Items in [Brackets] are my notes.
Items in {Curly Brackets} are items that either could not be read or I was not sure about the transcription.
[Page 334]
Virginia of any individual who was indubitably named Southwell. It is
true there was an obscure immigrant known as Henry Southall (Southwell,
Southell, Sothell, etc.) who patented 700 acres of land on the
"Chesopeian shore within the Territories of Lynhaven," November 1636
(Va.M.H.&B., VI. 91 and VI1, 192; Cavaliers & Pioneers, I, 51, 61),
but he died within less than a year afterwards and left no descendants.
It would be difficult if not impossible, to establish even a remote connection
between him and the Southalls who begin to be found in Virginia
almost a century afterwards.
Off and on for about ten years from 1679 a certain notorious Seth
Sothel (or Southwell) was governor of the Albemarle colony in North
Carolina, "one of the dirtiest knaves," says John Fiske, "that ever held
office in America." Expelled from his post in 1688, apparently he finally
took refuge in Virginia and died there some years afterwards.* Possibly
he may have been connected in some way with Edward Southwell
above mentioned, but there is no reason to suppose that there is any
link whatever between him and the Southalls who afterwards came to
Virginia.
2. The first Southalls in Virginia.-- No other traces of Southalls
in
Virginia can be found before the end of the first quarter of the 18th
century. However, in 1725 two young men, Edward Southall and John
James, obtained patents for contiguous tracts of land in the western part
of Spotsylvania county, that is, in the section now called Orange county.
Their neighbors in this community were the Taliaferros, Lightfoots,
Graysons, etc. (Tyler's Quart., XIII, 23-44). Moreover, two years
afterwards (1727) Edward Southall of St. George Parish received a
grant of 500 acres of land in Spotsylvania county. Incidentally, his name
is spelt Southwell in the executive journals of the Council of Colonial
Virginia, Vol. IV. John James died almost immediately (1725) after
taking out his patent, and Edward Southall died two or three years later
(1728), apparently quite suddenly without leaving a will. He was unmarried
and had no known kinsfolk in the colony (Va. County Records,
1, 55, 56; Tyler's Quart., XIII, 42).
About the time when Edward Southall died or at any rate not more
than eight or ten years later, at least two other adult individuals named
Southall were settled in Charles City county, doubtless brothers or
cousins of each other, and perhaps also related to Edward Southall of
Spotsylvania county. One of them was Dasey Southall who was appointed
tobacco inspector at Soan's Warehouse in 1733 (Conc. of Colon.
Va., IV, 308), and the other was John Southall, deputy sheriff of Charles
City county in 1737 (Valentine Papers, 124, 131). As far as can be ascertained,
all the Southalls of Virginia must be descended from these
[Footnote:]
*As may be inferred from a casual reference to Seth Sothel in the
Calendar of Transcripts of Virginia State Library, p. 242.
Source: Transcribed from images of photocopies, 13 Mar 2002, Susan Shields Sasek. I received this copy from June Southall many years ago, but didn't have the reference. Carol Southall Atkinson has provided me with a reference for this work, but it has different page numbers than were on my copies: Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XLVI, No. 2 (April, 1938), pages 166 through 170. Since my copies of "Concerning the Southalls of Virginia," and "Addendum Concerning the Southalls of Virginia" have consecutive page numbers, I'm assuming my copies are from a reprint of the 1937 and 1938 articles that Carol gave the references to. Thanks to Kathi (my daughter) for scanning these images for me.
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