Charles Davis
M, #1055, b. 1751, d. 1820
Charles Davis, eldest son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Atkins) Davis, of Amherst County, married June 30, 1782, Rosanna Ellis, born November 30, 1755, the youngest daughter of Charles and Susanna (Harding) Ellis, of "Red Hill," Amherst County. The Ellis family, tradition says, is of Welsh extraction and traced to John Ellis, emigrant from Wales, who settled on Peter's Creek, a branch of Tuckahoe Creek in Henrico County; he was born about the year 1661 and emigrated in 1683. Rosanna (Ellis) Davis is buried in the family burying ground at "Red Hill." In Hardesty's Encyclopedia, we find on page 409 among the listed Revolutionary soldiers from Amherst County, the names of both Charles Davis and Nathaniel Davis.
Parents
| Birth | 1751 | |
| Death | 1820 | At age ~69. |
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.1,2,3 |
| Misc | | Ellis connection.4 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.5 |
| Misc | 17 June 1782 | Married Rosanna Ellis.1,2,1 |
| Residence | 1783 | In Amherst County, Virginia, United States.6 |
| Misc | 24 December 1796 | Married Susanna (Sukey) Ragland in Louisa, Virginia, British America. Was Rosanna Ellis dead when this marriage occurred? Her findagrave is here, her grave is known, but no dates.
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/143971835/rosanna-davis: accessed 25 January 2023), memorial page for Rosanna Ellis Davis (30 Nov 1755–unknown), Find a Grave Memorial ID 143971835, citing Amherst Cemetery, Amherst, Amherst County, Virginia, USA; Maintained by Miss BeeHaven (contributor 48748561).7 |
| Residence | 6 August 1810 | In Amherst, Virginia, United States.8 |
| Last Edited | 25 January 2023 |
Citations
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1499] "DAR Genealogical Research Databases." Services https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A030573. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S2978] "Ellis Family History." Freepages https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~theduffypapers/family/ellis/john_ellis.htm. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
- [S2976] "Charles Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607." 1890 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/32442361:3578?indiv=try&h&pid=282149871172&db. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
- [S2974] "Charles Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785." 1940 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2943390:60214?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
- [S2975] "Charles Davis in the 1810 United States Federal Census." Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/646407:7613?indiv=try&h&pid=282149871172&db. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
Robert Davis
M, #1056
Parents
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.1 |
| Property | 1779 | Faather's will in 1779.2 |
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Citations
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
Isham Davis
M, #1057, b. about 1771, d. Inferred 1842
Parents
| Birth | about 1771 | In Amherst County, British America. |
| Death | Inferred 18421 | |
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.2,3 |
| Religious Affiliation | | Isham Davis was affiliated with Quaker.4 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.5 |
| Misc | 4 February 1796 | Married Elizabeth Gilliam.4 |
| Will | 1 June 1833 | In Warren County, Kentucky, United States.1 |
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Citations
- [S1513] "Isham Davis in the Kentucky, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1774." 1989 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/450:9066?indiv=try&h&pid=1483975661&db. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022., Will of Isham Davis
1 Jun 1833
I Isham Davis of the County of Warren and state of Kentucky being in usual health and blessed with my wanton capacity and understanding but conscious that I must soon die do hereby make and publish this my last Will and Testament in the following manner to wit
First I give and bequeath to my wife Elizabeth during her life all the property both landed and personal that I may die possessed of
Second I give the tract of land on which I now live after the termination of the life estate of my wife to my son and his heirs requiring him, Nathaniel to pay my son Richard one hundred and fifty dollars before Nathaniel’s title to the land aforesaid
Third I give to my son Zachariah one hundred dollars to be paid out of the sale of or otherwise of the personal property of which I may die possessed
Fourth after the payment of the bequests or legacies above specific it is my will and desire that the remainder of my estate be equally divided between my sons Robert, Isham, Feland, Zachariah, Richard, Nathaniel and in the event of the death of either of them died without heir of their bodies previous to my death then the bequest to the one so dying shall descend to the others
Fifth to the three children of my daughter Polly Porten dec’d, I give and bequeath the sum of one dollar each
Sixth I hereby appoint my sons Robert and Nathaniel executors of this my last Will and Testament releasing them each of them from giving security in their executorship hereby revoking all Wills by me heretofore made given under my hand this first day of June AD 1833.
Sig: Isham Davis
Teste Wm Volt Loving, Euclid M Covington, James T Briggs
State of Kentucky, Warren County
February Term 1843
This last Will and Testament of Isham Davis dec’d was produced in court and proved by the oaths of Euclid M Covington and James T. Briggs two of the subscribing witnesses thereto and ordered to be recorded which is recorded accordingly.
Teste A G Hobson CC - [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1514] "Isham Davis in the U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I–VI, 1607." 1943 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/340858:3753?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
James Davis
M, #1058
Parents
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.1,2,3 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.4 |
| Misc | 13 October 1800 | Marriage- Sarah Dudley Ragland.1,2 |
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Citations
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1499] "DAR Genealogical Research Databases." Services https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A030573. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
Nathaniel Davis
M, #1059, d. 1860
Parents
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.2,3 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.4 |
| Last Edited | 25 January 2023 |
Citations
- [S2973] Davis families of the southern states, V1. Compiled by Charles Brunk Heinemann. 1938, Chicago. IL. Downloaded from archive.org.
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
Elizabeth Davis
F, #1060, b. about 1750, d. 25 June 1828
Parents
| Birth | about 1750 | In Virginia, British America.1 |
| Marriage2 | | |
| Death | 25 June 1828 | In Botetourt, Virginia, United States. |
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.3,4 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.5 |
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Citations
- [S1519] "Elizabeth Burks in the American Genealogical." Biographical Index (AGBI) https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2044431:3599?indiv=try&h&pid=142099744378&db. Accessed 13 Jan. 2022., No record image.
- [S1520] "Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940." Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3330785:60214?indiv=try&h&pid=142099744378&db. Accessed 13 Jan. 2022., No record image
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
Sarah ("Sally") Davis
F, #1061
Parents
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.1,2 |
| Property | | Father's will.3 |
| Misc | | Married Stephen Torry.4 |
| Last Edited | 25 January 2023 |
Citations
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
- [S2973] Davis families of the southern states, V1. Compiled by Charles Brunk Heinemann. 1938, Chicago. IL. Downloaded from archive.org.
Theodosha Davis
M, #1062
Parents
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.1,2 |
| Misc | | Married JARRETT GILLIAM.3 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.4 |
| Last Edited | 25 January 2023 |
Citations
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S2973] Davis families of the southern states, V1. Compiled by Charles Brunk Heinemann. 1938, Chicago. IL. Downloaded from archive.org.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
Matilda Davis
F, #1063, b. 9 November 1773, d. 12 February 1856
Parents
| Birth | 9 November 1773 | In Louisa, British America.1 |
| Death | 12 February 1856 | At age 82 in Barren County, Kentucky, United States.1 |
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.2,3 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.4 |
| Misc | 19 December 1792 | Married John Bagby 19 Dec 1792 in Amherst County, British North America.2,1,5,6 |
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Citations
- [S1511] "Matilda Davis Bagby (1773-1856)." Find A Grave Memorial https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/100694896/matilda-bagby. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
- [S1512] "Matilda Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785." 1940 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2453786:60214?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
- [S2973] Davis families of the southern states, V1. Compiled by Charles Brunk Heinemann. 1938, Chicago. IL. Downloaded from archive.org.
Nancy Davis
F, #1064
Parents
| Misc | | Parents: Nathaniel Davis and Elizabeth Atkins.1,2,3 |
| Misc | | Married John Frances Penny Lewis.2,4 |
| Property | 1779 | Father's will in 1779.5 |
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Citations
- [S1321] Ackerly, Mary Denham and Parker, Lula Eastman Jeter (1930). "Our Kin", J. P. Bell Company, Inc., Lynchburg, VA. Downloaded.
- [S1499] "DAR Genealogical Research Databases." Services https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A030573. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S1256] "Nathaniel Davis in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1603476:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 29 Nov. 2021.
- [S2973] Davis families of the southern states, V1. Compiled by Charles Brunk Heinemann. 1938, Chicago. IL. Downloaded from archive.org.
- [S1269] Catherine H. C. Seaman, Tuckahoes and Cohees: the settlers and cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807 (1992). p 157
Elizabeth Burks
F, #1066, b. 1705, d. 21 September 1756
Unlike her eventual husband, William Cabell, Elizabeth Burks was born in North America, in 1706. Her parents, Samuel Burks and Mary Davis Burks, claimed that Elizabeth's Virginia roots were more ancient still. Mary Davis’ grandmother, they insisted, had been a princess in the Powhatan Confederacy, the daughter of Powhatan chief Opechancanough. Elizabeth Cabell thus grew up on the still-wild Virginia frontier with stories of great-grandmother “Nicketti,” whose Native American name meant “she sweeps the dew from the flowers.”
Soon after William Cabell’s arrival in Virginia in 1725 or 1726, he asked Elizabeth Burks to be his bride, beginning a thirty-year partnership. The two started their family immediately and welcomed their first child, Mary, in 1727. By the time that her husband left Virginia to take care of family business in England in 1735, she had already borne him four children. Elizabeth Cabell had also agreed, along with friends William Mayo and George Carrington, to serve as William’s attorney during his absence from Virginia. Her willingness both to run a growing household and to represent her husband legally made the next six years challenging ones for her.
While her husband was away, Mrs. Cabell contended against unruly servants, illness, harsh weather conditions, anxious creditors, and perfidious friends to keep the Cabell estate afloat. She not only survived, but flourished. She purchased enslaved African Americans to work on the estate, oversaw the addition of some 6,320 acres of patents to the Cabell domain (bringing their total holdings to almost 8,000 acres), and kept her four children healthy and strong. She persevered despite rumors that found their way into the Virginia backcountry, which convinced “most of [William’s] friends & acquaintances, that [he] never intend[ed] to return to Virginia again.”
Her worst trial came in 1739, when the other attorneys representing William Cabell’s interests, William Mayo and George Carrington, collaborated against their faraway friend. Without notifying Elizabeth Cabell of their plans, Carrington sued Cabell for almost £ 40 in surveyor’s fees, a suit which Mayo swiftly conceded as Cabell’s legal representative. As soon as she heard of this deceitful bargain, Mrs. Cabell wrote to Edward Barradil, a Williamsburg attorney, to block payment of the funds. At no time did Elizabeth argue that the Cabells did not owe surveyor’s fees–for she kept track of every debt–but she did protest both the timing and the amount. Mrs. Cabell’s protest inaugurated over six years of court battles, finally concluded on terms slightly more favorable to the Cabells in May 1746.
After bearing two more children to her newly returned husband, one of whom died in childbirth, Elizabeth Burks Cabell died in 1756, the matriarch of a Virginia dynasty. Her children cherished the memory of their mother so dearly that each named a grandchild in her honor.
Additional Sources Consulted:
R. W. Cabell, Cabell Sightings (1996)
Cabell Family Papers (MSS 5084.)
Parents
Family: William Cabell (b. between 9 March 1699 and 1700, d. 12 April 1774)
| Birth | 1705 | In New Kent County, Virginia, British America.1,2 |
| Marriage | 17261,3,4,5 | |
| Death | 21 September 1756 | At age ~51.1,2,6 |
| Burial | | At Liberty Hall Cemetery in Warminster, Nelson County, Virginia, United States of America.2 |
| Misc | | Runs the farms in her husband's absence.7 |
| Misc | 1755 | Named in father's will.8 |
| Last Edited | 3 February 2024 |
Citations
- [S1503] "Elizabeth Burks in the Colonial Families of the USA, 1607." 1775 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&h=13772&db=61175. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S1505] "Elizabeth Cabell in the U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s." Current https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/50136959:60525?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S1504] "Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library." Small https://small.library.virginia.edu/collections/featured/the-cabell-family-papers-2/biographies/genealogy/william-cabell/. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S2299] ""Ancestry.com." Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6131/images/VGS_1974_01_01_0070?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 1 Sep. 2022.
- [S1228] "Ancestry.com." Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6131/images/VGS_1974_01_01_0070?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 28 Nov. 2021.
- [S1515] Citation: Brown, Alexander (1895), The Cabells and their Kin, Virginia Book Company. Downloaded.
- [S4759] Seaman, C. H. C. (1992). Tuckahoes and Cohees: The Settlers and Cultures of Amherst and Nelson Counties, 1607-1807. United States: Sweet Briar College Printing Press. Downloaded 8/14/2021.
- [S3037] "Samuel Burks in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1734283:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
Charles Burks
M, #1067, b. 1708, d. 1757
Parents
| Birth | 1708 | |
| Marriage | | I got Burks from her father's will, which names his daughter Sarah Burks
https://www.ourfamtree.org/browse.php/Mary-Elizabeth-Davis/p907971,2 |
| Death | 1757 | At age ~49. |
Citations
- [S609] "Mississippi Probate Records, 1781-1930; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7." 89Q8 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89Q8-XRTB?i=6&wc%5B%5D=M7MB-12H%3A344538601%2C345852801&wc%5B%5D=M7MB-12H%3A344538601%2C345852801&cc=2036959. Accessed 15 Aug. 2021., I can't make that link to familysearch work, so here is a link to it on ancestry:
"Ancestry.com - The Natchez Court Records, 1767." 1805 https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/48049/images/NatchezCourtRec-002904-182?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 7 Jun. 2022. - [S3038] "Charles Burrus in the U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/185030:7836?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023., No dates, no images...
John Peartree Burks
M, #1068, b. 1710, d. 1773
Parents
| Birth | 1710 | In Albemarle County, Virginia, British America.1 |
| Death | 1773 | At age ~63 in Bedford, Virginia, British Colonial.1 |
| Misc | | Who did he marry? Husband 1st 1735 VA of Unknown Woman
Husband 2nd 1750 VA of Sarah Isham 7120, children / 36-48 with 1st Wife unknown, father with Sarah Isham of
John Peartree Burks Jr 1750 - (Elizabeth Davis 1759), Samuel Burks 1755 (Sarah Rowland 1756), Isham Burks 1759 -
all 3/64th Shawano-Chalaka-Powhatan-Metis1 |
| Misc | 1755 | Named in will.2 |
| Last Edited | 16 February 2023 |
Citations
- [S3039] "John Peartree Burks." Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/117925090/person/100168170015/media/6b991bdd-d9b6-4226-b7f8-1187e50bc573?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
- [S3037] "Samuel Burks in the Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652." 1900 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1734283:62347?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
William Cabell
M, #1071, b. between 9 March 1699 and 1700, d. 12 April 1774
William Cabell (1699-1774)
An émigré from Warminster, England, William Cabell was a surveyor, magistrate, farmer, trader, vestryman, churchwarden, and pioneer in colonial Virginia. He applied his numerous talents to the consolidation of British settlement in the interior and founded a dynasty of gifted individuals who would continue to offer their services to the Commonwealth for generations.
Born in March 1699, Cabell was the first surviving son of Nicholas Cabell, a wool-stapler and a dissenter from the established Anglican Church, and Rachel Hooper Cabell. Surviving documentation is silent on the exact timing and motivation for Cabell’s emigration to the New World; family tradition holds that he first saw the shores of Virginia while a surgeon aboard a British man-of-war in the early 1720s and returned promptly after settling his accounts at home. Especially since no contemporary evidence confirms Cabell’s formal training as a physician, this account now appears unlikely. At any rate, he arrived in Virginia by at least 1726, for in that year he was appointed under-sheriff of the then sprawling Henrico County. Very soon after his arrival, and certainly no later than 1726, he also married Elizabeth Burks, his wife of thirty years.
William and Elizabeth Cabell initially settled near Dover on land provided by her father but soon joined in the mad rush to the interior. Named one of the first justices of Goochland County when it was carved from Henrico in 1728 and coroner in 1729, Cabell added to his roles that of surveyor in 1730. He definitely performed surveying work, but it is unclear if he held an official position or simply assisted his cousin, William Mayo, who was then surveyor for the County. Alexander Brown records that Cabell was “the first Englishman to enter the then wild region west of the mouth of Rockfish River for the purpose of locating lands for actual settlement.” Before he could secure his patent to these lands and relocate his family thence–which had by then grown to include three children, with a fourth on the way–the deaths of his father, aunt, and uncle prompted Cabell to return to England. In August 1735, he left his affairs in the hands of his wife, cousin William Mayo, and friend George Carrington and made the long trip to Warminster.
Upon his return to Virginia in 1741, Cabell discovered that his wife had increased his landholdings from 1200 to almost 8,000 acres. He then moved his family up the James River to the biggest property, a 4,800-acre patent in what is now Nelson County. He named the estate “Warminster” for the English town of his youth. The Cabells made Warminster home, and developed it as did many of their fellow Virginians: by acquiring enslaved African Americans to perform much of the estate’s work. Hence William Cabell became the first of many Cabells to benefit from a way of life based on the exploitation of enslaved persons. Cabell alsodemonstrated his commitment to his chosen home by giving his time and talents for the establishment of the institutions of local government. He petitioned the Burgesses in 1744 to form a new county and a new parish to serve the settlers in the westernmost portion of the colony. The Assembly responded by forming a new parish, St. Anne’s, and a new county, Albemarle.
Cabell was one of the first justices of the peace for Albemarle, a captain in the militia, a coroner, and its official surveyor (through 1754). In 1748, he began operating his own ferry across the James River and obtained a license for a tavern. His youth in England probably included some sort of medical training, for Cabell also built a successful practice as a doctor and surgeon. From at least as early as 1752, he purchased and made medicines, sold wooden limbs, and operated a hospital near his home. The size of Cabell's medical library, including some fifty books purchased after his arrival in Virginia, indicates the extent of his medical knowledge. His medical skills would have been especially helpful for treating enslaved persons, who constituted a substantial percentage of the local population and the personal wealth of their white enslavers. Upon the formation of another county, Amherst, in 1761, Cabell was named the Presiding Magistrate and the County Lieutenant, or chief military officer.
In 1756, the woman who had protected Cabell’s interests during his sojourn in England and raised five of his children to adulthood passed away. Cabell remarried in 1762 to a woman named Margaret Meredith, the widow of Samuel Meredith from Hanover County. He survived his second wife as well; she died in 1768. William Cabell himself died in 1774, at the age of seventy-five. Having already deeded significant portions of his land to his older children upon their respective marriages and in a flurry of legal activity in 1763, he left most of his estate to his youngest son, Nicholas Cabell.
Cabell was buried with his first wife, Elizabeth Burks, and his son, George, in the family cemetery at Liberty Hall (Warminster), now under custodianship of the Cabell Foundation.
____________________
The Cabell family eventually got a double dose, so to speak, of Powhatan blood when Colonel Joseph Cabell Jr (b 1762) married into the Bolling family, which descended from John Rolfe and Pocahontas. He married Pocahantas Rebecca Bolling (who had a brother named Powhatan Bolling) and they named a child Mary Pocahontas Rebecca Cabell. The Powhatan called Pocahontas is believed to be related to the Powhatan woman called Nicketti who married a Hughes and whose daughter married Nathaniel Davis, an ancestor of William Cabell's wife Elizabeth Burks.
The Cabells and their Kin by Alexander Brown.
William Cabell
| Birth | between 9 March 1699 and 1700 | In England.1,2 |
| Marriage | 17261,2,3,4 | |
| Death | 12 April 17741 | |
| Misc | 1762 | Marriage m. (secondly) 30th September, 1762, Margaret Meredith; by whom he had no issue.2,1 |
Citations
- [S1503] "Elizabeth Burks in the Colonial Families of the USA, 1607." 1775 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&h=13772&db=61175. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S1504] "Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library." Small https://small.library.virginia.edu/collections/featured/the-cabell-family-papers-2/biographies/genealogy/william-cabell/. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
- [S2299] ""Ancestry.com." Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6131/images/VGS_1974_01_01_0070?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 1 Sep. 2022.
- [S1228] "Ancestry.com." Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6131/images/VGS_1974_01_01_0070?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 28 Nov. 2021.
George Cabell
M, #1073, b. 1727, d. 1750
Parents
| Birth | 1727 | |
| Death | 1750 | At age ~23. |
| Last Edited | 16 February 2023 |
Robert Cabell
M, #1074, b. 1728
Parents
| Last Edited | 13 January 2022 |
Colonel William Cabell, Senior
M, #1075, b. 13 March 1730, d. 23 March 1798
Member of the House of Burgesses from Albemarle, 1757-1761; the first presiding Justice for the United States after the Declaration of Independence; chosen first Senator from the Eighth District and Member of Committee that prepared "the Declaration of Rights."
Parents
| Birth | 13 March 17301 | |
| Death | 23 March 1798 | At age 68.1 |
| Misc | 1756 | Married Margaret Jordan dau of Col Samuel Jordan.1 |
| Last Edited | 16 February 2023 |
Citations
- [S1503] "Elizabeth Burks in the Colonial Families of the USA, 1607." 1775 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&h=13772&db=61175. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
