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All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm NOTES AND QUERIES KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE-SHOE. -- "Relative to your enquiry concerning the 'golden horse shoe,' given by Governor Spottswood to my great-great-grandfather Robert (Francis) Brooke, I regret that I can give you no information. I am afraid we will have to rest content with the indubitable fact that such an interesting relic did once exist. Besides old Judge Brooke's statement in his autobiography and his letter to Dr. Caruthers, published in Caruthers's novel, 'The Knights of the Golden Horse-shoe,' Mr. Richard W. Brooke, of Washington, D.C., tells me that the late W. W. Corcoran told him that he (Mr. Corcoran) had often been shown the golden horse-shoe by an old gentleman named Edmund Brooke, who lived in Georgetown, D.C., and who seemed to value the relic very highly. Dr. John Cooper Wise, with whom I was a student at the University of Virginia in 1867-'68, tells me that his wife was a Miss Brooke, and a great-great-granddaughter of the old Edmund Brooke spoken of by Judge Brooke, and that she has a cousin whose name is Edmund Brooke, and now living in Washington, D.C. It would seem that these lineal descendants ought to know something about the whereabouts of that interesting relic of a time so far back in our history." St. Geo. T. Brooke, Professor of Law, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va. JOHN PURVIS. -- See his letter in last number of the QUARTERLY. Mr. Brock has the original, which he published some time ago in the Dispatch: "John Purvis, the writer, is invested with some historic interest to us here, in that he is said to have carried the MS. Laws of Virginia to England, which were there published and are commonly known as the Purvis Laws". INDENTURED SERVANTS. -- "The mayor, alderman, and justices, of Bristol, England, had been accustomed to order the transportation of criminals to the American plantations and to sell them by way of trade, such alderman or justice taking one in regular rotation. As legal convicts became scarce, they took measures to keep up the supply by threatening those accused before them of petty offences, many of whom were entirely innocent, with hanging, and officers were in attendance who would advise the ignorant creatures to ask for transportation as the only alternative to save life, and in general the advice was followed. Nor was this nefarious practice confined to Bristol, for even from London persons were shipped who were innocent of crime. The notorious Lord Jeffries, having learned what Page 136 was being done at Bristol, and that mayor and aldermen were equally involved, made the former descend from his seat on the bench, and stand at the Bar in his scarlet and furs and plead as a common criminal, and took security from him and his associates to answer information against them before the next grand jury. The amnesty, after the Revolution of 1688, stopped these proceedings, and the case never came to trial." -- A. G. Grinnan. OLD TIMES. -- On the fly-leaf of a book in the library of the late M. B. Seawell, Gloucester county, is written "William Nelson, Jr., W. M. C. [William and Mary College], 1784." Then in another hand: "Jane Nelson is a neat girl; Betsy Page is a sweet girl; Lucy Burwell is the devil, if not the devil, she is one of his imps." On the fly-leaf of a record book (1671-167) in York county clerk's office, occurs in a large, bold hand: "Hannah Armistead Is One of ye handsomed Girls in Virgina, by Thomas Frayser. Hannah For Ever, David Cambridge". As the style of the writing appears of later date than the book, and as Thomas Frayser (who married Frances Wise) was living in 1734, the Hannah Armistead referred to was probably Hannag, daughter of Col. Anthony2 Armistead, of Elizabeth City county (William1, Marjor Anthony2) and Elizabeth Westwood, his wife. HIGGINSON. -- Humphrey Higginson, age 28, sailed August, 1635, in ship "George" for Virginia. Member of Council, 1642; member of Council, Captain, 1644; member of Council, Captain 1645; member of Council, Colonel, 1652; member of Council, Colonel, 1655. He resided on his plantation in 1655 at Harup (Harope). Returned to England and lived at Ratcliff, Parish of Stepney; died in March, 1665-'66, his wife Elizabeth executrix. At the time of his death his brother Christopher resided at Harup, plantation and by will he was to reside thereon during his life. Elizabeth, the daughter of Humphrey, married Henry Foster in Virginia; was left a widow, and died in March, 1673-'74. Her mother living in England survived her. HORSE RACING. -- Records of York county, September 10, 1674: "James Bullocke, a Taylor, haveing made a race for his mare to runn wth a horse belonging to Mr. Mathew Slader for twoe thousand pounds of tobacco and caske, it being contrary to Law for a Labourer to make a race, being a sport only for Gentlemen, is fined for the same one hundred pounds of tobacco and caske". "Whereas Mr. Mathew Slader, & James Bullocke by condition under the hand and seal of the said Slader that his horse should Page 137. runn out of the way that Bullock's mare might winn, wch is an apparent cheate, is ordrd to be putt in the stocks & there sitt the space of one houre." LIGHTFOOT, WILLIAM. -- "Sir: My 'Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock' (the title is given inaccurately in every notice I have seen) is not a historical work, but a book of sketches and studies of colonial life, and portraitures of character, with illustrative anecdotes, legends folk-lore. In dealing with thousands of details in an obscure period, some errors were inevitable, and I would be glad to admit, were it possible, the denial 'in toto by a descendant' of William Lightfoot of my statement concerning William's trouble with his wife. The chapter containing that statement was sent in proof for revision to various well-informed persons of that connection, but it was only after the volume was bound that I received a letter from a lineal descendant of William Lightfoot, assuring me that after the trouble (probably exaggerated) he and his wife came together again and lived amicably. I deeply regret not having received the letter earlier, and had hoped that the unfortunate sentence, which came from an authority I could not question, would not be cited from my privately-printed book. It certainly would not have been written, had I known there was any person living whom it might wound". - Moncure D. Conway, Wianno, Mass., September 7, 1894. MR. CONWAY AND THE WASHINGTON-LANIER-BALL TRADITION. -- (See Historical Notes last Quarterly). -- Any hypothesis of Mr. Hayden carries such weight that one hesitates to question it, even at his desire. It is a satisfaction to see that he has turned his attention to the most important problem in Virginia genealogy remaining unsolved -- Who and whence was Mary Johnson, widow, mother of Mary Washington? Mr. Hayden realizes, no doubt, that where family legends of exalted relationship are concerned, there may be much smoke with but little fire, or even one (a great name patriotically given a child often gives rise to such), but he thinks there may be a spark at the centre of the Lanier-Washington myth. For evidently I think the stories of Thomas Lanier's marriage to Elizabeth, an imaginary daughter of Col. John Washington, and Lewis Lanier's marriage to "Miss Ball", an imaginary sister of Mary Washington, are variants of one myth. It would be interesting to know whether Sidney Lanier h imself heard his grandmother call Mary Washington "aunt", or whether it was a tradition that she did so, growing out of his "Miss Ball" belief. How- Page 138. ever, she may have been the niece of some other Mrs. Washington. There was a race of Washingtons in Virginia contemporary with the General's ancestors in Westmoreland, among whose descendants the traditioon prevails that they are from the same family. This is certainly not the case. These Surry Washingtons, one of whom is a worthy Congressman from Tennessee, have spread through the country more than the other family, and one of their Elizabeths may have married a Lanier in North Carolina, carrying into that family the belief in her relationship to the General. This is mere conjecture, but it appears to me surrounded with fewer difficulties than Mr. Hayden's theory. In Mr. Hayden's 'Virginia Genealogies', there is a letter of James Ball, of Bewdly, written soon after Mary Washington's death, reporting his efforts to discover something about her mother Mary (Johnson) Ball. All of his inquiries availed only to show that "she was an English woman". His inquiries were evidently unaided by any of Mary Johnson's own family. There is no hint of the existence of any connection of hers in Virginia, or elswhere, apart from the Ball and Washington families. Surely, if her daughter Eliza had married in the North Carolina, and had descendants there, James Ball must have discovered the fact while engaged in the investigation. At that moment, when the name of Mary Washington was on every tongue, the Lanier relationship must surely have been made known by that family or others, had it been then dreamed of. It would be interesting to know the date of the first letter in which this Ball relationship is suggested. About sixty years ago, or just after Mary Washington's monument at Fredericksburg was dedicated with an impressive oration by President Jackson, some of the Montagu family claimed relationship to her, and the Lanier legend may have started about the same time. (Mr. Hayden, in his 'Virginia Genealogies', favored the story that the widow Mary Johnson was a Montagu, on the ground that General Washington sometimes used the griffin as a crest instead of the Washington raven; but the griffin is carved on the tomb of Katharine, daughter of Major John Washington, at Pianketank). Were there anything genuine in either the Montague or the Lanier claims, they could hardly have remained silent at the time of Mary Washington's death, escaped the diligent investigations of her kinsman, James Ball, of Bewdly, or been ignored by General Washington in his long letter to Sir Isaac Heard concerning the family. Although Mr. Hayden, with all other exact investigators, rejects the letter Page 139. credited by Marian Harland and others about 'Molly' Washington's beauty and her going to England with her mother, I cannot agree with him that 'there is not a word of evidence that her mother with her children went to England'. I shall next year resume in England some investigations which I hope may cast light on this subject; for the present, especially as I am far away from books and papers, I will go no further than to submit that the statement of the clergyman Colton, in Lacon, that Augustine Washington found his wife in England, and two letters published by Mr. Hayden, showing Joseph Ball negotiating with a Johnson family in England for a Ball portrait and relics, together with the absence of any trace in Virginia of the widow and her daughter Eliza after Col. Ball's death, in wills, records, or church registers, or any trace of Mary Ball until her marriage, eighteen years after her father's death, do constitute 'a word' of presumptive evidence that the English woman had returned to her own people." - Moncure Daniel Conway, Winnona, Mass. [I think Mr. Conway's suggestion about the intermarriage of the Washington family, of Surry, with the Laniers, of North Carolina, is borne out by the wills in the counties on the Southside. I have not just now the data to show what connections took place. But Mr. Conway is certainly wrong about the tombs at Pianketank, and he is also wrong about them in his Barons, etc., page 48. I have been to "Highgate", and have my own drawings of arms and crests, and the drawings of two other persons; and they agree. The arms on the tomb of Elizabeth (not Katharine), the daughter of Major John Washington, are the Washington arms surmounted by the regular Washington crest: Out of a ducal coronet, or, a raven, wings endorsed ppr. The arms on the tome of Katharine Washington, wife of Major John Washington, are: On a chevron three trefoils between three wolf's heads; and the crest is a wolf's head. these last doubtless stand for Whiting - Katharine being the daughter of Col. Henry Whiting. - EDITOR]. PRESTON-TYLER. -- I had heard the tradition that two sisters of John Tyler, father of Judge John Tyler, married two professors of William and Mary College, and that the Visitors had taken the professors severely to taks for infringing the monastic rules of the institution, which forbade marriage. One sister was satisfactorily identified as Edith Tyler, who married Professor Thomas Robinson, but for some time the other marriage was not cleared up. Perry's "Historical Collections" seemed to point to Rev. Page 140. William Preston, but knowledge of his wife was withheld till the kind assistance of the eminent antiquarian Charles Best Norcliffe, M. A., Langton Hall, Malton, Yorkshire, furnished certain data which were published in QUARTERLY II., No. 2, p. 122. Here the wife's name was rendered as Mary Taylor; but the tradition is now fully confirmed, as the following from Dr. Norcliffe will show: "I have looked again at my rough notes, as well as the fair copy, and in the former the word is Tyler. It was very careless of me to make such a mistake, and not like the accuracy I always humbly aim at. 'More haste worse speed, Festina lente." "PRESTON. COMPILED BY C. B. NORCLIFFE. Rev. William Preston = Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Rector of Brougham, Westmoreland, John Stephenson. D. 26 April 1767, 1722-1770. D. 1 April 1770, aged 77. aged 84. Heiress of Warcop Hall. Anthony Preston, Rev. William Preston = Mary Tyler, bp. 8 Dec. 1727 bp. 23, Feb, 1719-20 Queen's Mar. at Williamsburg, Vir- Queen's College Coll. Oxford B.A. 1741. M. ginia 14 Sept. 1745. Buried Oxford A. by Decree 24 Nov. 1744. at Warcop 27 Dec. 1789. B.A. 1747 Rector of Ormside 1762. of Penrith Attorney-at-law bur. 9 March, 1778 aged 59. Elizabeth Preston Mary Preston William Stephenson Preston. Sarah Todd, Bapt. 18 June 1746 Bapt. 13 Nov. 1748 Bapt. 22 July 1761. Warcop of Brough mar. 1 Nov. 1767 Virginia, bur. 1 Bur. 19 Nov. 1804 m. 22 May 1785. =Lancelot Bland May, 1791 Warcop. Priscilla Preston, George Stephenson Preston Rev. William Michael Stephenson bp. 14 Dec. 1751 Bapt. 20 June. Bur, 18 Preston, M.A., Queen's Coll. in Virginia. Mar. Sept. 1759 Warcop. Oxford 1811 D. 21, = 19 Nov. 1770, d. William Wilkin Sept. 1842. 16 Oct. 1827. M.R.C.S. of Appleby Rev. Charles Mayes Preston, B.A. = Vicar of Warcop 1855-1894" SEAL OF VIRGINIA. -- "I was in Annapolis City yesterday, and came across what I think may be of interest to you and others who are collecting material for Virginia history. "In overlooking certain wills, I found a copy of a certificate of the Governor of your colony, dated November 16, 1736, transmitting the depositions of Charles Burgess and other parties, taken in Virginia to a will respecting property in Maryland. "This certificate was under the seal of the colony of Virginia, and signed by William Gooch, his majesty's lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of that colony, and appears as fresh, neat, and distinct as if it was copied but a few years ago. "As I am not versed in the history of the seal of your State, I do not know what changes may have been made in the same Page 141 during your colonial existence, but hope that this fact may prove of value to you in the work you are so well bringing out in your Quarterly". -- H. H. Goldsborough, Baltimore, Md. SINCE the leading article, entitled "The Seal of Virginia", was put in type, the editor has had access to new light. In the clerk's office of Norfolk county there are numerous speciments of the crown-shaped seal referred to in the article. These show that this seal was only the authorized seal abbreviated. The intention was to save wax by clipping away all save the crown. But the clipping being done by hand, the amount of wax left varied in each case; and in some of the specifmens words adn letters of the "honi soit qui mal y pense" under the crown and of the title of the king in the circumference can be made out. In the clerk's office in Norfolk city is a very interesting example of the full wax impression of the seal, as used during the reign of George II., which, with the change of the king's name, is similar in all respects to the cut presented of the seal during the reign of King George III. - [Editor.] FITZHUGH PORTRAITS. -- "Mr. Frank C. Fitzhugh, of 'Bedford', King George county, Va., owns the following portraits: "1. Henry Fitzhugh, son of William Fitzhugh, of Bedford, England, age 20. 1634. Copied by John Hesselius, 1751. This portrait represents a young man in a long, dark wig, parted in the middle; black eyes; dressed in a black velvet gown. Is the portrait owned by Mr. Douglas H. thomas, of Baltimiore, the original, or also a copy? "2. Colonel William Fitzhugh, son of the above, age 40. 1698. Copy by J. Hesselius, 1751. This is the portrait of a large, fine-looking man, full face, rather stout; wears a black silk gown, large white necktie, and large wig of black hair. "3. Captain Henry Fitzhugh, of 'Bedford', son of the above, age 65. 1751. Painted by John Hesselius. He is dressed in blue silk or satin vest and coat, large white necktie, no collar, w hite wig of long hair. He was blind. "4. Major Henry Fitzhugh, of 'Bedford', son of the above, age 28. 1751. 'John Hesselius, Pinx.' Dressed in a brown coat and vest, short brown wig. "5. Henry Fitzhugh, son of the above. Three-quarters length, age 20. Painted by Hesselius in 1771. This Henry Fitzhugh was the great-great-grandfather of Frank C. Fitzhugh, from whom the above data was obtained in 1888. Page 142. "Descended from Capt. Henry Fitzhugh, of 'Bedford,' daughter of his fourth son, John Fitzhugh, of 'Belle Air,' was Elizabeth Fitzhugh, wife of Capt. Francis Conway. (See Hayden's 'Virginia Genealogies', p. 263.) Her portrait, half length, age fifteen, was painted by J. Hesselius, July 1, 1770. The dress is fawn color, square corsage, elbow sleeves with lace ruffles; one hand holds in place a blue mantle. The hair is carried smoothly back, and is very high over a cushion, dressed with strings of pearls. There is also an ivory miniature of Elizabeth Fitzhugh Conway as a young widow, with quaint cap and 'kerchief. She afterwards married Col. James Taylor, ancestor of the Taylors of Newport, Ky. Both oil portrait and miniature are owned by Miss Frances Scott Conway, Louisville, Ky. Gen. Charles L. Fitzhugh, of Pittsburg, Pa., descended from George Fitzhugh, fourth son of Colonel William Fitzhugh, the immigrant, has portraits of his whole line, beginning with the above William, with the one exception noted below: 1, William, the first in America; 2, George (missing); 3, William, of 'Rousby Hall,' Maryland; 4, William, of Hagerstown, Md.; 5, Henry, of Oswego, N.Y.; 6, Charles L., of Pittsburg, Pa.; 7, Henry, of Pittsburg, Pa.; 8, Charles Carroll, of Pittsburg, Pa. "General Fitzhugh is very anxious to obtain the portrait of George Fitzhugh, if one is extant. Can any reader of the Quarterly assist him in his search? Is Mr. Thomas's portrait of Col. William Fitzhugh, the immigrant, the original, or is the original the one owned by General Charles Fitzhugh? Or if both of these are copies, wehre is the original portrait? - Kate Mason Rowland. THROCKMORTON. - "I find in your issue for July that you have made two mistakes, both of which should be corrected. First, on page 50, in the letter from Robert Cary & Co. to Major Robert Throckmorton, you have omitted the following paragraph, beginning at the bottom of page 50. The letter should read: 'Gloucester County in Virginia and to his Heirs and assigns forever and had appointed the above I Bailey his Trustee and Exr. Mr. Bailey desired we would send him an answer, which we did, and as he purposes writing himself shall as soon as we receive it order it to be Immediately forwarded. We presume Mr. John Throckmorton to be your Eldest son.' From here on you have quoted the letter correctly. The other mistake is in the wording of the certificate, and consists in the insertion of the word 'or' in place of 'etc.' The certificate on the back of the coat-of- arms should read: 'The arms, crest, Page 143. and quarterings depicted in this achievement belong to John Throckmorton, of Ware Parish in Virginia, extracted from evidences preserved in the Heralds' office, London, by Ralph Bigland" - Somerset Herald, Reg. 3 March, 1769. See the pedigrees of this family in the visitations of Huntingdon, etc., in the Heralds' office. - C. W. Throckmorton, 343 Broadway, New York. DIGGES. - In the Digges pedigree, Quarterly, January, 1893, the first wife of Colonel William Digges, of Denbigh, Elizabeth, daughter of John Wormeley (Hening's Statutes, Vol. 8), is omitted. Colonel William Digges, Sen., died before 1784, as appears from the advertisements in the Gazette. Colonel Edward Digges, his brother, died before 1785; as his trustee, Thomas Nelson, Sen., advertises for sale that part of Newport News that lies in Warwick county, containing by a late survey seven hundred and forty one acres, and four hundred acres on York River, two miles from Yorktown, including his mansion-house and a part of the land that produces the famous E. D. tobacco. STRACHEY FAMILY (See Quarterly, July, 1893, for Starchey). - In the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1893, is an article entitled "The Old Hall and the Portraits", by Sir Edward Strachey, Bart. The "Old Hall" is Sutton Court, the ancient seat of the Strachey family. The article is in the form of a dialogue between "Foster" and "Squire", who represents Sir Edwawrd Strachey himself. After a statement that the William Strachey, who came to Virginia, was the grandfather of John Strachey, a friend of Locke, "Foster" asks, "Did you keep up your connection with Virginia?" "Squire:" "Yes. Two migrations are recorded in the family pedigree. And Though the male line has ended, I still correspond with a worthy representative through the female line. This gentleman opened a communication with me after the war of 1861-'65 in the troubles of which he had lost his family pedigree, and asked me to help him to supply its place; and in token of his claim he sent me photographs of pictures of several of our common ancestors, of which the counterparts are now hanging before you." In the Hakluyt Society edition of William Strachey's "Virgiia Brittania", the editor states (p.i), that in the pedigree of the Stracheys of Sutton Court there is mention of a W. Strachey, of Saffron Walden (married in 1588 and alive in 1620), though with no notice of his having been in Virginia, but "it is remarkable, however, that his grandson of the same name is expecially referred Page 144. to as having emigrated to that place" [Virginia]. Sir Henry Strachey was private secretary of General Howe during the American Revolution.