Christopher Reynolds | |
---|---|
Member of Virginia House of Burgesses for one session only | |
In office 1652–1652 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1611 England |
Died | 1654 Virginia |
Spouse | Elizabeth |
Children | Christopher; John; Richard; Abbasha; Elizabeth (stepdaughter?); Jane; George Rivers (stepson); Thomas, born after the Will was written. [1] |
Residence | Isle of Wight County, Virginia |
Occupation | farmer |
Christopher Reynolds was not a politician but was sent as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses for one session to rebuke in the late 1652 session the alleged excesses of his predecessor, which Reynolds did.
He was an ancestor of R. J. Reynolds. Other notable descendants include Samuel Langhorne Clemens “Mark Twain” and "Lonesome" Charley Reynolds.
Christopher Reynolds was born in Gravesend, England in 1611, [2] [3] the son of George Reynolds and Thomasyn Church. [4]
He arrived in the Virginia Colony along with several family members, including his brother Thomas, [4] in 1622 aboard the John & Francis. As his party arrived very shortly after the Massacre of 1622, they first lived in Jamestowne, but eventually went across the James River as originally planned to settle as indentured servants in Warrascoyack County, Virginia, later named Isle of Wight County. [5]
Eleven years old when he arrived in Jamestowne, he was an indentured servant of Edward Bennett's Plantation, where he was still living in 1625. [5] [6] In 1626 he was documented in a legal dispute concerning the contract of other servants on the Bennett plantation. [5]
Although there are many references to the information above, there are many who question the parents of Christopher being George and Thomasyn. After much research, the Reynolds Family Association does not accept this as fact. There are two very well written and referenced articles to be found at: https://web.archive.org/web/20120103062202/http://www.reynoldsfamily.org/line17/chris_4.html and http://www.genfiles.com/reynolds/Reynoldschron1622-1699.htm that cast serious doubt on the accuracy of the conclusions of the writers of the sources quoted for this information. [Whether the “Reynolds Family Association” should be ascribed any authority at all remains to be proved, as its existence is novel at best. It might also be pointed out that this is the organization that created and endorsed the spurious three-fox "coat of arms" still foisted on the public.-—Douglas W. Reynolds, Jr.]
By 1636, he had settled on 450 acres (180 ha) in what eventually became Isle of Wight County near Pagan Creek. [7] He had married Elizabeth, a widow with two children. They raised seven children, several who were mentioned in his will in 1654: son Christopher, son John, son Richard, daughter Abbasha, daughter Elizabeth, daughter Jane, stepson George Rivers, unnamed (unborn son Thomas, born 1655). [8] [9] [10]
In 1652, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Isle of Wight County is a county located in the Hampton Roads region of the U.S. state of Virginia. It was named after the Isle of Wight, England, south of the Solent, from where many of its early colonists had come. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,606. Its county seat is Isle of Wight, an unincorporated community.
John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.
Thomas Rolfe was the only child of Pocahontas and her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia.
Warrosquoake Shire was officially formed in 1634 in the Virginia colony, but had already been known as "Warascoyack County" before this. It was named for an Algonquian-speaking tribe that was part of the Powhatan Confederacy. The county was renamed Isle of Wight County in 1637, after an island in the English Channel.
Josiah Parker was an American politician, Revolutionary War officer and Virginia planter who served in the United States House of Representatives from Virginia in the First through Sixth United States Congresses as well as represented Isle of Wight County in three of the five Virginia revolutionary convention and in the Virginia House of Delegates for several terms before his federal service.
Thomas Graves was one of the original Adventurers (stockholders) of the Virginia Company of London, and one of the very early Planters (settlers) who founded Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was also the first known person named Graves in North America. Captain Thomas Graves is listed as one of the original Adventurers as "Thomas Grave" on page 364, Records of the Virginia Company of London, vol. IV.
Sir Thomas Lawrence, 3rd Baronet was the 2nd Royal Governor of Maryland in 1693, elected by the Governor's Council following the death of Sir Lionel Copley, (1648-1693). He governed the colony for only a few weeks before the new royally appointed governor, Edmund Andros, (1637-1714), arrived from his trans-Atlantic trip to take over control of the colony. He was briefly the 6th Royal Governor of Maryland a second time when Andros then left the colony in 1694. Lawrence's successor was Francis Nicholson.
Christopher Lawne was an English merchant and Puritan of note, who was among the earliest settlers in the Virginia Colony in the early 17th century. Born in Blandford, Dorset, he emigrated on the Marygold in May 1618 and died in Virginia the following year.
Richard Bennett was an English planter and Governor of the Colony of Virginia, serving 1652–1655. He had first come to the colony in 1629 to represent his uncle Edward Bennett's business interests, managing his plantation known as Bennett's Welcome in Warrascoyack.
Edward Bennett, was an English merchant based in London, and a free member of the Virginia Company. A Puritan who had lived in Amsterdam for a period, he established the first large plantation in the colony of Virginia in North America, in what became known as Warrosquyoake Shire.
John George (1603–1679) was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, soldier, county court justice and legislative representative (politician). He served at least two terms as a burgess in the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1640s and 1650s representing Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
William Powell, was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, militia officer and legislator. Considered an Ancient Planter for living in the Virginia colony during its first decade, he was one of two representatives from what became James City County, Virginia in the first Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. His former plantation, now across the James River in Surry County, Virginia is now within Chippokes State Park.
Ensign Washer or Ensign Thos (Thomas) Washer was an early Virginia colonist who settled in the area that became Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Washer and Christopher Lawne represented Lawne's Plantation as burgesses in the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the lower house of the colonial Virginia General Assembly, in 1619.
George Fawdon, also spelled in various sources as George Fawden, George Fawder, George Fadoin, George Faudon, George Fawdoune, George Faudown, George Fawdowne, and George Fowden, was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, militia officer, county court clerk, county clerk justice and legislative representative (politician). He served at least two terms as a burgess in the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1640s and 1650s representing Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
Robert Beasley was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the elected lower house of the colonial Virginia General Assembly, from Isle of Wight County, in 1655 and 1656.
Joseph Bridger emigrated to the Virginia colony from England where he became wealthy and known for supporting Governor William Berkeley and his successors. As would his namesake grandson and several other descendants, Bridger served in the House of Burgesses representing Isle of Wight County. Bridger also served in the legislature's upper house, the Virginia Governor's Council, and led troops against the rebels during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 as well as in 1682, when he helped suppress the tobacco cutters.
William Spencer was an early Virginia colonist on Jamestown Island, who was an Ancient planter and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia for Mulberry Island in 1632/33.
Colonel Thomas Lygon III was a Colonial Virginian statesman, militia officer, and landowner. Born into a genteel family in England, Lygon emigrated to the Virginia Colony in the early 1640s. He served in the House of Burgesses, representing Henrico County, and was a justice of the peace for Charles City County. Lygon owned large parcels of land along the Appomattox River, and worked as a surveyor until his death in 1675. He was the patriarch of the American branch of the Lygon family.
Arthur Smith IV was a British colonial landowner, politician, and captain who incorporated Smithfield, Virginia, served as one of the town's founding trustees, and briefly represented Isle of Wight County in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
George Jordan (1620-1679) was a British attorney who also became a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He twice served as the colony's attorney general and at various times represented James City County and Surry County in the House of Burgesses, and may have served on the Virginia Governor's Council.
"Isle of Wight Wills and Deeds Book A"