Thomas Walke

1650 - 1694  (44 years)

• Name	Thomas Walke  [1]
  Birth	1650	, , Barbados   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	5 Jan 1694	, Prince William, Virginia, USA   [1]
  Person ID	I51798	Master
  Last Modified	13 Feb 2024

  
  

  Family	Mary Lawson,   b. 1670, Lynnhaven Parish, Princess Anne, Virginia, USA d. 5 Jan 1694, Lynnhaven Parish, Princess Anne, Virginia, USA (Age 24 years)
  Children	+ 1. Anthony Walke,   b. Dec 1692, Fairfield Plantation, Kempsville, Princess Anne, Virginia, USA d. 8 Nov 1768, Fairfield Plantation, Kempsville, Princess Anne, Virginia, USA (Age 75 years)
  Family ID	F11669	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	7 Feb 2024

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1650 - , , Barbados Death - 5 Jan 1694 - , Prince William, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Colonel Thomas Walke I (about 1642-1694) was an immigrant from British-ruled Barbados. He was born before 1643. While his exact birth year is unknown, he witnessed a will in Lancaster County, Virginia in 1664 requiring an age of 21. He married Mary Lawson in 1690, also an emigrate from Barbados. Thomas died in 1694, only four years after his marriage, leaving three children, Thomas II or Jr. (1691-1723), Anthony I (1692- 1768), and Mary. Thomas held colonial distinction and was commissioned a colonel by the Governor of Virginia. He made his fortune shipping goods to Barbados from Hampton Roads and slaves back to Hampton Roads from Barbados. Thomas Walke II or Jr. (first son of Thomas Walke I) and His Descendants Thomas Walke III - (around 1720– 1761) was the son of Thomas Walke II. He acquired land in Princess Anne County near London Bridge in the early 1700's. He had five daughters to his 1st wife Margaret Thorowgood and one son Thomas Walke IV (1760 – 1797) to his second wife Mary Ann Thorowgood. In 1759 Thomas III built a brick house, (preserved today at 2040 Potters Road, Virginia Beach) on Upper Wolfsnare Creek, an important waterway then. In 1761 Thomas III died, leaving Upper Wolfsnare to his infant son Thomas IV including seven thousand acres and fifty-five slaves. Thomas Walke IV (1760 – 1797) was the son of Thomas Walke III. He grew up to be prominent in Princess Anne County. He fought in the Revolutionary War and was one of the two local representatives to the Virginia Convention. In Richmond in the spring of 1788 he helped Virginia, by a narrow margin, ratify the U.S. Constitution. He served as Vestryman and Warden of Lynnhaven Parish for many years. He had much to do with the designing and building of the third Eastern Shore Chapel which stood less than a mile from his home. Thomas IV had Communion Silver bearing the date 1759 shipped from England to Eastern Shore Chapel. The silver is now on exhibit at the Norfolk Museum. Thomas married Elizabeth (1797-1815), but had no children. In his will he left his estate to his wife Elizabeth and two of his sisters. Upper Wolfe Snare Plantation was purchased by the Commonwealth of Virginia to obtain right of way for the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Expressway in 1964, but members of the Princess Anne Historical Society, were able to save the house as a historic landmark. Colonel Anthony Walke I (second son of Thomas Walke I) and His Descendants Colonel Anthony Walke I (1692- Nov 8, 1768) was a man of high standing and character in the Lynnhaven Parish Church serving as a vestryman for many years and contributing to its support. Through his efforts and contributions, Lynnhaven Parish Church No. 3 was built using imported brick. He was Colonel and Commander of troops in Princess Anne County under his majesty King George III. He married three times. His first wife was Mary Sanford. They married March 3 1711 and had a daughter, Margaret Walke. His second wife was Elizabeth Newton. They married after 1713 but she died in 1724. They had no surviving children. Anthony's third wife was Anna Lee Armistead. They married on April 4, 1725 and had four children: Colonel Anthony Walke II, William Walke, John Walke, Mary Walke and Margaret Walke. Colonel Anthony Walke II (1726 - 1779) was the son of Colonel Anthony Walke I. Colonel Walke II was one of the wealthiest Virginians of his day, a great advocate of social drinking, extravagant social gatherings, gambling, and horse racing. When trouble with England began, as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he espoused the cause of the colonies, and united with Patrick Henry, Mason, Madison, Marshall, Jefferson, and other patriots in resisting British oppression and in establishing American independence. He married Jane Bolling Randolph (1729-1756) who was a direct descendant of Powhatan, the most powerful chieftain in Tidewater Virginia at the time of the arrival of the Jamestown settlers in 1607. This strain in her blood could account for her children’s horseback riding abilities. Reverend Anthony Walke was the only surviving child of these parents. After she died, Col. Walke II married Mary Mosely and had several children: William Walke (1762 - 1795) (who is buried on the property at Ferry Plantation), Edward Hack Walke, John Basset Walke, Mary Walke, Frances Walke and Anna Walke. Reverend Anthony Walke (1755 - 1814) was the son of Colonel Anthony Walke II. He married Anne McColley McClenahan on January 15, 1776 and had six children: Anne M., Edwin, Jane Eliza, David Meade, Susan, and Anthony IV (1778 - 1820). On July 13, 1805, five months after Anne died, he married Anne Newton Fisher (1774 - 1840). They had three children: John Newton, Thomas, and Lemuel. They are all buried in the old burial ground in what is now Fairfield's subdivision, in unmarked graves. Reverend Walke was 20 years old in the early winter of 1775 when he most likely witnessed troop movements and battles between Continental Army troops and Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore’s Loyalist troops (people who supported King George III) in battles at Kemp's Landing, 2.5 miles north and then at Great Bridge, 9 miles south of his Fairfield Manor House. The Revolutionary War (1775–1783) caught Reverend Walke at a time when he was coming of age into a Virginia gentry threatened by the loss of political power, wealth, and social prestige made possible by English control over the Virginia Colony. In his writings he blamed the north and their foolish Boston Tea Party actions. Reverend Walke was a representative to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, and after the Revolutionary War, in early 1788 he was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and then served the following year as an elector from the State of Virginia to the first presidential election held in Philadelphia. Returning to Princess Anne County, Reverend Walke, with a large inheritance from his father, presided as rector over Lynnhaven Parish Church for many years without a salary (from 1788 to 1800 and again from 1812 to 1813). Reverend Walke divided his time between preaching and the hunt. Not only was he noted for delivering sermons with a captivating mild mannered voice, but a more picturesque side of him was his love of fox and deer hunting. He conducted sermons with his horse Silverheels tethered near the door of the church. When he heard those hunting horns, he would immediately turn the service over to his clerk, Dick Edwards, and hurry off on Silverheels, not seen again until late in the day (see references 14-16, 25, 120-122, 145, 147, 151-154, 211, 214 – 216). __________________________The Walke’s Historic Homes. * Upper Wolfsnare House. Of the three noted historic homes, only one stands today – the brick house Thomas Walke III built in 1759 at today’s 2040 Potters Road, Virginia Beach on Upper Wolfsnare Creek, an important waterway in 1759. * Fairfield Manor. Four years after Colonel Thomas Walke I’s death, his executors in 1697 purchased the land from Tully Emperor to become the home of his second son, Colonel Anthony Walke I (1692 – 1768). Fairfield Manor House was located just south of present day Virginia Beach, Kempsville (in the vicinity of Locke Lane and Kempsville Colony, near Kempsville Park). Fairfield was a grand house with black servants, blacksmiths, wagon-makers, saddlers, and tradesmen imported from England. Fairfield belonged to five generations of Walkes, i.e., Colonel Anthony Walke I (1692-1768), Colonel Anthony Walke II (1726-1779), Reverend Anthony Walke (1755-1814), Anthony Walke (1778-1820), and David M. Walke (1800-1854), until it was destroyed by fire March 1865. The First Ferry Farm House (Walke Manor House) is shown above in General Thomas Hoones Williamson’s 1812 watercolor picture. * First Ferry Farm House. Colonel Anthony Walke II made plans for a second house at Ferry Farm (near Lynnhaven Parish Church) and bequeathed the land to his second son, William (1762-1795) who built the 1st Ferry Plantation House (Walke Manor House) in 1782 for his half brother Reverend Anthony Walke. It was owned by Walkes until it was destroyed by fire in 1828. The house was replaced by a smaller one in 1830. On October 21, 1914 Lewis Walke and his son, Roger S. Walke, visited the Ferry Plantation and found the tomb of Lewis Walke’s great-grandfather, William Walke (1762 – 1795), Colonel Walke II’s first son by his second wife Mary Moseley. The tomb was several hundred yards from the Ferry House with the stone lying flat on the ground. Sometime in the 1930’s Ann Talbot Parks had this gravestone moved to the Old Donation Cemetery. The inscription is no longer legible, but was recorded by Lewis Walke back in 1914. It reads, “Here lie the Remains of WILLIAM WALKE late a Magistrate & Representative of this County Who departed this Lifethe 1st of Janry., 1795 Aged 33 years In Life Esteemed in Death lamented” (References 3, 4, 14-17, 120, 145, 147, 182, 212, 213). _____________________The second Ferry Farm Plantation House built in 1830

  
  

• Sources

  [S1162] Ancestry.com, Geneanet Community Trees Index, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).