Old Tombstones in Northampton and Accomac Counties, Va. William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4. (Apr., 1895), pp. 256-262. Page 256 256 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY. Here is deposited the Mortal Part of Lucy Dixon, wife of the Rev. John Dixon.4 Her Exemplary Peity, Domestic Virtues, Liberal Charity Deservedly Caused her to be Highly esteemed, cordially beloved, sincerely lamented By The Public, Her Family, the Poor. Obiit Novr, 1769, Aetat: 41. ________________ NOTES. 1 "Yeatman's plantation" lies opposite to "Toddbury" on North River. There are two other headstones, but the briars were so dense as to render approach impossible. 2 This place lies on East River, and the tomb must be that of William Armi- stead, eldest son of Col. John Armistead of Hesse. (See Keith's "Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison"). 3 Trinity church is a wooden structure 40 feet long by 27 feet. Kingston church, which stands at the other end of the county, was rebuilt just before the war, chiefly through the exertions of Miss Elizabeth Tompkins. 4 Lucy Dixon's husband was Rev. John Dixon, minister of Kingston parish in 1754, and Professor of Divinity, in William and Mary College, from 1770 till his death in 1777. Sons John and Thomas; Anne infant daughter Thomas; and nephew Roger Dixon. (Chancery papers in Williamsburg.) ________________ OLD TOMBSTONES IN NORTHAMPTON AND ACCOMAC COUNTIES, VA. 1 I. WARWICK, OR "QUINBY'S FARM", In Northampton County. In memory of Arthur Upshur2 born in ye County of Essex in ye Kingdom of England who died January 26, 1709 in ye 85th Year of his Age. __________ In memory of Mary ye Wife of Arthur Upshur born in ye County of Warwick in ye Kingdom of England who died July ye 3d 1703 in ye 85th of her Age. Page 257 Image of tombstone of John Custis. Page 258 258 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY. II. ARLINGTON. [Arms.3] Here lies the Body of John Custis, Esq., one of the Councill and Major Generall of Virginia who departed this life ye 29th of January 1696 aged 66 years And by his side a son and daughter Of his Grandson John Custis whom He had by the daughter of Daniel Parke Esq. Capt. Generall And Chief Governor of the Leeward Islands. Virtus Post Funera. __________ [Arms.] Beneath this Marble Tomb lies ye body of the Honorable John Custis,4 Esq., of the City of Williamsburg and Parish of Bruton Formerly of Hungars Parish on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the County of Northampton the place of his nativity. Aged 71 years and yet lived but seven years Which was the space of time he kept A Bachelor's House at Arlington On the Eastern Shore of Virginia. This information put on this tomb was by his own positive order. --Wm. Colley, Mason, in Frenchurch Street, London, Fecit. _____________ III. WILSONIA NECK. Here Lyeth ye body of John Custis, Esq., one of the council of Virginia colonel, and commander in Chief of the Militia on the Eastern Shore of this coloney. He was the son of the Hon. John Custis, of Arlington, and departed this life 26th of January, 1713, and in the sixtieth year of his age. His first wife was Margerett, Page 259 OLD TOMBSTONES IN MATTHEWS COUNTY. 259 ye daughter of Mr. John Michaell, by whome he had seven sons and two daughters, who with three of their sons lies near him. His second wife was Sarah, the daughter of Colonel Southy Littleton, and widow of Mr. Adam Michaell, who survived him, but hopes to be buried by him when she dies, as was his desire. Which accord- ingly now she is, and departed this life the 18th day of April, Anno Domini, 1720, and in the fifty first year of her age. ____________________ IV. "POULSON PLACE," AT ONANCOCK. Coll Tully Robinson5 late of Accomack Co., Va., who was born August 31st 1658, and departed November 12, 1723, aged 65 years and twenty -- days. A gentleman honourable, an Ornament to all places. He was loyall to his prince, Unshaken to his friend, and a true believer in the Church of England. ______________________ V. ONANCOCK. [Arms.6] Here lies the body of Major Charles West7 who departed this life Februry the 28th 1757 in the -- year of his age. _____________________ VI DEEP CREEK. Anthony West Son of Anthony West and Eleanor his wife Born August 24, 1760 Died February 2d 1795 4 Page 260 260 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY. Revell West Son of Anthony West and Eleanor his wife Born March 15th, 1755. Died December 26, 1802. __________________ NOTES. 1. The editor received these inscriptions at second hand, and cannot vouch for the order of the lines, which is, doubtless, in some cases, not exact. 2. Arthur Upshur was the ancestor of Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of State during Tyler's administration, and one of the ablest men Virginia ever pro- duced. Arthur Upshur (or Upshott, as his name is spelt in the earliest re- cords) is said to have come from England as an apprentice of Colonel William Kendall. He appears to have taken a leading place on the Eastern Shore, though, as was the case with many country gentlemen in England about that time, he made his mark, being unable to write. The following patents appear in his name: 300 acres at head of Occahannock Creek--head-rights, Mary Ris- den, James Risden, Landilla Risden, Arthur Carpenter, Philip Sonshack, John Albert, March 11, 1655; 700 acres in same locality, October 20, 1661; on Matchepungo Creek, 2,000 acres, September 29, 1664; 2,000 acres formerly granted to Lieut.-Coll. Kendall, and assigned to Upshur September 29, 1665; 350 acres at the head of Broad Creek, a branch of Nassawaddox Creek. About 1655 "Arthur Upshott of Occahannock" married Mary, widow of James Ris- den; and about 1663 he married Mary, sister of George Clarke, philomedicus, and widow of Richard Jacob. Upshur may have had an earlier wife still. He had issue: 2, Arthur; 3, John; 4, Helen, who married ----- Stott; and 5, Ann, who married Benjamin Dolby. 2. Arthur married Sarah, co-heir with Anne, her sister (who married Andrew Hamilton, of Pennsylvania), of her father, a Quaker of great influence, Thomas Browne, inheriting 631 acres called "Brownsville," and on which resides Thomas T. Upshur, one of her descendants. The old dwelling-house is still standing, now converted into servants' quarters. The descent of Mr. Thomas7 T. Upshur is: Arthur1 (died in 1703), Arthur2, Thomas3, Thomas4, John5, Thomas 6, Thomas7 T. Upshur. Abel P. Upshur was descended as follows: Arthur1, married, 1st, Mary Risden; 2d, Mary Jacob; had Arthur2, who married Sarah Browne; they had Abel3, who married Rachel Revell, daughter of John Revell; they had Arthur,4 who married Leah Custis, daughter of Henry Custis; they had Littleton,5 who married Ann Parker, daughter of George Parker and his wife Ada Bagwell; they had ABEL6 PARKER UPSHUR, who married, 1st, Elizabeth Dennis, who died s. p.; he married, 2d, Elizabeth Upshur, daughter of John and Ann Brown Upshure, and she had Susan Upshur, who married Lieutenant Ringold of the navy; issue, an only child, James T. Rin- gold, an attorney at law in Baltimore, Md. 3. These arms are described in John Custis's will as "three parrots," but I have seen no copy of the arms on the tombstones. 4. John Custis married, about 1706, Frances, daughter of Daniel Parke, Jr. A letter of Philip Ludwell, Sr., in 1707, refers to the marriage as if of recent occurrence. She died March 13, 1714-'15. (Bruton Parish Register.) Page 261 OLD TOMBSTONES IN MATTHEWS COUNTY. 261 John Custis died November --, 1749 (Ibid.), and his will was dated November 14, 1749, and was proved at London, November 19, 1753. In it he directs his body to be carried from Williamsburg, where he resided, to Arlington, to be interred by the side of his grandfather, Honble John Custis, Esq., under a handsome white marble tombstone engraved with his arms, "three parrots." (New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register.) As he was seventy-one years of age in 1749, he was born in 1678, and was twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old when he married Frances Parke. He probably reckoned his bachelorhood from his majority. The inscription eulogizing this period of "seven years" is found in his will. In the old family burying-ground, now owned by Major Mercer Waller, near Williamsburg, are tombstones of Frances Custis, his wife, and of two children who her only son, Daniel Parke Custis, had by Martha Dan- dridge, afterwards George Washington's wife. (See Inscriptions, Va. Hist. Soc. Collections, Vol. XI.) Meade mentions as in the burying-ground the tombstone of Daniel Parke Custis, but it has been carried off. It appears from the inscriptions now published that John Custis had two two other children besides Daniel Parke Custis. The emigrant Custis ancestor was John Custis, of Rotterdam, who was in Virginia in 1640. He had six sons: Thomas, of Bal- timore, in Ireland; Edward, of London; Robert, of Rotterdam (a tavern-keeper there, whose daughter married Argall Yardley, son of the Governor, about 1649), and John, William, and Joseph, of Virginia. John, the son, was the sheriff of Northampton county in 1664, and in 1676 was major-general during Bacon's Rising; and his estate of Arlington gave its name to the well-known Custis estate near Washington. The family was evidently originally from county Gloucester, England. The will of John Smithier, of Arlington, in the parish of Buybury and county of Gloucester, dated February 16, 1618, proved Octo- ber 31, 1626, mentions his cousins, Henry Custis, alias Cliffe; "my son-in-law Edward Custis, alias Cliffe; and his son John Custis," as also William Custis, Nicholas Custis, etc. (New England Hist. and Gen. Register, 195, 201.) See, for further information regarding the Custis family, Meade, L., 263; Geo. W. P. Custis's Reminiscences; The Marshall Family; Standar, III., 150; Potter's American Monthly, VI., 85; and other references in Goode's Virginia Cousins. 5. Colonel Tully Robinson was son of Captain William Robinson, a magis- trate of lower Norfolk county. His daughter Scarborough married John Wise, ancestor of General Henry A. Wise. For an account of the Wise family, see Richmond Standard, IV., 3; Hambleton's Life of Henry A. Wise. 6. This tomb bears the West arms: on a fesse dancettee three leopards' faces jessant-de-list. Anthony West came to Virginia in the James in 1622. (Hotten's Immigrants.) His will is dated October 12, 1651, proved May 5, 1652. His issue by Ann ------ were: John and Katharine, the latter of whom married, 1st, Ralph Barlow, and 2dly, Sir Charles, eldest son of Lieut.- Colonel Edmund Scarburgh. John West became lieutenant-colonel, and was a contemporary of Colonel John West, of West Point. In Bacon's Rebellion he took sides with Bacon, and he and his kinsman, William Scarburgh, had to beg Sir William Berkeley's pardon on their bended knees. He married Ma- tilda Scarburgh, and had Anthony, Alexander, John the Eldest, Benony, Jona- than, John the Younger, and several daughters. Major Charles West, of the text, was a son of either John the eldest or of Jonathan, as each of them had a son Charles; probably, however, of John "the eldest," who married Fran- Page 262 262 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY. ces yardley. Anne, the widow of Anthony West the immigrant, married, 2dly, Captain Stephen Charleton, who is pleasantly described by Colonel Nor- wood, in the account of his voyage in 1649, as living in Northampton in much comfort and hospitality. By a former wife, Bridget, Charleton had two daugh- ters, Bridget and Elizabeth, between whom he divided his estate, with the pro- viso, however, that should the elder, Bridget, die without issue, her share should go to the support of a minister in the parish. Bridget married Isaac Foxcraft, but died without issue, and for many years the church in Nohrthampton had the property; but many years later the overseers of the poor brought suit for the same, and, after much litigation, the courts decided against the church. (See Meade, I., 256.) Elizabeth, the other daughter, was persuaded to elope with one John Gittings, at the age of twelve years, but died soon after; and there is on record in Northampton a singularly able paper by Surveyor-Gen- eral Edmund Scarburgh, the second of the name, and brother of Sir Charles Scarburgh, protesting against the conduct of John Gittings. (See, also, Meade.) ______________________ JOURNAL OF THE MEETINGS OF THE PRESIDENT AND MASTERS OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. (CONTINUED.) [108] February 1st 1763. At a Meeting of the President & Masters of William and Mary College. Present. The Revd Mr. William Yates, President, Emmanuel Jones, William Small, and James Horrocks. Whereas Thomas Forbes (to whom a Lease of a Lot in Hampton was formerly promis'd) appears to this Society a Person of base Character: we think proper to revoke the said Lease, & grant it to Cary Mitchell Esqr of the said Town. WILLIAM YATES, presidt. [109] February 9th 1763. At a Meeting of the President, and Masters of William and Mary College, Present, The Revd Mr. William Yates President, Emmanuel Jones, William Small, Richard Graham & Jas Horrocks, the following Directions were unanimously agreed to, Madam, The Society imagining You are not sufficiently acquainted with College Affairs, beg Leave to lay before you the following Direc-