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 1721 - 1786 (65 years)
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| Name |
Archibald Cary |
| Birth |
24 Jan 1720/21 |
- Ampthill, Chesterfield Co., VA
|
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Sep 1786 |
| Person ID |
I10352 |
Bob Juch's Tree |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
| Family |
Mary Isham Randolph, b. 21 Nov 1727, Curles, Henrico County, VA  d. 1781 (Age 53 years) |
| Marriage |
31 May 1744 |
| Children |
| | 1. Sarah Cary, b. 23 Feb 1753 d. 1773 (Age 19 years) [natural] |
| | 2. Jane Cary, b. 12 Feb 1751 d. 1774 (Age 22 years) [natural] |
| | 3. Anne Cary, b. 7 Feb 1744/45 d. 1789 (Age 43 years) [natural] |
|
| Family ID |
F4022 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
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| Notes |
- Cary-Estes Genealogy
Page 53
Archibald Cary of "Ampthill," in the County of Chesterfield, has a will recorded in Will Book 4, page 420, Chesterfield County.
It is dated Feb. 12, 1787, and has two or more codicils dated Feb. 19 and 21, 1787. An inventory and appraisement of his estate was filed April 17, 1787.
ARCHIBALD8 CARY (Henry7, Henry6, Miles5, John4, William3, Richard2, William1), b. 1721, d. 1787; of "Ampthill" in Chesterfield County. He was a brother of Judith Cary (who married David Bell through whom we trace our lineage). Archibald Cary, collateral to our line, was a most prominent citizen
Page 54
of his day, and his marriage to Mary Randolph, a descendant of Pocahontas, may be interesting to many readers. We give a brief history of him. The complete history is recorded in "The Virginia Carys," pages 91-95, and in "Archibald Cary of 'Ampthill,' Wheelhorse of the Revolution," by Robert K. Brock (8 vo. Richmond, Va. 1937; a biography).
"Born in Williamsburg, he was probably named for his father's friend and physician, Dr. Archibald Blair, though not of kin. He was educated at William and Mary College. When he came of age in 1742 his father vested him with the property known as Buckingham, 4, 132 acres of land on Willis Creek, then in Goochland (Deed Book, IV, 95, and Hening, VII, 440), and there he entered public life. He was Justice of Peace 1747 and sat as a Burgess for Goochland 1748-49. On the organization of Cumberland County in 1749 to include his lands, he was in the first Commission of the Peace and a vestryman of St. James, Southam parish. Later, in 1750, he became of Ampthill on his father's death and removed to Chesterfield. He extended his father's manufacturing interests, maintained the flouring mills at Warwick, established a ropery, developed the deposits of limonite iron ore on his lands in Buckingham, and set up a furnace and foundry at Falling Creek, where in 1622 the first such venture had been made in the colony. (Brock, Va. His. Soc. Collections, VII, 51, says that in 1876 he identified the sites of both furnaces, that of 1622 as well as that of 1760, by remnants of slag in the soil.)
In local community affairs he was progressive; as Justice of Peace (long Presiding Magistrate and County Lieutenant) he advocated the construction of roads and bridges; privately he imported pure-bred cattle, which found their way into the valley of Virginia and in time into Kentucky, carrying with them the name 'Cary's stock' (W. M. Quar., XXVI, 167). An uncompromising member of the Established Church, as a magistrate he prosecuted the Baptists ('Va. Mag., ' XI, 416); and after disestablishment was with his kinsmen, Colonel Wilson-Miles Cary and Judge Richard Cary, a delegate to the convention of 1785 which organized the incorporated Episcopal Church of Virginia. In 1756 he succeeded to the seat in the Assembly for Chesterfield, and at once took active part in the organization of the colony against the French invasion then expected. Thenceforth, until his death, he represented Chesterfield continuously.
Page 55
By 1762 he had taken the place in the Assembly of his great-uncle, Miles Cary, being Chairman of the Committee of Public Claims, a post he held during the remainder of the colonial period. In 1764 he was one of the committee of nine which prepared the memorials to the King and Lords and Commons against Grenville's determination to impose stamp taxes, but, in 1765 he voted with the conservatives against Patrick Henry's fiery resolutions.
He took a leading role in the Revolution of Virginia; he signed the
Associations of 1769, 1770 and 1774; in 1773 he became a member of the Committee of Correspondence and was in all the Conventions of 1775. In the Convention of 1776 he was Chairman of the Committees, so that 'it was from his lips that the words of the resolution of independence, of the declaration of rights, and of the first constitution of Virginia first fell upon the public ear.' At home he was Chairman also of the county Committee of Safety for Chesterfield ('W. & M. Quar.,' V, 102). On the organization of the State government he became Speaker of the Senate and died holding that office. He had subscribed liberally to the Revolution in money as well as in influence. Thus in January 1781 he calls the Governor's attention ('Col. Va. State Papers,' I, 4, 710) to the fact that there is due him by government lbs. 40,000 on one account and lbs. 18,000 'for my propositions towards raising the 3,000 men.' While these figures were in Virginia depreciated currency, not sterling, they represented large values. In this situation, on April 30 of the year, his mills at 'Warwick' and 'Falling Creek' were destroyed by Benedict Arnold. (See Arnold's report of May 12, 1781, to Sir Henry Clinton, in 'Tarleton Campaigns in North America, 1781, ' 337.) Although a large landholder (according to the land and tax books, he died seized of 2, 180 acres in Chesterfield, with 36 slaves; 4, 992 acres in Cumberland with 189 slaves and 7,000 acres in Buckingham with 41 slaves), yet, as a consequence of his sacrifices, he found himself in straitened circumstances at the end of his life.
By tradition he is called 'Old Iron,' but whether with reference to his furnace or his character does not appear. He had indeed developed a peremptory disposition, as witness his celebrated message to Patrick Henry in 1776 [Wirt, 'Life of Patrick Henry (1836),' 223], and the subsequent description of him as the 'Old Bruiser' [Rowland, 'George Mason,' I, 334; Greene, 'Nathaniel Greene (1871),'
Page 56
III, 506]; but, on the other hand, General Washington, though eleven
years his junior, maintained an affectionate relation with him, calling him 'Archy' (Ford, 'Writings of Washington,' II, 428). His courtesy and genial hospitality were a part of him.
His reputation being confined to Virginia, the immediate memorial of his fame was his name, given to a street in Richmond. No stone marks his grave; indeed, the place of burial is not known. Tradition has it that he was buried in the cellar of 'Ampthill' House, where his 'hant' is still seen by the negroes. (See the eloquent appreciation in 'Grigsby's Virginia Convention of 1776,' 90, and a brief notice in 'Appleton's Cyclo. Am. Biog.,' I, 548.) His correspondence and personal papers were destroyed, so that material is lacking for a 'Life.' There is in existence a pleasant portrait of him by the elder Peale (pages 91-92, 'Va. Carys'). Married 1744, Mary Randolph, b. 1727; d. 1781, dau. of Col. Richard Randolph of 'Curles.'"
Children:
1 Anne9, b. 1745; d. 1789; md. Col. Thomas Mann Randolph,
b. 1741; d. 1794, "Tuckahoe."
2 Mary9, b. 1747; d. infant.
3 Jane9, b. 1751; d. 1774; md. 1767 to Thomas Isham Randolph of "Ben Lomond" in Goochland, son of Isham Randolph of "Dungeness."
(From this marriage descended the Harrisons of "Clifton" and the Hutchinsons of St. Louis, MO. It was the older sister of this Thomas Isham Randolph who was the mother of Thomas Jefferson. (See "W. & M. Quar.," VIII, 122, 263.)
4 Sarah9, 1753-1773; md. Archibald Bolling of Goochland, a younger son of the second John Bolling of Cobbs, and a grandson of Archibald Blair. Sally Cary was the first of his four wives. (See the notice of him in Robertson's "Pocahontas and Her Descendants".)
5 ELIZA9, d. (???). Infans.
6 Henry9, b. 1757; d. 1758.
7 Mary9, b. 1766-1797; md. 1782 to Major Carter Page of "The Fork," Cumberland County. (For the descendants of this marriage and Dr. Mann Pages's correspondence about the "Cary fortune" see "Page Genealogy of the Page Family, 1893," pages 108 and 120. Most of the "Ampthill" heirlooms passed to the Pages.)
Page 57
8 Elizabeth9, 1770(?); md. 1787 to Robert Kincaid of Manchester. (This Elizabeth, or Betsy, was not entered in the Ampthill Bible. After her mother's death and the marriage of her next older sister she assumed, though still a child, the management of her father's household and thereby won his warm affection, as appears by his will. The codicils disclose, however, that her father strongly disapproved of her intended marriage to Robert Kincaid and sought to prevent it. A notice in the "Virginia Gazette" shows that the marriage took place a few weeks after Colonel Archibald Cary's death. There were Kincaid and Irving descendants.)
Sources: (1) The "Ampthill" family Bible; (2) The Will of Archibald Cary, 1787.
NOTE: At the death of Colonel Archibald Cary of Ampthill, the male line of the second son of the immigrant became extinct, but the descendants of the marriage of his granddaughter, Virginia Randolph, dau. of Thomas Mann Randolph of Tuckahoe, with Wilson Jefferson Cary of Carysbrook, carries on the blood of this line in the Cary name (pages 91, 95 "The Va. Carys)."
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