Person:Elizabeth Duke (17)

DISAMBIGUATION STATEMENT:

An individual named Elizabeth Duke is said to have married James Nuckolls of Saint Peter's Parish, New Kent County, VA, and had children born 1720 and later. Nothing has been proved about this Elizabeth's origins although she has been attached to various parents on a speculative basis. The birth place of this Elizabeth Duke is sometimes given as St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, VA, in 1695, but there is no Elizabeth Duke in the register of that parish in that or any other year, and thus this is not correct.

It is possible that this supposed marriage is a misreading of a secondary source on the Nuckolls family, "The Nuckolls Report."[4] That document states that: "V (1) James Nuckolls II, b. 1695, d. 1751. (2) Isabel Nuckolls, b. 1697. (3) Samuel Nuckolls, b. 1702, d. 1756. (4) William Nuckolls, b. c. 1710, d. 1796, m. Elizabeth Duke. See Chapter II.

When one reads on to Chapter II, it is clear that this document stated it was William Nuckolls, not his brother James, who married Elizabeth Duke, who actually was a daughter of Hardin Burnley Duke and Elizabeth Swift. There is "no record as to" the wife of James Nuckolls who was baptized 30 Jun 1695. In short, this Elizabeth Duke was most likely the product of a misreading of a secondary source.

A notice published the 17 November 1812 in the Richmond Enquirer may be the source for Elizabeth Duke being named as James Nuckols II’s wife which also lists her children: Ann (Duke) Mallory, Lucy Duke, Marston Duke, John Duke & James Duke. Note the notice does not prove how Elizabeth Duke is related to James Nuckols II.

But this 1837 Goochland Co., VA Chancery court case proves that the Duke children named in the 1812 notice were the children of John Duke 1743-1798 and his 1st wife. It names Mastin Duke, Harry Duke, James Duke, John Duke, Lucinda Duke, Nancy Duke who intermarried with a Mr. Mallory.

Some might argue Elizabeth Duke married James Nuckols II first and after his death she married John Duke 1743-1798, but this is disproved by the fact that the Duke children referenced in the two suits were born between 1760 and 1770. Six children in 10 years is indicative of a woman in her 20's / early 30's, not by a woman age 60 to 70 if she was the mother of James Nuckoll's III born abt. 1720.