USA > Virginia > Some prominent Virginia families, Volume II > Part 40
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Peter Harrison appeared to have died without issue, before mid- dle age, as he was not mentioned in the will of his mother, Mary Sidway, dated Mareh 1, 1687 or '88. It gives as follows :
"Item. I give and bequeath unto my Grand Daughter, Hannah Harrison, the horse eolt that sueks on the blaek mare.
"Item. I give and bequeath unto John Kersey, one yearling hepher. And for the rest of my estate my will is after my just debts paid that it be equally divided between my two sons, Benjamin Harrison, and Thomas Sidway, whom I do make my executors, to see this my will performed."
The will was witnessed by Lyddeia Norwood and Sam'l Alse- brook, who proved it on May 29, 1688.
Thomas Sidway, half brother of Harrison, appears to have died ehildless. His will, dated January 16, 1694, probated De- eember 3, 1695, gives all his land and personal property to his wife Jeane, for life, and at her death to William Stringer and his heirs. The wife was named as exeeutrix, and the witnesses were Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Pedington. Harrison also left something to William Stringer, if he eame to this country, meaning probably, that he had gone to England. So it is evident that he was nearly related to or connected with Sidway's and Harrison's mother. He appears to have been the William Stringer, of Charles City County, who, January 1, 1682, made Elias Osborne his at- torney in the law suits between him and Wm. Piekerill and Thomas Hayard, of Surry County. The witnesses to the letter of attorney were Paul Williams, John Harrison and George Jennings.
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VIRGINIA FAMILIES
SECOND GENERATION.
II. Honorable Benjamin Harrison2 (Benjamin1), of Surry, b. in Southwark Parish, Surry Co., Va., September 20, 1645, d. January 30, 1712-13. He was sent to England as a commissioner from the Colony, against Commissary Blair, member of the Council of the Province from 1699. Married Hannah -
, who was born February 13, 1651-52; d. February 16, 1698-99.
They were buried at the Chapel, near Cabin Point, where their tombstones were still to be seen in 1869.
The following is the epitaph on his tombstone :
Here lyeth the body of the Honorable Benjamin Harrison, Esq., who did justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with God,-was always loyal to his Prince, and a great benefactor to his country.
The tombstone of Benjamin Harrison, of Surry, the councillor, and Hannah, his wife, gives the date of her birth and death, but not her parentage, and the destruction of so many of the public records and the incompleteness of family records prevent our dis- covering this. The late William Byrd Harrison, of "Upper Bran- don," was of the opinion that she was a Churchill, but there is nothing to confirm this, and it may have been derived from the marriage of her granddaughter, Hannah, with Mr. Churchill.
Benjamin Harrison, the councillor, and Hannah, his wife, had issue :
I. Sarah Harrison3, of whose birth the date on the tomb- stone at Jamestown has been printed both 1670 and 1678, the latter being clearly wrong, as Hannah was born that year. If 1670 be correct, it shows that all the children, except perhaps Mrs. Edwards, but prob- ably including her, were by wife Hannah, as Sarah is declared to have been, the tombstone saying :
"She was daughter of Col. Benjamin and Mrs. Han- nah Harrison, of Surry. Born, August 14th, 1670; died May ye 5, 1713, exceedingly beloved and lamented. Sarah married Rev. James Blair, D. D., minister of Jamestown Parish, Commissary of the Bishop of London for Virginia, and President of William and Mary Col- lege, who survived her thirty years."
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II Benjamin Harrison3, ancestor of the Presidents, b. about 1673; d. 1710.
III. Nathaniel Harrison3, b. August 8, 1677; d. November 30, 1727.
IV. Hannah Harrison3, b. December 15, 1678; d. April 4, 1731.
V. Henry Harrison3, b. about 1692 or '93; d. September 24, 1732, in the 40th year of his age, according to his tomb- stone at Cabin Point. Married April 1, 1708, Eliza- beth Smitlı, daughter of Captain John Smith, of Pres- ton, and Mary Warner, b. May 25, 1690. (See Smith, Volume IV, Chapter II.)
Jacobus Blair .
REV. JAMES BLAIR, A. M., D. D.
Henry Harrison's will, dated September 11, 1732, re- cited an agreement of October 27, 1732, left his plan- tation to his wife, Elizabeth, for life, and then to his nephew, Benjamin Harrison, of Berkeley .*
I give the following note from the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. IV, No. 2, October, 1898 :
James Blair, D. D., educated at Edinburgh, came to Virginia in 1865; appointed commissary of the Bishop of London, and ex-
"It tends to confirm the regicide tradition that the descendants of John and Lucy Grymes have a tradition (sec Meadc) that their ancestor, whose name apparently was not Grymes, was Lieutenant-General Thomas
of Cromwell's army. It is, of course, possible that Hannah, wife of Harrison the Councillor, was daughter of Harrison the regicide.
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VIRGINIA FAMILIES
officio member of the Council in 1690; was the father of William and Mary College, and its first president; married the daughter of Hon. Benjamin Harrison, of "Wakefield," Surry County, and died in 1743, having been a minister for fifty-eight, commissary and councillor fifty-four, and President of the College, fifty years.
His brother, Archibald Blair, M. D., also came to Virginia; was member of the House of Burgesses, for Jamestown, in 1718, and for James City County in 1723; and dying in 1736, left.issue :
I. John Blair2, b. 1686, d. November 1771; member of the House of Burgesses; auditor, member, and president of the Council, and acting Governor in 1768. Married Mary, daughter of Rev. John Monro.
II. Harrison Blair2. Married D. George Gilmer.
III. Elizabeth Blair2. Married, 1728, Col. John Bolling, of "Cobbs," Henrico, now Chesterfield.
2. John and Mary (Monro) Blair had issuc :
I. John Blair3, Burgess 1769, etc., Chief Justice of the General Court, Judge of the High Court of Chancery, and of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, member of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, and Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court; d. August 31, 1800, leaving no children who survived him.
II. James Blair3, M. D. Married, 1771, Kitty Eustace of New York, and d. December, 1772.
III. Sarah Blair3. Married Colonel Wilson Cary, of "Ceeleys," Warwick County. (Cary Family, Chapter IV.)
IV. Ann Blair3. Married Colonel John Banister, of Battersea, Dinwiddie County, Va.
V. Christian Blair3, b. 1727, d. January 2, 17844. Married Col. Armistead Burwell, of Stoneland, Mecklenburg Co. VI. Elizabeth Blair3. Married, 1768, Captain William Thompson, of the British Navy.
THIRD GENERATION,
III. Benjamin Harrison3 (Benjamin2, Benjamin1), son of Ben- jamin Harrison the Councillor and Hannah, his wife, b. 1673 (about), d. April 10, 1710, aged 37. Married Elizabeth Burwell, daughter of Lewis Burwell of Gloucester County, Va. Elizabeth d. 1734, in her 57th year. Benjamin Harrison was an eminent law-
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SOME PROMINENT
yer and treasurer and speaker of the House of Burgesses. He was attorney general from 1699-1702; treasurer and speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1705. There is recorded in the Couneil journal an order giving him access to the records. Ile settled at Berkeley, Charles City County, Va., and started to write a history of the Colony, when he died. A monument was erceted to his memory at the publie expense, and we learn from his tombstone at Westover :
"Hie Situs est in Spem Ressureetionis. Benjamin de Berkeley, Benjamin Harrison de Surry Filius Natu Maximus, uxorem Duxit Elizabetham Ludoviei Burwell. Gloueestriensis Filiam & qua Filium Reliquit unieum Benjamin et unieam Filiam Elizabetham, Obijit Apr. X. Anno Dom. M. D. C. C. X. Etam XXXVII. . . "
Benjamin Harrison and Elizabeth Burwell, his wife, had issue:
I. Benjamin Harrison4. Married Anne Carter.
II. Elizabeth Harrison4.
III. Nathaniel Harrison3 (Benjamin2, Benjamin1), son of Benjamin Harrison, the Couneillor, and Hannah, his wife. Nathaniel Harrison, of Wakefield, was Burgess 1706; naval offieer of the lower James River, 1713; appointed to the Couneil, 1713; County Lieutenant of Surry and Prince George Counties, 1715. Afterwards an Auditor General. His tombstone, according to the Philadelphia "Evening Telegraph," of March 13, 1890, was found on the north side of the James River Road, near Sunken Meadow, Surry County, Va., with the following inseription :
"Here lieth the body of the Hon. Nathaniel Harrison, Esq., son of the Hon. Benjamin Harrison, Esq. He was born in this parish, the 8th day of August, 1677, departed this life the 30th day of November, 1727, appointed to sueeeed his father, resided at Wakefield, will dated Dee. 15, 1726. Married Mary Young, née Cary, supposed to have been Mary, born in 1678, daughter of John Cary, merehant of London, by his wife Jane, daughter of John Flood, of Surry County, Va."
Nathaniel Harrison and Mary Young, his wife, had issue :
I. Nathaniel Harrison4, of "Brandon." Married, first (Aug. 23, 1739), Mary, daughter of Coles Diggs; and, seeond, Luey, widow of Henry Fitzhugh (Fitzhugh, Chapter XVI) ; daughter of Robert Carter, of Corotoman. (Carter, Chapter VII.)
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VIRGINIA FAMILIES
II. Benjamin Harrison4, of Wakefield, d. 1758. Married August 23, 1739, Susannah, daughter of Cole Digges.
III. Hannah Harrison4. Married Armistead Churchill.
IV. Elizabeth Harrison4. Married before 1733, John Cargill, of Surry County.
V. Sarah Harrison4. Married before 1733, James Bradle, of Surry County.
VI. Anne Harrison4. Married, August 9, 1739, Edward Digges, brother of her brother Nathaniel's first wife, and of her brother Benjamin's wife.
VII. Mary Harrison4. Married James Gordon. (See Hayden's Virginia Genealogies.)
III. Hannah Harrison3 (Benjamin2, Benjamin1), daughter of Benjamin Harrison, the Couneillor, and Hannah, his wife, b. at Indian Fields in the said parish, the 15th day of December, 1678; d. April 4, 1731. Married, November 11, 1697, Philip Ludwell, b. at Carter's Creek, February 4, 1672; member of Virginia Couneil; d. January 11, 1726-7, son of Philip Ludwell-Governor of Carolina, and afterwards member of the Virginia Couneil-his wife Luey, née Higginson. Hannah Harrison and Philip Ludwell had issue :
I. Luey Ludwell+, b. Nov. 2, 1698; d. Nov. 2, 1748. Mar- ried John Grymes, Couneillor.
II. Hannah Ludwell4, b. Dee. 5, 1701; d. Jan. 25, 1749-50. Married Thomas Lee, President of the Virginia Couneil, commissioned Governor, but died before the commission arrived, Nov. 14, 1750. (Lee Family, Chapter VIII.) III. Sarah Ludwell4, b. July 29, 1704; d. Jan. 6, 1705.
IV. Philip Ludwell4, b. Jan. 16, 1705-6; d. March 9, 1705-6. V. Philip Ludwell4, b. Dee. 28, 1716; d. March 25, 1767. Married Franees Grymes. Issue :
I. Hannah Philippa Ludwell5. Married William Lee.
II. Luey Ludwell5. Married John Paradise. Issue :
I. Daughter Paradise®. Married Count Barzizi, a Venetian.
FOURTH GENERATION.
IV. Benjamin Harrison4 (Benjamin3, Benjamin2, Benjamin1), of Berkeley, son of Benjamin Harrison and Elizabeth Burwell, his
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SOME PROMINENT
wife, was Sheriff of Charles City County in 1728; many years Burgess for Charles City ; died while a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1744. Married (about 1722) Anne Carter, daughter of Robert Carter (King), of Corotoman. (Carter, Chapter VII.) Issue :
I. Anne Harrison5, 1735. Married William Randolph, of Wilton, b. 1710. Issue :
I. Peter Randolph".
II. Peyton Randolph". Married his first cousin, Lucy, daugh- ter of Benjamin Harrison, the signer of the Declaration of Independence.
III. Ann Randolph", b. 1740. Married (1760) Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon. No issue. .
IV. Elizabeth Randolph", b. 1742. Married (1762) Philip Grymes.
V. Lucy Randolph", b. 1744. Married (1764) Lewis Bur- well.
II. Elizabeth Harrison5. Married Peyton Randolph, Presi- dent of the first Continental Congress. (Randolph, Chapter V.)
III. Benjamin Harrison5, b. 1726, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
IV. Carter Henry Harrison", b. after 1726, at Clifton. Mar- ried Susanna, daughter of Isham Randolph, of Dungenness.
V. Henry Randolph5, d. in infancy.
VI. Charles Harrison5, d. 1796.
VII. Nathaniel Harrison5.
VIII. Henry Harrison5.
IX. Robert Harrison5, d. before 1771.
(Records assert that Benjamin Harrison and two daughters were killed by the same flash of lightning.)
IV. Nathaniel Harrison4 (Nathaniel3, Benjamin2, Benjamin1), son of Nathaniel Harrison and Mary Young, née Cary, his wife, of Brandon. Married, first (August 23, 1739), Mary, d. 1744, daughter of Cole Digges ; and married, second, Lucy, née Carter, daughter of King Carter and widow of Henry Fitzhugh. Mary Harrison, daughter of the Honorable Cole Digges, President of
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VIRGINIA FAMILIES
His Majesty's Couneil, and wife of Nathaniel Harrison of Prinee George Co., Va., d. November 12, 1744, in her twenty-seventh year. She so discharged the several duties of a wife, mother, and daughter and neighbor, that her relations and aequaintanees might justly esteem their loss insupportable, were it not ehastened with the remembranee that every virtue which adds weight to their loss augments her rewards. Nathaniel Harrison+, of Brandon, was long a member of the Colonial Couneil and ap- pointed to the State Council, 1776, on the resignation of his son.
Issue by first wife :
I. Benjamin Harrison", of Brandon.
II. Elizabeth Harrison5. Married John Thornton.
IV. Benjamin Harrison+ (Nathaniel3, Benjamin2, Benjamin1), son of Nathaniel Harrison and Mary Young, nee Cary, his wife, of Wakefield, in Surry Co., Va .; d. 1758. Married (August 23, 1739) Susannah, daughter of the Honorable Coles Digges, Esq.
William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. VII, No. I, July, 1898, pp. 39, 40, gives the following issue :
I. Nov. 26, 1740, Elizabeth Harrison was born. Baptised by the Rev. Mr. Richard Hewit. Sept. 8, 1748, she departed this life in the 8th year of her age.
II. Oet. 22, 1742, Mary Harrison was born. Baptised by Rev. John Smith. Sept. 2, 1747, she departed this life in the 5th year of her age.
III. Aug. 24, 1744, Nathaniel Harrison was born. Baptised by Rev. Mr. John Camm.
IV. Dee. 23, 1745, Susannah Harrison was born. Baptised by. Rev. Mr. William Fife.
V. Aug. 23, 1747, Benjamin Harrison was born. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Henry Eilbeek.
VI. Sept. 1, 1749, Hannah Harrison was born. by Rev. Mr. Henry Eilbeek.
Baptised
VII. Aug. 24, 1751. Eliza Digges Harrison was born on a Saturday, about half an hour after eleven in the even- ing, inerease of the moon. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Eil- beek. Nov. 8, 1751, she departed this life, being two months and 15 days old. (Note: The above before the style was altered.)
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SOME PROMINENT
VIII. Feb. 11, 1753. Peter Cole Harrison was born about three o'eloek in the morning, inerease of the moon. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Richard Hopkins.
IX. Dee. 31, 1754. Ludwell Harrison5 was born on a Tues- day, about half an hour after eleven in the evening, deerease of the moon. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Alexander Finney.
June 11, 1757, Benjamin Harrison departed this life, being 10 years of age on the 3rd of September, en- suing.
William Goosley, married Ludwell2, daughter of Benjamin Har- rison, Esq., of Wakefield, on January 16, 1773, and had issue :
I. Martha Goosley", b. Nov. 11, 1773. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Andrews; d. June 16, 1774.
II. Elizabeth Goosley", b. May 14, 1776. Baptised by Rev. Mr. White, of King William Co., Va.
III. Anne Goosley", b. Aug. 23, 1778; d. June 20, 1779. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Robert Andrews.
IV. George Goosley", b. May 5, 1780. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Andrews.
V. Luey Goosley", b. Mareh 30, 1782. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Carter, of King and Queen Co.
VI. Franees Goosley6, b. Dee. 29, 1783. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Andrews.
VII. William Goosley®, b. April 2, 1786. Mr. Sam Shield.
Baptised by Rev.
VIII. Benjamin Goosley", b. Jan. 23, 1788. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Jno. Braeken ; d. Feb. 25, 1789.
IX. Sarah Cary Goosley", b. Feb. 5, 1790. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Shield.
X. Anne Harrison Goosley", b. Sept. 15, 1794. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Henderson.
XI. Cary GoosleyG, b. Aug. 21, 1797. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Henderson ; d. Mareh following.
XII. Susan Goosley, b. Aug. 29, 1799. Baptised by Rev. Mr. Braeken.
(See Goosley and Cary Family, Volume I, and Chapter IV of this volume.)
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VIRGINIA FAMILIES
August 22 my dear son George Goosley was lost on his way to Charleston, 1806. December 31, 1809, my beloved husband, William Goosley, of York Co., Va., died.
Richmond, Va., January Ist, 1870: Presented to James Brown McCaw, M. D., oldest son of Anne Ludwell Brown, who married Dr. Wm. R. McCaw, oldest grandson of Frances Goosley, wife of James Brown, Jr., by his great-aunt, Susan Campbell, surviving child of Ludwell Harrison.
Entries in an old Bible printed by Thomas Basket and now owned by Dr. James B. McCaw, of Richmond :
Doctor James Brown McCaw's daughter, Anna Patteson Mc- Caw, married Dr. James D. Moncure. (See Volume I, Chapters VI and VII.)
Dr. McCaw's youngest daughter, Mary, married Dabney H. Maury, of Peoria, Ill.
Granddaughters live in Richmond and Norfolk, Va.
IV. Hannah Harrison4 (Nathaniel3, Benjamin2, Benjamin1), daughter of Nathaniel Harrison and Mary Young, née Cary, his wife. (See will of Col. Nathaniel Harrison, proved in Surry County, February 2, 1729.) Married Armistead Churchill, b. at Rosegill (the home of the Wormeleys on the Rappahannock), July 25, 1704, and baptized by Rev. Mr. Yates on August 1 following; was justice of the peace, colonel of the militia, and collector for Rappahannock River. Armistead Churchill2 was son of William Churchill and Elizabeth Armistead, daughter of Col. John Armistead, of Gloucester, and widow of Ralph Wormelcy, Secretary of the Colony, whose will is dated February 2, 1700, and second, October 5, 1703.
Armistead Churchill and Hannah Harrison, his wife, had issue :
I. William Churchill5, of "Wilton," on the Pianketank.
II. John Churchill5, b. Dec. 23, 1728.
III. Nathaniel Churchill5, b. June 16, 1730; d. Dec. 21, 1730.
IV. Henry Churchill5, b. Nov. 15, 1731; d. of pleurisy, Dec. 24, 1760.
V. Armistead Churchill5, b. Nov. 25, 1733; removed to Kentucky in 1787; grandfather of Samuel B. Churchill, Secretary of the State of Kentucky. (See William and Mary College Quarterlies, Vol. VIII, p. 200; Vol. IX, pp. 40, 246; Vol. X, p. 39.)
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SOME PROMINENT
VI. Benjamin Churchill5, who made a decd to his brother William in 1772, sealed with the Churchill coat-of- arms. (Original at Middlescx Courthouse.)
VII. Mary Churchill5. Married (1749) John Armistead, and had issue :
I. Churchill Armistead6. Married (1775) Betsy Boswell. (Armistead Family, Chapter XIX.)
VIII. Lucy Churchill5, b. Jan. 1737 or '38. Married (Dee. 1756) Col. John Gordon, of Urbanna, younger brother of Col. James Gordon, one of the most cultivated men of his times.
IX. Priscilla Churchill5. Married, first (1759), Richard Spann ; seeond (Feb. 1765), Williamson Ball.
X. Judith Churchill5, b Nov. 21, 1743. Married, first (Nov. 11, 1769), Churchill Jones ; seeond, John Black- burn.
XI. Hannah Churchill5, b. Sept. 4, 1748.
XII. Betty Churchill5, b. 1751. Married Major William Jones, of Spottsylvania, of the "Wilderness." Issue :
I. Mrs. Judge Coalter, of Chatham. Major Jones married, second, Lueinda Gordon. Issue: Mrs. Laey.
The deposition of Betty Jones, aged 62, was taken 1813, at the house of William Jones, of Spottsylvania, in Chaneery suit, "Carter B. Berkeley, exor., of Edmund Berkeley vs. Roger Blackburn, exor., of Churchill Blackburn." In this suit there is a bond of Churchill Blackburn, as sheriff of King William County, with Pauline Blackburn as seeurity.
The Virginia Gazette, for September 21, 1776, has a notice of the death of Mrs. Hannah Churchill, of Bushy Park, in Middlesex County, reliet of Armistead Churchill, Esq., in the 70th year of her age. The will of Hannah Churchill, Jr., was proved in Middlesex, May 23, 1774, and she leaves legacies to Sarah Gordon and James Gordon, daughter and son of John and Luey Gordon, and to Churchill Jones, of Fauquier Co., Va. Witnesses, William Jones and R. Layton.
In the William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 1, July, 1899, p. 49, we have the following will of Col. Armistead Churchill, as recorded at the Courthouse :
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VIRGINIA FAMILIES
WILL OF ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL.
In the name of God, Amen. I, Armistead Churchill, of the County of Middlesex, in the Colony of Virginia, being in perfect mind and under- standing, do make this my last will and testament. In the first place, I desire all my just debts may be paid by my executors hereafter named, that is, my beloved sons, William Churchill, John Churchill, Henry Church- ill, and Armistead Churchill, and if my debts can be paid without selling my tract of land in Prince William County, my will and desire is that it should be divided as follows:
My son John Churchill to have 2,000 acres. My son Armistead to have 2,000 acres. My son Benjamin to have 2,000 acres. My son Henry Churchill to have 400 acres, if he should choose to live there, and the remainder of the tract to be cqually divided between my daughters, that is to say, Hannah, Lucy, Priscilla, Judith, and Betty. In testimony hereof I have set my hand and affixed my seal this twenty-first day of August, 1758. (Proved August, 1763.)
William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. VII, No. 3, January, 1899, p. 187, has the following of the will of William Churchill, father of Armistead Churchill :
The will of William Churchill' bears date November 18, 1710, and it was proved March 10, 1710 or '11, in Middlesex County. He required his burial to be "without any great doeings, save a sermon to admonish the liveling upon the words, 'Set thine house in order, for thou shalt dye and not live,' in Second Kings, 20 chapter, and the latter part of the first verse." He gave £100 sterling to the vestry of Christ Church Parish, the interest of which was to be given to the minister "for preaching four quarterly sermons against the four reigning vices of atheism and irreligion, swearing and cursing, fornification and adultery, and drunkenness," and the interest of £25 sterling bestowed on the clerk for attending to said sermons. To the poor of the parish of Christ Church, in London, he gave £10 sterling, and the same amount to the poor of North Aston, in Oxfordshire the place of his nativity. To his wife, Elizabeth, he gave a gold watch and £1,000 sterling, and her part of his negroes for life, and after his death to his son Armistead; he gave her besides, "my new calash I expect out of England." To his daughter, Priscilla, £1,000 sterling, and to his daughter, Elizabeth, £100, leaving his wife to advance her fortune out of her own. To Armistead Churchill, his son and heir, he gave the bulk of his estate in Virginia and England and made executors of his wife, his son and daughters, his kinsmen Nicholas and John Goodwin, of London, his "son- in-law" (step-son) Ralph Wormeley, and overseers of his will his brothers, Mr. William Armistead and Mr. Harry Armistead and friends, Mr. Nathaniel Burwell, Mr. John Holloway and Mr. John Clayton.
IV. Mary Harrison4 (Nathaniel3, Benjamin2, Benjamin1), daughter of Nathaniel Harrison and Mary Young, née Cary, his
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SOME PROMINENT
wife, b. 1731; d. May 13, 1771, aged 40. Married (November 12, 1748) Col. James Gordon, at Col. Armistead Churehill's. Col. Gordon, of Laneaster County, b. Neury, Ireland, 1714; d. Lan- easter County, Va., June 2, 1768. (Hayden's Va. Genealogies, pp. 248-9.)
Of Mary Harrison one of her grandsons in 1848 gave the following deseription. It was written from the High Church Presbyterian standpoint :
"Our grandmother, in the early period of her marriage, was of the High Church of England, and very bigotted-so much so that she refused to hear Mr. Davies preaeh, although he was a favorite with her husband, Colonel Gordon. Being visited, how- ever, with a protraeted illness, a sermon was preached in their house by this distinguished minister, which she heard from her bed, our grandfather being represented as setting open the door of an adjoining room to afford this opportunity. This sermon was blessed to her awakening and eonversion. She lived an exemplary Christian and good Presbyterian, and so died."
Col. James Gordon, from whose Bible the quotations are given, eame to Virginia, from Neury, County Down, Ireland, with his brother, John, 1738, and located in Laneaster County. The Gor- don erest, still preserved on Col. Gordon's silver, is that of the Gordons of Knoekespoek, Hallhead and Esslemont, County Aber- deen, Seotland, i. e., "a stag's head erased proper." Motto : "Bydand." This is the erest of the ancient Gordons of Huntly.
It is said of the brothers James and John, who came to Virginia : "They were enterprising and sueeessful merehants, and became wealthy and influential. The brothers were elosely connected through life. James, however, was the most active in religious matters. A man of enterprise and of popular manners, habits of hospitality, of extensive landed and personal property, by edu- eation and principle a Presbyterian, he stood firm in his religious opinions and praetiee, and received the reward of his faith and devotion. A man of system, he was in the habit of keeping a journal, in which he made daily entries in a brief manner of his domestic eoneerns, his mereantile affairs, his farming operations, and events of interest in the neighborhood."
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