Whence I Came

Did John and Elizabeth Burnett of 1695 New Kent County ever live in St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia?  Many researchers believe they did.  But where is the evidence for this claim?  Researchers refer to two documents to support the claim that John Burnett of 1695 New Kent lived in early St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County.  Let's take a look at the evidence.   1677 Blisland Parish Grievance In 1677, the Crown sent to Virginia representatives to investigate the state of affairs as a follow up to Bacon's Rebellion the previous year.  When the Crown's representatives arrived, they let it be known that they would receive written grievances that were signed and sworn to by inhabitants.  One such written grievance was submitted by men of Blisland Parish, New Kent County.  The Blisland Grievance was  dated April 2, 1677 and listed a number of  oppressions under Governor  Sir William Berkeley including high taxes, Native Amer...

"There lived....a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights and thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization."      ---------Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  In 1835 Hanover County, Virginia, a woman simply named Betty filed suit in forma pauperis to fight for her and her children's liberties.  In a world where Betty had no rights under the bondage of slavery, the court abstract for Betty's suit presented a woman's fight to keep her family together.  What initially drew my eye to this suit was that somehow my Thurman family was involved Betty's battle.  I feared digging further into the suit and learning something about my Thurman that I really didn't want to know.  And yet, I couldn't get Betty and her brave heart out of my mind.  I had to know Betty's story and the fate of her children. According to the official court record , Betty was the property of William Gooch, a white, land...