Tag: Virginia History Podcast

First Families of Virginia – The Carters, Part 1

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

Arguably all families on the list could have had more than a single episode dedicated to them. The Custises did. The Carters, however, must have more than one, which is what I’ve done with this family. The sheer size and importance of just the John of Corotoman line requires, even summarily, more time. As such, this episode briefly looks at the Carter’s American founding up to the emergence of family scion Robert “King” Carter.

The Carters were quite common in England. They were not nobility, but did acquire enough land and importance by the late 16th Century to earn the right to a coat of arms. They acknowledged their commonality on that family crest, as you can see above, by affixing wheels to their shield as a nod to their family past. Carting goods, though common, however, allowed the Carters of all branches to learn something of the merchanting trade. That knowledge put them in prime position when the time came for New World trade to begin.

Many Carters appear to have sailed to Virginia in the early 17th Century, but only a few remained to establish roots. This episode, and any hereafter, will focus mainly upon the chiefest branch of that Carter lineage that of John Carter of Corotoman. I will set aside some space in the future to discuss two other branches, but that’s only to show just how pervasive the Carter name truly was. Still, no matter which branch one focuses upon, it’s undoubted just how important the Carters were. They intermarried with all the great families, built the most spectacular plantations, and dominated Virginia’s Colonial Golden Age. Such an influence commands respect while demands attention.

SOURCES:

  1. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  2. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  3. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  4. Brown, Katherine L. Robert “King” Carter: Builder of Christ Church. Irvington, VA: Historic Christ Church Heritage Books, 2001.
  5. Bruce, Phillip Alexander. Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Origin of the Higher Planting Class. New York: JP Bell Company, 1927.
  6. Currer-Briggs, Noel. The Carters of Virginia: Their English Ancestry. Shopwyke Hall, Chichester, Sussex, England: Phillimore, 1979.
  7. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  8. Dowdey, Clifford. The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of “King” Carter and the Golden Age. New York: Bonanza Books, 1969.
  9. Dowdey, Clifford. The Golden Age: A Climate for Greatness, 1732-1775. New York: Little Brown, 1970.
  10. Evans, Emory G. A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville, VA: UVA Press, 2009.
  11. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  12. Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribners, 1957. (Specifically Volume 1).
  13. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  14. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  15. McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
  16. Meade, William. Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. in Two Volumes. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1891.
  17. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  18. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise. Some Prominent Virginia Families, 4 Volumes. Lynchburg, VA:  J.P. Bell Company, 1907.
  19. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  20. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  21. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  22. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  23. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  24. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  25. “Captain Thomas Carter and His Descendants: By One of Them, Dr. Joseph Lyon Miller, Thomas, West Virginia.” The William and Mary Quarterly 17, no. 4 (1909): 275–85.
  26. “Carter Ancestry.” The William and Mary Quarterly 9, no. 1 (1900): 34–37.
  27. Miller, Lyon. “Carter Genealogy.” The William and Mary Quarterly 18, no. 1 (1909): 47–58.
  28. Miller, Lyon. “Carter Genealogy.” The William and Mary Quarterly 18, no. 2 (1909): 89–103.
  29. Jos. Lyon Miller. “Carter Genealogy.” The William and Mary Quarterly 18, no. 4 (1910): 235–43.
  30. Jos. L. Miller. “Carter Genealogy.” The William and Mary Quarterly 19, no. 2 (1910): 116–37.
  31. Miller, Joseph L. “Carter Genealogy.” The William and Mary Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1911): 184–94.
  32. Jos. L. Miller. “Carter Genealogy.” The William and Mary Quarterly 20, no. 1 (1911): 38–51.

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Carter Family Crest. Picture Gallery from Top to Bottom and Left to Right – 1. Corotoman Foundations. 2. Part of the Cedar Lined road leading from Corotoman to Christ Church. 3. Carter’s Creek into the Rappahannock from Corotoman 4. Corotoman 5. Patriarch John Carter and Wives Gravestone at Historic Christ Church 6. Recreated cedar lined road leading to Christ Church.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on Apple Music, and “The Storms Are on the Ocean” by The Carter Family, also available on Apple Music.

Virginians and their Histories – Brent Tarter Interview, Part 3

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

Writing Virginia’s history has a long history itself reaching back to the 17th century. Telling those stories has evolved and expanded in various ways during the past 400 years reflecting differing angles, viewpoints, and ideologies. Brent Tarter’s work is part of that long history, and he adds a new volume in which he attempts to give voice to those differing angles and viewpoints.

The volume in focus is entitled Virginians and Their Histories, a title meant to highlight the people who make Virginia’s story what it is. Tarter draws from decades worth of research work to bring this book together. It’s such a work that when Mr. Tarter and I discussed doing an interview, it soon became apparent that one recording wouldn’t do his work justice. To that end, here is the third installment, which covers the end of the Civil War period up until contemporary times.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

MORE FROM BRENT TARTER:

  1. Batson, Barbara C., Julienne, Marianne E., and Tarter, J. Brent. The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia (American Heritage). Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2020.
  2. Tarter, J. Brent.Virginians and Their Histories.Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2020.
  3. Tarter, J. Brent.Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia.Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2019
  4. Tarter, J. Brent. The Grandees of Government: The Origins and Persistence of Undemocratic Politics in Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2013.
  5. Tarter, J. Brent ed. and Billings, Warren M. ed.  “Esteemed Bookes of Lawe” and the Legal Culture of Early Virginia (Early American Histories. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2017.
  6. Tarter, J. Brent. A Saga of the New South: Race, Law, and Public Debt in Virginia.Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2016.
  7. Tarter, J. Brent. Daydreams and Nightmares: A Virginia Family Faces Secession and War (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era). Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2017.
  8. The Dictionary of Virginia Biography at the Library of Virginia.

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

 

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author. The Featured Image is of Brent Tarter’s Virginians and Their Histories.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and Six Gnossiennes: Gnossienne No. 5 by Erik Satie, performed by Roland Pöntinen, also available on Apple Music.

First Families of Virginia – The Burwells

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

The families making up the First Families list intermarried with one another throughout their generations. Arguably no family played a more central role in those marriages than did the Burwells.

Marriage lifted Lewis Burwell II out of a fatherless middling status in that his mother Lucy remarried twice, elevating both her and her son’s station each time. Lucy’s last marriage to Colonel Philip Ludwell Sr. solidified their inclusion among Virginia’s most powerful colonial elite.

Lewis only added to his now elevated position by also marrying well. He first wed Abigail Smith, cousin to Nathaniel Bacon Sr, and then Martha Lear, William Cole’s widow. He was an intelligent planter, merchant, and builder, and that work brought him much praise throughout the colony. He was involved in moving Virginia’s colonial capitol from Jamestown to Williamsburg, as well as laying out the new power-center’s infrastructure. This work would have seen him enter the Governor’s Council, but the situation went awry when his daughter Lucy refused to marry Governor Francis Nicholson.

In the end, Lewis and family endured long enough to see Nicholson’s downfall instead of their own. The Burwell name remained and grew upon Lewis’ foundation, thus leaving her imprint upon the colony, Commonwealth, and later United States. Their influence was such that a West Point family named a son after the great Lewis Burwells of history. That son went on to achieve great things as well, and he’s still highly revered, especially by his beloved Marine Corps.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Fairfield Plantation
Major Lewis Burwell II
Kingsmill Plantation
Kingsmill Plantation
Kingsmill Golf Course
Kingsmill Plantation
Burwell Bay from Fort Boykin
Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller
Burwell Family Graves at Abingdon Episcopal
Abingdon Episcopal
Abingdon Episcopal
“Chesty” Puller’s home in Saluda, VA
Christ Church Episcopal, Saluda, VA
“Chesty” Puller’s Grave at Christ Church Episcopal
Puller is buried near many Colonial leaders, including Edmund Berkeley, Lucy Burwell’s chosen husband.

SOURCES:

  1. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  2. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  3. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  4. Blair, John L. The Rise of the Burwells. MA Thesis, Williamsburg, VA: College of William and Mary, 1959.
  5. Brown, Stuart E. Burwell: Kith and kin of the immigrant, Lewis Burwell (1621-1653) : and Burwell Virginia Tidewater plantation mansions. Virginia Book, Co, 1994.
  6. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  7. Dowdey, Clifford. The Great Plantation: A Profile of Berkeley Hundred and Plantation Virginia from Jamestown to Appomattox. Charles City, VA: Berkeley Plantation, 1980.
  8. Evans, Emory G. A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville, VA: UVA Press, 2009.
  9. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  10. Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribners, 1957. (Specifically Volume 1).
  11. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  12. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  13. McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
  14. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  15. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise. Some Prominent Virginia Families, vol. 2. Lynchburg, VA:  J.P. Bell Company, 1907.
  16. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  17. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  18. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  19. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  20. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  21. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  22. Wright, Louis B. First Gentlemen of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: Dominion Books, 1982.

Special Links:

 

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Burwell Family Crest. Lewis Burwell II, Fairfield Plantation, Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “If You’re Still In, I’m In.” by The East Pointers, also available on iTunes.

First Families of Virginia – The Bollings

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

In this episode I begin making the case that perhaps Governor Berkeley’s greatest contribution to 17th Century Virginia and beyond was his encouraging Cavaliers to immigrate into the colony.

Beginning in the 1640s many of those Cavalier families took up Berkeley’s offer, and indeed moved many sons into the Old Dominion. The first family on our list, the Bollings, sent teen-aged Robert to the New World in 1660. He quickly worked his way into existing society, especially when he married Pocahontas’ granddaughter, Jane Rolfe in 1674.

Robert’s arrival was a case of old meets new in that the Rolfe line was one of the earliest prominent Virginia families, even if Thomas Rolfe, John and Pocahontas’ son, didn’t return to Virginia until the 1640s himself. The Rolfe’s still owned land, and it was in Thomas’ name. He received more lands over the next couple of decades, which made marrying his daughter Jane a highly prized choice.

Robert and Jane’s marriage extended genealogical links from John Rolfe and Pocahontas into the 20th Century. Their children and grandchildren were highly influential planters, merchants, and statesmen who helped shape Virginia into a powerhouse up to the American War for Independence and beyond. Because of that, as well as their connection all the way back to 17th Century Virginia’s most famous marriage, the Bolling family is my first episode in the First Family of Virginia Series.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Grave Markers at Kippax Plantation
Diascund Creek, site of Thomas Rolfe’s Fort Smith
Bolling Patriarch Robert Bolling, Sr.
The Old Brick (Kennon) House overlooking the Appomattox River at Conjurer’s Neck
The Old Brick House
John Randolph of Roanoke
The Bolling Mausoleum at Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg
A youthful Edith Bolling Wilson

SOURCES:

  1. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  2. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  3. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  4. Bolling, Robert. A Memoir of a Portion of the Bolling Family in England and Virginia. Richmond, VA: W.H. Wade and Co, 1868.
  5. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  6. Evans, Emory G. A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville, VA: UVA Press, 2009.
  7. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  8. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  9. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  10. McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
  11. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  12. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise. Some Prominent Virginia Families, vol. 4. Lynchburg, VA:  J.P. Bell Company, 1907.
  13. Robertson, Wyndham. Pocahontas: Alias Matoaka, and Her Descendants. Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph and English, 1887.
  14. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  15. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  16. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  17. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  18. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  19. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  20. Wright, Louis B. First Gentlemen of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: Dominion Books, 1982.

SPECIAL LINKS:

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Bolling Family Crest. Other images not my own are the Bolling Grave Markers, Diascund Creek, Robert Bolling, Sr., John Wesley Jarvis’s John Randolph of Roanoke, The Bolling Mausoleum, and Edith Bolling Wilson.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “Brothers” by Little Chief, also available on iTunes.