Jeremiah Burnett of the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll
Jeremiah Burnett of the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll has always bothered me.
The first time I saw Jeremiah's name in the 1763 alphabetical Quit Rent Roll listing, I noticed that preceding him was William Reynolds Burnett and Isaac Burnett.
My mind imagined that the three Burnett men were all of the same family - probably living near one another. So, I decided to cross check their names with the St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record to see if their lands were processed in the same precincts. Here's what I found:
The first time I saw Jeremiah's name in the 1763 alphabetical Quit Rent Roll listing, I noticed that preceding him was William Reynolds Burnett and Isaac Burnett.
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| 1763 Hanover County VA Quit Rent Roll |
My mind imagined that the three Burnett men were all of the same family - probably living near one another. So, I decided to cross check their names with the St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record to see if their lands were processed in the same precincts. Here's what I found:
- William Reynolds Burnett was included in the extant St. Paul's Parish procession records from 1739 to 1779. Although his name was listed with the same interested landowners over the years, the precinct number changed from 19 to 18 and finally to 4. Other Burnetts listed in the same precinct with William Reynolds Burnett included Abraham and Bond Burnett. A procession was conducted in 1763 (same year as above Quit Rent Roll) and Abraham and Bond Burnett were included in the same precinct as William Reynolds Burnett. Apparently, they did not pay a Quit Rent. What stood out was that Jeremiah Burnett was not listed in any of the processions that William Reynolds Burnett was part of.
- Isaac Burnett paid his Quit Rent on 128 acres in 1763 but was not listed in the extant procession records until 1779. It is impossible to determine if Isaac Burnett owned the same 128 acres from 1763 to 1779 as the processions for his precinct are missing from the record. However, in the 1779 procession of Precinct 8 which included Isaac Burnett, no other Burnetts were included. Again, Jeremiah Burnett was not listed with Isaac Burnett in the St. Paul's procession records.
Jeremiah Burnett was no where to be found in the St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record. Then it dawned on me...by 1763, Hanover County had been divided into two parishes; 1) St. Paul's Parish, and 2) St. Martin's Parish. Unfortunately, the vestry record for St. Martin's parish is lost to time. And as a result, St. Martin's Parish is often forgotten. But in this case, it made sense that if a landowner was listed in the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll but not in the St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record, his land was very probably located in the boundary of St. Martin's Parish.
St. Martin's Parish was formed from St. Paul's Parish in 1726 due to the extensive size of St. Paul's Parish. Such a large parish created great difficulties in its administration. The boundaries of St. Martin's Parish included the lands lying between the "...North and South branches of the Pomonky River and also all that part of the said parish lying above Stone Horse Creek in the said county..." (The vestry book of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia, 1706-1786 page 597). By 1763, St. Martin's Parish within Hanover County included the area shown below, within the yellow boundary.
The remaining portion of Hanover County was within the boundaries of St. Paul's Parish.
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| St. Martin's Parish boundary |
So, the possibility of Jeremiah Burnett's land lying in St. Martin's Parish kept rolling around in my mind. Then a couple weeks ago, Mary Nell Burnett published a paper entitled, "The Truth About Jeremiah Burnett born 1718" on the Burnett Surname DNA Genealogy Facebook page. In her paper, Mary Nell Burnett quoted June Bork's reference to Jeremiah Burnett in Bork's book, "The Burnetts and Their Connections". Regarding familial connections for Jeremiah Burnett of the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll, Bork stated,“Jeremiah BURNETT I, son of John BURNETT and Amy GATEWOOD, born 1718, he
died after 22 Oct 1773, place unknown." Gatewood wasn't a surname I was familiar with in Hanover County and the Burnett/Gatewood family hailed from Essex County. But something made me look to see if there were any Gatewoods mentioned in the St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record. And guess what? Not only was a James Gatewood mentioned as part of a 1776 vestry record, but he was referenced in regards to St. Martin's Parish!
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| St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record |
Seeing James Gatewood's name in the St. Paul's Parish Vestry Record provided me with even more reason to suspect that Jeremiah Burnett's 100 acres in the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll were in St. Martin's Parish.
The ramifications of these Burnett and Gatewood connections to St. Martin's Parish implies that there is a very strong possibility that Jeremiah Burnett was not genetically related to William Reynolds Burnett or Isaac Burnett. The Burnett Surname DNA Project shows that the Burnetts of St. Paul's Parish and the Burnetts of Essex County were genetically unrelated. To know for sure, a documented male descendant of Jeremiah Burnett (of the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll) would need to take a YDNA test.
Now Jeremiah Burnett of the 1763 Hanover County Quit Rent Roll no longer bothers me, but he intrigues me!
copyright©2020 Deborah Thurman Parks
