Sunday, May 7, 2023

Wash Tubs and Potato Holes-A Genealogy Story

Two of the more prolific(meaning producing many descendants)early settlers in the British Colony of Virginia was the married couple John Woodson and Sarah Winston Woodson.  
Sarah Winston was born in Devonshire, England circa 1590 and John Woodson was born circa 1586 also in Devonshire, England.  John matriculated from St. John's College of Oxford  in March of 1604 at the age of 18 and was set to practice medicine.  Now remember that the science of medicine is nothing like it is today.  The 4 Humors and blood letting was the height of medicinal learning at that time. 8-)

Sometime before 1619 John Woodson and Sarah Winston wed in England. 


John and Sarah then sailed to the Jamestowne Colony onboard the "George" along with Sir George Yeardley who was chosen to govern the colony after then Virginia Colony Governor Dale had returned to England in 1618. The "George" sail 29 January 1619 and arrived at Jamestowne in April of 1619.  John Woodson was asked to go to Jamestowne by the powers that be of the Virginia Company of London to doctor the soldiers and colonists.

So the Woodson couple was in Jamestowne or in one of the surrounding "Hundreds" during the 1622 Massacre but both survived that incident.
John Woodson prospered in his occupation trying to keep the colonists and soldiers alive.  They were to have two sons, John Woodson, Jr. in 1632 and Robert Woodson in 1634.  Both children were born at Flowerdew Hundred(a Hundred is a designation like a Shire(back in England)or a County which it was said came from the time of the Normans in England to denote an administrative district in which 100 soldiers could be commanded from hence the need arise.  Later these large acreages were called Plantations.  
Gov. George Yeardley named this Hundred after his wife's wealthy father, Anthony Flowerdew of Norfolk, England.(George also named another Hundred after his wife's mother, Martha, who's maiden name was Stanley, thus Stanley Hundred.) 

 The 1622 Massacre saw only 6 people killed in Flowerdew Hundred.  Other Hundreds were not so lucky, Henricus, Martin and Smith Hundred saw few colonists survive or all killed and were abandoned.  All told the surprise attack of 1622 saw about 400 colonists killed(a third of the English population in Virginia at that time)and 20 women were kidnapped, who then lived and worked for the Natives until which time as they either died or were ransomed.


Going back in time a bit to explain what was going on by 1622........
The Native American Chief who became known as Powhatan died in 1618.  Powhatan was not his name.  It was Wahunsoacock or some variation of that spelling(actually native peoples had many different names but that's a story for another time).  He was supreme chief(also called a Weroance-an Algonquin word for leader)of about 30 different indigenous tribes in that area of Virginia by the time the English landed in 1607.  The English not understanding Indigenous Indian society called Wahunsoacock "Powhatan".  The Colonists and the Algonquin Indian Confederation under Powhatan lived fairly peacefully together(often called the "Peace of Pocahontas" time)and at times the colonists assaulted various Indian tribes in the Confederation to which there were repercussions.


There were 3 Anglo-Powhatan Wars-the first lasted from 1609 to 1614.  By 1618 Powhatan was dead and his younger brother, Opechancanough(Algonquin for "He Who's Soul is White")became paramount chief.  This chief was known as a fierce warrior and was opposed to the English being in the area.
I guess he saw what lay ahead if the colony prospered and started expanding.  This European concept of "owning" land was a foreign idea to the Indigenous peoples of the New World making Opechancanough no friend of the white man .  He was in charge and instigated the Massacre of 1622.  The white man called him "Chief Eagle Plume".

Between the events of 1622 and 1644 the colonists had built better fortifications around Jamestowne so invading the town and the peninsula it was on was difficult but all the Hundreds were vulnerable to the Native Indians as the colonists spread out from Jamestowne proper.

Here's a YouTube video to explain all this more....


In 1644 John and Sarah Woodson, along with their two sons, were living in Flowerdew Hundred when Opechancanough orchestrated his last major effort to eject the English colonists from the continent with the Third Anglo-Powhatan War.  This was a surprise attack on the settlements on April, 18, 1644.  On that fateful day, John then 10 years and Robert then 8 years would have been out in the fields tending to the tobacco crop except that a neighbor and shoemaker, Thomas Ligon, was there to measure to make footwear for the family(or so the oral tradition within the family goes).  Suddenly as Dr. John Woodson approached home after a house call to see to a sick patient, Natives set upon him and killed him as he rode on his horse toward home.  Sarah saw what was happening outside and bolted the door, grabbing a wash tub and covering John with it and shoving Robert into a rudimentary root cellar under the floor, telling them to remain silent.  Thomas Ligon grabbed the family musket over the mantle and took aim at the attackers, picking some off as Sarah dumped a pot of scalding water on others, built a smoky fire to keep anyone from coming down the chimney too.  When the natives retreated 7 were left dead near the home as well as Sarah's husband, John Woodson.


The Woodson musket is in the hands of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, Virginia.  It was an English Long Fowler"-meant for bird hunting or small game.  It's the top firearm in the photo above.

That's one version of the story.  In other's Thomas was a neighbor and heard the commotion nearby and rushed to help Sarah and her boys.  We just know that from then on the Woodsons and the Ligons had a familial connection.
And the two Woodson boys John and Robert, were known as "Tub" or "Washtub" and "Potato Hole" from then on.  
Sarah Winston and Dr. John Woodson are my 10 x Great Grandparents an the younger son, Robert "Potato Hole" is my 9th GGrandfather.


Interestingly enough I am also a descendant of Opechancanough.  He is my 11th Great Grandfather if this research is accurate.

These two lines converge at ancestor Mary Burks Woodson.  Opechan Nicketti Mangopeesomon, so far as my research goes at the moment is my 10 x GGmother.  She had children with an Anglo trader named John Rice(or Rees spelling)Hughes.  Some link her to a Dodson man but the records in Charles County list John Hughes and among their children a Mary Elizabeth Hughes. I am at most 1/1000% native American.(1/1034 to be exact from this one pair of 11th GGrands(Nicketti Powhatan's parents)but there may be other bits too so I am going with 1/1000th% for now).  Through Openchancanough I have a teensy bit of Youghtanund and Pamunkey tribe in me even if it's not enough to show up in a DNA test. ;-)
If your family lines go far enough back in colonial Virginia you are almost guaranteed to have an ancestral connection(either direct, cousinry or through marriage)to a native American.


Sluggy

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1 comment:

  1. Practical ParsimonyMay 7, 2023 at 6:58 PM

    According to statements from both my grandmothers, both were descended from an Indian mother or grandmother. However, none of this has shown up in genealogical research.

    ReplyDelete

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