Notes on Miles
Cary married Elizabeth Cocke
Miles Cary has been often misidentified, and this perpetuated, and
he is often neglected in his rightful branches in the family tree. Fairfax
Harrison, in his Carys of Virginia, remarks that "During the agitation
in Virginia from 1843 to 1852 over the fabulous 'Great Cary fortune in
England' there were several attempts made to state the pedigrees of the
various branches of the Cary family in Virginia. It was then that the Eggleston
Notes were drawn from the Warwick records, and as those notes showed no
Miles Cary among the sons of Major Thomas Cary2, the genealogists seem
to have agreed that 'Mr Miles Cary, jr', must be one or the other of the
Miles' named in the wills of Henry2 or William2. "7
Harrison gives ample reason why this can not be so, and he tells why this
Miles is included here. See footnote ****
As for the details of his life, Harrison writes " In 1691 he began his
career (and so determined the vocation of several generations of his descendants)
as a clerk in the office of the secretary of State at Jamestown, of which
his uncle Miles, of Richneck, was then in charge as clerk of the General
Court. By the same influence he was appointed 1693 (McIlwaine, Journal
of the House of Burgesses, 1659-1693, 450, 451) Clerk of the legislative
committees of Privileges and Elections and of Public Claims. A few years
later he was chosen Clerk of Warwick. He held all of these posts until
1718 , when he retired by reason of ill helath. In 1702 he was Captain
in the Warwick Militia, his uncle Miles2 of Richneck then being Colonel
(Cal State Papers, Am & W. I., 1702, No 237, p 158). It seems probable
from entries in the York court records that he carried on the mercantile
business which the immigrant had established; this surmise is supported
by the clearly extablished fact that his son and official successor Miles4
was engaged in such a trade. 'Captain Miles Cary' appears on the Quit Rent
Roll for 1704 as paying quit rents for 600 acres in Warwick; as both his
father and elder brother were then living and n neither appears on the
roll it is possible that this Miles3 was lessee of the Windmill Point lands;
ce certainly he was at that time the most active representative of the
eldest line. Though there is no stone to mark his grave, it seems quite
certain that he was the first of his family to be buried in the Peartree
Hall graveyard. That is as serene and restful a place to await the Day
of Judgement as could be selected. In a secluded nook, 'far from the madding
crowd', glanked by a stately forest and pleasant cultivated fields, six
generations of Carys lie in the shadow of ancient mulberries, beneath a
blanket of riotous jonquils, which in spring clother the entire area as
with a golden oriental rug. This last home of his ancestors had been fences,
and is piously maintained by T Archibald Cary8, of Richmond. He m 1695,
Elizabeth, dau of Richard Cocke, of Gremo, in Henric (for the Cocke family,
see Va Mag, iii, 282 ff.] and by her had" .....[transcriber's notes: children
are here given as presented above] ...
" [No proof has yet appeared for the marriages of the daughters, nor
is there any convincing tradition. Abraham (Cary Tradition in Richmond
Whig, July, 1852) stated that Dorothy married George Dudley. This appears
to be the origin of the unproved statement in Pecquet du Bellet, ii, 67[**]
, that Dorothy Cary of the Warwick family was the mother of the Dorothy
Dudley who in 1755 married John Cary, Jr., of Kingston Prash, Gloucester
(See post, p 151, and for the little which is KNWON of the Dudleys of Gloucester
and Middlesex, Va Mag., xxiii, 148). Again , Good (Virginia Cousins, 283
and 50) states that 'one of the daughters (of Miles Cary 3, of Potash Creek)
probably' married a Collier; but Goode had already confused the daughters
of Miles Cary3, of Potash Creek, with those of his son Miles Cary4, of
Peartree Hall, and the Collier he selects was, he says a Revolutionary
soldier, and so contemporary also with the fifth generation. ]
The order of the children. The Eggleston Notes on the record of the
will of Miles Cary3 state that he left children 'Anne, Elizabeth, Bridgett,
Dorothy, Martha, Miles, Thomas and Nathaniel.' As the will was not quoted,
this is merely a deduction, but it has been accepted as the order of seniority
of the chilren. The evidence leads to another conclusion. In his will dated
Nov 18 1706, Richard Cocke, of Bremo, leaves legacies to each of his grandchildren
then in existence, Cockes, Carys and Pleasants, boys and girls, naming
them. the children of his daughter Elizabeth Cary he enumerates as follows;
'Richard Cary, 20 pounds; Thomas Cary, 10 pounds; Miles Cary, 10 pounds,
Nathaniel Cary, 10 pounds. ' It would seem to follow that that was the
order of their birth [Richard was undoubtedly the eldest, receiving a double
portion], and that none of the daughters of Miles Cary 3 was born prior
to 1706. We have accordingly followed that order in our enumeration. The
question is now of interest, as upon it depends the seniority of the extant
Chesterfiled and Peartree Hall lines.
Sources
1. N C Hist & Gen Reg., ii, 151, for affidavit of Miles Cary 3
that he was 'aged 42' in 1713
2. McIlwaine, Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1693-1724, for his
service of legislative committes
3. W M Cary Notes for documents signed by him as Clerk of Warwick.
See also Va Mab., i , 232
4. Henrico Records for his marriage license Aug 22, 1695, and Register,
St John's Church, Church Hill, Richmond for his marriage Aug 25, 1695
5. Eggleston Notes for record of his will proved 1724 in Warwick Will
Book, I, 313
6. Will of Richard cocke, of Bremo, dated Nov 18, 1706, from Henrico
Records
7. W M Cary Notes for couments signed by Richard Cary 4 as Clerk of
Warwick after 1718
8. Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1718-1722, for this richard
Cary's legislative service, and the date of his death. "7p
49-50 [Transcribed by C Swope of Within the Vines]
** One of his dtrs probably married Benjamin Collier of Brunswick3
"Again , Good (Virginia Cousins, 283 and 50) states that 'one of the daughters
(of Miles Cary 3, of Potash Creek) probably' married a Collier; but Goode
had already confused the daughters of Miles Cary3, of Potash Creek, with
those of his son Miles Cary4, of Peartree Hall, and the Collier he selects
was, he says a Revolutionary soldier, and so contemporary also with the
fifth generation. "7
Footnote ****"...there was only one Thomas
Cary of the 3rd generation in Virginia and he was unmistakably the eldest
son named in the will of thomas2. He married Elizabeth Hinde in 1695. The
Quaker missionary Story says definitely, in his Journal, that the Thomas
and Miles Cary he met in Warwick in 1698 and 1705 were brothers, and that
Miles was Secretary (i.e., Clerk) of the County. ....Among the old records
of Albemarle County, north Carolina, at Edenton, are several affidavits
filed July 18, 1713, in a suit concerning a slave named Stephen, who had
been sold some years before by Anne Akehurst to 'Miles Cary, Jr' (N.C.
Hist & Gen . Reg, 1901, ii, 151.) The witnesses are 'Miles Cary, the
elder.' , aged 42, whose signature is the unmistakable autograph of our
first Clerk of Warwick. Thomas Cary of Warwick Couty Virginia 'aged 43'
and Elizabeth Cary 'aged 34' who ways that she went to dwell in the house
of Daniel Akehurst in 1695. This Akehurst was a Quaker. He lived in Warwick
but had been the Proprietor Archdale's deputy in the North Carolina Council,
subsequently Secretary for the Proprietors and died in 1699 (Weeks, Southern
Quakers, 65.) It was at his house that Story first met the Carys in 1698,
and so it is persuasive that Thomas Cary3 might have met his wife in the
same house. The York records show (W . M . Cary Notes) that in 1701 'Mr
Miles Cary, Jr', was attending to business for 'Ann Akehurst, executrix
of Daniel Akehurst, dec'd.' All of this suggests that the witnesses for
'Miles Cary, the elder,' in 1713 were his brother and sister in law. Moreover
, the Miles Cary who was Clerk of Warwick was the only one of the third
generation who had a son named Thomas except the Thomas3 who Story says,
was his brother. It seems likely that each of these sons was named after
a common grandfather. "7 |
3,7
