The following is the only history of my family which I am in possession of and which I this day collected from my father Gen. John Nevill Feb 8, 1803. In the early settlement of Virginia it was common to kidnap or steal young people in England, Ireland and Scotland but particularly in the former and bring them to the Colonies with a view to profit by either selling them or using them as clerks or overseers as their abilities seemed to promise the most advantage. My great grandfather was brought to Virginia in this way about the year 1679. Altho a small boy, he had a good education as such and remembered well coming from Warwickshire- by exposing the circumstances of his being forced from England he made friends on arriving in Virginia and escaped a servile situation. How he spent his life for sometime is unknown but he finally had a good estate in Gloucester County which was afterwards sold to a Col. Carey and is in his family at present. He was married to a woman by the name of Weeks who was my great grand mother. ...
