Whence I Came

Although the Stone family had a surprising connection to the Barrett White estate , another piece of Stone/White wonder was uncovered with a little more record digging. While searching for deeds involving the Stone family in Henrico County, the below record surfaced.  In 1771, Thomas Stone (brother to William Stone) purchased 65 acres in Henrico County from John Robinson of Orange County, North Carolina.  According to the below deed, John Robinson was the son of Thomas Robinson, and the description of the land included mention of a creek and branches, but unfortunately, the name of the creek and branches were not provided.  However, previously, we learned that part of Thomas Stone's land included 100 acres on Gilleys Creek .  So, it is very possible that the 65 acres mentioned in the below deed were also in the same area.  The Robinson to Stone deed begins halfway down the page. Henrico County VA Deed Book 1767-1774 pages 387-388 Look who witn...

We already learned that William Stone's widow, Lucy, remarried to John White .  Their marriage took place about three years after Stone's death.  Their domestic life together comes alive on the below, third page of William Stone's estate settlement. Entries for Mr. and Mrs. White began just three months after their marriage in August 1784 and included: November 1, 1784 "To an order on Robert Gilbert in favor of Mrs. White" £5.0 January 18, 1785 "To ditto Joseph Binns for work done upon Mr. White's house" £2.18 January 20, 1785 "To 759 # pork for the use of Mrs. White's family" £8.13 April 12, 1785 "To ditto paid Lucy White for the use of her family" £3.3 January 25, 1786 "To ditto received by Mr. White for a still" £18.4 Henrico County VA Vol 2 Page 143 William Stone's Estate Settlement But the really SURPRISING White surname entry in William Stone's estate settlement is shown in the below image. ...

What a BIG SURPRISE it was to learn that the Lucy Stone who married John White in 1784 Henrico County was the widow of William Stone!  Of course, this new information prompted lots of new questions and curiosity.  In hopes of finding more pieces to the Stone/White puzzle, I turned to William Stone's estate settlement.  I was not disappointed. On April 10, 1781, one of Stone's executors, Smith Blakey, began an accounting for Stone's estate settlement which continued for nine more years.  In all, Stone's estate settlement is comprised of 5 pages which provide a bounty of information.  The first page (shown below) is so rich in material to be analyzed for genealogical purposes that it will be the focus of this entry.  Some of the names and entries from this page are addressed below to help provide a broader image of the Stone's family circle of acquaintances. Henrico County VA Wills and Settlements Vol 2 page 142 Lucy Stone William Stone did not leav...

In the previous blog entry , we explored the 1790 Henrico County deed where John and Lucy White sold the 100 acres of land that she was entitled to per the will of William Stone.  And, I'd been fruitless in trying to locate William Stone's will.  But since then, guess what happened?  My fellow researcher, Welford Jones, came through once again.  On his next trip to the Library of Virginia, he was able to obtain William Stone's will which provided a fresh new look at understanding who Lucy Stone was.  The will was obtained from the library's microfilm collection on Henrico County, Virginia Wills 1774 - 1783, reel 10.  Below are the four pages to the will. In his wishes, William Stone mentioned: "my loving wife" but no name sons William, Daniel, and Osborne Stone daughters Elizabeth, Martha, and Nancy Stone "the child that my wife is now pregnant with" None of the daughters listed were named Lucy!  In fact, Lucy Stone wasn't...

On August 10, 1784, the below bond for marriage between John White and Lucy Stone was posted in Henrico County.  The books containing information on Henrico County marriages had variations on Lucy's first and last name.  So, I asked my research friend, Welford Jones, to retrieve a copy of the original bond during his next visit to the Library of Virginia.  Welford came through!  The bond tells us that a marriage between John White and Lucy Stone was planned, but not that one actually took place.  In addition, the bond identifies a Jacob Lockett as being close to the couple, as he was willing to sign the obligation and post money for their marriage license.  Unfortunately, the date of the bond is only provided one time and as you can see, it is at the location of a fold, blurred over time.  This helps explain why some of the transcriptions for this bond listed the marriage in 1784 and others in 1786. Assuming that John White and Lucy Stone did ...