A Survivor's Story.....Part One

How about some genealogy for a change?  I haven't written any of these types of posts in forever.

As I've noted before I am related to many early American families of note in Virginia though my maternal ancestors.

I want to talk about a few of my long ago kin today and a salacious event involving them that occurred  in 1792.

I have many ties to the Randolph family of Virginia.  Randolph family members intermarried with other prominent Colonial VA families--the Carter, Byrd, Fitzhugh, Stith, Lewis, Isham, Bland, Cary, Harrison, Bolling and Beverly.
One of the early members of the Randolph family, William, and his wife, Mary Isham are often called the "Adam and Eve of Virginia".
Mary Isham Randolph, on this line, is my closest cousin, being a 2nd cousin 12x removed. We share a common ancestor in Mary's Great Grandfather(my 13th Great Grandfather),

It's like a Rubik's cube puzzle keeping all these folks straight what with all the intermarrying of first and second cousins.  I am surprised I am not insane and have 3 extra toes at this point! lolz

Now a bit of background information........

One of the Randolph clan, Thomas Mann Randolph, was born about 1740.  Thomas was the son of William Randolph III and Maria Judith Page. Thomas Mann Randolph and his 2 sisters(some accounts say there were 4 sisters w/3 sisters surviving their parents, so it's either Mary Page Randolph and Judith Randolph or an additional sister named Priscilla Randolph)were orphaned in 1745.

William Randolph, Thomas's father, was close to his cousin, Jane Randolph and her husband Peter Jefferson. William had put a codicil in his will that Peter and Jane would raise he and Maria's 3 children until his only son, Thomas Mann Randolph, became of age.

                      Tuckahoe Plantation

So cousin Jane and Peter Jefferson moved their 3 daughters and 1 son, named Thomas Jefferson(yes, THAT Thomas Jefferson)from Shadwell Plantation near Charlottesville, VA to the Randolph's Tuckahoe Plantation outside of Richmond VA and raised the Randolph and the Jefferson children together until Thomas Mann Randolph turned 13 in 1752.  This is how Thomas Jefferson came to grow up at Tuckahoe and the Randolph and Jefferson families became close.

 Thomas Mann Randolph married Anne Cary sometime before 1762.
Anne Cary's parents were Col. Archibald Cary and Mary Randolph.  Thomas Mann Randolph and his wife, Anne Cary, therefore shared a set of great grandparents(William Randolph I 1650-1711 and Mary Isham 1659-1735)making them 2nd cousins.
This also means that Thomas Mann Randolph is my 5th cousin and Anne Cary is my 7th cousin.
Got that?

Thomas Mann Randolph and his wife, Anne Cary, had 13 children together, the most notable being Mary Randolph(1762-1828), Virginia Randolph(1786-1852), Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr.(1768-1828), Judith Randolph(1772-1816)and Anne Cary "Nancy" Randolph(1774-1837).

* Mary Randolph, the eldest child, wrote an early American cookbook.  More on her in another blog post.

* Virginia was also an author who published four books after her husband'd death.  Her husband was Wilson Jefferson Cary(1783-1823)and they were also cousins......my head hurts too much to try to figure exactly how they were cousins right now so I'll just take the word of the information where I read this. PS-It's probably through their shared connection to the Bolling line that goes back to Pocahontas.

*Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. is probably the most notable of their children.  Thomas served in the US Congress, in the Virginia House and Senate, served in the rank of Colonel during the War of 1812 and was elected Governor of Virginia in 1819.  But his most notable achievement was marrying the daughter of Pres. Thomas Jefferson, Martha Jefferson. 

Martha was the only one of many acknowledged as well as unacknowledged children of Thomas Jefferson to live past the age of 25.

* Judith Randolph married her cousin(seems to be a theme here, doesn't there?)Richard Randolph.  They were 1st cousins 2 x removed to be specific. 
Except for one brief episode that brought scandal to the Randolph family, Judith and Richard Randolph disappeared into historical obscurity fairly quickly after their deaths(except for one other unusual stand they took upon their deaths).  Perhaps this accounts for not being able to find any portraits of them.

*  Anne Cary Randolph, known as Nancy Randolph throughout her life, is the person and story I want to delve into in the next post(since this one has gone on and on).

Anne was part of a Colonial Scandal that rocked the ruling class and ended with her being ostracized from her homeland, her social class and the esteemed extended family of American Founders she was born into.
But it's also a story of a real survivor who, given the odds, inexplicably rose to the top and earned a place in our national history.

The Oh So Juicy! Part Two coming soon......

Sluggy

Card Carrying Member of the FFV

I spent a good chunk of Sunday in the suck hole that is Genealogy.
I got past one of my brick walls and found some rather interesting(to me at least!)peoples there.

I also worked on your tree Sonya Ann and found some interesting folks related to you by marriage on your mother's side(not direct ancestors).  Yeah, I even get worked up about OTHER PEOPLE'S ANCESTORS and Allied Family.  I guess I'm a genealogy geek.  8-)

Anyway, back to my find.

It was thought that my 5x GGrandfather, John Mason 1742-1802 of the Southside Virginia Mason line had married an Elizabeth Gee 1741-1763.

Well he DID marry her in 1760......but she died 3 years into that marriage around age 22.

Up until recently it was thought that Elizabeth was the mother of all of this John Mason's children.
John is purported to have had 10 children so unless she was the original OCTOMOM this isn't correct. lolz

This was all brought up to me by someone I have connected with through my DNA testing.  She and her brother matched my autosomal results and we found that we are related genetically through the Mason line. 

She is the one who tracked down an old family record in a Sons of the American Revolution application that some of John Mason's issue were from another wife, Jane Thweatt.

This marriage to John Mason was Jane's second, as she was the widow of William Thweatt previous to John.  Jane's maiden name has been uncovered as being PARHAM.
Jane Parham 1741-1803.

Jane married William Thweatt in Sussex County, VA(west of present day Suffolk, VA-it was formed in 1753/4) in the year of 1755.
Jane married again as a widow to John Mason in Southampton County, VA(south of present day Petersburg, VA which is northwest/adjoining Sussex Co.) in the year of 1764.

Southampton County was formed in 1749 from a piece of Isle of Wight County, which was formed in 1637 from one of the original 8 shires, Warrosquyoake Shire, which had been formed in 1634, made up the Virginia Colony that had been founded at Jamestown in 1607.

Confused yet? ;-)

**Interesting tidbit about Southampton County to use at your next cocktail party--The Nat Turner Slave Rebellion in August 1831 took place in Southampton County, thus it is also known as the "Southampton Insurrection", mostly by Confederate sympathizers and Southerners though.

"Discovery of Nat Turner", Woodcut print of the capture of Nat Turner by farmer Benjamin Phipps, William Henry Shelton(1840-1932).

Back to Jane and John.....
William Thweatt died the same year as Elizabeth Gee Mason and by the following year in 1764 their respective widow/widower had married each other.

So this makes my direct ancestor Jane Parham, not Elizabeth Gee.

Tracing back from Jane, her parents were:
Ephraim Stith PARHAM (1723-1793)born Sussex County, of Sussex County, VA
Elizabeth thought to be RAGSDALE(dates unknown at this time)

Ephraim's parents were:
William PARHAM(1697-1756)born Charles Citie County, of Sussex County, VA
Ann Stith(1700-? sometime after 1723)born Charles Citie County, of Sussex County, VA

This STITH Family Line discovery connects me to the Stiths of Virginia, one of the FFVs, or First Families of Virginia.

The progenitor of the line in America is John Stith from Kirkham, Lancashire, England.  He was baptized in the Lancashire Parish in 1642, came to the Virginia colony before 1656, settling in Charles Citie County, VA.  He was an attorney, a merchant and a justice of the peace.  He served in the VA milita for at least 24 years and ranked out as a Captain.
In 1691, he was High Sheriff of Charles Citie.  During Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 he sided with Colonial Governor Sir William Berkley.
(I discussed Bacon's Rebellion in the blog posts HERE *in reference to my Sneed/Snead line* and HERE *in reference to my Hunt line*. Both of these ancestors sided with the rebels in that conflict, whereas John Stith was part of the political machine of the time.)

Among John's children was Drury Stith(1670-1740)who married Susannah BATHURST(1674-1745).
Ann Stith is their daughter, making her the granddaughter of John Stith.
John Stith is my 9x GGrandfather.

This all makes me a card carrying member of the FFVs of Virginia and John Stith gives me yet another qualifiying member to join the Jamestowne Society.
Yeah, I am discovering pedigrees up the yahoo.

More on my Stith Ancestors later as this has gotten long.

In tribute to my FFVs, I'll leave y'all with this EARWORM.....By the way.....Richard Henry Lee is my 2nd cousin too.  ;-)





What's that I hear you say?
Thanks a lot for the earworm??
Your welcomed! lolz

Sluggy