John Samuel Kennon^[1]

1625 - 1657  (32 years)

• Name	John Samuel Kennon
  Birth	1625	Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	1657	Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I33265	Master
  Last Modified	5 Dec 2023

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth Blair Bolling,   b. 1625, , Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 1705, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 80 years)
  Children	+ 1. John Kennon,   b. 1642, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 1 Feb 1695, , Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 53 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   2. William Kennon,   b. 1648, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. Sep 1731, , Medina, Ohio, USA (Age 83 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural] + 3. Richard Kennon,   b. 1650, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 20 Aug 1696, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 46 years)   4. Samuel Kennon,   b. 1652, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 1659, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 7 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   5. Mabell Kennon,   b. 1656, Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA d. 1710, , , Virginia, USA (Age 54 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F8104	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 Dec 2023

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1625 - Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA Death - 1657 - Conjurers Neck, Henrico, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  The Remarkable Lady of Conjurer's Neck. This article is from the book Chesterfield, An Old Virginia County, by Francis Earl Lutz. Published by William Byrd Press: Richmond, Virginia, 1954. p. 62. In 1639 Richard Kennon patented land on a peninsula created by the bend of the Appomattox River and Swift Creek. Kennon was a representative for a large London firm and traded the goods he imported. Among the less admirable imports by Kennon was slaves. The site of his land patent was called "Conjurer's Neck" because when the white people came to the hand of the "Appomutucks," an old Indian conjurer occupied that site. In 1611 Sir Thomas Dale had all the Indians from this area driven off in retaliation for an Indian attack on a white settlement; thus the fertile tilled land of the Indians became available for use by the white settlers. Kennon was public spirited and served in all offices to which he was called. In addition, he was a sportsman and prior to 1677 he was known to race many horses in the "Quarter" races held at the track in Bermuda Hundred. He built a residence called "Brick House" which is currently believed to be the oldest surviving house in the County. The dwelling was begun in 1685, and it is believed that the brick may have been manufactured on the peninsula, for in reality, few American buildings were actually built of English brick. Richard Kennon married Elizabeth Bolling, daughter of Colonel Robert Bolling and his second wife, Anne Stith. Their first son was named Richard Kennon, Jr., and died at four years of age. He was buried just beyond the bay window of the house so that the bereaved young mother could watch over the grave. It was not unusual, during the early colonial area, for a second son to bear the name of the first son who had died, so the Kennons also named their second son Richard. They were blessed with a third son whom they named William. Richard Kennon, Sr. must have died prior to 1703, because in that year Elizabeth Kennon joined a group that included eight other people of influence and patented 4,000 acres on a creek called Winterpock in southwest Chesterfield. It appears that she entered this deal on behalf of her sons who were not of age. This lady seems to have been business minded because she was also listed as the proprietor of a ferry which operated from Point of Rocks to the Prince George side of the Appomattox. She operated this as late as 1720 when she would have been around fifty-five years old; an advanced age for a colonial lady. By 1711 the Kennon's son William was one of William Byrd, II's subordinates in the Appomattox militia. When Chesterfield County was organized in 1749, William Kennon, Sr., and William Kennon, Jr., were among those charged by Governor William Gooch to be justices in the new county. In 1762 William Kennon, Jr., was given permission to operate a mill on the Appomattox River. A creek near this mill was renamed Kennon Mill Creek, in honor of the popular man. The Kennons, like many other County residents, were moving westward and continued to be outstanding County residents in their new location. This was indeed, one of Chesterfield's finer families. Conjurer's Neck. The neck of land at the northeast corner of the city lying between Swift Creek and the north side of the Appomattox River, was once known as Conjurer's Neck. A conjurer was an Indian magician found in the eastern United States. One early custom of the Indian was to place the conjurer at the confluence of streams to ward off evil spirits believed to inhabit the waters, so it is natural to assume the Appomattox Indians placed a conjurer at the point where Swift Creek runs into the Appomattox River. On December 1, 1620, the Mayflower was still at sea off the coast of Massachusetts when the first known land patent was granted in Colonial Heights - the land known as Conjurer's Neck. In 1685, Richard Kennon, a merchant of Bermuda Hundred, built a brick plantation home, and another famous name attached to Conjurer's Neck, being that of "The Brick House Farm." The house was consumed by a fire in 1879, but most of the original walls still stand. Undoubtedly, it is the oldest home in Chesterfield County and by far, the oldest brick home in Colonial Heights. The Comstock family acquired the property in 1909, restored the old house, and have made it their home for since. Brick House. The oldest brick house in Chesterfield County, and thought by some to be the oldest in Virginia, is located on the promontory between Swift Creek and Appomattox River, and is simply called Brick House. The peninsula on which it stands is sometimes referred to as "Conjuror's Neck," because an old Indian conjuror used to live there. Brick House was built in 1685 by Richard Kennon, an English gentleman of wealth, whose family received large land grants in Virginia. Kennon came to Virginia prior to 1670, and became a merchant of Bermuda Hundred; he also represented Henrico County in the House of Burgesses. Richard Kennon, Jr. was also a member of the House of Burgesses. He married the daughter of Col. Robert Bolling, the emigrant, and his second wife, the former Anne Stith. Richard's sister was married to John Bolling, half-brother of Richard's wife - John was the son of Col. Robert Bolling and his first wife Jane Rolfe. They lived at Cobb's. Like much of eastern Virginia, the site of Colonial Heights was located within the Algonquian-speaking confederation known as Tenakomakah, ruled by Chief Powhatan, when the English colonists arrived at Jamestown on May 14, 1607. Captain John Smith's early map of Virginia testifies that the present area of Colonial Heights included the principal town of the Appamattuck subtribe, led by their weroance, Coquonasum, and his sister, Oppussoquionuske. In the aftermath of the Indian attacks of 1622 and 1644, they became tributary to England and relocated to nearby Ettrick, and its opposite bank, near Fort Henry (within modern-day Petersburg, Virginia). The area including present-day Colonial Heights was made a part of "Henrico Cittie", one of 4 huge "incorporations" formed in the Virginia Colony in 1619 by the London Company. English colonists first settled in the Colonial Heights area in 1620. A small group sailed up the Appomattox River looking for clear land, and finally settled in an area where Swift Creek runs into the Appomattox River, which they named Conjurer's Neck. This confluence was formerly the residence a Native American healer (known as a "conjurer") who was thought to have cast spells over the waters. Shortly thereafter, Charles Magnor registered the first land patent in the area for 650 acres (2.6 km2), which he later developed into a plantation before selling it in 1634. That same year, by order of King Charles I of England, the Virginia Colony was divided into the 8 original shires of Virginia by the House of Burgesses, one of which was Henrico County, which included the future land of Colonial Heights. In 1635, the English had a small town called Appamattucks near the "Old Towne" Creek,[5] thought to be located near the intersection of Temple Avenue and Dimmock Parkway.[6] Also in that year, Captain Henry Fleet and Francis Poythress built a small fort nearby, on "Fleet's Hill" just west of the current city, now occupied by the campus of Virginia State University. During the period from 1677 to 1685, one of the area's historic landmarks was constructed with the building of the Old Brick House. Richard Kennon came to Virginia prior to 1670, and became a merchant of Bermuda Hundred. He represented Henrico County in the House of Burgesses. His son, Richard Kennon, Jr., was also a member of the House of Burgesses and married the daughter of Col. Robert Bolling, the emigrant, and his second wife, the former Anne Stith. Richard's sister, Mary Kennon, was married to Major John Fairfax Bolling, half-brother of Richard's wife. Major Bolling was the son of Col. Robert Bolling and his first wife Jane Rolfe, who was granddaughter of the early colonist John Rolfe and his Native American wife, Pocahontas. The Bollings lived at Cobb's, a plantation in eastern Chesterfield near Point-of-Rocks. The manor house built by Richard Kennon (later known as the "Brick House") is now thought to be the oldest permanent structure in Colonial Heights. One wall of the house survived a disastrous fire in 1879, and the rest was rebuilt. [3]

  
  

• 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. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=154094295&pid=106