2015: Looking Back

When I agreed to join my daughter's blog on October 1, 2014, I decided on two ground rules: we had to post every day and each post had to have a picture. (I'm a visual person.) Looking back over the past year I'm proud of what we've done here and in the process we've both learned a lot.

[Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Best wishes for a happy New Year." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1909. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-47d9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99]

Two of the most exciting names added to my paternal family tree in 2015 are Cheney Boyce (1591?-1643?), Ancient Planter of Jamestown, and John Whitney (1592-1673), member of the Company of Merchant Tailors of London before his departure for Massachusetts in 1635. Christine's recent discovery that Olive Baldwin (1778-1843) was the mother of my maternal third great grandmother Mary (Polly) Gates (1805-1883) has opened up new lines of research that will be covered next year.

Another fascinating discovery was that my paternal fifth great grandfather Abraham Heath (1740?-1807?) served with the Virginia line of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was one of the cold and hungry soldiers at Valley Forge. In case you missed it, you can read about what the records said here: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six. (Parts Three through Five were posted on the 168th anniversary of the events described.)

My two most popular posts in 2015 were Sunday Drive: Train Travel in Victorian England which looked at the ubiquity of mid-19th century British train lines, and Fantastic Find: Catholic Parish Registers at the National Library of Ireland which passed on the news that the National Library had just made their microfilm collection of parish records available online (and for free).

Another fantastic find, The McAdory House, was particularly useful in helping me understand the kind of dwelling my early Alabama ancestors probably lived in. (Spoiler alert: No white pillars or oak allies in sight.) And for those of you who also have ties to Alabama, let me recommend again Letters from Alabama, written by the Englishman Philip Henry Gosse about his experience there in 1838.

Christine and I have been having fun posting photos of Christmases we have known (or have pictures of) for the past ten days as a way of slacking off but still maintaining our goal of daily posts. With the new year we'll be getting back to genealogy.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Cheney Boyce (About 1591 - About 1643), Survivor, Ancient Planter, Member of Virginia House of Burgesses

Unlike the passengers on the Mayflower in 1620 who were seeking the freedom to practice their religion in peace (and to impose it on others), the people who went to Virginia and founded the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1609 were looking to make money for themselves and their investors. After all the Spanish had done very well with their New World colonies.

[“Gentlemen of Elvas.” Virginia richly valued by the description of the maine land of Florida. Translated from Portugese by Richard Hakluyt. Source: Library of Congress]

[Heading for the Broadside issued by The Virginia Company, London, 1615

Photo by Virginia State Library. From photograph in Virginia Historical Society.]

No records survive to tell us when this paternal ninth great grandfather first arrived--the earliest record we have lists Chyna Boyse as a 26-year old passenger on The George which anchored off the coast of Virginia in May of 1617. However because he was later named as an "ancient planter"* and as such received a special grant of land, we know that he was returning to the colony this time.**

[Cavaliers and pioneers; abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623-1800 by Nugent, Nell Marion; Virginia State Library; Virginia Genealogical Society, 1934. Source: Internet Archive; original contributor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.]

Here is a 1622 broadside listing items that prospective Virginia settlers should plan on taking with them.

[Unknown author, 1622, from A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. Source: Library of Congress via Learn NC]

We don't know where he was during the "Barbarous Massacre" when 347 men, women and children representing at least a quarter of the English population of Virginia were killed in a surprise attack on March 22, 1622. Cheney wasn't the only Boyce*** in the colony at the time and Sarah, the wife of John Boyce (exact relation to Cheney unknown), was one of 19 women kidnapped and held prisoner for a year by the native people.****

[Original Author: Matthäus Merian; Created: 1634. Courtesy of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation*****]

Cheney represented Shirley Hundred Island in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1629 and 1632.

Records state that Cheney "Boyes" received his patent of 100 acres in 1636/37. He also was given 1440 acres at the same time for transporting 29 people to Virginia.He never settled on the land which led to a court case regarding ownership in 1662.

Later records place Cheney as a resident of Merchant's Hope Plantation (much of which is now part of the James River National Wildlife Refuge) and it's likely that's where he died in about 1643 when he would have been in his early 50s.

My descent from Cheney through my great great great grandmother Sarah Heath Chappell qualifies me to become a member of The Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters if I was so inclined.

*Authorized by Sir Thomas Dale for those persons (men and women) who arrived in Virginia before 1616, remained for three years and paid their own passage.
**Apparently it was common for settlers who had connections with shipping or could afford to pay for their passage to make multiple trips to and from Virginia.
***This has led to many errors in published stories about Cheney Boyce, conflating him with the other men of the same surname.
****It seems that the Indians considered Sarah "the chief of the prisoners" and came home "attired like a native queen."
*****Note that the German artist who created this engraving had never been to Virginia and used his imagination in depicting the event. The attacks actually took place on plantations away from Jamestown.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Joyce Mrs Boyse (About 1618 - ?)

Joyce is another early female ancestor whose maiden name isn't known. This paternal ninth great grandmother was almost certainly born in England, although we don't know where, and emigrated to Virginia at some point before about 1637 when she married Cheney Boyce,* most likely in Charles City. As far as we know the couple had one child "Tho: Boyce the onely sonne of Chainey Boyce" who was born about 1638.

[Captain John Smith’s map, first published in England in 1612, was the primary map of the Chesapeake region used by colonists for nearly a century. Source: National Park Service, Captain John Smith Chesapeake National  Historic Trail]

After Cheney's death around 1643, Joyce was Executrix of his estate and ordered by the Virginia court to provide Thomas Boyce an "Annual Maintenance and to deliv'r him a very considerable estate at the age of 21 yeares"

In about 1644 the widow married Captain Richard Tye and in 1655 Thomas chose his stepfather as his Guardian.

[Charles City County Court Orders, 1655-1658, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. III 

Ancestry.com (database on-line]]

In 1658 Joyce was again left a widow.

[Charles City County Court Orders, 1658-1661, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. III 

Ancestry.com (database on-line]]

There's a final mention of Joyce in court records in 1662 regarding a dispute over land, although it's not clear to me that she was still alive because she's referred to as "his late wife" in the abstract.**

[Charles City County Court Orders, 1661-1664, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. III 

Ancestry.com (database on-line]]

.
I'm still trying to figure out when Joyce (?) Boyce Tye died. Her great granddaughter Elizabeth Scott married Samuel Chappell and their great great granddaughter Martha Heath Hardy married Jesse T.S. Warren in 1849 in Macon County, Alabama.

*History gives us choice of ways to spell his surname: Boyse, Boyce, Boys, Bois.
**Also note that the court record is confused about dates too. So far I haven't discovered what the court's decision in the case was, although from other records I think it's probable that Captain Tye's "Orphands" prevailed.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: John Scott (1659 - 1724), Tobacco Planter and Mill Owner

My paternal seventh great grandfather John Scott was born in Charles City County, Virginia, in about 1659. He later became a resident of Prince George County without having to leave the area when that county was created out of Charles City in 1702.

[Virginia and Maryland. By H. Moll, Geographer. (Printed and sold by Tho: Bowles next ye Chapter House in St. Pauls Church Yard, & Ino: Bowles at ye Black Horse in Cornhill, 1736?). David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By his marriage in 1685 to Betheyer Boyce*, John was connected to one of the earliest families to settle in the colony and we know that he acted as a witness in several legal documents over the years.

Although many early Virginia documents have been lost, from surviving records of Prince George County** it's clear that he owned a lot of land, including 748 acres on the south side of Warwick Swamp which he acquired on June 16, 1714,  and where he appears to have settled for the rest of his life.

In his will, signed June 1, 1724 and proved eight day later, John named each of his surviving children (all married daughters) and made provision for his grandsons, the minor children of his recently deceased son John. Thomas was to have "my mill and ten acres of land whereon it stands" (although his grandmother Betheyer was to retain half the profits during her widowhood). The bequest to his other grandson, another John, was the remaining 348 acres of the home plantation. Apparently his daughter Elizabeth, who had married Samuel Chappell*** in 1720, had already been given property because his bequest to her was "all that she is possessed with already and 630 pounds of tobacco." Everything else was to go to his widow for her life or widowhood.

John only names three enslaved persons in his will, "negro man Will," given to his daughter Bridget and "Ceasar & Nan" who are to remain with Betheyer until her death or marriage and then become the property of grandson John. But it's clear that he owned other human property from the wording of the will; we don't know how many slaves there were in his estate because he ends the document by directing that it wasn't to be inventoried.

Unfortunately these records are available only as transcriptions.

[Ancestry.com. The Edward Pleasants Valentine papers : abstracts of records in the local and general archives of Virginia relating to the fami [database on-line]. Original data: Valentine, Edward Pleasants,. The Edward Pleasants Valentine papers : abstracts of records in the local and general archives of Virginia relating to the families of Allen, Bacon, Ballard, Batchelder, Blouet, Brassieur (Brashear), Cary, Crenshaw, Dabney, Exum, Ferris, Fontaine, Gray, Hardy, Isham (Henrico County), Jordan, Langston, Lyddall, Mann, Mosby, Palmer, Pasteur, Pleasants, Povall, Randolph, Satterwhite, Scott, Smith (the family of Francis Smith of Hanover County), Valentine, Waddy, Watts, Winston, Womack, Woodson.. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1979.]

Betheyer (spelled Berthia this time, no one seems to know how to spell her given name) died the following year and her estate was inventoried and appraised on November 9, 1725.

* Her grandfather Cheney Boyce arrived in Jamestown in 1617.
**In 1720 he deeded 221 acres of this patent to his only son, another John Scott, "for natural affection."
***Their great granddaughter was Sarah Heath Chappell,

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.