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TO CHAPTER 2 JAMES FINNEY: FATHER 1711-1753
Circa 1667 John Finney was
born sometime in the 1660s, probably shortly after two major events in England’s
long, grand history. The Great Plague of
London occurred during the years 1665 and 1666, killing 100,000 people or about
15 percent of London’s population. In
late 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed over 70,000 homes and nearly 100
churches. During the aftermath of these
disasters, John Finney began life in an unknown English abode.
November 1684 A young man, loyal subject to King Charles I who had ruled England since before his
birth, gained access to a ship sailing for the English colonies in America.[i] John Finney was likely between the age of 16
and 20 placing his estimated birth range between 1665 and 1669.[ii] [iii] Youthful Englishmen who journeyed across the
great Atlantic Ocean to the American continent were predominantly seeking to
ascend from hard times. Finney’s
situation could have transpired due to the loss of parents or caregivers.
In
the late 17th century, sailing vessels (above) transported immigrants from the
British Isles
sailed south to the Madeira Islands before heading due east
toward the Carolina or
Virginia Colony coasts (below)
January 1685 John Finney
arrived in Lancaster County, Virginia Colony.[iv] The most probable point of arrival was at the
Corotoman Plantation wharves where bustling activity forecasted the intensity
of his existence over the next decade as a glorified slave. Finney was unable to pay for his passage and
committed, before departure, to become an indentured servant upon his arrival
in the new land to cover transportation costs.
On 14 January, the first monthly court meeting in Lancaster County since
Finney’s arrival, the court justices ordered Finney to serve eight years to
cover his travel expenses. Years of indenture usually ranged from four years
(if older than 20 years old) to seven years (if younger than 20 years
old). In other cases, depending upon the
situation, the indenture may have been for as many as 12 years. Finney’s repayment was extensive but he had
traveled without negotiating an indenture contract and was left at the will of
the Lancaster court justices.
As an indentured servant, John
Finney would comply with the court order by working for the man who ultimately
paid his travel fees, Lieutenant Colonel John Carter of Lancaster County,
Virginia.[v] Carter ponied up the cash, paid the costs for
Finney’s transport, and would get eight years of labor on his plantation. The servitude was to take place on Carter’s
tobacco plantation called Corotoman, located on the northern shores of the
Rappahannock River, a tributary emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. At this time in early colonial history, a
change in the Virginia labor force was under way. The decade before, importation of African
slaves had begun to swell Virginia’s labor force and the 1680’s marked the beginning
of a decline in white labor service.
These new racial and cultural differences on colonial plantations gave
the white servant population fewer restrictions to gain freedom and easier
access to lands once their terms of service were up.
British
citizens signed contracts (above) to become indentured
servants. This shows what an indenture document may have looked
like after John Carter purchased the John Finney indenture
servants. This shows what an indenture document may have looked
like after John Carter purchased the John Finney indenture
Indentured servants had been
brought to American plantations since the colony had begun to thrive in 1619. Over the next 50 years, white servants were
responsible for having accomplished a majority of the plantation work. Now in the 1670’s and 1680’s, plantation
owners such as Carter brought indentured servants to their plantations to teach
African slaves skills. Africans were
fast replacing white servants and would offer plantation owners the chance to
avoid constantly replenishing indentured servants when terms of servitude were
completed. Many Carter slaves were being
trained in the 1680s by indentured servants to be coopers, carpenters, blacksmiths,
millers, sailors, brick makers and layers, and shoemakers. Trained slaves meant that plantations could
soon operate without a need for the indentured.
Indentured servants that had a skill often negotiated shorter
contracts. This was apparently not the
case with John Finney. Lieutenant
Colonel Carter probably opted to pay for Finney’s passage to America because he
needed someone with carpentry skills to train his slaves. And so we know that Finney came to Virginia
with some carpentry experience and little else other than the clothes on his
back.[vi]
9 April 1685 Less than three
months after John Finney’s arrival in Lancaster County, two additional Finney’s
arrived aboard a ship from England.
Elizabeth and Mary Finney had crossed the Atlantic Ocean under the same
situation, without an arranged indenture.
And also like John Finney, they came before the Lancaster County Court
to be assessed their indenture length. Elizabeth was to work eight years and
Mary was to toil for twelve. Elizabeth was
at least a teenager while Mary must have been a youngster and would therefore
be required to work a longer duration.
The likelihood that these Finneys were unrelated is very low. So, either Elizabeth was John Finney’s wife
and Mary his daughter or, and the more probable scenario, they were his
siblings. Again like John Finney,
Lieutenant Colonel John Carter agreed to pay their transport fees and brought
them to his Corotoman Plantation to begin their servitude.[vii] [viii] These three indentured servants were the last
three white servants John Carter would purchase.[ix]
Lieutenant Colonel John Carter had
previously received the Corotoman Plantation from his deceased father, also named
John Carter. The elder John Carter built
Corotoman into a major shipping industry.
As the plantation grew to thousands of acres, wharves were built to
handle tobacco exportation from Corotoman and also from farmers both locally
and farther up the Rappahannock.
Supplies arrived at the Corotoman wharves as well, including hundreds of
Negro slaves from Africa to work in the ever-growing tobacco cartel.
Lancaster
County was a part of the Virginia Colony (above) and the
Corotoman Plantation
was about five miles up the Rappahannock River on the
north side (below)
27 January 1691 Lieutenant
Colonel Carter died in 1690 leaving a very large estate. On 27 January 1691, Carter’s younger brother
Robert Carter, who would afterwards control the wealthy Carter estate,
submitted an inventory of his brother’s assets to the Lancaster County
court. The “goods and chattels” of John
Carter were divided, part going to Robert Carter and another to the widow
Elizabeth Carter. Robert Carter retained
much of the John Carter estate, including about two-thirds of the labor force -
76 slaves and two indentured servants – Elizabeth Finney with about two years
remaining to serve and Mary, about six years left to serve. The widow Elizabeth Carter was the recipient
of many items which included one-third of the labor force - half as many slaves
(about 38) and John Finney who still owed two years service on his indenture.[x] The widow Carter married Christopher Wormeley
of Middlesex County in 1690 shortly after Carter’s death and received her part
of the estate under the name Elizabeth Wormeley. Reportedly, after receiving no claims to the
Corotoman plantation, she moved out in a “huff”.[xi]
Two months after the division of
John Carter’s assets, some of the items were valued and appraised. A Mr. James Innis, practitioner of physics,
assesses the “qualities, tempers, and distempers” of the Negroes and Mary
Finney. Mary Finney, after six years of
indenture, was described as “full of impetiginous sores and having six years to
serve.”[xii] Her fate is ultimately unknown. Elizabeth Finney appeared the next year as a
servant to Mr. John Morris, another Lancaster County plantation owner, in
November 1692. The court records report
that she “hath had a bastard childe borne of her body within the time of her
servitude.” Though her pregnancy was
likely the result of some unsolicited act, the court justices assigned two
additional years to be added to her indenture as a penalty.[xiii]
Her fate is also unknown.
1692 Elizabeth and
Christopher Wormeley issued a “complaint exhibited against her
ex-brother-in-law” (Robert Carter) to the General Court of Virginia in an
attempt to get what they thought was the former Elizabeth Carter’s just
one-third share of the Carter estate.
The “widow’s third,” as required by law, was meant to devise the use, or
income, of a third of the land to a widow during her lifetime. As a newly elected Burgess in the Virginia
House and with his newly attained power, her ex-brother-in-law Robert Carter
“waived the privileges of the house” to answer her complaint. But the following year, in 1693, Elizabeth
died and after an attempt by Christopher Wormeley to sue Carter for the
one-third share, the case ended with “neither party getting any satisfaction.”[xiv]
1693 During the two years
following his indenture transfer, it appears that John Finney came to Middlesex
County and worked as a servant on the Wormeley plantation, known as Rosegill.[xv] Rosegill sat at33 the mouth and south shore
of Rosegill Creek just opposite of today’s Urbanna. The plantation was also slightly west and
across the Rappahannock River from Corotoman.
The Wormeley’s were relatives of Ralph Wormeley, founder of the Rosegill
plantation and one of the most important and influential men in Middlesex
County. In 1686, a French immigrant
described Rosegill as “at least twenty houses along the plateau above the river
(Rappahannock).”[xvi] It was said to have been one of the most splendid
estates of its day. Though only a
minority of servants survived their bondage, John Finney completed his
indenture and become a free white citizen of Middlesex County in the Virginia
Colony in 1693.[xvii]
Middlesex
County was located across the Rappahannock River (above), and the
Rosegill
Plantation was about five short miles WSW of Corotoman (below)
3 September 1694 John Finney
and his wife Margaret were found in Middlesex County, Virginia court record
books for the first time. Finney was
charged for failure to appear in a previous court meeting in defense of
Christopher Wormeley in a case against Robert Gillum, a carpenter in Middlesex
County.[xviii] Appearing in court for a person shows an
association, familiarity, acquaintance, relationship, or even friendship. Represented by attorney Thomas Gregson, John
and Margaret were later sued by Robert Gillum and Edwin Thacker.[xix]
By November 12, the Finneys had lost both suits and were charged 2,000 pounds
of “sweet scented” tobacco, payable to Gillum, and 242 pounds of the same to
Thacker.[xx]
From the information provided in
these court cases we can make some keen assumptions at John Finney’s post-indenture
life. Finney married a woman named
Margaret before September 1694 and they were living in Christ Church Parish,
Middlesex County, Virginia. John Finney
was then a free white man in the county having assets in tobacco. Tobacco was an accepted form of payment and
would not imply that Finney was a tobacco farmer. He would have had tobacco for two reasons: 1)
he received payment for work (Finney was known in Middlesex County as a
carpenter) in pounds of tobacco and 2) he probably had a small tobacco farm,
maybe just a few acres, that he alone could easily tend himself. A small patch of tobacco tended by a lone man
yielded an average of about one thousand pounds of tobacco a year.
John Finney likely married
Margaret Gibbs around 1694 in Middlesex County.[xxi] The youngest child of Gregory and Mary Gibbs,
Margaret was born about 1682 in Middlesex County.[xxii] Margaret was born and grew up with her family
in Christ Church Parish and married at about age 12, not completely uncommon at
this time. The time between the first
record in 1694 and the birth of their first child three years later was likely
connected to Margaret’s youthful age.
The absence of any land deed from Middlesex records suggests that John
and Margaret Gibbs-Finney were renting land from either John Finney’s
father-in-law Gregory Gibbs, from the Wormeleys on a small part of the Wormeley
plantation where his freedom was gained, or from some other plantation owner near
Rosegill. Freed servants usually rented
or cropped to obtain the resources to later buy land.
John Finney was a
carpenter
Most of the citizens in Colonial
Virginia were classified as farmers or planters (the difference between the two
was that a planter owned 20 slaves or more).
John Finney was neither a farmer nor a planter by occupation, but a
carpenter.[xxiii] No information is known about his whereabouts
in Middlesex County but it seems most likely that he lived in or near a town to
practice his carpentry trade. The town
of Urbanna was formed by Captain Ralph Wormeley around this time on the Urbanna
Creek, and became a thriving center of commerce and a colonial seaport. Urbanna was just north of the Rosegill
Plantation across the Rosegill Creek.
Other towns such as Nimcock, later called Saluda, and Stormont were
nearby.
John Finney lived at or near
the Rosegill Plantation
Middlesex County was formed in
1669 from part of Lancaster County and has kept its same borders to the present
day. The northern and eastern borders of
the county were formed by the Rappahannock River. The entire county was part of the Christ
Church Parish, established by the Church of England, the recognized religion in
colonial America. Parishes were local
units of religious and community organization.
Parish boundaries, set by the Virginia General Assembly, were used as
geographic designations to show place of residence.
1 March 1697 The son of John
Finney and his first wife Margaret was born on 1 March 1697 in Christ Church
Parish, Middlesex County, Virginia. This
child, likely their first, was named John.[xxiv] Typically, children were born at home with
female relations gathered at the bedside for support. Delivery would be led by an older woman in
the community, called a midwife, who was experienced in child birth. With limited access to either John or
Margaret’s ancestry, a source for the name they chose, John, is hard to
determine, especially since John was such a common name.
1699 John and Margaret
Finney welcomed their second child, a second son, to join two-year-old John in Christ
Church Parish, Middlesex County during the winter or early spring. They decided to name this little boy Richard
Finney. The baby’s name, Richard, may
have been used in honor of Margaret Gibbs Finney’s closest brother, Richard
Gibbs. The Finneys baptized Richard on
May 28,[xxv]
between a week to a few months after his birth.
8 May 1699 The May session
of the Middlesex County Court met on 8 May.
John Finney rode to the courthouse just southwest of Rosegill and
Urbanna on his horse, a necessity for a carpenter who must travel from worksite
to worksite.. Along the way, he met neighbors coming from far and near to
either attend to business or to be social.
On the docket for the day was a case that would be heard by the
Middlesex County Court justices involving a young teen from England whom John
Finney hoped to have officially indentured to him for the next seven
years. When the case came before the
court, the Middlesex County justices ordered 13-year old Patrick Sallanan (sic)
(or Patrick Sallahan[xxvi])
to serve John Finney. Sallanan came to
the Virginia Colony on the ship “Providence of Dublin”.[xxvii] The 160-ton ship had arrived 30 March 1699 in
Middlesex County from Dublin, Ireland with a host of passengers under the
master John Hamilton.[xxviii] From the court order it can be hypothesized
that John Finney paid for Sallanan’s passage to Virginia and by contractual
agreement, Sallanan became an indentured servant for the next seven or more
years. It was not cheap to bring an
indentured servant to America and paying for this servant’s passage may show
that since the conclusion of his own bondage about six years before, Finney had
done well for himself.
14 November 1699 Since 1630,
Colonies in America paid colonists to trap and kill wolves because they were
dangerous to livestock and humans as well.
The Virginia Colony differed from other colonies and paid colonists with
tobacco. In 1691, the compensation for a
destroyed wolf was established as 300 pounds of tobacco if killed by a pit or
trap, and 200 pounds if killed any other way.
The Court of Claims in Middlesex County paid John Finney 300 pounds on November
14 for a wolf taken in a trap.[xxix]
1701 With a family of two
young boys under the age of five, John and Margaret Finney excitedly welcomed a
baby girl to the Finney home in the summer or early fall. Their new daughter, Anne Finney, joined her
older brothers, four-year-old John and two-year-old Richard, at the Finney home
in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex County.
Anne was baptized at the appropriate age after her birth on November 16.[xxx]
25 February 1702 John Finney
and John Pace, a 35-year-old Middlesex County carpenter, met at William
Churchill’s Mill to “view, inspect, and value the Mill and appurtenances”.[xxxi] Churchill’s Mill was located near his
plantation, known by the name of Bushy Park, in Middlesex County. William Churchill was a member of the
Virginia Council and a respected Middlesex planter at this time, a status made
even higher after he married a daughter of Robert Carter from Lancaster
County. Less than a week after the
initial inspection, Finney and Pace reported to court on 1 March that “…the
work done to the Mill to be worth 45 pounds and done workman-like but we cannot
judge whether troughs made to vent the spare water can be sufficient to
discharge the same or not…”. The case
was brought by William Churchill against James Smith, a 28-year-old carpenter
of Middlesex County, for the quality of the work he had performed on
Churchill’s Mill. Finney and Pace were
called upon for this service as professionals in the field of carpentry.[xxxii]
1702 John Finney was the
executor of a will for a Middlesex County woman named Joan Sheath, who died
prior to March. John Finney, acting as
Sheath’s executor, was charged 1000 pounds of sweet scented tobacco on 1 March
1702 while a defendant against Ralph Baker in a Middlesex County court case.[xxxiii] Baker had taken John Finney to court the
month before on 1 February but John Finney had successfully requested and been
given an “imparlance,” or a delay or continuance of the legal suit.[xxxiv] Joan Sheath’s will was nuncupative, or given
by word of mouth and probably on her death bed.
By deposition of Anne Low on 3 October, John Finney’s wife Margaret was
to receive Joan Sheath’s land.[xxxv] No information was given as to whether or not
Margaret Finney received the land but on 2 November, John and Margaret were
granted the probate of the will by the Middlesex County Court. Joan Sheath may have been the older sister of
Margaret Gibbs-Finney, born in 1674 to Gregory Gibbs.[xxxvi] Since Joan Sheath did not leave her land to a
husband, her husband must have been deceased.
Sign posts were
placed at road junctions
3 July 1704 John Finney and
John Hipkins were in attendance at the July session of the Middlesex County
court and made their report to the court justices after having been assigned to
view the posts of the county at the previous month’s court meeting.[xxxvii] Finney and Hipkins found that the county “…wants
new covering and several posts wanting and most of them that are standing to be
rotten so that we believe there might be a new set of Posts all around.”[xxxviii] John Hipkins was a well known builder in
Virginia. He was often hired to erect
houses and public buildings for citizens in Middlesex and surrounding counties. Accompanying Hipkins during construction
projects were his slaves and servants that he had trained in building and
carpentry. During this same year,
Hipkins was contracted to build a new and improved courthouse in Middlesex
County. It is possible that John Finney
worked for John Hipkins in the building business as a carpenter.
1704 to 1705 John Finney’s wife, Margaret Gibbs-Finney, passed
away.[xxxix] Disease was common among women in early
colonial days. However, women also
commonly died of complications during childbirth and because of her youthful
age and the time since her last pregnancy, it is certainly highly likely that
Margaret passed away during or just after labor. Margaret was only about 22 to 23 years old.[xl]
12 April 1705 With three
small children and a house full of chores requiring regular attention, John Finney
was in dire need of a consort. He
married Margaret Upton[xli]
of Lancaster County, Virginia, who would provide the family with the stability
lost when John’s first wife passed away.
They were married in Christ Church Parish on the 12 of April.[xlii] Her early life is yet a mystery and she may
well have been a widow, possibly bringing her own children into the Finney
family, though no trace of any Upton children has been found.[xliii]
Little is known about Margaret
Upton’s life before her marriage to John Finney. She may have been an indentured servant
herself having completed her indenture within the last two or three years. A Margarett Upton arrived in Virginia in 1700
and her age was listed at 18 putting her as a potential match. In February 1703, a Margaret Upton was a
witness to a land deed in Lancaster County between John Curtis and Robert
Carter.[xliv] On 2 April 1705, just 10 days before the
Finney-Upton marriage, the soon-to-be-married couple appeared at the April
session of the Middlesex County Court to prosecute Richard Miller. Miller, who was a joiner by profession, was
accused by Finney and Upton of stealing goods from the house of John Hall of
Lancaster County.[xlv] These goods, as reported by court records,
belonged to Margaret Upton. After
alleging that he never intended to steal the goods, Miller was discharged by
the Middlesex court justices and acquitted from paying any fees.[xlvi] But a few days later at a 7 April 1705 court
session in Middlesex County, Upton, only days before her wedding to Finney,
complained that she was in fear of her life due to continual threats and abuses
at the hand of Richard Miller. Miller
admitted to court that he had done these deeds and would kill her if she
married any other man than himself.[xlvii] The court ordered Miller held in jail and he
remained detained until at least after September 1705.[xlviii]
Winter 1706 Before James
Finney’s first anniversary with his second wife, a baby was born. The first child of John Finney and his second
wife Margaret Upton-Finney arrived during one of the first three months of 1706
in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex County.
They named this child, which was John’s fourth, William Finney. William was baptized a short time later on
March 10.[xlix]
Christ Church Parish
church was just a few miles southeast of Rosegill
5 March 1706 John Finney
brought a complaint to the Middlesex County court meeting against Edward Ball[l],
accusing him of trespassing.[li] During the short trial, the justices
dismissed the action and Edward Ball was not charged with an offense. There were many legal actions that were heard
in court that day and nearly all were dismissed.
At the same court session, John
Finney was one of 12 jurors who were sworn in, heard evidence, and returned a
verdict in the case between Christopher and Judith Robinson, plaintiffs, and
Gawin Corbin, defendant. The jury stated
“We the jury find for ye plaintiffs 12 pounds sterling money of England” for a
grey gelding.[lii] Christopher Robinson was the son of an elder Christopher
Robinson, an influential Middlesex County plantation owner and politician, who
was married to Judith Wormeley, daughter of Christopher Wormeley. They lived at the family plantation known as
“Hewick” on the Rappahannock River, built in 1678. Gawin Corbin was from “Buckingham House”,
another large Middlesex County plantation.
Corbin was the attorney of the Royal African Company of England, a
Virginia Burgess, and married to Catherine Wormeley, daughter of Ralph
Wormeley.
Middlesex County
home: The Hewick Plantation
home built 1700
Approximate locations of various plantations and other landmarks around Rosegill
Robinson and Corbin lived at two
of the four most prominent estates in Middlesex County. Other significant estates included Rosegill
plantation, already mentioned as the home of the Wormeleys, and the Brandon
plantation, home of Robert Smith. These
were homes of the most intellectual men in the English colonies at this
time. The four men who built these
estates were often referred to as “The Barons of Rappahannock River.” Robert Beverley, who erected Beverley Park,
and William Churchill, builder of Bushy Park, were equally important and
influential men of the time in Middlesex County.
Who was William Finney?
There was another Finney in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex County,
Virginia. This Finney went by the name
of William Finney. No family connection
has been established but a relationship to John Finney cannot be completely
ruled out. In 1706, William was first
found in Middlesex County court records pertaining to custody of an orphan John
Guthrie. The next year he married Honour
Reardon on May 8. William and Honour
Finney had two known children: William born in 1712 and Katherine born in 1714,
and possibly older children Ann and Mary.
The first mentioned children were baptized in Christ Church Parish. William’s will was dated in 1717 and
according to Christ Church Parish records, he died April 26, 1718 and was
buried four days later.[liii] Honour Finney remarried to William Pepper in
Middlesex County in November 1718.
December 1706 Thoughts of
moving west and farther up the Rappahannock River, became a reality when John
Finney bought 189 acres in Southfarnham Parish, Essex County. He purchased the land from Salvator Muscoe a
32-year-old lawyer and planter in Southfarnham Parish, Essex County. This 189-acre parcel had belonged to Muscoe
for about two years and was originally the land of John Brooks (Appendix 7),
who was recently deceased. Brooks obtained
the grant from the Virginia Colony in 1693 after Essex County had been formed
in 1692. A plantation was built by
Brooks, and would now be home to the John Finney family.[liv]
The
approximate location of the John Finney 189-acre tract at the headwaters of the
Dragon Swamp (above, red dot) in Essex County, Virginia Colony (below)
The 189 acres John Finney now owned
was located on Dragon Swamp, which forms the headwaters of the Piankatank
River. The swamp and associated water systems
run parallel to the Rappahannock River and form a portion of the southwest
border of Essex County and the northwest border of Middlesex County. The new Finney property adjoined the land of
Thomas Williamson, Thomas Day, and Evan Davis.[lv] To the north, on the shores of the
Rappahannock River and not more than five to 15 miles away, was the port town
of Tappahannock. The town was organized
in 1682 and was known as “Hobbs His Hole” until 1705, when its name was changed
to Tappahannock. This “center of
commerce” was made up of 50 acres divided into half acre square lots and grew
into a village of substantial importance in the colony.
It seems probable that John
Finney took more interest in farming when he purchased this land but continued
work in the carpentry business, leaving farm labor to the small group of slaves
he had managed to acquire.[lvi]
Tobacco growing was the most common farming occupation in colonial Virginia.
Crops were grown and then transported in packed containers known as
"hogsheads." The containers
were attached to a pair of shafts by a rod driven into each end then rolled
behind horses or oxen. Many roads were called "rolling roads" and were
pathways that led to tobacco warehouses on the Rappahannock River.
3 November 1707 The
Middlesex County court ruled that William Deveridge, an orphan child, was bound
to John Finney, according to the law of the colony.[lvii] Finney was ordered to appear at the next
court meeting to give security for his compliance with the court order. He appeared on December 1 with John Gibbs,
his first wife’s brother, and the court further instructed that Finney was to
be responsible for Deveridge until the age of 21, must teach him to read and
write “well,” and educate Deveridge in the carpenter’s trade.[lviii] It was common practice to see courts assign
an orphan to a citizen of the county. On
the same December day in court, Finney signed a Letter of Attorney between
William Green and attorney Alexander Graves as a witness.[lix]
The transportation of
tobacco to tobacco warehouses with hogsheads
was a common site on Essex County
roads
1708 During 1708, Margaret
Upton-Finney gave birth a son. John
Finney was elated. This child would be
their second and he would join four older siblings: John, Richard, Ann, and
William. Like William, this birth would
have occurred at their home in Essex County.[lx] John Finney named his fourth son James
Finney. No record for the birth of James
Finney exists as Southfarnham Parish records have not survived.
1710 John Finney passed away
at some point during the first half of 1710.
He left a young family of at least five or six children under the age of
13 (John about 13, Richard about 11, Anne about 9, William about 4, James about
2, and possibly a newborn baby) and a young wife Margaret, likely under the age
of 30. In his will, written in December
1709 (Appendix 8), he stated that he had been sick. The age of John Finney at the time of his
death was about 45. His will was proven
in Essex County probate records on May 10.[lxi]
“Unto my eldest son
John Finney my plantation and land I now live upon, only my dear and loving
wife Margaret to have the use of the plantation, barring her from seating or
clearing the lower part, to support the bringing up of my children. The rest of my goods be equally divided
between my wife Margaret and my five children John, Richard, William, James and
Ann. My loving wife Margaret being now
with child the same child to have an equal share. My loving brother John Gibbs and my dear and
loving wife Margaret executor and executrix.
My children shall not be at their estates or equal shares until they
come of age. Signed ‘J’”
10 July 1710 An inventory of
John Finney’s assets was reported to the Essex County courts. The total valuation of Finney’s inventory was
established as 125.15.10 pounds. This total
included value of three negroes (slaves), assessed at 50 pounds.[lxii] Nine months later, additional inventory was
brought to court totaling nine pounds.[lxiii]
Over the next ten years, the John
Finney estate was “bound” to pay off the balances of accounts that were
produced in court. For one, James Walker
brought an account to Essex County Court which took 10 years to settle.[lxiv] Walker was from Urbanna, married to the
daughter of Christopher Robinson, and probably lived near the Hewick Plantation.[lxv] William Kilpin also received compensation for
a debt owed after the court determined the Finney estate to be accountable.[lxvi]
[lxvii] As a side note, James Walker became the
administrator of William Kilpin’s, a carpentry associate of Finney, accounts
after his death in 1716.
1710/1711 By April 1711,
Margaret Finney was married Benjamin Edmondson, a planter[lxviii]
living in Essex County, Virginia.[lxix] Williamson was about 25 years old and the son
of Thomas[lxx] and
Mary Edmondson of Essex County, whose land bordered the small plantation of
John Finney, deceased. The new young
couple would raise Margaret Upton-Finney-Edmondson’s three children from her
previous husband. The deceased John
Finney’s children with his first wife, Margaret Gibbs, were sent to live with
their uncle John Gibbs in Middlesex County since they had lost both their
mother and father and were now orphans.[lxxi]
See Appendix 9 for a timeline documenting all references to
John Finney in Middlesex and Essex County, Virginia records.
[i]
Lancaster County VA Court 14 January 1684 – the last item on the docket that
day is recorded as “John Finney, servant to (
) the country without indenture and ordered that he serve eight years
from his arrival”
[ii] John
Finney was listed in the immigrant servant project http://immigrantsservants.com/search/advanced.php. His indenture year was 1685 and the length of
his indenture was 8 years. John Finney
was listed in John Carter’s inventory of 1691 as having “two years”, which is
presumed to mean in his indenture. A
longer indenture was common for individuals who were under 20. Therefore, if he began his indenture in 1685,
John Finney was born no earlier than 1665.
Since he was known to have been a carpenter and if he had been trained
in England, he was no younger than 16, which would put a latest birth date at
1669. Considering these postulations,
John Finney was born between 1665 and 1669.
[iii] John
Finney was said to be the son of a William and Mary Finney from Edmund West
Family Data Collection Births (online database). Other genealogies try to connect him to the
Finnell family. These are unfounded
claims with no source and therefore must be treated as merely legends.
[iv] This
may have actually been in December also.
Somewhere between the court meetings of December 1684 and January 1685
marked his arrival
[v] Since he
was in John Carter’s will it is assumed that John Carter paid for John Finney’s
passage and made an indenture contract with John Finney (Lancaster Co VA Wills
1691)
[vi] Many
sources show John Finney as a carpenter, which will become apparent in future
sources
[vii] A
possible scenario surrounding Finneys early life could have been – John Finney,
once reaching about age 10, was offered as an apprentice to a carpenter by his
father. This was common among the less
fortunate as aging child became a larger burden on his parents. An apprenticeship would free the family from
feeding another mouth while giving the child experience in a trade that could
ensure a somewhat promising future. It
could be possible that John’s parents became deceased during this time and to
avoid sending his siblings Elizabeth and Mary to an orphanage, or the streets,
he quit his apprenticeship and arranged for them to journey to America for a
new future.
[viii]
Another scenario could have been that John Finney and Elizabeth Finney were
married (both arriving in the same year and with the same indenture). Mary
Finney could have been their daughter (also arriving in 1685). Her indenture may have been 12 years because
she was merely a small child and would be unable to work off her passage until
she aged a bit.
[ix] In John
Carter’s estate settlement, there were only three servants with indentures
remaining in 1691.
[x] (Lancaster
Co VA Wills 1691) It is interesting to note here that the three Finneys
appeared to be the only servants with indentures remaining in the Carter
inventory
[xi]
Website?
[xii] 22
July 1691 John Carter estate true valuation page 32-34
[xiii]
Lancaster County Court 9 November 1692 page 233
[xiv]
Website?
[xv] This is
an assumption based upon the fact that Elizabeth Wormeley received John Finney
and his two remaining years of indenture and then moved to Middlesex County
[xvi] From
“Historic Buildings in Middlesex
County , Virginia
[xvii] He
was definitely a free white citizen by 1694 when he showed up in a Middlesex
County Virginia Court Order and was married (Middlesex Co VA Orders 1680-1694 p
704)
[xviii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1680-1694 p 704)
[xix]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1680-1694 p 710 and 712)
[xx]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1680-1694 p 721)
[xxi] John
Finney would have gained his freedom by 1693 so his marriage could not have
been before that date. Margaret Gibbs
was also born about 1682 so, because of her young age, her marriage seems more
likely to have happened closer to the 3 September 1694 date where they were listed
in the court order as husband and wife.
[xxii] Some
sources say 1682 and others say 1684.
Her father was Gregory Gibbs which is known because of several sources
related to John Gibbs, Margaret’s brother.
Gregory Gibbs son John Gibbs was listed in John Finney’s will of 10
December 1709 as his “brother”, John Finney and John Gibbs were in several
court documents together, and John Gibbs took care of John and Margaret’s
children after they were both dead in 1710. In 1702, John and Margaret Finney
were granted the will and act as executor of Joan Sheath, who is strongly
believed to be Margaret Gibb’s older sister Joan Gibbs.
[xxiii] He
had associations in court with Robert Gilham, another carpenter, in 1694. He was an inspector assigned by the court
with John Pace, another carpenter, to inspect the workmanship of a recently
built mill. An orphan was placed in his
care in 1707 and he was to teach him the carpenter’s trade. He worked with John Hipkins, a popular
builder. He was a carpenter by
profession from a 1706 deed.
[xxiv] (Christ Church
[xxv] (Christ Church
[xxvii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 280)
[xxviii]
“Ships From Ireland to Early America 1623-1850 Volume 2 by David Dobson page
108
[xxix]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 307)
[xxx] (Christ Church
[xxxi]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 505)
[xxxii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 505)
[xxxiii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 506)
[xxxiv]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 500)
[xxxv]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1700-1702 p 480)
[xxxvi] A
Joan Gibbs is definitely the daughter of Gregory Gibbs and the older sister of
Margaret Gibbs. Nothing has ever been
found about her life, including death or marriage. It is an assumption that this Joan Sheath is
Joan Gibbs who married a Sheath.
[xxxvii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 569)
[xxxviii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 572)
[xxxix] John
Finney was first recognized with Margaret Upton in a Middlesex Court document on 2 April
1705. John Finney and Margaret Upton
were then married on 12 April 1705. John
Finney and Margaret Gibbs last child was born in 1701 so the death date of
Margaret Gibbs is a guess based on the last child’s birth and the association
with Margaret Upton.
[xl] If the
previous postulation about her birth and parentage are correct
[xli] Some
researchers have this person as Margaret Underwood though there is no evidence
of this. Others have said she was
actually married previously to William Underwood ad that her birth name could
have been Moseley. The fact that the
marriage record states Margaret Upton and she and John Finney had been to court
just before the marriage as John Finney and Margaret Upton should inform
researchers that she was either Margaret Upton by birth or was Margaret ?
married to an Upton before her marriage to John Finney
[xlii] (Christ Church
[xliii] A
Margaret Upton arrived in Virginia (exact destination unknown) in 1700 (List of
Emigrants to America from Liverpool, 1697-1707, printed in 1969). After a 5 year indenture, it seems likely
that a young girl having recently completed, say, a 5 year indenture would have
been looking for a family to join. The
John Finney family, which had recently lost a wife and mother, would have been
the perfect recipe for exiting her term of bondage on top of things.
[xliv]
Lancaster County Deeds 1701-1715 page 78-79
[xlv] John
Hall was a large estate owner in Lancaster County, in the late 17th
and early 18th century.
[xlvi]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 p 617)
[xlvii]
Middlesex Co VA Orders 1694-1705 page 623
[xlviii]
Middlesex County Order Book No 4 1705-1710 page 1
[xlix] (Christ Church
[l] Edward
Ball was born about 1670 and died 1726.
He was buried in Saluda, Middlesex Couty at the Christ Church Cemetery
[li]
Middlesex County Order Book 1705-1710, page 35
[lii]
(Middlesex Co VA Orders 1705-1710 p 36)
[liii]
(Christ Church Parish VA Deaths 1653 – 1812)
[liv] (Essex
Co VA Deeds and Wills No 12 1704-1707 p 312-316)
[lv] (Essex
Co VA Deeds and Wills No 12 1704-1707 p 312-316)
[lvi] This
is an assumption based on the purchase of a large tract of land and his current
occupation.
[lvii]
(Middlesex Co VA Order Book 1705-1710 p 145)
[lviii]
(Middlesex Co VA Order Book 1705-1710 p 160)
[lix]
(Middlesex Co VA Order Book 1705-1710 p 158)
[lx] This
date is a guess based upon several observations. The fact that all of the previous children’s
births or christenings were recorded in Christ Church Parish would mean that
the Finney’s had likely moved to Essex by the
time James Finney was born. The previous
child William was baptized in March 1706 in Christ Church Parish and then Essex County Middlesex
County
[lxi] (Essex
Co VA Deeds and Wills No 13 1707-1711 p 317)
[lxii]
(Essex Co VA Deeds and Wills No 13 1707-1711 p 344)
[lxiii]
(Essex Co VA Deeds and Wills No 13 1707-1711 p 402)
[lxiv]
(Middlesex Co VA Order Book 1710-1721 p 156)
[lxv] Hewick
Plantation is where Walker ’s
father-in-law lived in Urbanna and it would have been normal to receive a dowry
of land from a family as wealthy as the Robinsons
[lxvi]
(Middlesex Co VA Order Book 1710-1721 p 118)
[lxvii]
William Kilpin died April 14 1716 in Middlesex County ,
Virginia according to the Christ Church Parish
Register in Middlesex
County
[lxviii]
Edmondson must have owned at least 20 slaves if he was to be listed as a
planter. I wonder how official that
designation was for farmers or if he could have inherited that designation from
his father.
[lxix] On
the 12 April 1711 (Essex Co VA Deeds and Wills No 13 1707-1711 p 402) probably
about a year after John Finney’s death, the additional inventory was presented
to the Essex County Court by Benjamin Edmondson and his wife, the late Margaret
Finney, executrix of John Finney’s will.
Oddly the previous inventory (Essex Co VA Deeds and Wills No 13
1707-1711 p 344) was presented to the Essex
County Court by Mary Young, executrix of John
Finney’s will.
[lxx] Thomas
served in the House of Burgesses several times in the 1690s.
[lxxi] John
Finney Jr. had a court case in Middlesex
County Middlesex County Middlesex
County
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