Colonel Augustine Moore (circa 1680-1743) - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 13, "Different"

Week 13's theme for NoStoryTooSmall.com's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, hosted by +Amy Johnson Crow, is "Different."  In following that theme, I have chosen my paternal 7th great-grandfather, Colonel Augustine Moore (circa 1680-1794), as the subject for this week's post.  From what I have learned about him, I value human beings and their lives in a way that must have been quite foreign to him.  Even when I try to think of his life and choices within the context of his time period, I find it difficult to fathom the beliefs he must have held in order to participate willingly in his chosen trade. 

Elizabeth Lee Henderson (Wood) is my paternal grandmother,
so my father (living) and I would follow after her in the above pedigree.

Portrait of Colonel Augustine Moore.

Born around 1680-1685 in either Virginia or England, Augustine Moore's parents are unknown.  (He is not descended from Sir Thomas More as some genealogists may mistakenly believe.)

Circa 1705, Augustine married his first wife, Mary Gage, who then died in 1713.  Later that same year, he married my paternal 7th great grandmother, Elizabeth Todd Seaton (Henry Seaton's widow), in Virginia.  Just a few years after marrying Elizabeth, Colonel Moore's career began to skyrocket.  He became a highly prominent tobacco planter/entrepreneur and slave trader.

Excerpt from p. 272 of Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit/ Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763 by Lorena Seebach Walsh.

In 1709, during Queen Anne of Great Britain's reign, Moore built Chelsea Plantation located in West Point, Virginia, on the banks of the Mattaponi River.  It portrays an outstanding example of 18th-century Georgian architecture and is still open today for tours.

Front view of Chelsea Plantation.
(Image courtesy of West Point Guide.)

External and Internal Views of Chelsea Plantation.
(Image courtesy of Virginia.org.)

Pages 6-7 of Afro-Virginia History and Culture by John Saillant discuss "Financing Purchases of Slaves."  The book states, "By the early 1720s, Bristol [England] merchants had learned to consign shipments of slaves to colonial agents, such as Augustine Moore at West Point [who]...advertised sales, set initial prices, conducted the sales (including extending credit to local planters), and supervised the loading of commodities like tobacco and iron for the return voyage."  Colonial agents were often the most powerful men in the colony...and [they] used their metropolitan connections to corner the retail side of the slave trade, usually for a 5 to 10 percent commission."

Except from pp. 6-7 of Afro-Virginia History and Culture by John Salliant.

The book goes on to note, on pages 15-16, that Augustine Moore became a "...major [figure] in the early slave trade...in the 1720s and 1730s" in Virginia and most frequently dealt with "...slave shipments [that] had...the lowest proportion of men, the highest proportion of women, and the lowest sex ration in the whole transatlantic trade.  The proportion of children imported to the colony was also relatively high."

Excerpt from p. 15 of Afro-Virginia Culture and History by John Salient.

Excerpt from p. 16 of Afro-Virginia Culture and History by John Salient.

Page 12 of that same book relays that Robert "King" Cater (a.k.a., Robert Carter I), Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1726-1727 and another of my paternal 7th great grandfathers, "...often bought newly imported slaves wholesale for his own plantations, as in the 41 slaves he purchase from Augustine Moore in May 1724."

Except from p. 12 of Afro-Virginia Culture and History by John Salient.

Chart showing how I descend from Robert "King" Carter.
Charles Carter (shown in this chart) married Bernard Moore's daughter,
Anne Butler Moore (reference pedigree chart at being of this post).
Charles Carter and Anne Butler Moore Carter are my 5th great-grandparents.

Once again, on page 106 of Slavery in the Development of the Americas, edited by David Eltis, Frank D. Lewis, Kenneth L. Sokoloff, Augustine Moore shows up involved in the slave trade and advising Bristol merchant Isaac "...Hobhouse that slaves were sometimes taken from the York to the Rappahannock only 'after ye best [were] Sold, not for ye goodness of their bills but to gett rid of gel slaves in time.'"

Except from pages 105-106 of Slavery in the Development of the Americas.

On 20 January 1742, Augustine Moore recorded and signed his last will and testament.  The word "slaves" shows up 19 times in that relatively short document "...written on two sides of one sheet & on one side of another sheet of Paper."  Virginia Biographical Sketches indicates that just over 18 months after writing his will, on 28 July 1743 at the age of about 60, Augustine Moore drew his last breath on this Earth.  His will was then proved in King William County, Virginia, on 18 August 1743.  Colonel Moore is buried in his family cemetery on the grounds of Chelsea Plantation.

The Moore Family Cemetery on the grounds of Chelsea Plantation
in West Point, King William, Virginia.
(From FindAGrave Memorial #57127768.
Photo by George Seitz, FindAGrave Member #40539541.)

About three centuries separate me from my 7th great-grandfather.  Not only are we from vastly different eras, but we also seem to have mindsets that are worlds apart from one another.  Colonel Moore's actions clearly indicate that he did not consider humans to be created equally.  Rather, large gulfs between different social layers were the norm of his time, and some humans were seen as much less than human, as - in fact - property.  I, of course, knew such views and situations were common in America's colonial era.  What I did not know, and what has greatly saddened me, is that two of my direct ancestors were at the highest levels of the abhorrent practice of slave trading.  I am very thankful that time, experiences, education, compassion, and more have given me the opportunity to see and appreciate humanity in completely different ways than did my colonial 7th great-grandfather, Colonel Augustine Moore.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

Amy Rainey Williams (1725-1794) - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 12, "Same"

The theme for this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is "Same."  In following that theme, I have chosen to write about an ancestor with whom I share the same first name but about whom I have been able to learn fairly little else so far.

Amy Rainey Williams*, my paternal 9th great-grandmother, was born about 1725 in Virginia to William Williams and an unknown mother.

How I descend from Amy Rainey Williams.  My father (living) and
I would be listed below Elizabeth Lee Henderson in this pedigree.

Marriage record for Amy (Williams) Jackson and Ralph Jackson in
U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900.  This shows Amy's Virginia birth.
(Source Citation – Source number: 1275.077; Source type:
Family group sheet, FGSE,  listed as parents; Number of Pages: 1.
Source Information – Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.)

In 1757, Amy married Ralph Alexander Jackson (born circa 1720 in Virginia; died after 20 Sep 1783 in South Carolina), son of Thomas and Ann (Mills) Jackson.

Record showing Ralph and Amy's marriage year.  (Source:  Edmund West, comp.. 

Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. 

Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.)

On 26 March 1751, Thomas Jackson [Ralph's father] conveyed to Ralph Jackson, both of Brunswick County, for £55, 250 acres, part of 325 acres granted by patent to Thomas Jackson, Sr., on 22 February 1724, by Chinkapin Bottom, to the road from Allen's Mill to Meherrin River to Theophilus Fields, to John Ogburn. Witnesses were Sampson Lanier, Mark Howell, and John (X) Jackson, son of Ambrose. (Brunswick County Virginia Deed Book 5, p. 18)  In 1767, Ralph Jackson and Amy, his wife of South Carolina, sold those 250 acres of land called Chinkapin Bottom to Daniel and Mary Jackson of North Carolina.

According to Union County heritage, 1981, Ralph and Amy came to South Carolina from Brunswick County, Virginia, about 1767.  In South Carolina, Ralph obtained a land grant on the Tyger River.  That same book also states that Ralph and Amy had four sons:  Ralph, Jr., Nathaniel, Frederick, and William.

At Amy Rainey Williams Jackson's death in South Carolina about 1794, William and Frederick Jackson signed the administrator's bond and Ralph, Jr., her son, was administrator of her estate.

*There is debate about whether Amy's maiden surname was Rainey or Williams.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

Sympathy Saturday - Margaret Ida Spain Briggs Henderson (1863-1938)

The two articles below are about the death of and funeral rites for my paternal great-great grandmother, Margaret Ida Spain Briggs Henderson.

Ida, the youngest of eight children, was born to Dr. William Thomas Whitaker Briggs and Margaret Susan Spain Briggs at Cypress Plantation in Clarendon County, South Carolina, on 14 March 1863.  In 1886, she married Dr. James Rutledge Henderson in South Carolina, and they had six children together (three boys and three girls).  In addition to being a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and mother, Mrs. Henderson was a successful, published journalist and writer, as well as an active member in the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Ida passed away on 21 March 1938 in Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, at the age of 75.

Charlotte (NC) Observer article from the Daughters of the American Revolution Genealogical Research Database
about the death of and funeral for Margaret Ida Spain Briggs Henderson.

22 March 1938 article from the Greensboro (NC) Record about
the death of and funeral for Margaret Ida Spain Briggs Henderson.
(From GenealogyBank.com)

This post is based on +Genea Bloggers Sympathy Saturday prompt.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

Friday's Faces from the Past - Robert "Bob" Charles Kelly (1926-1971)

My husband's paternal grandfather, Robert "Bob" Charles Kelly,
with his bowling league in Marshfield, Wood, Wisconsin.  Circa 1950s-1960s.

This post is based on +Genea Bloggers Friday's Faces from the Past prompt.

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

(Corrected) Wordless Wednesday - Charles and Anna Marie (Kuehnhold) Boehning in Wisconsin

My husband's maternal great-grandparents, Charles (1876-1951) and Anna (Kuehnhold) (1885-1957) Boehning,
on their family farm in Wisconsin. Charles immigrated from Germany on 02 Oct 1877.
Anna was born in Wisconsin.
(Photo given to me by my husband's maternal grandmother.)

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

(Old) Wordless Wednesday - Charles and Anna Marie (Kuehnhold) Boehning

Please go to this link to see the corrected version of this post.

My husband's maternal great-grandparents, Charles and Anna (Kuehnhold) Boehning,
on their family farm in Wisconsin.
(Photo given to me by my husband's maternal grandmother.)

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.

Frances Elizabeth (Alcock) Hutchins - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 10, "Stormy Weather"

This week's theme for +Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge is "Stormy Weather."  My paternal 9th great-grandmother weathered several stormy events in her life and seems to be a perfect subject for the "Stormy Weather" prompt.

In 1612 in England, George Alcock and his wife, Anne (Hooker) Alcock, welcomed a new member to their Puritan family - a daughter named Francis (a.k.a., Frances) Elizabeth Alcock - who would face an adventure- and hardship-filled life.

A Young 17th-Century Puritan Girl
(Image courtesy of Early Childhood Images.)

This shows how I descend from Francis Elizabeth Alcock Hutchins.
My father (living) and I would be listed below Elizabeth Lee Henderson.

Francis' First Storm - England to America

According to the Bevis ship's passengers list, Frances Alcocke [sic], a servant aged 26, left Southampton, England, in May 1638 destined for America.  (Source: Anne Stevens of packrat-pro.com.)  The U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s shows Francis Alcock, born about 1612, arriving in Massachusetts in 1638.

Though I have not read any records of weather or other particular hardships the Bevis passengers endured, a journey from England to America by ship in 1638 certainly must have been perilous, at best.  Moreover, those sailing on the Bevis in 1638 were mostly Puritans leaving England to find religious freedom.  At that time, England was moving toward strict Catholicism, and the Puritans hoped to escape such an oppressive religious climate.1  David B. Gracy II noted that some of the King of England's associates noticed that the Bevis was almost entirely composed of Puritans and then tried to stop the ship from sailing but failed in that attempt.2

John Hutchins, a carpenter and servant aged 30, also traveled to the New World in 1638 aboard the Bevis.  U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 shows that John Hutchins and Frances married circa 1637 in Newbury/Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Page 406 of New England Marriages Prior to 1700.

Since the Bevis' passengers list shows both of them departing Southampton, England, in May 1638, the "circa 1637" marriage date and its location in New England must be considered broadly.  Other records indicate that John Hutchins and Francis Alcock married circa 1645 in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts. (Sources: Family Data Collection - Individual Records and Family Data Collections - Marriages.)  However, given that birth records - such as the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (see below) - show that their son and my 8th great-grandfather, Joseph Hutchins, was born in Massachusetts circa 1640 and was their fourth child, it seems very likely that they married a few years prior to 1640.

Joseph Hutchins' 15 Nov 1640 birth as recorded in
Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.

Map showing the English origins of the Massachusetts Puritans.
(Image courtesy of Vox.com.)

Francis' Second Storm - "Finery"

In 1653, Francis faced another storm of sorts when she landed in court in Massachusetts.  About 1650, the General Court passed a law prohibiting the display of finery by persons "of meane condition," defined as persons whose property was valued under £200.  On 17 September 1653, Francis and her friend, Mrs. Joseph Swett, were arrested for wearing silk hoods, which constituted a "display of finery."  Mrs. Hutchins was acquitted because she had been brought up above the ordinary rank.  Mrs. Swett, however, was not as lucky and paid a ten shillings fine after being found guilty.3

Francis' Big Storm - Witchcraft

On 19 August 1692, at the age of about 80 years old, Francis was swept up into her life's biggest storm.  On that date, she was arrested and charged with witchcraft during the famous witchcraft hysteria that swept through Salem, Essex, Massachusetts and its surrounding villages.

The location of Salem (dark red) in Essex County (light red), Massachusetts.
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org.)

Since her husband had died on 06 February 1685 (Source: Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988), she had been a widow for about seven and a half years at the time of her arrest.  The warrant for her arrest read as follows:

Essex/ To the Constable of Haverhill

Complaint being made to me this day, by Timothy Swan of Andover: & Mary Wallcott & Anna Putnam of Salem Village, Against Mrs: frances Hutchins & Ruth Willford , of Haverhill that the s'd frances Hutchins & Ruth Willford , hath sorely afflicted them, the s'd Timothy Swan Mary Walcott & Anna Putnam in their bodies, by witchcraft Severall times Contrary to the Peace of o'r: Sovereigne Lord & Lady King William & Queen Mary, of England &c: & to their Majests Law in that Case provided: & s'd Timothy Swan having according to Law, given sufficient bond, to Prosecute s'd Complaint, before Their Majests: justices of Peace att Salem the 19th: or 20th Instant. These therefore require you in their Majests. names to Apprehend & sease the bodies of the afores'd frances Hutchins & Ruth Willford , upon sight hereof, & them safely Convey to [to] Salem afores'd, to their Majests: justices of the Peace there, to be examined & proceeded with according to law: for which this shall be yo'r warrant: Given under my hand & seal this eighteenth day of August Anno Domini 1692: In the 4th year of their Majests. Reigne. &c

* Dudley Bradstreet

Justice of Peace

(Reverse) according to this warrant I have seesed and brought don mrs frances huchins: but sought with Diligenc for Ruth Wilford and she cannot be found

August 19: 1692

by Me Wilum Strlin Constbl for haverihill

haverhill August the 20 1692

I seased the body of Ruth Wilf [] of haverhill to answer the Complaint within mensioned

[Pbar ] me William Strlin of haverhill Constable.

Warrant for Arrest of Frances Hutchins and Ruth Wilford. 

Back of the Warrant for Arrest of Frances Hutchins and Ruth Wilford.

Francis was imprisoned and remained in jail until 21 December 1692 when she was released on bond.  The bond for the widow Hutchins read as follows:

Memorandum --

That on the Twenty one Day of Decemb'r: Anno'qe D[mbar ] : one Thousand Six hundred Ninty & two in the: fourth year of the Reigne of our Sovereigne Lord & Lady William & Mary by the Grace of God of England &c. King & Queen Defenders of the faith &c: Personally came and Appeared before me George Corwin High Shirriffe for the County of Essex of the Province of the Massathutets Bay in New England -- Samuel Hutchens of Haverell and Jospeh Kingsbury of Haverell afores'd Husbandman and Acknowledged themselves Indebted Unto our Sovereigne Lord & Lady the King & Queen or the Survivors of them their Heires & Successors: in the Summe of two hundred pounds to beleaved one their Goods & Chattles Lands & Tenements for the Use of our Sovereigne Lord & Lady the King & Queen or the Successors of them if Default be made in the Performance of the Condition Underwritten

Videllisitt --

The condition of the above written Recognizance is Such That Whereas francess Hutchens Widdow of Haverell afores'd is Suspected of and Accused of Committing Divers Acts of Witchcrafts If therefore the Said frances Hutchens afores'd: Shall & do make her Personall Appearance before the Justices of our Sovereigne Lord & Lady the King & Queen at the Next Court of Assize of Oyer & Terminer Next Generall Goal Delivery to be held for & within the County of Essex afores'd; to answar what shall be objected ag't: her on their Maj'tes: behalfe Refering to the Witchcrafts & to do & Receive that by w'ch said Court shall be then and there Injoyned & not Darpart without Licence Then the said Recognizance to be Void: or Else to abide in full force & Vertue In Wittness wherof the: above Named Persons #[have] Sam'll: Hutchings & Joseph Kingsberry have hereunto sett our hands & seales this Twenty first Day of December in the Year of our Lord one Thousand six hundred Ninty & two, and in the fourth year of their Maj'ties Reigne

Wittnessed:

*Thomas Beadle

*Joshua Conant

*Jno Gyles 1692

*Samuel huchins

*Joseph Kingsberry

The original Salem Jail, built in 1684, was replaced by this building, built on the same site, in 1763.
The jail remained in use until 1813 and then was remodeled into a private home.  It no longer exists today.
(Photo and information courtesy of Legends of America.)

There is no record of Francis being brought to trial, so it is assumed she was never tried as a witch.  Nonetheless, the stigma of association with and arrest for witchcraft surely followed and weighed on her given the strictly conservative community in which she lived.  After being bonded out of jail, she lived about one and a half years longer, dying on 05 April 1694 in Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts.

Frances death as recorded in the Haverhill Deaths section of
Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.

1 Gracy, David B., Moses Austin: his life (Trinity University Press, 1987), pp. 5-6.
2 "Crossing the Atlantic in 1638: Passengers aboard the Ship Bevis," The Second Boat, 1 (May 1980), 13.

3 Legends of America - Witches of Massachusetts

©Amy Wood Kelly, 2015 - I am happy to share my genealogical research and writing with others, as well as to help others with their research efforts.  However, please do not reprint this post in full or in part or use excerpts from this post without giving full credit to me, Amy Wood Kelly, as the researcher and author as well as providing the permalink to this post.  Thank you, in advance, for showing respect for my request and the work I put into creating this post.