Archive for January 2017
a Pond in Isle of Wight…
No, seriously, a damn pond has me all in a mental turmoil… the question with myself is could a “particular” pond be 400 years old? Bear with me – I’ll get to it.
Hugh Campbell… who the hell was this guy? He shows up around 1685 or so? and starts buying up more damn property than Rush Limbaugh has sponsors on his radio show.
A nice guy… he gives away land in 3 counties for “schools”. The counties were IOW, Nansemond and maybe “Norfolk” wherever that was “officially”? Say around 1700.
But back to the damn pond… later.
Several years ago I “mapped” Robert Pitts patent… and dutifully wrote all my words of wisdom about his doings and the aftermath of all his doings and his descendants. Little did I realize that I was talking out of my ass. (for lack of a better terminology… I’m a ground to earth kind of guy).
This Hugh Campbell guy swoops in and buys ALL the land of Robert Pitt. Coll Pitt was a hotshot from England with entangling alliances which leave his descendants all aquiver with “stuff” which is just plain fun genealogically.
But I draw maps. I get distraught and upset when some interloper comes in and messes up my damn maps.
Here… just look at the proof…
See that 1200 acres that the good Coll Pitt acquired? I worked my ass off to figure out where that nifty little curved arrow DEFINED where this land actually was. This patent, in my opinion, can be considered a first proof. Go ahead… bring up an expert to refute me. I dare you.
And now I confront this… Mr Campbell buys the said property. What 1699? 98?… I don’t give a damn… he bought the whole damn property! (45 YEARS later)
Look at it!
So every thing that you and I thought about this particular patent (‘land’ in common terms) is brought into QUESTION. What we thought we know ain’t necessarily so. (Considering his descendants.)
The damn POND will be the proof of where Giles Driver and Ambrose Bennet had their land.
Like I stated…I’m a mapper… south of here is a pond I think is 400 years old which will tell the tale…
If I can do it… I will map Ambrose Bennett, Giles Driver and Robert Bracewell… it all depends on the “pond”. If my hunch is correct.
Oh… here is the pond… use Google maps to find it…
My simple reason for thinking it may be 400+ years old is the feeder creek leading to it… from Cypress Creek
Oh… and no one to my knowledge has ever been able to do what I am attempting here,,, so I have that going for me…
My IOW map is “not ready for prime time” and I am still revising away. But I just got this comment and have a few things to say…
In my research of the Jolly family I found a land grant in Bertie Co., NC issued to Thomas Goodson 150 acres south of the Maherrin River Dec. 1, 1727. ………”Beginning at a pine Thomas Boons corner tree standing in the Wild Cat Swamp……..” Thomas Goodson married Elizabeth Jolly who was the daughter of James Jolly of Isle of Wight Co., my 6th great grandfather. When Thomas Goodson died in 1761 he and his family lived in Tarboro, NC. His will stated that he left half of his lot No. 57 in Tarboro to his daughter Winne and the other half to his wife Elizabeth.
William Jolly of IOW just happens to be on my radar, along with some other folks. And they are all centered around The Pond. The Pond is noted by the asterisk:
The base map is dated about 1920 or so… making those ponds at least 100 years old.
If I can “accurately place” Ambrose Bennet’s 1641 patent then all the other landowners will fall in place and I can merrily proceed with my mapping. My ranting about Robert Pitt’s 1654 patent is another milestone. Hugh Campbell purchased his land in 1698/9. So that is accurate… the metes and bounds of his freshly minted patent 45 years later is verbatim .
Robert Coleman purchased 300 acres of Ambrose Bennet’s land in 1667… and you can see it represented above. Coleman’s patent noted The Pond. Likewise with Hugh Campbell’s later purchase of the same land in 1699. Likewise William Jolly’s patent mentions it in 1704.
A major difference to Campbell’s later patent can be seen (I have both patents shown on the map above). And the difference is purchases which involved Giles Driver. Hugh Campbell also purchased part of Giles Driver’s land. Just as with a jig saw puzzle, I need to have those “anchor points” to connect the other pieces.
So these are the hoops I am jumping through to sort out the map. Good Grief. But a good thing about all these mysteries is the tantalizing revelations which are revealed… as to my commenter, just look at William Jolly and his neighbors after 1700. Note Mary Jolly (Corne Swamp) and the earlier John Jolly. Good clues…
a blog for you fleet-footed, sneaker clad folks…
A few years back I grabbed my high school aged grandson and headed off to Edgecombe County, NC… the Archives at Raleigh, then on to the Petersburg battlefield… spent a day at Monticello and circled back for a drive thru Isle of Wight, VA. Then back to SW Florida. We had a ball…
I know you folks like to blab about such things… well, here you go… looks like good fun…
Bacon in Isle of Wight…
Well actually I think a Chinese firm purchased Smithfield Hams in IOW but be that as it may…
I have been wrenched of my erroneous? preconception of where Col. Nathaniel Bacon held a 1075 acre patent. And it ignited my fascination of several folks in 1600s IOW. Namely several HARRIS and BRANTLEY families.
An Ancient History newspaper article from way back in 1971 caught my eye:
http://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=TSMT19710804.1.7#
So without further ado… I will attempt to locate Bacon’s land with the idea per the article that Bacon’s patent was near Wrenn’s Mill… the 1652 and 1663 renewal:
“To all &tc Whereas… grant… Colo Nathaniel Bacon Esq. 1075 ares…IOW… upon a ‘BRANCH’ of the Pagan creek Beginning at the southernmost point of the Cross Creek where Anthony Jones Land Beginneth & running over the said Creek NE x N 50 poles. then N x E 48 to a pine where WILLIAM SMITHs line Beginneth thence along Smiths Land NE x N 320 po, thence S 1/2 pt E 884 po to [an oak] thence SSW 190 po to a pokekory, thence W x S 244 po to the miles end of John Sparks Land and so along the said Sparke’s and Jones’s Land to the place Where it Began … said land renewed 1663”
Mentioned above is Anthony Jones which is helpful to locate this land…
It is my notation above concerning James River… the Jones Patent is useful but does not help much as far as me mapping the damn thing… so I hunted down another patent to where Jones sold it… now we get some meat on the bones…
Smith genealogists will clearly be interested because this Nicholas Smith obviously morphs into William Smith by the time of the Nathaniel Bacon patent. (renewed in 1663).
This still is not enough to “place” the patent… so a little more digging- it seems Anthony Jones had another patent:
MR ANTHONY JONES, 500 acres, 2 June 1635, upon east side of Pagan Point Creek, beg. At Cross Creek and running southerly to land of John Sparkes for trans. of 10 servts.
Another reference is here but this land is clearly not the area of the mystery “branch” of Pagan Creek I am looking for. This “hunt” is beginning to smell a bit fishy.
WILLIAM SMITH, 700 acres Sept. 29, 1645. Lying near Pagan Point, adj. Anthony Jones, Tristram Nosworthy, Nicholas Smith and Capt. John Upton, S. W. upon Hutchinsons Cr., also 225 acres of marsh land, 500 acres due for trans. of 10 pers. by his late father, William Smith, and 425 by assignment of rights of 9 pers. by Anthony Jones.
This is perplexing as hell! This obviously matches to the Bacon patent… Jones and Sparks are duly shown as adjoining landowners. But this patent declares Jones to be:
on the East side of Pagan point Creek! But the patent states “begins at a creek called the Cross Creek and runs southerly to John Sparks. That part makes map sense. And what does this mean? “Westerly upon the river” I have to assume the James River. The bit about “Easterly into the woods” I interpret to be the usual and customary 320 poles.
So what to make of it? The author of the newspaper article is a bit quick to castigate the esteemed Mr. Morrison it seems to me… The author, in effect, further compounded the mistake.
My son stopped by last night as I made some Southern spaghetti and we consumed a few Heinekens and a bottle or 2 of a nice wine. With a slight hangover this morning, I again took up this conundrum and have come to the conclusion that the newspaper article of 1971 is bullsh*t (that is hangover language). The Nathaniel Bacon patent for 1075 acres was nowhere even near the modern Wrenn’s Mill pond.
So even with the hangover I think my map of several years ago is closer to the actual truth of where his original patent was. Viz:
I rest my case. But to throw a bone to the good researchers of Isle of Wight, Nathaniel Bacon did have some property “somewhere” in the neighborhood of Wrenn’s Mill Pond and he very well may have built a mill there. I have attempted and so far failed to find his specific land there… but I discuss it and provide several clues in this post:
Map musings… the dirty secret
The dirty secret is that my maps are not always accurate… sue me (smiling). But then again, they might be close enough to get you to where you want to go.
A commenter, Dawn, asks:
Any clues to where “Cabbin Branch” is located on the Blackwater River? I am trying to find Patents circa 1722 for John Branch who received land on both sides of Cabbin Branch and on the south side of the Main Blackwater River in IOW/Southampton VA.
Branch, John. grantee.
grant 18 February 1722.
Summary Location: Isle of Wight County.
Description: 200 acres on the south side of the main Blackwater Swamp, and on both sides of the Cabbin Branch.
Source: Land Office Patents No. 11, 1719-1724, p. 167 (Reel 10).
I had no clue to help her… but then I found another patent a year later (1723)… there was the clue– it referenced “Lightwood Swamp” (which is extant on modern maps). So I shared my little tidbit in the comments. But my curiosity takes over and I delved into the area. And therein were found more clues… Here is a screen shot prior to my changes on the main map.
Note the red circle… in that particular patent (referenced in the written patent itself) is noted the adjacent landowner… it is one Elizabeth BRANCH (and by inference, she is probably a widow). So the clues evolve… this tells me that there was at least one BRANCH family near Lightwood Swamp. Then all hell breaks loose and I go on the hunt. The “hunt” involves searching the Land Patents on the Library of Virginia website. In that hunt I find a John DREW who has several delicious patents which not only refer to Lightwood Swamp but also the mystery “Cabbin Branch”. Cabbin Branch is a ghost record that can only be found by “grouping” a little community of patents.
So as you see from my revisions, the main map will never be “finished” and its real value is in “helping” to narrow down where the Old Folks lived. Note also that I moved other patents around… such is this Jig Saw game… Occasionally however, I will strike gold and there will be no doubt that the placement is “fact” and not mere guesswork. In the case of this John Branch… my hunch is that it is placed within a mile or 2. If more patents can be added it will further narrow him down.
And while I am on my soapbox… this 1720ish era of Old Isle of Wight (which crossed the Blackwater River and ran all the way to North Carolina until 1749) reminds me of a favorite research “source”… that being found on Familysearch.org. Navigate to the Virginia, Isle of Wight records> Churches… click on the Newport Vestry 1723-1772. At image 7 you will start finding records of what I suspect is the BRANCH folks that were in this area… therein are some of those delicious CLUES…
There is the “Widdow Branch” that first piqued my curiosity. Note that she appears to be at the “Mouth of Lightwood Swamp”. But then I can’t have all the fun… enjoy the hunt.
Marc
Christopher Reynolds land… IOW
Another piece of the puzzle for early Isle of Wight. I have numerous other patents in the works…
I began this map several years ago by simply throwing as many patents as I could onto the map and trying to make some sense of it all. As my methods have improved, I am back-tracking now to further refine the folks. I grab whatever pertinent clues I can find and attempt to put them together. If you can add or detract please comment…
Christopher Reynolds 1636 patent can be found wedged between the 1679 and 1681 patents of his descendants. I think this is about as accurate as you can get. However, as you see in my notes there were other land deals which I have not worked out. I hope to roll Giles Driver, Ambrose Bennett and others into the mix.
The main map is in chaos right now as I make additions and revisions… so what else is new in genealogy… right?
