Josiah Woodson

Other Events and Attributes:

• Probate: 16 Nov 1736, Goochland County, Virginia, USA

Notes:

From _Cavaliers and Pioneers_, Vol. III, p. 365, extract of Patent Book No. 13:

Josiah Woodson & Stephen Woodson, 110 acs. (N. L.) Goochland Co; on N. side of James River, bet. lands of John Woodson & Major Lightfoot; 24 Feb. 1729, p. 433. 15 Shill.

Josiah married Mary Royall in 1716/1734 in of Goochland County, VA. Mary (daughter of Joseph Royall and Elizabeth Kennon) was born about 1704 in Goochland County, Virginia, USA; died about 20 Sep 1757 in Goochland County, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Elizabeth Woodson was born in 1739 in Goochland County, Virginia, USA.
2. Joseph Woodson was born about 1731 in Goochland County, Virginia, USA.
3. John Woodson was born in 1730 in Goochland County, Virginia, USA; died on 2 Dec 1789 in Goochland County, Virginia, USA.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Religion: Quaker at the Curles Meeting
• Residence: Curles, Henrico County, VA
• Occupation: 1683/1703, carpenter and merchant
• Will: 25 Nov 1715, Henrico County, Virginia, USA
• Probate: 5 Dec 1715, Henrico County, Virginia, USA

Notes:

Occupation: Carpenter, Merchant

BIOGRAPHY: Lived at Curles, Henrico County, Virginia.

DEATH: Died before December 5, 1715 (Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 20, 1976, p 3-8). Will dated November 25, 1715.

John married Judith Tarleton in 1679 in of Henrico County, VA. Judith (daughter of Stephen Tarleton and Susanna Bates) was born in 1662 in Henrico County, Virginia, USA; died before 7 Sep 1714 in Henrico County, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 6 Sep 1758, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
• _MILT: 1776, Virginia, USA

Notes:

From "Adventurers of Purse and Person":
ROBERT WOODSON deposed, June 1680, that he was "46 years of age or thereabouts," and, 1 June 1696, that he was aged about 61. He married Elizabeth Ferris, daughter of Richard Ferris. On 21 Oct 1687 Robert Woodson, Richard Ferris and three others patented 1780 acres on White Oak Swamp in Varina Parish and the same day he, John Woodson, Sr., and two others patented 470 acres, also in Henrico county. He held 1157 acres in Henrico County, 1704, and died after 1 Oct 1707.

Robert married Elizabeth Ferris in 1656 in Curles, Henrico County, Virginia, USA. Elizabeth (daughter of Richard Ferris and Elizabeth) was born in 1638 in Curles, Henrico County, Virginia, USA; died before 1689 in Curles, Henrico, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: appraiser of tobacco

Notes:

Patented "394 acres on the north branch of Black Creek, next to the lands of Peter Adams, due by purchase from Henry Bateman in 1663 who purchased the land from Pulliam out of 100 acres in 1657" (Land Patent Book No. 5, page 246) in Blisland Parish (later St. Peter's Parish), York Co., VA. Involved in Bacon's Rebellion. Stephen Tarleton and Charles Bostwicke were taken into custody by the Sheriff of York County in May 1682 for words greatly encouraging the present distractions, by cutting up tobacco plants. This was the last uprising of its kind before the unrest leading to the American Revolution.

Letter to Honorable Herbert Jeffries, Sir John Berry, and Francis Morrison, his Majesty's Commissioner's in Virginia:
"The humble petition of Stephen Tarleton of New Kent county most humbly sheweth that your petitioner as he most penitently and sorrowfully acknowledgeth seduced into the late horrible Rebellion, and taken yet unlawful oath imposed by the late grand Rebell Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. and being conscious of his guilt thereof did upon the firste publishing his most sacred Majesty's gratious and surpassing Act of pardon, to his distressed subjects of this late disloyall Colony lay hold of the same, and take the oath of allegiance and then was and still is ready to performe those other due and reasonable conditions which by his Majesty's said pardon he is justly enjoyned to doe and being by the Honorable Governor's proclamation of the 9th of February last referred to the determination of your honor. your petitioner in all humility beseech the mercy and pardon for his said crimes, and humbly prayeth yet he may be admitted to the full benefit of his Majesty's said Act of pardon."

Stephen married Susanna Bates about 1659 in Henrico County, Virginia, USA. Susanna (daughter of John Bates and Elizabeth Winston) was born about 1638 in Middletown, Bruton Par., York County, VA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Arrival: 1619, Virginia, USA

Notes:

[Broderbund WFT Vol. 4, Ed. 1, Tree #1649]
Dr. John Woodson was born in the year 1586 in Devonshire, England. He married Sarah Winston who was born in the year of 1590, also in Devonshire, England. Dr. John Woodson came to Jamestown as a surgeon with Sir George Yeardly. The young couple embarked on the ship GEORGE, January 29, 1619 and landed in Jamestown, Virginia in April 1619. (This was one year before the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Mass. on the Mayflower.)

Dr. John Woodson located at Flowerdew Hundred (also called Fleur de Hundred, Flour De Hundred, or Piersey's Hundred), which is on the south side of the James River some thirty miles above Jamestown, in what is now Prince George County. Two Woodson sons were born at Flowerdew Hundred; John born in 1632 and Robert born in 1637.

In 1632, Dr. Woodson was listed as the Surgeon of the Flour De Hundred Colony in Virginia. On April 19, 1644, Dr. Woodson was killed in sight of his house by Indians, who had called him out apparently to see the sick. After killing him, they attacked his home which was successfully defended by his wife and a shoemaker named Ligon. Ligon killed seven of the Indians with and old muzzle loading gun eight feet long, now one of the prized possessions of the Virginia Historical Society. Mrs. Sarah Woodson killed two Indians who came down the chimney; One with boiling water and one with a roasting spit. The boys, John and Robert, were concealed during the attack under a tub and in a potato pit, respectively.

The Indians were led by Chief Opechancano, who was the son of Powhaten and had killed 300 settlers on April 18, the day before. Opechancano had also led the Massacres of 1622 at Martin's Hundred. Several weeks later Opechancano was captured by the colonists and executed. The Indians were permanently driven out of that part of Virginia as a result of the uprisings of 1644.

Dr. John Woodson is the progenitor of the Woodson Family in America. Among his descendants are Dolley Todd Madison, wife of President James Madison and the famous outlaw Jesse Woodson James.

Graduated from St. John's College, Oxford, 1604; came to Virginia in the "George", 1619.

Dr. John Woodson attended Cambridge. Sarah was a Quaker, and rather than make her give up her religion, he immigrated with her to the colonies.

Dr. John Woodson's father died in Bristol, England. John was his fourth son.

"John Woodson came to Virginia in the George, which left England January 29, 1619, bearing the new Governor, Sir George Yardley, and about one hundred passengers" (Genealogies of Virginia Families, From the William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine, Volume V, Thompson-Yates (and Appendix), Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, 1982).

Arrived in Virginia on ship "George" in 1619. Survivor of Indian massacre, March 22, 1622. Killed in Indian massacre, April 18, 1644 within sight of his own home, (Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 20, 1976, p3-8)

Flower de Hundred, sometimes called Peirsey's Hundred was on the southside of the James River. Curls (or Curles) was a plantation on the north side of the James River, above Flower de Hundred. (Genealogies of Virginia Families, From the William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine, Volume V, Thompson-Yates (and Appendix), Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, 1982)

The following story was sent by William Stephen Woodson:
(please excuse any prejudicial remarks)

"There are many stories told about these Woodson, like the one about Dr. John Woodson and his family in April 1644. There was an Indian uprising during which the savages made a sudden attack on Fleur de Hundred. Dr. Woodson, returning from visiting his patients was killed as he returned home. His wife and two children were alone in the house with the exception of an old schoolmaster. Their only weapon was a huge old-fashioned gun which the schoolmaster used so effectively that at the first fire he killed three Indians and at the second, two. Meanwhile two Indians tried to come down the chimney to the house. Mrs. Woodson seized a pot of boiling water from the fire and scalded the first; she snatched up the iron spit from the fireplace and with it brained the second. The howling savages began to retreat, but the schoolmaster fired a last shot, killing two more of the enemy.

Then the mother called the two little boys from their hiding places: the ten-year old had been concealed under a large wash tub and the twelve-year old crawled out from a hole in which potatoes were stored in winter.

Even today when there is a gathering of Woodsons, a favorite question is, 'Are you a wash-tub Woodson or a potato-hole?'

In the early part of the 16th century, one of Dr. Woodson's ancestors was granted a coat of arms by Henry VIII; along with this privilege came the right 'to bear arms.' Nothing was said about his wife's right, though!"

From "Adventurers of Purse and Person":
JOHN WOODSON and his wife Sarah came to VA, 1619, in the George and settled at Flowerdew Hundred, known by Feb. 1624/5, when the muster was taken, as Peirsey's Hundred. They had been fellow passengers on the ship with Governor Sir George Yeardley and his wife Temperance Flowerdew, Lady Yeardley. No further documentary evidence has been found relating to them until 1660. a family account written about 1785 by Charles Woodson (1711-~1795), son of Tarleton Woodson, however, survives and supplies details which link the first generations of Woodsons and Robert Woodson, John Woodson, Senr., and John Woodson, Junr." who were among the tithables at Curles, 1679.

Tradition states that John Woodson was killed in the Indian massacre of 18 April 1644. His children were very young and Mrs. Sarah Woodson soon remarried (2) ___ Dunwell, who died leaving her with a daughter Elizabeth, and (3) ___ Johnson. As a widow again she left a combination inventory and nuncupative will which was recorded 17 Jan 1660/1. This made bequests to John Woodson, Robert Woodson, Deborah Woodson (apparently under age) and Elizabeth Dunwell (under age). John Woodson was the implied executor.

The family record of 1785, with no evidence to the contrary presented during two centuries, has posited this descent: issue: John, Robert, Deborah, left a cow and a feather bed by her mother, not mentioned in the 1785 account.

"Woodsons and Their Connections", Henry Morton WOODSON, 1915
excerpts from that book. ---Lorraine (KWDLAD@aol.com)

"1604-5 1 March, St. Johns, JOHN WOODSONNE; Bristol, gent. f. matriculated age 18". Meaning that our Dr. John Woodson graduated from St. Johns College in Bristol England in 1604 (before coming to America in 1619).

"On the 29th day of January, 1619, the Ship 'George' sailed from England and in the following April landed at Jamestown, Virginia. This vessel brought the new governor, Sir George Yeardley and about one hundred passengers; among whom were Dr. John Woodson, of Dorsetshire, and his wife Sara, whom he married in Devonshire.
Dr. John Woodson came in the capacity of surgeon to a company of soldiers who were sent over for the better protection of the colonists; for the Indians about this time were scowling and seemed disposed to resent further encroachments of the white man. Dr. John Woodson was a man of high character and of great value to the young colony. He was born 1586, in Devonshire, England.

Like other young gentlemen of his time, he, no doubt had a desire to see the new country in which the Virginia Company of London had planted their colony a dozen years previously: so at the age of 33 he, with his young wife, Sara, embarked on the ship George and landed at Jamestown, Apr. 1619.

Sometime in 1620 a black looking vessel landed at Jamestown, having onboard about 20 negro captives whom the Dutch skipper had kidnapped somewhere on the coast of Africa. These were sold to the colonists as slaves and found to be quite profitable in the cultivation of tobacco which was the staple crop at that time.

Dr. John Woodson, at this time or shortly afterwards, bought six of these Africans who were registered in 1623 as part of his household, and simply as Negars, without giving them any names."

Dr. John Woodson located at Fleur de Hundred, or, as it was sometimes called, Piersey's Hundred, some 30 miles above Jamestown on the southside of James River in what is now Prince George County. He and his wife, and their 6 negro slaves were registered at Fleur de Hundred in Feb. 1623. It was, no doubt, at this place that their two sons, John and Robert), was born."

March 1622 was the first attack by Indians made on the Jamestown colony killing hundreds. The colonists retaliated and drove the Indians deeper into the wilderness.

"Twenty two years had passed and the fire of revenge was still smoldering in the heart of the bloodthirsty chief, Opechankano, who had matured another scheme for slaughtering the whites.

"On the 18th day of April 1644, the Indians made a sudden attack upon the settlements and killed about 300 of the colonists before they were repulsed.

"At this time Dr. John Woodson's two sons, John and Roberts, were respectively 12 and 10 years of age.

"There is a cherished family tradition that, on the day of this second massacre, Dr. John Woodson, while returning from visiting a patient, was killed by the Indians in sight of his home. The Indians then attacked the house which was barred against them and defended by his wife, Sara and a man named Ligon (a shoemaker) who happened to be there at the moment. The only weapon they had was an old time gun which Ligon handled with deadly effect. At the first fire he killed 3 Indians, and two at the second shot. In the meantime 2 Indians essayed to come down through the chimney; but the brave Sara scalded one of them to death with a pot of boiling water which stood on the fire: then seizing the iron roasting spit with both hands, she brained the other Indian, killing him instantly.

"The howling mob on the outside took fright and fled; but Ligon fired the 3rd time and killed 2 more, making 9 in all.

"At the first alarm, Mrs. Woodson had hidden her two boys, one under a large washtub and the other in a hole where they were accustomed to keep potatoes during the winter, hoping in this way to save them in the event the Indians succeeded in entering the rude log cabin in which they lived.

"From this circumstance, for several generations, the descendants of one of these boys was called "Tub Woodsons" and those of the other were designated as "Potato Hole Woodsons."

"The old gun which rendered such valuable service on that dreadful 18th day of April, 1644, is still in the possession of the descendants of the late Charles Woodson, of Prince Edward County. Mr. C. W. Venable, late of that county, writing of it says: 'The gun is, by exact measurement, seven feet six inches in length, and the bore is so large that I can easily put my whole thumb into it. when first made it was 8 feet long, but on account of some injury it was sent to England to be repaired and the gunsmith cut off 6 inches of the barrel.'

"As if to commemorate his bravery on this historic occasion, the name of Ligon was rudely carved upon the stock. The gun is now (1915) in the possession of Mr. Wm. V. Wilson, a prominent lawyer of Lynchburg, VA."

The gun has been proved to have been made in the 1700's.

John married Sarah Winston in 1619 in Dorset, England. Sarah (daughter of Winston) was born in 1590 in Devonshire, England; died on 17 Jan 1659 in Prince George County, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will: 17 Jan 1660/61, Henrico County, Virginia, USA

Notes:

NOTE: Last name not verified by any legal document.

Richard married Elizabeth in 1836. Elizabeth died in 1689 in Henrico County, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Immigrated to Virginia on the "Southampton" in 1623. Appears on muster roll at Piersey's Hundred in 1624; included as a servant to Abraham Piersey. Associated with the Quakers and the Skimino Meeting. Will dated 9/21/1666, proved 1/24/1667 in York Co., Virginia

Will of John Bates
York Co., VA
Book 3, p. 165

In the name of God, Amen
I John Bates of the County of York in Middletowne parish being very sick and weak yet in perfect memorie do here make my last will and testament.
FIRST I comitt my soul to my Creator and Redeemer, Next my body to the earth to be buried in Xtian burial at ye disposing of my wife and for my otherworldly estate as followeth,
ITEM I give and bequeath unto my eldest daughter Anne Bellbee one pide cowe called Primrose to be delivered after my decease.
ITEM I give and bequeath to my sonne George Bates one cowe called Souarkin to be delivered after my decease.
ITEM I give and bequeath unto my daughter Alse Deane one two year old Heifer called Marigold to be delivered to her after my decease.
ITEM I give and bequeath unto John Bates my youngest sonne one cowe called Cole and one two year old heifer called Stone and one cowe calf to be delivered him after my decease, and likewise one featherbed, bowlster and likewise I give all my land which I now hold by patent unto my said sonne John Bates, likewise I give unto my sonne John Bates one younge sowe with pigge to be delivered after my decease.
ITEM I give and bequeath unto my wife Elizabeth Bates all my other estate moveable not moveable and likewise my will is that my wife shall enjoy my land during her life. Furthermore I make my wife Elizabeth Bates my wholesole Executrix of what estate I have not bequeathed to my children, and I doe appoint my oldest son George Bates my overseer of this my last will and Testament to see it performed, as witness my hand this 21st day of September 1666

Tests The mark of John (X) Bates
George Bates, his mark
Robert Cobbs

Furthermore I the sd. John Bates do bequeath to my wife Elizabeth three barrells and a halfe of corne to be at her disposing. I doe give and bequeath to my sonne George Bates my best hatt and Cloth coat and breeches. I doe give and bequeath to my sonne John Bates one hogshead of tobacco and one young horse, my son in respect thereof to pay all my debts in Generall.

Teste: The mark of John (X) Bates

William Winston
George Bates
William Deane

The will and Codicill annext proved in Court on January 24th 1667 by William Winston, George Bates and William Deane and Recorded. L. J. Baskerville Clk. Cur.

BATES, JOHN, Born 1598-1600. Arrived from England in the "Southhampton", 1623. Lived at Piercey's Hundred 1624. Later at Bruton Parish, Middletown, VA. Wife's name Elizabeth---.

John married Elizabeth Winston. Elizabeth was born about 1600 in England; died on 30 Mar 1701 in Middletown, Bruten Par., York County, VA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]