Elizabeth Turbeville

Notes:

Oak Hill
When the first settlers began to clear the area where you live, in the 1730's, Fairfax County had not yet been carved out of Prince William County to the south. Lord Fairfax's agent, Robert "King" Carter, had given out large tracts of land for settlement to various individuals, who in turn usually leased or sold portions of their grants to people who wanted to start farms. All these grants have been plotted and overlaid on a map of modern Fairfax County by Beth Mitchell. she further discusses them in a Fairfax County History Publication called Beginning at a White Oak which accompanies the map.

In trying to trace the ownership of Oak Hill Farm we are concerned with three of these grants or patents as they were called. The first is called the Piney Ridge tract which belonged to Robert Carter, Jr. As you will see from Beth Mitchell's map, your house would appear to be in this tract.

However, I can find no Carter leases for that tract in Prince William, Fairfax or Loudoun County records. We might expect to find them in these three places, because in 1742 Fairfax County was carved out of Prince William; and, in 1757, Loudoun County was separated from Fairfax. For forty years, from 1757 to 1797, the area west of Difficult Run, where your farm is, was part of Loudoun.

As Beth Mitchell points out, those early surveys of the patent boundaries were not always too accurate by our standards, so it would appear the Carter's grant should be a little farther north than it has been placed on her map, which puts you in the Awbrey-Tayloe-Turberville grant. Before we leave Piney Ridge, however, you might be interested to note that on Mrs. Mitchell's overlay map Wet Ox Road runs straight along the patent boundary between Carter and Tayloe. There was quite a drawn-out lawsuit over the division of the tract among Carter's heirs; and, according to an 1822 survey made in connection with this, Ox Road is shown looping to the south of the boundary at one point, very possibly where the abandoned road runs in front of your house. ( Proceedings in Land Causes, Vol. 2, p.135)

This brings us to the grant in which your house is located immediately to the south of Carter's Piney Ridge. This property was first granted to Francis Awbrey in 1725. He sold it to Colonel John Tayloe in 1730, and Tayloe sold it to George Turberville at a date yet to be discovered. Turberville had a 4,142 acre patent adjoining Tayloe's to the south, which also comes into the story and into which some of your farmland today may fall.

LANDOWNERS AND THEIR TENANTS

As you may remember, Sallie Lane Lewis' Uncle Ben Higgs told her that "Oak Hill" had been given to another Sally Lane, born almost 200 years ago, by her father William Lane when she married Benjamin Higgs in 1816. Therefore, I was looking not only for leases on the site of your house from the land grant owner, but for a Lane purchase of the land.

In his will, recorded on page 110 of Fairfax County Will Book J-1 on February 11, 1808, William Carr Lane, Sr., did indeed "give and bequeath to my daughter Sally Rooles (alternate spelling of Rowles) 298 acres of land called Oakhill and including to make up that quantity 83 acres which had been leased by John Turberville to my father James Lane.....also the following slaves: Beck and her infant, Jack, Henry and Anna, also the furnishings which were part of her dowry." William Carr Lane, Sr., had several other children to whom he gave like portions, so you can see he was one the prosperous landowners of that time. The inventory of his estate, also recorded in Will Book J-1, beginning on p. 224, shows him to have been the owner of 33 slaves valued at over $6,000 and personal property such as farm equipment and household furnishings valued at almost $9,000.

Since Lane mentioned his father James Lane had leased land from the Turbervilles, I looked to see if he might have acquired the land on which your house is built. The only early entry was in Price William County Deed Book E on page 146, which showed that James Lane leased a 142-acre plantation on which he was then living from From George Turberville in 1740. This was on Turberville's 4,142-acre tract to the south of Awbrey-Tayloe.

There were three other leases for small plantations (150 acres apiece) recorded by Turberville on that tract at almost the same time, one to a William Lane, who was probably James' brother or cousin. These leases were usually given for three lives: those of the husband, his "present" wife (because women so often died in childbirth in those days, I think), and the eldest son if there was one. This practice is very useful to us today. In the case of James Lane we can match up the names of the wife and son to be sure we are following the same person.

The James Lane who leased from Turberville in 1740 had a wife named Lydia and a son named Aaron. The Major James Lane whose will was probated in Loudoun County in 1794 (Will Book B, pp. 212-214) had a wife (still) named Lydia and a son named Aaron, as well as sons Moses, James, Jr., and William and several daughters.

James Lane was the only one of the four 1740 lessees who eventually bought his plantation. His son William Carr Lane had to go to court to get the title transferred and recorded (Fairfax County Deed Book E-2. p. 466), which leads us to an 18th century practice which is not helpful today.

They were sadly negligent about recording title transfers. There are several of William Carr Lane's land holdings acquired from Turberville listed in the Fairfax County Tax Rools of 1798-1816 for which I can find no purchase deeds, including the two which make up the 298 acres of Oak Hill Farm. The basic tract of "land called Oakhill" under Lane's name in the 1798 tax rolls was 213 acres acquired from Turberville and valued at $2.41 an acre.

The 1797 and before Loudoun County tax rolls, which might tell us when he bought it, are unfortunately dim and illegible on microfilm, although the originals in the State Library at Richmond might be more readable. We can be sure this is the "land called Oakhill" (1) because it is the only tract of the acreage (in 1805 the listing changed to 215, perhaps they took a survey), and (2) because in 1811 after Lane's estate had been settled, this land was transferred from his name to that of Joseph E. Rolls (Rowles), his son-in-law, along with 83 acres subtracted from a 335 acre tract "from Turberville", for which there is likewise no sale or lease in the records.

Again going back to Miss Lewis' information, you may remember that Joseph e. Rowles died of typhus in Georgetown in 1811. In 1814, the Land Tax Records show "oak Hill Farm" as the property of the heirs of Joseph Rolls, who are "scattered", and in 1816, their "place of residence is not known."

George married Frances Ashton in 1718 in , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA. Frances was born in 1699 in Nomini Hall Plantation, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA; died on 21 Apr 1720 in Nomini Hall Plantation, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Elizabeth "Betsy" Lee in 1689 in Dividing Creek, Northumberland, Virginia, USA. Elizabeth (daughter of Colonel Richard Henry Lee and Ann Owen Constable) was born in 1654 in Paradise Plantation, Gloucester, Virginia, USA; died in Mar 1714 in St Stephens Parish, Northumberland, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Arrival: 1635, , , Virginia, USA
• Residence: 1650, , , Virginia, USA

Notes:

In 1646, Richard Lee sat on York bench as a magistrate, with a Dr. Henry Lee, who married Marah Adkins. Richard patented 1,250 acres in York County, VA in 1648, and named, amongst his headrights, Henry, Matthew, and George Lee, who may have been relatives. That Richard settled first in York County is proved by grant of 1,000 acres, dated August 10, 1642, patent states his land was due "unto the said Richard Lee by and for his own personal Adventure, his wife Ann, and John Francis and by assignment from Mr. Thomas Hill, Florentine Paine and William Freeman of their right of land due for the transportation of Seaventeene p'sons." This land was the plantation, Paradise in his will, and bequeathed to his second son, Richard. On July 22, 1674, in a patent issued to "Major Richard Lee for 1,140 acres in Gloster, called Paradise, on a branch of Poropotank Creek; 1,000 thereof being due to said Richard Lee by two former patents, and the residence now found to be within the bounds."

Richard represented York County as Burgess in 1647 and in 1651 was paid for services as Burgess of Northumberland County. He was Member of the Council, secretary of State of the Colony, and a Justice; is said to have been the first white man to have settled in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Source: Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume I, edited by George Norbury MacKenzie, LL.B., Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1966. He was engaged in commerce as well as agriculture, and had an interest in vessels trading between England and Virginia. In his will, he bequeathed to his son, Francis, his interest in two ships, which was 1/8th part in each vessel. He appeared to have made frequent voyages to and fro, being in England in 1654-55, again in 1659, and later in 1661 and in 1663.

Richard's first home was on York River, near head of Poropotank Creek, where he had a store or warehouse. His next home was located on Dividing Creeks in Northumberland, which afforded a very safe harbor. On two necks of the creek he located his two plantations, where there are grants for 800 and 600 acres in 1651 and 1656 respectively.

Richard was not only Burgess for several counties, but served in several capacities, having been Justice, member of the Council and Secretary of State. He also served on various commissions (See Lee of VA, p.59). While in England in 1663, his wife and children being there also, he made his will, the wording of the will indicates that he had given up his intention of settling permanently in England. He ordered his estate there should be sold, gave minute directions for payment of his debts, and closing up of his interests in that country, and made arrangements for the settlement of his children in Virginia. The account of his property given in his will shows him to have been possessed of considerable wealth for that day. His will was executed in London on February 6, 1663/64, prov. 10 Jan 1664/65, London/England.

Richard Lee's will directed that his property at Stratford, England be sold and that the proceeds be used to discharge his debts. complete the education of John and Richard at Oxford, and to provide dowries for his daughters, Elizabeth and Anne. In Virginia, he left the Machodoc Plantation to his son, John, Paradise Plantation to Richard, "War Captain's Neck" to Francis, and Maryland Plantation to William. The Dividing Creek Plantation he left to his widow for her lifetime and afterwards to be divided among his younger sons, William, Hancock, and Charles.


Richard Lee arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1639 with little wealth, but on the same ship as Virginia's incoming royal governor, Sir Francis Wyatt (who had been the colony's first governor two decades earlier). Wyatt would become an important mentor before receiving an order recalling him to England in late 1641 (and departing the following spring). Another passenger on that ship was Anne Constable, an orphaned ward. Lee began his career as a government official handling land records among other duties.

Lee traded with his brother John in England as well as Native Americans, including for furs. His first land patent was for land on the north side of the York River at the head of Poropotank Creek, in what was then York, later Gloucester County. Lee received the title to this 1,000 acre (4 km2) tract on 10 August 1642, supposedly through the headrights of thirty-eight immigrants unable to pay their own passage. However, Lee did not take title to this land until 1646, and a record exists of his purchasing 100 acres (0.4 km2) at this location. Also, Lee may have actually transported those emigrants in his own ship when returning from Breda in the Netherlands in 1650.[citation needed] In any event, the Lee family's first home was likely a log cabin on leased land on the same side of the York river, at the head of Tindall's Creek near the Native American community of Capahosic Wicomico. Lee moved his bride and infant son John away from the capital city (notoriously unhealthy due to stagnant waters nearby in summers), and they lived near the frontier of settlement. However, on 18 April 1644, Powhatan warriors led by Chief Opchanacanough massacred many newcomers to the area and their native allies. They killed 300, but colonists successfully counterattacked and drove the raiders away. Nonetheless, the English abandoned the north side of the York river for several years.

Lee and his family escaped the 1644 raid, then settled at New Poquoson on the lower peninsula south of the York River, where it was safer from attack. They lived at the new 90 acres (360,000 m2) plantation for nine years, which was a comfortable ride from Jamestown and Lee's government duties.[11] Later, as discussed below, Lee moved his family further north in Virginia's Tidewater region, becoming among the first white settlers in what became known as the northern neck of Virginia between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers.

Meanwhile, on 20 August 1646 Lee took out a patent for 1,250 acres (5 km2) on the Pamunkey River in York, later New Kent County, at the spot "where the foot Company met with the Boats when they went Pamunkey March under ye command of Capt. William Claiborne" during the counteroffensive against the Indians after the massacre of 1644. He did not develop these lands, but exchanged them in 1648 for a tract along the north side of the York near the present Capahosic, retaining the 400 acres (1.6 km2) he called "War Captain's Neck" and selling the other 850 acres (3.4 km2).

Colonial politician and officeholder
Lee's first Virginia office was as Clerk of the Quarter Court at Jamestown, within the Secretary of State's office. He later became Clerk to the burgesses of the Virginia General Assembly in 1640 and 1641.[12] In 1643 the new governor, Sir William Berkeley, on the recommendation of Sir Francis Wyatt, appointed Lee as Attorney General of the Colony, and he also continued as clerk.[13][14] Like both his superiors, Lee was a loyal supporter of King Charles I of England, and his public offices technically ceased after Oliver Cromwell seized power in England in 1649 (although Lee would ultimately negotiate terms of accommodation with the new government before temporarily ending his public career in 1652).

Fellow colonists in York County elected Lee a Burgess in the Assembly of 1647-1648.[15] In 1649 Lee was appointed a member of the King's Council (both a primitive executive branch of government and the precursor of the upper house of Virginia's legislature). As Secretary of State, Lee was next in authority to the Governor, Sir William Berkeley (1606–1677). That same year, Charles I, King of England (1600–1649), was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) began his control. In part because people in the distant colonies could not believe the news from England, they remained loyal to the Crown and to Charles II (1630–1685), heir to the throne. In 1650, Secretary of State Lee sailed to the Netherlands to report Virginia's loyal adherence to the exiled Charles II, and returned with a new (but worthless) commission from the late King's heir for Governor Berkeley.[16] During the next two years (and Berkeley's forced retirement), Lee negotiated the Virginia colony's capitulation to the Commonwealth of England, and was satisfied with the terms that were laid out.

Lee then retired from public office, but continued to represent the Virginia interests in London. Between 1652 and his death in 1664, Lee spent nearly as much time in London (36 months), as he did in Virginia (46 months), though he continued to hold local Virginia offices.[17] When Charles II took the throne in 1660, Berkeley was restored as governor, and Lee continued to serve on the Council of State.[18]

Meanwhile, Lee served a time as High Sheriff as well as held various offices in the local counties where he lived, as discussed below, including as a Justice of the York County Court, and as a Colonel in the Northumberland County Militia.[19]

Merchant and planter
Lee would come to characterize himself as a merchant, but early in his career he became a real estate investor, and after Cromwell came to power, became a tobacco planter. He became a part owner of a trading ship, whose cargoes brought indentured servants with headrights that Lee used to enlarge his Virginia property. Lee also became involved in the slave trade as his landholdings grew, and he needed labor to operate plantations.[13] He both employed and imported both English indentured servants (i.e. employees who paid for their passage to America with seven years of labor) and at least 90 African slaves (for which he claimed 4000 acres of headrights in 1660).[20]

After returning from his Continental voyage on Gov. Berkeley's behalf in 1850, Lee began acquiring many land grants on the Middle Peninsula between the York and the Rappahannock River, although the colonial capital would not move to the "Middle Plantation" and later to Williamsburg until after his death. After peace with the Indians had been concluded and the lands north of the York reopened for settlement in 1649, Lee acquired a patent for 500 acres (2 km2) on 24 May 1651, on land adjacent to "War Captain's Neck". That same year he also acquired an additional 500 acres (2 km2) on Poropotank Creek. He sold 150 acres (0.6 km2) of his original grant, the tract on Poropotank Creek. This left 850 acres (3.4 km2) at the original site, to which he later gave the name "Paradise", and resided from 1653 to 1656 in the newly created Gloucester County.

After a trip back to London with his wife in 1654-1655 (leaving their children in Virginia), in 1656 Lee moved his family to Virginia's Northern Neck, the peninsula formed between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers. Leaving the "Paradise" tract to overseers, they resettled on a spot acquired from the Wicomico Indians, which consisted of 1,900 acres (8 km2). In 1648 the Virginia General Assembly had created Northumberland County in this area, and in 1653 separated Westmoreland County from Northumberland County. The new plantation was called "Dividing Creek", near what is today the town of Kilmarnock in Northumberland County.[21] Later generations of Lees came to call parts of this plantation "Cobbs Hall" and "Ditchley". Lee later purchased another 2,600 acres (11 km2) at Machodoc Creek, which also seemed a possible port along the Potomac River where ships could traffic with England, and which became part of Westmoreland County. This tract was patented on 18 October 1657, and re-patented the following year on 5 June 1658 as 2,000 acres (8 km2). Later generations of Lees developed this area into the "Mount Pleasant" and "Lee Hall" plantations. Lee also acquired 4,000 acres (16 km2) farther up the Potomac, near and westward of where the city of Washington, D.C., would rise, in what was became Westmoreland County (but after various subdivisions became part of modern Fairfax and Alexandria). Part of one tract would eventually become Mount Vernon plantation, and later generations of Lees would develop "Leesylvania" and "Stratford" plantations.

Disposing of several lesser properties he had obtained, Lee consolidated and developed four major plantations. He had two in Gloucester County: "War Captain's Neck" and "Paradise", and two on the Northern Neck: "Dividing Creek" in Northumberland County and "Machodoc" in Westmoreland County. At the end of his life, Lee also acquired a plantation called "Lee's Purchase", located across the Potomac in Maryland, which after its reacquisition by the Lee family would give rise to the "Blenheim" branch of Lee descendants.[22]

During a trip to England in 1658 with his eldest son John, Lee acquired a residence at Stratford Langthorne, in the County of Essex, then a pleasant suburb of London. In 1661 he moved his wife and children there, although the steward he had found to manage his Virginia property (and to whom he had promised to marry one of his daughters) had grown homesick and returned with them.[23] Essex County borders London on the east, and persons of means developed the village of Stratford Langthorne to avoid unhealthy London. It is located about a mile from Stratford-at-Bow on the north side of the Thames in West Ham Parish, and later became the site of great wharves, docks, and the congestion of east London. Lee in part returned to England so that his younger children would have a proper education, since his oldest two sons, John and the scholarly Richard Lee II, had enrolled as students at Oxford. Nevertheless, in his final days, described below, Lee decided he wanted his children to reside in Virginia, and continued in his role as a Virginia planter and merchant.

Death and legacy
Just before returning to Virginia to oversee his interests in the Colony, Lee executed a will in London (on 6 February 1663-4). Lee died in the Virginia colony, probably after an illness at his "Dividing Creek" plantation based on gaps in his service in the Northumberland County court.[24][25][26] On 20 April 1664 his son John (who had probably returned to Virginia with his father) made an application for land due to his father, deceased).

Lee's final will directed that his wife and children, "all except Francis if he be pleased", were to return to Virginia. Francis Lee had become a London merchant. His property at Stratford in England was to be sold, and the proceeds be used to discharge his debts, as well as pay for the education of his two eldest sons (John and Richard), and if any remained, to provide dowries for his daughters (Elizabeth and Anne). Lee left the rest of his land to his widow Anne for her lifetime, then to be divided among all his sons as instructed. Following Anne's death, the "Dividing Creek" and "Mocke Nock" plantations were to be divided among his three youngest sons; his son John would inherit the "Machodoc" plantation and three islands in Chesapeake Bay; Richard Lee II received the "Paradise" plantation; Francis Lee received "Paper-makers Neck" and "War Captain's Neck"; William Lee received "all the land on the Maryland side", and his two youngest sons (Hancock and Charles) received the remaining plantations and land. Lee specifically left his widow 5 "negro" slaves for "during her widowhood and no longer" as well as 10 English (indentured) servants. He gave John 10 "negro" slaves as well as 10 English (indentured) servants. He left Richard II the indentures (contracts) of English servants (i.e. employees) on the "Paradise" plantation, and Francis received five "negro" slaves and the indentures of 10 English servants. Other property that was divided among his 8 surviving children included livestock and furniture. Francis also received Lee's share in 2 trading ships Francis.[26]

His widow Anna (or Anne) obeyed his wishes and returned to Virginia. She remarried, to Edmund Lister, also a Northumberland County colonist with extensive English ties, who would sue his stepson John Lee (also executor of his father's estate; the documents being lost) before his death on 24 September 1666.[27][26] The date of her death is unknown, although family tradition claims that she was buried beside Lee near the house at "Dividing Creek".[28]

Richard married Ann Owen Constable in 1641 in Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA. Ann was born on 21 Feb 1622 in South Scarle, Nottinghamshire, England; died on 6 Oct 1706 in Dividing Creek, Northumberland, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]