![]() Richard (ca. 1585-ca. 1623) and Isabella (ca. 1589-unknown) Pace and their son, George (ca. 1608/9-1655,) were among the earliest families that landed at Jamestown. Their arrival date is unknown, but it is speculated that they arrived in August, 1611 with William Perry, Captain William Powell and Sir Thomas Gates. Richard, a carpenter from Wapping (London’s old maritime district) and Isabella Smythe were married in St. Dunstan’s Church, Stepney (East End of London) on 5 October 1608. Richard was employed and sent to Jamestown by the Virginia Company of London, entitling him to 100 acres after seven years’ labor; the Company also transported his family. Jamestown’s population was then about 300. The Paces became Ancient Planters because they arrived in the colony before 1616 and were eligible for land grants from the Company in 1618. On 5 December 1620 Richard received a patent for 400 acres that included 300 for his six headrights for bringing settlers or servants. Isabella also received 100 acres and later bought another 100 acres from Francis Chapman. Their land was on a high bluff across the James River from Jamestown in what is now Surry County, a plantation that they named “Paces Paines.” Richard Pace is best known for warning Jamestown of the well-planned and devastating Powhatan Indian surprise attack on all the English settlements along the James River on 22 March 1621/2. Early that morning, an Indian boy, Chanco, William Perry’s servant, was living in the Pace household. He alerted Pace to the impending attack and they rowed a small boat over two miles to Jamestown to warn its residents. Their alarms helped to spare Jamestown itself, but over a score outlying plantations were decimated and more than a quarter of the colony’s settlers were killed. Richard petitioned to return to Paces Panes and finally did so in February 1623/4. He died between February 1623 and the 1624 Muster. The widowed Isabella then married William Perry (date unknown.) He and his son Henry, Isabella and George Pace were not in Jamestown for the February 1625 muster. On 9 May 1625, Isabella Perry (Mrs. William) testified in a court trial in Jamestown. She was widowed again (date unknown) and married merchant George Menifee (date unknown) and died on an unknown date. George Pace patented his father’s 400 acres on 1 September 1628 and, in 1638, married Sarah Maycock(e), daughter of the Reverend Samuel Maycock(e), who was killed in the 1622 Indian uprising. George died in 1655, predeceased by Sarah. First California Company member Martha Pace Gresham is a descendant of the Paces
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Robert Bracewell/Braswell, Isle of Wight, Virginia, (1611 - 1668), Burgess, Anglican Minister4/20/2020 The Reverend Robert Bracewell, son of Richard Bracewell, Gentleman, of London, was christened 13 Oct 1611 at St. Andrew Holborn, London and matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford University on 22 February, 1628. On 3 November 1631, aged twenty, he was graduated from Oxford.
He came to Isle of Wight, Virginia before 29 April 1650, when he was a documented witness to an agreement between Ambrose Bennett and Thomas Webb. He became Rector of St. Luke’s, Lower Parish, Smithfield, Isle of Wight. In July 1653, he was chosen Burgess from Isle of Wight County, but was asked to resign because of concerns for separation of church and state. St. Luke’s, built in 1632, is the oldest brick church in Virginia (now known as the Old Brick Church) and British North America. It is the nation’s only original Gothic church and a National Historic Landmark and Patriotic Shrine. It was used as a model for Jamestown’s 1907 Memorial Church. Rev. Bracewell made his will 15 Feb 1667/8, which was probated May 1668 and proved that he had a least five children, saying that, “…daughter Jane Stokes, Rebeca West - my daughter, my two sons, Robert and Richard, daughter Ann Bagnall… His Loveinge friends, Mr. Richard Izard and George Gwillim to be gaurdians unto my children, in the time of their Minoritie.” Jane was born ca. 1645 and was married three times; first to Robert Stokes in 1667 (who participated in Bacon’s rebellion and was hung by the royal governor in 1677 for his involvement) and subsequently to Robert Eely and John Roberts. Her will was probated 24 Aug 1713 in Isle of Wight County. Rebecca was born ca. 1645, married by 15 Feb 1667 to William West and then to (unknown) Brinkley. She died ca. 1700 in Isle of Wight County (William also participated in Bacon’s rebellion but was pardoned.) Ann, born ca. 1647, married James Bagnall by 15 Feb 1667. Richard, born ca. 1649, married Sarah (unknown), 1672. He left a will dated 28 Jan 1724/5 in Isle of Wight County. Robert, born ca 1651, married Susannah Burgess. The Reverend Robert Bracewell died in Isle of Wight county before 1 May 1668. The Reverend Robert Bracewell is the paternal seventh great grandfather of Ella Margaret Cron, Member of the First Colorado Company ![]() Thirty-first in a series of biographical sketches of qualifying ancestors of the Jamestowne Society whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company William Ball was born in 1615, studied law in London and served in the Royal Army in the Civil Wars under Charles I. With the regicide in 1650, he lost the greater part of his English estates and fled to Virginia.
He had married Hannah Atherall (Atherold) 2 July 1638 in London and immigrated to Virginia with his wife and three children--Hannah, Joseph, and William. He did not apply for a land grant in Virginia for eight years, waiting for the restoration of the 1660 Stuart kings. He settled in Narrow Neck (now Ball Point) on the west side of the Corrotoman River in 1663. Ball operated the vessel Merchant between England and Virginia as a tobacco merchant. He acquired 2000 acres in Virginia, served on an Indian peace-treaty council, and administered Lancaster County affairs as a Colonel. He built a Georgian mansion, Millenbeck, and led the defense of the county to help quell Bacon’s Rebellion. One of his land grants for 300 acres adjoined the land of Daniel Fox, who married his daughter Hannah. He was a Warden of Christ Church in Lancaster and also owned land in Rappahannock County. He served as a Burgess from 1699-1173 and was George Washington’s great grandfather. He died at Millenbeck in 1680 and left his estate to his wife and two sons. FMC Descendants of William Ball: Jane Tatum, Fredrick William Lewis III, and Fredrick William Lewis IV. |
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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