No. XI. THE REV. DAVID MOSSOM'S EPITAPH ON HIS TOMBSTONE, At St PETER'S CHURCH, NEW KENT. M. S. REVERENDUS David Mossom prope Jacet, Qui tandem Senio et Moerore confectus Ex variis rebus arduis quas in hac vita perpessus est, Uxoribus Elizabetha et Maria quidem juxta sepultis Qualis erat, indicant illi quibus bene notus Non hoc sepulchrale saxum. (Londini Natus 25 Martii 1690. Obiit 4° Jan. 1767. No. XII. THE ELLIS FAMILY. [IN my article on Amherst I omitted any special notice of my old friend Mr. Richard Ellis, of Pedlar Mills or Red Hill. The following communication from our worthy fellow-citizen, Mr. Thomas Ellis, of Richmond, will more than compensate for the omission.] April 2, 1857. The name of ELLIS appears at an early day in connection with the Colony of Virginia. David Ellis came out in the second supply of emigrants from England, and was one of the men sent by Captain Smith to build a house for King Powhatan at his favourite seat, Werowocomico, on York River. John Ellis was one of the grantees in the second charter of the Virginia Company. My immediate family is of Welsh extraction, and my descent traced to JOHN ELLIS, who settled on Peters's Creek, a branch of Tuckahoe Creek, in Henrico county. He was born in the year 1661, and he appears at Varina, the county seat of Henrico, October 1, 1683. His wife was named Susannah, and their children were John, William, Thomas, Henry, James, Joseph, Mary, and Charles. JOHN, the eldest son, married Elizabeth Ware, a relation of Baldwin and Ware Rockett, seafaring men, who owned the property in the city of Richmond since called "Rocketts'." He was a magistrate and sheriff of Henrico. His eldest son, who was also named John, inherited the family residence, and lived in it during his life. It still belongs to the family of one of his grand-daughters, who married John Bowles, of Louisa county. The land on which it is situated was patented to William Glover, April 28, 1691, and by him sold to John Ellis (the first named) for two thousand pounds of tobacco. WILLIAM, the second son, lived to be eighty-three years of age, and died leaving four sons and four daughters. One of his grandsons, William Burton Ellis, who married Elizabeth West, is still living on Tuckahoe, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. THOMAS, the third son, was inspector of tobacco at Shockoe Warc house, and owned the coal-property since known as the "Edgehill Pits.” He married Elizabeth Patterson, by whom he had two sons and threo daughters, all of whom married and have left families. HENRY, the fourth son, never married. He died in the year 1768. JAMES, the fifth son, married, but died without issue. JOSEPH, the sixth son, married Elizabeth Perkins and raised a very numerous family. He has a grandson, Daniel Ellis, born May 2, 1774, now living near Watkinsville, in Goochland county. The Ellises at this day on Tuckahoe Creek are principally the descendants of Joseph Ellis. His will, dated 11th June, 1785, is proved in court January 7, 1793 His wife died about the year 1798. MARY, the seventh child and only daughter, married John Smith, who owned the fine farm now belonging to Mr. Robert Edmond, of Richmond, called "Strawberry Hill." CHARLES, the seventh son, (my great-grandfather,) was born in Henrico county in the year 1719, was married, by the Rev. William Stith, to Susannah Harding, daughter of Thomas Harding and Mary Giles, in the year 1739, and had issue two sons and eight daughters. He removed with his family to the county of Amherst, then the county of Albemarle, in the year 1754, and settled the original seat of the Ellises in that county, since called "Red Hill," on the waters of Pedlar River. He died May 4, 1759, and was buried in the family burying-ground at Red Hill. His widow lived to the ninety-fifth year of her age, and was buried by his side. The children of Charles Ellis and Susannah Harding were Hannah, Edith, Susannah, Josiah, Mary Ann, Charles, Sarah, Bethena, Elizabeth, and Rosanna. HANNAH married William Haynes. EDITH married Devereux Gilliam. MARY ANN married Peter Carter. CHARLES married-first, Elizabeth Waters, secondly, Sarah Tucker. BETHENA married Thomas Leftwich. ROSANNA married Charles Davis. Josiah, (my grandfather,) above named, inherited the "Red Hill" estate, and lived and died there. His wife a daughter of Richard Shelton-was born September 1, 1747. They were married on the 3d of April, 1766, and had issue John, Nancy, Charles, Richard Shelton, Josiah, Mary Wright, Thomas Harding, Jane Shelton, Lewis, Joshua Shelton, and Powhatan. [The following letter, from the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, will be read with interest by all who were acquainted with Mr. Richard Ellis, of Red Hill, and his estimable family.] RICHMOND, VA. be able to communicate Your uncle Richard was MY DEAR MR. ELLIS :-I fear that I shall very little in regard to the church on Pedlar. one of the old-school, true Virginia gentlemen,-hospitable, unaffected, polite, courteous,—and as regardful of the rights and feelings of a servant as he was of the most favoured and distinguished that visited his house. I had not been in his house five minutes before I felt it to be what he and his delightful family ever afterward made it to me,-a home. I, however, experienced at their hands only what every clergyman of our Church who has been connected with the parish experienced. Your uncle's hospitality was not, however, the most captivating trait of his character. The most captivating trait in his character was his simplehearted piety and devotion to the Church. His devotion was the same when the ways of our Zion mourned, and when none came to her solemn feasts, and when her sanctuaries in his neighbourhood were levelled by the stranger and the spoiler. I think he told me that the first time the services of our Church were held in the Pedlar neighbourhood after the Revolution, the people met in a tobacco-house, and that many aged persons who had been accustomed to our services in their youth, when the clergyman repeated the sentences and exhortation, stood up and wept like children, big tears coursing their way down their cheeks in spite of every effort to restrain them. The confession following was made, by every one whose feelings did not stifle utterance, with a voice tremulous with eme tion. Many an aged heart remembered and returned to its first love. The meeting in that tobacco-house was the beginning of the resuscitation of the church on Pedlar. Your uncle was the foremost and the most liberal in the effort at resuscitation. He gave largely-as he did to the end of life-both of his substance and of his time to the accomplish ment of the object. He succeeded, but not without overcoming strong opposition. He applied, for a contribution toward building a church, to a good Christian man in the neighbourhood, who had been a soldier of the Revolution, to whom the old veteran replied, the fire of '76 flashing in his eye and speaking in the tones of his voice, "No! I drew my sword once to put that church down; and, if necessary, I will draw it again to keep it down." No one doubted either the old soldier's honesty or piety. And his reply only revealed the feelings in the minds of many in regard to the Episcopal Church. Their prejudices were as honestly as they were warmly entertained, and nothing but the unbounded confidence they had in the patriotism as well as piety of your uncle softened them. That confidence did soften them, first to tolerate, then to admire, and then to sustain, the Church whose cause he advocated. I am persuaded that the resuscitation of the church on Pedlar was owing altogether to the personal influence of your uncle; and what he was so instrumental in resuscitating he afterwards sustained with a liberality that was bounded only by his means, and a devotion that ended only with his life. His daughter Emily, who became a member of the Church while I was rector of the parish, was as like to her father in her devotion to the Church as a child could be like to a parent. Both she and her most excellent husband, David H. Tapscott, manifested the same fervid and hallowed spirit of devotion in their piety, as well as lively and liberal interest in the advancement of the Church. It grieves me to think that the Church on earth has lost three such faithful soldiers and servants. And I should be doing violence to my feelings if I did not speak of Mrs Ellis, though a decided Presbyterian, in the same way. If I had been her own son she could hardly have treated me with more kindness. And she had been, I learned, equally kind to all the pastors of her husband. Indeed, I cannot think of any member of the family but with feelings of affectionate regard. regret that my narrative is so limited and meagre: I hope, however, that it may not be altogether useless to you in accomplishing what you desire for Bishop Meade's Letters. THOMAS H. ELLIS, ESQ. Truly and sincerely yours, DAVID CALDWELL. No. XIII. THE BAYLOR FAMILY. [THE following account has been furnished me by a member of the same.] JOHN BAYLOR the elder, and first of the name who came to the New World, was born at Tiverton, in England, where, from old Sellers, we learn that he was related to the Freres, Courtenays, Tuckers, Hedjers, Nortons, and others. His son John was born in 1650, and, emigrating to Virginia, was followed by his father, a very old man. He settled in Gloucester county, and was married to Lucy Tod O'Brien, of New Kent, in 1698. Large grants of land had been made to father and son in various parts of the Colony, and the latter, being of an enterprising character, embarked extensively in mercantile schemes, by which a large fortune for that day was amassed, the inventory of his personal effects amounting to £6500 The books kept at his various counting-houses in Gloucester, King and Queen, and New Kent, from 1692 to 1722, are preserved, and not only attest his method and exactness, but afford an interesting comparison. The relative value of some articles of merchandise then and now is worthy of note. We find nails at four shillings sixpence per pound, cotton at one shilling sixpence per yard; and a Madagascar boy, "from on board ship Tiverton," in one place, is charged to Thomas Randolph at £6, and another at £10. Mention is made of between six and ten ships, belonging to him, at different times, engaged in trading with the Old World. To John Baylor the second and Lucy his wife were born two children, John, on the 12th of May, 1705, and another whose fortunes we have no means of following. The Essex family of the same name originate here. John, the third of the name, married Lucy Walker at Yorktown, the 2d of January, 1744, several sons and daughters being the issue of this marriage. A sister of Lucy Walker married, at the same time and place, John Norton, of London, of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. John the third (Colonel Baylor) was with Washington at Winchester. He represented the county of Caroline in the House of Burgesses from about 1740 to 1760. A list of the votes at one election is extant, and reveals his extensive popularity, as he received every vote in the county save one. Colonel Baylor moved to New Marketthen King and Queen-in 1726, and occupied a grant of land which was made by Robert Tronsdale in behalf of the King the year before. This paper is also preserved. The year following Caroline was formed, and New Market remains in possession of the family, from which it has never been alienated. Extravagance and folly, unfortunately, leave few such instances of successive proprietorship, in the State, for so long a time. The Episcopal church at the Bowling Green was built by Colonel Baylor, and other gentlemen, between 1610 and 1660, where the family continued |