George Richard Turberville, Major^{[1, 2, 3]}

1694 - 1742  (48 years)

• Name	George Richard Turberville
  Suffix	Major
  Birth	1694	Hickory Hill, Hague, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	30 Mar 1742	Hickory Hill, Hague, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I44790	Master
  Last Modified	1 Mar 2022

  
  

  Father	John Turberville,   b. 1650, Paradise Plantation, Gloucester, Virginia, USA d. 9 Oct 1728, , Lancaster, Virginia, USA (Age 78 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth "Betsy" Lee,   b. 1654, Paradise Plantation, Gloucester, Virginia, USA d. Mar 1714, St Stephens Parish, Northumberland, Virginia, USA (Age 60 years)
  Marriage	1689	Dividing Creek, Northumberland, Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F10262	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Martha Lee,   b. 1716, , , , England d. 12 Nov 1751, Hague, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA (Age 35 years)
  Children	1. John Turberville, (Maj),   b. 14 Sep 1737, Hague, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA d. 10 Jul 1799, Hague, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA (Age 61 years)   2. George Richard Turberville, Sr (Maj),   b. 1742, , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA d. 20 Oct 1792, , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA (Age 50 years)
  Family ID	F10258	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 Feb 2022

  
  

  Family 2	Frances Ashton,   b. 1699, Nomini Hall Plantation, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA d. 21 Apr 1720, Nomini Hall Plantation, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA (Age 21 years)
  Marriage	1718	, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA
  Children	1. Elizabeth Turbeville,   b. 12 Jan 1718, , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA d. 1768, Cameron Parish, Fairfax, Virginia, USA (Age 49 years)
  Family ID	F10257	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 Feb 2022

  
  

  Family 3	Lettice Fitzhugh,   b. 15 Jul 1707, Eagles Nest, King George, Virginia, USA d. 10 Feb 1732, Hickory Hill, Hague, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA (Age 24 years)
  Marriage	16 May 1727	, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA   [2, 3]
  Family ID	F10256	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 Feb 2022

  
  

• Event Map

  Marriage - 1718 - , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA Marriage - 16 May 1727 - , Westmoreland, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• 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."

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. [S1188] Ancestry.com, Virginia, U.S., Extracted Vital Records, 1660-1923, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S1133] Ancestry.com, North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).