Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747-1805): Wythe County, Virginia Years, 1793-1805

Will of Thomas Brooks, 4 November 1804, Wythe County, Virginia, Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 308-9

Or, Subtitled: Fertile New Land, Lead Mines, Shot Towers and Forges, and Movement from the Middle Colonies into the Valley of Virginia

With my first posting about Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747-1805), I shared my information about Thomas’s life in Frederick County, Virginia, up to 1792, when he moved his family to Wythe County, Virginia. My account begins with a March 1767 deed of Patrick Rice to his son John, which Thomas witnessed, the first certain record I have of him in Frederick County. Since, as my posting indicates, I have not found information about Thomas’s father, I haven’t been able to track this family line sufficiently to say with any certainty where Thomas Brooks was born — a point to which I’ll return when I discuss in more detail the information I have about Thomas’s mother Mary, who made her will in Frederick County on 9 July 1786, with the will being probated on 4 April 1787.

The Children of Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): Margaret Lindsey and Robert Phillips — Notes about David Phillips (2)

Orange County Survey, Fry
Survey map of Orange County, Virginia (1736?) in Joshua Fry, Memoir of Col. Joshua Fry (Richmond: Randolph & English, 1880), p. 26, showing fork of Rapidan River.

Or, Subtitled: Recurring Names, Plausible Patterns, and DNA Stumbling Blocks

This is the second half of a two-part set of postings. The first part, which is here, discussed the life of David Phillips in Richmond and Spotsylvania-Orange Counties, Virginia, prior to his move to North Carolina in 1742. Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): Margaret Lindsey and Robert Phillips — Notes about David Phillips (2)”

Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): Post-Indenture Life in Virginia

Virginia Statute, Irish Indentured Servants
William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619 (New York: Bartow, 1823), vol. 1, p. 411.

Or, Subtitled: A Failed Attempt to Patent Land, and Suits of Debt

To recap (and link to the two previous postings in this series [here and here]): as Brendan Wolfe and Martha McCartney tell us, the indenture of Irish servants in colonial Virginia was subject to a law that required Irish servants in the colony arriving without indenture papers to serve six years if they were above sixteen, and up to their twenty-fourth year in any case.[1] Continue reading “Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): Post-Indenture Life in Virginia”

Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): The Indentured Servant Years

cropped-dennis-lindsey-1762-will-p1a-copy.jpg
Will of Dennis Lindsey, Granville County, North Carolina, August 1762 (in Granville County Loose-Papers Estate Files, North Carolina Archives, C.R. 044.801.25)

Or, Subtitled: Strother Ties and Bristol Ties Everywhere You Turn

The Indentured Servant Years

As we’ve seen, Dennis Linchey/Lindsey, the Irish servant indentured in Richmond County, Virginia, on 1 June 1718 whom we’re now tracking, would likely have been born around 1700 — or perhaps a bit before or after that date. We noted that Carol McGinnis indicates that most indentured servants coming to Virginia in this period were young people aged 18 or so, though many were younger.[1] According to Nathan W. Murphy, an expert on indentured servants in Virginia during the colonial period, most indentured servants in Virginia were 15-24 years of age when they began their servitude.[2] Continue reading “Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): The Indentured Servant Years”

Dennis Linchey & Dennis Lindsey: Strother Family Links Help Establish Connection of Irish Indentured Servant in Virginia (1718) to Edgecombe/Granville County, North Carolina, Settler (1742-1762)

cropped-dennis-lindsey-1762-will-p1a-copy.jpg
Will of Dennis Lindsey, Granville County, North Carolina, August 1762 (in Granville County Loose-Papers Estate Files, North Carolina Archives, C.R. 044.801.25)

Using unexpected DNA findings (which show that the group of Lindseys from whom I descend have the Irish Type III genetic signature pointing to southwestern Ireland as the family’s pre-American place of origin) in combination with traditional genealogical research methods, a group of us researching my Lindsey line have determined that it’s almost certain the line descends from a Dennis Linchey/Lynch who came to Richmond County, Virginia, in April 1718 as an Irish indentured servant. It has also come to be obvious to me and others that this Dennis tried to patent land in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, after having served his term of indenture, and when he failed at this venture, went to Edgecombe (later Granville) County, North Carolina, where he acquired land and died in August 1762.  Continue reading “Dennis Linchey & Dennis Lindsey: Strother Family Links Help Establish Connection of Irish Indentured Servant in Virginia (1718) to Edgecombe/Granville County, North Carolina, Settler (1742-1762)”