Notes on his service and public standing
Represented Warwick County i n the House of Burgesses from 1629-39.
Colonel Wilson was for many years the presiding justice and most prominent
personage of Elizabeth City County, being long the Royal Naval Officer
of the Lower James, and a very wealthy planter. He it was who built 'Ceelys'
in 1706. He died in 1713 but his will was doubtless recorded in the General
Court, whose archives were destroyed in the conflagration of 1865, so that
a detailed disposition of his large estate can not now be had1
[see larger extract below]
About the Plantation Ceelys
From Pecquet de Bellet "Wilson Cary of Ceeley" and his family [Compiled
by Wilson Miles Cary, of Baltimore, Md., with extracts from 'Virginia Historical
Magazine', Vol IX, No., 1, July, 1901, and a few notes from Goode's 'Virginia
Cousins']
In 1786, I (Wilson Miles Cary) made a horseback trip to the Peninsula of
Virginia and travelled over all that section of country, with the purpose,
if possible, of reconstructing the genealogy of my family, which, as embodied
in a fine old vellum record, had been destroyed, together witht the family
Bible, etc., etc., at the burning of our Fluvanna residence, Carysbrooke,
Nov 26, 1826.In the clerk's office at Hampton, I found not only the original
will of Col Wilson Cary, of which I already had obtained a copy in 1866,
but that of his brother Miles Cary, of 'Ceelyes' as he styles himself,
and which I then transcribed. ...
I rode to 'Ceelyes', on the banks of the James, three or four miles
from Hampton, to visit the mansion so long the residence of my ancestors.
The whole estate, containing some two thousand acres in Colonel Cary's
time, lay along the river and adjoined the present Newport News. It was
then occupied by a settlement of negro squatters, a section of 'Butler's
Contrabands'. There was scarce a vestige of the old mansion remaining-the
very foundations were obliterated-not a tree left standing, and the garden,
which once ran in terraces to the river's edge, now a wilderness of weeds.
I found the dispossessed proprietor, a young Mr Smith, quartered in a most
primitive shanty, on the edge of the estate, almost despairing of ever
enforcing his rights and ejecting the darkies, but still awaiting with
what patience he might the otrageous dilatory proceedings of the reconstruction
period. Mr Smith informed me that the negroes, after burning the fine old
brick mansion to the ground, had entirely dismantled its walls, using them
for the chimneys of their hovels. The original building was of large dimensions,
two stories, with wings. Its age had been discovered by his father, who,
on removing the porico to make some repairs, had found the figures 1706
on the lintel. The records of Elizabeth City inform us that the
nucleus of the estate called 'Ceelys' consisted of two tracts of two hundred
and fifty acres each, at the mouth of Saltford Creek, on the banks of James
River, which were acquired by Colonel William Wilson in 1691 and 1695 from
on Thomas Ceely-who represented Warwick County i n the House of Burgesses
from 1629-39. Colonel Wilson was for many years the presiding justice and
most prominent personage of Elizabeth City County, being long the Royal
Naval Officer of the Lower James, and a very wealthy planter. He it was
who built 'Ceelys' in 1706. He died in 1713 but his will was doubtless
recorded in the General Court, whose archives were destroyed in the conflagration
of 1865, so that a detailed disposition of his large estate can not now
be had. His only son, Captain Willis, had died without issue in
1701. His daughter Mary (1675-1741) had first married William Roscow [transcriber's
note, as given-should be Roscow], with whom she lies buried under a handsome
monument at Blunt Point, in Warwick. After his death, which ocurred Nov
27, 1700, she did not long remain in weeds, but in April , 1702, commiserating
the equally sad lot of a near neighbor, she bestowed her hand upon Colonel
Miles Cary, of 'Richneck' who had been bereavedat the same time, his wife,
Mary Milner, having left him, 'issueless' as he tombstone states, October
27, 1700. ....
Col Miles Cary died intestate, but from his tomb we learn the names
of his children.
To the younger of his two sons, Miles, his grandfather Wilson's
estate of 'Ceelys' descended, while he, dying a bachelor in 1756, willed
it to his only brother Colonel Wilson Cary, of 'Richneck'. 1pages
49-51 |
