Mitha, it has a wonderful ring to it doesn’t it? And yet, meets with heavy debate…
Mitha the mother of Elizabeth Parker Atkinson (Adkins) according to “OUR” family history, irregardless of what some authors have written in the past. We will keep her as our Family MONARCH. You’re welcome to disagree with my findings, as I’m sure many of you will, but you know that old adage … as for me and my house… I will stay with “Mitha”.
I have on record three separate Marriage License for Richard Parker, VA.
- Richard born 1650 VA married an ??? Pender in 1676.
- Richard male born 1650 Spouse named Mitha ??? birth year 1660 Marriage State: of VA
- Richard Parker married Judith Huntt spouse birth VA in marriage 1668 in VA.
I wish I could split off the comments under Jacob Harley and others because the comments there were among many on Mitha and I should have already had a separate post on her, as these didn’t pertain to Jacob.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Hundred years From Now
…it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove… but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a CHILD. ~ Dr. Forest E. Witcraft from “Within My Power”
Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions. ~ John Randolph
Metcalf Family Mews 
July 10, 2009 at 1:31 pm
The chief accomplishment of Waunita Powell’s research (which, of course, isn’t perfect – nor are we) is that this 84 year old woman from Paris, Illinois spent ten years sorting out the “Richard Parkers” who lived in Virginia in the late 1600s. She didn’t rely upon family traditions or hop over to the LDS stuff. She checked out wills, deeds, marriage records, court records, land transfers, etc. that exist in Virginia (despite the fact that many records were mislaid or destroyed during the War Between the States)… “Richard” who married “Miss Pender” was Richard of Surrey County. He died in 1677. His grandson was buddies with William Byrd of Westover. “Richard of Nansemond” (ancestor of many North Carolina Parkers and the subject of some controversy among Parker researchers who want him to be “Richard of Cornwall” despite the fact that he was born too early – c. 1620 – and was established in Nansemond County, Virginia around 1644) was married to Judith Huntt. “Richard of Charles City County/later Henrico” arrived in 1652. He was one of several well-off passengers aboard a ship captained by one Francis Morgan of Wales. He WAS a “doctor of physicke”. His age was about 22 when he arrived. It took about 2 1/2 years to fulfill apprenticeship obligations to be a doctor. Charles City records have him signing a release to a young man who was HIS apprentice about 1656. He married a widow named Mary Perkins, adopted her son and acquired land in Henrico Parish on “Four Mile Creek”. There is evidence that Richard Parker Jr. was his son and that he lived on the same “plantation” at Four-Mile Creek (which had become part of Goochland County by that time). Lots of records of the Parker “headright” on that site … Furthermore, there is evidence (presented by Mrs. Powell, Stephen M. Lawson, and others) that “Dr. Richard of Henrico” was “Richard Parker of Cornwall”. Church records at Warleggan and St. Stephens at Saltash have “Richard, 9th son of Charles Parker and “Katterrn” Bullar christened Nov. 29, 1630 at warleggan. Another proof of his existence is the record left by his younger brother, Rowland Parker, at Browsholme Hall (once in Yorkshire, the Hall – near Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley – is now in Lancashire). Rowland stated that his brother, Richard” became a “chuirgeon”, “married a Londoner” (Mary Perkins was from London”) and “went into Virginy” … “Dr. Richard of Charles City/Henruico” is the only one of the three Richard Parkers who fits ALL of the aforementioned descriptions of “Richard of Cornwall” … Two other proofs have popped up to validate Mrs. Powell’s contention: 1. Richard was hauled into court in Charles City for “failing to treat the plaintiff’s leg” during a two-year period (and we think we have medical difficulties today!). 2. Several “Bullars” (or “Bullers”) show up about the same time in Charles City and Henrico Counties … I know that an overenthusiastic lady named Sarah Elizabeth Rose has a (can I say “goofy”?) website where she relates herself (no matter how distantly) with almost every famous person in history). I take her stuff with a large grain of salt (i.e. she says the “Boone” family in the Yadkin Valley was related to the “DeBohun” family of Medieval England) BUT some of her stuff is based upon Royal Genelogical Society material (“Grin” might say that British records are “laughable”, but they probably don’t make that many mistakes re. the royals) … The point is that, from Charles Parker m. “Katterrn Bullar” backwards, the line has been checked, rechecked, and certified. It goes something like this: “Katterrn” Bullar d/o Sir Francis Bullar, s/o Richard Bullar m. Margaret Trethurffe d/o Thomas Trethurffe (his Henry VII era will exists), John Trethurffe m. Elizabeth Courtenay d/o Sir Hugh Courtenay (killed at the Battle of Tewksbury/Wars of the Roses), s/o Edward Courtenay, s/o Sir Hugh Courtenay (Order of the Garter, served Edward the Black Prince at Crecy and Poitiers (100 Years’ War) m. Margaret DeBohun d/o Hugh DeBohun (killed at Battle of Bouroughbridge) m. Elizabeth Plantagenet (called “the Welshwoman” because she was born at Caernarvon Castle in Wales) d/o Edward I (“Longshanks”) King of England … Ms. Rose screws this up a bit, but she is partly on the right track. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction! …
Antecedents for William V. Atkinson are a bit iffy. He MAY have been the son of John, Thomas, or John-Thomas Atkinson. Bunches of Atkinsons arrived in Virginia in the 17th century. One “William Atkinson” turned up in Jamestown about 1609. A “John Atkinson” arrived aboard the “Hopewell” from Barbados (around 1640, the ran off the English colonists in Barbados; some came to Virginia). Several Atkinsons came directly from England (Yorkshire) … Though Richard Parker Jr.’s alleged first wife, Elizabeth “Ballard”, appears in the records of St. John’s (Episcopal) Church in Henrico Parish, her death date (February 7, 1716) is so close to the marriage date of Richard’s daughter Elizabeth to William V. Atkinson, that there is ample wiggle room for the “Mitha” advocates. Whichever the case, “Mitha” was indeed Richard Jr.’s wife when his will was probated in March, 1726.
… William and Elizabeth Atkinson (Adkins) DID live on Mauchamps Creek in Goochland County in the early 1700s. ALL their children – Parker V., Mary, Richard, Millington (#1) – were born there … There WERE Indians in the neighborhood – Saponi, Tutelo, etc. – who either became extinct or later mixed with the Tuscaroras who joined the “Iroquois League” in the 1740s … Lots of “goodies” for every genealogical persuasion – all one has to do it dig out the info! FRED
July 10, 2009 at 2:45 pm
P.S. I just noticed that at least two of your above-mentioned “Richards” are second generation. Richard Jr. of Henrico (s/o Dr. Richard of Charles City/Henrico) married “Mitha” (I say wife #2, you say wife #1 – no big deal for now) You have his birth date & her death date correct! … Richard of Nansemond married Judith Huntt … Richard Parker the 2nd of Surrey (his father died 1677) married “Miss Pender” … I may have this wrong. Check Waunita Powell’s “Three Richard Parkers” to see which “Richard” married “Miss Pender”. I DARE you!
LOL Fred
July 10, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Just checked it myself. I had it backwards. Richard I of Surrey (d. 1677) married Judith Huntt. Richard II of Nansemond married “Miss Pender” – If William V. Atkinson is our ancestor, we need not woory too much about the non-Henrico “Richards”.
F.
July 10, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Wow… you have been busy. I can guarantee that William V Adkins I and William II are my ancestors. DNA proof. I do understand, with your being an Adkins descendant through a mother’s bloodline, you cannot test out. So you have to go with the family traditions here, to some extent anyway.
I have tried to comment on this post a few times, all of which, I have erased. I’m not sure where I want to make my formal stand on this one, until I can get an exact marriage date for Mitha, I fear its all for nothing. We need proof, but we do have for now, proof she was married to Richard at the time of his death, making her at the very least, a step-grandma. So she stays, until the records all come in.
What was the marriage date and place of Richard to this Elizabeth Ballard?
Thanks for your comments,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
July 11, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I’m at the library, so my research stuff is at home, but I thought it might be a helpful
to mention a couple of books you might find useful – Nugent’s “Cavaliers and Pioneers of Colonial Virginia”, also “Pioneers of the New River Settlements and Contiguous Territories” (by Hale, I think) and Draper’s “Heroes of King’s Mountain”. These works contain much genealogical info about the families that settled on the New River, Bluestone River, Upper Holston,Clinch. These families went into Kentucky and Tennessee, or migrated north via the Big Sandy and Guyandotte Rivers into what is now West Virginia … I’m still working on the Bowen family (avoid the LDS stuff on this one) plus I’m getting intrigued about the relationship betwen settlers in 17th Century Virginia(Goochland/Halifax/Lunenberg/Pittsylvania Counties)and Native American tribes such as the Susquehanna, Saponi, Tutelo that were wiped out or forced north and south from the time of Bacon’s Rebellion (1677)up until about 1740. Some assimilated into the Tuscarora Tribe which later joined the Iroquois and became the sixth tribe in the “League”. The farm (the word “plantation” was used euphemistically)of William V. & Elizabeth Atkinson (they started using the “Adkins” abbreviation about this time) on “Snow Creek”, located at the same site in Goochland/Halifax/Pittsylvania Counties after 1716 (in the 1760s Parker V. set up shop at “Sinking Creek” in Giles/Montgomery County – near the Shawnee/Cherokee war trail – about 60 or 70 miles west and lived there until his death in the 1790s) was smack dab in the middle of some of this … I also have no marriage date for either Richard Jr. and Elizabeth (“Ballard”) or for Richard Jr. and “Mitha”
… What I think happened is that earlier Adkins Family researchers – who were only concerned with William V. Atkinson – misread the vestry record at St. John’s Church (now in Richmond, the remodeled church was the scene of Patrick Henry’s famous “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech) and mixed up mother “Elizabeth” with her daughter (?) Elizabeth who married William Atkinson on Feb. 17, 1716/17 (the “other” Elizabeth’s death date is given as Feb. 6, 1716/17) … The will of Richard Parker Jr. is dated March, 1726. “Mitha” died (as you say) in the 1750s. The birth date of “wife” MAY (???) pertain to Elizabeth (“Ballard”?). I still say that “None” means “No Issue” … As I said, the name “Ballard” was suggested by Mrs. Powell (one of her few forays into speculation) because Richard (who had a lot of legal dealings in Goochland County as well as mention because of his horse-racing at Varina racetrack) was executor of the estate of one “John Ballard” whom she assumes to be an in-law of some sort (father-in-law? brother-in-law?). I’ve also seen the name “Ballard” in the Va. Militia records. … I don’t doubt that “Mitha” existed and was wife to Richard Jr. (d. 1727)… I DO doubt, however, that the name “Mitha” is of Native American origin. That’s a stretch by folks who want everyone to be descended from an Indian Princess – my anthropology prof. at Marshal loved to say that “if everyone really had a g.g.g. grandma who was a ‘Cherokee Princess’, the entire Cherokee tribe would have been made up of women” … For now, “Mitha’s” origin will remain a mystery – as will Mary “Frye/Alexander” and “Jacob Harley”…
– Good luck! Fred
July 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Don’t need DNA! Almost everyone in Wayne County, W.Va. is an Adkins. Wayne/Cabell County is “where it’s at” as far as Adkins research is concerned. Y’all come on down sumtime an’ check it out! My ma was a Ferguson & Fergusons & Adkinses married each other so many times that it’s quite embarrassing! F.
July 13, 2009 at 1:27 pm
DNA Testing, by the way, is overrated. All it proves is that one is related to a lot of other people who claim a common ancestor (without something tangible like a lock of hair it’s difficult to link to a particular person who lived a couple of centuries back … The Parkers of North Carolina (ostensibly descended from “Richard” of Nansemond County – b. c. 1620 d. 1678) pushed recently for DNA testing to “prove” their descent from the Cornwall Parkers – DNA results, issued June 9, 2009, proved nothing. Over 200 “Parkers” were tested (including the Comanche Chief Quanah Parker) showing NO matches with the Cornwall Parkers. NO descendants of Elizabeth (Parker) Atkinson of Henrico Parish were participants (you are correct in saying that DNA doesn’t work via the female line) … MY descent from William V. Atkinson is proved the “old fashioned” way -via a paper trail that leads from 18th century land grants, court records, wills, deeds, etc. William V. Atkinson (1690 – 1754) and his son Parker V. (c. 1720/24 – 1792)are co-signers (William as WA, Parker as PA) on land records in Henrico Parish (“Machumps Creek”). They moved to Goochland County(“Snow Creek”)around 1720. From 1740, 1746 onward. Parker’s son, Hezekiah Sr. (1759 – 1842) ended his days in what is now Wayne County, W.Va. … My great-grandmother, Sarah Adkins (1849 – 1937) was descended from Mary and Jacob “Oxford” via TWO sons – Jacob f/o “Blind Charlie” Adkins, and David (f/o Mark Adkins f/o David Adkins who was in the 7th W.Va. Cavalry during the Civil War). Her husband, my great-grandfather, Milton Jameson Ferguson (1849 – 1925) was descended from Parker via Hezekiah, William Joseph, Mary Levon Adkins (d/o William Joseph)who married Edmund Ferguson, Milton’s father … While there is no will (or marriage certificate)for Parker V. (land records are the proof that he was a son of William V. Adkins), the will of Hezekiah Sr. IS recorded at the Wayne County Courthouse in Wayne, W.Va. … So is Sarah’s will. Contrary to the opinions of some folks, the Adkinses and Fergusons COULD write and were addicted to putting every minor transaction on paper. It is found at the Cabell County Courthouse in Huntington, W.Va. as well as at the Wayne Courthouse. In her 1937 will she left the Miller’s Fork farm (Fisher-Bowen Branch) to her favorite daughter, Fannie Ferguson Booth and, “upon her death”, to granddaughter Stina Mae (Ferguson) O’Neill (1909 – 1966) “and her children” . I came along in 1945. I’m an “only child” – can’t you tell?) …
About Richard Parker Jr. … 1677 tithe records (each Virginia householder was required to pay a tax for each male adult over 16 in the family) for Charles City County show that Dr. Richard Parker’s son, Richard Jr. was most likely born in 1659-60. and died in 1727 (I found a mention of “Mitha” being born c. 1695 in Henrico Parish and dying around 1754) … This is based upon Dr. Richard’s arrival in 1652. His marriage (record of the adoption of his wife’s son, Nicholas Perkins in 1656), and his aquisition of Henrico Parish land (“Four Mile Creek) in 1659 … Richard Jr. was born while his parents still lived in Charles City … Any marriage records for Richard Jr. would be in Henrico PARISH, probably at St. John’s Church … As I said, Richard Jr. raced horses (he owned the horses) at Varina racetrack near Richmond. His horse raced against one owned by Thomas Batte. I found that – in the 1670s, Thomas Batte traded with the Monacan (NOT “Mohican”) and Saponi Indians at the headwaters of the Roanoke. His brother, Henry Batte, explored the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1666 … The Battes, Byrds, and Balls (Geo. Washington’s mother’s people) are listed in “The Pedigrees of Some of the descendants of the Emperor Charlemagne” by Marcellus Donald Alexander von Redich (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1979) … Many of the “Cavalier” families of 17th Century Virginia were descended from “nobility” of Cornwall, Lancashire and the “Marcher Lords” of Gloucestershire … Adamses, Roosevelts, Byrds, Harman Blennerhassett) Al Gore and G.H.W. Bush claim descent from a daughter of Edward I (in their case it was his oldest daughter Joan of Acre) …
The book I referred to earlier is “A History of the Middle New River Settlemants and Contiguous Territories” by David E. Johnson … Also see “Trans-Allegheny Pioneers” by John P. Hale (p. 249 of the latter work says – upon info supplied by Col. J.L. Peyton, author of “A History of Augusta County” – that Cornstalk was born “within the present limits of Greenbrier County” around 1727 … The Shawnee fought with the Manican, Susquehannock, Tutelo and Saponi tribes in the early 1700s … Anglo and Iroquois encroachments pushed them north into the Ohio Valley by the 1750s … At the time Mary Ingles was kidnapped (1756) Cornstalk’s Chalagathwa Shawnee lived on the Scioto at the present site of Portsmouth, Ohio. Not long after her “visit”, the “Shawneetown” village was flooded out, and the sept moved to “Challagathwa” (Chillicothe) … Hope this helps!
July 13, 2009 at 2:18 pm
This is for Ron Bradshaw (“Adkins – Thank You Michael” April 24, 2009) … Phoebe Bradshaw married Jacob Adkins (b. 1761) s/o Mary and Jacob “Oxford” in 1791 in Franklin County, Va. “Around 1804” they moved to what is now Wayne County, W.Va. Phoebe’s (b. c. 1767/71 died 1862) parents were Willam and Susannah Bradshaw. William was born c. 1747 in Amelia County, Va. Purchased 172 acres “on the waters of Snow Creek” (Feb. 15, 1769 Pittsylvania County – after 1785 Franklin County – land record). Susannah’s maiden name was Hutchenson … The children of William & Phoebe Bradshaw are as follows:
PHOEBE b. c. 1767/71 – d. Wayne County, Va. 1862 m. Jacob Adkins (b. 1761)
charles
susannah
moses
July 13, 2009 at 2:29 pm
i Meant “sUSANNAH” bRADSHAW!
July 13, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Many thanks, I see your still plugging away. This must be a busy week for our ancestors. The queries have been pouring in.
I to, had done many years of research and followed paper trails to get where I am today. Luckily, the DNA testing proved my work was correct and for that I am eternally grateful.
Since the Adkins do have the “Adkins DNA Project” it all worked out wonderfully. I only wish more families had that in stock. Personally, I would DNA test everyone at birth for reasons of my own. LOL But that’s just me.
I do hope Grin is getting all this… since I believe you’ve called him out!
Thanks as always,
Sheila jean Adkins Metcalf
July 14, 2009 at 10:34 am
Sheila:
Called him out on what? I believe Garen and I agree in general principle, though not always on conclusions … As you might have noticed, my method is to check, recheck, and correct when necessary (CSI Marietta)… Yesterday, while looking at one of the several Adkins records I’ve been using, I mistakenly took the “She was born in 1695” right after “Mitha” to mean that was “Mitha’s” date of birth. It wasn’t! That was the date of birth for Richard Parker Jr.’s daughter Elizabeth who married William V. Atkinson (Adkins)… I’ve also been saying “February” instead of “January” for their marriage date. My bad! … I rechecked the old Adkins book from the Cabell County Library. It’s the only one that contains (microscopic)photo copies of the marriage records from St. John’s Church. It says “1716/17/18 – William Atkinson to dr. of Richard Parker Jan. 17, 1716”. In the year of their marriage Elizabeth’s father gave her 150 acres in Henrico Parrish (Goochland county 1727) stating in the deed “For love and affection to my daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Atkinson.” … This statement is from Wulfeck’s “Marriages of Some Virginia Residents” (page 2) … According to Waunita Powell’s work, the same vestry book at St. John’s Church/Henrico Parish contains a death record for “Elizabeth, wife of Richard Parker” as “January 6, 1716” … Since you have no birth record or marriage record for Richard Parker Jr. and “Mitha”, and all I have is an assumed death record for “Elizabeth”, we are at the same impasse as we were before … Richard’s will (recorded in Henrico Parish) was dated “27 February, 1726” and probated “6 March, 1726”. In it he leaves his wife “Mitha Parker” (I hauled out the magnifying glass again, and I am willing to agree that the 3rd letter is a “T”) “three cows or calves, four sows” also “the bed and furniture”. BELOW “Mitha’s” name are some unintelligible words (it might be another name). If you can get a copy of the original, you’ll see what I mean (eyestrain is just one of the perks of genealogical research). Richard leaves daughters Mary and Elizabeth “One Shilling” since they were earlier provided for … To help get the County thing sorted out, I’ll quote from the Adkins record: “The earliest records I have found of William, after marriage, are from Goochland County for the year 1736. These include land record showing William with 236 acres of land standing good for a store debt in Henrico” … Originally, the Atkinsons lived on Machumps Creek in Henrico Parish, but moved to the Snow Creek area in Goochland County. “There is a 1740 Goochland County record that has William with three sons; Richard, William and Parker. This record not only shows relationship, it also sets the birth of the three sons to a seven year period between 1717 & 1724” The book says that William, Parker, William II are in Lance Holman’s tax list for 1746 & 1748 … Also Henry Martin’s tax list for 1748 “while at the same time they are appearing on records for Brunswick & Lunenberg Counties … These records cover several years and several counties “The area in 1740 was Brunswick County, Six years later it became Lunenberg, changing to Halifax in 1752, Pittsylvania in 1767, Henry in 1776 and Frankiln as it is today.” … “The family lived in the Snow Creek District on the Harping and Story Creeks of the Pigg River.” William V. Atkinson operated a farm as well as a mill in that area … Parker, Sherrod, and the other children moved to Fincastle County (becoming Montgomery County in 1777, Giles in 1806 and Craig in 1838. On January 7, 1775 (the year after the battle of Point Pleasant) “Parker had 144 acres surveyed on the Sinking Creek, so. side of John’s Mountain … A Montgomery County court record of 1791 giving Parker an exemption taxes because of age & infirmities.” … Earlier records concerning taxes and land purchases exist for the Parkers (Dr. Richard on “Diggs His Hundred” in Charles City County (1652 – c. 1659) and “Four Mile Creek” in Henrico Parish/Goochland County; Richard Parker Jr. on “Four Mile Creek” from his father’s death c. 1681 until his own death in 1727. Both men served often as jurors … Fred
July 14, 2009 at 2:12 pm
The St. John’s Church vestry book account of the marriage of Elizabeth Parker to William V. Atkinson (Jan. 17, 1716) is found on page 228. When was St. John’s Church built? Where and when did Richard Parker Jr. marry “Elizabeth”? or “Mitha”??? My present guess is that an earlier marriage would have taken place in Charles City (St. John’s is now within the city limits of Richmond) … The reason I asked about the death date for Parker’s wife (Mary Frye? Alexander?) is that 1777 (that’s it, isn’t it?) was when Cornstalk was murdered at Fort Randolph. I’m trying to set up some sort of timeline. Parker and Mary (Whatsername) acquires land on Sinking Creek (a long creek, I understand, that flows through several southeastern Virginia counties) by 1775 (their children were all born at Snow Creek/Goochland County in the late 1750s or middle 1760s). Pontiac’s War was 1767-68. During that conflict, there were Indian attacks on farms along Sinking Creek. Parker was serving with the Fincastle/Montgomery militia during Dunmore’s War in 1774. The American Revolution started in “April of ’75” at Lexington/Concord. Virginians were not caught up in those events until about 1777 when British-inspired Shawnee attacks occurred in Kentucky, the Bluestone Creek region (below Bluefield) and the Greenbrier region where Parker lived. The army of Tories and Highlanders under Major Patrick Ferguson were defeated at King’s Mountain in 1781 … The point being that there was a
period of peace from c. 1768 until 1777 during which the Parker V. Adkins family relocated from Snow Creek to Sinking Creek. Do you get my drift on this? How does the “Bluesky/Mary” theory fit this timeline? I’m open to suggestion on this one! … According to Hale’s “Trans-Allegheny Pioneers”, Capt. Matthew Arbuckle (later commander of Fort Randolph in 1777) visited a trading post at the mouth of the Kanawha in the late 1750s (French & Indian War). Daniel Boone (before his move to Kentucky) operated a trading station there as well (a highway marker at the city limits of Point Pleasant marks its site) … Yes, Garen, there WAS a “cabin” at the mouth of the Kanawha River, but I don’t know if Parker and “Bluesky” used it for trysting purposes … Being of a “mature” age myself (with a nose that resembles that of the late Charlton Heston) I’m hardly in a position to comment on the doings of “old” men with young WOEMEN! … Speaking of old duffers and young women, would “Mitha” have reached the age of 94 as you imply in your original post? … Pocahontas, by the way, bore John Rolfe one child and died in London. The child died not long afterward – so there are NO descendants of Pocahontas! … Tecumseh of the Kisipoco sept of the Shawnee was about 5 years old in 1774 when his father Puckinswah was killed at Point Pleasant. “Panther-that-Leaps” (or “Shooting Star” which is a “Leaping Panther in the Sky”)was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. Quite a stretch for “Mitha” in Henrico County, Virginia to be his “grandmother” don’t you think? … My favorite among all these people was “Grenadier Squaw”, sister of Keigh-tugh-qua/Hokolesqua/Cornstalk … Whatta great “broad” (excuse the phraseology) she must’ve been!
– Fred
July 14, 2009 at 2:20 pm
The “period of peace” I mentioned was interrupted briefly by Dunmore’s War – May until October, 1774 … Things settled down quite a bit after the Treaty of Camp Charlotte.
July 14, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Wow… you have been busy. I do want to thank you for the hours you’re logging on this one. We may have to erect a monument in your name down there, as well. Excellent work. I will try to see if I can order a copy of the “Adkins” or “Atkinson” book from the Cabell Historical Society. I assume they sell copies similar to the ones the Kentucky counties HS compiles and sells. At least, I do hope so. I love reading about all the history and even the BIG NOSE news. LOL See, they were human after all.
I will check on the current “Mithaology” dates family children. You keep saying her prior children. Can’t we track them and see what their wills or birth certificates say and who they tie themselves to?
July 15, 2009 at 3:01 pm
The “Adkins Family of Wayne County, West Virginia” is pretty hard to find. It was privately printed in the 1960s and is the only one that has (very small print) photostats of the vestry book at St. John’s Church in Richmond and the (handwritten) will of Richard Parker Jr. … The Cabell County Historical Society or (more likely) the Wayne County Historical Society MAY have reprinted it … Ronnie Cox wrote “The Adkins Family – From the Land of York to Beech Fork) in the 1980s. It contains similar material to the book I’m referring to, but some birth dates are in a different order (i.e. I’m pretty sure that Sherrod Adkins was born in 1755, NOT 1775) and some names are misspelled or mixed up with similar ones. Web sites like Jane Leavell’s contain only partial information as well … Good luck! … What “prior children” of Mitha? That WASN’T me! All I have is Mitha’s name on Richard Jr.’s will, and a mention by Waunita Powell & others who have said that “Elizabeth ‘Ballard’?”) was (alleged) 1st wife according to the St. John’s death records (d. Jan. 7, 1716/17)… All that hogwash about “Mitha” being a Native American & having “children/grandchildren” (including Tecumseh)comes from other folks (I’m NOT talking about Garen) who have got themselves all confused by the Don Greene “Shawnee Heritage” books … I would be just as happy if “Mitha” turned out to be my great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, but if it was “Elizabeth Ballard” instead, I’d hate to see her left on the cutting-room floor! It makes as much sense that Richard II’s daughter would be named “Elizabeth” after her mother as it does that William V. and Elizabeth Atkinson should name a daughter “Mary” (b. c. 1735) after her grandmother, Mary (Perkins) proven wife of Dr. Richard Parker of Charles City … Though I’m confident that I’m descended from Dr. Richard Parker (1630-1681) of Cornwall/Charles City/Henrico, Richard Parker Jr. of “Four-Mile Creek”/Henrico Parish(c. 1659/60 – 1727), William V. Atkinson of “Machumps Creek”/Goochland County, Parker V. Adkins of “Snow Creek” Lunenberg/Pittsylvania Co./later “Sinking Creek” in Fincastle/Montgomery County, Hezekiah of Wayne County Virginia, his daughter Mary Levon Adkins (w/o Edmund Ferguson), Milton Ferguson, Pharaoh Ferguson (I must tell you about him sometime), Stina Ferguson O’Neill, I consider the female line of equal importance … An old college buddy of mine thinks I should only worry about the “male” ancestors who have the same surname (is he being “chauvinistic” or what?) but – having two daughters, a three-year-old granddaughter, and a 37 year-old son (by MY 1st marriage) who says he’s a Buddhist and has a five-minute attention span – I care about the women my ancestors married (or didn’t, as in the case of “Bluesky” and Jacob “Oxford”) as I do the “forefathers”! … You might know the famous quote from abolitionist leader Sojourner Truth – “Where did Jesus come from? God and a WOMAN! – MAN didn’t have NUTTHIN’ to do with JESUS!” …
July 15, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I care about them too, this is why I have a Reed tree and a Pearson tree among many others. I try to track each family member as if they were “Nobility” because they’re are more important to a family.
Each person, is as important as the latter. They’re the building blocks upon which which has, built my existence. In my minds eye, they’re each and everyone one famous, because they are primarily responsible from my being here. For this reason alone they are worth all my time and energy to remember them and give them their rightful place in history.
Thanks as always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
July 16, 2009 at 10:34 am
Sheila:
Ronnie ADKINS is the author of “The Adkins Family From the Land of York to Beech Fork”. NOT Ronnie Cox! Ronnie Cox was an actor who was featured in the movie “Deliverance”. Ask your son if this might be a “Freuduan slip”. Ha! (I’m more of a Jungian myself) …
Down to business! … Here is a tenative timeline, revised and (hopefully) corrected to show the activities of the Adkins/Parker families in context with the events happening around them. I include Native American activities as well because (as you will see) both families had some interaction with Indians in the course of their gradual move westward … I’m kicking myself a bit because I kept screwing up the date of Pontiac’s War due to my mixing up Bouquet’s Treaty [1764] with the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix [1768] …
1607 – English colonists found Jamestown.
c. 1608/09 – One “William Atkinson” is one of the settlers at Jamestown (he may or may not be an ancestor).
1614 – John Rolfe marries Pocahontas insuring temporary peace at Jamestown.
1618/21 – Opechancanough succeeds Powhatan and declares war on the Jamestown settlers.
c. 1630s – The “Shaawanwa” an Algonquian-speaking people break away from the Powhatans and settle in the Shenandoah Valley. These are the “Shawnee” whose name is usually translated as “southerner” (or “people who liked warmer weather”). In the 18th Century, they become wanderers who range from the Ohio Valley to the Savannah River and as far south as Florida (Swanee River)… In Virginia, they make war with Souian-speaking tribes like the Saponi and Tutelo and trade with Iroquoian-speaking tribes like the Susquehannocks (Conestogas).
c. 1640 – Driven out of Barbados by the Spaniards, a group of English settlers come to Virginia. A “John Atkinson” is one of this group.
1649-51 – King Charles I is deposed (and decapitated). Cromwell defeats the Prince of Wales (later Charles II). “Cavalier” refugees flock to Virginia from areas in southwest England (Cornwall, Devonshire)that had been loyal to Charles …
1650 – Abraham Wood’s expedition into the Shenandoah region encounters Shawnees, Saponi, Tutelo Indians …
1652 – Richard Parker (s/o Charles Parker and “Kattern ” Bullar, b. 1630 in Warleggan, Cornwall) – an exiled supporter of the deceased King (his mother’s father, Sir Francis Bullar supported Cromwell)- arrives in Charles City, Va. and later becomes a “doctor of physicke” (the only one of the “Three Richard Parkers” who was a doctor). He obtains a 50- acre Headright at “Diggs His Hundred” …
1656 – Dr. Richard Parker marries widow Mary Perkins and formally adopts her son. He is hauled into court twice about that time in Charles City – first for failing to cure a man’s leg; secondly, for “giving a gun to an Indian”(!).
1669 – Richard Parker obtains land at “Four Mile Creek in “ye uplands of ye St. James River”). By 1669, the Parkers have 6 children – Richard Jr., born 1659-60; Mary; Susan; Elizabeth (m. Richard Crissey); Elizabeth; Thomas (b. 1666) + Richard’s adopted son, Nicholas Perkins … A “Richard Bullar” (probably a relative of Richard) settles in the same area …
1676 – Nathaniel Bacon uses the Saponi and Tutelo to massacre peaceful Susquehannocks on the Roanoke River.
1677 – Thomas Batte trades with the Saponi and Tutelo Indians in the Shenandoah Valley.
1681 – Death of Dr. Richard Parker. His “plantation” on Four-Mile Creek is inherited by his son, Richard Jr.
c. 1685 – Richard Jr. races his horses against those of Thomas Batte Jr. at Varina racetrack near Richmond.
January 6, 1716 – Death of Richard’s wife Elizabeth (supposedly recorded in records at St. John’s Church).
Friday, January 17, 1716 – Elizabeth, Richard Parker Jr.’s daughter, marries William V. Atkinson at St. John’s Church near Richmond.
1720-1730 – The Atkinsons establish a “plantation” on Snow Creek in Goochland County (he operates a mill there)… Richard’s sons, Parker and William II are born c. 1720 and 1721 … According to Virginia historians, Cornstalk’s father has a village near the present site of Winchester, Virginia (Shenandoah Valley). Keigh-tugh-qua is born the same time as Parker V. Atkinson (Adkins).
1730s – The Shawnee – hard pressed by both the whites and Iroquois – start moving across the Appalachian Divide into the Ohio Valley.
July 16, 2009 at 11:56 am
1740/46/48 – William V. Atkinson with his sons Parker, William II, and Richard (males over 16) are recorded in tax records in Lunenberg and Pittsylvania Counties.
c. 1750 – The Chalagathwa Shawnee of Cornstalk establish a village at the mouth of the Scioto River (Lower Shawnee Town).
c. 1754 – A conflict between the French and the English over ownership of the Ohio Valley leads to the start of the Seven-Years’ War, a.k.a. The French and Indian War. George Washington is sent by Va. Governor Dinwiddie to remove the French from Fort Duquesnse. They send Washington packing back to Virginia … Traders like Christopher Gist and George Croghan establish trading posts in the Ohio Valley … Death of “Mitha Parker” wife of Richard Parker Jr. in Henrico Parish.
c. 1755 – Birth of Millington and Sherrod Adkins on Snow Creek/now Halifax County … Squatters like the Burkes and Ingles build cabins in the New River Valley … A trading station is set up at the mouth of the Kanawha.
1756 – Braddock’s Defeat is a disaster for English plans to seize the forks of the Ohio (Virginia militia were involved in the battle). Capture of Mary Ingles on the Bluestone. She is taken to Lower Shawnee Town at the mouth of the Scioto … Andrew Lewis launches his ill-conceived “Big Sandy Expedition” (an attempt to punish the Shawnee). It ends in failure.
c. 1757-1763 – Birth of other children of Parker V. Adkins and ? on Snow Creek in Halifax County – Isom (1757), Hezekiah (1759), Champ (1763 …
1763/64 – Following the end of the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1764 decrees that white settlement shall not be allowed beyond the Appalachian Divide. The Ottawa Chief Pontiac refuses to accept these terms. In 1763, he organizes the western tribes – Ottawa, Miami, Shawnee, Delaware, Seneca and Cayuga (Mingo) to attack English forts and settlements … In June, 1763, Cornstalk’s Shawnees (allegedly) massacre settlers at Muddy Creek in what is now Clendenin, Greenbrier County, WV.
1764 – The Indian confederacy is defeated at Bushy Run near Pittsburg. The Bouquet Treaty (1764) insures the return of white prisoners/adoptees among the Delaware (the Shawnee, meanwhile have moved up the Scioto to the present site of Chillicothe.
1767 – Treaty of Fort Stanwix supervised by Sir William Johnson. The Seneca of New York sign away parts of the Ohio Valley without asking the Shawnee, Wyandot, and Delaware. The Proclamation Line is moved from the Appalachian Ridge to the Kanawha River – This legalizes the claims of squatters in the Bluestone Creek region of the New River Valley … The frontier is relatively peaceful until 1774 …
c. 1768-1770 – Parker V. Adkins moves to the Sinking Creek region in Fincastle/later Montgomery County, Virginia … The birth of “Charity” – the alleged daughter of “Bluesky”, daughter of Keigh-tugh-qua/
Hokolesqua/Cornstalk, and Parker V. Adkins.
c. 1774 – Dunmore’s War is prompted by the murder of Mingo Chief Logan’s family at Baker’s Bottom (above Wheeling). It culminates with the October 10, 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant and the Treaty of Camp Charlotte (near Circleville, Ohio) which moves the Proclamation Line to the Ohio River … Parker Adkins was in the Fincastle/Montgomery County Militia at Point Pleasant.
1775 – Parker surveys land on Sinking Creek. In April, the American Revolution begins at Lexington/Concord.
1777 – The British enlist Shawnees under Black Fish and Blue Jacket to fight the Americans. Cornstalk tries to prevent this, but is murdered with his son at Fort Randolph (exactly three years after his defeat on that site in 1774) … Attacks upon settlers in Kentucky, on the Bluestone and in the Greenbrier region. Supposed death of Mary (“Frye”?/”Alexander”?) … Parker’s sister Mary, her sons Jacob and David; Parker’s sons, Hezekiah and Sherrod move to the New River Valley. Parker’s sons enlist in the American cause about this time. Mary’s son, Mark, is hung as a “Tory” in 1777.
1779-80 – Mary Adkins’ David fights at Camden and Guilford CHouse. He is part of William Washington’s Virginia Mounted Militia … After Guilford Court House, Davis, Sherrod and other militiamen leave to go protect their homes from Shawnee attacks.
1781 – The Battle of King’s Mountain puts a stop to Tory depredations in western Virginia.
1783 – End of the American Revolution.
1791 – Death of Parker V. Adkins.
1792-94 – The Battle of Fallen Timers. United Native tribes led by the Shawnee Bluejacket and the Miami Little Turtle are defeated by “Mad” Anthony Wayne, namesake of Wayne County, WV.
1804-08 – Hezekiah Adkins, Mary Adkins, Jacob Adkins, along with Fergusons, Fryes, Bowens, etc. move into what becomes Wayne County, W.Va. in 1842.
A recent book, “Pioneer Families of Wayne County, West virginia” was published in 1999. It’s author is Evelyn Booth Massie. Her address is Route #3, Box 3003, Wayne, W.Va. … This book deals marginally with the Adkinses, but it contains an 1842 Tax List wherein several Adkinses, Fryes, etc. are listed. It even has a photograph of Lamech Adkins, son my ancestor William Joseph (“Sleepy Billy”) Adkins and brother of Mary Levon Adkins who married Edmund Ferguson. The nose is prominent, but not THAT promonent!
July 16, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I have several things different: I have 7 children total for Richard 1630-1683. With first wife as Elizabeth Bailey 1632-1665 married 1649 Warleggan, Cornwall, England they had 3 children Richard, Robert and Thomas. You have no listing of Robert Parker born 1652-1687. Now as for Susan, she can go either way, unsure of her birth date. I have son Thomas born Mar 1653 and died: 23 Jan 1717 in NC.
I have him as a passenger 1645 to Virginia according to Early Virginia Immigrants, 1623-1666. Richmond [Va.]: W.C. Hill Printing Co., 1912, 376p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1978.
His Millennium record says his father was James not Charles. But I have Charles James Parker on my tree to keep the peace. LOL
I still have Mitha listed as Elizabeth’s mother.
July 16, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Also, I have Mary Burton Perkins as mother of Nicholas Perkins born abt 1647.
July 16, 2009 at 3:34 pm
The Richard Parker married to Elizabeth Bailey (or “Baily”) was “Richard of Surrey County”. He was NOT “Richard of Warleggan, Cornwall” … You need to read Waunita Powell, Stephen M. Lawson or Roy Olin James to sort it all out. By now, most of the descendants of “Surrey Richard” (d. 1683) have admitted that their boy is NOT “Richard of Cornwall”. Some of the “Nansemond Richard” advocates in North Carolina have also capitulated, but there are a few die-hards (Mrs. McSwain) who continue to claim (without proof) that their “Richard” was born in Cornwall. He was born too early (1620) and was already established in Virginia around 1644. If he was “Richard of Cornwall” (born in 1630 according to Warleggan christening records) he would have been 14 years old (plus he WASN’T a “doctor of physicke”. He was a pewter merchant! … You have it right on Mary Perkins though. She married Nicholas Perkins of London. They arrived in Virginia in the late 1640s. Nicholas died c. 1654/55. She married Dr. Richard (who MAY have been her husband’s attending physican – no “hanky panky” intended) in 1656 and formally adopted her son Nicholas Perkins Jr. Nicholas later lived near the Parker plantation on “Four Mile Creek”. There is also a record that about this time Mary (Perkins) Parker received two indentured servants from her father in London (one was a woman found guilty of theft) … In the preceding timeline I (of course) forgot to include the Atkinsons living on Machumps Creek/Henrico Parish, also the 1717 gift of 150 acres from Richard Parker Jr. to “his devoted daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Atkinson”, as well as the March, 1726 will of Richard Parker Jr. which contains the ONLY mention of “Mitha” + “none” outside of latter day (no pun intended) Adkins chronicles … I still contend that researchers of Dr. Richard of Charles City/Henrico don’t seem to care about William V. Atkinson after he marries Elizabeth Parker. And Adkins researchers ignore the Parkers as well. Meanwhile, die-hard “Nansemond Richard” advocates in North Carolina cheerfully muddy the waters to further their no-longer-valid claims … Who among us is perfect? … I hope my putting things in their proper historic context will help future Adkins researchers to get this complex business sorted out (I’m fascinated by the 1657 account of Dr. Richard – who also was a county sheriff as well as doctor – getting “busted” for giving an Indian a gun (this was in Charles City County and he probably went hunting with the Indian as a guide)… I’m going to take a short vacation next week to visit my daughter in Columbus, but will try to keep in touch. Check out the lady in Wayne County. I hope you might finally get around to reading Waunita Powell (who is NOT the “last word” on the topic, but, like me, is only trying to help sort out the mess). Good luck!
– Fred
July 16, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I had to do a doublecheck on this one.
Elizabeth Bailey (Baily, Bayley) was the daughter of Captain Richard Baily of Accomac County. She was the wife of Philip Parker s/o George Parker of Accomac County. She was NOT married to any of the three Richard Parkers living in Virginia in the mid-1600s. she and her husband Philip Parker were both living in 1695. … Richard of Surrey County (called “the Immigrant”)settled on Blackwater Swamp around 1677. He was married to Judith Huntt. His occupation was that of a “brassier” (manufacturer of pewter). His grandson helped William Byrd of westover survey the Shenandoah Valley… Richard Parker of Nansemond County was born around 1620/24. Around 1644 he bought headrights from James Carter and Laurence Peeters on Chuckatuck and Dumpling Creek. His wife’s name is unknown. To be “Richard of Cornwall” (b. 1630) he would have been 13 or 14 when he bought the aforementioned headrights. Also, neither he nor Richard of Surrey were doctors. The 1673 account of Rowland Parker, younger brother of Richard (b. 1630) says his brother was a “doctor of physicke” who “married a Londoner” and “went into Virginy” … Only Dr. Richard Parker of Charles City/Henrico County fits the bill … All this material is found in Nugent’s “Cavaliers and Pioneers of Colonial Virginia” … To put it bluntly, LDS misinformation (Mrs. Powell’s research was later put on LDS reels, but she used land records, court records, adoption records, etc. of Charles City and Henrico Counties) and wishful thinking on the part of some North Carolina Parkers who won’t be allow themselves to be confused by the facts (a lesson for us all, I think!). They have taken what genuine material they have about “Nansemond Richard” and have simply tacked “Cornwall” onto it … Read Mrs. Powell’s work first – then tell me where you think she’s wrong!
July 16, 2009 at 7:17 pm
P.S. Richard arrived in Charles City in 1652 via a ship captained by Francis Morgan of Wales. Among the other – apparently well-heeled – passengers were William Porter, John Parker (I surmise a relative), and Robert Burden. Did you say Mary Perkins’ maiden name was “Burden” (later called “Burton” in Henrico Parish)? I’d never heard this one before … As I said, a “Richard Bullar” lived near the Parkers on Four-Mile Creek, Henrico Parish … Richard’s mother was “Kattern” Bullar w/o Sir Francis Bullar of St. Stephen’s at Saltash, Cornwall (his mother’s brother Francis supported Cromwell in the English Civil War – 1641-49 – while the Parkers were staunch “Cavalier” supporters of Charles I. Richard’s younger brother Rowland served in Prince Rupert’s Dragoons during the Dutch War – 1672-74 – after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660) … The advocates of “Nansemond Richard”, by the way, brag a lot about their “Puritan heritage” … What’s wrong with this picture?
July 16, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Oops! “Kattern” Bullar was the wife of Charles Parker of Warleggan, Cornwall s/o Rev. Will Parker of Saltash/Blisland, Cornwall. Will was a younger son of the Parkers of Browsholme – pronounced “Broo-some” I believe – Hall in Lancashire who moved to Cornwall in the late 1500s (there had been persecutions at Browshole Hall during the reigns of Henry VII and Elizabeth I). “Kattern” was the DAUGHTER of Sir Francis Bullar! Whew again!
July 16, 2009 at 7:38 pm
You sound more like her publicists than an anthropologist. We’re not all using the Force, Ouija boards, Swami’s, LDS records or anything of the such. We have used the information on the records that family members have provided for many years now. Sorry, I guess you hit a nerve.
Anyway, I will read it, if I can obtain a copy. You know me, I’m always up for a good book and occasionally even a not so good book. I know, I’ve had it quoted to me enough to be on a first name basis with her, already. I’m not saying she’s wrong, I’m just saying that there are a lot of books out there, each one putting their slant on the subject and it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Yes, another mixed metaphor… but it seemed to fit my thinking on the subject. She must have really.. impressed you with her way of thinking. So I’ll give it a read. I’ll email my niece at the library and see if she can order it in for me. I’m not making any promises here. I’m fairly resourceful or I used to think so.
I’ve had Elizabeth Bailey on my tree for years as his wife and no one has ever challenged it until now – nor offered an alternative to her. It just seems funny that now she stands in question, as well as the others. Most of us thought, that it was she, whom favored daughter Elizabeth Parker Atkinson was named after.
How can you be so sure this is wrong? Maybe there was two of them as well. Who did you say he married?
Thank you again for all of your hard work and dedication to this project and I hope you enjoy your visit. Have a great evening.
Thanks as always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
July 17, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Shiela:
The “Three Richard Parkers” is available on line. You’ve heard of Google? … No, I’m not Mrs. Powell’s publicist! Nor am I saying she’s correct on everything. Nor am I saying that you’re wrong … Without reading what she wrote, how can you judge? I thought you were more open-minded than that! She’s only concerned with the three “Richard Parkers” who lived in Henrico, Nansemond, and Surrey Counties in the mid-1600s. I have a little trouble understanding your “attitude” on this matter. Didn’t you just say that “each person is as important as the other”? … Mrs. Powell’s meticulous (and it IS meticulous compared to most) research is merely an attempt to clean up a long-standing mess (caused by many years of sloppy research) wherein the “Richards” – not to mention the many “Williams” and “Elizabeths” – have been confused with one another. Your recent statements about “Elizabeth Baily” are proof that she’s right in this respect … These were DIFFERENT people with different lives, backgrounds, spouses, children, in-laws, occupations. They lived in different areas. The only thing they have in common are their first names … In 1640-50, the Anglo population of Colonial Virginia wasn’t that great. By 1690, however, it had grown by leaps and bounds from the few hundred souls that settled at Jamestown. Statistics are available for the period, but I’ll let you find that information for yourself since you don’t seem to trust any information I submit that contradicts your preconceived views about who was who … Part of the problem, I fear, is over-reliance on Latter-Day Saints records. I fully agree with what Garen said earlier that LDS records are unreliable. I also am not fond of the LDS practice of inducting people’s ancestors into the Mormon Church “warehouse of the dead” without permission. People in the 16th and 17th centuries were very picky about religion (some died or left their native land to worship as they pleased) and I don’t think they’d like someone coming along 200 years later and doing what the Inquisition or Henry VIII couldn’t during their lifetime … Also, I don’t like the fact that the LDS records are hardly ever corrected. Like Wikipedia, the LDS project accepts just about anything that is submitted, BUT they leave the old stuff in as well – thus creating a mishmash of misinformation. They simply throw it all out there and hope that something sticks. Actually, they DON’T CARE if it’s wrong or not – all they want are the NAMES … THEN, the misinformation is repeated again and again on various websites where it becomes regarded as “gospel” by family researchers such as yourself … As a person who has studied REAL history (AND anthropology, thank you!) I find this “dumbing down” process insulting … Rely upon what you want if it makes you happy! I’ll continue to look for verification beyond family “tradition”! … If you can’t stand the heat … !
July 17, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I do consider myself very open-minded and I do appreciate all of the work you have done, I think I said that in my comment.
Now to assume that all the information we have, came from LDS records is not correct nor are we just pulling names out of a hat here. LDS records have their place and I have looked at many, but found many to be inaccurate so I reference death certificates, census records and even watch the History channel on subjects that interest me. I just watched a documentary on the original landing in North Carolina, where even the anthropologist on the dig admitted he believed there were more people there than previously reported in ships logs and such. Who knows maybe logs were lost or stowaways? many possibilities.
I do want to comment on this as well: “I find this “dumbing down” process insulting,” to this my response is: not that we are dumbing down, its just that we’re not hopping the first train that comes along. Most data comes from family, history books, newspapers, old bibles and the like. Some stories were not much more than idle gossip, but I do know a lot of secrets were kept as well and those things we’ll never know. I am after what we can access.
I want as much as you or Garen to find the truth, that’s what were here for and I have read and respected all of your findings and Garen’s, among others that have posted comments, but until I find irrefutable proof, I have to go with family traditions.
If I change what I have now with mere speculation on my part (without first, claiming it is just mere speculation on my part… yes, I’ve done that. lol) people get very upset with me. When we should be allowed to openly disagree without getting upset. Like I said before, “agree to disagree.”
I once posted a line on Jane Montgomery, I mixed up the name of Rebecka Jane Howard with Jane Montgomery (Rebecka married William Montgomery) and everyone took it as gospel, because I posted it. I’ve spent over a year now trying to clean up my mess. The two women’s lives paralleled, but since they were both related to me, people thought it was accurate and I’ve sent dozens of emails explaining my position and showed them proof of my mistake and it falls on deaf ear. They won’t change my mistake to make it right so I do fully understand “the mistakes made” position you’ve taken.
I am just a little hesitant here to rush into change without more proof. I will read the Three Richard Parker’s (not available online – I checked Google and Amazon. I have read tons of references and quotes from the book itself) I have recommended it in the past. I have a Parker cousin from Anthony’s side of the family that owns the book, Three Richard Parkers and a few others as well and she always answers the questions I send her way. This has always worked for us. I have at least 9 books on the shelf now waiting for me to read. But I will read this one as soon as I can get my hands on it. Then I can see it for myself. I’ve been waiting for her to say something here but I think she’s afraid to speak on it. I know she’s read it many times. She’s researching the Parker’s side only (no interest in Adkins at all.) She’s in the process of writing a new book on the Parker family. She branches off but she is descended from Dr. Richard Parker. I just didn’t include her work since I wasn’t to interested in where the other Parker grandchildren ended up. But if you shake my hubby’s tree you’ll see they married into the Robertson/Robinson line. So I do have a lot on them from that aspect. I was letting her compile the work, she did however, get my family info up to Cynthia Parker. She has the ancestors info that tie up Richard from Cynthia. I may have it too, just haven’t looked recently, but she did say she didn’t agree with all of the things in book and she has read it, more than once.
I will continue to keep an open mind and I hope you do the same. Please continue to post your comments and allow me a little latitude here, for I must to be able to disagree with your finding and you mine. A healthy debate is needed to insure we have come to the right conclusions.
Thanks as always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
July 17, 2009 at 5:02 pm
mailto:fwp@comwares.net” >Waunita Powell
July 18, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I haven’t left for Columbus just yet & I have some free time while I wait for my daughter … Your previous remarks are appreciated – as is YOUR tireless research into what is – to say the least – a very complex family history … I wasn’t suggesting that you buy Waunita Powell’s “Three Richard Parkers”. Unlike the “Shawnee Heritage” books ($45 per volume) or some expensive so-called “family histories” (that merely supply lists of people with the same last name), Mrs. Powell’s work is FREE (I just googled it to make sure). It is more of a “term paper” than a “book” and runs about 137 pages (running off copies is permitted) … I just noticed that what we’ve been discussing is currently being discussed at a site called “Parker Heritage” (google “Parker” or “Three Richard Parkers”) … The problem, as I said, is that people – particularly among Adkins Family researchers in West Virginia and Kentucky – are mixing up Dr. Richard Parker (b. 1630 in Warleggan, Cornwall) of Charles City County/Four-Mile Creek/Henrico Parish with Richard Parker (b. c. 1620/24) who purchased land in Nansemond County around 1644. There was another Richard Parker in Surrey County, and he is pretty well documented. He’s called “the Immigrant”, was a “brassier”, and married Judith Huntt. He is well-documented and cannot be confused with “Richard of Charles City/Henrico” …
Unfortunately, many Adkins researchers have mixed biographical about OUR “Richard Parker” with those of “Richard of Nansemond” WHO WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT INDIVIDUAL… I say OUR because there is tons of proof that Dr. Richard of Henrico is the UNDISPUTED father of Richard Parker Jr. of Four-Mille Creek/Henrico Parish, who was the UNDISPUTED father of the Elizabeth Parker who married William V. Atkinson at St. John’s (Episcopal) Church on Friday, January 17, 1716. There is UNDISPUTED proof that William V. Atkinson(Adkins) is OUR common ancestor … We are NOT descended from “Richard of Nansemond” whose wife was “unknown” (I refuse to join the speculation about this Richard’s wife, BECAUSE HE WASN’T AN ANCESTOR) … Where you and I “agree to disageee” is regarding the identity and status of “Mitha”, UNDISPUTED wife of Richard Parker Jr. at the time of his March, 1726 will and his 1727 death. Basing my opinion on Mrs. Powell’s research (which COULD be in error on this point, because I was not able to find St. John’s Church records before 1730) I say he had a FIRST wife named “Elizabeth” who was the mother of his children, and that “Mitha” was his SECOND wife with the word “none” after her name meaning “no issue” … You say that “Mitha” was Richard Jr.’s ONLY wife … The “Ballard” name comes from Mrs. Powell’s research and needs confirmation … On “Elizabeth Baily” (“Bailey” or “Baley”), there is ample evidence that she wasn’t married to either Dr. Richard or his son Richard Jr. (unless one wants to substitute “Baily” for “Ballard” … Mrs. Powell (who COULD be wrong) says that “Elizabeth Baily” was the wife of Philip Parket, son of George Parker who was (I think) of the Nansemond Parkers of North Carolina … GOT that? … If we’re going to “speculate”, why not go all the way and suggest that if ” Jacob Oxford” can be construed as “Jacob OF Oxford” because he may have ATTENDED Oxford University, “Elizabeth Bailey” could be construed as “Elizabeth OF OLD BAILEY” if she arrived in America as a transported convict – a woman convicted in the London Court and transported to America was referred-to as a “Rose of Old Bailey” … “Speculation ” IS fun, but it probably won’t lead us to the truth … What I do (which you might note leads to constant correction of information) is check, recheck, and check again … For example, when I saw that Dr. Richard’s younger brother, Rowland (who provided the list at Browsholme Hall of how Richard “married a Londoner and went into Virginy”) claimed that “at the present time” (1673 when he wrote the account) he was serving in “Prince Ruperd’s (sic) Dragoones”, I thought this was odd, because the cavalry regiment of Prince Rupert (son of the Hanoveran Prince Elector who aided Charles I) distinguished itself in English Civil War battles like Edgehill and Marston Moor in the 1640s. I said “oops”! Rowland (born 1644) would only have been a child at the time). But I checked further into the career of Prince Rupert (d. 1688) and found that his regiment of dragoons served after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 and also during the Dutch War of 1672-74 – thus proving that Rowland was telling the truth in respect to his military status in 1673 … THAT’S how it’s done! … Also, if the “Richard Parker” of Nansemond County was a “Puritan” (as Sarah Elizabeth Rose and others who confuse “Nansemond Richard” with “Henrico Richard” loudly proclaim) he was not OUR “Richard” (Dr. Richard of Cornwall was a staunch Cavalier suppoirter of the Stuart dynasty) … Also, he was only 22 when he arrived in Charles City in 1652 (I’m pretty sure he had no wife until he married Elizabeth Perkins c. 1656). “Nansemond Richard” was in America in the 1640s.
July 25, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Sheila:
I seem to have had too many “Elizabeths” on the brain last week. “Elizabeth Perkins” in my last sentence above should have read “Mary Perkins” … When I got back, I found a (brief) reply from Waunita Powell > fwp@comwares.net < to last week's inquiry about "Elizabeth Ballard" …
Mrs Powell says "You will notice that I say 'she may have been d/o John Ballard'. Here is a lead. John Cannon was security of Richard Parker 2nd when he administered the estate of Jon Ballard Feb. 1691/2. I really do not feel well enough to go through all this. If you look further you may find my book Dr. richard Parker of Browsholme. I am sorry but I also fractured a bone in my leg which drags me down. LDS reel 0031769 pg42 Vestry receipt Henrico Co. Va. The reel from Utah Receipt was endorsed upon order of Court May ye 23, 1677.Good luck." …
"Good luck", indeed! Oh well, she IS 84 (poor thing)… In a recent comment on the "Parker Heritage" website, she expressed puzzlement why the LDS should have requested her material to put on one of their reels. This gets "curiouser and curiouser" … As I commented earlier, the LDS adds stuff all the time, but throws it all together … Actually, the primary source for ALL the recent "Parker" research seems "Cavaliers and Pioneers of Seventeenth Century Virginia – Abstracts and Land Titles" edited by Nell Nugent (1938, I think) … Plus articles in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, plus Tithing Records, and Church Vestry records (paricularly of Henrico Parish). This is interesting, because I checked in a book I have regarding Virginia Colonial primary source material and found that the prevailing church in certain areas collected the "Tithes" from landowners. Such records include males over 16 – sad to say, they more or less didn't care about the women (or as you say "woemen") in the family. This presents a problem for folks like you and I who want to track down a particular female ancestor … Henrico Parish (part of Henrico County) was in the vicinity of modern Richmond. the area south of the James River became Prince George's County in the 1730s. The newly settled lands further up the James were divided into Goochland and Halifax Counties … St. John's Parish was Episcopalian. I find this interesting because the Parkers of Cornwall were also adherents to the Episcopal Church. Dr. Richard's grandfather – the one who left Browsholme Hall in Lancashire in the reign of Elizabeth I (the Queen) – became the Episcopal Rector of Blisland (Cornwall) an later Bishop of Cornwall … Most of these folks were loyal to Charles I during the english Civil War. I reread some of the material on "Richard of Nansemond" and saw that most of his primary associates were "Puritans" (unlike the present day, religion in 16th/17th century America was a REALLY messy business) …
Surry County (where "Richard the Immigrant" lived on Blackwater Swamp with his wife Judith Huntt) was to the south of Jamestown and Nansemond County (where the "other" Richard lived during the same period and had a 1640s headright at Chuckatuck and Dumpling Creek) became incorporated into the new colony of North Carolina after c. 1670 … Geography comes in handy sometimes … Needless to say, all this requires further inquiry … One thing is certain – there is a bonified paper trail of tithes, land transfers, family records, and court cases that connects Dr. Richard of Cornwall/Charles City County/Henrico County with son Richard II at "Four Mile Creek" and with William V. and Elizabeth Adkins at Machumps Creek/Goochland Co. … Don't change anything yet!
July 25, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Sheila:
Yes, taht was a typo. It was supposed to read “Mary Perkins” (too many “Elizabeths” on the brain …
I checked my e-mail and found a reply from Mrs. Powell to an inquiry I made last week about the “Ballard” business. Briefly, she informed me that she wasn’t feeling well (she IS 84) and just fractured her leg. She said to check out John Cannon who “was security of Richard Parker 2nd when he administered the estate of John Ballard Feb. 1691/92” … Also she said to check the vestry receipt of Henrico County and an “order of Court May ye 23, 1677” … So here we are! … You are of course correct to not change any of your records until further information is forthcoming … I noticed that St. John’s Parish was Episcopal at the time (as is the Church in Richmond today). The Parkers of Cornwall were Episcopalians as well – Dr. Richard’s grandfather was The Rev. Will Parker, Rector of Blisland (near Bodman Moor) and later Episcopal Bishop of Cornwall. The Episcopalians were mainly supporters of Charles I during the English Civil War (Richard Parker of Nansemond County was associated with several prominent Puritans in North Carolina) … Surry County and Nansemond Counties in Virginia became part of North Carolina after c. 1678 … These counties were south or southeast of the James River (a knowledge of 17th century Tidewater geography comes into play here)… On the oher hand, there IS a direct paper trail of land transfers, court papers, vestry records, family records, etc. that gives proof that Dr. Richard was from Cornwall, lived in Charles City County, acquired land on the north side of the St. James River at “Four-Mile Creek” (near present-day Richmond), married a “Mary Perkins”, produced six children, one of whom was Richard Parker Jr. c. 1659/60 – 1727 who was the father of Elizabeth Atkinson (Adkins). The Atkinsons followed the James River frontier to “Machumps Creek”, and later to “Snow Creek” – the western parts of Henrico County became Goochland and Halifax Counties in the early 1700s …
We may not be any closer to solving the “Mitha” mystery (without birth or marriage records) but I think we’re on the right track … Could “Ballard” have been “Bailey”?
Fred
July 25, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Also records of tithing taxes .. The locally prominent church (in this case, the Episcopalian) levied a tax on all males over 16 – unfortunately, females were considered “chattel” in those unenlightened days … I noticed you mention Ray Fouss (female) on your “Parker” page. She was responsible for editing and correcting Mrs. Powell’s paper … Her notes are found at the end … For some reason (see her comments at “Parker Heritage”) the LDS appropriated Mrs. Powell’s work and added it to their reels (without removing earlier contradictory data). She expressed some puzzlement at this (?) … If you haven’t found “Three Richard Parkers of Virginia”, (which is what I Googled)try “Parker” or “Parker of Cornwall” by Stephen M. Lawson, who seems to have some credibility as a genealogist … A lady named Nancy Misselbaum (sp?) runs the Parker Heritage website and seems to have appropriated Powell’s research as well. Who is she?
… Interestingly enough, the Parkers seem to be just as unconcerned about the Adkinses as some Adkins researchers (present company excepted) are about the Parkers …
July 25, 2009 at 4:19 pm
That’s Nancy Cox-Missenheimer and she doesn’t RUN the “Parker Heritage” website – she contributes regularly re. Richard Parkers.
July 25, 2009 at 4:56 pm
HER name’s Ray FOUTTS(I know someone by the name of Ray Fouss). That’s what comes of getting senile and in a hurry at the same time! … Anyway, these folks are worth consulting. Just checked Stephen M. Lawson – “Parker” explains difference between “Henrico Richard” and “Nansemond Richard” … Best bet: “Parker of Cornwall”.
Fred
July 25, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Thank you for all your pursuits. I’m glad to see your on the case. Please do keep me informed to what you come up with.
Thanks as always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
July 27, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I’m at my daughter’s place in Columbus, so I won’t have to rush like I do at the Marietta library (for now, it’s still in business). Hopefully, there will be fewer typos!
A book I have called “The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century: Essays on Anglo-American Society and Politics” – edited by Thad W. Tate and David L. Ammerman, 1979, University of North Carolina Press – says (pp. 126-52) that there were no “marriage licenses” per se in the American Colonies (or England for that matter) during the 1600s and 1700s. Couples (or most likely their parents) simply approached the local parson, vicar, priest, minister and asked him to perform the ceremony. Sea captains, army officers, shire officials, and Royal Governors could perform ceremonies (Blackbeard and his alleged last wife were supposedly married by North Carolina Royal Governor Eden in 1718) … Marriages – along with births and deaths – were duly recorded in the Parish Vestry Book … As I said, I checked the St. John’s Church Vestry Book and couldn’t find records before 1730. As I said earlier, a photostat of the original page (228) showing the “Friday, January 16, 1716” marriage of Elizabeth Parker and William V. Atkinson marriage found in the “Adkins Family” book in the Cabell County Library. It may be in Ronnie Adkins’ book as well … Pre-1725 records of “tithables” (parish taxes on households with adult males over the age of 16), “quitrents” (the King’s tax for the upkeep and maintenence of the Royal Colony), “headrights” (grants of 50 acres for each person transported to the colony), “patents” (claims of possession of a Royal Grant of land) are readily found in Richmond, William and Mary College and The university of Virginia. The main source re. the holdings of Dr. Richard Parker of Charles City County (later Henrico County) is Nell Marion Nugent’s inclusive compilation, “Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623-1666” (Richmond, 1934). Post 1666 land and court records for Dr. Richard Parker, Richard Parker Jr. Jr. are found in Charles City County/Henrico County Land Records in Richmond, as well as 1897 and 1902 articles in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography …
For example, Charles City County Court Records (July 31, 1656, p. 62)
contains the statement, “I, Richard Parker, do freely give consent to and with Mary Perkins that she shall make unto herself all the estate which her late dec’d husband left her by his will doth appe’ both here and in England … In a March 17, 1657 (p. 87) record, “Richard Parker, Churegeon”
… “freely consent and agree to the signing and sealing of the estate belonging to my now wife Mary Parker … Later Dr. Parker accepted guardianship and agreeed to provide for the “estate and education of the two children of Nicholas Perkins deceased … ” (Charles City Court Records Sept. 15, 1664, p. 499) … Nicholas Perkins Jr. was christened October 11, 1649) at Stepney St. Dunstan, London … Nicholas Perkins Sr. and his wife Mary obtained a patent (recorded August 3, 1650) at “Bermuda Hundred”. Nicholas Sr. was probated “Sept. Primo, 1656) … His widow Mary married Dr. Richard Parker c. August, 1656 (note that the marriage took place in Charles City between the two dates listed earlier) …
It should be reiterated here that Dr. Richard Parker was the 9th child (out of 21!) of Charles Parker (son of Rev. Will of Browsholme Hall)and “Katterrn” Bullar of Warleggan, Cornwall. He was christened November 29, 1630 at Warleggan Parish. The 1673 Browsholme Hall record of Dr. Richard’s brother, Rowland Parker, states (verbatim) that “Ric’d ye 9th, Dr. of Phyzicke, went into Virginy, married a Londoner & had issue of 6 children, liveth upon S’nt James River in ye uplands of Virginy” … Note that he “married a Londoner” AFTER going to “Virginy” … Mary Perkins was a Londoner! The Parkers lived in St. Charles County (“Diggs His Hundred” at Charles City) and later obtained a patent in Henrico County for 350 acres at “Four-Mile Creek” (October 29, 1669/Henrico County Patent Book # 6, p. 279) which was considered to be in the “uplands” of the James River Valley …
According to North Carolina records of 1659 “Richard Parker” of Nansemond County, Virginia (after 1670 North Carolina) obtained a patent for land along the Chowan River, “at the head of the Great Dismal Swamp” (about 250 miles southeast of Charles City) and “Richard Parker “the Immigrant” was was married to Judith Hurtt and was occupied making pewterware in Surry County …
Plenty of proof of what Dr. Richard Parker and his “now wife” Mary (Perkins) Parker (b. c. 1635) were doing c. 1630 – 1680 …
Do you get my drift here? … So where do these “England and Wales Christening Records, 1530 -1906” and these “U.S and International Marriage Records, 1560 – 1900”
come from? … What is this “Millenium File”? … How does it “prove” to anyone’s satisfaction that “Elizabeth Bailey” lived in Dr. Richard’s neck of the woods, married ANY of the aforementioned “Richards”, or was “mother” of Richard Parker II of Henrico? … I don’t doubt the possibility that SOME “Elizabeth Bailey” (“Baily” or “Bayley”) married SOME “Richard Parker” in London in 1649 (Dr. Richard of Warleggan would have been 19) … I doubt, however, that it was OUR “Richard”!
Fred
July 27, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Some good news for you regarding “Mitha”- since Mrs. Powell remains vague about “Elizabeth Ballard”, I checked out some “Ballard” records for the 17th and early 18th centuries and found NO mention of a “Ballard” named “Elizabeth” who married a Parker during that period. Of course, not all marriages were recorded and lots of records were destroyed either during Bacon’s Rebellion (1670s) or during Sherman’s march from Savannah to join Grant outside Richmond in 1864-65 … “Mitha” is still the safest bet, but I’m seriously considering the possibility that Richard Jr. (NOT Dr. Richard) might have been married to an “Elizabeth Bailey” before he married “Mitha”. There were lots of Baileys, Bayleys, Bailys, Ballards, and even Bullars in the region at that time(divinely placed there to confuse future LDS list-makers no doubt)… “Baily” was how they spelled the maiden name of the “Elizabeth Baily” (d/o Capt. Richard Baily) who was married to Philip Parker in Accomac County, N.C. in the 1680s. There is a locally famous story (Accomac County, N.C. court records) that “Elizabeth Baily Parker” (of the Nansemond County Parkers who lived in Accomac County, North Carolina in the 1680s) was charged – along with her husband, and her father, Captain Baily – with violating the Sabbath. Apparently, Mrs. Parker had suggested that, since a young, talented Negro/slave fiddler was present in the house, “they might have a dance” even though it was Sunday. Mr. Teakle, a nosy neighbor (it is on record that most people in that area were Puritans), ratted out the Parkers and they were hauled into court and had to pay a fine (people in those days were even more litigious than they are today) …
A further note on religion in the
Colonies … Virginia was dubbed “The Old Dominion” during the Restoration (1660) by Stuart King Charles II because that colony had remained particularly loyal to the Crown during the Protectorate (1649-60). Puritans supporting Cromwell went north to the Massachusetts Bay Colony (where in the 1690s they tried folks for witchcraft). Some went south to the newly established colony of North Carolina (1672) … The Colony of Virginia was mainly Anglican or Episcopalian (i.e. St. John’s Parish) during this period … After the “Great Awakening” in the 1700s, many “dissenting” churches were formed – among them the Quakers (I’ve seen the suggestion that some Atkinsons may have been Quakers), Methodist/Episcopals (during his visits to Ireland in the 1730s, the Methodist founder John Wesley stayed at the home of one of my father’s ancestors in Dublin), Moravians, and Baptists … Hezekiah Adkins in later life was a “Freewill Baptist” preacher in Wayne/Cabell County, Virginia …
July 28, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Nor should we forget the Presbyterians… This group included many Scottish settlers who came to America to escape persecution after the defeat of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” in 1745 … See “Gentry and Common Folk – Political Culture on a Virginia Frontier, 1740 – 1789” by Albert H. Tillson/c. 1991, University Press of Kentucky, pp. 35-37,79-80,128-29,177 n.96 … This is a valuable tool for understanding the society that people like Parker Adkins and his offspring were a part of in the years before, during and after the American Revolution. It includes material about Cornstalk, Dunmore’s War, Patriots vs. Tories in Montgomery County, Va., the Fort Chiswell lead mines, et. al.
Fred
July 29, 2009 at 9:59 am
James Goldman’s play, “The Lion in Winter”
– a fictional treatment of some of our alleged ancestors – has some wonderful lines. In the ’70s I played “Richard” (not an ancestor)in a local little theater production … My personal favorite is Henry’s line: “I could have conquered all of Europe, but I had women in my life.” …
Of course, the women in our lives made us who we are … I also like Eleanor’s line:
“What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?”
Fred
August 6, 2009 at 4:05 pm
During the past week, I’ve been perusing the various Parker Family websites and comparing notes … Here’s my guess (subject to revision, of course) about what happened …
1.The case made by Waunita Powell is basically correct – that there were three separate individuals named Richard Parker living in Virginia in the mid-1600s …
One of these was a “doctor of physicke” or a “Churgeon” who was christened in Cornwall, England, November 29, 1630 … Another “Richard” (d. 1677) was called “the immigrant”, lived in Surry County, Virginia. and acquired land on “Parker’s Creek” near Blackwater Swamp. He married Judith Hunt. Their son (also named Richard) was born around 1669/70 and died in 1750. He acquired land in Accomac County. The grandson (another Richard) was born around 1685. He was the “gracious host” mentioned in a 1729 account by William Byrd of Westover … The THIRD “Richard” was born c. 1624 and died in 1680 in Nansemond County, Virginia.His land was on the Chowan River, south of the mouth of the James River (later Chowan County, North Carolina) …
Almost ALL Nansemond County, Virginia records were destroyed during the Civil War or in a courthouse fire in the late 1800s.
Meanwhile, many land records, wills, deeds, patents, “headrights” for both Charles city County and Henrico County survived in the archives at Virginia University at Richmond. These included several records referring to “Dr. Richard Parker” of “Four-Mile Creek” in Henrico County …
An article in the prestigious “Virginia Magazine of History and Biography” (April, 1898, pp. 444-47) mentioned the discovery – in “an old common-place book” at Browsholme Hall in Yorkshire (now Lancashire) – of the 1673 record by Rowland Parker, that his elder brother, Richard, became a “chiurgeon”, “went to Virginy” and “married a Londoner” … The article about “Dr. Richard Parker” was reprinted
later in “The Virginia Magazine of History” (April,1919, pp. 190-192) …
An article in the 1915 “Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography” by Lyon Gardnier Taylor lumped all “three Richards” together as one individual …
During the early 1900s, Parker Family researchers in North Carolina – lumping together family traditionas about both “Richard of Surry” and “Richard of Nansemond” – simply assumed that “their” Richard was “Dr. Richard of Warleggan, Cornwall” … The “royal” connection was a natural incentive, but I suspect most of the confusion was the result of accident and misidentification …
Among these was not recognizing that it would be most unlikely for the same “Richard Parker ” to have lived in two widely separated areas at the same time … Henrico County is in the “uplands” opf Virginia, near the falls above Richmond … Nansemond County is south of the James River (about 150 miles away) and just west of Norfolk in the coast.
Other blatant errors show up in subsequent accounts by both Parker AND Adkins Family researchers …
“Richard Parker of Henrico” is the ONLY one of the three to be recorded as a “Doctor” … The type of doctor might be a debatable point, but neithe “Nansemond” or “Surry Richard” was a doctor of any sort …
“Surry” in Virginia is confused (by McSwain, Victoria Taylor-True, and others) with “Surrey” in England …
“Bisland” (sic) in “Yorkshire” is really “Blisland” in Cornwall (where Richard’s grandfather, Will Parker, was an Episcopal Church Bishop) …
“Browsholme Hall” is NOT in Cornwall, but in Lancashire (it was in Yorkshire until the mid 1900s)…
Richard’s grandmother Alice, was named “Hayward”, NOT “Harvard” …
The list goes on … and on!
Still on the case, Fred
August 6, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Now, here’s where I think Mrs. Powell might have been mistaken …
The record used by Victora Taylor-True (“Life in the Past Lane” – cute!) is based upon the 1915 “Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography” article. It says that the wife of Richard Jr. of “Four-mile Creek” (Henrico County) was “Elizabeth”(she doesn’t mention “Mitha”) … I think that it is possible (unconfirmable without cooperation from Mrs. Powell) that this is where she got the “Elizabeth Ballard” idea. Richard Jr.’s will DOES mention only “Mitha”, so the matter remains a “mithery” … Also – while it is true that an “Elizabeth Baily” was married to Philip Parker (s/o George) in the 1680s, some “Nansemond Parker” records say that a “Sarah Elizabeth Bailey” was the “unknown” wife of Richard Parker Sr. (c. 1624-c. 1680) of Nansemond County, Virginia/Chowan County, N.C. … It IS possible that Mrs. Powell overlooked her. That “Richard”, however, was still NOT the father or grandfather of Elizabeth Parker who married William V. Atkinson at St. John’s Church, Henrico Parish in 1716 …
I’m convinced though that much of the confusion exists because some late 19th/early 20th century researchers put the Henrico, Nansemond, and Surry “Richards” together as one individual – accidentially or on purpose!
August 6, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I am glad to see that you’re still on the case and the Mitha Saga; will continue. I’m trying to understand where you found documents to support the marriage of Sarah Elizabeth Bailey to our Richard Parker and then that he was not Elizabeth Parker Adkins/Atkinson’s father? I am confused on that point myself. Did you misspeak there or did I miss something?
Thanks as always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
PS: Still haven’t read the book. I did however just order 5 new ones to add to my ever increasing workload. However, I do want to read it. If you have the link will you please send it? I haven’t found it as of yet, nor has my cousin set it.
Thanks again,
Sheila
August 7, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Sheila:
I probably wasn’t too clear about the “Sarah Elizabeth Bailey” business. Some “Parker” sites – i.e. Vicky Taylor-True’s “Life in the Past Lane” – allege (without citing proof which is scarce in the Nansemond area due to destruction of records) that “Richard of Nansemond” (c. 1620-80) was married to a person by that name …
It is pretty well established that “Dr. Richard of Charles City/Henrico” arrived 1652 via Captain Francis Morgan, acquired a headright at “Diggs His Hundred” around 1654, moved to “Four-Mile Creek” in Henrico Parish (Richmond) in 1669, was married to Mary, widow of Nicholas Perkins (Virginia University and Nugent’s “Cavaliers and Pioneers” abstracts contain records of Dr. Richard assuming guardianship of her two children, Nicholas Jr. and Elizabeth in Charles City in 1656). Dr. Richard and Mary were the parents of Richard Parker (will presented February,1727) at “Four-Mile Creek …
“Richard of Surry” (d. c. 1680) married Judith Huntt (or Hunt) and was a pewterer in Elizabeth City and lived on “BLackwater Swamp” (“Parker’s Creek”) He also had a son and grandson named Richard …
Most accounts of “Nansemond Richard” say that his wife is “unknown”. This Richard’s son and grandson were likewise named “Richard” (makes it tricky to sort them out) … It was the 3rd “Nansemond Richard” who married a “Miss Pender” … “Nansemond Richard” was a planter and land speculator on the Chowan River, which is located about 150 – 200 miles south east of Richmond. It is only about 30 or 40 west of Albermarle Sound, and about the same distance southwest from Norfolk …
Only “Richard of Henrico” was a doctor!
It is also best to keep in mind that there were several “Elizabeths” in subsequent generations of all three families …
“Richard of Nansemond” – COULD have married a “Sarah Elizabeth Bailey”, but I’ve seen no record of such a marriage (remember marriages were mostly recorded in Parish Vestry Books)… The “Elizabeth Baily” married to Philip Parker is fairly well documented. They lived at Accomac Plantation and were fined (upon evidence given by a “Mr. Teakle”)for “having a dance” on the Sabbath (c. 1685) … As I said, the problem stems from the 1915 article in “The Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography” which assumed there was only one “Richard Parker” in Virginia in the mid-1600s … Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia” give an estimated Anglo population of 7000 in 1650, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than three persons with that name at the time. Note our problem with “Atkinsons”, which seem to have been so numerous in the mid-1600s that it makes it tough to discover the true antecedents of our William V. Atkinson of Machumps Creek/Henrico County … The erroneous 1915 article – combined with the April, 1898 article in the “Virginia Magazine of History and Biography” about “Richard of Warleggan” – caused the North Carolina Parkers to confuse their “Nansemond Richard” with BOTH “Dr. Richard of Henrico” AND “Richard of Surry”. Having seen that ONE of these three was “Richard of Warleggan”, they cheerfully assumed that they were descended from “Richard of Cornwall”. They weren’t! … What I fail to understand is that some(not all) North Carolina Parkers continue to put out the erroneous material even after they know that it is incorrect (some of their websites, I see, haven’t been updated lately) … What I was suggesting in my previous post is that Waunita Powell herself may have erroneously added “Nansemond” material to her record for the “Henrico Richards”. This may be where she got the name “Elizabeth” as wife of Richard II (switching “Baily” for “Ballard”). I know she’s 84 and has lately had medical problems, but she should at least be willing to explain her research when it causes confusion others (am I being too hard on the old girl?) … By the way, in those days, they didn’t use Roman numerals to designate sons named for their fathers, nor did they use the term “Junior”. After the father’s death, they simply referred to the deceased as “Sr.” and the son assumed his father’s name … Makes it more difficult for us, but “that’s the way it was”! … More information is needed re. “Elizabeth Baily” (“Bailey”) and “Mitha” before we accept them as gospel – or reject them out of hand.
– Fred
August 8, 2009 at 10:04 am
This is precisely the reason why I have never written book, nor do I plan to. Once it’s down on paper, people except it as gospel, without any rhyme or reason. You can not change it when new information comes to light.
I’m trying to hard to keep an open mind and somewhat support the 1st wife theory, but we KNOW “Mitha” was his wife. I’ve also entertained the idea a few times that she may have only been called Mitha. I have sister-in-laws, a few of which, have common names that have nothing to do with their given names. If the “Will” was written in his late age, he may have just called her that. Nicknames are a possibility here are well. Even a headstone is questionable.
We need marriage confirmation. Church records or maybe even Slave records, they would have been listed in the owners name, and a lot of them were women.
The problem here again, is that you never know if she was married prior to their marriage and used her married name on the documents, as Mary Perkins did.
We may be back to square one here.
Thanks as always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
August 10, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Sheila:
You can download Waunita Powell’s “Three Richard Parkers of Virginia” (152 pages)
at >http://www.nhn.ou.edu/-parker/Genealogy/Ancestors/Books/DrRichardParker.pdfhttp:kinnexions.co,/smlawson/parker.htm<
I e-mailed Mrs. Powell again and received the following reply (dated August 1):
"Sat., Aug. 01, 2009 02:02 PM … Subject – 'Mithaology' … Mary Perkins there is no doubt-just read the Court Records of Charles City and Henrico County. you will see where dr. Parker moved and the Perkins children mentioned …
I believe that mitha is probably mis-translation of Mirha dr. Parker's 2nd wifew. His first wife I decided from the following. Colonial Wills of Henrico County 1654-1737 by Benjamin Wiesinger 'John Ballard – to Richard Parker my estate after debts are paid. To Goddaughter Sarah Perkin's d/o Nicholas, a cow-calf. To Goddaughter, jane Whitley, d/o william Whitley, a cow-calf. richard Parker sale executer Wit. James Morris, Roberet Sharp, Wm. Pierce. Recorded Feb. 1, 1691' … I can think of no other reason for John Ballard to leave estate to Richard Parker. If anyone can find a better reason etc let me know. Yes a lot of my work comes from LDS from Microfilm records of originals.
Waunita"
I think there might have been a wife #1 for Richard 2nd of Henrico ("Four-Mile Creek") … I hope I made it clear that the family records of "Richard of Nansemond" AND "Richard of Surry" (Virginia Surry, NOT England Surrey) DO NOT pertain to the ancestry of Elizabeth Parker who married WilliV. Atkinson … These were scrambled – not by the LDS it seems, but in that 1915 Virginia Encyclopedia article. All mrs. Powell did was 1. check the actual land records. wills, adoption papers, "headrights", patents (Royal permission to use land), et. al. for the Charles City/Henrico Richard Parkers; 2. take a closer look at the history of the settlement of colonial Virginia; 3. look at a map of the lay the land in 1600s Virginia (a good map is the 1750s map drawn by the father of Thomas Jefferson reproduced in "Notes On the State of Virginia" … another is found in "Virginia: The First 17 Years" from the Virginia Historical Society.
At least we know (1727 will) that "Mitha" (or whoever) was R. Parker II's 2nd wife … The "Bailey" name only seems to be connected to the Nansemond Parkers … Sorry about that! What we know about her as wife of Philip Parker is very interesting, but ultimately unconnected to our branch of the Parkers …
– Fred
August 11, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Sorry, I didn’t check the spam query until tonight. I’m not sure why you got caught, must have exceeded the amount of links you can add. But your here now. I am sorry about that. If your going to post multiple links you do need to separate the comments.
I’ll check it out. I just have so much to read as it is and I really wanted to do some leisure reading this week. But not going to happen I guess. I’ll get on this.
Thanks as always,
Sheila J Metcalf
August 12, 2009 at 3:59 pm
That’s OK. I figured something like that happened. That was mainly for your personal info anyway. Did you get the more recent e-mail I received from W.P.? I still need more clarification re. her reasoning for “Elizabeth Ballard”. I’ll try to check the reference she provided. While I support the idea of Richard II/Henrico/Five-Mile Creek having a first wife, I’m not sure who she was (did you note that W.P. herself mistakenly said “Dr.Richard” when she meant his son Richard II?) … “Mitha” (or “Mirha” acc. to W.P.) was the undoubted wife #2 …
– Fred
August 12, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I didn’t see an email marked Mitha, Waunita, Parker or Adkins or the like. Did you send it to vvfsan@msn.com ? I did have 645 emails to sort through but none I recognized. What was the subject line? and can you resend it?
September 8, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Sheila;
I’ve been researching 17th century handwriting. They were overfond of abbreviations in those days (note the use of “Rich’d”, “Wm.”, “Robt.”,”Eliz.”, “yr’s”,”etc.”,”et. al.” – and, of course, “Adkins”)
… Digging out the magnifying glass re. Rich’d Parker 1726 will, it is possible that what we’ve been calling “Mitha” might be “M’tha” an abbreviation of “Martha” (Mrs. Powell says “Mirtha” but I think she’s wrong on that one) … Fred (I switched e-mails because its cheaper)
March 13, 2010 at 1:58 pm
I was directed to this page by another Adkins/Parker researcher. I am a direct male descendant of William Adkins (sometimes called “William V” though there is no evidence that that was his middle initial) through his illegitimate son John Slone (Sloan) of Pittsylvania Co, VA. This connection was established only recently, through a combination of DNA testing and careful comparison with the available records. I appreciate the amount of work that Waunita Powell put into sorting out the three Richard Parkers, however I do not agree that it has been proven that Richard of Henrico was the same man as Richard, son of James Parker of Cornwall. I also think the whole “Chief Cornstalk” story is nothing but mythology. If there is any non-white ancestry deriving from these early Adkins/Parker interactions, it is more likely to have been of African, rather than Native American origin. Behind the vast majority of the “Cherokee Princess” legends of white Appalachian families lies a mulatto daughter of an early white-black intermarriage in colonial Virginia.
As far as the Parker “royalty” connection, there are a lot of problems with the identification of Richard Parker of Charles City & Henrico County. This identification rests on the reliability of a short passage from the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography Vol V (Jan 1898) pp. 442-444, which begins:
“”The following extract from an old common-place book now at Browsholme, the old home of the Parker family in Yorkshire, may interest some of that name now in Virginia. Major John Parker, of Browsholme, near Clitheroe, England, a distinguished retired officer of the British Army, has kindly sent it to us. We append a good deal of information as to the Virginia Parkers, and will be glad to receive additional notes…”
The point of interest is:
“Rich’d ye 9th, Dr. of Phyzicke, went into Virginy, married a Londoner & had issue 6 children. Liveth upon S’nt James River in ye uplands of Virginy & hath been high Sherife of ye s’d County.”
Usually ignored is the fact that a younger brother George is said to have later joined Richard in America:
“George, ye 13, prentice to a wollings draper at Hunginton 12 myles of Exeter: went from there into Virginy.”
Waunita Powell claims that all of these details about Richard allegedly given by Rowland match the known facts about Richard Parker of Henrico. However, they actually do not match all that well.
Here are some of the problems:
1) The John referred to above who supplied the information from the “old common-place book” was Colonel John William Robinson Parker (1857-1938), who “….was a keen antiquary, President of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, the Yorkshire Parish Register Society, the Chetham Society, the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society and the Harleian Society. He published several volumes of mediaeval records.” (see “The Parkers of Browsholme” at http://www.browsholme.co.uk/genealogy.htm). A commonplace book was basically a scrapbook. It’s not clear whether Col. Parker sent the physical manuscript itself, or just a copy, to the magazine. Presumably the original is still at Browsholme Hall. There is no record of it in the Virginia Library. If it can be located, the original manuscript should be examined by an expert to verify its authenticity.
2) The language used in the Rowland account is a bit archaic for 1673, though not completely so. The third person present singular verb inflection -th, as opposed to -s, as in “liveth” vs “lives” and “hath” vs “has” was on its way out by the mid-seventeenth century, but does still sometimes appear in written texts from that time. Note that Rowland uses both “liveth” and “lives.” Such switching back and forth is not that unusual for the period, but it does raise the possibility that either the Richard note or the entire account was a forgery.
3) The age of Richard Parker of Charles City County does not exactly fit with the 29 Nov 1630 christening of Richard of Cornwall (though it is close): the former Richard looks to have been about a year or so older, giving his age as ‘about 31’ in an April 1660 deposition.
4) The order of the children in Rowland’s list is not correct: at least, it differs significantly from the chronological order of the christenings of the Parker children, which are known from Cornwall church records. But the order is wrong in a very peculiar way: Rowland has the two oldest and the two youngest correct, but the rest seem to be random except for Richard, which seems all too convenient for Virginia genealogists interested in him.
This is the order according to the christening records, with the number assigned to them by Rowland in brackets:
CATHERINE PARKER – Christening: 19 APR 1619 [1]
ALICE PARKER – Christening: 28 MAY 1620 [2]
JANE PARKER – Christening: 27 JAN 1622 [12]
WILLIAM PARKER – Christening: 30 MAR 1624 [3]
JAMES PARKER – Christening: 08 JAN 1626 [6]
CATHERINE PARKER – Christening: 07 JAN 1627 Warleggon, Cornwall [4]
ROBT. PARKER – Christening: 03 APR 1628 Warleggon, Cornwall [5]
ELIZABETH PARKER – Christening: 25 MAY 1629 Warleggon, Cornwall [14]
RICHARD PARKER – Christening: 29 NOV 1630 Warleggon, Cornwall [9]
CORDELIA PARKER – Christening: 18 DEC 1631 Warleggon, Cornwall [7]
JOHN PARKER – Christening: 14 MAY 1633 Warleggon, Cornwall [18?]
KATHERIN PARKER – Christening: 13 JUL 1634 Warleggon, Cornwall [19?]
MARY PARKER – Christening: 05 JUL 1635 Warleggon, Cornwall [10]
FRANCIS PARKER – Christening: 04 AUG 1636 Warleggon, Cornwall [11]
JANE PARKER – Christening: 17 SEP 1637 Warleggon, Cornwall [16]
ANTHONY PARKER – Christening: APR 1639 Warleggon, Cornwall [8]
GEORGE PARKER – Christening: 01 MAY 1640 Warleggon, Cornwall [13]
JOHAN PARKER – Christening: 1641 Warleggon, Cornwall [15]
ROWLAND PARKER – Christening: 17 APR 1643 Warleggon, Cornwall [20]
KATHERINE PARKER – Christening: 10 JUL 1644 Warleggon, Cornwall [21]
5) A “Doctor of Phyzicke” and a “Chirurgeon” were not the same thing: a man could be one without necessarily being the other (although Richard of Charles City/Henrico was addressed as “Dr” on at least one occasion).
6) There is no proof that Mary Perkins Parker was “a Londoner,” only that she had property in England; Waunita Powell misidentifies two men named Nicholas Perkins in her attempt to prove that Mary was from London; the 1649 parish record of Nicholas Perkins Sr in London lists him as a “mariner,” not a Virginia planter or merchant, and the Nicholas Jr of London was only three days old at the time of his christening, thus born 8 October 1649, and so too young to have been the son of Nicholas of Charles City County. [see GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives: “Dr. Richard Parker – Redux” thread at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/gen-medieval/2003-06/1055822 949 (note in particular 29 Jun 2003 posts by genealogist Paul Reed at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/gen-medieval/2003-06/1056860 101: “…I see no evidence that Mary, wife of Nicholas Perkins, was “of London.”” and http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/gen-medieval/2003-06/1056919 405]
7) Rowland says that Richard had “issue” of six children before 1673, but there is only firm evidence of two for Richard of Charles City County (Richard Jr, Thomas); Richard of Nansemond County, however, is known to have had at least five children, and probably more. If Richard the Chirurgeon’s stepchildren are included, that might bring the number to six, but that wouldn’t be his “issue,” technically speaking.
8) There is no record of Richard Parker as a High Sheriff (only that he delivered a warrant), and there is no record of the younger brother George in Virginia; there was, however, a George Parker who patented land in Northampton County in 1650, and was High Sheriff of Accomack County in 1656, as well as a member of the County Courts of Accomack and Northampton. Moreover, the Charles City records show Richard to have been something of a scofflaw who was hauled before the court on a number of occasions, i.e., quite the opposite of a sheriff.
9) There are other problems with the Rowland document. For example, it states that Richard’s older brother William had only two sons, when actually he had three, as can be shown from christening records. It also gets the parish name and the maiden name of William’s wife wrong. Douglas Richardson writes [personal correspondence] that these errors are unimportant, but I believe that they further weaken the case for seeing the Rowland document as genuine.
And there are other factors to consider:
1) Richard immigrated to Virginia at the same time or thereabouts (based on a headright claim by Capt. Francis Morgan in Gloucester Co, VA) as a JOHN Parker, who does not seem to fit with the children of James & Katherine Buller Parker. Although Parker is not an uncommon surname, it seems possible that John was Richard’s relative, and that they both belonged to a Parker family unrelated to the Warleggon/Browsholme line.
2) The descendants of Richard Parker of Nansemond County and Richard Parker of Charles City County both intermarried with the BALLARD family, which suggests that they were related in some way.
3) The descendants of the Richard of Nansemond maintained a tradition of having derived from an immigrant named Richard who was a Doctor, whereas there was no such tradition for the line of Richard of Henrico. This suggests that the two lines (Henrico and Nansemond) were related, even though they derived from two distinct immigrants.
4) The name “Francis” appears among Richard of Nansemond’s children, and was one of the names of James Parker and Katherine Buller’s children. On the other hand, Richard of Charles City/Henrico named a son “Thomas,” yet that name does not appear among Richard of Cornwall’s siblings.
5) Although Richard of Charles City/Henrico is referred once [and only once] as a “doctor,” he apparently never included that title when he signed his name.
Solving this mystery is theoretically quite easy: direct male descendants of the Richard Parkers of Henrico and Nansemond should do Y-DNA testing, to see if either of them match with descendants of the Parkers of Browsholme. One male descendant of Nansemond Richard has been tested, but until a member of the Browsholme Parkers is tested for comparison, it will be difficult to make any conclusions. Also, English records should be searched to see if a Richard, son of James & Katherine, can be found in England after 1652 – if so, then the Richard in Virginia was a different man.
When I suggested to Waunita that DNA testing could be used to confirm the hypothesis that Richard of Henrico was Richard of Cornwall, she completely dismissed the idea. She seems to be among the “old school” genealogists who apparently do not understand what DNA testing is, thus she dismisses it as irrelevant. DNA is just another tool, and is a very powerful one when used in combination with paper records.
Based on all the problems with the “Rowland document,” I remain personally unconvinced that Richard Parker of Henrico was the son of James Parker and Katherine Bullar, pending further evidence.
March 14, 2010 at 7:52 pm
I could spend hours picking this apart but I won’t. You may have missed the entire Adkins Family Feud as for your remark” “Chief Cornstalk” story is nothing but mythology.” But I have seen painted pictures of him and there are many descendants and records of Chief Cornstalk. You might like to spend a few months researching the local Shawnee nation here in Ohio. Most of this is fact. I’m sure there are, with any legend, many fabrications but they are saturated by as many truths. And we are descended from a tri-racial breed. There is proof of the V in William V Atkinson, as well.
Now as for the Richard Parker’s: I just told my uncle Denny yesterday, that I’d have every single person on this planet DNA tested if it were up to me. But I don’t make the rules. I know it would strongly help our case and would encourage all that wants to or that is willing to be tested.
With all of the illegitimate children and wife swapping done over the years, it would be hard to find a clean unbroken DNA chain to record. You’ll have to trust that our Great-Grandma’s never stepped out. We all want to believe that they were all descent and faithful; this just may not be the case. But you’re absolutely right, they should contribute their DNA along with an unbroken female line as well.
I’ve seen a lot of this argument before. Can I ask which genealogist led you here? Not that it matters, it will just help me with my notes.
Take a few minutes and read the Adkins Family Feud on this blog its worth giving a look see anyway.
As for Waunita Powell, I’ve never met the woman but I do thank her for her research, I don’t agree with all she has written, but she did do a lot of work for those whom follow after her to appreciate. She may be wrong on a few points, but she worked on her theory and offer us her findings. For this I’m very grateful.
I myself have made less than fair comments about her work but now have come to realize the vast amount of time she put into it. She’s in her 80’s now and we should give credit where credit is due.
I say, lets find the holes in her research and fill them in. Keep up your reseach as I will mine and as always,
Welcome to the Family,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
March 14, 2010 at 7:58 pm
After rereading my comment, I hope this didn’t sound mean or to blunt, it was off the top of my head and I’ve had a very long week. This would not be my intention here. I can clean it up later if it sounds harsh. My apologies in advance.
Thanks for your patience.
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
March 15, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Sheila,
Just a couple of things:
My remark about the Chief Cornstalk story being mythology meant that I think that the story that Parker Adkins married a daughter of said Chief named “Blue Sky” was myth. I was not saying that Chief Cornstalk didn’t exist, just that there is no evidence he had anything to do with this Adkins family’s ancestry.
As to Waunita Powell’s work, I have nothing against her personally, I just disagree with some of her conclusions.
On William Adkins’ middle initial being “V” – I would very much like to know what the evidence is for that, if you wouldn’t mind sharing it.
June 22, 2012 at 11:54 am
Pocahontas son did not die as a child Thomas Rolfe (January 30, 1615 – 1680) she did have descendants ..Seems like the fact checkers that have all this Adkins family “knowledge” talk to hear their own voice..Thomas had a daughter named Jane who married Robert Bolling and they had a son named John Bolling ..SO THE STATEMENT “Pocahontas, by the way, bore John Rolfe one child and died in London. The child died not long afterward – so there are NO descendants of Pocahontas!” is not true..
June 22, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Dear crzy2364,
Thank you for your comment, although I found it a little confrontational, I appreciate it all the same. You’re correct about John Rolfe, he did in fact have one known daughter, but no son’s to carry the Surname down.
I believe according to Rolfe, she died saying, “all must die, but tis enough that her child liveth” ~ Pocahontas (born Matoaka, and later known as Rebecca Rolfe, c. 1595 – March 1617
I’m sure that Fred had done a lot of work on his research as we all have, it was that he misspoke (inaccurate account) We’ve all done that once or twice.
After reading your bio, you seem to be an Adkins researcher yourself.
“im 46 yrs old living in the pittsylvania county of va. my interests are in music and genaology.im researching the adkins in va.” ~ crzy2364
I’m glad we Adkins family researchers are checking and rechecking all of our facts, its easy to make a mistake, but it takes GRACE to point it out.
As always,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
PS: You have seemed to misspell genealogy. Guess, we can all make a mistake. Just throwing that out there.
June 23, 2012 at 7:06 am
True i misspelled a word but making statements like Fred made mistake or not takes away from his research as a whole..I’m a Chickahominy Indian on my dads side and a descendant of” Owen of all” on my moms side ..i have many Native American friends including elders in the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes Pocahontas’ people.. Virginia Native American history is very important to me and the other native people in Virginia,, Didn’t mean to come off as confrontational it is just i’m very passionate about getting history right.Native people of Virginia have struggled to prove their degree of Indian blood for over a century..We are still in a struggle with the BIA in proving our heritage and being recognized by our government as Native American..Sometime i agree with the research and work that is done by people who post here sometimes i do not, never felt the need to post myself until yesterday..Please excuse any misspelled words or errors in grammar..
June 23, 2012 at 8:23 am
Dear crzy2364,
I appreciate that, I too have a lot of Native American friends, family and relatives (and yes, there is a difference). When some person came to the blog and said that the whole Cornstalk story was made up, I almost spit coffee across the room. I thought, wow!?!… I talk to a living – breathing Cornstalk Grandson & Granddaughter almost daily, funny they seem like real people to me. You can’t change peoples minds, once they’re made up, so I don’t even try. I’ve just learned to agree to disagree. Hopefully, one day, we’ll come to a meeting of the minds.
I do fact check on my own, but almost never correct anyone’s comments or disallow them, some when I’m in total disagreement. I try to respect the work they’ve done. I keep saying that we’re here to share our thoughts and ideas, that way, with all of us looking we can find more & more & more information that we would never have access to otherwise, and maybe get about 99% of it right.
As an added bonus, I’ve personally got to meet people and see old pictures and headstones that I may have never got the opportunity had someone not shared them with me. I’m only one person and I work hard, yes I do make mistakes, but I learn from them and try and correct them where I can.
I do hope you come back often and share your findings.
Thanks as always and Welcome to the Family,
Sheila Jean Adkins Metcalf
June 26, 2017 at 4:19 pm
Has anyone ever thought of going to the Shawnee language to translate into English the name Mitha or Minitha? if so, what is the meaning? She is my ancestor. Some times I feel that racial prejudice plays a role in the dissing of Minitha Straight Tail because some white people cannot stand having even a drop of Native blood and will do ANYTHING to try and discredit her memory-Respectfully Yours, Phil Halfhill Hanson.
June 26, 2017 at 4:26 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Tail_Meaurroway_Opessa#Children
There she is: Minitha Straight Tail!
June 27, 2017 at 10:15 am
Respectfully, Just the fact that there is such an amount of debate over Minitha, aka Mitha, makes it very clear to me that she not only existed, but that she was, in fact, as Richard Parker’s will clearly states, his wife. This heritage was passed down orally and many have written about it…As we all know. You go to Findagrave and there she is, once again, with the data there. Let’s tear apart Snow White Straight Tail for a change (I jest). I mean, who names their kid Snow White? My ancestry comes down from Richard Parker and Minitha Straight Tail. My ancestors too were Adkins. I’m happy to be me.
August 22, 2017 at 12:48 pm
I did find out that though there are variations passed down of her name, the most accurate used among the Pekowi Shawnee would have been Mitha. it is a shortened version of a Shawnee phrase that means: “Daughter of my heart.” And no, it isn’t Martha….
December 8, 2019 at 3:14 pm
I’m trying to learn more about the specific names of the Perkins child(red) adopted by Dr. Richard Parker after he married Mary Burton Perkins. Our male Parker line (including me) carry the y-dna connected to Nicholas Perkins. One theory is that we are descended from a male child of Nicholas Perkins who took the Parker name by adoption. Thanks for any help, Jon Parker, Lexington, KY
January 29, 2020 at 5:17 pm
Has there been any updates on Mitha/ Minitha?
We were tested and found with native blood in dna. We have checked and rechecked no where back to 1500 is native except possibly this line.