Historical Outline and Genealogy
Part One
English Origins through the Second Generation
of the Family in the Mid-18th Century
(Revised edition 1.3, June 11, 2006)
B y the 1670s, an Englishman named Chamberlayne was living in Henrico County, Virginia. Major Thomas Chamberlayne, born in England in 1652, was descended from a long line of the surname, most of whom had spelled the name Chamberlain, dating back through medieval England to Normandy in the time of William the Conqueror. 1 Thomas and his second wife, Elizabeth Stratton, had two daughters, each born around the year 1710, but there is no evidence of any sons born to the couple, nor is there evidence of any children born to his first wife, Mary Wood. Thus, the name Chamberlayne apparently did not continue in a line from this Thomas.2
Major Thomas Chamberlayne died in 1719. About the same time, give or take a year or two, another Englishman of the same surname, not known to bear any relation to Thomas, arrived in Virginia. William Chamberlayne, born in 1699, the fifth son of a well-to-do family of Herefordshire, came to New Kent County and quickly established himself as a notable figure in the community. It is this Chamberlayne with whom we are concerned here, his ancestry as well as his descendants.
English Ancestry.
William's grandparents were Thomas and Elizabeth Somers Chamberlayne
of St. Giles Parish, London. Thomas is thought to have been born about
1630, which would put him in his early teens during the English Civil War
(1642-46) and his young adult years during the Cromwell interregnum
that followed. It is known from a document known as "The Visitation of
Gloucester," dated 1683, that Thomas was a merchant in London, and that he
was dead by 1683.3
Elizabeth was the daughter of a Mr. Somers, whose given name is unknown, and Margaret Pye Somers. Margaret's parents are not known to us but it is virtually certain that she was a member of one or another of the various branches of the large, wealthy, armigerous Pye family of Herefordshire. Some attention to the Pye family is of more than passing interest to an examination of the Chamberlaynes descended from Thomas and Elizabeth.
The Pye Family of Herefordshire
The Pyes held an estate at a place known as "The Mynde" at Kilpeck,
Herefordshire, in the west of England near Wales, for many generations,
possibly dating back to the late 11th or early 12th century. Information
on the Pyes provided by some descendants offer an interesting, if not
highly substantiated, account of the family history, a kind of "Pye family
legend."
4 (See sidebar).
It is known that the recognized Pye family had several links to Barbados, including Robert Pye "O' the Mynde," one of several sons of the first Sir Walter Pye (see sidebar). It is also clear that a man named Pye in Barbados, whatever his relationship to the larger family, which has not been established, maintained a close and ultimately very significant relationship with the Thomas Chamberlayne family of London.
Margaret Pye Somers had a brother named Edward who amassed a fortune during the 17th century (perhaps after starting out with the better part of one), in Barbados as proprietor of a sugar plantation known as the "Guinny Plantation." He also held other estates in the West Indies, as well as in England, where he owned, at least late in life, a manor known as "Boyce" in Dymock Parish, Gloucestershire, and several others.
Edward had no children; whether or not he ever married is not clear. Apparently he enjoyed a close relationship with his niece, Elizabeth, and her husband Thomas Chamberlayne. 5 When Thomas and Elizabeth named one of their four sons Edward Pye, born in 1661, and gave Edward the honor of serving as his godfather, it seems safe to presume that the boy was named for his Uncle Edward. The Chamberlaynes also had two other children of whom we are aware, Thomas (junior) and a daughter, Mary, who married Thomas Wall in 1683. Mary was then age "about 17," as was expressed in the application for a marriage license, 6 putting her birth at about 1666. The application also referred to her mother as "Mrs. Elizabeth Chamberlayne, widow," which tells us Thomas was dead by 1683. As residents of London, the family survived at least two harrowing disasters of the era, the Bubonic Plague of 1665 and the London Fire of 1666. 7
Having no children of his own, Edward Pye took special interest in his godson, including provision for his education, and he had young Edward spend a portion of his youth with him in Barbados, working under two men who appear to have been his business partners. This and other information on this facet of the young Edward's relationship with his uncle derives from an English document dated May 29, 1693, pertaining to a claim by Edward Pye Chamberlayne against his father-in-law. 8 A portion of this document should prove well worth the effort. Be aware that "orator" is the young Edward Pye Chamberlayne, and that the phrase "late of" means recently a resident of, rather than deceased.
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For his service to his kinsman William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William Fitz Norman de Mara was rewarded with the title Baron of Kilpeck and was given the castle of Kilpeck in what had been a small Welsh Kingdom near Much Dewchurch, Herefordshire. * This first Baron of Kilpeck had a son given the name Hugh, who is said to have gone on the First Crusade (1095-99), where he was captured and imprisoned by the Emir Mohammed Amiraud. While imprisoned, the story goes, he met and fell in love with the Emir's daughter and a result was a daughter whom they named Susan, which could have been "Susan Fitz Hugh" or "Susan ap Hugh." The name Pye may have evolved from the Old English or Welsh pronunciation of "ap Hugh," a gutteral sound closer to "hu-ay" (or "hu-ee") than the sound to which we are now accustomed. Thus, "ap Hugh" could easily have rounded off to "Pye." The legend continues, becoming somewhat less credible, that this Susan ap Hugh, or Pye, eventually married a Gilbert Becket, and the couple had a son Thomas who became Thomas A'Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was slain in the Canterbury cathedral in 1170. Limited efforts to confirm or deny this by finding the name of Thomas Becket's mother were unsuccessful. As the generations passed, the Pye family of Kilpeck maintained their place among the baronial class of England. The principal member of the clan in the early 17th century appears to have been Sir Walter Pye "O' the Mynde" (1571-1635), who married Joane Rudhall in 1602 and had a number of children, including several whose paths have been traced by historians and genealogists. Sir Walter was educated at Oxford and was appointed Attorney to the Court of Wards and Liveries (at a salary of 1500 pounds sterling annually, which was a great deal of money), was knighted by Charles I in 1640, and was said to have been during his lifetime one of the richest men in England. Most if not all of the Pyes were ardent royalists. According to E. G. Pye, Sir Walter the younger lent the King 2000 pounds sterling in 1640, and in 1642 was commissioned to travel to Rome to seek the support of the Pope in the conflict then flaring into civil war. He also raised troops and put a garrison in Kilpeck Castle, and later was captured during the Royalist siege of Hereford, subsequently released upon payment of a prisoner's ransom by the County of Herefordshire. "The Castle of Kilpeck," E. G. Pye explains, "was stoutly defended during the Civil War, but fell to the forces of Oliver Cromwell in 1645, and was demolished, never to be rebuilt. Today, only the remains of a few crumbling stone walls near the Mynde and the village of Kilpeck mark its former presence." Clearly, the outcome of the civil war cost the family a great deal of its wealth and prestige.
The Pyes also were Catholics, aside from a few converts, another fact
working against the status of the family at various times. Presumably
this allegiance to the Catholic Church played a part in the naming of the
third in the succession of Walter Pyes (1631-1690) as Baron of Kilpeck by
King James II.
* A comment on old English or Welsh names: "Fitz" means "son (or daughter) of"; and "ap" (to be seen later) is a Welsh form having the same meaning. Whether there was any clear distinction between the two forms, as to place or lineal group, is not known, but both appear in accounts of the family. The "de Mara" in William's name refers to a place in Normandy. |
Edward and Anne Chamberlayne apparently settled at Boyce where they had
six children, the first five of whom were males, and the sixth, given the
name Anne, died within a year. The youngest of the sons was William,
baptized on September 25, 1699 and presumably born the same year, the one
who emigrated to Virginia. In view of the circumstances of his family, it
seems safe to assume that he did not come to America without significant
financial resources.
Descendancy listing: Edward Pye Chamberlayne
As the fifth son in the family, William may have been precluded from inheritance of the family estate because of the tradition of primogeniture, which had the effect of curtailing the division of large estates, resulting in fewer estate holders with larger estates. While this is merely conjectural, it is clear that to emigrate to America was at that time one of the popular solutions to the question of how a young gentleman might chart his course without the prospect of managing the family estate. For the gentry of England looking to America, the Virginia colony was the most likely choice.
Poplar Grove lay at a comparatively narrow point along the Pamunkey, some 30-35 twisting miles upstream from the mouth at West Point, where the York River is fed by the Pamunkey and the Mattaponi, and about 15-20 miles by land, depending on roads at the time. These and other rivers of the coastal plain of the Atlantic region served as important channels of transportation, the highways of an earlier era, often the easiest and fastest mode of transportation available, at least between points along or near the rivers. Ferry services at various points along the rivers were also important components of the regional transportation network.
Then, as now, waterfront property was highly desirable, and the leading
families of the area lined the rivers, comfortably spaced, of course, as
their plantations typically ran in the hundreds of acres, sometimes in
the thousands. These estates, or plantations, were agricultural business
enterprises, fully dependent upon the institution of slavery for the
immense quantities of labor required, and they typically included ship
landing and commodity storage facilities, as well as "out-buildings"
for the slaves, who out-numbered the owners and their families many
times over.
Map showing the location of Poplar Grove and some of the other
estates of the time.
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Figure 1. 
Adapted from "Map exhibiting the route of communication between
Philadelphia & Charleston; compiled and drawn by John McClellan,
1837, Library of Congress Railroad Maps (Call Number
G3709.31.p1 1837 M35 RR 69). This map has been altered by removal
of railroad lines and references to Richmond and Petersburg, which
did not yet exist in the early 1700s.
Library of Congress Railroad Maps web site.
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Figure 2.
Poplar Grove, early to mid-20th century. Source: Harris, Op. cit., p.251. |
The family residence is believed to have been built by 1725.
11
The brick structure still stands, although one wing of its original
el-shape is now gone, and the property has not been owned by a
descendant of William and Elizabeth since pre-Civil War times.
The ferry service at the Poplar Grove site continued in operation
under William's tenure and was known informally, according to New
Kent historian Malcolm H. Harris, as "William's Ferry."
Harris also notes that William erected a brick warehouse on the
property which stood until it was destroyed by fire about 1970, and
that on the road leading to the landing William had an Ordinary for
the accommodation of travelers using the ferry.
12
The acreage of the estate during William's time is not known, but
from his will it is apparent that Poplar Grove was an estate of
considerable proportions.
13
The first child of William and Elizabeth, Frances, was born in 1722 but lived only a month. The couple's second child, Ann, was born in 1724 and died the following year. By 1735 Elizabeth had born five more children, three males, Edward, Thomas, and Richard, between 1726 and 1729, followed by females Mary and Elizabeth in 1732 and 1735. 15
Photo of Grave Marker for Frances and Ann
In August, 1736, William died, only 37 years of age, of unknown cause, leaving his wife a widow with five children between the ages of one and eleven, and expecting another child as well. The following April, nearly eight months after William's death, Elizabeth gave birth to Anne Kidley Chamberlayne, who was named for William's mother in England who had passed away four years earlier. William's will provided amply for his widow, as well as the children, and its provisions made clear that Poplar Grove was a quite substantial proprietary operation. An account of the will is available to us by way of an act of the colonial legislature dealing with the amendment of the will to take into account the posthumous birth of Anne Kidley: 16
Of the six children of William and Elizabeth, aside from the two girls who died young, the degree to which information about their lives is known to us varies from virtually none to a modestly impressive amount. In the cases of Thomas, Richard, and Anne Kidley, the quantity of information available to us is reasonably good, considering that they lived two and a half centuries ago and were not famous people. Regarding the other three, we know somewhat less.
Mary.
Of Mary, we know only that she was born in 1732 and that she was named
in her father's will four years later, suggesting that she at least
had survived that long.
Elizabeth.
Born in 1735, Elizabeth married a Christopher Hudson, about 1760,
in Chesterfield County, and they had seven children, including some
with names reflecting the family heritage, including Elizabeth
Littlepage Hudson. How many of those children lived how long we do
not know.
18
Anne Kidley.
The youngest of the siblings, Anne Kidley, who was born after the death
of her father, grew up in the family of her mother's second marriage.
Anne had at least one older sister to share in her growing up, and
possibly two, as Mary and Elizabeth were born five and two years
earlier than she, respectively, and she also had three brothers, the
youngest of whom was eight years older than she. When Anne was eighteen,
in June, 1755, she married Burwell Bassett, son of Col. William and
Elizabeth Churchill Bassett. The Bassetts were long-established as one
of the leading families of the area, and their plantation, "Eltham,"
one of colonial Virginia's largest, was located just west of the
junction of the Pamunkey and the York at West Point.
19
(See General Reference Map.)
In October 1756, at the age of nineteen, Anne Kidley (Chamberlayne) Bassett died in, or following, childbirth, as did her infant daughter Elizabeth. Burwell, who was 22 at the death of his young wife and daughter, married again the following year, this time a daughter of the John Dandridge family of New Kent, Anna Maria Dandridge. He then went on to a distinguished career as a legislator, serving successively in the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1762-1775, representing New Kent, and participating in the Conventions of 1774 and 1775. The Dandridge family would cross paths with the Chamberlaynes again, and more than once, a few years hence.
Edward Pye.
Named for his grandfather in England, whom he probably never saw,
and the first of many of that name in America, Edward Pye was born in
January, 1725/26. Only ten years old when his father died, Edward is
presumed to have remained at Poplar Grove as the oldest child in the
family of his mother and her new husband, William Gray. He married a
woman named Rebecca, whose surname is unknown, and they may have
had at least two children, although there is yet no confirmation of
either.
Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy refers to a record of the Henrico meeting of 1762 in which Edward Pye Chamberlain was involved, along with Burwell Bassett, in ordering a seizure of property of a member of the "Black Creed PM, New Kent Co," in lieu of "prists wages" (p.162). 20 Apparently, Chamberlayne and Bassett were acting in some official capacity, such as that of sheriff or commissioner of the county. Hinshaw also cites a John Chamberlayne as having been barred from the group for signing a pledge to fight in the event of war for independence from Britain. Thus, it appears that a Chamberlayne, whose connection, if any, to the line being followed is unclear, was at one point a member of the Quaker sect in Virginia.
It is possible, although there is no known supportive evidence, that John was a son of Edward and Rebecca. As will be seen subsequently, it is believed that Edward and Rebecca had a daughter, and, if so, then they probably had other children as well. In general, if a couple in these times of large families had one child then most likely they had several. The presumed daughter was given the name Anne Kidley, probably after Edward's sister, and, if so, most likely following the older Anne's untimely death in 1756. The young Anne Kidley married a William Cooke of New Kent, and the couple had at least two children and several grandchildren, some of whom were given middle names reflecting the Chamberlayne legacy. The Chamberlayne-Cooke connection is taken up later in the narrative.
Edward and Rebecca owned land in several parts of eastern and central Virginia, including Buckingham, Louisa, and Albemarle Counties, 21 and they apparently resided in New Kent County, possibly at Poplar Grove. An important clue to their residence, as well as to Edward's death, is found in a September, 1769 advertisement for sale of a merchant vessel owned by Edward Pye Chamberlayne: 22
Further evidence regarding the residence of Edward and Rebecca is found in papers in possession of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation regarding the business correspondence of John Norton and Sons, Merchants, of London, which show a number of transactions with Rebecca Chamberlayne of New Kent, Virginia, between 1770 and 1773, shortly after Edward's death in 1769. 23 If they did live at Poplar Grove, it is unclear whether they lived in the same or a different house on the property.
Thomas.
The second male child of William and Elizabeth, Thomas, was born in 1727. By 1752, and probably somewhat earlier, he had married Wilhelmina Byrd, daughter of William Byrd II and the late Lucy Parke Byrd, of "Westover" on the James River in Charles City County, and the couple had taken up residence on the Mattaponi River in King William County. 24
The Byrds were among the leading families in the colony, and certainly among the wealthiest. 25 William Byrd II (1674-1744) was the son of the original William Byrd who inherited from his uncle, and then built upon a fortune as a planter and exporter, as well as dealer in slaves and indentured servants, and established the great plantation on the James known as "Westover." William II served as Receiver General for the colony and for 35 years as a member of the Colonial Council, including a period as its President. He was also the founder of Richmond in 1737, which later became the capital of the Commonwealth; he led the team which surveyed and established the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina, about which he wrote a book, "The History of the Dividing Line," published after his death; and he is still recognized for his prose and poetry on a variety of subjects. In the manner of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and numerous other notables of the 18th century, William Byrd II was very much a figure of the Enlightenment: scholar, writer, amateur scientist and philosopher, as well as business and political leader.
Wilhelmina's mother, Lucy Parke Byrd, was a product of a family in which great wealth was combined with misfortune. Her father, Col. Daniel Parke, abandoned his wife, Jane Ludwell, and their two daughters, Frances and Lucy, and returned to England where he managed to get elected to Parliament and to rise in prominence during the war with France of the early 1700s. Eventually appointed Governor of Antigua, in the Leeward Islands, Parke was killed in an uprising by island natives in 1710. 26
Wilhelmina and her older sister Evelyn were the only children of William and Lucy Byrd to survive childhood. During a stay in England in 1716, Lucy died of smallpox, leaving William with two daughters, ages nine and one. He then remained single, a widower, for a number of years, during which he resided in England most of the time as an agent for the colony on various assignments, and Evelyn and Wilhelmina were with him there. In 1724 he married again, Maria Taylor of England, and the couple came back to Virginia in 1726, the two girls returning the following year, when Evelyn was twenty-one and Wilhelmina twelve years of age. Legend has it that Byrd brought the girls back to Virginia in order to break off a romance between Evelyn and a Catholic gentleman, and that Evelyn remained broken-hearted, and unmarried, the remainder of her life, which ended in 1737 at the age of thirty. 27
Born in 1715, Wilhelmina was some twelve years older than Thomas. The date of their marriage is unknown other than that it had occurred by 1752. Land transactions by Thomas and Wilhelmina that year suggest that the marriage probably took place a year or two prior to that, and there is evidence of Thomas' having been in King William County by 1747 when he was first named to the Commission of Justices for the county. While he was not necessarily married by this time, a date of the marriage between about 1745 and 1750 seems most likely.
Thomas' residence in King William by 1747 traces to his inheritance, from his mother, Elizabeth, of a tract of land on the west bank of the Mattaponi, known as the "Home House Quarter," a portion of the original Littlepage estate (known as the "Littlepage Dividend"), the total size of which had been some 2,369 acres. 28 In 1752, he and Wilhelmina engaged in land transactions involving the transfer of an estate she had inherited, known as "Mount Folly," consisting of 1,678 acres in what is now Charles City County, for additional tracts adjacent to his land on the Mattaponi. Thus, the estate of Thomas and Wilhelmina Chamberlayne consisted of the original Littlepage tract plus two adjacent tracts known as "Scotland Quarter" and "White Oak," the three combining for a total of 1,550 acres, over 2.4 square miles, one of the larger plantations in the area. They gave it the name "Eglington." The location of Eglington was described in an 1817 sale offering of the property as lying "...about two and half miles from the courthouse.... opposite to Rickahoc...." 29 (Figure 3). According to Harris, the house at Eglington was eventually abandoned (date unknown), and long after that it burned and some of the bricks were used in the construction of a local church.
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The "dowry" in land that Wilhelmina brought to the marriage, the Mount Folly plantation, came into possession of the Byrd family when she was just an infant, the result of a negotiated settlement concerning the estate, and the debts, of Wilhelmina's maternal grandfather, Col. Daniel Parke. Upon the death of Parke in Antigua in 1710, his estate, consisting of lands in Virginia and Antigua, became the object of an effort to safeguard the claims of Parke's daughters, Lucy and Frances, by their husbands William Byrd and John Custis. The settlement reached in 1712 resulted in the Byrds' assumption of Parke's 1600-plus acre tract in Charles City County known as "Mount Folly," and Custis and his wife Frances possessing the large "White House" estate on the Pamunkey River adjacent to Poplar Grove. In addition, Byrd and Custis agreed to assume shares of responsibility for debts that had been incurred by the notorious Col. Parke, a financial burden which later turned out to be far more extensive than was first realized and nearly forced Byrd to sell all or a portion of Westover. Presumably because the land came into the possession of the Byrds through the family of his first wife, Lucy Parke, it was entailed for inheritance by his only remaining child of that marriage, Wilhelmina.
Entails on estates. |
Figure 3.
Detail view of General Reference Map showing the
location of Eglington.
Despite her relatively advanced age at marriage, Wilhelmina had four children, all males. Byrd, the oldest, was born in 1753, and Edward Pye, born in 1758, may have been the youngest because of the age of his mother at his birth, forty-three. The other two sons, William and Thomas Byrd, are known to have survived into their adult years, although William died as a young man, unmarried. What is known about the sons of Thomas and Wilhelmina awaits Part Two.
Thomas Chamberlayne is thought to have died during or soon after the year 1771, according to Harris, because that was the last year for which he was appointed to the Commission of Justices for King William County, a position which, once appointed in 1730, he held through his lifetime. 30 The date of Wilhelmina's death is unknown.
Richard.
The third son of William and Elizabeth, Richard, born in 1729, married Mary Wilkinson, daughter of George and Margaret Wilkinson of New Kent, and the couple resided at Poplar Grove. It may have been a case of the youngest male inheriting the family estate, but it is also possible that brother Edward and his wife Rebecca (and any children they might have had) also resided there, whether in the same house or another on the property. The transition in the proprietorship of Poplar Grove from Richard's mother and her second husband, William Gray, to Richard and Mary (or to Edward and Rebecca) is unclear, but by the mid-1750s it appears that the estate was in the hands of the younger generation. The fact that, as noted earlier, by 1747 Richard's brother Thomas had taken possession of his inheritance in the old "Littlepage Dividend" in King William County suggests that Elizabeth may have either died or moved elsewhere by then.
Adjacent to Poplar Grove to the east, downstream along the Pamunkey, lay the estate known as "White House," the home of Daniel Parke Custis and his wife, the former Martha Dandridge. As was noted earlier, in the context of the settlement of the estates of Col. Daniel Parke, Daniel's mother was Frances Parke, the sister of Lucy Parke, who had married William Byrd II and was the mother of Wilhelmina Byrd Chamberlayne. Both sisters had died long ago, and Daniel had resided at White House as caretaker for his father, John Custis, of Williamsburg, for many years before marrying Martha in 1749/50. Martha was a daughter of John and Frances Dandridge of New Kent, and her sister was the Anna Maria Dandridge who married Burwell Bassett after the death of his first wife, Anne Kidley Chamberlayne, in 1756.
In July, 1757, Daniel Parke Custis died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving Martha a wealthy widow of twenty-five with two young children and an expansive plantation. During the time of her widowhood Martha apparently maintained close, friendly relations with her neighbors, the Chamberlaynes, who were about the same age as she. A story that has been popular in the family for many years has it that Col. George Washington, upon crossing the Pamunkey at "William's Ferry" in March, 1758, was induced to dine and stay the night at Poplar Grove upon hearing of the opportunity to be introduced to the attractive widow Custis, who happened to be visiting the Chamberlaynes, and the rest, as they say, is history. The origin of the account is Martha's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, in his memoirs, published in 1860. 31
The story, which has been scrutinized by historians and genealogists over the years, some skeptical, others more accepting, has been summarized and assessed for its veracity in an article published in the newsletter of the WCGS, The Chamberlain Key. 32 Taking no firm position on the question, the authors outlined the varying perspectives on the story both pro and con, and concluded only that "... the storied meeting of George and Martha at the home of Richard Chamberlayne remains an uncertain episode."
Implicitly the view of some of the historians traced by Carpenter and Chamberlain, and one that is perhaps the most likely scenario, is that Col. Washington was not introduced to Mrs. Custis because he already knew her to some extent, at a minimum having made her acquaintance at social functions in or around Williamsburg, but when he came through Poplar Grove early in 1758 she was now a widow - and a wealthy and reputedly attractive one at that.
Richard and Mary had at least three children about whom anything is known, and possibly one or two others as well. The three were Anne Kidley, whose birthdate is unknown but was probably in the early 1760s; William (1764-1836), who became a well-known and somewhat illustrious figure in military, political, and sporting circles; and Edward Pye, born in 1768, of whom we know very little, although there is reason to believe that he may have managed the businesses of Poplar Grove in partnership with William.
Aside from the story of the encounter of George Washington and Martha Custis, little is known of Richard and Mary Chamberlayne. He died July 10, 1778, age 49, a few years shy of the conclusion of the struggle for separation from the British, and she passed away in 1790, age 61, having lived long enough to see George and Martha at the "other" White House.
By the early 1770s, as prospects dimmed for a peaceful solution to the problems of colonial rule, the second generation of Chamberlaynes in Virginia was at maturity and the third generation was coming of age. From the family of William and Elizabeth at Poplar Grove there were at the signing of the Declaration of Independence at least two Chamberlayne households, and quite possibly one or two more, and one of the daughters, Elizabeth Chamberlayne Hudson, was living in Chesterfield County with her husband Christopher and several children.
Richard and Mary Chamberlayne were still at Poplar Grove with their three (and possibly more) children, ranging in age from eight into the teens, and brother Edward's widow Rebecca, along with her daughter Anne Kidley, probably in her teens, may have been living with them as well. Whether the two families were both at Poplar Grove, and if so, in the same or separate houses, remains unknown.
A few miles north, on the Mattaponi River in King William County, the sons of Thomas and Wilhelmina Chamberlayne in 1776 ranged in age from Edward, eighteen, to Byrd, twenty-three. Whether any of the four was yet married or had left Eglington is unknown. While Thomas is believed to have died in or about the year 1771, no evidence pertaining to the date of Wilhelmina's passing has been found. In 1776 she would have been sixty-one, so it is quite feasible that she was still there.
As the third generation of Chamberlaynes prepared to take center stage, we know of at least four sons of Thomas and Wilhelmina, two sons and a daughter of Richard and Mary, one daughter of Edward and Rebecca, and seven children of Christopher and Elizabeth Chamberlayne Hudson. How many of them would be known to us more than two centuries later remains to be seen, the subject of Part Two.
Cover Page
Part 2