Third in a series of biographical sketches on members of the House of Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island. John Armistead was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. Who was this man? John Armistead’s parents, William and Anne, emigrated to VA about 1635 from Yorkshire, England, and settled in Elizabeth City County. It is possible that John Armistead was born in VA about this time. John’s father was prosperous in VA and may have sent his son to Gloucester County in the 1650s to manage his properties there when English settlers moved into that area. The destruction of Gloucester County Records has made it impossible to determine the exact dates of John’s birth and death (c. 1635-aft. 1698) John served as a vestryman of Kingston Parish and was a member of the county court and a colonel in the militia by 1670. He became the sheriff in 1676 and 1680 and opposed tobacco cutting riots caused by planters who wanted to raise the price of tobacco by reducing its supply. In 1682 John arrested women who were destroying tobacco plants, putting him at odds with Robert Beverley. Some researchers say that Armistead married Beverley’s sister-in-law, Judith Hone. Others say Judith’s surname was Robinson because Christopher Robinson calls Colonel Armistead my loving (brother) and refers to his loving sister, “Mrs. Judith Armistead” in his will written 27 Jan 1692/3. Armistead also served in the VA House of Burgesses in 1680 and sat at the first meeting of the General Assembly in 1680-1682. His role in suppressing the plant cutters may explain his absence at the second session, but he returned to the House as a Burgess in 1685. Armistead supported English polices designed to control Virginia after Bacon’s Rebellion. Governor Francis Howard knew Armistead’s sympathies with English rule and grew close to Armistead when the governor resided at times with Armistead’s son-in-law, Ralph Wormeley. This friendship probably led to Governor Francis Howard’s appointment of Armistead to the governor’s Council in 1688. In 1691 Armistead lost his seat on the governor’s council when he refused to swear allegiance “thro Scruple of Conscience” to King William and Queen Mary, who came to the English throne after the Glorious Revolution. On 9 Dec 1698 the Crown ordered that Armistead’s seat on the council restored, but he never took the oath and assumed his seat, possibly because he had died or retired from political life by then. John and Judith Armistead had the following children: (1) Judith, who married Robert “King” Carter, one of the wealthiest planters in VA; (2) Elizabeth, who married Ralph Wormeley; (3) William, who married Anna Lee; and (4) Henry, who married Martha Burwell. First Mississippi Company Descendants of John Armistead: Ann Atkinson Simmons, Grace Atkinson Buchanan, Vaughan Simmons Koga, Eliza Simmons Zimmerman
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Second in a series of biographical sketches on members of the House of Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Colonel Francis Eppes was elected to the Virginia Houses of Burgesses to represent Charles City, VA, in 1639-40. Who was this man? Francis Eppes, son of John and Thomazine (Fisher) Eppes, was baptized 14 May 1597 in Ashford, Kent, England. The exact date of his arrival in Virginia is unknown, but he may have come to VA on the Hopewell, for he later named his plantation on the south side of the James River “Hopewell.” The Hopewell brought passengers to Virginia in May 1622, November 1623, and May/June 1624. Incomplete passenger lists exist for the 1623 and 1624 arrivals, but none for 1622. It is probable that he arrived in 1622 because his brother William arrived in VA on the William & Thomas in 1618. Francis was certainly a resident of Virginia before April 1625 when he was elected from Shirley Hundred to sit in the Assembly at James City on 10 May 1625. Eppes was appointed Commissioner for the Upper Parts of the Colony in 1626 and Commander of forces with Captain Thomas Pawlett when they attacked the Weyanoke and Appomattox Indians in 1627. He was also a member of the Assembly in 1628, by which time he himself held the rank of Captain. Francis Eppes, as well as his wife and two young sons, must have returned to England a few years after coming to Virginia as there is no record of him in Virginia between March 1629 and February 1632. On 8 September 1630 Thomas, the third son of Francis Eppes and Marie, was born in London. Eppes was back in Virginia by February 1632 serving as a member of the House of Burgesses for Shirley Hundred. In 1635 Capt. Francis Eppes was granted 1700 acres in Charles City County on the Appomattox River for the transportation of thirty persons plus his three sons—John, Francis, and Thomas—and himself. This land is the present site of the city of Hopewell. A portion of this tract, owned by the Eppes family of “Appomattox Manor,” remained in the family until 1978; it was acquired by the National Park Service in 1979. Until that time it was the oldest plantation in VA still in the hands of descendants of the original owner. Eppes is found on a list of the “Names of the cheifest … planters that hath both ventured theire Lives & estates for the plantation of Virginia.” Although the list is undated, it was apparently drawn up circa 1635. The maiden name of his wife, Marie, is not proven; but circumstantial evidence suggests she was the daughter of Captain Thomas Pawlett of Charles City. In January 1626 Francis Eppes testified in the controversy between Mr. Thomas Pawlett and the Rev. Greville Pooley, and in his will dated January 1644 Captain Pawlett named Francis Eppes as one of the overseers of his will and left him his drum. Pawlett left to Mrs. Eppes his Bible and 20 shillings to buy a mourning ring in his memory, and his “Godson” Francis Eppes was also named in his will. Capt. Eppes also owned land on Shirley Hundred Island, now named Eppes Island, in 1644. He served in the House of Burgesses for Charles City in 1640 and 1656 and was a member of the Council in 1652. He consolidated his land in a 1668 patent for 1980 acres and died before 30 September 1674 when his son and heir John Eppes renewed the patent in his own name. Francis and Marie Eppes left three sons: (1) John, born 1626, who married Mary Kent and had sons Francis, John, William, Edward, and Daniel; (2) Francis, born 1628, who married 1st -- and had Francis and 2nd Mrs. Elizabeth (Littlebury) Worsham and had William, Littlebury, and Mary; and (3) Thomas, born 1630, who married Elizabeth and left sons Thomas and John. First Mississippi Company Descendants of Colonel Francis Epps: Sharron Hailey Baird, Better Carter McSwain George Percy and 70 English Jamestown colonists raid the Powhatan town of Paspahegh, where they kill approximately two dozen Indians, including the chief's wife and her children. This incident marks a dramatic escalation in the First Anglo-Powhatan War. Percy was part of the first group of 105 English colonists to settle the Jamestown Colony. He departed England in December 1606 and kept a journal of his voyage. He arrived in Virginia in April 1607 and recorded the struggles of the colonists to cope with the American environment, disease, and the Powhatan Native Indians. "Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserable distress," he wrote in his journal, "not having five able men to man our bulwarks upon any occasion." Although Percy had a higher social rank than all of the other first colonists, he was initially denied a seat on the Virginia Council. Nevertheless, he took the lead in the early life of the colony, taking part in the expedition to the James River falls in May and June 1607. In autumn 1607, he sided with the President of the colony, Edward Maria Wingfield, who was subsequently deposed by John Ratcliffe, Gabriel Archer, and John Smith. From late 1607 until autumn 1609, Percy had little power in Jamestown but served as Smith's subordinate. When Smith left the colony in September 1609, Percy assumed the presidency of the colony. However, his persistent illness kept him from executing his office, leaving the duties of the presidency to Ratcliffe, Archer, and John Martin. It was during Percy's tenure that the colony suffered through the “Starving Time” in the winter of 1609-10. "Now all of us at James Town beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger, which no man truly describe but he which hath tasted the bitterness thereof," he recounted later. Percy accomplished little while President, other than to order the construction of Fort Algernon at Old Point Comfort. When Sir Thomas Gates arrived in May 1610, Percy happily surrendered control of the colony to him. In June 1610, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, arrived in Jamestown and with a commission to serve as the colony's governor. De La Warr appointed Percy to the council and named him captain of the Jamestown fort. In August 1610, De La Warr sent Percy and seventy men to attack the Paspahegh and Chickahominy Indians. The force ravaged the Indians' settlements on August 10th, burning their buildings, decimating their crops, and indiscriminately killing men, women, and children. This tactic, used by the Indians, proved most effective. Percy also led the successful defense of James Fort against an Indian attack and earned the praise of De La Warr. When the Governor returned to England in March 1611, he appointed Percy to lead the colony in his absence. "But the winds not favoring them, they were enforced to shape their course directly for England--my lord having left and appointed me deputy governor in his absence, to execute martial law or any other power and authority as absolute as himself." Percy's term as Governor lasted until April 22, 1612, when he departed for England. -John Graves, Jamestowne Society Communications Committee 2018-2019 First in a series of biographical sketches on members of the House of Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Captain John Haynie was elected to the Virginia Houses of Burgesses to represent Northumberland County, VA, in 1657. Who was this man? By 1650, John Haynie was living in Northumberland County, VA, and states in a deposition recorded in 20 August 1655 that he is 31 years of age or thereabouts; it is this court record that establishes his birth year as 1624. His will was recorded at a court held 22 July 1697, but his actual will was destroyed by a fire in 1710. John Haynie transported 34 people from England into the VA Colony; he was a surveyor, a Justice, a planter, a King’s Attorney for Northumberland County, a Captain in the Susquehanna War, a vestryman in Wicomico Parish and later a member of St. Stephens Parish in present-day Heathsville, VA. About 1650, Haynie married Jane Morris, daughter of Nicholas and Martha Morris who were in the VA Colony by 1641. John and Jane Haynie had six children: Richard [married (1) Elizabeth Bridgar (2) Elinor]; Anthony [married Sarah Harris]; John Haynie [married (1) Mary Sadler (2) Jane]; Martha [spouse unknown]; Elizabeth [married Peter Presley]; and Anne [married Thomas Harding]. Jane and John Haynie also reared Jane Morris, the only child of Jane Morris Haynie’s brother Anthony; and Thomas Harding, Jr., orphan of Anne Haynie Harding and Thomas Harding. According to VA Land Patents recorded in Cavaliers and Pioneers, John Haynie owned about 4750 acres in Northumberland County and was a wealthy planter elected to represent Northumberland in the VA House of Burgesses in 1657. He was also appointed the clerk of the market for Wicomico and set up an ordinary near the courthouse in 1681. Although clerks for the Northumberland County records spell John Haynie’s name as Haney and Haynie, John Haynie was literate; his signature showed that he spelled his name as Haynie. Tidewater Virginia Families and other books on early Virginia families speculate that Captain John Haynie was probably the son of John and Elizabeth Hayney. John Hayney came to VA from Devon on the Margett and John in 1621; Elizabeth Hanie arrived on the Abigail in 1622. They first lived on Company land in Elizabeth Cittie at Buck Roe, near today’s city of Hampton, in a palisaded home with Nicholas Rowe and his wife and two indentured servants. John and Elizabeth are listed in the Muster of Virginia inhabitants in 1624/25. In 1632 John Hayney, planter, lived at Point Comfort Island; in April 1635 in Accomack County; and in June 1635 Charles River County (later York County). By the time he was 41 years of age in 1635 he was living on land on the Poquoson River about 75 miles from the 1650 home of Captain John Haynie in Northumberland County, VA. This county first began to be settled in 1635 by the English merchant class. If Captain John Haynie was the son of John and Elizabeth Hayney, he was born in Virginia at Buck Roe in Elizabeth Cittie. First Mississippi Company Descendants of Captain John Haynie: Shirley Haynie Godsey; Anna, Lauren, & Harrison Parmer; Alden, Meril, & Emeril John IV Lagasse; Cherry Haynie Lovelace & Caroline Lovelace; Kim Reed;, Lauren Stacey; Leslie Reed-Jones; Susan Burroughs; Mary Flood; Marcia Flood |
To Our ContributorsWe welcome properly researched contributions of ancestor profiles, vignettes and comments from members that focus on their ancestors’ roles in Jamestown’s history, plus other aspects of their lives, events and experiences in the colony. PLEASE NOTE that all information must be documented and backed up by primary source documents, and not unverifiable information and family and urban legends. Submissions without this backup may be rejected. Please limit contributions and blog entries solely to the ancestors themselves, and do not include subsequent lineage information. Entries should be no more than 400 words. Archives
August 2022
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