I50805: TUDOR Hen (ABT 1230

Notes

Date: Wednesday, February 17, 1999 5:29 PM
Subject: [NCROOTS-L] Transcription of Thomas Avera, Sr.'s 1761 Johnston Co NC Will

The following is a transcription of the entire original Will of Thomas AVERA, Sr., testator of 1761. The Will is housed in the NC Archives (CR 056.801.1, Johnston Co Wills: 1760-1922, Folder: Thomas Avera, 1761).

The original is written on one side of a 12 inches by 15 inches sheet of unruled paper. The writing stretches across the 12-inch length from edge to edge making it difficult to follow. The penmanship is legible, and there are few places where the words can not be read with certainty. However, or ease of reading, punctuation and paragraph breaks were added and spelling was corrected or modernized in this transcription. The transcription is as follows:

In The Name of God, Amen. The 12th day of February 1761 I, Thomas Averea, Senior, late of Johnston County in the province of North Carolina, planter, being weak in body but in perfect mind and memory, thank to God for the Soul. Calling to mind the mortality of my body and that it is appointed for all men once to die.

I do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament and, first of all, I give my Soul into the hands of Almighty God that gave it me nothing doubting at the General Resurrection to receive it again by the mighty power of God and my body to the earth to be buried in a decent Christian manner at the discretion of my Executors, and, as for what worldly Estate it has been pleasing God to bless me with, I dispose of in the following manner and form. Imprimis: I leave and bequeath to my beloved Wife, Judith Averea, her third of half the tract of land I now dwell on with all the improvements during her life and one Negro girl named Judith and one feather bed with a green rug and pair of sheets and two cows and calves and one horse bridle and saddle and fifty pounds current money of the aforesaid province to be levied out of my Estate.

I leave and bequeath to my Son, Alexander Averea, one hundred acres of land where he now dwells, to him and his heirs forever.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Son, Thomas Averea, Junior, one piece of land where he now dwells containing about ninety acres, to him and his heirs forever.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Son, John Averea, one half of the tract of land I now dwell on, the part up the river, to him and his heirs forever.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Sons, William and Moses Averea, one track of land on south side of Neuse River containing two hundred twenty-five acres to be equally divided between them, to them, their heirs and assigns forever.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Son, Isaac Averea, one half of the land I now dwell on, with the plantation, to him and his heirs forever.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Son, Henry Averea, forty pounds current money of the aforesaid province to be levied out of my Estate.

I leave and bequeath my beloved Son, Samuel Averea, forty pounds current money of the aforesaid province to be levied out of my Estate.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Daughter, Elizabeth Jones, thirty pounds current money of the said province to be levied out of my Estate.

I leave and bequeath to my beloved Daughter, Mary Averea, forty pounds current money of the said province to be levied out of my Estate.

I likewise leave forty pounds of the aforesaid money to the child my Wife, Judith Averea, goes with to be levied out of my Estate, but if it should die before it comes to maturity, said money to be divided amongst the rest of my children, and The rest of my Estate to be equally divided amongst the rest of my children, and

I do hereby constitute and appoint my beloved Sons, Alexander and Thomas Averea, to be Executors of this my last Will and Testament.

I do hereby revoke, disannul and disallow all other and former Wills and Testaments. This and no other to be my last Will and Testament. In witness hereof I have signed, sealed and delivered My Hand and Seal
Thomas (X) Avera
His Mark
In the presence of us
Witness:
William Avera
William Jones Senior

[On the back of the Will is written: Thomas Averea Will, at page 58, in Book A, 1761.]

Transcribed by Franklin Ingram, Raleigh, NC

Note that annotations based on other official documents housed in the NC Archives will follow because this Will has proven to be misleading without such annotations.

Note also that there are some differences between this original Will and the widely distributed Abstract by Elizabeth E. Ross published in "Will Abstracts: 1746-1870, Vol. I & II, Revised Edition, 1991."

Note further that there are differences between this original Will and a copy found on pages 755-56 of "Johnston County's Records of Wills, Vol. I for the years 1760-1859." This microfilmed copy of the original Will is housed in the NC Archives (CR 056.8001). This copy also differs from the Abstract by Ross.

The original Will is considered to be authoritative whenever it differs from an Abstract or a copy.

Notes

(EDMUND12, HENRY11, HENRY10, JOHN9, HENRY8,HENRY7, JOHN6, JOHN5 , NICHOLAS4 SCARDBURG, ROBERTE3 DE SCARDEBURG, HENRY2, ?1

Children:
Henry SCARBOROUGH b. 1631 in Accomac,VA
Tabitha SCARBURGH b. 30 May 1639 Somerset,Maryland
Littleton SCARBURGH b. About 1641 Somerset,Maryland
Charles SCARBURGH b. 1643 in Accomack Co.,VA
Matilda SCARBOROUGH b. 1644 in Accomack Co.,VA
Edmund SCARBURGH b. 1645 inVirginia
Henry SCARBOROUGH b. About 1649 Of Accomack Co,Virginia
Edmond SCARBOROUGH SR. b. 1649 in Accomack Co.,VA
Mary SCARBURGH b. About 1651 Somerset,Maryland
Littleton SCARBOROUGH b. 1651 in Accomack Co.,VA
Henry SCARBURGH b. 1656 Somerset,Maryland

m2 Anne TOFT (Wife) (2) Aft. 1645. She was born Abt. 1635, and died Aft. 1671.

Edmund accompanied his parents to Virginia, while his elder brother, Charles, remained in England to complete his education. At his fathers death, he assumed the responsibility of settling his affairs. On 28 November 1635, he patented 200 acres of land on Magothy Bay in Accomac County, Virginia, 'fifty acres for his late father, Captain Edmund Scarborough, fifty acres for the personal venture of his mother, Hannah Scarborough, fifty acres for his own personal venture, and fifty acres for the transportation of one servant called Robert Butler.'

In Accomack County, patents to him personally amounted to 14,750 acres, and patents in the names of his children totaled 12,350 acres. As surveyor-general, he followed the practice of setting aside large acreages in his own name, in various parts of the colony for which no patents were issued, but they came to light later in other patents or deeds, with a total noted of 14,000 acres. In Maryland, he obtained grants for land amounting to 3,000 acres. All of the above patents brought his land-holdings to a total of 46,550 acres.

Beside the above, there were patents to others which undoubtedly were granted at his instigation, so it should be safe to say that he personally was responsible for the issuance of patents for perhaps a total of 75,000 acres, all on this side of the bay.
He was total fearless, a gifted orator, a shrewd lawyer, an accomplished surveyor and engineer, and a highly successful planter and merchant. He served a number of terms in the house of Burgesses( where for a time he was Speaker), was sheriff of Northampton County, played a major role in drawing up the famous 'Northampton Protest, and for may years was Surveyor-General of Virginia, in which capacity he surveyed the boundary between Virginia and Maryland on the Eastern Shore.
Shortly after his arrival in Virginia, and even before he reached the age of majority, he became a Capitan in the Shore militia, and before many years, he became a Colonel, and later was commander-in-chief of all the Shore forces. Unofficially, he is said to have had two other titles, one was 'King' Scarburgh, conferred upon him by the colonists because of his lordship over Accomack County, and the other 'Conjurer, given to him by the Indians, who hated and feared him, because he was a vindicative Indian baiter. He was also an intolerant persecutor of the Quaker settlers in the area, and was a total unscrupulous politician and business man. His influence seems to have been unbounded, and even Governor Berkeley and the General Assembly failed on several occasions in attempts to discipline him for various high-handed transactions. Nor was Governor Bennett, whose daughter married his son, able to gain control over him or punish him for his rebellious and seditious conduct against the Cromwellian Government.

He was granted an absolute monopoly for the manufacture of salt in Virginia, and erected an extensive plant for the purpose on Smith Island. Besides being a manufacturer of Salt, he erected a large malt house on his estate at Occahannock, and also operated a shoe factory, using moose hides extensively, which were brought by his own vessels from the Kennebec river. In 1662 he employed nine shoemakers. Other artisans reported employed by him in June, 1662, were three woodcutters, two coopers, one carpenter, and two tailors. Undoubtedly he also was interested in other industries, but the ones mentioned appeared frequently in the records in connection with his name.

For many years maritime shipping was his major enterprise and he was either a part-owner or sole owner of many vessels, the names of some of which will appear later. When he leased OCCOHANNOCK plantation to William Bunton in 1653, he also sold him the barks Deliverance and Mayflower, the galliot King David, and a small shallop. Some have thought that this Mayflower may have been the vessel which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, but research has failed to confirm this.
He was the first to import Negro Slaves of any number into Virginia. In 1659 he imported thirty Negroes, which he bought from the Dutch in Manhattan, for the use of his daughters, Matilda and Tabitha.

The Colonel was constantly involved in quarrels with his neighbors and business associates. In 1651, he led an unauthorized punitive expedition against the Indians, and a futile effort was made by the Assembly to punish him for this. He was a personal friend of Gov. Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherlands, and owned a large number of trading vessels, as many as nine at one time, which plied between New England, New Amsterdam, the West Indies, and Accomack. On one occasion he waged war on his private account against the Dutch on the Delaware River. He owned many thousand acres of land in Accomack and Maryland, and was the largest individual landholder in the Colony at one time.

In 1651, his vessel the Sea Horse, trading in Delaware Bay, was seized by the Dutch authorities; this aroused the ire of the colonel to such an extent that the next year he attempted a reprisal which got him into trouble. Hearing that a Dutch ship was in Chesapeake Bay, the colonel borrowed the commission of Captain Peter Wraxall of the English ship Speedwell and sent his own ship Hobby Horse under Captain Mark Maggee to seize the Dutch vessel. This was done, but it was found to be owned in New England, although a German John Jacob was its master. This stirred up quite a hornet's nest and early the next year Colonel Obedience Robins made a formal protest against the seizure and after the local court was unable to reach a solution the matter was passed on up to the governor. In 1652 he assailed and captured a Boston merchant vessel in the Potomac River, which he claimed was a Dutch privateer because it was commanded by a German mariner.

Again, he was accused by the General Assembly of selling arms to the Indians, and the Governor was sent to the peninsula to prosecute him for this and his part in the Royalist revolt of 1652. He escaped punishment, however, by fleeing the jurisdiction of Virginia, remaining with Governor Stuyvesant in New Amsterdam, and in Boston, until home influences made it safe for him to return. While in New Amsterdam he succeeded in negotiating a secret treaty between the New Netherlanders and the Accomackians, under which the tobacco trade was resumed between them in spite of the hostile relations existing between Holland and England. On March 26, 1655, the General Assembly of Virginia, before which Scarburgh finally appeared on a warrant, acquitted him of "all charges and crimes made against him for matters of trade, etc., and further reinvested him in such offices and employment as he before held in the Colony."

Incredibly enough, within a few months he gained back everything he had lost and more. From this time to the restoration(1660) he was on the best terms with Governor Bennett and the Parliamentary authorities - indeed his eldest son Charles, later married Governor Bennett's daughter, Elizabeth. With the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, Scarborough's influence and power increased still more, and he constantly flouted the laws, refusing to pay his debts, and blithely disregarded the decisions of the courts and mandates of Governor William Berkely. The influence of his brother Sir Charles Scarborough at the English Court seems largely to account for his immunity. Edmund Scarborough was colonel and commander-in-chief of the Eastern Shore (of Virginia); surveyor-general; burgess. He married Mary Littleton, daughter of Nathaniel Littleton, of "Nandua," chief magistrate of Accomack County (1640) and burgess (1652).

In 1659 Edmund again led a raid against the Indians, this time the Assateagues, but it was with the full approval of the authorities. Both the governor and SCARBURGH had written to the governor of Maryland soliciting cooperation, but it was not forthcoming. In SCARBURGH's letter dated August 28th, he said: "In ten days I shall leave here with three hundred men and sixty horses, sloops, and all the other things necessary for the campaign, and arrangements have been made for a similar supporting party." Although no record of it is available, the campaign apparently was a success, and in 1661 the Assembly voted 70,500 pounds of tobacco, "the same allowance of the soldiers that were carried over to Accomack, be also paid to the inhabitants of Accomack for the full charge of all the late warr." Apparently it had seemed serious enough to send troops from the Western Shore as well.

The county of Accomack was formed early in these year of 1663; how this came about is not in the records, but undoubtedly it was engineered by the colonel. It is local tradition that he had Occohannock Creek made the division line between the counties so that his home would be in the new county and out of the jurisdiction of his arch foe Colonel Obedience Robins, but the records reveal that the original division line was far below that creek. While SCARBURGH may have previously wanted to get away from any interference by Robins, the latter had died the year before, so it seems more likely that what he now wanted was to create a little empire under his sole control and away from all Northampton court influence. It was in this year also that SCARBURGH led the famous raid into the Annamessex-Manokin area of Maryland in his vain effort to hold that section within the Virginia bounds. This incursion was unauthorized and brought him more trouble.

He did not claim to be a lawyer but he must have been well-grounded in the profession, as he often appeared as attorney for others, and his outstanding brief in the Gething case reveals an understanding of law.

At no time in the records was he ever mentioned as a "Chirurgeon," but he was officially recognized as a physician, for in 1660 MR. LITTLETON was ordered by the court to pay him 1500 pounds of tobacco for "the cure of a Negro named Congo," and two years later a court order directed that he "be paid out of the estate of Mr. Henry Voss for attendance and administration of Medicine as phisicion fifty pounds Sterling," a very considerable sum in those days.

In view of such evidence of his having received formal education, it seems probable that he was left in England for that purpose, when his father first came over. His technical knowledge must have been obtained before 1635, as his life after that was far too busy to allow for much study.

In 1661 he was appointed a commissioner by Philip Calvert, of Maryland, to assist in surveying the true boundary line between Maryland and Virginia. In the execution of this important mission, he not only got the better of the Maryland commissioners, greatly extending the territory of Accomack to the north, in order to embrace his Maryland holdings, but took occasion to drive the Quakers resident in Accomack out of the county. Upon these unfortunate people he visited the most relentless persecutions, and was finally enjoined by Cromwell from further molesting them.

Becoming involved in difficulties with the Court of Northampton, which sought to restrain him and punish him for his persecutions of the Indians, the Dutch inhabitants of the county, the Quakers, and the Puritans, whom he detested as heretics, he actually secured as Surveyor-General the division of the County of Northampton in 1663, against the most violent protests, and ran the southern boundary of the new county along Occahannock Creek on the north shore of which his home estate was located. This gave Accomack County, or the northern county, double the area of Northampton County.

Edmund Scarborugh was an ardent and intolerant Anglican and a vestryman of his church. He was not only the occupant of high public offices, a soldier, the largest merchant and ship owner in Virginia, a manufacturer of salt, malt, and shoes, but he was a lawyer second to no other practitioner on the Eastern Shore. In 1659 he was employed by the vestry to represent the church in a controversy growing out of a will devising certain lands to the parish. The written opinion was characterized as a masterly exposition of the law of wills. He died between March 22 and May 25, 1671, of smallpox, when fifty-four years of age, at his home on Occahannock Creek, which was known as "Hedric Cottage." This estate consisted of 3,000 acres. The remains of "Hedric Cottage" still stand (1916) on the north side of the creek. The neck of land included between Occahannock Creek and Cradock's Creek, to the north, is called SCARBURG's Neck, OR "CONJURER's Neck," to this day. "Hedric Cottage" is almost opposite the present Concord Wharf.

Some time during the summer of 1670 the colonel must have committed the act which over-tried the patience of the Colonial government, and which brought about his final downfall, from which not even his brother Charles could save him, although the influence of the latter may have prevented a more drastic punishment. It is a local tradition that the colonel had called together many of the leading Indians with the promise that the Great Spirit would speak to them, and upon their arrival at the appointed place they were seated in a ditch. At one end was a concealed cannon which "spoke" at the appropriate time, and today, correctly or not, it is referred to as the "ditch murder."

My Southern Family

TUDOR Hen

ABT 1230 - 1311

ID Number: I50805

Sources

Eleanor Waters ASQUITH

____ - ____

ID Number: I79271

Sources

(RESEARCH QUERY) AVERA of NC & MS

____ - ____

ID Number: I25601

Notes

Sources

Gloria BROOM

William Emmett FREEMAN

20 Aug 1868 - AFT 1950

ID Number: I4815

Notes

Sources

Thomas of "Kennedy's Island" HODGES "the Immigrant"

ABT 1620 - ____

ID Number: I27971

Notes

Sources

Henry Fuller HORN

28 Aug 1876 - 19 Jan 1968

ID Number: I63409

Sources

Mary Ella JONES

ABT 1840 - ____

ID Number: I65779

Sources

Martha S. MCALEXANDER

ABT 1830 - ____

ID Number: I75950

Sources

Thomas Gilchrist POLK

22 Feb 1791 - 18 Mar 1869

ID Number: I88554

Notes

Sources

Col. Edmund SCARBOROUGH of "Seaside"

2 Oct 1617 - May 1671

ID Number: I42121

Notes

Sources

Hugh STAPLETON

ABT 1880 - ____

ID Number: I10063

Sources

Catherine WHITE

1775 - ABT Aug 1809

ID Number: I38205

Sources

Ann WILLIAMS

____ - ____

ID Number: I90100

Sources

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