Title of Westover; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 4, No. 3, 1896 Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** Title of Westover Lyon G. Tyler William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3. (Jan., 1896), pp. 151-155. TITLE OF WESTOVER. BY THE EDITOR When Sir Thomas Dale began to build Henricopolis, the second town in Virginia, "West and Shirley Hundres" were authorized. They were at first united; and John Rolfe wrote in 1616 that "at West and Shirley Hundred, seated on the north side of the river, lower than the Bermudas three or four miles, are twenty-five [persons], commanded by Capt. Isaac Maddeson, who are employed only in planting and curing tobacco - with the profits thereof to clothe themselves and all those who labor about the general business". This settlement appears to have been established by a private corporation, of which the brothers of Lord Delaware - Capt. Francis West. Maston John West, and Capt. Nathaniel West - were the leading members. They had each a plantation, and in the massacre of 1622 the Indians killed two men at each of the three places. Thirty-one persons fell beneath the tomahawk at "West and Shirley Hundred" in that year. In February, 1623-'24, there were forty-five person in the settlement. In 1625 there were sixty-one inhabitants. Westover was a distinct hundred in 1629, when it was represented in the House of Burgesses by Christopher Woodward. In February, 1631-'32, John Flood represented Westover, "Flowerdew Hundred", and Weyanoake. In September, 1632, Mr. John Flood apepared again, and this time for Westover and "Flowerdue Hundred". In February, 1632-'33, the representative for the two places was Capt. Thomas Pawlett. This was the last time, as far as appears from Hening, that Westover was represented. In 1634 counties were formed, and representation was apportioned, not by plantations, but by counties. The last representative of Westover became, shortly afterwards, the owner of the estate. Population had begun to scaller over the country; and Capt. Thomas Pawlett received a patent from the governor, January 15, 1637, for 2,000 acres of hte plantation called Westover. Pawlett was the brother of the first Lord Pawlett. He was born about 1578, and came to Virginia in 1618. He appeared in the first American Assembly at Jamestown, July 30, 1619, as a representative from "Argall's Guifte". In 1625 he was living at Westover with his servant John Trussell, who was afterwards, it seems, a prominent man in Northumberland county, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Page 152. In 1631-'32 Capt. Pawlett was appointed one of the commissioners or justices for the upper precincts of Charles City and Henrico, and in 1641, a member of the Virginia Council. He died in 1644, without issue. the grant made to him January 15, 1637, was for "2000 acres in Charles City County bouding to the river south, northwest to the Maine, Eastward to the land of Capt. Perry, west upon Berkeley Hundred Land extending by the River side from Herring Creek to a gut of land dividing hte said land from the land of Berkeley Hundred", "being due unto him, the said Capt. Thomas Pawlett, for the personal adventure of his brother Chideck, and for transportation of 38 persons into the Colony". Under the will of Capt. Pawlett, dated January 12, 1643-'44, this land went to his brother Sir John, Lord Pawlett. An abstract of this will(1) is as follows: To my god-children Wm Harris, John Woodson, Tho. Aston, Thomas Fludd, Henry Richley, John Bishop, Tho. Woodward, Tho. Boyse, Tho. Poythers, and William Bayle, one silver spoon and one sow shote apiece, for eant of shotes the value to be paid out of the estate; to god-children Fra: Epps & Wm ferrar a silver spoon & my silver bowl and wine cup, to be divided between them; to Lieut. Bishop, Sergeant Williams, and Ensign Page, 20 shillings; to the Church of Westover, 10 acres, to lye forty pole square, now leased to Richard Hamlet, which ten acres are to be laid out for the best conveniency of the church; to my loving friends Mr George Menefie and mr Walter Aston, 20s apiece as poor token of my remembrance; to Mr George Menefie my sword and to Mr Walter Aston my gun; to Capt Fra. Eppes my drum, and to Mr Richard Jones minister my cow called Cherry; to Sir John Pawlett my everloving brother the residue of my estate after satisfaction of legacies and debts; sir John, sole ex'or, Capt. Francis Epps and Mr Walter Aston overseers of his will who are to bury him according to their own discretion; bequeathes to them 5L apiece sterl., but "withall desiring them that this and all other Legacies mentioned in this will may not be paid in money, but in some commodity naturally produced in this country that they may be no greter prejudice to the estate than the value of each legacy." In case of his brother's death before his enjoyment of this estte, "then my overseers to surrender it to Sir Wm Berklay, my much honoured kinsman, who is then to be ex'or"; to Mrs. Epps 20s. for a ring and my Bible; to Mrs. Menefie and Mrs. Aston 40s apiece; to Mrs. Reynolds Evans one cow; to Sam Salmon, 20s; "My two servants, John Claptona nd John Bennett, if they shall do faithful service to within one years space of the end of their indentures, to have them delivered up, othewise to be disposed of by the overseers of county court; my ex'ors to pay William Mundy 30s due form my Brol Chideck Pawlett; gives 40 shillings to John South". Dated 12 January, 1643. Witnesses John South, John Flud, Reynold Evans. Proved by the oath of Reynolds Evans before me: Fra: Epps. _________________________________________________________ (1) This will, together with many other wills and deeds, is given in Byrd's Book of Title Deeds", MS. in the Virginia Historical Society. Page 153. Some time after Sir John Pawlett, then living in Winchester, in the county of Southampton, understood that his brother had bequeathed him this plantation, he desired his friend, Otho Southcot, gent., to enter upon it in his name, which he did, and continued therein as long as it remained the property of Sir John. Sir William Berkeley wrote a letter November 12, 1661, releasing what right he had in the property to Sir John; and October 21, 1665, Johanna Sedgwick, administratrix of Ralph Sedgwick, late of St. Paul's covent garden, haberdasher, deceased, and executrix of John Snooke, of St. Clements Danes, deceased, signed, on receipt of 60L cash, a release, witnessed by Charles Southwell, attorney at law, William Clifton, and Edward Button, of a term of one thousand years in Westover, granted to said John Snooke, as a security for 159L borrowed of him by Sir John Pawlett. About this time, Sir John, by deeds of lease and release, dated April 7, 1665, and acknowledged January 4, 1665-'66, did demise the same property for 170L to Theodorick Bland, Esq., of Berkeley Hundred, except one parcel called "Given Micars". The witnesses to the deeds were Hum. Higginson, John Whittey, Arthur Bailey, Arthur Hare, Henry Hemlyn, Will Glanville, and Robert Midford. It was acknowledged in Charles City county, before Hoel Pryse, clerk, by Capt. Otho Southcot, attorney for Sir John Pawlett, on June 14, 1666. Livery and seizen were given 28th May, 1666, by Capt. Otho Southcot, by letter of attorney from Sir John, and "the tenants, Cuthbert Williamson, John Holmwood, and John Rider, did fully atturn and assent to the same".(1). Theodorick Bland, who was a wealthy merchant, learned and studious, a member of an ancient English family, and a member of the Virginia council, died in 1671; and the Westover tract went by bequest to his son, Theodorick, who joined his brother, Richard, with him as owner of Westover. In 1688 they conveyed 1,200 acres of the tract to William Byrd, Esq., son of John Byrd, goldsmith or banker of London, for L300 and 10,000 pounds of tobacco and cask. The deed describes the plantation as "beginnin at Duckingstool Point at or about the mouth of Herring Creek, along the line of James River, until it meets with the line of the land of James Minge, which line runs north from the said river about ten feet from a ditch cast up as some ancient limit there". The witnesses were Benjamin Harrison, William Randolph, and James Cocke. In the presence of these witnesses a turf and twig by way __________________________________________________________________________ (1) Byrd's Book of Title Deeds, MS. Page 154. of livery and seizin were granted to William Byrd Feburary 4, 1688-'89. Although the conveyance of Theodorick and Richard Bland to Colonel Byrd of the plantation of Westover mentioned 1,200 acres, yet the quantity, including the swamp and marsh, was not near as much. The bounds, therefore, of the high land being too narrow, and Mr, James Minge having about 200 acres in the middle of the Westover tract, an exchange was agreed upon be- tween the said Minge and Colonel Byrd, by which the said 200 acres were made over in con- sideration of other lands in Charles City county. Colonel Byrd sets out the history of these 200 acres as follows: They were originally a part of hte estate of George Menifie (of Buckland, adjoining), a prominent member of the Virginia council. He died about 1645, when the land descended to his only daughter, who married Captain Henry Perry. This gentleman was the son of Captain William Perry, who married Isabella, the widow of Richard Pace, of Pce's Paines, who saved the colony in the massacre of 1622. He (Perry) represented Pace's Paines in 1629 and in 1629-'30, and was a member of the council in 1632-'33. His tombstone at Westover once bore an inscription, which Mr. Campbell, the historian, has handed down to us. He died August 6, 1637. His son, Captain Henry Perry, who married George Menifie's daughter, was burgess for Charles City in 1652 and 1654, and of the council from 1655 to 1660. He left two daughters - Elizabeth, who married John Coggs, of Rainslipp, in Middlesex county, England, gent., and Mary, wife of Thomas Mercer, citizen and stationer, of London. On August 20, 1684, these persons appointed John Bishop, of Wey- anoke, in Charles City county, Va., their attorney, who, on December 23, 1684, conveyed the said 200 acres to James Minge, of Martin Brandon, gent., who, as already stated, exchanged it for other lands of William Byrd. William Byrd was the son of John Byrd, a London goldsmith or banker, and came to Virginia shortly before Bacon's Rebellion, to take charge of the property left to him by his uncle, Thomas Stegge, who lived just below the falls of James River. A neighbor of Bacon, he fully sympathized with him in the difficulties that arose with Sir William Berkeley, and took a leading part in persuading Bacon to assume command of the insurgent camp. across the river, at Jordan's Point. He is known to have been commander at Colonel Warner's, in Gloucester county, but contrived to make his peace with Berkeley after Bacon's death. Colonel Warner sued Page 155. him for L10,000 damages, but the issue is not known. His letter-book, preserved in the Virginia Historical Society, shows that he purchased the Westover estate in order to get out of the way of the Indians, who continued their murders, having lately killed one of his servants and carried off two others. At Westover, in 1690, he built a house (a wooden house, it is supposed, on the present site) and died there, as his epitaph in the old churchyard states, in 1701. In the time of his son, the second William Byrd, another piece of land, though a small one, was added to Westover. This was the eight acres given by Capt. Thomas Pawlett to the church. It appears that the vestry incurred the reproach of Sir William Berkeley, who, in a letter dated may 10, 1672, complained that the vestry, in their survey of the church land, had taken in "fivety or sixty foot of Mrs. Bland's housing, without any right derived from Capt. Pawlett", and urged them to amend their survey as speedily as possible, as "the widow and orphans would find equity in all the just courts of the world". This they did; and sub- sequently James Minge, who was a distinguished surveyor, in 1701 drew, by agreement with Col. Byrd, a plan of Westover, including the land of Mr. Minge, previously deeded to Byrd, and the church land; and this survey is recorded, with all the other instruments of writing and the proper descriptive matter, in Colonel Wm. Byrd's Book of Titles to his lands. The survey shows, not only the church at Westover, but the old courthouse at the river's edge, "brick brewhouse", Herring Creek on the north and east, Berkeley on the west, and Buckland on the other side of Herring Creek. When the church was removed form Westover to Herring Creek (its present site), the General Assembly, in 1731, ordered Colonel Byrd, Colonel Carter, Samuel Harwood, and John Stith to sell the land left by Captain Pawlett to the church; and this this tract about the graveyard also came to be united to Westover by the purchase of the second William Byrd. This great man built and adorned the present brick edifice at Westover, amassed in it the largest library and portrait gallery on the American continent, and, as Fellow of the Royal Society of England, President of the Virginia Council, statesman, historian, gentleman, he lived and died the delight and glory of Virginia.