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| Birth: | About 1640 in England |
| Death: | 1699 in Eliz.City Co., VA |
| Sex: | M |
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Individual:
THE MINSONS OF ELIZABETH CITY COUNTY by Myles Johnson Part 1pages 51-53 This is an account of what has been found to datetoward a genealogical record of the Minson family of ElizabethCity county, Virginia, descending primarily from one John Minsonwho lived in the seaport there and died at the end of the 17thcentury. Part 1 of this account will present information on thepresumed immigrant, his children, and several apparently relatedMinsons of Hampton & Elizabeth City county in the early 1700's.Subsequent parts will cover branches of the fmnily as they movedto Charles City county, Norfolk, and York county, or to Henricocounty and Richmond. Elizabeth City county, situated at the tipof the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, is one ofthe earliest settled sites in Virginia. It was the landfall forships coming to Jamestown and was, therefore, the second siteafter James Fort where the earliest settlers stationed agarrison for their defense against the threat of a raid by theSpaniards. The site was the home of the Kecoughton tribe and wasfirst known by that name. The county was formed in 1619 as theCorporation of Elizabeth City and the Parish of Kecoughton, andnamed Elizabeth in honor, not of the late Queen, but of thePrincess Elizabeth, a daughter of King James I who had recentlycome to the throne. Originally, the county extended from theYork to the James and across to the lands on the south side ofthe James, the present Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach,but in 1636 New Norfolk County was created of those parts southof the James. From then on, until 1952 when it was absorbedinto the city of Hampton, Elizabeth City County remained intact.By 1650 Elizabeth City county was well settled. Unfortunately,virtually all records of the county and the activities of itscitizens from its beginning to about 1690 are lost to us butafter 1690 extensive official records do remain, althoughincomplete. The loss of the early records makes it impossiblefor us to determine just when John Minson arrived but it wouldhave to be sometime between 1650 and 1680 in order for him to beas he appears to us from the the recorded years of his life,from 1690 to 1700. In 1691 Hampton was designated by theVirginia Council as the initial port of call for all vesselsarriving in the colony. Ships were required to put in at theestablished port of call and take on a pilot, if proceedingfarther upstream. The small town was occupied by a mixture ofpeople in farming and seafaring or shipping trades. It musthave been an interesting and busy community, a haven for vesselsgratefully reaching land after the six week travail from Englishports and those also arriving from the West Indies, as well as ahangout for sailors at loose ends. A small bay in the mouth ofthe Hampton River was a favorite hiding spot for Blackbeard onlya few years later, and ordinaries(taverns) flourished inHampton. By 1694 there were still only 26 town lots but fiveordinaries(taverns). Queen Street, where the river pilots lived,was the principal street. Our story begins with the presence inElizabeth City county of one John Minson, probably from Dorset,England, a well regarded pilot, a resident of South Hampton andrenter of a much disputed tract across the river, called "FortField". He had married some ten or more years before the firstrecord of him in 1690 and was a Justice of Elizabeth City countyat the very last year of his life and of the century. JOHNMINSON (d.1699) JOHN MINSON was born in England, probablyabout 1640-50, as he seems to have been a grown but unmarriedyoug man at the time of his arrival in Virginia. The earliestrecords in Virginia can not be ruled out but there is no sign ofa tie. In 1656-1662, a Minor Minson is cited in patents as alandholder on the Rappahahock River in what became Lancastercounty, but these patent reference also that Minor Minson diedbefore 1661 when his land "escheated" (i.e.,was recalimed by thecolony) because he died without heirs. In 1666, a Robert Minsonwas claimed as a headright but there is no further record ofhim. Later, other headright claims cite a Humphrey Minson(1697)and another Robert Minson (1702), in additiion to the RobertMinson cited in 1700 by John's widow. More problematic is thepresence of a George Minson(or two) in the 1700's. Arelationship to John Minson is not explicit in any record but atleast one item implies this. That John Minson was a respected,substantial member of the community by 1690 is clear from hisappointment as Pilot by Francis Nicholson, Lt. Governor ofVirginia, in 1691 when Hampton was designated as the officialport of call: Whereas from experience it is found necessarythat in all rivers, harbours, where Shipps(sic)unually trade, a skillful Pylott be appt. to conduct Shipps, whoshall desire the same to their desired place of anchorage....Now know ye, that being well assured of the knowledge,experienc, skill & Judgement of John Minson, I nominate &constitute & appt him...Pylott of James River, Hereby requiringhim to be ready upon all occassions to pilot such shippsto their place in James River... John Minson had married aSydwell (----) sometime about 1670 and had one son, WilliamMinson, born about 1670 and married in 1697, and one daughter,Sidwell Minson, who married in 1702 and thus was probably bornabout 1680. It is an intriguing possibility that John Minsonand, more likely, his wife were Quakers. Several court recordsin the mid-1690's identify the location of properties rented byJohn Minson with the county. He rented several different tracts,as well as having a lot in town. A 1697 suit by John Minsoncharges that Bertram Servant took a quantity of cider from aplantation called Downes' Field, on Mill Creek, which Minsonrented for seven years from a Col. John Lear. Minson had a deedbut Servant also claimed to be in possession of the property.This "Fort Field", often cited as "Downes Field", was a tract onthe famous evocatively(tending to evoke a memory of) named"Strawberry Banks", in an area now occupied by the VeteransHospital. it became the subject of a long dispute between aJohn Selden and Samuel Galt (later, the famous goldsmith ofWilliamsburg), which began in the early 1690's and was finallyresolved in 1747. John Minson's apparently petty suit aboutcider was tied in with all this because it was based on adifference about who had the right to lease the tract. Minsonclaimed to have had his lease from the heirs of Col. Morryson,whereas Servant had purchased the land from Captain WilliamClaibourne. "Jno. Minson, Gent." was one of three men appointedby the justices in 1699 to take depositions from partiesfamiliar with the history of ownership. Bertram Servant was tobecome, only two years after John's death, a relative bymarriage. he was a maternal grandfather of the Bertram Proby whomarried John's daughter, Sidwell. It was only the beginning ofseveral generations of Minson-Proby-Servant relations. By thistime, the late 1690's, John Minson had achieved a solid positionin the county. He was now referred to as 'John Minson, Gent, 'and, in 1699, was made a Justice. Records show a stream ofminor suits both by and against him, not unlike the records ofother men of affairs of the time. In a suit of September 1699,with Minson sitting as a Justice, Robert Beverly claimed thatMinson had not paid rent for the Fortfield tract. At the nextcourt in November Minson could not appear in his own defense dueto illness, and Beverly seemed uncertain of whether or notpayments had been made by Minson. John Minson died, intestate,sometime between the time he was described by the Sheriff inlate November as very sick and too ill to attend Court that day,and 18 January 1699/1700 when he is cited as deceased at theCourt that day. At that January 18 Court, Sydwell Minson,John's wife, is identified as his widow as she is granted acertificate for 250 acres as headrights "for the important of 5persons by her husband, John Minson, dec'd". One of theheadrights names was a Robert Minson, whose relationship(if any)to John is unknown. Another person cited as a headright wasWilliam Allin, who was recorded earlier, in February 1698/99,as"coming in without indentures" and voluntarily consenting toserve John Minson for six years from 5 May 1698. In March 1701a license was granted Sydwell Minson to marry Henry Turner. Shemay have acquired some land on the basis of the 5 headrightscited above, but it does not appear that John left her with anyland of her own. The only land references found involving JohnMinson make it clear that he was renting the property. A widow,with few assets, whose children were married, and who was stillunder 40, normally remarried as soon as possible. We have noclue as to Sydwell's age; she seems to have been much youngerthan John, as she lived until 1725, at least, and her secondhusband outlived her. She and Henry Turner had no children.Her children by John Minson seem to have been born when he wasas much as 30 years old. Nothing further has been found onSidwell or on her second husband, although he had been known toher before their marriage. The date of her death is not know atthis time.
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