VIRGINIA AND OUR VIRGINIANS [Title Page]
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Virginia  features prominently in the ascendancy of the Howard and Allied Lines. The last of our direct line Howards married ,in the 1940s, into the Swope line of Adams County,Pennsylvania , where she took her husband's name.
The Virginia ascendancy is among the most interesting found in the Within The Vines Website as it counts within its surnames that of our earliest known American immigrants arriving to Jamestown in 1619  [James WOODSON and his wife Sarah ]. We have many other direct immigrants arriving to Virginia between 1619 and the close of the 17th century, including several residing in the Williamsburg region at the time of Jamestown's abandonment and Williamsburg's  formation in 1699 [McGehee in particular].  Our Virginia history includes the massacres of 1622 and 1644 Jamestown, involves 6 of  the twenty some odd first Black Americans of known origin in the new world [found in residence with the Woodsons in 1624  as probable indentures,  the legal framework for slavery not yet being established]. Our direct ancestor Virginians involve many wealthy and influential Plantars, amongst them several  Quakers themselves  persecuted in early Virginia, holds persons responsible for William and Mary College in Williamsburg by virtue of its plan for formation,  actual building, and  stewardship, and  has as well a few recently discovered patriots [link under construction] .  Many of our directs of this state were members of,  and a few speakers for,  the House of Burgesses, numerous were slaveholders,  and evidenced in our lines in this colony/state is the enlightenment in the revolutionary era of our last Virginia slave holder, John Pleasants, who released 500 slaves through act of his will, the result of which was a 20 year legislative delay due to white fears  of the implications of such a sudden and large release. Our direct ancestor residency in  Virginia spans 1619-1853, and involves many counties ,  all  located in the Eastern and Southeastern portion of the state, and all relevant to the Howard and Allied Lines. Our last direct Virginian forebear was Virginian  born Harriet [nee Logan] St John Howard, whose death date is not yet known, but  is last documented writing to her surviving children in Texas through her lawyer in Richmond, near her home in Powhatan County,  in 1853. See The Logan Family Title Page  which introduces this influential Pennsylvania family, the direct line of which involves later residency in Virginia from the close of the 18th century to Harriet [nee Logan] St John Howard's death. 
 John Smith's Map of Virginia quotVirginia / discovered and discribed by Captayn John Smith, 1606; graven by William Hole.quot London, 1624. Map Collections: 1544-1999, American Memory collections, Library of Congress.

Chapter  Contents and  Table of Contents This Page Within Chapter:
Chapter  Contents
The History of Virginia by County Formation , and  Our Virginians
Settlement of Va,1700-1775
As a result of our rich history there,  Jamestown has its own historical pages linking to
the first Black Americans of known origin in America page and 
the Native Americans of Virginia pages,  
both of whom figure in the first generation Woodson history- links to which family are evident at those historical pages.

 
Table of  Contents This Page: 
Introduction [above]aa
A) Brief Composite History of Our Virginiansaaaaaaaaa
B) Our Surnames of Virginiaaaaaaaaaa
C) The counties of Virginia identifying our ancestors residing in each through succesive generations
D) The Counties of our Virigina forebears and those counties'  Histories
[Jamestown, the four incorporated cities 1617, and the 8 shires or couties of 1634 and the counties those shires spawned of relevance to this study ]
E) Our Surnames of Va by appearance, [synopsis of each & again informs of the county of residency for the FIRST in line ]


Found Outside this Website: 
1770 Map of Virginia Counties
World Atlas Maps and Virginia Information Page  [GREAT. No Detail Missed!]

 
 
Surnames relevant to Virginia in Order of Appearance 
[Links are to a synopsis and are account of the surnames provided] :

WOODSON  , WINSTON  , TATE or TAIT, FERRIS , BATES , COLE , McGEHEE, FLEMING , TARLETON ,   LARCOME , PLEASANTS , LEAR , MILNER , BAYSTROP or BAYTOP, ROSCOW , LOGAN , CARY , HEATH , HILL , 
MAYFIELD ,  ELLIT or ELLIS , BOOKER , HOWARD

These Surnames Involve residency Virginia involving   Henrico , York, Chesterfield, Warwick, New Kent , Louisa, Amelia, and Nansemond . Gloucester may also be relevant to the Booker line. Powhatan,  St. Johnís Parish of  King William county ,
 

See Our Brief and General Virginia History Below, and 
See Our Ancestors of Virginia in order of appearance ,
with County identified &  Brief Synopsis offered
See also a Detailed Negotiable Map of Virginia 1751
 
Our General Virginia History

[Our Virginia History arises entirely from the Howard and Allied Lines] 

Our direct ancestor Virginia Residents are all part of the Howard and Allied Lines  and span a period of 1619-1853. 
Currently , all our Virginians arise from three roots: A) David P Howard of Powhatan County born 1780-90, B) his wife Harriet [nee Logan] St John Howard via  Harriet's maternal ascendancy through Mary PLEASANTS born in Virginia, and  C) Jabus Everett McGehee through his Virginian born parents, though Jabus himself  was born in Georgia. Jabe's daughter, Frances Beatrice "Fannie"  McGehee of  eastern Alabama  married Jonathan Patterson "Pat " Howard of Texas in 1884. Pat Howard was David P and Harriet [nee LOgan] St John Howard's grandson , those persons being  outlined in A)  and B)  just mentioned. 

Harriet [nee LOGAN] St John Howard married twice , and it is  through Harriet's mother  Mary PLEASANTS that much detail on many of our Virginians has been uncovered.  Despite the birth of Harriet's second husband , our direct, David HOWARD in Virginia ca 1780-90, his  own ascendancy remains elusive despite active research. 

Harriet [nee Logan] St John Howard's father was Philadelphia born quaker  Charles LOGAN,  grandson of William Penn's Secretary James Logan . Charles married  Mary PLEASANTS in Virginia, similarly a quaker but of an old  Virginia family and with many other prominent and equally old Virginia surnames in her ascendancy, among them many plantars of wealth defining this region of the ante bellum south. Through Mary PLEASANTS  we gain many prominent names of earliest colonial Virginia,  involvement in the slave holding plantar class, and  our first known American immigrants of all families studied within these pages either  Swope and allied  or Howard and Allied involved:  :  Dr John and Sarah Woodson,  arriving to  Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 arising from the Howard and Allied study.  In travelling back to the Woodsons from Mary [nee Pleasants]  Logan, we find our direct lines of Virginia involved in Powhatan, Henrico , Chesterfield, Warwick, New Kent and York Counties Virginia. 

Mary Pleasants Logan's daughter Harriet Logan St John Howard is our last Virginia resident. 

Harriet [nee LOGAN] St John Howard;s  second husband David HOWARD is known by census to have been born in Virginia ca 1780-90, his ascendancy is still in doubt; It is hoped that he will become surely connected with the  many Howards present in early Virginia and neighboring Maryland climbing back into the earliest white history of that region thus opening a new vehicle to Virginia and Chesapeake historical research. 
The McGehee associated surnames of Virginia include the 1635 arrival of our first TATE [or Tait] forebear, the 1638 Warwick County birth of Our COLE forebear, and the 1653 and 1659 records involving our first believed McGehee American, with many other names entering the ascendancy present in Virginia also in the 17th. In travelling back from our last McGehees of Virginia, Samuel and Nancy Tate McGehee who in 1791 are found emmigrated to Elbert County, Georgia, we find the Virginia Counties of Amelia , Louisa, Warwick , Hanover, and  St. Johnís Parish  in King William County , a region very near Williamsburg. 

The disruption occasioned by the Civil War has made details regarding Harriet,  our last Virginian,  difficult to ascertain, yet her Virginia ascendancy is resplendant in detail . Our last known direct ancestor present in Virginia, Harriet [nee LOGAN] above mentioned,  was a direct descendant of two of Jamestown's first 1,000 surviving residents, although she herself was Pennsylvanian for generations through many lines [See the Howard Allied families of  Pennsylvania] .  Harriet LOGAN married in Virginia to both Irish born John ST JOHN and Virginia native David HOWARD. Harriet Logan St John Howard died in or  after 1854  at which time she communicated through her lawyer to her surviving sons  in Henderson, Texas from Richmond, Va.  She,  her 2nd husband and children are found in census regarding Powhatan Co  up to and including the year 1840  while her Howard children are found there in 1850 with she and her husband mysteriously absent.  The county in which Harriet Logan St Johns Howard is found as an adult, Powhatan, is now bordered on the North by the James River and on the south by the Appomattox River covering a region of 273 square miles and with a population of about 22, 000]. See Powhatan Co [map]. None of Harriet's  four children of two marriages continued adult residency in Virginia: the three Howard children are last seen in the  census of 1850 of that County  while her first child,John St John, died in Georgia unknown date and s.p. The three Howard children of her four children total  migrated to Henderson, Texas just after the1850 census; They forged a new life together thus ending our Virginia involvement.  Only one of them, David Patterson Howard,  produced progeny [with wife Marth Ann FOWLER] and he,  his wife and their  children are among  our Texans.  One of their children ,  Jonathan Patterson "Pat" Howard married in 1884 to Eastern Albamian Fannie McGehee whose paternal ancestry involves the McGehee and allied Virginians above discussed.  Very likely unknown to them, Fannie McGehee and Pat Howard were distant cousins  owing to their shared ancestors in early Virginia. 

Included in the familial history via the McGehee ascendancy is Colonial Williamsburg in the years of its formation 1699, slave ownership in the plantar classes of that state, service to Lord Dunmore in his war with the natives and in 1763,  and emmigration to Georgia in the 1791 and the period of that state's expansion.  Included in our familial Virginia history via the PLEASANTS ascendancy is the history of The Jamestown Colony and the massacres our WOODSON line endured and which were mounted by Openchancanough of the Powhatan Confederacy,  the history of the first black Americans of known origin 6 of whom are found in the WOodson household in 1624,  and  the ultimate quaker enlightenment assuring the freedom of over 500 black slaves in Mary [nee Pleasants] Logan's  father's possesion in the years surronding the American Revolution. Sadly, his plan for his slaves was two decades delayed-requiring  an act of legislature to secure the enslaved's release owing to white concerns regarding sudden release of such a large number of those  in bondage. 

 
 
 
 
 
 

On to Our Virginians present in Virginia, in order of appearance, with brief family synopsis each line and counties of residency given
 

The Counties of Virginia and Their Formation

Va Counties Today
Our Surnames Involve residency Virginia involving Henrico, Chesterfield, Powhatan, York ,   New Kent , Louisa, St. Johnís Parish of  King William county ,  Warwick, ,  Amelia,    and Nansemond Counties. Gloucester may also be relevant to the Booker line where a possible first ancestor of the line is found residing. Richmond City is important to several lines
These counties involve the original or descendant counties of 6 of the original 8 shires / counties . All 8 original shires are listed further below with their relevant histories, as are the histories of the descendant counties spawned of them that are relevant to our direct forebears. This table provides the counties relevant to our direct lines of Virginia, and the counties to which they pertained. By showing their root counties, further research on the lines in relevant geographic areas becomes easier.

Elizabeth City County [what remained after being partitioned off into other counties] dissappeared in  1952, when Elizabeth City County merged into the city of Hampton, as the Hampton Roads communities dealt with urbanization and the potential threat of annexation by the city of Norfolk1. 

Nansemond was originally known as Upper Norfolk but its name was changed to Nansemond in 1642/43.  Nansemond County was extinguished 1972 when Nansemond incorporated as a town. Nansemond the town was absorbed by the town of Suffolk in 1974.

The County of Warwick became the City of Warwick in 1952, at which time the county was made extinct. The City of Warwick  merged and consolidated with the city of Newport News in 1958, and , following voter decision of 1957, this greater metropolitan area became known as Newport News.

 

                    Historical & Background Items of Interest

                    The Hornbook of Virginia History

                    An extinct county, it was named for the Nansemond Indians. The county became the independent city of Nansemond in July 1972 and
                    on 1 January 1974, merged with the city of Suffolk. Suffolk was incorporated as a town in 1808, and as a city in 1910.

                    Parishes - Chuckatuck (after 1643-1737), East (1643-1744), Lower (after 1643-1737), Lower Suffolk, South (after 1744), Suffolk
                    (1737-    ), Upper (after 1643-after 1744), Upper Suffolk (after 1744, West (1643-before 1737).

See 1895 Map of Virginia, Good Resolution and Detail , giving towns , rivers, etc in above

The History of Virginia by County Formation

Virginia experienced its first permanent settlement by the English  in 1607-8 and at Jamestown
In 1617 the Virginia Colony had divided into the incorporations of Henricus, Charles City, James City and Kecoughtan
In 1624 the London Company's Charter was revoked
In 1634 The first 8 Shires, or Counties, of Virginia were outlined, in effort to allow the 5,000+ population of Virginia t  access to their courts within one day's travel.
 

The Settlement of Jamestown was made in 1606-7.    " To attract settlers after the "starving time" in 1609-10 and the failure of the colony to thrive, the London Company offered potential investors a great deal of flexibility in creating new settlements. Shiploads of settlers were sent to Virginia to create largely self-sufficient "hundreds." The name reflected the anticipated number of new settlers required to establish a permanent community. These new "hundreds" were required to be at least several miles from any existing community, and "Bermuda Hundred" became a famous place name on the James River during the Civil War. " 3

Our Woodson forebears were part of  Fleur de Hundred from the 1624 census at least until the 1644 massacre in which they are again identified of that locale.

By 1617 the Virginia colony had been divided into the Incorporations of Henricus, Charles City, James City, and Kecoughtan3. [Kecoughtan later became known as  Elizabeth City, one of the original shires outlined in 1634] .  " In 1619, representatives from the separate communities assembled to form the first House of Burgesses, another attempt by the London Company to make the colony attractive to new investors and settlers. In 1624, King James I took official control of the colony by revoking the company charter. Virginia was ruled as a royal colony of the king (as opposed to a proprietary colony, where authority was granted to an individual such as William Penn or Lord Calvert) until the American Revolution.   The House of Burgesses first created official local governmental units 1634. The decision reflected the population growth of the colony, which created a need for official decisions that were local and not of concern to the entire House (or appropriate to delay until the next session of the House of Burgesses). The local units of  government were called "shires" only in the original act. Ever since, they have been described as "counties. In 1618 King James I granted the Third Charter with provisions for elected representatives to help govern the colony. In 1619 the eleven small settlements within the four Incorporations elected representatives to a General Assembly. [There were also "particular plantations" outside the direct control of the London Company. The first General Assembly rejected representatives that were elected from Martin's Brandon, in today's Prince George county, because that particular plantation had highlighted that they were governed by separate rules.]  Starting in 1619 the General Assembly handled executive, legislative, and judicial issues. It created the first courts to handle small lawsuits in 1621, but the population increase - to about 5,000 colonists in 1634 - caused the administrative workload to become a hassle. In 1634 the General Assembly chartered eight shires, which were called "counties" afterwards. " 3

Thus, in 1634,  the Virginia assembly outlined 8 shires or counties, developed to allow the colonists to reach county court sessions within one day.

" The first eight counties were the four existing Incorporations (Charles City, Elizabeth City - which replaced the "heathen" name of Kecoughtan, Henrico [ ed note, which is not to be confused with the cittie of Henricus which was abandoned after the 1622 massacre, but from which it got its name] , and James City) plus four new areas: Accomack, Charles River, Warrosquyoake, and Warwick River. The boundaries of the eight counties were drawn so most colonists could reach their county court sessions, where justices dealt with property issues and criminal accusations, in one day. County boundaries would be defined and revised for many reasons until the last county was created in 1880, but the primary basis for drawing Virginia's county boundaries was to make the courts accessible. " 3.

It is within  these  original Shires or Counties,   formed in 1634 , or their descendant counties that  our ancestral homes in Virginia are found.  In searching for documents on any Virginia ancestor,it is helpful to understand the formation of counties allowing  further research into the regions involved.  The Original Shires of Virginia and their Descendant Counties are identified beautifully at "Notes on Virginia Counties" by John Collins, presented at the Winberly Family Webpages, with the sole exclusion of the now extinct Warwick County in the list .  In addition  Virginia Places.org and , Extinct Virginia Counties as presented in Denis Graham's Genealogical Website provide detail and insight into the original shires. . The writer is indebted to all sources, and the reader is encouraged to access the links to the sources as provided.

Our Surnames Involve residency Virginia involving  Powhatan,  St. Johnís Parish of  King William county , Henrico , Chesterfield, , New Kent , Louisa, Amelia,  York , Warwick and Nansemond Counties. Gloucester may also be relevant to the Booker line.
Nansemond Co, VAGenWeb Project informs Nansemond is extinct. , becoming the town of Suffolk.
Warwick apparantly became the City of Newport News.
 

The Original Eight Shires of Virginia and their Descendant Counties  [The Descendant Counties is Not complete and the entries provided are relevant to our forebears  only] :

Accawmack/Northhampton
[name changed in 1642/3]
Charles City County
Charles River County / York
[name changed in 1642/3]
Elizabeth City County / Kecoughton
[Prior to 1634 it was known as Kecoughton.]
Henrico County
James City County
Warrosquyoake County / Isle Of Wight
[name changed in 1637]
Warwick County [Originally called Warwick River-
the name was changed in  1642/43]



 

THE COUNTIES OF RESIDENCE OF OUR VIRGINIAN FOREBEARS BY ALPHABETICAL LISTING
with reference to the Original Shires from which they Evolved:

 The counties of our Virginian forebears are found s Powhatan,  St. Johnís Parish of  King William county , Henrico , Chesterfield, Warwick, New Kent , Louisa, Amelia, Nansemond, and York Counties. Gloucester may also be relevant to the Booker line.

In 2001, the population of Virginia was estimated at 7,187,734 [US Census Bureau Quick Facts]




















Louisa County originally pertained to the Original Shire of Charles River [1634] the name of which was changed to York in 1648.
2001 population estimate is 26,539.

King William County King William was formed 1702 from King and Queen County [formed 1691 from New Kent]. New Kent was formed 1654 from York County. [York County was the renaming in 1648 of the original Shire of Charles River].
King William originally pertained to the original shire of   Charles River [1634- the name of which was changed to York in 1648 ]  King William  was formed 1702 from King and Queen County and was named for William of Orange, King of England.  King William County holds the oldest continually used courthouse in the United States. At the time of English contact, the Mattaponi and Pamunkey tribes of the Powhatan confederacy hunted  and fished the waters here,  in what the colonists later called the Pamunkey Neck. This county has two rivers, the Mattaponi and Pamunky , and fertile land between them. By the mid 1600s, the growing economy was fed by  tobacco plantations lining  the shores of the rivers, and the river system provided access to market.  Today it is a bedroom community for Richmond, while agriculture and loggigs are its mainstays. The Mattaponi and Pamunkey tribes operate shad hatcheries on the rivers. In 2001, the population of this county was estimated  13,577.
 

Sources
King William Virginia GenWeb Pages
King William County Pages and

New Kent County was once part of Charles River County, one of the original 8 shires into which Virginia was divided in 1634 .  In 1642/43 Charles River County's  name was changed to York County.1 New Kent County was largely formed out of York County in 1654 (with a little bit coming from James City County, another one of the original shires of 1634). 1
The history of New Kent County begins long before the county was settled in 1644 and incorporated a decade later.  Originally including part or all of the present day counties of King & Queen, King William, Spotsylvania and Hanover, the modern day borders of New Kent took place in 1766 through exchange of land with James City County. It was settled by English via  land grants along the rivers leading to large plantations and palatial manor homes, thus   fostering a way of life long associated with Virginia's  colonial era.The European History of New Kent began with the visit of Captain John Smith in 1607, at which time The region was a thriving confederacy of Indian tribes ruled over by Chief Powhatan and later by his half brother and succesor, Opechannough. In 1607 Capt. John Smith discovered Moysenec, a settlement of the Chickahominy Tribe , now an important  archeological site. New Kent was first mentioned in the General Assembly in 1754. The village of New Kent appears to have been the County seat since 1691.  Most of the County's colonial records were destroyed in the  burning of the clerk's office in 1787, and later records were destroyed   in the burning of Richmond during the Civil War. At the time of her marriage to George Washington, Martha Dandridge Custis worshiped at St. Peter's Episcopal Church at Talleysville in this county, the pastor having baptized her and presided over her previous marriage as well, possibly in the church itself. General Lee and his wife also worshipped here and helped rebuild it after the war.  The church was   founded in 1698, built in 1701 and enlarged in the 1740s and 60s.
See Map of this Region today , The church at Talleysville is shown with a red star .
Sources:
New Kent County History, from the New Kent County, Virginia Webpages. See New Kent Virginia, Gen Web pages
The 2001 estimated Population of New Kent County was 13,986.

Warwick County, one of the original 8 shires of Virginia,  is a now extinct county of Virginia, reaching that status in 1952 when Warwick County became the city of Warwick. . The City of Warwick was consolidated with the City of Newport News in 1958 and the original Shire's  former region is now encompassed in the 65 square mile are of Newport News [referred to as Newport's News in early 17th documents] which in fact is a consolidated municipality comprising both Newport News and the former city of Warwick.
Warwick was one of the original two Shires or Counties of the region, along with Elizabeth City. Both are now extinct. The town of Newport News  itself, on the land of the former county, has a long history. This region was first seen by the English  April 26 1607, when  Captain Christopher Newport and Company arrived. Sir Thomas Dale reorganized the settlement and it is then  referenced as Newport's News. Records of what is thought its  earliest church building exist for 1627, and in 1631 Nutmeg Quaker Church was erected. In 1634 Warwick River Shire was established, taking  it's name from Robert Rich, second Earl of Warwick and a prominent member of the Virginia Company. In 1643 Warwick River Shire became  Warwick County. The town of Newport News did not grow until the industrial era; before this time it was a  small town of 1,000 people, mostly Negro.  It consisted of little more than farms, war ravished fields and a few docks.  The geographic area covered only four square miles and part of Elizabeth City County's lower end peninsula.  In 1896  Newport News withdrew from Warwick Co. and was incorporated as a city. In 1952 the City of Warwick was  incorporated and in 1957 Voters decided  the consolidated city of Warwick and Newport News  should be named Newport News, this vote coming to fruition in 1958 when  The city of Greater Newport News became an actuality as the third largest city in Virginia with a 65 square mile area.

One of the eight original shires of Virginia created in 1634. The county became extinct in 1952 when it became the City of Warwick. The City of Warwick was
consolidated with the City of Newport News in 1958. Almost all of the records were destroyed during the Civil War.
The 2001 Population Estimate for Newport News City is 180,305.

Sources:
Chronological History  of Warwick County Virginia abstracted from the book "Newport News Virginia, 1607-1960" by Annie Lash Jester published 1961 and the
City of Newport News Website

Hanover County at the time of English settlement was hunting ground for the Pamunkey and Chickahominy Indians. It was settled in the late 17th by tobacco plantars. Originally part of New Kent County. Hanover County was officially formed on November 26, 1720 from the area of New Kent County called St. Paul's Parish. Two early port towns on the Pamunkey River , both mercantile villages from which tobacco was shipped ,  were Hanovertown and Newcastle. Neither exists today. Patrick Henry, the Governor of Virginia, was born in this county in 1736.
From Hanover County Government Online
The 2001 Estimated Population of Hanover County was 89,714.
 

The 2001 Estimated Population of Henrico County was 264,973.
 
 

"Some of the great James River plantation homes have proven more durable landmarks. The easternmost of the
                                 surviving mansions, Carter's Grove, reigns atop a terraced lawn on a bluff. It was built about 1753 on what was Martin's
                                 Hundred. Wolstenholme Towne was the hundred's administrative center. Staggered in the Massacre of 1622, it
                                 slipped into oblivion. A Colonial Williamsburg archaeological team led by Ivor Noel Hume unearthed it and some

                                 hatcheted victims in 1976.....

                                 On the bluff at the Appomattox's mouth, the colonists had established Bermuda City--later City Point. They intended a
                                 free school to prepare Henricus scholars. In their preparations they paused to elect two burgesses to the General
                                 Assembly of 1619--the first meeting of a representative, American legislature. Indian affairs dominated the session.
" Colonial Williamsburg, The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Old Muddy James and the Flow of History
                                 by Dennis Montgomery  http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/james.cfm
 

King William County was formed 1702 from King and Queen County.
Hanover County formed 1721 from new Kent County
Amelia formed 1735 from Prince George and Brunswick County
Louisa formed 1742 from Hanover County
Chesterfield formed 1745 from Henrico
Culpepper formed 1749 from Orange
Powhatan formed 1777 from Cumberland, with a bit added to it in 1850
Nottoway was formed 1789 from Amelia
 

xxxx

Chesterfield County, formed much after its first settlement within its present borders, holds the site of the second "Permanent" Virginia settlement.   Here, at the confluence of the James and Appomattox, and in the environs of modern Hopewell, Newport's expedition paused at an Appomattuck village, entertained by Queen Opusquinuske. Four years later the English took this for their own, and  in staking out Bermuda Hundred on the peninusla made by the rivers , Sir Thomas Dale, a sea captain and temporary deputy governor of the Virginia colony, created at its western limit  a seven acre settlement intended to replace swampy Jamestown, and called this town Henricus. The 1611 Citie of Henricus, from which Chesterfield evolved, was established by  Dale along with 350 settlers  on a bluff above the scenic James River.   The Native Americans attacked the settlement constantly and it was in hopes of securing peace that Argall took Pocahontas hostage.  She was taught Christianity by Reverend Alexander Whitaker of Henricus and at age 18 or 19 was baptized in Henricusís church, taking the name Rebecca. This was where Pocohontas lived when she was converted to Christianity, this is where the first tobacco crops were planted and harvested, and the first self sustaining tobacco plantations for which Virginia is famous occured.   This was  also the site of America's first public hospital "Mt Malady" [ The hospital could house 80 patients in 40 beds] and there was as well, chartered by the London Company, an Henricus University  established there in 1619, the purpose of which was  to civilize recalcitrant savages .This town enjoyed growth and prosperity from the peace secured with Pocohontas marriage to her English Captain until the 1622 massacre when  the town was forced to abandonment. Both the hospital and the University are thought to have been destroyed along with the citie in the 1622 massacre.

There are many firsts then for Chesterfield County and American History: The first public Hospital,  the first Grist mill in America is thought to have been the Swift Creek Mill, in existance as early as 1663. It is believed to be the oldest grist mill in this country.  Henry Randolph of  Little Houghton, Northamptonshire, England,  acquired a large tract in Bermuda Hundred on Swift Creek where the present mill is located. Chesterfield  was also the location of the first iron mines, established in 1619 and eliminated along with the Henricus settlement in the 1622 massacre.   It was also  in Chesterfield  that the French Huguenots established the first commerical coal mines in America  in 1700. The first railroad in Virginia was also in this county.

Henricus suffered 6 deaths with the massacre, and most of its inhabitants did not want to go back there. they chose for one alternate place Farrar's Island, and for another Varina, Rolfe's plantation he had named for the spanish Varina tobacco he'd encountered in Bermuda.   " a tiny village grew up on Rolfe's Plantation called Varina or Henrico Parish. Varina was the first County seat of Henrico and the first courthouse was built there. Originally the name Varina denoted an area of some 18 by 25 miles in measurement." [Henrico County  . Division of Recreation and Parks  Names & Places in Henrico County  http://www.co.henrico.va.us/rec/namelist.htm#HENRICOCOUNTY]
Chesterfield County's 2001 population was estimated at 266,549.
 

Powhatan County:  [Powhatan was formed May 1777 from Cumberland [formed 1749 from Goochland]. Goochland was formed 1728 from Henrico. Henrico was an original shire of 1634.]
The first white men in Powhatan County were led by Christopher Newport in an expedition 1608 up the James to an area as far west as Maiden's Bridge. This region was then occupied by the Monacan Indians, natural enemies to the more eastern Powhatan Confederacy. Between the years 1699-1705, some five to seven hundred Huguenot refugees fleeing from persecution in France settled  on the James River near Manakin in the then-abandoned Monacan Indian villages. Powhatan county was formed by the Virginia Assembly in May 1777, taking land for it from the eastern portion of Cumberland County  between the James and Appomatox Rivers. Added to Powhatan county In 1850 was a small portion of Chesterfield county, giving Powhatan its present 273 square miles.  Powhatan is one of 9 counties bearing Indian names , and it was named for Chief Powhatan, the Pamunkey Indian, and Chief of the Powhatan confederacy of which the Pamunkey were part, at the time of arrival of settlers to Jamestown, and until shortly after the death of his famous daughter Pocahontas.
The first court was held at the home of Littlebury MOSBY, important gentleman in the history of Cumberland and Powhatan Counties. Scottville, a planned county seat, was created , but its name was changed to Powhatan in 1836.  [GIVE GENERAL SOURCE:
Sources: Powhatan Historical Society Pages: History of Powhatan County by Margaret Palmore with the help of Raymond Boelt and Roy Nicholls.]
Powhatan: "Due to the lack of public transportation, small villages sprang up around the county, each of which served their immediate areas.  General stores were stocked with local produce, while dry goods were hauled by packet boat (operated by independent boat companies) on the Kanawha Canal, located on the north side of the river.  Each store was responsible for ordering its own  supplies and picking them up at the river.  These goods were then brought across to the Powhatan side of the river boat or ferry   and hauled by teams or wagons to various locations through the county.  According to a directory from that period, in 1852 there were 16 merchants in the county as well as 13 attorneys and 13 physicians.
An assessment in 1850 valued the land in the county at an average of $10.12 per acre.  The 1852 census showed the  population to be 8,171."  In 1850 our three Howard siblings  are found in the Powhatan Census, their parent's mysteriously absent. This is the year the Howard siblings travelled to Texas. In Summer 1853, their mother Harriet [nee Logan]  St James Howard wrote to her children through an attorney in Richmond, just nearby.
 Historical Society Pages: History of Powhatan County by Margaret Palmore with the help of Raymond Boelt and Roy Nicholls.
The 2001 population estimate for Powhatan County was 23,425.
 
 

Henrico: One of the oldest political subdivisions in Virginia, Henrico was the scene of
  the second settlement in the colony and was established in 1634 as one of
  the eight original shires or counties. Its first boundaries incorporated an
  area from which 10 Virginia counties were later formed in whole or in part,
  as well as the cities of Richmond, Charlottesville, and Colonial Heights. The
  county was named for Henry, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James
  I of England. .....
Henrico Becomes A Shire

"This name was chosen in honor of the son of King James 1, Henry Frederick Prince of
  Wales. Sir Thomas Dale was asked by Prince Henry, a patron of the Virginia Company,
  to correct the starving and pitiful conditions of the colonists at Jamestown. He selected
  a new location for a town on what is now known as Farrar's Island and named the city
  Henricus. The city, founded in 1611, consisted of three streets, about 1000 houses, a
  hospital, a church, and the foundation for the first college in Virginia. The massacre of
  1622, ended the life of the little town. The name Henricopolis was coined about 1890 in
  reference to the city from which Henrico County derived its name."
                  Henrico County  . Division of Recreation and Parks
                  Names & Places in Henrico County  http://www.co.henrico.va.us/rec/namelist.htm#HENRICOCOUNTY
 

  As the Indians became less of a threat to the colonists, more settlers came
  to Virginia. In 1624, England assumed control of the colonies.

  In 1634, Virginia was divided into eight shires, or counties, one being
  Henrico. By 1640, the Henrico court was held at Varina. By 1752, the
  courthouse was moved to Richmond.
http://www.co.henrico.va.us/manager/briefhis.htm
xxxxx
The area which is now Fluvanna County was once part of Henrico County, one of the original shires of the Virginia Colony.
                          Henrico was divided in 1727 and the Fluvanna County area became a part of Goochland County. In 1744 Goochland was
                          divided and the area presently known as Fluvanna became a part of Albemarle County. Finally, in 1777, Albemarle County was
                          divided and Fluvanna County established. The County was named for the Fluvanna River, the name given to James River west
                          of Columbia. Fluvanna means "Annie's River" in honor of Queen Anne of England.
http://home.earthlink.net/~marketedge/fluvanna/county_history.htm

Westmoreland  is one of a group of Counties in Virginia lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers. It was originally a portion of northumberland, and though small geographically, has great historical record.  Within a space of thirty miles in length and an average width of fifteen miles were born many prominent persons in American history , Washington's family among them. , as was James Monroe. James Madison was born in neighboring King George only a few miles distant, , and Robert Lee's family settled Westmoreland.
From Pecquet du Bellet, Louise,
                        Some prominent Virginia families
                        Lynchburg, Va.?: J.P. Bell, 1907, 1763  pgs.

Our Virginians in Order of Appearance of their Surnames to America


John Smith's Map of Virginia quotVirginia / discovered and discribed by Captayn John Smith, 1606; graven by William Hole.quot London, 1624. Map Collections: 1544-1999, American Memory collections, Library of Congress.
 
 

All Virginians are part of the Howard and Allied Families  WIthin The Vines
Our Virginians represent the earliest of all our ancestors among both the Howard and Allied Families  &
the Swope and Allied Families studied in these pages, pre emmigrating our earliest Pennsylvanians who arrived in the later part of the 17th century to that Colony



WOODSON , John  [Jamestown 1619]  [Howard Allied Surname]

John Woodson and his wife Sarah are our  earliest of all known ancestors Howard or Swope. He  was Listed as a Surgeon, and they both emmigrated 1619, to Jamestown, VA on the "George" and in company of Governor Sir Yeardley.  Both Sarah and John survived the first devastating massacre of 1622 in which Jamestown was nearly extinguished, but he  was killed in the Indian massacre of 1644 at Fleur de Hundred, Henrico County, VA [part of the Jamestown colony] . John Woodson and his wife are some  of the first citizens to have in their household persons of color in all American history, but they do not long remain in their enumeration.   In any scholarly discussion of the history of black Americans or the history of black slavery, there is the inevitable and rightful inclusion of the "20 and some odd" first Black Americans of known origin [6 of which are found in the Woodson household in 1623 ]. Begininning unwittingly and before the concept of slavery was developed in America but during the time when indenture sometimes closely mimicked it , this marks the first generation involving black Americans within our white household's censuses, and shortly thereafter  slave ownership among our plantar [and Quaker] families of Virginia was strongly in place.  These "20 and some odd" black Americans are often found called slaves and not indentures  but the use of the word slave to define them  is not historically accurate when study is made of   the nomenclature of the census involved,  the evolving  law regarding black American slavery and white and black early indenture ,or   the conditions of early indenture itself  . Extant letters and documents relating to  white indentures suggests that their condition was no better than slavery, though its time frame was limited. After the massacre of 1622, it was found that some women had been taken captive. One was bought back by paid ransom ransom by the  man to whom her murdered husband still owed time and for the purpose of her payment of that time. Within a year she lamented  that her slavery to him was no better than her slavery while an Indian captive and sought relief through governmental intervention. 
Because of the obvious interface of the first two generation Woodsons  with the native Powhatan Confederacy and particularly their  fascinating leader Openchancanough, [himself with perhaps THE most interesting bio in all these pages] several pages studying these peoples are provided.
Sarah  [possibly WINSTON ]  [Howard Allied Surname]
She accompanied her husband Dr John Woodson to Virginia. She is credited with saving her sons in the Indian massacre which took her husband's life, and so assured the Woodson and all its subsequently allied lines. Her Will was proved in Henrico County, VA January 17,1659/60. See Dr John Woodson entry above. 


TATE [TAIT], James  [Howard Allied Surname]
James TAIT arrived to Virginia 27 Apr 1635 On ship "Ann and Elizabeth" . This recently identified surname in the ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the civil war is under research, and is amply studied by Tate researchers and the many allied surnames claiming them. More detail on James TAIT and his progeny, and our direct line within the family  is expected to be encountered. GGG Grandaughter Nancy TATE of Louisa County married Samuel McGehee, likewise of that county, and soon after marriage they emmigrated to Elbert County Georgia, where they are found in 1791. Their own Ggrandaughter Frances Beatrice McGehee of eastern Alabama married Jonathan Patterson "Pat " Howard in 1884. 

FERRIS , Richard   Present Prince George Co. VA ca  1630s  [Howard Allied Surname]
 Unknown date of emmigration. He was born 1596, London, EnglandRichard Ferris was present in Prince George Co., Va ca 1630s for  dtr Elizabethwas born  there. Elizabeth married Robert WOODSON, son of James and Sarah WOODSON, our first immigrants. Their GGrandaughter Mary Pleasants married Charles Logan, who had Harriet Logan our last direct ancestor resident in Virginia in 1853 as Harriet Logan St John Howard. 

BATES, Susannah  [Howard Allied Surname]
Born 1638 in Middletown, Bruton Parish, York Co. VA;  ascendancy under research. She married Stephen Woodson Tarleton, and two of their daughters continue the descendancy to Mary PLEASANTS who married Charles LOGAN, producing Harriet Logan St John Howard, our last direct ancestor virginian 

 
COLE, William  [Howard Allied Surname]
Known ancestor born 1638 Warwick County, Virginia. This  surname in the recently discovered ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the Civil War  is under research. Efforts thus far to define this line inform  of  the immigrant William COLE  born Tillingham,Essex,England 1598 and who died in 1664. He and wife Frances had son [ Honorable] William Cole born in Warwick County,Colonial Virginia 1638. Descendant Martha [Patsy] COLE  married William McGehee in Virginia in, it is thought, the 1760s first 5 years. Martha Cole was William McGehee's first wife, and the only mother of his many children. William later married Bathsheba SHIRLEY, a woman nearly 30 years his junior, and of a long Virginia line. Bathsheba then, appears in William's will, but she bore him none of the children found in that document. 

McGehee , William  [Howard Allied Surname]
 William McGehee is present in Virginia records April 1653 where he appears in the headright of a William Hoccaday as William MackGahye and in 1658 in York , York County Virginia in court testimony  as William McGahee. Although no evidence exists to support it, our known ancestor Thomas MackGehee is felt to be his son. William's probable son  is associated with the area surronding Williamsburg,  the founding of which that son, and perhaps this father,  witnessed  [Jamestown had burned yet again and its population abandoned it ,  retreating to a more favorable, less swampy locale in 1699] . Thomas MackGehee, the probable son and certainly our earliest assured  McGhee,  first appears in the records of Virginia in 1689; His extant will of 1727 in St John's Parish , King William County, near Williamsburg shows he died a wealthy man and with many children. For many years it was felt that Thomas  was our first immigrant McGehee, and that he had been born James MacGregor. Contemporary thought is that he is the son of William of the Headright, as above shown, and that it is  William who was born James MacGregor, though the MacGregor connection is not able to be proved.  It is , however, known exactly who the James MacGregor was, son of a chief of a  branch of MacGregors, who is known to have emmigrated to Virginia but who does not appear in records there. This emmigration occured during the outlaw of the MacGregor name,  and it is felt James MacGregor was forced to change his name. James MacGregor's father was the chief of a branch of the Gregor clan who were known, due to their hunted and wild existence in the Highlands, as "Children of the mist", or, in Gaellic "MacEagh". Because the current chief MacGregor has ascendancy, as did his father Sir Gregor MacGregor, to James MacGregor's older brother, the European ascendancy of our McGehee family is documented , if one accepts the McGehee MacGregor connection, through the mists of time and Scotland's Highlands. Our American McGehees travel down 8 generations to our last direct of the family Frances Beatrice McGehee of East Alabama, wife to Jonathan Patterson "Pat" Howard. She is Ben Howards mother, this writer's Great Grandmother.  See also  Williamsburg , Virginia, and our colonial family there.  See McGehee Family History. 

FLEMING, John  [Howard Allied Surname]
 first appearance in the Records of the Land Office in Richmond VA in 1653. His grandaughter Ursual FLEMING married Tarleton WOODSON and they were grandparents of Mary PLEASANTS who married Charles LOGAN, parents of Harriet Logan St John Howard, our last direct Virginian resident. 

TARLETON, Stephen  [Howard Allied Surname]
 Present in New Kent, Va 1661 when daughter Susanna was born [St. Peter's Parrish] . He was born 1637,  probably in England. He married Susannah BATES, and two daughters continue the descendancy to Mary PLEASANTS. 
LARCOME, Rene  [Howard Allied Surname]
Unknown date of emmigration, unknown spouse. Daughter Jane born 1638 in Curles, Henrico County, Virginia, married John PLEASANTS baptized 1644 in England,  our PLEASANTS emmigrant ancestor and a wealthy and influential Quaker Planter.  Their greatgrandaughter was Mary PLEASANTS who married Charles LOGAN, parents of Harriet Logan St John Howard, our last direct Virginian resident. 

PLEASANTS, John  [Howard Allied Surname]
Emigrated to Va ca 1665 ; settled Henrico County, a a wealthy and influential Quaker Planter. From Peggy Hooperís Web pages 
ìSocial Life in Old Virginia, by Phillip Alexander Bruce c, 1910

The most prominent Quaker in Henrico County at this time was John Pleasants, a planter of considerable wealth, and of a high reputation for sense and character. He had been convicted previous to 1679 for violating the provisions of the statute passed for the repression of his sect, but the sentence was not put in force. On his persisting in allowing Quaker services to be held in his house, he was warned that, if he continued to do this, execution would be ordered pursuant to the old judgment.' As Pleasants refused to desist, he fell a victim to what must have proved to him to be a peculiarly annoying form of persecution:-he and his wife were indicted for living together without the sanction of legal marriage simply because they had been united after the ordinary Quaker manner; and for their alleged illicit cohabitation, each was fined two hundred and forty pounds sterling on the ground that they constituted, not one couple, but two separate persons. In
addition, a fine of twenty pounds sterling was imposed on each of them for every month they had respectively refrained from attending services in the parish church; a fine of two thousand pounds of tobacco for refusing to baptize their children; and also one for five hundred pounds for permitting conventicles to be held in or near their residence. (Henrico County Records, vol. r677--gg, orig. p. xx6. The English Conventicle Act, passed in 1664, imposed penalties on those taking part in religious meetings in private houses.)  Had the total amount of these double penalties been collected by execution on Pleasants estate, it would have precipitated ruin upon his affairs; but fortunately for him, Culpeper intervened under the authority of the order recently promulgated in England granting liberty of conscience to all the subjects of the King.   That Pleasants enjoyed the esteem and good will of the community in which he lived is shown by his election in 1692 to the House of Burgesses; but as he declined to take the required oaths, he was not allowed to occupy his seat. (Va. Maga. of Genealogy. and Biog., vol. vii.P. 171.)
Notwithstanding the fact that Pleasants was a Quaker he bequeathed his slaves to his children as if they were merely part of his livestock; (see Henrico County Records, vol. 1677-92, orig. P- 328; also Orders,)
[My Roots - Peggy Hooper    Webpages of Peggy Hooper  hooperhous@earthlink.net] 

LEAR, Martha   [Howard Allied Surname]
This  surname in the recently discovered ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the Civil War  is under research.
At present it is known that Martha LEAR was born ,Nansemond County,Virginia Colony 1668,  married the Honorable William COLE, and she died in 1704. Great Grandaughter Patsy COLE married William McGehee of Louisa County. 
MILNER, Anne  [Howard Allied Surname]
Wife to Thomas Cary above discussed. Unknown ascendancy.  Present Virginia 1680s substantiated by birth of daughter Dorothy CARY there. 

BAYTOP [BAYSTROP] , Ann [Howard Allied Surname]
This frequently presented wife to Thomas MACKGEHEE does not appear verified in any place where she is mentioned that I have found. When presented as Thomas MACKGEHEE's wife, her marriage date appears both as 1676 and 1688 and the marriage is said to have occured in Virginia, while Ann is said to be the daughter of Thomas Bastrop born about 1638 in England, and Thomas Bastrop's wife, Unknown PELL. Ann Baytop and documentation supporting the BAYTOP inclusion in this surname roster is underway. 

ROSCOW, Mary [Howard Allied Surname]
This  surname in the recently discovered ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the Civil War  is under research. What is known at present is that Mary Roscow was born Blunt Point,Warwick County,Virginia in 1694. She married Colonel William COLE, and she died in 1750.
 

Logan, Charles, grandson of our Logan Immigrant  LOGAN, James  [Howard Allied Surname] who Arrived Phily 1699.
Charles Logan is less evident in the literature than his more famous brother Dr George LOGAN , friend to Thomas Jefferson and because of whom  the Federalists passed the ìLogan Actî , and who continued residency at the mansion "Stenton" that their Grandfather James Logan built in Germantown, near Philadelphia. Charles  certainly does not have the stature of his father William, attorney for the Penn heirs, or his grandfather James, William Penn's Secretary and the most influential Pennsylvanian and most wealthy man in the colonies at the time of his death. Charles Logan seems to have moved to Virginia . 
Charles is called by John W Jordan  a merchant of Philadelphia. Colonial Dames has him as an MD in Va.  In 1779 the Quaker records show that in Philadelphia were Charles and Mary Logan, Late of Henrico, Va. In 1781 he received a lot on Chestnut Street part of Loganís Square, in Philadelphia from the estate of his father William Logan.  . He was Apparantly disadjoined from Quakers of Phila  in 1782  5, 26 for ìJoining himself in an association with a number of men engaged in warî and is on the tax lists for Powhatan, Virginia in  1783. Charles's wife Mary PLEASANTS, to whom he was wed in 1779, was of a long line of prominent Virginians and wealthy Quaker plantars. Charles and Mary had among other children Harriet Logan, who married first , in Virginian , to John St John, an Irish gentleman with whom she had one son, and after she married David P Howard in Powhatan County where they raised their children. Her son John St John died sans progeny in Georgia, while her three Howard children emmigrated to Henderson, Rusk County, Texas in 1850. She died after July 1853, when a letter was written to her sons , through her attorney in Richmond. Her date of death and its place is not known.
 

Charles Logan's grandfather, James Logan, a poor Quaker, emmigrated as William Penn's secretary and in company of same on Penn's second and final voyage to his Colony.  As William Penn's Secretary, this central and most prominent of Early Pennsylvania Citizens: agent, book-keeper, steward, Surveyor and Receiver General, Councillor, and later Judge and Governor, early, and largely due to his role as Surveyor, became 'the wealthiest man in the colonies" and his book collection, the then largest in all the colonies, was often accessed by a young Ben Franklin, and was by James Logan presented to the city of Philadelphia. It is because of James Logan, a remarkably able diplomat  acting on behalf of his employer with the native American population, that the Mingo Chief James Logan took that name. It is also because of him that the Delaware [Lenni Lenape] felt cheated in "the Walking Treaty" , were forced to the west, encountered the French in the Ohio Valley, and came back in the 1750s to terrorize the frontier and sparsely inhabited interior of colonial Pennsylania. He also is credited with being the inventor of the Conestoga wagon, bringing worth beyond  now understood alliance  with our other pioneering American lines. Beyond being an avid reader, he was a writer in Scientific Journals, a translator of texts from Latin, and , as a result of his guidance to Linneaus in botanical knowledge, his close friend and correspondant, "had named for  him an order of herbs and shrubs 'Loganiaceae', containing thirty genera in over three hundred and fifty species. He was a close student of scientific phenomena and contributed a number of papers, now in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, on the result of his scientific observations " [John W Jordan, L.LD, Colonial & Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania; Geneological and Personal Memoires, Vol. I]  His line does not appear, as some will claim, to align directly with the Logans of Restalrig  in which line existed the 7th Laird of Restailrig,  dug from his grave, hauled into court,  and posthumously attainted  being found guilty of conspiracy  to  kidnap James VI of Scotland, later James I , of England in the earliest years of the 17th century. That Logan line rises directly to the the protective and intimate side of the Scots Kings of the  early14th century  and  misty,  unsubstantiated claims are made that Admiral Logan of the late 14th married a [Claimed , Unlikely ,  Unproven and probably mythological Wife  and Daughter]  Stewart Princess, dtr of Robert II Scotland.
James Logan does, however,  rise through his maternal heritage into the Peerage of Scotland and some of its most notable names, including DUNDAS, DOUGLAS, HAMILTON , FRASER, De HAYA, HOME etc. See Pennsylvania and our Pennsylvanians, Philadelphia and our Philadelphians, and Our Peers and Royals Within the Vines.
James Logan's son William Logan, also our direct, continued service to the Penn family, acting as provincial councellor and their attorney.
CARY, Robert  [Howard Allied Surname]
"Of Nansemond County, Va"  and apparantly to America before 1700. This is part of Mary PLEASANTS ascendancy. Mary PLEASANTS married Charles LOGAN. 
HILL, Lydia Hansford [Howard Allied Surname]
This  surname in the recently discovered ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the Civil War  is under research. 
Lydia Hansford HILL married Richard Cole, Esq. She was born York County,Virginia Colony 1720, and died in 1755
 

MAYFIELD, Abraham  [Howard Allied Surname]
This  surname in the recently discovered ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the Civil War is under research. At present, information is limited to Abraham Mayfield and his wife Ann being mentioned as parents to Martha Mayfield who  married Zimri TATE of Louisa County Virginia. Zimri TATE died in Elbert County Georgia, having   served with Washington at Valley Forge. The  first child born to Zimri and Martha Mayfield Tate that is known to this researcher was born Nancy TATE 29 Jul 1769, and in Louisa County Virginia,  making the time frame for Abraham Mayfield  at the latest the early 1730s. This Mayfield family , apparantly of Louisa County Virginia, is under research. Nancy TATE married Samuel McGehee, and together they migrated to Elbert County, Georgia in 1791. 

Ellit , Elizabeth  [Howard Allied Surname]
This wife to Samuel McGehee died 1745 in Virginia. Samuel McGehee and his wife, Elizabeth, joined others in a deed, July 15, 1735, conveying the wifeís interest in 217 acres of land in Hanover County which she had inherited from her mother, Susan Ellit making the Ellit line present in Hanover County before that time. At times she is called the daughter of Susan Ellis, and appears in both forms of the name in family research of her descendants. The reason for this is not yet understood to me. This  surname in the recently discovered ascendancy of Jabus Everett McGehee of the Civil War is under research.

BOOKER, William M   [Howard Allied Surname]
The earliest known of our Bookers at present, William M was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1745. He died in 1837 in Elbert County, Georgia. According to a study of Elbert County published in 1893, and in which several errors are found regarding the Booker entry, "The Bookers are of Welsh-Irish descent, and were among the oldest families of Virginia, settling there many years before the war of independence." William M's son Richeson BOOKER, born in Amelia County and dying in Wilkes County, Georgia,   appears to have married two  SIMPSON sisters, Elizabeth , from whom we descend, and Easter, mentioned in his will. By Elizabeth, Richeson BOOKER produced Americus BOOKER, who married Dr William Jefferson McGehee, and their grandaughter Frances Beatrice McGehee married Jonathan Patterson "Pat" Howard. 

HOWARD , David P  [HowardAllied Surname]
Born Va 1780-1790. Resided in Powhatan County with wife Harriet [nee Logan] St John Howard.   David P Howard's Ascendancy is under research. Likely an Old line of Virginia and possibly Maryland, his ascendancy is as yet elusive. The P  is very likely  for Patterson, and a Patterson female may help uncover this line. Patterson is a middle name present in the direct line sons for three generations following him.
 
 
 
 

Relevant Links:
The First Virginia Charter [includes list of those going to Virginia]
The Second Virginia Charter [again]
The Third Virginia Charter [again]
Virginia Historical Society [GREAT site]
Settlement of Virginia 1607-1700
Settlement of Virginia, 1700-1775
The Story of Virginia, a Longterm Exhibition at  the Virginia Historical Society

Sources for Virginia History contained herein where not given in the text itself
1. Notes on Virginia Counties  By John Collins
2. Extinct Virginia Counties presented in Denis Graham's Genealogical Website

3. Virginia Places.org
 

4.  Virginia County Formation from the Stanley-Meade Family Website

5. Brown, Alexander,  The Cabells and their kin : a memorial volume of history, biography and genealogy Richmond, Va.: Garrett and Massie, 1939, 762  pgs.

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