John Bishop in James and Charles City Counties

Mr. John Bishop, 300 acs., lyeing upon the S. side of Upper Chipoaks Cr., commonly called by the name of Swan Bay

~ Virginia land patents

James River by Beulah Witt

a population history of Virginia

The colony of Virginia had a rough beginning. 1610 marked a full twenty years before the onset of the great migration which brought waves of people to the shores of Massachusetts Bay. In 1610, about 800 people were living in Virginia, most clustered around Jamestown. By 1624, the colony had been divided into four shires along the James River and 1,840 new adventurers had arrived to try their luck in the New World. Unfortunately, life turned out to be uncommonly harsh in their newly adopted homeland. Between 1610 and 1619, 1,740 people died leaving a population of only 900 after twelve years of settlement .

The years between 1619 and the general muster (census) of 1625 didn't get any easier. In spite of a whopping 4,750 new settlers who arrived during this period, a whopping 4,625 settlers died. Indentured servitude turned out to be a tough row to hoe and the Powhatan attack of 1622 had claimed even more lives. Out of 7,389 persons who had settled in Virginia up to 1625, 6,294 had either died or been killed.

1625, however, proved to be a turning point for the struggling colony. A slow but steady increase in population began. By 1634, 5,000 people called Virginia home. 1634 was also the year that the four existing shires were increased to eight. Charles City County, though not the capitol proper, became a kind of de facto capitol of the colony. All of our earliest five families in Virginia eventually settled there.

The eight counties of Virginia in 1634

the mysterious John Bishop

In 1635, Charles City County stretched on both sides of the river from the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers to Upper Chippokes Creek. The property of our grandfather Francis Eppes (9GGF) lay on the very western boundary of the county where the Appomattox meets the James. Another of our grandfathers owned land which lay on the very eastern boundary of the county at Chippokes Creek. His name was John Bishop (9GGF).

Blue = Francis Eppes's land Red = John Bishop's land

John Bishop's story is a bit of a mystery. However, a substantial number of records remain from his time in Virginia. From those records, I've been able to piece together a narrative of his life in what, I hope, is close to the truth his Virginia saga.

Uncertainty surrounds his place of birth with Scotland, Exeter and London all posited as possibilities. The same goes for his date of birth with 1590, 1600 and 1612 all offered for our consideration. Most armchair genealogists finally concluded that there were two John Bishops living in Virginia. They simply couldn't wrap their heads around some seemingly conflicting records. Through my research, I came believe that there was only one John Bishop in Virginia and I found that the records do, indeed, work.

John's early years in Virginia

In 1635, a John Bishop was listed on the roster of the ship "Paul." Most ship rosters registered the age of their passengers and this John Bishop's was entered as 23. If this was, in fact, our grandfather, that would make his date of birth around the year 1612.

In 1638, John Bishop's name showed up in two records. Thomas Gray named him as a headright that year and a John Bishop purchased 150 acres across the river from Jamestown. Since there was generally a time lapse of one to five years between the transport of headrights and the actual land grant, it makes perfect sense that our John Bishop came to Virginia in 1635 and three years later Thomas Gray received his land grant.

It's possible, but not likely, that our John Bishop came to Virginia as an indentured servant. As we'll see, he had ties with some of the most land-wealthy and well-connected families in Virginia. Under the headright system, if a man were to go from England to Virginia ten times, he would qualify ten times as a headright so it was certainly not unknown for landed men to come to Virginia as a headrights for someone else. Our grandfather Francis Poythress came as a headright for another man in 1642 even though he already owned 750 acres of land in Virginia. A crazy system to be sure, but one that clearly benefited the wealthy.

The land purchased by John Bishop in 1638 was in an area known as Tappahannock, located on the south side of the James River directly across from Jamestown, in James City County.

Blue = Francis Eppes' land, Orange = Francis Poythress' land, Red = John Bishop's land

back to Jolly old England

Sometime between 1638 and 1643, John Bishop sailed back to England. He didn't return to Virginia empty handed. From a land grant awarded to him in 1643 we learn that he transported sixteen people for sixteen headrights. He and his unnamed wife counted for two more, eighteen in all, making the entire grant 900 acres.

Note: Two of our Massachusetts family names appear among his headrights, Hasleton and Symonds. It's just possible that one or both might be distantly related to us.

The property that John Bishop acquired in 1643 was in Charles City County on the north side of the James River, shown with the purple marker below.

Blue = Francis Eppes, Orange = Francis Poythress, Red = John Bishop, 1638 Purple = John Bishop, 1643

a bit of sleuthing

The family name of John Bishop's wife, our grandmother Elizabeth (9GGM) has also been a bit of a mystery. Two wills, however, offer clues. In 1657, Bridget Booker Lucas of London gave legacies to "my Kinswoman, Mary Bishop and her brother, John Bishop, now residing in Virginia." These two were undoubtedly the daughter and son of John and Elizabeth Bishop. Bridget also mentioned in her will a cousin, Elizabeth Perry, who lived in Virginia as well.

Elizabeth Perry was well known to the Bishop's in Virginia. Her father, George Menifee is described by The Virginia Biographical Encyclopedia as "long one of the wealthiest and probably the leading merchant in the colony..." In his will George Menifee left "To my brother John Bishopp, the money he owes me, and one-third of my crop of Tobacco made the last summer at my plantation of Buckland." Quite a sizable bequest. John Bishop also witnessed the certificate made out by George Menifee naming his wife as his executrix. Clearly, John Bishop had a strong family tie to George Menifee.

Note: The term brother in wills back in the day was frequently loosely used. While the term could obviously refer to an actual brother, in many cases it denoted someone with other familial ties.

Note: That John Bishop hobnobbed with the rich and famous can further be seen in the will of Thomas Pawlett. Thomas, a possible relative to our grandmother Marie Eppes, was another wealthy landowner in the early days of Virginia. He left a bequest not only to John Bishop, but also John Bishop, Jr., named by Thomas as his godson.

Given the information I had to work with, I put together what I think is the most probable scenario for our grandmother Elizabeth Bishop's family. Elizabeth Bishop was most likely sister to Bridget Booker of London. According to Bridget's will, the Bookers were cousins to Elizabeth Menifee Perry, which would make George Menifee Elizabeth Bishop and Bridget Booker's uncle. In that scenario, their mother would have to be a Menifee, sister to George, married to a Booker.

Below is my best guess for the family of our grandmother Elizabeth Booker Bishop:

Note: Isabella Menifee was one of George Menifee's three wives. Before she married George, she was married to the now famous Richard Pace. The Paces and Menifees settled early in Virginia in the lands surrounding Jamestown. During the March 1622 attack, Richard Pace had a member of the Powhatan tribe living in his home as a servant who was instructed to kill him. Instead, the servant warned Richard of what was about to take place and Richard sounded the alarm, making him kind of the Paul Revere of Virginia.

the final headrights

John and Elizabeth Bishop had five children. Their exact birthdates are unknown but circumstantial evidence found in various records indicates that they were all born between the years of 1638 and 1648. Since none of them appears as a headright until 1651, it can be assumed they were all born in Virginia.

Sometime before 1651, John Bishop made his last trip back to England. It seems that he took with him his three older children, our grandmother Elizabeth (8GGM), Mary (9A) and John, Jr. (9U). The two younger children, William (9U) and Edmund (9U), probably stayed in Virginia with their mother.

Taking himself and his three children back to England earned John 200 acres of land. He got another 100 acres for the two women he transported, one of which, sadly, was a "negro wench."

John settled his family on the new acreage which was in Charles City County on the south side of the James River. There he lived until his death. His name shows up frequently in records for that county. The new land on Upper Chippokes Creek is shown with the green marker on the map below.

Blue = Francis Eppes Orange = Francis Poythress Green = 1651 grant Purple = 1638 grant Red = 1643 grant

trade woes

When Virginia was but a fledgling settlement, the vast majority of imported and exported goods went between England and her new colony. By the 1640's, however, the colonists began to branch out. The Dutch West India company, a major rival to the English East India Company, offered products at lower prices. A brisk trade sprang up between Virginia and Holland.

England wasn't happy with that arrangement, but she had troubles of her own. A series of civil wars had been raging between the Parliamentarians and Royalists since 1641. The Second Civil War resulted in the execution of unlucky King Charles I in 1649. A commonwealth was established in place of the monarchy. Virginia, largely unaffected by the turmoil, continued trade as usual until England decided enough was enough.

In early 1652, the commonwealth decreed that the "singular purpose of the British colonies was to serve the mother country..." The "mother country" banned her colonies from trade with all foreign countries.

Our grandfather John Bishop, like most land-owning Virginians, was heavily involved in the profitable tobacco trade and the decree turned out to be a bit of bad luck for him. In October of 1651, the Virginia colonists welcomed the Dutch vessel Golden Lion into their James River harbor. In February of 1652, several Virginia planters, including Grandpa John, loaded their tobacco onto the ship for the return voyage. The vessel never made it out of the harbor. It was seized by English authorities and all goods on board confiscated. Let's hope Grandpa John's loss was only a minor one.

untimely deaths

John Bishop died in 1656. If he was born in 1612, which is my best guess, he was only 44 years old. Our grandmother Elizabeth died just months later the same year. Their untimely deaths left three underage children.

The oldest Bishop child, our grandmother Elizabeth (8GGM), was probably 17 or 18 at the time of their deaths. She was already married to David Peebles (8GGF) and on 3 Aug 1657, she was made guardian of her young brother Edmund (9U). Her sister Mary (9A) may have lived with Elizabeth for a time as well. We learn of Mary's marriage in 1658 when her husband "Sylvanus Stokes acknowledged receipt of the inheritance of Mary Stokes, daughter of Capt. John Bishop, decd..." John Bishop, Jr. (9U) took over guardianship of the remaining brother William (9U) which meant all of the Bishop children were provided for.

Next up: David Peebles, our ancestor who hailed from Scotland.