ASPEN GROVE . • • . • . • . • . '' 32 AUBURN ...•..•.••.•.•...•.•.......•.• ' ' 40 AUTHOR - .•......•...•.....•...•...•.• " title page BROAD NECK ......................... " 104 CHERRY GROVE .•.........•...•.•...•.• " IO CLOVER PLAIN . • . • " 40 COOL SPRING. ............••.... '' 32 CROXTONS . • • . • • . • • . .... " 40 ELSING GREEN ••••••.••••••••••••• - ••• " 12 ENFIELD ............. - ..............• ' ' 104 FOREST VILLA . .........•...•.......•.. " 32 FRASCATI . .•.......•••.........•...... " 16 KING WILLIAM COURT HOUSE- •••••••••.• '' 24 LANGBORNE ....................•...... ' ' 104 MONTVILLE ....................•.....• '' 40 RUMFORD ACADEMY ..................•.• " 32 SPRING BANK .......................•.. " 104 s,vEET HALL ...............•...•...•.. '' So vVATERVILLE oR W1NosoR SHADE •••••••• '' 96 KING WILLIAM COUNTY. This county was organized in 1701, its territory being taken from King and Queen, which in tum had been farmed from a part of New Kent in 1691. New Kent was a part of the original Shire of York until 1654, the latter being one of the first divisions of the Colony set apart in 1634. In I 720 Spotsylvania County was farmed from parts of King William, King and Queen, and Essex, and in 1727 King William was again called on to surrender some of its territory when the new county of Caroline was organized. A. history of King William would consequently be inseparable from that of all of these counties. The wide rivers, wooded hills, and broad savannas comprised ,vithin its limits attracted the attention of the early settlers, many of whom had sufficient influence to obtain extensive grants of land, and located their homes on the banks of the Pamunkey, York, and Mattapony rivers. The Indians lingered here until the beginning of the eighteenth century, and some friendly ones long after. Indeed, there is a small remnant of the ancient Pamunkey Tribe still residing at Indian Town, near Sweet Hall, on a reservation set apart for their use by the Colonial Government. Since this was written the fallowing account of the Pamunkeys appeared in the Baltimore American, which is, however, mainly taken from a report of the Smithsonian Institute by John Garland Pollard, of Richmond: '' They are the undoubted offspring of the old Powhatans still dwelling upon a part of their old hunting-grounds, and representing all that is left cf the once powerful native con£ ederacy that gave the early Virginia colonists so much trouble until expelled from Jamesto,vn region in the year I 644. Their progenitors possessed the land when Captain Newport, in r6o7, founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. '' Consequently the present Pamunkeys are the veritable ' blue bloods' among all the Indians surviving to-day, and they form the largest remnant of the old Algonquin stock now to be found on the Atlantic coast. Only a few trifling offshoots and some few uncertain and feeble strains of blood remain of the other Powhatan I KING WILLIAM COUNTY. tribes. The Pamunkeys alone have withstood intact the encroach­ ments of civilization for nearly three hundred years. And their preservation is all the more noteworthy from the fact that they live by themselves in their peculiar way in such close vicinity to the busy marts and ' effete civilization' of the East. Although their manners are modified, their language lost, and their prestige van­ ished, they still illustrate in themselves the law of the survival of the fittest. The bare fact of their existence is unknown even in many parts of Virginia, and almost wholly unknown elsewhere. '' The Pamunkey tribe live in a queer settlement called ' Indian Town,' situated about a mile east of the historic 'White House,' where George Washington wedded the beautiful Widow Custis. Their reservation, comprising eight hundred acres, ceded to the tribe by the ancient colonial assembly of Virginia, is an odd-shaped neck of land, almost entirely surrounded by one of the serpentine curves of the Pamunkey River, tributary to the York River, and not far from the junction of the two. It is on the line of the York River Division of the Richmond & Danville Railroad. The place is con­ nected with the mainland by a single narrow sandspit, and the isolation and protection afforded by this peculiar situation doubtless saved these Indians from destruction. About one third of the reservation is good farming land, and the remainder consists of woods and low swamps, well stocked with deer, raccoon, otter, muskrats, mink, reed birds, wild geese, ducks and turkeys. '' There are only ninety Pamunkeys actually present on the reservation proper, and thirty-five more residing on another small reservation twelve miles northward on the Mattapony River, besides twenty others employed during the summer as boatmen on steamers plying the Virginia rivers, making a total of one hundred and forty­ five Pamunkeys now living. In appearance they are distinguished by the usual copper-colored skin, straight, coarse hair and dark eyes. They are not particularly strong or robust and their average longevity is less than that of their white and colored neighbors." This report also explains the origin of the curious name of "Pipingtree Ferry." At a council between the whites and Indians the pipe was passed around on the ratification of the treaty, after which it was deposited in a hollow tree near by. Ever aftenvard when the whites disregarded their agreement they were reminded by the Indians of the '' Pipe-in-tree." Many of the titles to land in King William are held by de­ scendants of the original grantees, and the ovmership has been confined to their own families. ,.,... KING WILLIAM COUNTY. The county is noted for the prominence of its old families in the history of the colony, and has furnished a noble line of men and women, who, after carving out a glorious inheritance, failed not to provide the material to per-petuate it. Beginning with the first hand-to-hand conflicts with savage foes, on through the French and Indian wars, then the struggle for independence, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the last great internecine strife, the scars of which are not yet obliterated, old King William's sons have been ever in the van, and her patriotic blood has flowed wherever and whenever the call of duty has been sounded. Distinguished not alone for valor, her people have been fore­ most in promoting the welfare of the Commonwealth and the advancement of civilization. Legislative halls have echoed to the eloquence of her statesmen, and every honorable path in life has resounded to their tread. lYiany have contributed to the history of the State. Not a few have gained national renown, while the deeds of some will live as long as time lasts. Not only does King "\Villiam boast a notable posterity for her families, but the claims of ancestry are as well sustained. There are the Wests, who go back to the reign of Edward the Second, and of the same line as Lord Delaware. The W allers trace their ancestry to the time of the Norman Conquest, and some say to Charlemagne; the Taliaferros certainly as far, and the Claibornes, Peytons, F ontaines, and others are quite as ancient. Then there are the descendants of the Cavaliers, and particularly the connections of the old English landed gentry, the bulwarks of Albion, whose blood is purer than most of the so-called nobility, and who sent out their bravest and best scions to people the New World. We can not omit the grand old Huguenots who '' left fortune and fame for conscience sake," and helped to swell the population and enrich the endowment of the land of freedom and light. The list is elo­ quent, and includes such names as Claiborne, Bland, Roane, Robin­ son, Johnson, Slaughter, Edwards, Thornton, Powell, Gregory, Robins, Aylett, Walker, Neale, Hill, King, Ellett, Lipscomb, Pem­ berton, Corr, Dabney, 1v1oore, Beverley, Butts, Littlepage, Dan- 3 KING WILLIAM COUNTY.