Tabitha Scarbourough^[1]

1640 - 1718  (77 years)

• Name	Tabitha Scarbourough
  Birth	30 May 1640	, Accomack, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Female
  Death	7 Jan 1718	, Charles City, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I47209	Master
  Last Modified	26 Jan 2023

  
  

  Father	Colonel Edmund Scarburgh
  Mother	Mary Littleton
  Family ID	F10784	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	John Smart   d. 1657
  Marriage	12 Jul 1653
  Children	1. Tabitha Hill, (Smart),   b. 1655, , Accomack, Virginia, USA d. 1717, , Accomack, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)
  Family ID	F10781	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	26 Jan 2023

  
  

  Family 2	Devereux Browne   d. 1673
  Marriage	1660
  Children	1. Edmund Browne   d. 1678, , , Turkey
  Family ID	F10783	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	26 Jan 2023

  
  

  Family 3	John Custis,   b. 1630   d. 29 Jan 1696 (Age 66 years)
  Marriage	1675
  Family ID	F10782	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	26 Jan 2023

  
  

  Family 4	Colonel Edward Hill, II,   b. 30 Apr 1637, Shirley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA d. 30 Nov 1700, , Charles City, Virginia, USA (Age 63 years)
  Marriage	28 Sep 1696	Shirley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F10741	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	26 Jan 2023

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 30 May 1640 - , Accomack, Virginia, USA Marriage - 28 Sep 1696 - Shirley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, USA Death - 7 Jan 1718 - , Charles City, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Tabitha Scarburgh - Smart - Browne - Custis - Hill, aka: Madame Tabitha Hill Tabitha Scarburgh was a most colorful and interesting character. She was the daughter of Colonel Edmund Scarburgh and Mary Littleton and was their eldest child. Tabitha's birth year is estimated from two depositions she gave in middle age. On May 30, 1693, she said she was 53 years old, while on September 30, 1695, she said she was 56. This makes a discrepency of a year, so it seems safe to say she was born between May 30 and September 30, 1639. Tabitha married the first of her four husbands when she was barely 14 years old. On July 12, 1653 her father, Colonel Scarburgh, made a deed gift to John Smart of "all that tract of land beloneinge unto mee att Maggetty Baye," - this gift being made to John Smart as a dower for Tabitha who had married him. July 12, 1653 was the anniversary of her christening date 14 years earlier. Tabitha and John Smart became parents of only one child, daughter Tabitha Scarburgh Smart - who became the first of the five wives of William Whittington II of Maryland. They had two children: Smart Whittington, who died young without issue, and Tabitha Scarburgh Whittington, who married Edmund Custis, and from that line come all who claim descent from Tabitha I. There is no record of when John Smart died (est. before 1657) but, sometime before 1660 Tabitha had married her second husband Deverax Browne, who was a merchant and sailed back and forth across the Atlantic. It is believed that Tabitha's portrait was painted during her marriage to Devereux Browne when she accompanied her husband on a voyage to England and sat for Sir Peter Lely, a Dutch painter known for painting portraits of the Royal Court. Records show Devereux Brown brought 41 persons from England to Virginia in November 1671 and was awarded a headright land grant of 100 acres for each. Again in March 1672 he brought about 90 persons to Virginia and received headright acreage. Tabitha likely accompanied her husband on one of these trips. Tabitha and Deverax Browne had one son together, Edmund Browne, who lived to marry at age 17, but had no children. He died as a captive in Turkey in 1678. Meanwhile Deverax Browne had died by 1673. On June 17, 1673, Tabitha applied for administration on the estate of Deverax Browne, confirming his death before that date. Tabitha married her third husband, General John Custis of Arlington, in the mid 1670's, but the earliest reference to their marriage was in 1680. John Custis, Esq. was a Major General of Virginia, who served on the Govenor's Council. Tabitha and John Custis had no children together. In 1690 General John Custis made a deed gift of the personalty at the Deep Creek Plantation to Edmund Custis, his nephew (son of brother Thomas) whom he brought to Virginia as a minor, from "Baltamore in the Kingdom of Ireland." The land document also recited that young Edmund Custis had married Tabitha's granddaughter and namesake. In 1693 John and Tabitha Custis united in a deed of gift to Edmund for 1750 acres "for and in consideracon for the Love and affection wee have and beare to our well beloved Nephew and Grandson Edmund Custis in the County of Accomack in Virginia aforesaid, Gentlemen, and Tabitha his now wife, our Granddaughter." General John Custis died at age 66 on January 29, 1696. Later the same year Tabitha entered into a marriage agreement with Colonel Edward Hill of Charles City County on September 28, 1696. As a result of her evident personal charm and great worldy possessions, she apparently made a good bargain, judging by two concessions in the agreement made by Edward Hill: . . . "and have by these presents given and granted to the said Tabitha Custis in case she survives me after this my Intended Marriage with her the full and juste Sume of five hundred pounds Sterling . . . and that shee hold and enjoy to her owne proper use and behoof her bed and furniture thereunto belonging and all her Rings, Jewells, Locketts, Necklaces and wearinge Apparrell of what kind so ever to bee wholly and Solely at her free and absolute disposal." The marriage took place shortly thereafter. There were no children born of the union and Colonel Edward Hill died in 1700. After his death Tabitha returned to the Shore and for the rest of her life she appears in the records as Mrs. or Madame Tabitha Hill. She made her home on her original patent land, and from there made visits to friends and relatives. Madame Tabitha Hill died in 1717 having lived to be nearly 80 years old. Her will was probated on January 7, 1718/19. The only specific bequest was made to Ann, the second wife of her great-grandson Thomas Custis, who was given "my wearing stays embroidered with gold, my black suit and silk clothes and black stays set with bugles and one cloath of silver pettycoat." The Portrait There is a tradition that Tabitha's portrait was painted in London by Sir Peter Lely, and if so this was probably during her marriage to Deverax Browne, as he was a merchant and made several voyages across the ocean. The portrait is in existence today, but there is some uncertanty about its travels in the interval. In the 1704 inventory of the Edmund Custis estate is listed "Maddm. Hill's pickture," but the disposition of it is not given. Naturally it should have gone to her namesake, Tabitha Scarburgh Custis, daughter of Edmund, who married Henry Custis, but it did not appear in the wills or inventories of that line and the records were silent on the subject for over a hundred years after the date of the inventory. In the will of Thomas Bayly in 1808 "the picture of Mrs. Hill" was mentioned as then hanging in the halls at Hill's Farm, but no direct family connection has been found, its presence there cannot be explained. Bayly left it to his grandson, John H. Bayly, son of Edmund, but there is a family tradition that because the portrait showed the extreme decolletage fashionable in that period, his wife would not let him accept the bequest, and it went to his uncle Thomas M. Bayly and so to Mount Custis. Mrs. Evelyn M. B. Tiffany, a Bayly descendant, later took Tabitha's portrait and others from Mount Custis to her home in Baltimore. In her will of 1929 she left a substantial sum to the University of Virginia to erect the Thomas H. Bayly Memorial Building, and in addition left portraits and other personal effects to be displayed there. Tabitha's portrait now hangs there in an appropriate place. Meanwhile art critics have said Tabitha's portrait is the work of a third rate artist and have doubted that it could have been done by the master, Sir Peter Lely. Since the photograph (taken in 1940 for the book, Virginia's Eastern Shore) was obtained, another earlier one has been found which put a very different face on the matter. This earlier photograph of the portrait is one made for Mrs. Tiffany in 1896 for her use as a gift to some of her Bayly relatives and several prints of it are in existence. Apparently at some time after that date, the portrait was repainted, the unfortunate result being clearly shown in the 1940 photograph. 2017 Update At some point Tabitha Scarburgh's portrait was put into storage in the basement of the Thomas H. Bayly Memorial Building. Thirty years ago (abt. 1987) descendant and historian Dennis Custis ventured to the University of Virginia to locate the portrait of his ancestor Tabitha Scarburgh. He found it hadn't been on display since 1955 and he requested that Tabitha return to her native Eastern Shore to be displayed at the Ker Place Museum. The University of Virginia refused. In 2016 ladies on the board of the Fralin Museum of Art heard his story and promised to help him. On May 25, 2017 Tabitha Scarburgh returned to the Eastern Shore Ker Museum on limited, long term loan. Source: Book, Virginia's Eastern Shore, Volume II.

  
  

• 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.