'V A° A> -2> 3 • ^ 0> Oi v * V A > A V "x, ■ "\. •« a ' 4 o 4 o vP vr*V 4 A <*. 'o . » • A % ..... -V d* ^ A^ *> 0c tf A ^ ^^' % >bv ?^ r + * < ^ vy <-& iOv, .4 o^ - ^ fc* ■V THIS EDITION OF BRANCHIANA IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS NUMBER Branchiana BEING A PARTIAL ACCOUNT OF The Branch Family in Virginia BY JAMES BRANCH CABELL "Hcec est Vita solutorum misera ambitione gravique.' 4» Printed by WHITTET & SHEPPERSON, Richmond, Va. ;~HARY of CONOR! lwc Bootes Rwelved NOV f 190/ (pcfj/ /jay uSS 4 XXc„ No. 'COR/ B. So fofjn $atteson Prancf) JEfjis bolume is toitfj a couble fitness tJcbicatcU, as being both the first to suggest its tompilation anb the most eminent libing member of the famtlp tohirh it commemorates. Contents Page The Compiler's Foreword 5 The Branches in Europe and in New England 13 The Descent of Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond 23 The Descendants of Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond 59 The Wife of Christopher Branch of Kingsland 103 The Wife of Christopher Branch of Charles City . . . 107 The Wife of Benjamin Branch of Hemrico 11 1 The Wife of Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield 129 The Wife of Captain Benjamin Branch of Willow Hill . 145 The Wife of Thomas Branch of Willow Hill 149 The First Wife of Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond 157 The Second Wife of Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond 173 SUusitrattons; thomas branch Frontispiece james read branch Facing p. 18 JAMES RANSOM BRANCH 36 JAMES ROBINSON BRANCH 54 JOHN PATTESON BRANCH JO THOMAS BRANCH 8S THOMAS PLUMMER BRANCH 114 WILLIAM ADDISON BRANCH " I32 MELVILLE IRBY BRANCH 152 CARTER WHEELRIGHT BRANCH l68 Copyright, 1907, by James Branch Cabell. Allrights reserved. Published October, 1907. ®be Compiler'* Jf oretoorfc ®ije Compiler^ Jf oretoorb " Sur les tumbeaulx de mes ancestres, Les ames desquelx Dieu embrasse, On n'y voyt couronnes ne sceptres" It has appeared expedient that these gleanings from the county records of Henrico and Chesterfield, and from certain other sources, be put into some accessible shape, since, though at odd times during the last twenty years there has been published concerning the Branch family of Virginia a variety of information, the information has in most instances been incorrect. Now, the persons the compiler treats of have been dead for many decades ; and it may safely be assumed of any of us that, once dead, we are, and of necessity, condemned to an eternal misrepresentation, whether it be in the de- traction of our enemies that the lie endure or in the pane- gyrics of our epitaphs. Yet the fiction, if it aim toward the neighborhood of plausibility, should very rarely con- descend to brutal fisticuffs with an established fact, since the latter is proverbially stubborn ; and in this instance the records of Henrico and of Chesterfield still exist, and are approachable by all men. These records form the basis of this compilation, which endeavors but to make clear the direct ancestry of Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond — born 23d Decem- ber, 1802, died 15th November, 1888 — and of his two wives. 8 BRANCHIANA For the little book has no pretensions to be considered as a history of the Branches. Among the many and de- vious ramifications of an unusually prolific family a single line of descent is herein traced out, and quite stolidly; since the compilation, as you are to remember, grasps neither at a compelling grace of language or at any origi- nality of trope. Such-an-one committed such-and-such an action on a specified date, and the event was sworn to by So-and-so, and afterward was duly recorded at this- or-that place; and it is the compiler's business simply to write down the fact without metaphor: and there on a pin-point you have the scheme of the ensuing volume. Within judicious limits, however, the compiler has not denied himself the privilege of attempting to deduce from the established fact each and every circumstance that would in common reason accompany it. This is not, per- haps, the ordinary custom of genealogists; but as it chances the compiler is not by avocation a genealogist, and in consequence has aimed less at the construction of a historical romance than at a faithful transcription, and at times a re-arrangement, of certain musty items from quite uninteresting wills, and deeds of gift, and transfers of land, and many similar abominations of an equal dreari- ness. And for this same reason the Branch pedigree is un- adorned by even a solitary potentate. The compiler might more gorgeously have informed you, say! that a certain female ancestor of Christopher Branch of " Kingsland," was supposedly a person whom the Ruler of Somewhere, BRANCHIANA 9 t for reasons unstated, and discreetly so, delighted to honor; or have dwelt with heavier emphasis upon the fact that a certain male progenitor of his "came over," as the phrase runs, with William the Conqueror. For such is the pleasing and the inexpensive custom of all genealogists: whereas, contrariwise, the present copyist confesses, with appropriate humility, that the Branches of Virginia trace back an established lineage to not a single Scandinavian pirate, and no lineage at all to any lady who, in her be-sonneted heyday, was proven very compassionate to the pangs of amorous royalty. Shuffle over it as you may, the authentic forebearer of this family was merely an honest and God-fearing yeoman whose reputation is not attestedly enhanced by even the tiniest infraction of the Decalogue. It is undeniable, however, that the progenitors of this same yeoman sprang of an ancient and a not uninteresting origin ; and certain by-ends of mythology have, in conse- quence, been lightly touched upon. But to the compiler, at least, these traditions appear of very minor importance. For, grant that Christopher Branch of " Kingsland " was, even as legend claims, a lineal descendant of Caius Liciriius Stdlo, and that within his more immediate ances- try one might enumerate, "by scores half-emperors and quarter-emperors," and a dozen or two of kings let us say, and an infinity of, dukes — enumerate, in fine, just such a list as all genealogists so heartily love to catalogue. Grant this, and the stark fact remains that he shared any one of these honors with an odd million or so of his contem- io BRANCHIANA poraries, ranging say ! from pickpockets to the most august of the period ; so that, as it concerned the terres- trial circumstances of Christopher Branch of " Kings- land," the thing was wholly immaterial, either one way or another; — and the considerate person will come a deal nearer to the marrow of the man by reflecting that at his death his library consisted of two Bibles, and both of them the worse for constant usage. Yet, doubtless, the romantic can derive a thrill of gen- uine pleasure from the reflection that, to however infini- tesimal a degree, they share the blood of this-or-that more sumptuous individual of antiquity; as to the romantic it will doubtless be apparent that the trivial doings of cer- tain thrifty and industrious planters some centuries or more ago are scarcely worthy of perpetuation. But there are two ends to every stick. It was the Vir- ginian Branches, and their like, who converted a wilder- ness, a little by a little, into the America of to-day; and their task was tediously achieved, and without ostentation, and always the ship had its resplendent figure-head, as always it had its hidden, nay! the grimy, engines, which propelled the ship. And, however much America may differ from Utopia, to have assisted in the making of America is no mean distinction. To be descended of a line of czars, or from a house of emperors, is, at the worst, an empty braggartism, or, at most — upon the plea of heredity — a handy palliation for iniquity; and to be descended of sturdy and honest and clean-blooded folk is preferable, perhaps, since, upon quite BRANCHIANA n similar grounds, it entitles one to hope that even now, " when their generation is gone, when their play is over, when their panorama is withdrawn in tatters from the stage of the world," there may yet survive of them " some few actions worth remembering, and a few children who have retained some happy stamp from the disposition of their parents." August, 1906. ®be JSrandje* m (Europe antr in JJeto Cnglanb ®fje prancfjea in €urope antr in iSeto Cnglanb More immediately the Branch family is of Norman origin, the first mention of the name in written history, so far as is now known, occurring in the Chronicle of John Brompton (who flourished circa 1118), in a list wherein he enumerates " Les 110ns de grauntz dela la mer, Qe vindrent od le conquer our, William Bastard de graunt vigoure," — as he terms them. Or, in other wording : " The names of the great men who crossed the sea with the conqueror, William the Vig- orous." Brompton gives but the surnames, for a cogent reason which he states; and they are so arranged as to assist the memory of the reader alike by rhyme and rhymth and alliteration. So that, beginning with Maundevyle et Daundevyle, Ounfravyle et Downfrevyle, Brompton comes presently to Morten et Mortimer, BRAUNZ et Columber. 16 BRANCHIANA And, true, the spelling of the family name is here none too accurate : but Brompton was merely transcribing from a list compiled some years before his birth, and, as by good luck it chances, many lists of the same sort have been preserved even to our time in the archives of several churches, written upon great pages of vellum, and deco- rated with the title of The Book of the Conquerors. And in such lists — the sources of the Brompton list — as they have been published by Andre Duchesne (and by others) from the various charters and so on now in Battle Abbey, you will find that the name is invariably spelt as Braunche. W$t Utriman jfamtlp The surname of the Branch family is thus easily traced back to the eleventh century ; but legend claims for the Branches a far greater antiquity, and at least attempts to identify them with the Licinian family of old Rome. For within " that immense register where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts and the errors of man- kind " — as, it may be, that in this connection Gibbon not unappositely terms the Naturalis Historia — one may read (in Book XVIL, Chapter i.), how "the trees have fur- nished surnames also to the ancients, such, for instance, as that .... of Stolo to the Licinian family, such being the name given by us to the useless suckers that shoot from trees ; for the best method of clearing away these shoots was discovered by the first Stolo, and hence his name." And legend claims that the Licinian family, in conse- BRANCHIANA 17 quence, adopted as its insignia a green branch, and that from this same emblem its descendants have always taken their surname: thus in France their name was Branche; and in Spain and Italy, Branca; and in Normandy, Braunche ; and, presently, in England, Branch. Cams; Hictniug H>iolo Here were indeed an ancient ancestry were the claims of legend a shade more authentically buttressed ; for the first member of the Licinian family to attain any par- ticular prominence, so far at least as the knowledge of the compiler extends, was that Caius Licinius Stolo, who, in 367 B. C, as tribune (compare Livy VI., 35, 42, as well as other annalists), drew up and proclaimed the celebrated Licinian roga- tions, which in reality converted Rome from an oligarchy into a republic. 3Tfje Cmperor Hictmug And by an odd turn of fate, so distinguished did his race afterward become that, in 307, a Roman emperor — and the incarnation of despotism — made it his proudest boast to be a descendant of this same tribune. It is true that the boast now appears to have been but a vainglorious fiction, and the Emperor Licinius, in fact, to have sprung from some obscure and Dacian origin; yet none the less is it worthy of remark that relationship with the Licinian family was then an honor which a master of half Europe might see fit to covet. 18 BRANCHIANA 2Tf)e $kancf) Surname The preceding legends are but legends, and they are given but as legends; still, however improbable it may appear that any family should adopt this-or-that emblem as its badge, and subsequently from that same emblem derive and preserve its permanent name, it must be re- membered that in actuality the thing has been done more than once. The family aforetime regnant in England that as Counts of Anjou had adopted for their device a sprig of broom — the planta genesta — and were in consequence henceforward known as the Plantagenets — here, of course, is a very clamant instance of this: and, indeed, hundreds of other cases might readily be cited; so that, all in all, it is a deal more easy to shrug aside the Licinian origin of the Branches than it is to disprove it. OTfre Prattcfj grms; And with all this, the present compiler has, in reality, very little to do. He attempts but to record the fortunes of the Branches in Virginia. Yet, in passing, it is not to be supposed that when such defensive armor came into use that the features of every second person were screened by a visor, and in consequence unrecognizable — that, at this time above all others, the insignia of any family might lightly be disregarded. Here was the origin — and the very practical origin — of all latter-day heraldic vanities ; since, as Clark points out, " though now matters of form and ceremonial, and sub- BRANCHIANA 19 ject to the smile which attaches to such in an utilitarian age, armorial bearings were then of real use and impor- tance, and so continued as long as knights were cased in plate and their features thus concealed. At that time leaders were recognized in the field by their insignia alone" — and so on. The insignia of the Branches, how- ever anciently chosen, would have been, in consequence, quite naturally adopted as a conspicuous part of the design when this family came to plan its arms. The arms of the Branch family, as its descendants bear them to-day, are: — Argent, a lion rampant gules, op- pressed by a bend dexter sable. Crest: — Out of a ducal coronet or, a cock's head proper, in its beak a branch vert, — or in other wording, the "green branch" of the Licinian family. The arms have no motto. But a variant, and, as it appears to the compiler, a more ancient and the correct form of these arms is : — Argent, a lion rampant gules, armed azure, oppressed with a bend sable. Crest : — Out of a ducal coronet or, a cock's head azure, combed gules, holding a branch vert. These arms, also, have no motto. They were assumed! in the latter half of the twelfth century by the descendants of that Braunche who, with William the Conqueror, both invaded and overcame England in 1066. And, true, in any blazonry of the arms, " the branch vert " appears to form but a minor part of the design ; yet it should be remembered that this crest originally was the ornament borne by the armed warrior upon his helmet, 20 BRANCHIANA and hence in battle conspicuous from a far greater dis- tance than the arms proper which were painted upon his shield. &fje ^rancfjea m Cnglanb With the history of the Branch family in England the compiler has at the present moment no concern ; yet, in passing, it is as well to mention that in England the Branches first settled in Wiltshire, and more lately, as it would appear, removed to the County of Kent. Tradition states that the great-grandfather of the Branch who emigrated to Virginia was none other than the Sir John Branch, who circa 1485, was Lord Mayor of London ; and that a son of this same Sir John Branch was the William Branch, sometimes known as William Flower, one of the most notorious of the Protestant suf- ferers during the reign of Mary I. He had formerly been a monk at Ely, but had abjured the Roman Catholic religion to become a too-zealous Protestant; and on Easter Day, 1555, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, during the actual celebration of the Holy Communion, William Branch attacked and stabbed the officiating priest, although not mortally. He was brought before Edmund Bonner, then Bishop of London, who argued with him for a long while on re- ligious matters, and eventually offered him a pardon on condition that he recant his Protestant opinions and con- form to the Church of Rome. BRANCHIANA 21 William Branch refused ; and in consequence, the hand which had committed the crime having first been severed from his wrist, he was chained to a stake before St. Mar- garet's Chapel, which was the scene of the atrocity, and there burned alive. This person, according to tradition, was, by his son, John Branch, a grandfather of the Peter Branch who emigrated to the Colony of Massachusetts in 1638, and, by his son, Thomas Branch, a grandfather of the Chris- topher Branch who emigrated to the Colony of Virginia in the March of 1619-20. It is from the latter two that the Branches of New Eng- land and the Branches of Virginia trace their descent. &f)e prattcfjes; in iSeto Cnglanfc The aforementioned Peter Branch sailed for Massa- chusetts in the Castle, as previously recorded, in the year 1638, and died during the voyage. His will, made in favor of his only son, John Branch, was the first will to be recorded at Boston. This same John Branch, the only son of the foregoing, more lately married Mary Speed, and more lately still settled at Branch Island, which lies some ten miles north of Plymouth Rock, and as yet retains its ancient name. From this John Branch descend the Branches of New England. ®fje ®e$cent of Wfjomas Jlrancf) of $eter*= fcurg anb fticftmonb W$t ©extent of ®fjomas Prancf) of Peters- burg anb 3&icf)mottii Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond, in Virginia, was a descendant, in the seventh generation, of Christopher Branch of "Arrowhattocks" and "Kingsland," — the latter being, according to tradition, a son of that Thomas Branch who was a son of William Branch, the Protestant fanatic, who was, in turn, a son of the Sir John Branch that was {circa 1485) Lord Mayor of London. And here we have the faery land of tradition, and henceforward build upon the less livelily-tinted founda- tion of the county records of Henrico and of Chesterfield. Cfjrtstopfjer prancfj of 3£mgs;lanb Christopher Branch of "Arrowhattocks" and "Kingsland," in Henrico County, the founder of the Bianch family in Virginia, was born in England — and, presumably, within the County of Kent — about the year 1600 ; and he married there very early in life. With- his wife, Mary Branch, whose maiden name is unknown, he emigrated to Virginia in the March of 1619-20, so that in the February of 1623-4, according to 2 6 BRANCHIANA the first census ever taken of the inhabitants of Virginia, Christopher Branch was living in Henrico ; and the mus- ter of January, 1624-5, names Christopher Branch, his wife, Mary Branch, and their son, Thomas Branch, then nine months old, as resident "att ye Colledg Land." They had come to Virginia in the London Merchant, of 300 tons, which vessel was despatched from Tilbury- hope, in England, by the Virginia Company, in the March of 1619-20, with 200 colonists on board, and reached Vir- ginia some time during the spring of the same year, after a prosperous voyage, during which but one passenger had died. The precise location of the Branch home at this period is indeterminate, as the College Land was a rather exten- sive tract set aside by the company, whereon " to erect and build a college in Virginia, for the training and bring- ing up of infidel's children to the true knowledge of God and understanding of righteousness." The company designed, in fact, both to Christianize and educate the neighboring Indians; and to this intent i^ was decided (26th May, 1619), that "a certain piece cf land be laid out in Henrico, which should be called tie College Land, and for the planting of the same to send presently fifty good persons to be seated thereon, and to occupy the same according to order, and to have half die benefit of their labour, and the other half to go to setting forward the work and for maintenance of the tutors and scholars." The scheme, at first enthusiastically taken up by the BRANCHIANA 27 King and " the several bishops of this kingdom," was abandoned after the Great Massacre of 1622, when the Indians, under Opechancanough, very nearly succeeded in exterminating the Colony, and the assigned lands were thrown open to the public; but it was as one of these " fifty good persons " that Christopher Branch came to America, and he and his wife were among the scant sixty settlers of the College Land who, somehow, survived the massacre; and their oldest son was born upon the heels of it. It was ten years before Christopher Branch — on the 20th October, 1634 — patented a hundred acres of land at "Arrowhattocks," in Henrico County, which then com- prised the present Chesterfield. This "Arrowhattocks " appears in Captain John Smith's map on the north side of James River, a short distance above the present Dutch Gap; but the eventual and permanent home of Christo- pher Branch was at " Kingsland," a plantation almost immediately opposite "Arrowhattocks," on the south side of the river, in what is now the County of Chesterfield, where, on the 14th of September, 1636, he patented another hundred acres of land. A successful tobacco farmer, he subsequently aug- mented this modest tract both by purchase and by the taking out of other patents, until he had acquired a rather large plantation in the extreme northeast of Chesterfield, bounded upon the east by James River and upon the south by Proctor's Creek. The present Kingsland Creek ran 28 BRANCHIANA through his property and takes its name from the former home of Christopher Branch. He must have come to Virginia very little better than a pauper; but that he subsequently became a man of means, as means then went, and of prominence in at least his county, is evinced by the frequency with which his name occurs in the scant records of the time and the many honorable offices which he occupied. He was, in 1639, to cite an instance, with his immediate neighbor, Captain Thomas Osborne of " Coxendale," one of the viewers of tobacco " from the World's End to Henrico," — it having been decided by an act of the As- sembly that "there be yearly chosen and appointed Men of Experience and in dignity for the Carefull Viewing of each Man's crop of Tobacco" ; and he had represented his county in the Virginia House of Burgesses in the year 1629; and was in 1656 appointed one of the justices of the peace for Henrico. A glance at the various land patents taken out by Chris- topher Branch is not without interest. On the 20th of October, 1634, as recorded, Christopher Branch— then of "Arrowhattocks"— leased a hundred acres of land "adjoining the land granted to John Griffin and John Sheffield, and abutting easterly on the main river." On die 8th of December, 1636, Christopher Branch patented 250 acres " at 'Kingsland,' bounded on the east by the Main river and westerly by the Second creek,"— this being the land formerly "granted to John Griffin, BRANCHIANA 29 fifty acres for his personal adventure, and 200 for the transportation of four persons." It is interesting to note that within the year Christopher Branch has in some inex- plicable fashion acquired and annexed all of his immediate neighbor's land. Again, on the 14th of September, 1636, as recorded, Christopher Branch patented a hundred acres (t in Hen- rico County, bounded on the east by the river, over against ' Harrow Attocks,' and on the west by the head of Proc- tors' Creek. Due : by exchange with James Place, and due Place for the transportation of two servants, Richard Pierce and James Hunt." This looks as though Christopher Branch had traded his hundred acres at "Arrowhattocks" for an additional hundred at " Kingsland," and had finally cast his destiny upon the south side of the river ; and there is no further definite record after this date of his ever owning property upon the northern side of the James. This patent, by the way, was subsequently renewed by Sir John Harvey, when Governor of Virginia, and 300 acres added. It is thus fairly apparent that Christopher Branch met with good luck in his Virginian venture, and achieved success and prominence; but it is unlikely that his life was ever one of luxury. Indeed, it is salutary, in passing, to consider the then condition of Virginia, as recorded by an eye-witness : " I found the plantations generally seated upon meer salt marshes, full of infectious boggs and muddy creeks and lakes, and hereby subjected to all those inconveniences 3° BRANCHIANA and diseases which are so commonly found in the most unsound and most unhealthy parts of England " The Colony was this winter in much distress of vic- tual. . . . ' Their houses are generally the worst that ever I saw, the meanest cottages in England being every way equal (if not superior) with the most of the best, and, besides, so improvidently and scatteringly are they seated one from another, as partly from their distance, but especially by the interposition of creeks and swamps, as they call them, they offer all advantages to their savage enemies, and are utterly deprived of all sudden recollection of themselves upon any teYms whatsoever "I found the ancient plantations of Henrico and Charles City wholly quitted and left to the spoils of the Indians, who not only burnt the houses, said to be once the best of all others, but fell upon the poultry, hogs, cows, goats and horses, whereof they killed great numbers. . . . ' There having been, as it is thought, not fewer than ten thousand souls transported hither, there "are not, thro' the aforementioned abuses and neglects, above two thousand of them to be found alive at this present — many of them in a sickly and desperate estate." In such unenviable circumstances Christopher Branch lived for sixty years, dying at a very advanced age either in the December of 1681 or in the January of 1682. Immediately previous to his death (2nd November, 1 68 1 ) , he had confirmed a former deed of gift to his eldest son, Thomas Branch, of 300 acres of land in Henrico, BRANCHIANA 31 " which Thomas Branch now lives on," the action being necessitated by some irregularity in the earlier deed. This land faced upon James River, and adjoined the land of John Branch — presumably the same John Branch who was the youngest son of William Branch. It should be borne in mind, however, that Christopher Branch of "Arrowhattocks" and "Kingsland" was not the only Branch who emigrated to Virginia. There was a John Branch who owned land in Elizabeth City County as early as 1636, was a viewer of tobacco for Elizabeth City in 1639, and represented Elizabeth City in the Vir- ginia Assembly in 1641 ; but who was apparently unre- lated to Christopher Branch of " Kingsland," and, so far as is recorded, left no descendants. Christopher Branch married, as has been said, Mary , who died at an early age — apparently before 1630. By Mary , Christopher Branch of "Kingsland" had issue : 1. Thomas Branch of Henrico, the oldest son, born April, 1623, and the only child to survive his father. Thomas Branch died in 1693. He had married Eliza- beth , and by her had issue: — Thomas, who mar- ried Elizabeth Archer, daughter of George Archer of Henrico, and died in 1728; Matthew, who married , and died in 1726; James, who died without issue in 1737; Elizabeth, who married Melchizadeck Richardson; Mar- tha ; a daughter, name unknown, who married Richard Ward of Henrico ; William ; Margery ; and John. 32 BRANCHIANA II. William Branch of Henrico, born about 1625, presumably the second son, and presumably a namesake of the Protestant fanatic, who died in 1676. William Branch married Jane (she married, second, Abel Gower, in his time justice of the peace and sheriff for Henrico), and by her had issue: — William, who died young, post 1678, and without leaving issue; John, died in 1788, who married Martha Jones, the daughter of Thomas Jones of Bermuda Hundreds ; Sarah ; and Mary, who married, first, Thomas Jefferson of Henrico (grand- father of the President), and, second, Joseph Mattox. III. Christopher Branch of Charles City County, born about 1627. Christopher Branch of "Kingsland" died, as has been said, between the 1st of December, 1681, and 1st of Feb- ruary, 1681-2. An inventory of his goods and chattels, too long to be here cited, was recorded 13th of April, 1682, and vividly illustrates how solely was the wealth of Virginia's earlier inhabitants confined to the possession of lands and of slaves, and of so many pounds of tobacco, since their total value, as fixed by the appraisers, is no more than thirty-eight pounds, seven shillings and ten pence. It should be remembered, however, that the purchasing power of money was then, roughly speaking, about nine times that of the present day. There are no luxuries in this enumeration; it contains, for the most part, only the bare necessities of life; and the library of Christopher Branch consisted of three vol- BRANCHIANA 33 umes, one of which, having an undecipherable title, he bequeathed to his oldest and only living son, Thomas Branch ; and for the rest Christopher Branch possessed : " One old Bible, valued at 5 shillings. " One old ditto, valued at 5 shillings." And here is his modest list of live stock : " 3 cows, valued at 35 shillings each. " 1^ Oxen, one 2 years old, 5 shillings ; and one 5 years old at 30 shillings. " 2 bulls, one 2 years old at 15 shillings, and the other 6 years old at 25 shillings. " 1 yearling calfe. " 5 barrowes (gelded pigs), at 15 shillings each. " 4 sowes, at 15 shillings each. " 2 shootes (shoats), at 6 shillings each. " 1 boar, valued at 6 shillings. " 1 parcel of pyggs, to be divided amongst themselves." The will of Christopher Branch is recorded at Henrico Court-House. It is dated 20th June, 1678, and was re- corded 20th February, 168 1-2. Previous to the making of this will, he had conveyed to his son, Thomas Branch, by various deeds of gift, the entire northern portion of the " Kingsland " plantation, consisting of at least 540 acres, and probably of more; and it is not an outrageous flight of fancy to presume that the second son, William Branch, had been provided for in similar fashion, since the will ignores the heirs of this William Branch precisely as Thomas Branch and his heirs are therein ignored. 34 BRANCHIANA It is possible that to William Branch was allotted the "Arrowhattocks" plantation on the north side of the river, inasmuch as the will makes no mention of this property, which Christopher Branch had unquestionably owned and had unquestionably parted with by the year 1678; but as has been recorded, the lease of 14th September, 1636, would seem to indicate that he had made over at least a portion of "Arrowhattocks" to James Place of Henrico, in exchange for an additional hundred acres at " Kings- land." By ordinary, it was the custom of our early colonists thus to provide for their sons as they reached manhood ; and it is deducible that Christopher Branch of " Kings- land," cannily desirous that as little as possible of his estate be squandered upon taxes, had in his lifetime deeded to his elder sons and to their heirs such lands as he intended to leave them. But his youngest son, Christo- pher Branch of Charles City County, had died young, leaving three boys, all under age when Christopher Branch of " Kingsland " drew up his will ; and it is for them, and for them alone, that the will of their grand- father provides. Thus to his eldest son, Thomas Branch, the testator be- queaths merely " my great copper ceattle," and the book whose title is undecipherable, and explicitly confirms a previous deed of gift of some 240 acres : and to William Branch and to John Branch (the children of the testator's second son, William Branch), merely the liberty to "fish and fowle" in all the creeks and swamps of his big plan- tation. BRANCHIANA 35 To the testator's grandson, Christopher Branch (the oldest child of the testator's son, Christopher Branch of Charles City County, and then nineteen years old), is left all the land between James River and the Long Slash — and "slash" here denotes a low and wet and overgrown piece of ground — beginning at the mouth of Proctor's Creek and "running upwards on the river to the pinetree that parts my land and my son Thomas's, and from Proc- tor's Creek at the lower end of the Long Slash, on the inside of the Long Slash, running up to my son Thomas's land." In other words, after deeding the northern por- tion to Thomas Branch, the testator bequeaths to his grandson, Christopher Branch, the eastern third of the remainder of his " Kingsland " plantation. There is, however, a condition stipulated, " provided the said Christopher Branch help to build for his brother Samuel Branch a house four lengths of boards, every length to be five feet, with the help of the negroe and Joab, if they live till Samuel Branch be of ability to keep it, and help him to clear a cornfield sufficiently fenced to keep out hoggs and cattle." For to the testator's grandson, Samuel Branch, then fifteen years old, is bequeathed the second third of " Kingsland," " all land between the Long Slash and the bottom called by the name of Jackes Bottome, beginning at Proctor's Creek and running up to Thomas Branch's land; provided that the said Samuel Branch, with the help of Christopher Branch and the negro and Jobe, build for Benjamin Branch a house," — and so on, according to 36 BRANCHIANA all the specifications of the house to be built for Samuel Branch when he shall come to years of discretion. For to the youngest grandson, Benjamin Branch, then thirteen years old, is bequeathed the remaining third of ' Kingsland,"— "all the land between Jackes Bottome and* Proctor's Creek, beginning at Proctor's Creek and run- ning up to my son Thomas's land." It is also stipulated, with meticulous forethought, that when the two houses come to be built, Christopher Branch is to supply both Samuel Branch and Benjamin Branch with ''six locus (locust) posts and two im (elm?) posts," in event of the lands assigned to either containing none af the time of building; and, curiously enough, that if any of the three die under age his lands and property are to go to "the next brother." This apparently unfair arrangement is perhaps ex- plained by the fact that Christopher Branch is to have for some years the use of the entire estate : for the testator appoints him general manager of "Kingsland" as a whole, and it is to young Christopher Branch that Thomas Branch is to pay such rent for the recently deeded 240 acres "as may be due his Majesty yearly," as well as to Christopher Branch that Samuel Branch and Benjamin Branch are to deliver their annual rental when these two acquire their several portions of "Kingsland"; and it is stipulated that the latter grandsons are to live with Chris- topher Branch, and under his guardianship, until "they are grown and able to get their land." BRANCHIANA 37 Item, " my part of Jobe's labor (the negro previously mentioned), which is one-half his labor, is to go to the maintenance of Benjamin Branch and Samuel Branch and Sarah Branch." This Sarah Branch, as has been said, was the younger daughter of the testator's second son. It is then stipulated that a certain " cartway to the woods " running through the plantation of " Kingsland " be always free to the public; and more lately, by an obvious afterthought, that if either Christopher Branch or Samuel Branch, for any reason, refuse to take part in building the stipulated houses, and so on, the delinquent is to pay 600 pounds of tobacco to the brother he has de- clined to start in life. Finally, to Thomas Jefferson of Henrico (who had married, ante 1678, Mary Branch, the older daughter of the testator's second son, and was by her the grandfather of the President), is left one hogshead of tobacco, of 400 pounds weight, inasmuch as the said Thomas Jefferson is to be, with the younger Christopher Branch, the testator's executor; and all other property of which the testator may die possessed is to be divided equally among Chris- topher Branch and Samuel Branch and Benjamin Branch and Sarah Branch. The witnesses of this will are Abel Gower (who had married the widow of William Branch, the testator's second son), and Richard Ward (who had married a daughter of Thomas Branch, the testator's oldest son). 38 BRANCHIANA Cfjriatopfjer ^rattcfj of Cfjariea Cttp Christopher Branch of Charles City County, the third and youngest son oi the foregoing, was born about the year 1627. On reaching manhood he removed from Henrico to Charles City, where he resided for some twenty years. Owing to the destruction of the earlier records of Charles City, our knowledge of this Christopher Branch is woefully deficient. It is apparent, however, that he married early in life, and it is no mean tribute to his ability and his ranking in public opinion that at the age of thirty, at most, he should have been a justice of the peace for his county— to which office Christopher Branch was appointed in the year 1657. Christopher Branch of Charles City died in 1665, some fifteen years before his father's demise. The name of his wife is unknown, as well as the total number of children she bore him. Yet it is presumable that there were but three, the three sons, who, after the death of their father, were entrusted to the guardianship of their grandfather, Christopher Branch of " Kings- land," and for whom the latter, as previously recorded, makes liberal provision in his will. These children were: I. Christopher Branch of Henrico, born 1659, died 1727, who married Anne Sherman Crowley (the widow of John Crowley of Henrico, and the daughter of Henry BRANCHIANA 39 Sherman of Henrico), and by her had issue :— Henry ; Mary, who married Walter ; Sissarah, who married Bass ; and Bodiane, who married Cheatham. II. Samuel Branch of Henrico, born 1663, died 1700, who married Ursula , and by her had issue. III. Benjamin Branch of Henrico, born in 1665. The will of Christopher Branch of Charles City County, if indeed he did not die intestate— which was a rare event among our careful colonists of Virginia — perished with the remainder of the Charles City records, so that we have to-day no certain knowledge either as to the exact locality of his plantation or the disposition which he made of it. Pemamtn iSranc^ of Henrico Benjamin Branch of Henrico, the third and youngest son of the foregoing, was born in 1665, which was, as lias been previously recorded, the year of his father's death. It is probable that his mother also did not long survive the birth of this third son ; the three boys were unques- tionably orphaned during the infancy of Benjamin Branch and left with no nearer relative than their grandfather, Christopher Branch of " Kingsland," who reared and sheltered them until his death, which took place about the period that the oldest boy attained to legal manhood. Under the guardianship of their elder brother, this goal was reached and passed by the younger boys also, and in 1686 Benjamin presumably cleared the western portion of 40 BRANCHIANA ' Kingsland," and had built for him, by Christopher Branch and Samuel Branch, a house some twenty feet long. There he dwelt a bachelor until the mature age of at least thirty — a very unusual proceeding in that day of early marriages— and farmed his modest plantation on Proctor's Creek with apparently a modest share of suc- cess. But in such records as yet endure concerning the doings of this Benjamin Branch, one lights upon little indicating in his entire life more than a respectable mediocrity. He inherited a small plantation and appears never to have in- creased its dimensions, or, in any event, not materially, nor to have lessened them ; and he occupied no public position, nor apparently enjoyed any particular promi- nence. One pictures him as being quite contented and a trifle lazy. True, the host of trivial facts that have been preserved concerning Benjamin Branch of Henrico affords but scant afd to the judgment; it is not particularly illumi- nating to know that at the inventory of the estate of Thomas Jefferson (who, as recorded, married his cousin, Mary Branch), Benjamin Branch received "ten shillings for a mutton for the funeral" ; or that, in 1699, the College of William and Mary brought suit for one pound, five shillings, against Benjamin Branch, as the executor of Edward Osborne. For, about the year 1695 Benjamin Branch of Henrico, had married Tabitha Osborne, the elder daughter of Edward Osborne of Henrico. BRANCHIANA 41 By Tabitha Osborne, Benjamin Branch of Henrico had issue: I. Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield, born about the year 1700. Very shortly after this event Benjamin Branch of Hen- rico died ; and his widow re-married within a year or two, at most, of her first husband's death. Benjamin Branch of Henrico died intestate, ante De- cember, 1706, and a third of his estate was by the court awarded his widow in the November of 171 1. This order was carried out in the February of 1711-12. No record remains concerning what lands were pos- sessed by Benjamin Branch of Henrico at the time of his death, or what was his widow's portion thereof, and the scant fact is recorded that she received three negroes — " Harry, valued at fifteen pounds ; Betty, valued at eleven pounds ; and Doll, valued at nine pounds." On a commensurate scale the estate could have been but a modest one ; and the enumeration of it was sworn to, on the 20th of August, 171 1, by Thomas Cheatham, who had already " married the relict and widow of Benjamin Branch, deceased." The dead man's son, Benjamin Branch, more lately of Chesterfield County, appeared in the Orphans' Court in the April of 1712, and chose as his guardian his uncle, on the maternal side, Edward Osborne of Henrico. 42 BRANCHIANA penjamin ^rattd) of Cfjesterfielb Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield County, the only son and child of the foregoing, was born, as has been said, about the year 1700, and was reared, after his father's death and the re-marriage of his mother, by his maternal uncle, Edward Osborne of Henrico. The latter was a man of substance and of, at least, a local prominence; he died in 1732, and, in passing, it is interesting to compare the appraisal of his goods and chat- tels, taken the 2nd of October, 1732, and valued in all at 351 pounds, eight shillings and six pence, with the aforementioned appraisal of the similar belongings of Christopher Branch of " Kingsland " (taken just fifty years before, and valued at some thirty-eight pounds), in view of the fact that Christopher Branch was for his period by much the wealthier and the more prominent man. But money was becoming more plentiful in Vir- ginia, and even the luxuries of life were now accessible. In due time Benjamin Branch attained years of discre- tion, and, about 1721, took possession of the small estate left by his father. This lying upon the south side of James River, Benjamin Branch became, about 1740. a citizen of Chesterfield, when that county was formed from the lower portion of Henrico ; and this inherited planta- tion he managed to such good effect as materially to in- crease its extent, and to die, in 1761, a man of considerable landed property. He had, however, long before this disposed of the plan- tation he acquired from his father — a third of the original BRANCHIANA 43 " Kingsland " plantation, on the north side of Proctor's Creek — and now owned lands in various parts of Chester- field and Amelia counties ; and appears to have made his permanent home upon a plantation which lay to the ex- treme southwest of the present Chesterfield County and bordered upon the present Sapponey Creek. Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield married, prior to 1727, his second cousin, Mary Osborne, the elder daughter of Thomas Osborne of Henrico, whom he survived. By Mary Osborne, Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield had issue: I. Mary Branch, who survived her father, and prob- ably died unmarried. II. Martha Branch, who died, presumably unmar- ried, before 1760. III. Captain Benjamin Branch of "Willow Hill," in Chesterfield County. IV. Thomas Branch of Manchester Parish, in Ches- terfield County, who died unmarried in the latter part of 1778. V. Edward Branch, also of Manchester Parish, who died in 1781, having married Lucy (Finney?), and by her leaving issue: — Edward; Thomas; William; Benjamin; Molly ; Lucy ; Obedience Turpin ; Juday Finney ; Eliza- beth ; and Prudence. VI. Obedience Branch, who married (Edward?) Bass of Chesterfield. 44 BRANCHIANA VII. Prudence Branch, who married William Thweat of Chesterfield. The will of Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield is dated 31st December, 1760, and was recorded at Chesterfield Court-House, in 1762. It bequeaths to the testator's son, Thomas Branch, 1,023 acres of land " below the upper Sappony Creek," in Ches- terfield County, and in Amelia County some 200 acres "in the little fork of Nibs Creek," and eight negroes ; to the testator's son, Edward Branch, 427 acres of land "above the upper Sappony Creek," and " my part of the Redwater Mill," which was a one-half interest, and ten negroes. It appears that the testator had previously deeded the other half-interest in this same mill to his oldest son, Cap- tain Benjamin Branch, of " Willow Hill," and the ruins of it, in passing, yet stand beside Redwater Creek, a tribu- tary of Proctor's Creek, in eastern Chesterfield, on what was part of the land originally patented, in 1625, by Cap- tain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale." This Thomas Osborne was an ancestor both of the mother and of the wife of Benjamin Branch of Chester- field, and it was through one of these that the latter most probably acquired the mill ; yet the original Branch plan- tation, as recorded, lay to the immediate north of Proc- tor's Creek, which formed the boundary line between "Coxendale" and "Kingsland," and it is likely that the mill was originally shared by the two families, as the ' Kingsland" side contains no tributary of sufficient im- portance to supply the necessary power. I BRANCHIANA 45 The will of Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield likewise bequeaths to the testator's son, Captain Benjamin Branch, one negro ; to the testator's daughter, Obedience Bass, three pounds in current money; to the testator's daughter, Prudence Thweat, three pounds in current money; and, finally, to the testator's daughter, Mary Branch, eight negroes and various household goods. The executors are Thomas Branch (the testator's second son), Edward Branch (the testator's third son), and Robert Goode (presumably the father-in-law of the testator's oldest son). Captain Penjamut PrancJ) of OTilloto J|tU Captain Benjamin Branch of " Willow Hill," the third child and oldest son of the foregoing, was born about the year 1732. His sisters, Mary Branch and Martha Branch, were older than he, each of them being born ante 1730, but he was the oldest son and the only one abundantly able to provide for himself at the time when his father drew up his will in 1760; it is deducible that at this date Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield had already transferred to his oldest son such portion of the estate as it seemed proper he should inherit, after the example of Christopher Branch of " Kingsland " ; he had certainly deeded Captain Benjamin Branch a half interest in the Redwater Mill, and, in any event, the testator's distinction between Benjamin Branch of " Willow Hill " and his other sons is precisely paralleled by that drawn between J 46 BRANCHIANA his married daughters, now provided for, and his one un- married daughter, Mary Branch, who was by this a virgin of rather mature years and unlikely to secure a protector. However this may have been, Benjamin Branch, the younger, very shortly owned a large plantation centering about his residence of " Willow Hill," and had acquired various tracts of land in Chesterfield and Amelia counties ; and he was a man of prominence as well as wealth. Benjamin Branch of "Willow Hill" was a member of the Chesterfield County Committee of Public Safety in 1774, and for the same year a justice of the peace for Chesterfield, and during the Revolution served as a cap- tain in the Chesterfield Militia; he was awarded in 1777, according to the Militia accounts, "for pay, etc., of his Company of Chesterfield Militia, 229 pounds, four shill- ings and two pence," and, when tranquillity had been re- stored he was again appointed a justice of the peace for Chesterfield, and later, first in 1780 and afterward in 1786, was sheriff of Chesterfield. Here is an honorable record; and it was honorably ended in 1786. Captain Benjamin Branch "of Willow Hill" had mar- ried, about 1755, Mary (Goode?), who probably survived him, or, at least, died later than 1782. By Mary (Goode?), Captain Benjamin Branch of "Willow Hill" had issue: I. Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield, who married Elizabeth Osborne, the daughter of Edward Osborne of Chesterfield, and by her had issue. BRANCHIANA 47 II. Edward Branch, of Chesterfield, who likewise left issue. III. Anne Branch, who married Jones of Ches- terfield. IV. Thomas Branch, of " Willow Hill." V. Obedience Branch. The will of Captain Benjamin Branch of " Willow Hill" is dated 19th April, 1782, and was recorded at Chesterfield Court-House in 1787. It mentions the testator's wife, Mary Branch, as yet alive, in the April of 1782, when the will was made, and bequeaths to the testator's son, Benjamin Branch, three negroes merely. Again it is evident that the testator, after the usual custom of the Branches, has during his own lifetime bestowed upon his eldest son such land as he in- tended that eldest son to inherit from his estate. It bequeaths to the testator's second son, Edward Branch, the plantation (of " Willow Hill ") in Chester- field County, and the half-interest held by the testator in the Redwater Mill, which, as previously recorded, was deeded to the testator by his father ante 1760, — and three negroes; and bequeaths to the testator's youngest son Thomas Branch, the testator's plantation and lands in Amelia County, and three negroes. To the testator's daughter, Anne Jones, is bequeathed three negroes and various household goods, and to his daughter, Obedience Branch, three negroes ; and it is 48 BRANCHIANA willed that the remainder of the testator's estate be equally divided between his sons, Edward Branch and Thomas Branch. The executors are "my kinsmen," Edward Bass (the testator's nephew), Edward Branch (the testator's nephew), and Francis Goode (who was probably the tes- tator's brother-in-law). Stomas ^ranri) of OTtlloto fttll Thomas Branch of "Willow Hill," in Chesterfield County, was born 4th April, 1767, and was presumably the youngest son, if not the youngest child, of the fore- going. To him his father had bequeathed, as previously re- corded, his lands in Amelia County, but it was not long before Thomas Branch had likewise acquired the planta- tion of " Willow Hill," in Chesterfield, which his father had left to the older brother, Edward Branch ; and there Thomas Branch resided during the latter years of his life. This must have constituted, in all, a decidedly neat property, even though the exact dimension and location of these lands are now indeterminate; yet Thomas Branch of "Willow Hill" appears to have had scant hankering for political preferments, and the single public office which he is known to have held is that of justice of the peace for Chesterfield, to which he was appointed in the year 1797. Thomas Branch of " Willow Hill" died 10th Sep- tember, 18 1 8. He had married, in 1787, Mary Patteson, the daughter of Colonel David Patteson of Chesterfield. BRANCHIANA 49 By Mary Patteson, Thomas Branch of "Willow Hill" had issue: I. Elizabeth Branch, born 20th October, 1788, and died 26th November, 1791. II. Mary Branch, born 28th November, 1790, who married William Lithgow, and had issue :— Thomas, who married Elizabeth Winfree. III. Benjamin Branch, born 28th December, 1792, and died 15th July, 1794. IV. David Henry Branch, born 20th February, 1795, who married Mary Branch, and had issue :— Ariadne, who married William R. Johnson ; Octavia, who married Andrew Dunn; Adele, who married Abram Warwick; Martha Patteson ; Victoria ; and Thomas Henry. V. Martha Branch, born 5th March, 1797, who mar- ried John R. Walke, and had issue:— a daughter, who married Edwin Friend; Siddenham, who married Su- sanna Winfree; Hannah, who married Thomas Brans- ford; Olivia, who married Thomas M. Burfoot; Pank, who also married Thomas M. Burfoot; and John Caspar, who married Lucy Robinson. VI. Obedience Branch, who married Edward Wat- kins Anderson, and had issue -.—Thomas Oliver; Mary Susan, who married Patrick Finny; Sarah Obedience, who married John Doyle ; David Jordan ; Samuel Patte- son; Waverly Francis; Martha Elizabeth, who married 5° BRANCHIANA John A. Miller; and Lucy Anne, who married James Stevenson. VII. Thomas Turpin Branch, born 26th August, 1801, and died 27th December, 1801. VIII. Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond, born 23d December, 1802. IX. John Wilkinson Branch, born 18th January, 1805, and died in infancy. X. Lucy Frances Branch, born 18th January, 1805, and died, unmarried, in October, 1855. XL Jordan Branch, born 20th April, 1809, who mar- ried first Lucy Winfree, and had issue :— Thomas Wiley, who married Louise Lewis; and David Patteson, who married Mary Bransford. Jordan Branch married, sec- ond, Caroline Davidson, and had issue :— Waverly ; and Lucy, who married Emmet R. Morton. XII. Julius Cesar Branch, born 20th April, 181 1, who married Hinton, and had issue :— Lelia ; Mar- garet ; and Ella, who married John C. Drake. XIII. Sarah Branch, born 27th November, 1812, and died 29th January, 1814. XIV. Sarah Patteson Branch, born 1st May, 18 14, and died in the winter of 1826. Thomas Branch of " Willow Hill" died intestate, as previously recorded, in 1818, and was survived by his wife BRANCHIANA 51 and eight of his children; and his wife, Mary Patteson Branch, was, by order of the court, appointed his execu- trix. SEfjomag iPrancf) of $etersfturg ano ^icfjmonb Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond, the eighth child and fourth son of the foregoing, was born 23d December, 1802, at " Willow Hill," his father's man- sion, in Chesterfield County. This Thomas Branch, on reaching manhood, removed to Petersburg, where he established himself in business as a commission merchant and banker. He successively founded and carried to success the firms of Thomas Branch and Brother, of Thomas Branch and Sons, of Branch Sons and Company, and of the present Thomas Branch and Company, the latter firm being established in Richmond during the Civil War. In 1871 Thomas Branch founded the Merchants National Bank of Richmond, Virginia, of which he was president until 1880, during which year he resigned the office, and was succeeded by his third and oldest surviving son, John Patteson Branch. The latter likewise succeeded his father as the head of the banking and commission firm of Thomas Branch and Company. During his residence in Petersburg, Thomas Branch served as member of the Common Council, as Sheriff, and for several terms as Mayor of Petersburg. He was a member of the Convention of 1861, and when Virginia left the Union was one of the signers of the 52 BRANCHIANA Ordinance of Secession. He had been a Union man until the actual commencement of the Civil War, had voted against Virginia's leaving the Union, and he assented to this measure only when desired to do so by those who had appointed him their representative ; but the die once cast, he alike devoted his sons — now five in number — and his not inconsiderable wealth to the defence of his native State, and unflinchingly. After the Civil War, Thomas Branch made his perma- nent home in Richmond, Virginia, where he resided until the very end of his long life. In that city Thomas Branch died upon the fifteenth of November, 1888. In the year 1848, Thomas Branch had met with tem- porary reverses in business, but within a very short period had discharged his obligations in full; and more lately he was noted for his conservatism as a merchant, and the firm of which he was the head weathered the great panics of 1857 and 1873 unscathed. He died possessed of a con- siderable fortune. Shortly after his first marriage, in 1831, he had joined the Methodist Church, and for the remainder of his long and active life was one of its most devoted and most use- ful members. It has been estimated that he played a conspicuous part in some fifty of the annual conferences ; and his pecuniary contributions to the cause of Methodism were proverbially enormous. In addition, Thomas Branch was treasurer of the Vir- ginia Bible Society, and for many years treasurer of the Magdalen Association, of Richmond, Virginia, and a pro- BRANCHIANA 53 fuse assistant of both ; and he was also president of the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College. It here appears appropriate to cite some portion of the well-earned tribute paid to the memory of Thomas Branch very shortly after his decease : " When such a man dies he merits more than the mere mention of the fact. For his character and life were in many respects marked and conspicuous. He had nearly reached his eighty-sixth birthday. He had lived through nearly three generations, and through all had been, in an emphatic sense, a felt presence and power in society. " Nature cast him into a positive mould. The negative and the neutral were, as a rule, foreign to his instincts. " The great questions and interests of the generations through which he lived, whether social, commercial, politi- cal, or religious, not only claimed his attention, but roused in him an enthusiastic consideration. " Whatever the questions or cause he espoused or op- posed, it was with ardor and enthusiasm. " Such was the depth of his convictions, and such the force of his will and the energy of his nature, that when- ever he believed a measure ought to be carried, or a thing done, he allowed no opposition to intimidate him or any obstacles to discourage. " The consequence was he became a man of results. He stepped to the front and there held a conspicuous place for near half a century. . . . "This was also true of him in his relations to the church. Here, as elsewhere, the elements of his character 54 BRANCHIANA forbid to him a negative position. The church of his choice early recognized these qualities, and called him into official station and to representative trusts. Few among us anywhere have filled so long the honored and respon- sible office of a steward. He has been a conspicuous repre- sentative of his church in the Quarterly, Annual and Gen- eral Conferences. Until disabled by age it was his delight to be at them. His devotion to his church, to her doc- trines, her piety, her ministry and all her enterprises, was marked and well known. And for long years he was the faithful trustee, the fast friend and the liberal supporter of Randolph-Macon College. ' But there was one feature of his character that de- serves special mention, and that was his catholicity of spirit. While devoted to his own church, he was singu- larly free from sectarianism. His heart went out to the ministry and brethren of sister churches, and with them he delighted to mingle and to worship. . . . "His deep interest for many years in the work of the Virginia Bible Society was one of the many evidences of his interest in the progress of our holy Christianity. Such a man can but be missed. For when age had so far dis- abled him as to take him out of the wonted activities of life, his life continued a benediction to many, even to the last "And now the best of all is : His end was peace. Fully sensible of his condition, he expressed no fear of death, and with his trust in his Saviour, full of years, labors, and honors, and crowned to the last with the loving devotion i^i^c^Pi BRANCHIANA 55 of a large family circle, and many fiiends, he bade adieu to his family, and fell asleep with his fathers. "' In the death of this honored citizen the community, the State of Virginia, and the Methodist Church have alike sustained a severe loss. Yet Mr. Branch left his impress for good upon each of them, and his influence will be felt and his name honored for generations yet to come. A useful citizen, an upright and enterprising man of busi- ness, and a conscientious, consistent Christian, he lived honored and respected and died regretted and mourned by the entire community. What higher compliment could be paid to any man ?" Thomas Branch married, first, at "Oak Hill," in Amelia County, on the 19th of October, 1825, Sarah Pride Read, the daughter of John Blythe Read of Wales and Chester- field. By Sarah Pride Read, Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond had issue : I. Thomas Waverly Branch, who died in infancy. II. James Read Branch. III. John Patteson Branch. IV. Susan Doggett Branch, who married William H. Christian. V. Sarah Frances Branch, who married Frederick R. Scott. VI. Thomas Plummer Branch. 56 BRANCHIANA VII. Mary Austin Branch, who died without issue. VIII. Emily Read Branch, who married George A. Cunningham. IX. Bettie Rosalama Branch, who married Benja- min Suttle, and died without issue. X. William Addison Branch, who died unmarried, and without issue. XL Melville Irby Branch. XII. Eugene Branch, who died in infancy. XIII. D'Arcy Paul Branch, who died in infancy. Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond married, second, in Westmoreland County, in Virginia, on 226. of April, 1857, Anne Adams Wheelright, the daughter of Joseph Wheelright of Westmoreland. By Anne Adams Wheelright, Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond had issue : I. Carter Wheelright Branch. II. Miriam Branch, who married Barton H. Grundy. III. Carolina Branch. The will of Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Rich- mond is recorded at the Chancery Court of Richmond, Virginia. It is dated 6th of October, 1888, and was re- corded 20th of November, 1888. BRANCHIANA 57 The executors are Anne Wheelright Branch (the tes- tator's second and surviving wife), and Carter Wheel- right Branch (the testator's ninth and youngest son). The witnesses are James B. McCaw and Richard Irby. Hfyt ©e&ettbante of Stomas Jlrandf) of ^Petersburg anb 3Rtcfjmonb Wje ©e&enbante of V jjomas JBrancjj of $etersfourg anb JXtcfmtonb Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond, as pre- vously recorded, was twice married, and had issue, in all, sixteen children, nine of whom survived him. ©fcomas; OTaberlp Prancf) Thomas Waverly Branch, the oldest child of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 13th August, 1826. The boy was destined to a brief existence, being bitten at the age of four by a pet dog, which had developed rabies, while the child was playing with it. Thomas Waverly Branch died of hydrophobia 22nd July, 1 83 1. Colonel STames; &eab Prancfj Colonel James Read Branch, the second son and child of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born at New Market, in Prince George County, 28th July, 1828. He received his early education in Petersburg, and in 1844 entered Randolph-Macon College, where he gradu- ated with the highest honors in 1847, being then only nineteen. After a brief career as school teacher, in Lunenburg 62 BRANCHIANA County, Virginia, James Read Branch, with his younger brother John Patteson Branch, went into business with their father in Petersburg, the three founding the banking firm of Thomas Branch and Sons, in 1853 ; and in Peters- burg James Read Branch resided until the outbreak of the Civil War, widely known as a distinguished and pros- perous merchant. He married, in Richmond, in Virginia, 3rd December, 1856, his second cousin, Martha Louise Patteson, the daughter of Dr. William Anderson Patteson, (and the granddaughter of James A. Patteson and of Martha Patteson, the daughter of Colonel David Patteson of Chesterfield.) From the first, James Read Branch had held to the doc- trine of State's Rights, and had advocated the cause of Secession. Upon the commencement of hostilities be- tween the North and the South he raised a company of infantry, known as the "Lee Guard", and afterward, when transferred to the artillery, in 1862, known as "Branch's Battery" — which was one of the best equipped and most effective artillery companies in the Confederate Army, serving in the department of North Carolina, and in General Robert Ransom's Division, Army of Northern Virginia. It was at the Battle of Malvern Hill that Captain Branch figured as the hero of one of the most remarkable fights against well-nigh overwhelming odds which has ever been recorded when for an hour the two guns he commanded held in check twenty- four guns of the Union BRANCHIANA 63 forces. Almost every man who followed him was killed, and he himself served one of the pieces until ordered to retire; and this retreat was so successfully conducted that he even managed to preserve both guns. Through this and similar achievements Captain Branch was, in due course, promoted to the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel ; and his command, among other exploits, bore a part in the brilliant capture of Plymouth, where, how- ever, Colonel Branch was so severely and permanently disabled — one leg being broken in no less than three places — that he was in the ultimate, forced to retire from active service, though he retained his command ; and his devotion to the cause of the Confederacy burned bright until the last. During the war, James Read Branch had, in 1863, re- moved his family from Petersburg to Richmond, in which latter city he resided until the day of his death, 2nd July, 1869. The circumstances attendant upon this event are not unworthy of somewhat minute detail. Recognizing that the cause for which he had fought was lost, and irretriev- ably so, Colonel Branch had in peace endeavored to for- ward the interests of that State which he had already served in war. Virginia was upon the verge of ac- cepting re-admission into the Union; the days of Recon- struction were over and already carpet-baggism tottered. He entered politics at forty years of age, as a candidate for the Senate, in an earnest endeavor to re-unite the sev- ered races and bring together the negro and the Cau- 64 BRANCHIANA casian for the best interests of both, — and supporting Gilbert R. Walker for Governor of Virginia, as against Gideon Wells, the carpet-bag nominee. The career of James Read Branch as a politician, though brief, developed abilities of a very high order. And in the end, the Conservative party, whose candidate he was, achieved a sweeping triumph. This was already apparent on July 2, 1869, upon which date a barbecue was arranged on Vauxhall Island — in James River, between Richmond and Manchester, and just above Mayo's Bridge — for the benefit of the colored men of the city, who had avowed themselves in favor of Colonel Walker for governor. Colonel Branch and a number of other gentlemen had taken an active part in the preliminary arrangements. What follows is quoted from the Richmond Dispatch of July 3, 1869; and allowances are to be made for certain extremities of language, and the hackneyed phrases doubly dear to the public journals of that day : — ''It is our painful duty this morning to lay before our readers the particulars of one of the most appalling calamities that ever touched the heart of this community. The city is in mourning. One of her favorite sons has fallen from hopeful, buoyant life into a bloody grave. Three other worthy citizens are dead, and others still have received wounds which render their recovery at least doubtful. "There are few citizens of Richmond who were not aware that a barbecue was to have been held by the col- BRANCHIANA 65 ored voters, who favored the election of Colonel Walker and the adoption of the expurgated constitution, at Vaux- hall's Island on yesterday afternoon. About two hundred and fifty of the most respectable colored men in Rich- mond and Henrico signed the call for this demonstration, and many of our most prominent white citizens mani- fested a great deal of interest in the enterprise. Among these none were more active than Colonel James R. Branch, whose name headed the Conservative sena- torial ticket for this district. He arrived early at the place selected for the barbecue, and was stirring about with great activity, making suggestions, and by his pleas- ant remarks contributing not a little to the good humor of the party. "It was not intended to hold the barbecue on Vaux- hall's Island, but on the adjacent one, known as Kitchen Island. A suspension bridge, not more than fifty feet in length and about five feet in width, connected them, and to get to the barbecue, of course, this bridge had to be crossed. A policeman, stationed at the end nearest Rich- mond, was directed to allow none but those having tickets to pass until all the arrangements for the dinner and speaking were consummated. 'The fortunate possessors of tickets passed over singly or in groups, until about seventy-five colored men and a. least a hundred whites were over. "This was the state of affairs, when a colored man rushed up to Colonel Branch — then on Kitchen Island — and informed him that there were a good many Walker 66 BRANCHIANA men on the other island who couldn't come over because they did not have tickets. Colonel Branch said : 'Let them all come/ or something to that effect, and went on the bridge, accompanied by another person, whose name we could not learn. He walked rapidly half-way across, and then beckoning to the policeman on duty, exclaimed: 'Let them come on! Dinner is nearly ready! There's plenty of room !' "The policeman thereupon gave way, and the eager crowd on the other side rushed on the bridge. There was a swaying to and fro. Somebody cried: 'The bridge is giving away,' and in an instant the heavy structure, with its human freight, fell with a crash into the rushing flood below. "The sound was heard all over both islands, and there was a simultaneous rush to the bridge. The sight that met the eye was appalling. Ten or fifteen human beings were buried beneath the heavy timbers, threatened alike with death from drowning and the crushing weight. Most of them, being only slightly wounded, soon scrambled out, and, grasping the chains and jumping from timber to timber, reached the shore. "Others, however, were not so fortunate. The first of these was Colonel Branch. He had been struck on the back of the neck by a massive iron chain. Then falling beneath the bridge, he was unable to extricate himself, and lay for several minutes, with the water dashing over his face, struggling in vain. Policeman Kirkman, who was on duty at the end of the bridge nearest Vauxhall's BRANCHIANA 67 Island, had his head mashed between two falling beams, and was instantly killed; and others whose names were not until afterwards ascertained, were also badly injured. "There was no neglect on the part of the by-standers. A score of men, both white and colored, at once plunged into the stream, many of them not stopping to take off their clothing. Through their efforts the injured men were finally extricated and brought to land. "The scene on Vauxhall's Island after this beggars de- scription. The news, which had flown through the city like wild-fire, drew hundreds of our citizens to the spot, and every one who arrived was at once an anxious in- quirer. Men ran hither and thither, asking many ques- tions in one breath ; policemen called loudly to the crowd to stand back from the wounded and give them air; and those cooler men of the surgical art, moved more calmly about in search of, or in aid of, some sufferer. "The bodies of Colonel Branch and Policeman Kirk- ham were placed in the bowling-alley on the island, and the wounded men were provided for as comfortably and as speedily as possible. "Colonel Branch was found to have received a severe blow over the right temple, causing concussion of the brain, and a severe cut over the top of the head. It is not thought that these wounds would have caused death, as he struggled so hard after he had fallen into the water. The theory is that he was borne under the water by the weight of the bridge and the crowd upon it, and drowned. After his body had been laid in the bowling-alley, some 68 BRANCHIANA one shouted for a surgeon, saying that he was still breath- ing. In a moment the physicians were at work with every manner of restorative, but all in vain — the spirit of James R. Branch had fled. "When Colonel Branch was first seen, his head, though bleeding, was above water, and he threw up his hand, at the same time calling for assistance. Several men rushed over to help him. Their weight sank the debris, and with it the unfortunate man went under. When he was extri- cated life was extinct. "We do not exaggerate the public feeling at the loss of this excellent gentleman and invaluable citizen, when we say that the death of no man in the city would be more deeply deplored. He was one of the most useful men. He was sagacious, energetic, liberal, patriotic. He was quick to foresee, prompt to act, and untiring in his public devotion. He was what, in modern parlance, is styled a "live man"; and he was considered as one of the men just suited to the exigency of the times — created, as it were, for them — to bear an important part in bringing our dear mother Virginia out of the embarrassments and woes in which she is involved and putting her upon her new career of grandeur and power. "The venerable Thomas Branch, his father, was on the island when the accident occurred, and, though he did not behold it, he soon learned his bereavement from the lifeless body of his son. When all hope of the restoration of his son was gone, he crossed the bridge to wend his way home. He walked as in a dream, with fixed eyes. BRANCHIANA 69 There was a delirium of woe in his steady gait and up- turning head that struck the deepest chords of sympathy in the breasts of all who saw him." Colonel James Read Branch, as previously recorded, had married his second cousin, Martha Louise Patteson, the daughter of Dr. William Anderson Patteson of Petersburg and Richmond. They had issue: I. Sarah Read Branch, born 9th October, 1857. II. Anne Harris Branch, born 31st December, 1859. III. Elizabeth Halsted Branch, born 4th July, 1861. IV. Colonel James Ransom Branch, born 14th De- cember, 1863. V. Mary Cooke Branch, born 16th September, 1866. SARAH READ McADAMS Sarah Read Branch, the first child and daughter of James Read Branch and Martha Louise Patteson, was born, in Richmond, Virginia, 9th October, 1857. She married, in Richmond, Virginia, 6th November, 1878, George Brockenborough McAdams, only son of William McAdams of Pensacola, Florida, and afterward for many years, a prominent business man of Richmond. Mr. McAdams died very suddenly 22d February, 1896. By George Brockenborough McAdams, Sarah Read Branch had issue : I. Colonel Thomas Branch McAdams, born 12th November, 1879. 7o BRANCHIANA. II. Louise Brockenborough McAdams, born 25th October, 1885. Colonel Thomas Branch McAdams Colonel Thomas Branch McAdams was born, in Richmond, Virginia, 12th November, 1879. His early education was acquired at the McGuire School, Richmond, and at Richmond College, where he graduated at the age of eighteen, an unprecedented event, receiving at that time the degree of Master of Arts. He stood foremost in his class at the time of graduation, giv- ing the promise of an exceptional future. For one year after graduation, he was employed as clerk in the Merchants National Bank, leaving his posi- tion to enter the employ of Thomas Branch and Com- pany. He remained with this firm for about five years, when, in December, 1903, he re-entered the employment of the Merchants National. His ability there won rapid promotion, and, in March, 1904, he was made assistant cashier, and in February, 1906, as the unanimous choice of the Board of Directors, was elected to the office of cashier. Colonel McAdams is very prominent socially, is colo- nel on the staff of Governor Swanson, of Virginia, and a Mason of high degree. He married in Charlotte, North Carolina, 9th October, 1906, Edna Harris McLure, the daughter of Edward Conrad McLure of South Carolina. They have issue : I. Sarah Reade McAdams, born 20th July, 1907. ■ BRANCHIANA. 7 i ANNE BRANCH CABELL Anne Harris Branch, the second child and daughter of James Read Branch and Martha Louise Patteson, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 31st December, 1859. She married in Richmond, Virginia, 14th November, 1877, Dr. Robert Gamble Cabell, Jr., the son of Dr. Rob- ert Gamble Cabell of Richmond, Virginia. By Robert Gamble Cabell, Anne Harris Branch had issue: I. James Branch Cabell, born 14th April, 1879. II. Robert Gamble Cabell, born 27th April, 1881. III. John Harris Cabell, born 27th February, 1883. James Branch Cabell James Branch Cabell was born, in Richmond, Vir- ginia, 14th April, 1879. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1898, and afterward took up newspaper work as a pro- fession, being for two years with the New York Herald, and more lately with the Richmond, (Va.) News. He abandoned journalism for magazine work in 1901, and has since contributed to various periodicals some forty short stories, novelettes, and so on, and has also published in book form The Eagle's Shadozv, The Line of Love, Gallantry, and the present volume. Robert Gamble Cabell Robert Gamble Cabell was born, in Richmond, Vir- ginia, 27th April, 1881. 72 BRANCHIANA On graduating from the Richmond High School in 1897 he entered the offices of the Merchants National Bank, and more lately the employ of Thomas Branch and Company, of Richmond, Virginia, and has been since then connected with that firm. John Harris Cabell John Harris Cabell was born, in Richmond, Vir- ginia, 27th February, 1883. He graduated, with distinction, from the Virginia Mili- tary Institute in 1901, and was for two years afterward a sub-professor at that college. He has been since 1904 a civil engineer in the employ of the United Gas Improve- ment Company, and has been stationed during this period in various parts of America. ELIZABETH HALSTED BOWIE Elizabeth Halsted Branch, the third child and daughter of Colonel James Read Branch and Martha Louise Patteson, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 4th July, 1861. She married, in Richmond, Virginia, 16th November, 1 88 1, Walter Russell Bowie, the son of Captain Walter Russell Bowie of Westmoreland County, Virginia, and afterward of Richmond. Mr. Bowie died 14th Novem- ber, 1894. By Walter Russell Bowie, Elizabeth Halsted Branch had issue : I. Walter Russell Bowie, born 8th October, 1882. II. Martha Patteson Bowie, born 29th July, 1884. BRANCHIANA 73 Walter Russell Bowie Walter Russell Bowie was born in Richmond, Vir- ginia, 8th October 1882. His early education was received at the Pottstown Hill School, in Pennsylvania, whence he passed to Harvard College, from which institution he was graduated, with the highest honors, in 1904. He taught for a year at the Hill School, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and then resolv- ing to enter the ministry, became a student at the Theo- logical Seminary of Virginia, near Alexandria COLONEL JAMES RANSOM BRANCH Colonel James Ransom Branch, the fourth child and only son of Colonel James Read Branch and Martha Louise Patteson, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 14th December, 1863, and is to-day, according to the ancient law of primogeniture, the head of the Branch family of Virginia. He was educated at McGuire's, McCabe's, General Robert Ransom's, and Colonel Thomas H. Carter's schools, and at the Richmond College. He entered the Merchants National Bank in 1881 as assistant to Mr. John Morton, who was then teller. Colonel Branch left the bank when twenty-one years old and went to raising thorough-bred horses and cattle. Later he sold out to Mr. T. L. Blanton, and became senior partner of Branch and Leath, who controlled a syndicate of fourteen theatres in the South, including Richmond and Norfolk. 74 BRANCHIANA This partnership being dissolved, Colonel Branch again accepted a position in the Merchants National Bank in 1890, and worked up gradually to the responsible posi- tion of special correspondent and chief of the collection department. Under his supervision this bank's deposits from out- of-town banks became the largest of any institution from Baltimore to New Orleans. In the summer of 1895 he was appointed National Bank Examiner for Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. Colonel Branch made an enviable record while in the City Council of Richmond, Virginia, and by his diligent scrutiny of affairs ferreted out and brought to light large defalcations among city officials which had been in progress for years. He also introduced the resolutions for free baths and reduced fares on street cars for school children. As a boy, he entered the National Guard as a private, and, owing to his military abilities, he went through all grades, from private to lieutenant-colonel of the First Virginia Cavalry. His examination by the Board of Officers was pronounced to be of the highest character. He was also a member of the Board of Officers, who drew up the regulations for the Virginia Volunteers. In 1898 President McKinley appointed him major of the Seventh Immune Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, in which position Colonel Branch served with distinction throughout the Spanish War. BRANCHIANA 75 Colonel Branch was elected, 17th October, 1895, Sec- retary of the American Bankers' Association, and has held this office ever since; and, dating from that period, has been a resident of New York City. Colonel Branch married, in Richmond, Virginia, 28th October, 1885, Mary Lilian Hubball, the daughter of Ebenezer Hubball of Baltimore, Maryland. They have issue: I. James Robinson Branch, born 23d July, 1886; died 7th November, 1905. II. Mary Cooke Branch, born 21st December, 1887. III. Allan Talbott Branch, born 20th February, 1890; died 1st July, 1890. JAMES ROBINSON BRANCH James Robinson Branch was born, in Richmond, Virginia, 23d July, 1886. He was educated in Richmond and in New York City, and was, in 1903, entered as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland. His tragic death in that city, 7th November, 1905, is not here touched upon, both as a matter that has already been accorded a world-wide discussion, and as one of which the present compiler may not in reason hope to treat dis- passionately. It appears preferable simply to quote the verdict of his class-mates, as having been, in view of all the circum- stances, the best-informed and most unbiased judges. 76 . BRANCHIANA What follows is transcribed in its entirety from "The Lucky Bag" of 1907. "The Class of 1907, in affectionate memory of James Branch, Jr., whose life was sacrificed as a result of the code of honor of the Brigade in the Academy, established for years and enforced for most of our course, have erected a monument over his body in the Naval Ceme- tery. 'All things work together for good.' His death marks the turn of the tide in the lives of the midshipmen of all classes, from what was deliberately wrong, dan- gerous and petty to the abolishment of hazing in all its forms, class fighting, and disregard of the law. It marks the greatest advance of standard in the history of the Academy, a seeking and a finding of the higher and nobler type of manliness in duty and character. "We have only love in memory of our class-mate for his character, honor, courage, and purity of life, that has been an inspiration to all of us who have known him." Such was the verdict of his class, and circumstances render it the one decisive verdict, since this class alone was capable to judge the vexed affair with intimacy and from every possible viewpoint. They have judged; and their verdict stands immutable. MARY COOKE MUNFORD Mary Cooke Branch, the fifth child and fourth daughter of Colonel James Read Branch and Martha Louise Patteson, was born, in Richmond, Virginia, 16th September, 1866. BRANCHIANA 77 She married in Richmond, Virginia, 22d November, 1893, Beverley Bland Munford, the son of John D. Mun- ford of Richmond and Williamsburg, Virginia. By Beverley Bland Munford, Mary Cooke Branch has issue : I. May Safford Munford, born 22d November, 1895. II. Beverley Bland Munford, born 26th February, 1899. Colonel Jofm patteson ^raiuf) John Patteson Branch, the third son and child of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 9th October, 1830. So much has been already written concerning this illus- trious Virginian, that it here appears expedient merely to abridge, with minor alterations, from the biography of John Patteson Branch as it stands in "Men of Mark." "With such parents, Mr. Branch had, by his very birth, a hopeful start in life. His father afforded him the best educational advantages in the public and private schools of his native city, but at the time he would have entered college, his health was poor, and so he turned aside, to engage in the commercial career to which he was intended to devote the remainder of his life; and in 1848 he en- tered his father's office as a clerk. "It was at this time that he began to spend many of his spare moments in the study of books on commercial subjects, from which he has derived large help in the pursuit of business. 7 8 BRANCHIANA "Mr. Branch remained in the mercantile business until the outbreak of the Civil War, and then, at once, en- listed in the Confederate Army, and became more lately first lieutenant in the 44th Virginia Battalion. "He remained in the service of his State until the war closed, and was at Appomattox Court-House when Gen- eral Lee surrendered his worn-out force to the superior strength of General Grant. "On the retreat from Petersburg to Appomattox Court-House he was detailed on the staff of Major Snod- grass, who was acting quartermaster-general of Gen- eral Lee's army. "On May 12, 1863, during the progress of the Civil War, he was united in happy wedlock to Mary Louise Merritt Kerr, the daughter of Rev. Dr. John Kerr of Petersburg. "At the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Branch turned his attention to banking, and in 1871, removed from Peters- burg to Richmond, in which latter city he has made his permanent home. "Exigencies of space alone prevent a detailment of the marvelous career that has made of him, perhaps, the foremost man of business in the South ; suffice it, that in 1880 he succeeded his venerable father as president of the Merchants National Bank of Richmond, and a trifle later, as head of the banking and commission firm of Thomas Branch and Company of the same city— either of which positions he has occupied ever since, and with marked success. BRANCHIANA 79 "While Mr. Branch has never held a civil or political office, and has never aspired to one, he has always been a public-spirited citizen, and as such, interested in ques- tions that concern, in any way, the welfare of his city, his State, or his country. "He is the author of a number of articles on finance, written primarily for the purpose of instructing the pub- lic in things vital to commercial welfare and to business development and to progress. "In addition, Mr. Branch has been recognized as a leader of the agitation in his city for better streets, for good sewerage and drainage, for pure food, and for all other things aiming toward the improvement of the pub- lic welfare — having had a large part in the good work which has resulted in the re-organization of the Board of Health and in the adoption of more effective sanitary regulations. "He has given the money to his chosen city for the erection of the first building of public baths in the State of Virginia, and has been a liberal contributor to every public charity or work of general interest calling for the gifts of the people at large. "John Patteson Branch has, in fine, been always fore- most in the discussion of subjects of public interest, and ever ready to give his time and labor to promote an en- terprise that would help the people, or to prevent any movement which he believed to have within it possibilities of injury. "Like his father before him, Mr. Branch has always 80 BRANCHIANA believed that religion is indispensable both to private and to public welfare, and to individual happiness; and has found the type of religion best suited to his needs in the Methodist Church, which he joined when thirteen years of age. "He is at this time a steward and a trustee of the Cen- tenary Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the City of Richmond, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Randolph-Macon system of colleges and academies, of the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Orphanage of the Virginia Conference, and of the Board of Managers of the 'Methodist Institute for Christian Work' in Richmond. "Mr. Branch has been repeatedly a delegate to the an- nual and general conferences of his church; and to all these institutions he has given his valuable time and ad- vice, and has made large contributions of money. "He has recently built and equipped, in memory of his wife, who died in the year 1896, the Branch Dormitory at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland — a handsome and much-needed building and a valuable adjunct to the work of this well-known school. "And for years Mr. Branch has been one of the largest contributors to the foreign missions of the Methodist Church in the South, and is always appealed to by the Board of Missions in any case of special need." John Patteson Branch, as previously recorded, married, in Petersburg, in Virginia, 12th May, 1863, Mary Louise Merritt Kerr, the daughter of Rev. Dr. John Kerr of Petersburg. They had issue: BRANCHIANA 81 I. Blythe Walker Branch, born 16th March, 1864. II. John Kerr Branch, born 1st May, 1865. III. Effie Kerr Branch, born 15th August, 1866. IV. Margaret Elizabeth Branch, born November, 1876. BLYTHE WALKER BRANCH Blythe Walker Branch, the first child and son of John Patteson Branch and Mary Louise Merritt Kerr, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 16th March, 1864. He was educated by Professor Blackford, of the Epis- copal High School, near Alexandria, Virginia. He re- ceived his business education in the office of Thomas Branch and Company, and afterward became a partner in that firm. Upon changing his residence to Paris, France, he sold out his interest in Thomas Branch and Company, and he is now managing in France the oil business (in that country) of the Galena Oil Company of Franklin, Penn- sylvania. Blythe Walker Branch married, in 1899, Theresa T. Tarrant of Paris, France. JOHN KERR BRANCH John Kerr Branch, the second child and son of John Patteson Branch and Mary Louise Merritt Kerr, was born, in Danville, Virginia, 1st May, 1865. Upon attaining manhood, he entered business life with his father, and is to-day vice-president of the Merchants 82 BRANCHIANA National Bank, and a partner in the firm of Thomas Branch and Company. John Kerr Branch married, in 1886, Beulah Gould, the daughter of David Gould of New York. They have issue : I. John Akin Branch, born 19th August, 1887. II. Zayde Bancroft Branch, born 16th May, 1891. III. Louise Branch, born 23d February, 1900. MARGARET BRANCH GLASGOW Margaret Elizabeth Branch, the second daughter and fourth child of John Patteson Branch and Mary Louise Merritt Kerr, was born, in Richmond, Virginia, in the November of 1876. She married, 1st October, 1901, Arthur Graham Glas- gow of Richmond, Virginia, and afterward of London, England. By Arthur Graham Glasgow, Margaret Elizabeth Branch has issue : I. Margaret Branch Glasgow, born 8th November, 1902. Ptisan Boggett Pranci) Susan Doggett Branch, the fourth child and first daughter of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 30th November, 1832. She married in Petersburg, on 15th March, 1853, Rev- erend Doctor William H. Christian of Petersburg, and died 20th May, i860. BRANCHIANA 83 By William H. Christian of Petersburg, Susan Dog- gett Branch had issue : I. Thomas Branch Christian, born 1st July, 1854. II. William Edmund Christian, born 14th May, 1856. III. Mary Susan Christian, Dorn 17th May, i860. THOMAS BRANCH CHRISTIAN Thomas Branch Christian, the first child and son of Susan Doggett Branch and William H. Christian, was born, in Petersburg, July 1st, 1854. He was educated at Randolph-Macon College, and subsequently entered business life, being for many years a prominent banker and broker in Richmond, Virginia. He afterward removed to Chicago, where as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade he was well-known in financial circles. Thomas Branch Christian never married and died without issue. WILLIAM EDMUND CHRISTIAN William Edmund Christian, the second child and son of Susan Doggett Branch and William H. Christian, was born, in Raleigh, North Carolina, 14th May, 1856. He graduated at Randolph-Macon College, and after- ward at the University of Virginia. Adopting journal- ism as a profession, he became more lately the Washing- ton correspondent of the New York Herald, and during 84 BRANCHIANA the Spanish War served brilliantly in Cuba as corres- pondent of the same paper. He afterward removed to Atlanta, Georgia, where he is to-day the Assistant-General Passenger Agent of the Seaboard Air Line Railway. William Edmund Christian married, in Richmond, Vir- ginia, 2nd June, 1885, Julia Jackson, the daughter of General "Stonewall" Jackson. They have issue: I. Julia Jackson Christian, born 5th June, 1887, who married Edmund Randolph Preston of Charlotte, North Carolina. II. Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian, born 29th August, 1888. &araJ) jf ranees Prancfj Sarah Frances Branch, the fifth child and second daughter of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 19th October, 1834. She married, in Petersburg, on 14th April, 1857, Major Frederick R. Scott of Ireland, more lately a prominent banker of Richmond, Virginia. Sarah Frances Branch died, in Richmond, 9th June, 1907. By Frederick R. Scott of Ireland and Virginia, Sarah Frances Branch had issue: I. John Walker Scott, born 19th January, 1858. BRANCHIANA 85 II. Mary Austin Scott, born 10th March, 1859. III. Frances Scott, born February, 1861. IV. Frederick William Scott, born 30th August, 1862. V. Thomas Branch Scott, born 1st May, 1865. VI. Edward Walker Scott, born 1st May, 1865. VII. James Hamilton Scott, born 18th July, 1867. VIII. Isabel Scott. IX. George Cole Scott, born 23d June, 1875. JOHN WALKER SCOTT John Walker Scott, the first child and son of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R. Scott, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 19th January, 1858. He graduated at the University of Virginia, and after- ward became a lawyer, practising for many years in Richmond, Virginia. John Walker Scott died, unmarried, 14th November, 1901. MARY AUSTIN CAMPBELL Mary Austin Scott, the second child and first daugh- ter of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R. Scott, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 10th March, 1859. She married, 14th June, 1886, Hugh Campbell of Campbelltown, Scotland, and afterward of Richmond, Virginia. 86 BRANCHIANA By Hugh Campbell, Mary Austin Scott has issue: I. Frederic Scott Campbell, born 16th June, 1887. II. Alexander Goold Campbell, born 6th June, 1894. III. Frederica Frances Campbell, born 9th July, 1895. IV. Mary Austin Campbell, born 7th October, 1898. FREDERIC WILLIAM SCOTT Frederic William Scott, the fourth child and sec- ond son of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R. Scott, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 30th Au- gust, 1862. He entered business life with his father, and after- ward founded the banking firm of Scott and String- fellow, in Richmond, Virginia, of which he is to-day the senior partner. Frederic William Scott married, 18th October, 1893, Elisabeth Mayo Strother, the daughter of Robert Quarles Strother. They have issue : I. Sydney BufoRd Scott, born 9th September, 1895. II. Isabel Walker Scott, born 22nd June, 1899. III. Elisabeth Strother Scott, born 8th February, 1901. IV. Frederic William Scott, born 5th November, 1903. V. Mary Ross Scott, born 4th July, 1906. BRANCHIANA 87 THOMAS BRANCH SCOTT Thomas Branch Scott, the fifth child and third son of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R. Scott, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 1st May, 1865. He is to-day one of the leading tobacconists of the South. Thomas Branch Scott married, 31st January, 1894, Dora McGill, the daughter of John G. McGill of Peters- burg, Virginia. They have issue : I. Thomas Branch Scott, born 20th September, 1894. II. Frederick R. Scott, born 7th August, 1898. EDWARD WALKER SCOTT Edward Walker Scott, the sixth child and fourth son of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R. Scott, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 1st May, 1865. He was educated in Richmond and afterward at Prince- ton. He afterward removed to Warren, Virginia, and adopted the pursuits of both farming and banking. He is to-day the president of the Esmont National Bank of West Esmont, Virginia. Edward Walker Scott married, 9th January, 1901, Adelaide Pierson, the daughter of J. Fred Pierson of New York. They have issue : I. Fred Pierson Scott, born 27th August, 1902. II. A daughter, born 30th September, 1903; died 27th August, 1904. 88 BRANCHIANA HI. Edward Walker Scott, born 17th September I9O4. JAMES HAMILTON SCOTT James Hamilton Scott, the seventh child and fifth son of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R Scott, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 18th July, 1867 He graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technol- ogy, in Hoboken, New Jersey, and more lately became general manager of the Richmond Iron Works, in Rich- mond, Virginia, which position he' retained through some six years. James Hamilton Scott died, in Richmond, Virginia, 24th August, 1901. He married, nth October, 1893, Mar Y Wingfield, the only daughter of the Right Reverend J. H. D. Wingfield Missionary Bishop of Northern California. They had issue I. Mary Wingfield Scott, born 30th July, 1895. II. Frances Branch Scott, born 17th April 1897- died 5th July, 1897. HI. James Hamilton Scott, born 13th September 1898. GEORGE COLE SCOTT George Cole Scott, the ninth child and sixth son of Sarah Frances Branch and Major Frederick R. Scott, was born, in Richmond, Virginia, 23d June, 1875. BRANCHIANA 89 He was graduated from Princeton, in 1898, with the degree of Civil Engineer, and from Columbia, in 1899, with the degree of Master of Arts. George Cole Scott married, 27th September, 1905, Harriet Hildreth Dunn, the daughter of Major Lanier Dunn. They have issue : I. Harriet Hildreth Scott, born 1st September, 1906. fflajox Gflfjomag glummer Prancf) Major Thomas Plummer Branch, the sixth child and fourth son of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 10th January, 1837. He received his early education in Petersburg, and at nineteen entered the University of Virginia, where he re- mained, however, only during the session of 1856-7, leav- ing college to return to Petersburg, and in that city to enter business with his father and two older brothers. Thomas Plummer Branch, at the outbreak of hostili- ties between the States, cast his fortunes with Virginia, enlisting as a private, in 1861, in a cavalry regiment which had been organized in Petersburg; and his war record henceforward may safely be described as one of unusual brilliancy. Prior to the mustering of his company into the Con- federate service, along with all of Virginia's troops, he served as commissary on Major N. B. Pegram's staff — who was at this period in command of Fort Powhatan, on James River ; and when his company was called to the 9Q BRANCHIANA field, served as a private, first in Nansemond County in Virginia, and more lately, under General J. B. Magruder, in the Peninsula. Thomas Plummer Branch was, in 1862, elected a Second Lieutenant in "Branch's Battery," which, as pre- viously recorded, had just been organized by his brother, Colonel James Read Branch, from the latter's former "Lee Guards." In the capacity of lieutenant, Thomas Plummer Branch served with conspicuous gallantry for about a year; and during this period bore a part in the Battle of Malvern Hill, and in the action at Marye's Height, commanded two guns. In addition, he served, under General E. P. Alex- ander, in the Battle of Fredericksburg, and in the Battle of Sharpsburg, as well as in many other minor engage- ments. Lieutenant Branch was, on 17th May, 1863, promoted to the rank of Major, as an Assistant Adjutant General, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Robert Ransom, stationed just then in Richmond. As Major Branch, he served in West Virginia and in the eastern portion of Tennessee during the winter of 1863-4; and was captured, May, 1864, in the fight at Drewry's Bluff on James River. He was thence transferred, as a prisoner of war, to Point Lookout, in Maryland, and afterward to Fort Dela- ware, immediately south of Philadelphia ; more lately still he was removed, with some six hundred other officers of the Confederate Army, and under a bitter fire from the BRANCHIANA. 91 Charleston batteries, to a stockade on Sullivan's Island, which lies just opposite the town of Charleston, in South Carolina. And finally Major Branch was imprisoned at Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, in Georgia. Thomas Plummer Branch was, however, exchanged during the latter part of December, 1864; and re-entering the Confederate service, was, in the March of 1865, as- signed to duty on the staff of Lieutenant-General R. S. Ewell, who was then stationed in Richmond. But the war was now drawing to a close ; and within less than a month, 2d April, 1865, General Ewell and his entire force had withdrawn from Richmond. Appomat- tox followed. Very shortly after the cessation of hostilities, Major Branch removed to Augusta, in Georgia, where he en- gaged in the cotton business. He married, 19th December, 1866, very soon after his settlement in Augusta, Effie Stovall, the daughter of Thomas Stovall of Georgia. Effie Stovall Branch, how- ever, died within six weeks of her marriage, so that by this first wife Thomas Plummer Branch had no issue. Major Thomas Plummer Branch married, second, on the 27th of April, 1871, Annie Irvine, the daughter of Reverend Doctor Robert Irvine of Augusta, in Georgia. The firm of Branch Sons and Company, which Thomas Plummer Branch — with his younger brother, Melville Irby Branch, now likewise a resident of Georgia — had established in Augusta, met, in the year 1879, with finan- cial embarrassments; but in 1880 the business was re- organized, and every obligation was discharged in full. 92 BRANCHIANA For some twenty years thereafter Major Branch was known as one of the most prominent business men of the entire South. He was during this period the presi- dent of the Planters' Loan and Savings Bank, in Augusta, as well as of the former Merchants' and Farm- ers' National Bank, and of the Port Royal and Augusta Railroad. Thomas Plummer Branch died at Augusta, in the State of Georgia, in the May of 1900. He had married, first, as previously recorded, Effie Stovall, the daughter of Thomas Stovall of Georgia, by whom he had no issue. Thomas Plummer Branch married, second, as pre- viously recorded, Annie Irvine, daughter of Reverend Dr. Robert Irvine of Georgia. They had issue: I. Elizabeth Mary Orr Branch, born 6th Febru- ary, 1872. II. James Irvine Crombie Branch, born 22d De- cember, 1873; died 15th June, 1875. III. Annie Laird Branch, born 16th July, 1877. IV. Robert Irvine Branch, born 10th January, 1879. V. Austin Thomas Plummer Branch, born 8th August, 1880. VI. Barrington Crombie Branch, born 10th Sep- tember, 1888. BRANCHIANA 93 ELIZABETH MARY SIMONDS Elizabeth Mary Orr Branch, the first child and daughter of Major Thomas Plummer Branch and Annie Irvine, was born, in Augusta, Georgia, 6th February, 1872. She married, in Augusta, Georgia, 8th March, 1892, John Calhoun Simonds of Charleston in South Carolina. By John Calhoun Simonds, Elizabeth Mary Orr Branch has issue: I. Elizabeth Mary Branch Simonds, born 2d June, 1895. II. John Calhoun Simonds, born 5th October, 1897. ANNIE LAIRD OSGOOD Annie Laird Branch, the third child and second daughter of Major Thomas Plummer Branch and Annie Irvine, was born, in Augusta, Georgia, 16th July, 1877. She married, in Augusta, Georgia, 17th November, 1906, Edward Dana Osgood of Massachusetts. ROBERT IRVINE BRANCH Robert Irvine Branch, the fourth child and second son of Major Thomas Plummer Branch and Annie Ir- vine, was born, in Augusta, Georgia, 10th January, 1879. He graduated in 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, and more lately entered business life in part- nership with his father. After the latter's death in 1900, 94 BRANCHIANA he formed a partnership with his cousin Steiner Branch, the two organizing the firm of Branch and Company of Augusta, Georgia, and taking over the business of the Augusta Brick Company, formerly headed by Colonel George Alford Cunningham, and for a brief period by George Alford Cunningham, Jr. AUSTIN THOMAS PLUMMER BRANCH Austin Thomas Plummer Branch, the fifth child and third son of Major Thomas Plummer Branch and Annie Irvine, was born, in Augusta, Georgia, 8th Au- gust, 1880. He graduated in 1900, with the degree of Master of Arts, from the University of the South, Sewanee, Ten- nessee, and subsequently entered the Law School of the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the Vir- ginia bar, March, 1902, and to the Georgia bar in the November of the same year. He has since that time practiced law in Augusta, Georgia. BARRINGTON CROMBIE BRANCH Barrington Crombie Branch, the sixth child and fourth son of Major Thomas Plummer Branch and An- nie Irvine, was born, in Asheville, North Carolina, 10th September, 1888. He is to-day a student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, in Baltimore, Maryland. BRANCHIANA 95 jffilarp Austin ^rancf) Mary Austin Branch, the seventh child and third daughter of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, nth February, 1839. Mary Austin Branch survived both parents and died unmarried, in Richmond, Virginia, 29th May, 1900. €milj> &eab ?Brancf) Emily Read Branch, the eighth child and fourth daughter of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 9th April, 1841. She married in Petersburg, on 14th October, 1863, Colonel George Alford Cunningham of Alabama, then connected with the firm of Thomas Branch and Sons, of Petersburg, and afterward a resident of Augusta, Geor- gia. Colonel Cunningham died, in Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1905. By George Alford Cunningham of Alabama, Emily Read Branch had issue : I. Emily Annie Cunningham, born 20th August, 1864. II. Branch Cunningham, born 23d July, 1866. III. George Alford Cunningham, born 3d Decem- ber, 1867. EMILY CUNNINGHAM LYMAN Emily Annie Cunningham, the first child and daughter of Emily Read Branch and Colonel George Alford Cunningham, was born 20th August, 1864. 96 BRANCHIANA * She married, in Richmond, Virginia, 25th January, 1886, Theodore Benedict Lyman, the son of Bishop Theodore Benedict Lyman of California, and afterward of North Carolina. Emily Annie Cunningham died in Augusta, Georgia, 28th September, 1894. By Theodore Benedict Lyman, Emily Annie Cunning- ham had issue: I. George Alford Cunningham Lyman, born 14th February, 1888; died in 1888. II. Emily Cunningham Lyman, born 29th May, 1891. BRANCH CUNNINGHAM Branch Cunningham, the second child and first son of Emily Read Branch and Colonel George Alford Cun- ningham, was born 23d July, 1866. He, on reaching manhood, engaged for a brief period in stock-raising in Albemarle County, in the State of Virginia. He subsequently removed to South Carolina. Branch Cunningham married, 7th December, 1890, Agnes Genin of New York, and by this marriage had no issue. He married, second, 6th July, 1900, Caroline Camp- bell, the daughter of William L. Campbell of South Carolina. They have issue : I. Emma Branch Cunningham, born November, 1902. BRANCHIANA 97 HI. Sarah Campbell Cunningham, bdrn August, 1904. GEORGE ALFORD CUNNINGHAM George Alford Cunningham, the third child and second son of Emily Read Branch and Colonel George Alford Cunningham, was born 3d December, 1867. He was educated at Pantops Academy and at Wash- ington and Lee College, in Lexington, Virginia, and more lately became a civil engineer. He was for a long while stationed in Panama, and upon his return to America in 1894, succeeded his father as president of the Augusta Brick Company of Augusta, Georgia. Not long after his marriage he removed to New York City, and there resumed the practice of his original pro- fession. He is to-day stationed in Alaska. George Alford Cunningham married, in Augusta, Georgia, 25th January, 1898, Lewis Butts, the daughter of John D. Butts of Georgia. They had issue: I. George Alford Cunningham, born 4th March, 1899. Nettie ftoaalama Mxanti) Bettie Rosalama Branch, the ninth child and fifth daughter of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, Virginia, 19th March, 1843. She married Judge Benjamin T. Suttle of Stafford County, in Virginia, and died at her father's residence in Richmond on 7th April, 1876. Bettie Rosalama Branch died without issue. 98 BRANCHIANA 3® illiam 3bbison iBranrtj William Addison Branch, the tenth child and fifth son of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 26th April, 1845. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted, under his brother, Colonel James Read Branch, in the Con- federate Army, and served throughout the conflict with distinction. Very shortly after the conclusion of hostilities Wil- liam Addison Branch emigrated to the West, where he resided for some years as a well-known ranchman. He died in California in the November of 1880. William Addison Branch had never married and died without issue. JWetotUe 3rbj> Prancfj Melville Irby Branch, the eleventh child and sixth son of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, 18th February, 1847. He received his introductory education in and about Petersburg, but in 1863, at the age of sixteen, left school to join the Confederate Army. He had been, in the November of 1864, appointed by Governor Greenlee D. Letcher of Virginia a cadet to the Virginia Military Institute, which, at that time, was stationed in Richmond. And in consequence, after the Civil War, Melville Irby Branch resumed his interrupted studies at the Virginia Military Institute, where he graduated in 1868. BRANCHIANA 99 He removed in the same year to Augusta, in Georgia, where, as previously recorded, he engaged in the mer- cantile business, in partnership with his elder brother, Major Thomas Plummer Branch. In Augusta, in the November of 1870, Melville Irby Branch married Susan Wilhelmina Steiner, the daughter of John J. Steiner of Ohio, and formerly of Frederick, Maryland. Subsequently, in 1876, he removed to Columbia Coun- ty, in Georgia, and adopting the pursuit of farming, settled near Berzelia. His latter residence is known as "Steindorf Farm." For six years Melville Irby Branch has served in the Legislature of Georgia. Melville Irby Branch, as previously recorded, married Susan Wilhelmina Steiner, the daughter of John J. Steiner of Ohio. They have issue. I. Henry Steiner Branch, born 1st October, 1871. II. Melville Campbell Branch, born 24th Janu- ary, 1875. III. Steiner Branch, born 7th February, 1878. HENRY STEINER BRANCH Henry Steiner Branch, the first child and son of Melville Irby Branch and Susan Wilhelmina Steiner, was born 1st October, 1871. On completing his education he was for a while con- nected with the Southern Railway, but eventually re- moved to Berzelia, in Columbia County, Georgia, and ioo BRANCHIANA engaged in partnership with his father, in farming at large and more particularly in fruit-raising. MELVILLE CAMPBELL BRANCH Melville Campbell Branch, the second child and son of Melville Irby Branch and Susan Wilhelmina Steiner, was born 24th January, 1875. He settled early in life in Richmond, Virginia, and in that city entered the offices of Thomas Branch and Company. His business ability there won for him rapid promotion, and he was in 1906 admitted to a partnership in that well-known firm. STEINER BRANCH Steiner Branch, the third child and son of Mel- ville Irby Branch and Susan Wilhelmina Steiner, was born 7th February, 1878. He at first entered business life with his cousin, Rob- ert Irvine Branch, the two organizing the firm of Branch and Company of Augusta, Georgia, as previously re- corded. He more lately established his plantation of "Katocton," near Grovetown, Georgia, where Steiner Branch resides to-day. He married, 2d January, 1902, his cousin, Mary Al- ston Steiner. They have issue: I. Sue Steiner Branch, born 18th June, 1903. €ugene PrancJ) Eugene Branch, the twelfth child and seventh son of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, in the June of 1851. BRANCHIANA 101 The boy died in early infancy, expiring in the Sep- tember of the same year. W&xt? $aul Jiramlj D'Arcy Paul Branch, the thirteenth child and eighth son of Thomas Branch and Sarah Pride Read, was born, in Petersburg, in the February of 1854. D'Arcy Paul Branch, like his preceding brother, was short-lived and died in the June of 1854. Carter OTPbeelrigflt ?Brandb Carter Wheelright Branch, the first child and son of Thomas Branch and Anne Adams Wheelright, was born, in Petersburg, 13th August, 1858. Pie received his earlier education in Petersburg, Rich- mond, and subsequently at the Virginia Military Insti- tute, in Lexington, Virginia. On reaching maturity, Carter Wheelright Branch en- tered business with his father, and more lately estab- lished the brokerage firm of C. W. Branch and Com- pany, which, since the admission of H. Landon Cabell to a partnership, has been known as Branch, Cabell and Company of Richmond, in Virginia. 0lixwm ^rancf) Miriam Branch, the second child and first daughter of Thomas Branch and Anne Adams Wheelright, was born, in Petersburg, 31st January, 1861. 102 BRANCHIANA Miriam Branch married, on 19th November, 1884, Colonel Barton Haxall Grundy of Richmond, in Vir- ginia. They have issue: I. Thomas Branch Grundy, born 6th April, 1886; died 1st February, 1904. II. Barton Haxall Grundy, born 30th March, 1888. III. Anne Wheelright Grundy, born 25th April, 1890; died 8th September, 1890. IV. Carter Branch Grundy, born 8th July, 1891. V. Miriam Branch Grundy, born 21st December, 1892. VI. Charles Miller Grundy, born 23d February, 1897; died 23d May, 1897. Carolina $£ratuft Carolina Branch, the third child and second daugh- ter of Thomas Branch and Anne Adams Wheelright, was born, at Jones's Springs, in North Carolina, nth July, 1862. ®shornc of Coxenoale Tabitha Osborne was a descendant of Captain Thomas Osborne of Coxendale, in Henrico. This county, it is necessary to repeat, then comprised all the land west of Charles City between the Chickahominy and the Appomattox. Thomas Osborne was born in England, about the year 1590, but left England for the Colony of Virginia in 1619, sailing in "the Bona Nova, of 200 tons, sent August, 1619, with 120 persons"; as the records of the company have it, "in the beginning of August last, in the Bona Nova, were sent 100 persons for public service, chosen with great care and extraordinarily furnished," — all of these persons being future colonists, "fifty for the Company's land and fifty for the College Land." ii4 BRANCHIANA The voyage was leisurely but prosperous ; and the Mus- ter of 1 6th February, 1623-4, mentions Thomas Osborne as living at the College Land. And, again, the Muster of January, 1624-5, enumerates among the inhabitants of the College Land : " Lietenfit Thomas Osborne, arrived in the Bona Nova, 1619. SERVANTS " Daniell Sherley, aged 30 yeres, came in the Bona Nova, 1 6 19. " Peeter Jordan, aged 22, in the London Merchant, 1620. " Richard Davis, aged 16 yeres, in the Jonathan, 1620." The title of lieutenant, acquired one knows not how in England, was more lately exchanged for a captaincy, on 4th July, 1627, by virtue of a commission granted by Sir George Yeardley, then Governor of Virginia. For, as a retaliatory measure, the Governor at this time "thought it fitt that we should draw out partyes from all our planta- tions & goe uppon the Indians & cut downe their corne ;" and in consequence, upon the date aforementioned, "Lef- tenant Thomas Osborne" was appointed by the Governor to lead the settlers of "the necke of land and the College Land" against the tribes of the Saax Powhattans. History does not detail the results of this expedition, but it was thereby that Thomas Osborne acquired the title of captain, which he retained for the remainder of his long life. Meantime, Thomas Osborne had settled, in the year 1625, at "Coxendale," on the south side of James River, ?;/} /fl^uzjC r ' / \ BRANCHIANA 115 in the extreme northeast of the present Chesterfield County, and corresponding to the present "Cox's Dale." Christopher Branch's plantation of " Kingsland,"— which he patented, as recorded, in 1635,— lay immediately north of "Coxendale," being separated from it by Proc- tor's Creek ; and it is not unnatural that this close prox- imity in a sparsely-settled country should have resulted in many marriages between the families of Branch and Osborne. Christopher Branch of " Kingsland " and Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" were near neighbors for some thirty-odd years, and presumably — if one allows for the slight disparity in their ages — on terms of con- siderable intimacy ; they grew from obscurity to affluence and prominence together, and year by year, as the one patented land to the north of Proctor's Creek the other would patent land to the south of it, till presently the twin plantations of " Kingsland " and "Coxendale" had grown to rank among the largest in all southern Henrico. Captain Thomas Osborne held in his day many posi- tions of honor. In the year 1629 he represented Henrico (with Christopher Branch of "Kingsland") in the Vir- ginia House of Burgesses; and (again with Christopher Branch of " Kingsland ") was one of the viewers of tobacco "from the World's End to Henrico" in 1639. Always the two men are somehow bracketed together. In addition, Captain Thomas Osborne was "commis- sioner for the upper parts of Henrico" in 1631, and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses for the years 1630-31-32-33. n6 BRANCHIANA The last attested act of Captain Thomas Osborne was to take out yet another patent of land on Proctor's Creek in 1637; but it is known that he survived until, at least, 5th November, 1667, at which date Captain Thomas Os- borne of "Coxendale" assigned to Thomas Lockett of Henrico all rights for the transportation of Alexander Wood to this country — which would have entitled Cap- tain Thomas Osborne to some fifty acres of land. All record of the deed itself has perished, but it is alluded to in a much later deed, when, on 24th of Decem- ber, 1682, the same Thomas Lockett transferred the same rights to Thomas Burton, and by a casual parenthesis en- abled us to determine that Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" was alive as late as 1667; and of Captain Thomas Osborne there is in the scant records of the time no further mention. Nor is there in the Virginia records at any time even a casual mention of his wife. A legitimate son, one Thomas or EdWard Osborne, and born before 1620, Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" had beyond question; and inasmuch as Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxen- dale" brought no wife or child to Virginia in 16 19, and was at the period of his emigration a man of thirty or upwards, it is not extravagant to suppose that the wife of Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" had died before this, in England, and that he subsequently sent back to England for his only son, since that son attestedly was living in Virginia before the year 1640. The will of Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" BRANCHIANA ^7 is not recorded at Henrico Court-House. A will he indis- putably left, apportioning his estate between his two grandsons, and inasmuch as the county records of Henrico previous to the year 1677 have perished, and from that year exist in tolerable fullness, the fact is pretty clearly established that Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" died before 1678 ; and, as has been previously shown, later than the November of 1667. He had issue, so far as known, only one child, a son, whom he survived. (Cbtoarb) ®&boxnt of genrico This only son of Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxen- dale" was, perhaps, the Thomas Osborne of "Pasbeheighes," referred to in the " Muster of the Inhabitants of Pasbehays, belonging to the corporation of James City, and in the maine," taken 30th January, 1624-5. This mentions among "The men of the Governor's Men at Pasbehaighs" one "Thomas Osborn, aged 18 (came to Virginia), in the Francis Bonaventiire." And a word of explanation is here necessary : The thrifty Virginia Company of London had hit upon the scheme of providing for the Governor of Virginia's salary, "so as to ease the Company henceforward of all charge in maintaining him," by assigning to the Governor some 3,000 acres, which cost the company nothing, and pro- curing tenants (at a rate of six pounds each to the com- n8 BRANCHIANA pany, which was the cost of their transportation), to farm these assigned acres, with the understanding that one-half the revenue of these tenants was to go to the Governor. Eighty of these "Governor's men" were sent to Vir- ginia in 1620, the Bonaventure transporting some of them, and it is possible that Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale" embraced this opportunity of securing free transportation for his heir, and that his son and this Thomas Osborne of " Pasbehaighes" were one and the same person. This is possible, but no more ; for, upon the other hand, it appears unlikely that any one in the comfortable cir- cumstances which Captain Thomas Osborne beyond doubt already boasted should have bound over his only son to a quasi-slaveryhood ; and the probabilities are rather in favor of this son of Captain Thomas Osborne having been the Edward Osborne of Henrico who patented (2nd June, 1636) some 400 acres of land in Henrico County — "ad- joining a swamp called the great swamp, and the river" — fifty acres of the same being due for his personal adven- ture, and 350 acres for the transportation of seven persons. This is the sole mention that now exists of this Edward Osborne, and his will, if it was ever probated, has perished with the earlier records of Henrico. The son of Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale," whatever may have been his Christian name, died in Vir- ginia about the year 1650 — certainly not earlier than 1646 — having had issue: BRANCHIANA 119 I. Thomas Osborne of "Coxendale," born 1641, with whom we shall hereafter have to do. II. Edward Osborne of Henrico. Cotoaro Osborne of ^enrtco Edward Osborne of Henrico, the younger son of the foregoing, was born in 1646. At the death of Captain Thomas Osborne of "Coxen- dale," his estate was divided between his two grandsons— both of whom had survived their father— in what propor- tion it is impossible to say, although it is apparent that to Edward Osborne's share fell the northern part of the plantation. He appears to have farmed it prosperously, and to have increased its dimensions ; and the last act recorded of Edward Osborne is that within the last year of his life, on 1st of June, 1696, he purchased some 200 acres of the southern portion of "Coxendale," which his elder brother, now dead, had inherited, and had long ago deeded to his own eldest son. It is not recorded that Edward Osborne of Henrico ever held any political office or took any part in public life. He died about the beginning of the year 1697, and it is to be regretted that the ambiguous wording of his will prevents estimation of what lands he then possessed, since he was undoubtedly well-to-do in the world. Edward Osborne of Henrico married, prior to 1676, Tabitha Piatt, the daughter of Gilbert Piatt of " Fauld- inge," in Virginia, whom he survived. 120 BRANCHIANA By Tabitha Piatt, Edward Osborne of Henrico had issue : I. Tabitha Osborne, who, as previously recorded, married Benjamin Branch of Henrico. II. Edward Osborne of Henrico, born post 1677, and died in 1732, leaving issue. III. Martha Osborne. The will of Edward Osborne of Henrico County, in the Parish of Varina, is recorded at Henrico Court-House. It is dated 6th of January, 1696, and was recorded 1st of April, 1697. To the testator's son, Edward Osborne, is bequeathed "all my lands in generall," which is an unhappily ambig- uous wording as concerns the genealogist. To this only son is also bequeathed a bewildering enumeration of miscellaneous chattels : feerme The widow of Thomas Jones of Bermuda Hundreds re- married very shortly after her husband's death, her second choice being Edward Skerme of Henrico. 142 BRANCHIANA This second marriage took place presumably about 1679, and in anv event before 9th of August, 1684, at which" date there was a general settling up of the estate of Mary Skerme's first husband ; and upon this occasion Thomas Jones, Second, of Bermuda Hundreds, conveyed to his brother, Repps Jones, one hundred acres of land, as "part of the dividend left by my father, Thomas Jones, de- ceased," and divided with " Mary Skirm, his mother," certain tracts at Bermuda Hundreds, — a part of the same estate, — which presumably constituted the customary widow's third. By her second marriage, Mary Skerme had issue : I. Edward Skerme of Henrico, who married Priscilla Branch, the daughter of John Branch, and died in 1699, without issue. II. Mary Skerme, who married Broadnecks of Henrico. The will of Mary Skerme, the elder, is dated 16th of November, 1707, and was recorded at Henrico Court- House 1st September, 1710. It mentions the testator's grandchildren, Matthew Turpin, Philip Turpin, Martha Turpin, and Elizabeth Turpin,— all the children of Elizabeth Jones Turpin ; the testator's grandchildren, Thomas Osborne, Martha Os- borne and Mary Osborne,— the children of Martha Jones Osborne; the testator's daughters, Martha Osborne and Mary Broadnecks; and the testator's son-in-law, Philip Turpin. BRANCHIANA i 43 The witnesses are the testator's son-in-law, Thomas Osborne of Henrico, and Thomas Cheatham, Senior (the same Thomas Cheatham who married Tabitha Osborne Branch, the widow of Benjamin Branch of Henrico). 3Tf)c ISlifc of Captain Penjamin IBraitrij of OTiUoto $iu W$t OTtfe of Captain Penjamm prancf) of MliUoto $tU Tradition asserts that Captain Benjamin Branch of "Willow Hill " married a member of the well-known Goode family of Chesterfield County, in which event her maiden name would have been Mary Goode; but no authoritative record exists as to who were her parents. Yet, in passing, the tradition is substantially supported by the fact that one of the executors of Captain Benjamin Branch's will is a Francis Goode of Chesterfield, whom the testator explicitly calls "my kinsman," and that this kinship cannot be accounted for except by supposing this Francis Goode to have been a relative of Captain Benja- min Branch's wife. It should be borne in mind, also, that a Robert Goode is one of the executors of the will of Captain Benjamin Branch's father, Benjamin Branch of Chesterfield, and is in that document coupled with the testator's sons, Thomas Branch and Edward Branch — which circum- stance hints at a close alliance already existent in 1760 between the families of Branch and Goode ; and the ob- vious hypothesis is that this Robert Goode was the father of the Mary Goode who married Captain Benjamin Branch of "Willow Hill," as well as the father of that i 4 8 BRANCHIANA Francis Goode who, in 1760, was "a kinsman" of Cap- tain Benjamin Branch and one of his executors. The assumption is a hypothesis that undoubtedly ex- plains a nebulous point in the family line, but it is a hypothesis and nothing more. All that is positively known concerning the wife of Cap- tain Benjamin Branch of " Willow Hill " is : that her Christian name was Mary ; that he married her prior to the year 1762, at the very latest, — since she had borne him four children by 1767, — and presumably about 1755 ; that she bore him five children, if not more than five, and that in all likelihood she survived her husband, or, in any event, did not die before the year 1782. The facts are meagre, but every known fact tends to buttress the supposition that the wife of Captain Benjamin Branch was Mary Goode, the daughter of Robert Goode of Chesterfield. ®f)e Wife of fcljomas prancfj of Mlilloto Wje Wife of Cljomas Jkancfj of SHillotu Thomas Branch of " Willow Hill," as previously re- corded, at the age of twenty and in the year 1787, mar- ried Mary Patteson, the daughter of Colonel David Pat- teson of Chesterfield. She was some three years her husband's junior, having been born 28th of September, 1770. Mary Patteson Branch bore to Thomas Branch of "Wil- low Hill " the goodly number of fourteen children and died 20th of August, 1825. In tracing the descent of Mary Patteson the genealogist is again hampered by the vexatious paucity of the Charles City records, since it was in that county that the first Pat- teson to emigrate to Virginia made his home. He was a descendant of the Patteson family of Scot- land, and bore as arms: — Argent, guttee de poix, a lion rampant sable; on a chief of the last, three escallops or. Crest: — a pelican in her piety, all proper. Here as in the Branch crest, is an obvious pun, the play upon words being in this case derived from the Latin patior, I suffer. 152 BRANCHIANA Babfo patteson of Charles Citp David Patteson was living in Charles City County prior to 1700. He was, as has been said, presumably the first member of his family to emigrate to Virginia, though it is barely possible that this David Patteson was a son of the Thomas "Pattison" who died in Charles City County on the Whitsunday of 1725. In any event, this was beyond any reasonable doubt the same David Patteson who in 1714 received a grant of land in southern Henrico County, which then embraced the County of Chesterfield. He continued personally to reside in Charles City, and in that county one finds little save the baptismal records to assist in filling out the lists of his offspring. Yet, in accordance with their testimony, this David Pat- teson had issue : I. Sarah Patteson, who was baptized 24th of March, 1700. II. Anne Patteson, baptized 2d of November, 1701. III. David Patteson, baptized 14th of October, 1703. IV. Thomas Patteson (and his Christian name is perhaps noteworthy, as hinting at a relationship with the aforementioned Thomas "Pattison"), baptized 13th of December, 1708. V. Charles Patteson, baptized 6th of May, 171 1. BRANCHIANA 153 VI. Jonathan Patteson, baptized 6th of June, 1713, who emigrated to Lunenburg and left issue. VII. Obediah Patteson, baptized 10th of February, 1717. VIII. Gideon Patteson, baptized 17th of July, 1720. It should be borne in mind that these dates are merely those of the children's baptisms — which then almost in- variably took place two days after the child's birth, — and that there was perhaps a child born between David Patte- son and Thomas Patteson. Datno patteson, g>econb, of CtjarleS Cttp David Patteson of Charles City, third child and oldest son of the foregoing, was born, as previously recorded, in the October of 1703. To him, as the oldest son, his father presumably be- queathed the lands he had patented, in 1714, in Henrico County. This David Patteson had married ante 1722. The maiden name of his wife is unknown. David Patteson, Second, of Charles City County, had issue : I. James Patteson, baptized 10th of February, 1723, who had, with other issue, James A. Patteson. II. Colonel David Patteson, born in 1724. III. Anne Patteson, baptized 19th of March, 1725. IV. Another daughter, baptized in 1728. 154 BRANCHIANA Colonel Babfo patteson of Cfjegterfielb Colonel David Patteson of Chesterfield, the second child and son of the foregoing, was born in 1724. Though not the oldest son, he appears to have inherited his father's lands in Henrico, which Colonel David Patte- son unquestionably possessed during the Revolution and after, though they were by this a part of Chesterfield,— to which county he permanently removed about 1755. Colonel David Patteson, though he seems to have in- herited no great wealth originally, was in his latter days one of the most distinguished men of his time and neigh- borhood. He served against the British during the War of the Revolution, and at the cessation of hostilities occupied the honorable position of Colonel-Commandant of Chester- field ; he was a member of the Virginia House of Dele- gates for the years 1786-92-93-94; and he represented Chesterfield (with Stephen Pankey, Junior,) in the Vir- ginia Federal Convention of 1788, which met at Richmond in the June of that year and ratified in the name and behalf of the people of Virginia, the present Federal Constitution. In passing, Colonel David Patteson was one of the nar- row majority of ten which decided that the State accept the Constitution. Colonel David Patteson married, ante 1752, Mary Anderson, who was, according to tradition, a sister of the Claiborne Anderson of Chesterfield whose will was re- corded at Chesterfield Court-House in 1771. BRANCHIANA 155 By this Mary Anderson, Colonel David Patteson of Chesterfield had issue: I. Anne Patteson, baptized 18th of June, 1754. II. Samuel Patteson, who married Elizabeth Darra- cott. HI. Lucy Patteson, who married J. W. Winfree. IV. Frances Patteson, who married Robert Gilliam. V. Martha Patteson, who married her cousin, James A. Patteson. VI. Mary Patteson, who,, as previously recorded, married Thomas Branch of " Willow Hill." Wje Jf irst OTif e of Wjomaa prancf) of Petersburg anb &icfmtonb Wje $ trst WLiit of aromas Prancft of $etersfourg anb &icfjmottb Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond first mar- ried, in Amelia County, on 19th of October, 1825, as pre- viously recorded, Sarah Pride Read. Sarah Pride Read was born 8th of August, 1808, and died 3d May, 1855. She was the second daughter of John Blythe Read of Wales and of Chesterfield County, in Virginia. STofjn Plptfje Eeab John Blythe Read was born in Wales, 3d of June, 1776. No record has been preserved concerning his an- cestry, but he bore as arms :— Argent, three butter-churns or ; which in every detail corresponds to that of the well- known Welsh family of Read. By his first marriage with his cousin, Martha Blythe (born 24th of December, 1776, died 5th of May, 1804), John Blythe Read had issue: I. John Fownes Read, born 5th of January, 1803, and died nth of June, 1804. By his second marriage with Susanna Pride, the daugh- ter of John Pride of Chesterfield, John Blythe Read had issue : !6o BRANCHIANA I. Frances Priscilla Read, born 28th of September, 1806, died 28th of November, 1807. II. Sarah Pride Read, born 8th of August, 1808, who married Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond. III. Elizabeth Rosin a Read, born 16th of August, 1810, died 2d of July, 181 1. IV. John Pride Read, born 3d of June, 1812, died 4th July, 1813. V. Emily Susan Read, born 20th of November, 1814, died 25th of October, 1820. VI. James Blythe Read, born 10th of March, 1817. John Blythe Read of Wales and Chesterfield, died 15th of January, 1818. gmsiamta $ribe &eab Susanna Pride Read, the second wife of the forego- ing, was born 21st of January, 1787, and died 16th of April, 1817. The inscription upon the tomb of Susanna Pride Read, in Old Blandford Churchyard, near Petersburg, in Vir- ginia, may here be fitly cited as not entirely lacking in interest. Follows a verbatim copy: BRANCHIANA 161 Sleep soft in dust await the Almighty will, Then rise unchanged and be an angel still. Beneath this stone Eepose the remains of fflv& g>tue;an &eab The virtuous affectionate wife of STofjn $. &eab Daughter of John and Priscilla Pride of Chesterfield County Born on the 21st of January 1787 And departed this life The 16th of April Anno domini 1817 Could blameless manners or affection warm Could the mild virtues still to memory dear Or innocence the rage of death disarm An early victim had not rested here Nor had a husband mournd his doom severe Nor infant sorrows streamd around the grave Nor weeping relatives mixed the falling tear Such was her worth could worth exception crave Earth's dreary cell would ne'er that form beloved enslave. On her left lie her three children Jfranceg $ri*ciUa &eab Born 28th Sept 1806 died 28th Nov ISO'. €li>abetf) ftosrtna &eab Born 16th August 1810 died 2n July 1811 Joim $rtbe &eab Born 3n June and died 3n July 1813 Sacred to their memory This tomb is dedicated by her husband And their father. 1 62 BRANCHIANA Close beside this monument stand the tombs of John Blythe Read and of Emily Susan Read, the daughter of John Blythe Read and of Susanna Pride. Susanna Pride Read was the daughter of John Pride of Chesterfield, as previously recorded; and in conse- quence, a descendant of William Pride of Henrico. Militant $rtbe of ^enrtco Of this William Pride, presumably born about 1630, and died ante 1677, we have no record save a mere men- tion of his name in a deed given by his son in the year 1732, wherein the latter assigns certain properties in- herited from his father. This, however, was presumably the original emigrant to America and the founder of the Pride family in Virginia. William Pride of Henrico had issue : I. William Pride, Second, of Henrico, born about 1650. 2UtUiam $rfoe, g>econb, of Henrico This William Pride, born about 1650, the only son, so far as known, of the foregoing, makes his first appear- ance in the county records, 10th December, 1677, deep in litigation with one William Bevin, concerning a tobacco crop they had raised on shares — the two families (for the evidence shows that William Pride was already a married man, though he appears as yet to have had no children) BRANCHIANA 163 being by the original agreement, to share Bevin's house during the raisinr of this crop, as some protection against the neigKboring and hostile Indians. And by the original agreement, William Pride was to have had one-third of the proceeds ; but history does not detail the final decision of the court. William Pride of Henrico appears to have started life as a tobacco-farmer on a small scale and gradually to have amassed a competence. He inherited land in Henrico, as lias been recorded, from his father; and, 1st of December, 1692, he purchased yet more land in that county, of William Randolph et al, which transaction resulted in a tedious lawsuit, of some fifteen years' duration, and eventually lost by William Pride, who was adjudged, 1st of July, 1710, to owe Wil- liam Randolph the impoverishing damages of five shillings and six pence. On 1st of October, 1695, William Pride transferred a considerable tract of land in Henrico to his daughter, Wynifred, the wife of Benjamin Lockett, with a reversion, in the event of her having no children, to his own sons. For some thirty years thereafter, one finds absolutely no mention of William Pride in the records of Henrico; but all subsequent entries concerning him fully demon- strate that during this period he had materially increased the list of his worldly belongings. On 3d of October, 1726, William Pride purchased from John Peterson of Isle of Wight, for sixty-nine pounds, some 208 acres on the north side of Swift Creek; and at j6 4 branchiana the same date from Philip Jones of Henrico, for five pounds, one acre on the south side of Swift Creek. He sold, on 15th of July, 1732, to David Nunnally, for thirty pounds, some 300 acres of his patrimony — this be- ing described as a portion of the land "inherited by Wil- liam Pride by the will of his father, William Pride, de- ceased." This deed, to which previous allusion has been made, is doubly important, both as giving the name of William Pride's father, and (by attesting that the will of this father had been formally recorded at Henrico Court- House), as demonstrating that the elder William Pride died before 1677, — since his will is not included in the records of that county, which, since 1677, exist in tolerable sufficiency. On the 2d of March, 1733, William Pride of Henrico transferred, for five shillings, to his son, John Pride, no acres on Swift Creek, in the present Chesterfield County, then a part of Henrico, — this being a part of the land originally patented by the older William Pride; and the no acres, also on Swift Creek, which the younger Wil- liam Pride had bought of Richard Walthall by a deed dated 7th of September, 1724. On the 31st of July, 1736, William Pride transferred to the same son, John Pride, for fifty pounds, the 211 acres on Swift Creek which William Pride had earlier pur- chased from Henry Randolph, by a deed dated 14th of May, 171 1. BRANCHIANA 165 William Pride had married before the year 1677, and died at an advanced age, post 1736. William Pride, Second, of Henrico had issue : I. Hollcot Pride, who apparently was born post 1677^ and apparently died young. II. William Pride, who appears never to have mar- ried, and died without issue early in 1764. III. John Pride of Dale Parish, in Henrico County. IV. Wynifred Pride, who married Benjamin Lockett of Henrico. fofm $rtoe of ftenrico John Pride of Dale Parish, in Henrico, third son of the foregoing, was born about 1680, and died post 1736. The first mention of his name occurs 1st of April, 1696, when he bought from Edward Matthews, in exchange for " 3,000 pounds of tobacco and one steer " seventy acres of land in Henrico County, on the north side of James River, and at this date, to all appearances, started in life as a tobacco-farmer. Yet within a breath let ir be added that John Pride could have been, to all appearances, little more than a boy at this period; since the entire recorded evidence tends to show that his father had no issue born prior to 1677, and that John Pride was the third son; and that it is likely this property was, in reality, purchased by William Pride, Second, of Henrico, but in the name of his son, John Pride. 1 66 BRANCHIANA However this may have been, John Pride of Henrico patented 247 acres "on the north side of Appomattox," at Deep Creek (in what is now the western portion of Chesterfield County), on the 17th of August, 1725; and acquired from his father, as previously recorded, in 1733 and 1736, some 420 acres of adjacent land on Swift Creek. He transferred to Samuel Hix, on 5th of December, 1726, for fifty pounds, some sixty-nine acres on " Turka- hoe Creek," — which is now known as the "Turkey Branch" of Swift Creek in Chesterfield County; and transferred to his son-in-law, John Hill, on 4th of Feb- ruary, 1726-7, some 123 acres on Deep Creek, a moiety of the land John Pride had patented in 1725; and trans- ferred to Charles Cannon, on 1st of April, 1727, for twen- ty-five pounds, some 375 acres on "Turkahoe Creek." The lands owned by John Pride of Henrico are to-day easily locateable ; they lay to the extreme central west of Chesterfield County, and were bounded on the north by Swift Creek, on the east by Deep Creek, and on the west by Turkey Branch ; and the present Genito road bisects what was once his plantation. John Pride of Henrico married, prior to 1720, Susanna (Puckett?). By Susanna (Puckett?), John Pride of Henrico had issue: I. John Pride, born 1720, who married Frances , and had issue. II. William Pride of Chesterfield, born 19th of De- cember, 1 72 1. BRANCHIANA 167 III. Puckett Pride, born 2d of September, 1728. IV. X daughter, name unknown, who married John Hill of Henrico, and left issue. OTiUiam $}ribc of Cfjrsterf iclb William Pride of the Parish of Dale, in Chesterfield, the second son of the foregoing, was born the 19th of De- cember, 1 72 1, and died in 1774. He became a native of Chesterfield, as aforetime his near neighbors the Branches and the Osbornes had done, by the division of that county from Henrico about 1740. In addition to his lands in Chesterfield, most probably inherited from his father's estate, William Pride acquired property in Amelia County, which he likewise farmed to apparent profit. William Pride died, as has been said, in 1774. He had marrieS, ante 1745, Elizabeth , who, in all likeli- hood, survived her husband. At his death William Pride of Chesterfield left issue : I. John Pride of Chesterfield and Amelia counties. II. Peter Pride, to whom his father bequeathed his plantation in Chesterfield County, but who died without issue and unmarried in the latter half of 1804, and appa- rently in destitute circumstances. III. Thomas Pride, who died unmarried, in the latter part of 1779, leaving his entire estate to his older brother, John Pride of Chesterfield and Amelia. J 68 BRANCHIANA The will of William Pride of the Parish of Dale, in Chesterfield, is recorded at Chesterfield Court-House; it is dated 4th of October, 1749, and was recorded in 1774. It bequeaths the testator's lands and plantation in Amelia County to the testator's son, John Pride ; to the testator's son, Peter Pride, the testator's plantation in Chesterfield; and mentions the testator's three children and his wife, Elizabeth Pride. It will be noted that this will was drawn up at the age of twenty-eight, some twenty-five years before the death of the testator ; and it is not impossible that during that period other children were born to him, for whom, through carelessness he neglected to provide. The executors are Elizabeth Pride (the testator's wife), and Field Archer, and James Hill (who was probably the testator's nephew). fofm $nbe of Cfiesrterftefo anb Amelia John Pride of Chesterfield and Amelia counties, in Virginia, the oldest child and son of the foregoing, was born about 1741, and died in 1796; and it was to him, as previously recorded, that his father bequeathed his proper- ties in Amelia County. More lately, this John Pride became a man of some prominence and of wealth. Very early in life he was appointed by Thomas Nelson (25th of April, 1759) deputy clerk of Henrico County, serving under Thomas Adams; and he was perhaps the same John Pride who served upon the Amelia County Q Lifl-^A-^ BRANCHIANA 169 Committee of Public Safety during the Revolution (ap- pointed the 3d of May, 1775). But it should be remembered that it is always difficult to distinguish between this John Pride and his cousin, the John Pride of Amelia County — son to John Pride and Frances Pride — who was a member of the Virginia Fed- eral Convention of 1788. Both owned extensive lands in Amelia, and were prominently identified with the affairs of that county ; and both bestowed upon their children, approximately, the same Christian names. All in all, the tangle is perplexing ; but for our present purposes it is, happily, solved by the undisputed fact that while Susan Pride — the daughter of John Pride of Amelia — on 4th December, 1764, married John Booker of Amelia, another and a somewhat more youthful Susan Pride — the daughter of John Pride of Chesterfield and Amelia counties — in the latter half of 1805, undeniably married John Blythe Read of Wales and of Chesterfield. John Pride of Chesterfield and Amelia died, as has been said, in 1796, owning at the time extensive lands in Ches- terfield, Amelia and Charlotte counties, and in the State of Kentucky. His personal property was more lately appraised at 2,422 pounds, six shillings and three pence, which was for the period a considerable sum. The will of John Pride, recorded at Chesterfield Court- House, is dated November, 1795, and was recorded in 1796. It bequeaths to the testator's son, Thomas Pride, all 170 BRANCHIANA the testator's lands in Chesterfield County, which are to revert, after the failure of Thomas Pride's heirs, to the testator's son, John Alexander Pride. The four daughters of the testator — Sally Pride, Eliza- beth Pride, Priscilla Pride and Susanna Pride — are to have a home upon the plantation, and be "maintained so as to keep them in credit"; and the plantation in Ches- terfield called " Frogpon" — now unlocateable — is left to all six of the previously mentioned children equally. To the testator's son, Peter Pride, is bequeathed the tract of land on the north side of Stanton (sic) River, in Charlotte County, which the testator purchased of Markus (sic) Gibbon. The lands in Kentucky are to be divided equally among the testator's sons, Peter Pride, James Pride and John Alexander Pride. A codicil, dated 26th of November, 1795, leaves the " Frogpon" plantation, including the lower part of 600 acres, to be shared between the testator's sons, John Alex- ander Pride and James Pride, and bequeaths to the tes- tator's son, Peter Pride, the 125 acres "adjoining Captain John Hill's land," — who was probably the testator's cousin. The executors are James Pride (the testator's son) and Captain Jesse Cogbill and Hill Cogbill (who were per- haps the testator's brothers-in-law). An inventory of the estate was taken 9th March, 1797. John Pride of Chesterfield and Amelia married ante 1765, Priscilla (Cogbill?). By Priscilla (Cogbill?), John Pride of Chesterfield left issue: BRANCHIANA i 7 i I. James Pride. II. Thomas Pride, who died in 1823. III. John Alexander Pride, who died in 181 8. IV. Peter Pride. IV. Peter Pride. VI. Elizabeth Pride, who married John Simpson. VII. Priscilla Pride. VIII. Susanna Pride, who, as previously recorded, married John Blvthe Read of Wales and Chesterfield. Wje g>econb WLii e of ®bomas Prancf) of Petersburg anb JXicfjmonb ®fje £>econb Wliit of Wfjomas; ^rancf) of $etersfourg anb &tcfmtonti Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond married, second, as previously recorded, Anne Adams Wheel- right, the daughter of Joseph Wheelright of Westmore- land County, in Virginia. Anne Adams Wheelright was born the 28th of Octo- ber, 1827, and in Westmoreland County married Thomas Branch of Petersburg and Richmond on the twenty-second of April, 1857. They had issue, as 1 has been said, three children. Inasmuch as the distinguished family of Wheelright has previously been traced through all its ramifications, and the history of it previously printed, it appears here neither expedient nor necessary to enter into a detailed account of the Wheelright lineage. Suffice it that the founder of this family in America was John Wheelright of Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire. fofm OTtfjeelrtgfjt of j£eto gamp stytre John Wheelright was born in England in 1594. He was there for many years a clergyman of the Established Church. In 1636, however, he emigrated to Massachu- 176 BRANCHIANA setts and settled at Boston, where latterly he was chosen as pastor of a branch church in what is now Braintree. On account of a sermon delivered in Boston, soon after his arrival in that city, the General Court pronounced John Wheelright to be guilty of "sedition and contempt." After some months' delay he was banished from the Colony, and in 1638 founded what is now the town of Exeter, in New Hampshire. John Wheelright in 1646 was permitted to return to Massachusetts, and there, in 1654, published his well- known " Vindication." In 1662 John Wheelright settled as pastor in Salisbury, in New Hampshire, where he spent the remainder of his long life. He published in 1645 Mercurius Americanus. John Wheelright of Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire died in 1679, leaving issue ; and from him descended the Wheelright family of New England, as well as the Wheelrights of Virginia. 3 osepi) WfjeelristJt of ^e^tmorelanb Joseph Wheelright of Westmoreland County, in Vir- ginia, a great-grandson of the foregoing, was born in New Hampshire, in the year 1801. He was educated at Harvard College, and subsequently adopted medicine as his chosen profession. Joseph Wheelright more lately still removed to Vir- ginia, where he settled in Westmoreland County, and dwelt there for many years, a physician of wide repute and of the highest standing. He died in 1864. 15 ® BRANCHIANA 177 Joseph Wheelright of Westmoreland had married very early in life Louisa Dodge of New Hampshire. She was born in 1809, and was, upon her father's side, the descend- ant of a long line of New England clergymen. By his marriage with Louisa Dodge, Joseph Wheelright of Westmoreland had issue : I. Frederick Wheelright, who died in infancy. II. Thomas Wheelright, wtio never married, and died without issue. III. Sarah Wheelright, who married Major Henry Dashiell. IV. Anne Adams Wheelright, who married Thomas ■A Branch of Petersburg and Richmond. V. Frederick Wheelright, who married, first, Maria Collins, and, second, Ellen Hungerford. VI. William Henry Wheelright, who married Margaret Kearfott. VII. Rebecca Wheelright, who married John Fallen. €rrata On page 75 the sub-head should have been set in small italics to denote the third generation in descent from Thomas Branch. On page 135 for " Epes" read " Eppes." On page 171 the fifth line should read: "V. Sali.y Pride." By a deplorable error the distinguished name of Wheelwright has been spelt throughout this volume as " Wheelright" : as is disastrously- apparent on pages 3, 56 57, 101, 102, 175, 176, and 177. ^ :W ^o^ ,4 ^ ■>* • ' 1 • . V °^ * • " - O « V VA W <£ ^. <*> ^ ° " ° a. *•'■»* .V *W -„^ "*W ,-l< ^ > o . » ° ^\ "oV" iV O. *ot ^ ^o- V« Q Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process . , Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: ^- .o' \ ^f' J^ ~o. '^^-' - -«■* FEB We 0v . »A *7* ^ :*$ ' ' . . * S . 0^ O^ ' o . , o A, ^ •£ O A, ■si* & ' « "*b *b STT\V\Vs "■ V vP s i • S> C^o *9**j >Q!A^ 4 A »T O 'o . » » A, ;%•: »p^ ^ 4 o^ ^>^ ' t * l !,' * *C5. Jl* o ° " ° * 0> ► • <^P c^ ♦,; *+.& V ^> V ^ "of l0 ^ D0BBS BROS. LIBRARY BINDING o * 0w0 o o' ST. AUGUSTINE -ffi^m. FLA - ' 32084 ^>, <5 ^ •» VI,