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Facts and Events
References
- James Stevens
Born 1695 - Died 1744
James Stevens was born about 1695 in Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia and died before April 13, 1744 in St. Mary's Parish, Caroline County, Virginia. In late 1717 or early 1718, James married Elizabeth Thomas, the daughter of John Thomas and Katherine Harrison. The Thomas family were neighbors with 1,650 acres on Ware Creek. Elizabeth was born about 1698 and was a cousin of James's Griffin relatives. On March 14, 1718, shortly after his wedding, James's father, Edward Stevens, deeded to him 118 acres on condition of James "yielding and paying thereof the rent of one ear of Indian corn at ye feast of St. Michael's ye Arch Angel only if the same be lawfully demanded."
I think we can assume that these were prosperous times, for James was able to reassemble and add to his grandfather's six hundred acres. For a time, a James Stevens was the overseer of the road from Ware Creek to Snow Creek. There's a court entry dated March 14, 1735 fining James fifteen shillings for not keeping the road in repair. James petitioned the court to assign the job to someone else which the court did on May 9, 1735. This may have been some other James Stevens, but we know ours lived there, so we're assuming it was our James Stevens.
James died in late March or early April of 1744 at the age of forty-nine leaving three minor children. Evidently, James's wife Elizabeth passed away also, for each minor child had a court-approved guardian. James's estate was tied up in probate until 1756 when his youngest son, our next ancestor, reached the age of twenty-one.
The children of James Stevens and Elizabeth Thomas were:
• Elizabeth Stevens was born about 1718, in Caroline County, Virginia and died in 1814 in Orange County, Virginia. She married Thomas Merry who was born in 1714 and died in 1756 in Orange County, Virginia. The Merry family immigrated to Virginia from England in the early 1700's. This is the first of many alliances between the Stevens and Merry families. Thomas Merry was the guardian for Elizabeth's younger brother, James Sr (our next direct ancestor). In the 1780's Elizabeth and Thomas's descendant, Prettyman Merry, built a fabulous fieldstone mansion called The Landmark on his two thousand acre tobacco plantation overlooking the Ohio River in Covington, Kentucky.
• Mary Stevens was born about 1725 and died in 1771. Her guardian was Owin Thomas, a first cousin. About 1745 she married Robert Thomas, probably another cousin.
• Anne Stevens was born about 1728. Her guardian was also Owin Thomas, her older first cousin. Ann married first Parmenas Bowker on November 29, 1744 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He died in 1748. Shortly after his death, Ann married William Smith, who was born in 1719, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia and died there in 1792.
• John Stevens was born in 1734 and died August 1826 in Orange County, Virginia. Owin Thomas was his guardian, as well. John married Sarah Montague on October 28, 1756 in Orange County, Virginia. The Montague family can be traced to the early 1600's in Buckinghamshire, England. Sarah was born on January 29, 1739 at Pine Top in Orange County, Virginia. John and Sarah's farm there was named Thornhill. Sarah's father, Peter Montague, died in 1745 after a slave named Eve put poison in his glass of milk. Eve was tried for murder in Orange County on January 23, 1746, found guilty, and sentenced to public execution by burning. The executioner was paid 50 pounds of tobacco for "finding a sledge (a sled) to transport her to the place of execution" and 175 pounds of tobacco for executing her.
• James Stevens, Sr was born about 1735 in St Mary's Parish, Caroline County, Virginia and died in 1813 in Nelson County, Virginia.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stanjoy/Stevens/WPStevens.html
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