USA > Virginia > Some prominent Virginia families, Volume II > Part 59
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VII. Nancy Taliaferro4. Married Thompson Watkins.
VIII. Frances Taliaferro4. Married Moses Penn.
JOHN BYRD.
John Byrd, of London, married Grace, daughter of Thomas Stegg, of London, who lived at various times in London and Virginia, and who was a member of the House of Burgesses for Charles City County, Va., and speaker in 1642-43, and was ap- pointed by Parliament one of the commissioners to reduce Vir- ginia, was lost at sea in 1651 while in an English frigate on his way to the Colony. (Strausburg Abstract.)
John and Grace (Stegg) Byrd had issue (besides other children, amongst whom were Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, Mary and Grace), a son, Col. William Byrd, b. 1652; d. December 4, 1704. He came to Virginia about 1674 to take possession of a large estate left him by his uncle, Thomas Stegg (who died unmarried), and first settled at "Belvidere," Henrico County, Va., within the present limits of Richmond, where there is a street bearing the name of
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his residenee and another of his family, a county of which he was long a justiee and offieer of militia and which he represented in the House of Burgesses in 1679, 1680, 1682 (Henrico records), and in the latter years was appointed member of the Couneil (Couneil Journal). He was appointed auditor general in 1687.
In April, 1679, the Assembly granted him a traet of land be- ginning at the south side of James River a mile and a half below the Falls, and extending up five miles and baek one mile (all of whielt he aeeompts and presumes to be his own land), on eondi- tion that he should seat on said lands fifty armed men and other tithables not exeeeding two hundred and fifty. (Hening, II, p. 448.) Col. Byrd and his descendants owned all the land here deseribed as is shown by a volume of his land titles now in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society, and he also owned large landed estates elsewhere in Virginia and North Carolina. In 1688 he purchased and moved to "Westover," Charles City County. He married Maria, daughter of Warham Horsmander, of Charles City County, and formerly of Purleigh, Essex, England, to which he returned after the restoration, after having been a Burgess for Charles City County, 1657-58, and eleeted to the coun- eil during the session. Col. William Byrd is buried at "West- over," where his tomb remains and bears the following inseription :
The Byrd Family. Hic Recondentur Cineres Galicomi Byrd, Armigen Regii. Hugus Provincial Quaestoris, Qui Hane Vitam Cum Eternitate Commutovit 4th Die December, 1704, Post Quam Vixisset, 52 Annis.
His wife's tomb is also at "Westover":
Ilere Lyeth the Body of MARY BYRD, Late wife of William Byrd, Esq., and
Daughter of Warham Horsmander, Esq .. Who died the Ninth Day of November, 1699 In the 47th year of Her Age.
18
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Col. William Byrd and Mary (Horsmander) Byrd had issue : First, William (of whom hereafter) ; seeond, a son; third, Ursula, married Robert Beverly, of "Beverly Park," King and Queen County, Va. (the historian), and died 1699; fourth, Susan, married John Brayne, merchant, of London; fifth, a daughter.
Col. William Byrd, the eldest son, lived at "Westover." and was b. Mareh 15, 1674; d. August 26, 1744; was county lieutenant of Henrieo County and Charles City, 1715; a member of Honse of Burgesses, 1702; appointed receiver-general and member of the Couneil, 1705 (Couneil Journal) ; became president of that body and was sent three times to England as agent of the colony. Col. Byrd was a man of great sagaeity and enterprise, and also be- sides eolleeting the largest private library in America (3,507 volumes), made several interesting and valuable contributions to literature which have been published under the title of "West- over Manuseripts." He married, first (in 1704), Luey, daughter of Col. Daniel Parke, Jr. (who was a member of the Virginia Council, distinguished at Blenheim, and was sent with the first news of the victory to England, receiving as services the office of Governor of the Leeward Islands, where he was killed in a riot). The tomb of Col. William Byrd is at "Westover," bearing his arms and the following inseription :
Here lyeth the Hon. William Byrd, Esq.
Being born to one of the amplest fortunes in this country, he was sent early to England for his education, where, under the care and instruction of Sir Robert Southwell, and ever favored with his particular instruction, he made a happy proficiency in polite and various learning; by the means of the same noble friend, he was introduced to the acquaintance of many of the first persons of the age for knowledge, wit, virtue, birth or high station, and particularly contracted a most close and bosom friendship with the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle. Earl of Onery. He was called to the bar in the middle temple, studied for some time in the lower countries, visited the court of France, and was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society. Thus eminently fitted for the service and ornament of his country, he was made Receiver-General of his Majesty's revenues here, was thrice appointed public agent to the court and ministry of England, and being thirty-seven years a member, at last became President of the eonneil of this colony. To all this was added a great elegance of taste and life, the well-bred gentleman and polite companion, the splendid economist and proudest father of a family with the constant enemy of all exorbitant power and hearty friend to the liberties of his country. Nat. March 28, 1674. Mort. August 26, 1744, aetat 70.
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Issue by first marriage: First, Evelyn, b. July 16, 1707; d. unmarried, November 13, 1737. (Her portrait, a lovely face, is preserved.) Sceond, Parke, b. September 6, 1709; d. Junc 3, 1710; third, Phillips Williams, b. February 23; d. December 9, 1712; fourth, Wilhelmina, b. November 6, 1715, married Thomas Chamberlayne of King William County.
Issue by second marriage: Fifth, Ann, b. in London, February 5, 1725; d. September 11, 1757, married (in 1742) Charles Carter, of "Hampstead," afterwards of "Cleve"; sixth, Maria, b. January 6, 1727, d. November 29, 1744, married Landon Carter, of "Sabine Hall"; seventh, Jane, b. October 13, 1729, married John Page, of "North End"; cighth, Col. William, b. --; d. January 1, 1777, of "Westover"; was for several years a member of the House of Burgesses from Lunenburg County, and was appointed to the council in 1754 (Journal) ; was commissioned a colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment in 1758, and was in active service on the western frontier during the French and Indian War. He was a liberal supporter of the turf, owning some of the most cele- brated horses of that day in Virginia, and is stated to have ex- pended much of the great estate left him by his father. Hc mar- ried, first, Elizabeth Hill, daughter of John Carter, of "Coroto- man," and "Shirley," and second, Mary, daughter of Charles Willing, of Philadelphia, Pa. He had children by both wives.
In Virginia Gazelle, of March 28, 1771, is the following marriage notice :
MARRIED .- James Parke Farley, Esq., to Miss Betty Byrd, eldest danghter of the Hon. William Byrd, Esq.
The Byrds are distinctly descended from Edward III, King of England, who had: John Duke of Lancaster, who had Joan, married Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland, and had: Sir Edward Lord Bergavenny, of Ulcombe, who had: Ursula, married Sir Worsham St. Ledger, and had: Sir Worsham St. Ledger, of Ulcombe, who had: Ursula, married Rev. Daniel Hors- mander, and had: Worsham Horsmander, of Ulcombe, who had: Maria, married Col. William Byrd, of "Westover."-"Americans of Royal De- scent"-Browning.
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CHAPTER XXII
THE BARTON FAMILY.
THE BARTON ARMS. Arms-Argent, three boars' heads. Conped gules for Barton of Barton.
"How lovely are the messengers who bring in the gospel of peace !" This exquisite versiele spoken so many thousands of years ago by the Psalmist is in one sense strangely, and in the way of prophecy, peculiarly applicable to the early history of America, for with the colonist came the priest and the preacher. We often speak of America as born grown up; or that, like Venus, she sprang beautifully adolescent from the foam of the sea. Yes, America was born grown up, but in no sense is this maturity more pronounced than in the deep and far-reaching sense of Christianity. At the time of the colonization of America Christianity had, we may say, reached a climax .. Noble men and women were willing not only for a doctrine of their religion, but even for a mere dogma, . the wearing or not wearing of a vestment, a black hat or a grey- to renounee forever home and country and friends, and take refuge in a savage-haunted wilderness, where they might worship
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God according to their own consciences. But what a magnificent parentage of conviction, such unswerving devotion to principle ! No wonder we were born grown up. One of the most noted of the Protestant divines of the eighteenth century was Rev. Thomas Barton, b. in 1730; d. in 1780, and who was sent to America by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel of Foreign Parts.
Rev. Thomas Barton was of English parentagc. His ancestors were royalists and churchmen who, taking side with King Charles I in the rebellion, lost their estates for his causc. At the restora- tion of King Charles II, having received large grants of land in Ireland they settled in Mongan County.
Rev. Thomas Barton was graduated from the University of Dublin and later took orders in the Church of England and was subsequently sent to the Colony of America by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
Rev. Mr. Barton settled first in Philadelphia, and in 1758 was appointed chaplain in the expedition against Fort Duquesne. During this expedition Mr. Barton became the friend and inti- mate associate of the then Col. George Washington, Col. Hugh Mercer and Col. Boyd. From 1759 to 1777 Rev. Thomas Barton was rector of St. James, the Episcopal church at Lancaster, Pa. At the outbreak of the Revolution Rev. Mr. Barton, being a Tory in principle and unwilling to renounce the vows of allegiance to the King he had made at his ordination, resigned his rectorship, left Lancaster and went to New York, then in possession of the English.
Rev. Thomas Barton married (in 1753) Esther Rittenhouse, daughter of Matthias and sister of David Rittenhouse, the great American astronomer. In the "Biography of David Rittenhouse" we read :
In 1751 Rev. Thomas Barton, an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin, who afterwards married the sister of Rittenhouse, became a professor in the University of Pennsylvania. Making the acquaintance of the young philosopher and cloekmaker, they became warm friends.
Barton supplied him with books, from which he obtained a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and two years later brought him from Europe a number of seientific works. Mr. Barton was also instrumental in calling the attention of learned men to the young philosopher, among whom were Dr. William Smith, provost of the university; Jolin Lukens, Surveyor General, and Richard Peters, Provincial Seeretary.
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Esther Rittenhouse Barton, born 1737, died 1774, was a daughter of Matthias Rittenhouse, born 1702, who married Elizabeth Williams, of Wales, in 1727, and great-granddaughter of William Rittenhouse, who emigrated to Ameriea from Holland in 1688, and in 1690 established at Germantown, on the Wissahiekon Creek, the first paper mill built in Ameriea, after the death of his first wife, Esther Rittenhouse.
Mr. Barton married a second time, Mrs. Lee Normandie, whose maiden name was Braid, of New York City. Rev. Thomas Barton died in New York City on May 25, 1780, being only 50 years old, and was interred in the ehaneel of St. George's Chapel. The Rivington's Royal Gazette of May 30, 1780, contains a long obituary notice of him, in which it speaks of the love and devotion of his parishioners, who greatly respeeted him, and of his unshaken loyalty and attachment to the Constitution, which drew upon him the resentment of the rebels and exposed him to many hardships. After St. George's Church was destroyed by fire the bones of Rev. Thomas Barton were moved to the chancel of the new St. George's Chureh, New York.
The children of Rev. Thomas and Esther Rittenhouse Barton were :
I. William Barton2.
II. Esther Barton2.
III. Benjamin Barton2.
IV. Matthias Barton2.
V. David Barton2.
VI. Thomas Barton2.
VII. Juliana Barton2.
VIII. Richard Peter Barton2.
This last, the youngest child of Rev. Thomas and Esther Barton, Rittenhouse Barton, while still a young man moved to Virginia and settled in the Valley about six miles south of Winehester. Mr. Barton2 married Miss Walker, daughter of Dr. Walker, of Kingston in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. The children of Richard Peters and Martha Walker Barton were:
I. Richard Barton3.
II. Robert Barton3.
III. David Barton".
Martha Walker Barton was the daughter of Dr. Robert Walker, of Kingston, Dinwiddie County, who married (in 1760) Elizabeth Stark, daughter of Capt. William Stark, who married (in 1727) Mary Bolling, eldest ehild of Col. Robert Bolling, Jr., son of Col- Robert Bolling, of Chellowe.
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David Walker Barton", son of Riehard Peters2 and Mary Walker Barton, was b. at Springdale the family estate of his father, in 1801. Mr. Barton was a graduate of Yale and was a scholar of no mean attainments. He was a forcible writer and contributed largely to the newspapers and literary periodieals of his day. Mr. Barton was a brilliant and successful lawyer. His professional life was spent at Winehester, Va., where he acquired a large for- tune, which was lost during the Civil War. David Walker Bartonª married (December 18, 1828) Miss Frances L. A. M. Jones, b. at "Vaucluse," the plantation of her father ncar Winchester, Va., October 15, 1808. Franees L. A. M. Jones was the daughter of William Strother Jones and the granddaughter of Col. Strother Jones of the continental army and great-granddaughter of Gabriel Jones known as the Valley lawyer, he being the first lawyer who praetieed law in the Valley of Virginia. The children of David Walker Barton and his wife, Frances L. A. M. Jones, were :
I. Lieut. William Strother Barton+, educated at the Epis- copal High School, Alexandria, Va .; wounded at battle of Mine Run; d. at Springdale from effects of wounds.
II. Charles Marshall Barton+, killed in Civil War, 1861.
III. David Rittenhouse Barton+, killed at the battle of Fred- ericksburg, 1862.
IV. Jane Cray Barton+, b. at "Vaucluse." Married Rev. C. H. Shield, D. D., of Staunton, Va. Issue :
I. Charles H. Shield5.
V. Ann Maria Barton+, eldest daughter of David W. Barton. Married (Aug. 24, 1848) Col. Thomas Marshall, grand- son of Chief Justice Marshall. Colonel Marshall was b. at Oakhill, Fauquier County, Virginia, Jan. 17, 1836; d. in battle Nov. 12, 1864. (Descendants Volume I, Chapters VI and VII.)
VI. Martha Walker Barton+, b. at "Vaucluse," ncar Win- chester, Va. Married (in 1856) D. J. M. Baldwin. Issue :
I. Maria Baldwin5.
II. Stewart Baldwin5.
VII. Capt. Robert T. Barton+, of Winehester, Va., served in the Civil War in the Rockbridge Battery. At the close of the war Mr. Barton studied law and was elected a
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member of the Virginia Legislature and served as ehair- man of the Committee on Courts of Justice. Mr. Barton is the author of Barton's "Law Practice" and of Barton's "Chancery Practice." These law books are standard authorities in Virginia. Mr. Barton married, first (Feb. 19, 1868), Miss Kate K. Knight; seeond, Miss Baker, of Winchester, June, 1890. Their children are :
I. Robert T. Barton", Jr.
II. Gertrude Barton5.
VIII. Randolph Barton+, b. at Springdale, was reared by his stepmother, Ann Cary Randolph. His course as a student at the Virginia Military Institute was inter- rupted by the breaking out of the Civil War, yet lie was afterward granted a diploma. Mr. Barton entered the Confederate Army at the age of seventeen as sergeant major of the Thirty-third Virginia Infantry, Stonewall Brigade.
Captain Barton was wounded in the first battle of Manassas, was taken prisoner at the battle of Kernstown and confined in Fort Delaware until 1862. Mr. Barton on his release was ap- pointed on the staff of Gen. Elisha Frank Paxton, of the Stone- wall Brigade, with the rank of captain and was made assistant adjutant general. Captain Barton was severely wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville, in 1863, and was at the side of his commander, Gen. E. F. Paxton, when he fell mortally wounded at Chaneellorsville and caught the dying hero in his armns. At the close of the Civil War Mr. Barton settled in Baltimore and began the study of law, of which he has made a pronouneed suceess. The firm of Barton & Wilmer is widely known and respected.
Mr. Barton married Miss Agnes Kirkland, daughter of Mr. R. R. Kirkland, formerly member of the well-known firm of Kirk- land, Chase & Co., of Baltimore. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Barton, Sr., reside at "Vaucluse," Baltimore County. Their children are :
I. Robert K. Barton5.
II. Randolph Barton", Jr. Married Miss Eleanor Morrison.
III. Charles Marshall Barton5, of Wilmington. Married Miss Margretta Ferraby.
IV. Agnes Barton".
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V. Bolling Barton5.
VI. Carlyle Barton5.
VII. Katherine Barton5.
VIII. David Barton5.
IX. Alexander Barton5.
IX. Dr. Bolling Barton, son of David Walker Barton, mar- ried (in 1872) Miss Ellen J. Gibson, daughter of Dr. Gibson, of Newport, R. I. Mrs. Barton died in 1879 at the age of sixteen, Dr. Barton being then a student of the Virginia Military Institute. With a company of youths of his own age, in opposition to the wishes of the professors, they ran down, singing as they went, into the terrible and bloody battle of the Seven Days' fight before Richmond. More than one of these youths met the deaths of heroes. At the elose of the war Dr. Barton went to Switzerland to study, and took his medieal degree at Paris, France. Dr. Bolling Barton has been for years professor of botany and lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Barton's great uncle, Dr. Barton, son of Rev. Thomas Barton, was the first professor of botany in this country. Among the descendants of Rev. Thomas Barton may be mentioned: H. Hamilton, Mrs. William West of Philadelphia, Mr. Marshall Duer, Miss Susie Holt, Miss Madge Holt, Mr. Barton Marshall, Miss Helen Marshall, Mr. Adgate Duer, Mr. Douglas Duer, Mr. Bolling Barton, Mrs. Charles Holt of New York, Miss Gertrude Barton of Winchester, Mr. Robert S. Barton, Jr.
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CHAPTER XXIII
THE FISHER HISTORY
The following extracts are taken from an old ancestor's journal, commeneing with a voyage from London, May, 1750, for York- town in Virginia, and ending in August, 1755, on his return from Philadelphia on horseback for Williamsburg, Virginia:
Should this chance to come to your hands, it will, I presume, afford neither you nor good Mrs. Mosley any extraordinary satisfaction. I long ballanced with myself whether I should ever write a journal at all. It not being in my power if I wrote truely, to entertain you with any other than doleful instances of Anxiety, Disappointments, Misery, and Repent- ance.
But being no stranger to your Equinim and good sense, inflieting at the same time; That the consideration of the short duration of the accutist misions in this Life, must be some consolation to reasonable People, I determined on presenting you with a sketch of some of our sufferings.
Not that I have any great elaim or Title to compassion: or reason to expect uncasy sensations in any of my English Friends for any injury I have endured; for I obstinately persisted in aeting against all their senti- ments and kind expostulations, and whatever Ills have happened are mainly the result of my own Vain eonduet; and as to myself espeeeially, I must entirely aequiess that Providenee is Just.
As I have the utmost reason to believe-may shed a tender Tear for my poor Wife and Family (who though involved in my Calamities, are inno- eent of the occasion) I ought perhaps to desist; for what right have I to create concern or uneasiness in him, or indeed, in the Beast [Breast] of any Friend: Yet fortified in my idea of her and your generous and extensive consideration, I will proceed in Confidenee, that she as well as you can pardon Errors, you are incapable of committing. I shall I believe trouble you with much seribbling, and without method, yet upon the whole I hope to express myself so, as to make our melancholy adventure Intelli- gible; endeavouring to maintain a sincere attachment to Truth by express- ing upon all oceasions by own wrong headedness with the same vivacity and freedom as I shall remark or point ont the mistakes or meannesses of those People:
When Persons in very needy or depressed cireumstanees are guilty of falsehood, Fraud, Injustice, or other meanesses, One may in some measure, account for, and in part excuse them; But when People of Affluenec or large Fortunes, (superior one would think to all temptation), stoops to base and unworthy aetions, the most generous and eandid minds ean hardly forbear writing their inward disdain in severe censures.
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If I have not heretofore fully informed you of the Chief motives of this my undertaking you will now I trust indulge my writing it.
Being by the secret contrivance of two pretended "though false friends stript of my employ, It conduced greatly to augment my opinion of the World's Treachery, and as I had been brought up to no particular trade or occupation, I considered the savings of our united Industry and Frugal- ity, for more than Twenty years, might be soon wasted in a Land abounding in luxurious Temptations. I moreover reflected that Trade in general was less intricate (not requiring so much Art or Skill) in Virginia than in England; commodities being usually rated according to the Invoices at so much per cent. Besides, as I fancy you will recollect, contrary to your and the opinion of all my Friends, I possessed with the fond Idea That People here were more Innocent, Just, and Good, than on your side of the water: Unhappily the most vehemently infected with those strange Notions, I incessantly teazed my poor reluctant wife to comply with my desires: and after several years struggling and controverting about this unhappy affair, I at length succeeded; what I believe did not a little con- tribute to vanquish my wife's prejudices (as I called them) was my assur- ance that her children would be removed from the infinite temptations, false Pleasures, Snares and Delusions, which every where abounded in Brittain, to a Land of Sober temporate regular Enjoyments, where Industry, Probity, and the Moral Virtues were only encouraged, cherished or regarded.
Alas! what shame and confusion must arise, in being compelled to own the falacy and absurdity of all these charming Dreams. But however what determined the dispute in my favour, was an old acquaintance of mine, who had just married much as he thought beneath himself, joining with me in support of my argument.
His pride could not bear the thoughts of the world reproaching him with this marriage, concluding he could no way so well conceal his indiscretion as by going with me to America, on which he was so very intent ;- That being down at Gloucester some time before our setting out, and hearing that I was about to depart without him, he wrote me a most beseeching letter that I would wait the conclusion of his affairs. This ardour in Him for the Voyage, with the consideration of having a Female companion on Board, quite subdued my wife's Scruples, inducing her also to submit to the Voy- age. Believing now I had no more to do than to obtain some worthy recommendation, I applyed myself to Mr. Dowdswell and you. Mr. Dowds- well gained me several Interviews with Mr. Alderman Bethel, and I had all the reason in the world to conclude they were both sincere in their inten- tions of serving me. Mr. Bethel at my first sceing him informed me he had already mentioned my Case to one Mr. Hanbury, an Eminent Virginia Merchant of his acquaintance who was he said to do me all the service in His power, and desired I would call upon him; but as to either of the Mr. Nelsons whom I, so anxiously desired to be recommended to, He (Mr. Hanbury) had no kind of dealings with them: however, I was told his acquaintance in the Country was otherwise very large and extensive, and with People of the First Rank and Fashion there. But so unfortunately
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infatuated was 1, That I exeused myself from waiting on Mr. Hanbury, acquainting Mr. Bethel that no other recommendation would content me, than the two Mr. Nelsons. My reason for this unhappy prejudice was, That I had in early Days lived in York, and had been acquainted with Old Mr. Nelson the Father of these Gentlemen. Mr. Bethel to do all that I could reasonably expeet from him assured me he would endeavor to gratify my desire in finding out a Person who had some inflnenee or aequaintanec with the Mr. Nelsons, and accordingly in a few days he let me know he had met with such an One. He gave me also to understand. that my confining him thus to particular Persous had obliged him to make use of One with whom he was not at all acquainted, Yet lie did not doubt of his procuring for me with those Gentlemen, Favour, continauee and Praeti- tion, which was all 1 eraved, and indeed all I was ambitions of. The Person's name who thus undertook to recommend me was Hunt, a Virginia merchant also, tho' not so considerable as Mr. Hanbury. My Friend ( Mr. Kiddle) procured me another kind Letter from Mr. Sydenham, another mereliant, to his Father in law in Virginia (Mr. Jordan) which Letter given to me unsealed would I believe have been very serviceable to me, had I not on our arrival in Virginia taken it out to seal aud laid it upon a shelf in the State Room where miee got at it and unhappily utterly defaeed it.
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