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Thomas Anderson was the youngest son of Robert Anderson I of New Kent County (later Hanover), Virginia. For an analysis of the birth order and birth years of the eight Anderson siblings, including Thomas, see
Image:Andersons of New Kent Hanover Counties Virginia.pdf |
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Thomas’s life is fairly well-documented through St. Paul Vestry records, land records, and a will he left in 1757. He was a substantial land-owner, as all of the Anderson sons were. He served as Warden on the St. Paul Vestry, but then got into trouble when it appears he did not turn over all the vestry moneys he collected. Probably due to that issue, Thomas left Hanover in middle age to move to Goochland and Amelia Counties, some part of which became Albemarle County in 1744 and that is where Thomas lived until he died.
This Thomas Anderson must be distinguished from the Thomas Anderson of Gloucester County, born 1733, died 1794, whose will was probated in Albemarle County and who married Francis Jones. See William Pope Anderson, Anderson Family Records, 1936 at p. 6; Colonial Virginia Andersons Rootsweb site by Pat Anderson[1] This other Thomas is likely unrelated to the Hanover County Andersons.
Thomas Anderson, among all the sons, has the most limited information in family genealogies. He is barely mentioned in the classic works of E.L. Anderson and W.P. Anderson, merely as one son of Robert. His family line is not traced at all in either book. The best source of information is the Colonial Virginia Anderson Families site on Rootsweb, created by Pat Anderson, “Thomas Anderson”[2] Especially frustrating, there is virtually no record of his wife or wives. Modern websites have centered on Agnes Gannaway as his first wife and Mary LNU as his second. Other than one record documenting Mary’s first name, however, there is no original record identifying either of his spouses, or whether he had one or two. Agnes Gannaway, in fact, is a bit of a ghost – there is no record of such a person of the right age anywhere, including in the Gannaway historical genealogies. An analysis of this issue is included under “Research Notes” below.
Thomas was certainly born in New Kent County, where father Robert lived and Thomas’s six older brothers were all born and largely resided. The best estimate of Thomas’s birth year is 1685, based on the earliest record we have for him and his older brother Matthew's likely birth year in 1684. Thomas does not appear in the 1704 New Kent County quitrents roll, indicating that he was not yet 21 at that time and was thus born after 1683. He first appeared in a 1706 deed as a witness, assuming this is the correct Thomas. Beverly Conolly, KING WILLIAM COUNTY VIRGINIA RECORDS, 1702-1806, pg. 305-307. This record would suggest a birth year of 1684 or 1685 at the latest, making him 22 or 21 in 1706. Thomas then appeared in the 1708/09 St. Paul Vestry processioning records, where he was in the same precinct as most of his brothers. Chamberlayne, St. Paul Vestry at 213-215. Given that Thomas' older brother Matthew was born early in 1684, and allowing 18-24 months for the next child, Thomas was thus likely born in late 1685. He was probably 21 at his marriage, see below.
Thomas’s relationship to the Andersons of New Kent, i.e., the sons of Robert Anderson I, has historically arisen from his geographic proximity to the other brothers in the St. Paul Vestry processioning records and frequent mentioning along with them in other land and vestry records. We do not have an actual original record (e.g., a will) naming the sons of Robert I, so the geographical and vestry records are the best source of tying these individuals together. More recently, the Tobacco Letter Book of Robert Anderson II (Jr.) helped clarify things by specifically naming Robert, John, Matthew, David, and probably Richard as brothers of the letters’ author. But Thomas is not identified, probably because he was still too young to have been involved in Robert’s tobacco trading (Thomas was only 14 when Robert began writing those letters). Thus, the Tobacco Letter Book does not help us confirm Thomas as a brother of Robert, as it does the named brothers. Thomas’s children and grandchildren contain a lot of names associated with the Andersons, but most of them are common names for the time (e.g., David, William, Susannah, Elizabeth, Mary, Anne) and thus do not provide concrete evidence.
YDNA testing, however, has been much more helpful. YDNA results provide fairly solid evidence of Thomas’s relationship to the other Andersons. To date, more than a dozen living Anderson males are clearly linked by YDNA testing to an MRCA 8-9 generations back, which leads to Robert I or Robert Sr. (1642-1712). Five of those living males have paper trails that appear to lead back to Thomas Anderson. Three have confirmed paper trails, and two others are missing only the last link or two. Thus, even without a fixed paper trail tying Thomas to Robert and the other New Kent Andersons, the YDNA evidence strongly supports Thomas as another son of Robert I.
Thomas, like his brothers, was almost certainly born in New Kent County, formed in 1654. He would have grown up on the land occupied by his father, Robert Anderson I, at the eastern end of what would later become Hanover County near the confluence of the Tottopotamys Creek and Pamunkey Creek. Gregory’s book on St. Martin’s Parish contains a good discussion of the geography for Robert Anderson at p. 336-337. Nadine Campbell Gregory, Some Ancient Landowners in Saint Martin's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia, Hanover County Historical Society (2015).
The first evidence of Thomas himself owning land is the 1708/09 St. Paul processioning record – the first one for this parish. Father Robert I is in precinct #2, along with the oldest son Robert Jr. (the land near the Pamunkey and King William County noted above). The rest of the sons of Robert I by this time are all of age and have moved west, between Mechumps and Crumps Creeks and north of Tottopotamys Creek. That grouping of Andersons is located primarily in vestry precinct #17 – Capt. Robert (Jr.), John, Matthew, Thomas, and Capt. William. This grouping of brothers or their heirs continued until 1735 (although the precinct numbers changed as the vestry grew), when there appears to have been a major breakup of this early Anderson family land.
In the first vestry record (1708/09), Thomas at age 23 already appears to be on his way to becoming a significant land holder. He must have come into money early, because he is recorded in precinct #21 as “replacing Widow Tapp, having purchased her land.” He also appears in a third precinct, #22, which is likely the farthest west – Thomas not only owns three parcels of land, but he is already investing in land at the edge of settled area.
Thomas’s first appearance in the parish meeting minutes, in 1718, helps us place his location at that time. The Vestry ordered Thomas to clear a road: "Tho: Anderson ordered to clear a Bridle Road from Jn.o Anderson’s to Alex.r Cocks, its Ordered that Mr. Jn.o Macon’s male Titheable Cicilia Anderson’s ditto, Gilbert Gibson, Geo: Hambleton, assist the said Anderson in Clearing and maintaining the Said road." Chamberlayne, St. Paul Vestry records p. 86. The “Cicilia” in this record, who was to assist Thomas, was Thomas’s sister-in-law, originally Cecilia Massey and the widow of Thomas’s older brother Matthew Anderson. This gives us a clue as to Thomas’s location – he clearly lived very near his brother Matthew around the time of Matthew’s death about 1717. Matthew was the next oldest brother to Thomas so they were close in age. The John Anderson also mentioned in the 1718 processioning record is probably the John who was the fourth son of Robert Sr., and thus an older brother of both Matthew and Thomas. This is the only John Anderson in the family of the right age in 1718 to own land.
One other patent connects these neighbors as living close together: Gilbert Gibson in 1719 patented land next to Matthew and Thomas (also John Macon), again documenting that Thomas was in this area by then and was neighbor to Matthew. Library of Virginia, Online Land Grants[3] John, Thomas, and Cecilia all appear in the 1719 St. Paul processioning in the same precinct (#21), indicating that they were in fact neighbors. The processioning in 1731 again includes Thomas and “Cicely,” and John was replaced by his widow Sarah. Another Matthew now appears, probably Matthew Jr. (1708-1752) the son of Matthew and Cecilia, age 23, and a soon-to-be member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
So where was this land? The property referenced in 1718 was likely in the relatively unsettled part of New Kent that soon became Hanover County (1720), given the task of clearing a road, but where is not entirely clear. This land must have been east of Stone Horse Creek, because it remained part of the St. Paul Vestry (bounded on the west by Stone Horse) even after St. Martin’s Parish was formed in 1726. All of the processionings of this land after 1726 are still in St. Paul’s. And the land was probably west of the original Robert Anderson I land closer to Pamunkey. Further research should be able to locate the general area of Thomas’s land. Matthew's widow Cecilia later moved to the west above the Newfound River, but she continued to processioning her husband's original land through the 1730s.
Thomas continued to appear in the St. Paul Vestry until 1739, but he seems to have begun a major life change, including a move out of Hanover County around 1733-1734. If Mary LNU was a second wife, Thomas and Mary likely married in 1733, followed shortly by birth of their first son William in 1734. In that year, Thomas also appeared as a witness to a deed in Goochland County west of Hanover and north of the James River. Goochland Co. Wills & Deeds 1728-1736 p. 12. This has to be Thomas Sr., as his son Thomas Jr. was only 19. Thereafter, Thomas engaged in several land patent and purchase/sale transactions in Goochland, and he may have moved there for a short period. He obtained 290 acres on Little Byrd Creek in 1735; obtained another 542 acres on Mill Branch the same year (uncertain whether this was Goochland County; there is a Woodson’s Mill Creek in colonial Virginia land orders); and sold the first 290 acres in 1736 (references under the chronology below). His son Thomas Jr. also obtained land in Goochland around this time on Tear-Wallet and Little Guinea Creeks.
Whether Thomas intended to live in Goochland, or was merely speculating in land or buying it for his son, is unclear. In either event, in 1739 Thomas turned his attention to Amelia County, south of the James River. On September 22, 1739,Thomas Anderson was granted 254 acres in Amelia County on the north side of Whetstone Creek in the fork of Nottaway River adjoining Peter Blindford’s line. Library of Virginia, Land Patents.[4] Six years later, on August 16, 1745, Thomas Anderson and others paid 70 pounds to build a bridge over Appomattox River at Burtons. Amelia County Will Book 1 Bonds p. 14. These two entries could be either Thomas Senior or Junior (age 25/31 or so). Pat Anderson in his Rootsweb site believes these are Thomas Junior due to his inclination to move south.
By 1748 Thomas Sr. now lived in Albemarle County, created in 1744 out of Goochland and Louisa Counties. The new Albemarle was located to the west of Louisa and Fluvanna Counties and was the home county of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas probably did not move, instead his Goochland properties now fell into Albemarle.
In August of 1748 Thomas Anderson Senior of Albemarle County patented 400 acres on the south side of the James River, on branches of Appomattox River. This land began at “Elkanah Anderson’s corner,” and adjoined Joseph Dabbo and Charles Anderson. Library of Virginia, Patents 26/661[5] Given the unusual name, the Elkanah Anderson referenced in this record may be the youngest son of John Anderson (m. Sarah Waddy), Thomas’s older brother and long-time neighbor in Hanover County. This is the only confirmed Elkanah in the Anderson line at this time. John and Sarah's Elkanah was born about 1720 and was thus around the same age as Thomas Sr.’s sons – they were first cousins and probably close friends given their geographic proximity in Hanover. But there is some evidence of another Elkanah, son of a different Capt. Thomas Anderson -- the youngest son of original son Richard Anderson 1675-1723. According to a Virginia Genealogical Project store record, this Thomas bought shoes for his two sons James and Elkanah in 1743. The land identified in the 1748 record could be this Elkanah, grown and owning his own land.
The Charles Anderson in this record must be Thomas’s son, born 1714 (age 35). Charles the son is listed in Thomas’s 1757 will as receiving 400 acres adjoining Dabbo’s (Dabbs’) line, which is likely the same Joseph Dabbo mentioned in the 1748 land grant. According to Thomas’s will, this 400 acres is the land Thomas lived on at his death, his “Plantation.” Library of Virginia, Land Patents[6] Thomas apparently added to Charles’s existing acreage with the grant in this will.
The 1748 patent was the last land transaction for Thomas. He died about nine years later and thus lived out the rest of his life in Albemarle County.
Thomas Anderson served on the St. Paul Vestry for over ten years before his move to Goochland and Albemarle Counties. But that service was not without drama. On January 2, 1726/27, at age 42 Thomas was appointed to the Vestry: “Thomas Anderson, and Charles Hudson were Elected and appoint.d Vestry men in the room of William Harris, & James Overton having both first Subscribed the Test.” The Vestry Book of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, VA, 1706-1786, p, 116, tr. and ed. by C.G.Chamberlain, Clearfield Pub. 1940[7] Thomas’s older brother and neighbor John Anderson was also appointed Warden and thus two Anderson brothers served at the same time. Thomas continued as a warden and seemed to be in charge of collecting fees due to the Parish. He attended meetings on April 23, 1728 (p. 117-18) (John replaced as warden at this meeting), June 15, 1728 (p. 118-19), April 8, 1729, July 29, 1729, Sept. 16, 1730, and May 15, 1731. Thomas missed a couple of meetings in this time frame, but still became warden at the 1731 meeting.
That seems to be when trouble began. Thomas continued to attend the meetings as warden. But on April 11, 1732, the Vestry “[o]rder’d that Cap,t Thomas Anderson Account with the Vestry of this Parish for two Fines, which is now in the hands of the said Anderson, & due to this Parish.” Vestry Book at 135. It seems that Thomas may not have been turning over all the money in fines he was collecting as warden. The Vestry allowed Thomas to continue as warden “the ensuing year,” but the handwriting was on the wall. Thomas paid 1000 for fines on October 4, 1732, then was replaced as warden in 1733 and ordered to surrender all the money he had collected. Id. at 135, 138. Thomas then missed the next meeting, prompting the Vestry to respond: “Order’d that Cap,t Thomas Anderson deliver the money in his hands belonging to this parish, into the hands of Mr. William Meriwether for the use of the parish.” Id. at 138.
Thomas’s last vestry meeting was in 1735. By this time he probably had moved to Goochland County, along with his (second?) wife Mary and their growing family, possibly to escape his looming fate in Hanover. But his troubles were not over, because Thomas ended up in jail in 1738: “Letter of Henry Power desiring that Thomas Anderson, who is in custody, no longer be detained in prison.” Goochland Co. Wills & Deeds 1736-1742, p. 164[8] The summary of this record does not indicate why Thomas was in prison, but it may well have had to do with fine money he withheld from the St. Paul Vestry.
Thomas also served in various official capacities outside the Vestry. In 1726 and again in 1729, he served as Justice of the Peace for Hanover County along with brother John Anderson. Louis des Cognets, Jr., English Duplicates of Lost Virginia Records, pp, 34, 46, Clearfield Publishing 1958[9] He also earned the title “Captain” by 1729, when he was called Captain Thomas in the notes for the July 19, 1729 meeting of the St. Paul Vestry. Vestry Book at 123. It is unclear whether he obtained this title through military service or as merely an honorific. In his Justice of the Peace capacity, Thomas swore in Col. John Syme to the Vestry on Aug. 1, 1730. Id. at 12; see Gregory p. 124.
Thomas thus left behind a mixed record of service and vestry/legal difficulties. His nephew Thomas took over Captain Thomas’s role on the Vestry beginning in 1739, and Thomas the elder finished out his life in Albemarle County with his children.
No record exists documenting either of Thomas’s two supposed marriages. Evidence of the first marriage is nonexistent, and evidence of the second is limited to a first name (Mary) and a date in which the two appear as married (1737).
Thomas Anderson and Whether His First Wife was Agnes Gannaway: Thomas and his first wife likely married in 1705, based on the birth date of oldest child Anne, Dec. 6, 1705. Anne married James Allen, and the Allen family genealogy is very well-documented. Those records give her birth date in December 1706, which seems like there must be a bible record or other document supporting that date. None is cited, however. Nevertheless, using that as an anchor date, Thomas and first wife probably married in 1705. No record of the marriage exists.
According to modern websites and genealogies, Thomas’s first wife was one Agnes Gannaway. See, e.g., Colonial Virginia Anderson Families on Rootsweb, site created by Pat Anderson, “Thomas Anderson”[10]; Ancestry.com listings of Thomas Anderson and Agnes (or Anne) Ganaway[11] Where this link to an Agnes Gannaway originated is not clear. None of the historical genealogies of the Anderson family (Edward L. Anderson, William Pope Anderson’s 3 volumes, Bessie Lamar’s “Climbing the Family Tree; Thomas McArthur, Ye Andersons of Virginia) ever mention Thomas’ wife, and certainly do not include an Agnes or any Gannaway as his spouse. Ancestry.com trees and other sites such as FamilyTree just link to each other and/or do not appear to include any source for her name or marriage to Thomas. The identity of Thomas's first wife is thus very much uncertain. See Research Notes below for further analysis.
Thomas’s first wife appears to have died around 1725 or 1726. Again, no record supports this conclusion – it seems to be drawn from the history of Thomas having children presumably every two years until James was born in 1725. After that, there is a large gap until 1734, when the next child, William, came along (see analysis below).
Thomas Anderson’s Second Wife Mary LNU: Thomas’s second wife’s name, assuming there even was a first wife, was Mary. That name is clearly identified in a release of dower rights, filed in Goochland County, on Dec. 2, 1736. That release states that “Mary Anderson, wife of xxxxxxx Anderson in deed for 290a conveyed to John Smith by deed 16th November. Recorded 2 Dec. 1736.” Goochland County Wills & Deeds 1736-1742, p. 1. The blanked-out first name of her husband is probably due to bad handwriting or damage to the document. But we can easily identify the husband’s name by the transfer between Thomas Anderson and John Smith that preceded this dower release: “Thomas Anderson, Sr. of St. Paul’s Parish, Hanover, to John Smith of the same, land on both sides of the Little Byrd near the head thereof, adj. Chas. Massie and John Syme, dec’d, Valentine Ames, dec’d, the same was granted to said Anderson 10 June 1735. Wits: Allen Howard, James Goodall, Thos. Sanders. Signed: Thos. Anderson Recorded 16 Nov. 1736.” Goochland Wills & Deeds p. 260. Thus, Thomas obtained this land in 1735, sold it on December 2, 1736 to John Smith, and Mary his wife released her dower rights on the same day. This deed makes sense – this is the time frame in which Thomas was speculating in Goochland lands, before he later committed to Albemarle County. He and wife Mary were married no later than 1735 for her to have a dower right in this land.
From this we know that (1) Thomas had a wife named Mary, and (2) she was married to him and alive between June 1735 and December 1736. The will and children’s ages give us more clues. Thomas’s will seems to group his children into two clusters, the older ten, and the “younger” four children as he calls them, William, David, Micajah, and Judah. It seems likely that the younger children were those Thomas had with his second wife Mary, after a gap in which he was a widow. The older two of these four children, William and David, were assigned responsibilities in the will to take care of Thomas’s remaining property, thus they must have been at least 21 at the time. The two younger ones were to be cared for and must have been underage. Best estimate, giving two years in between children, is that William was probably 23, David 21, Micajah 19, and Judah 17 at the time of the will in 1757. Their likely mother, Mary, was probably deceased by 1757 as she does not appear in the will.
We can thus push the marriage date for Thomas and Mary, assuming again that she was a second wife, back to 1733 to account for the birth of their oldest son William in 1734. She died between 1740, the birth year for youngest son Judah, and 1757 when Thomas executed his will. Her last name remains unknown. It is tempting to conclude that Mary was the Gannaway in this family, not the first wife – Thomas’s connections with the Gannaways probably did not arise until he began buying land or moved to Goochland County, around 1735, which is not long after Thomas married Mary. That would explain why the Gannaways used the Anderson name several times. But there is no Mary in the Gannaway genealogies of the right age and time frame. So she remains almost as much a mystery as Agnes.
From First Wife (possibly Agnes Gannaway) This profile's order of the children of Thomas and his first wife is taken from Pat Anderson’s Rootsweb site on Colonial Virginia Andersons, Thomas Anderson under the York River. Note, however, that Pat does not explain how he derived this order, nor are there any citations that would support it. The order of the women, at least, may instead follow the order as given in the will: Anne (given an enslaved person); Francis (same); then Susannah, Elizabeth and Agnes. There is another likely Anderson daughter who was wife of William Cornwell, listed separately in the will; she is not named, probably deceased.)
The birth order of the children of Thomas and his first wife is very uncertain. Ann would appear to be first, given the fixed birth date for her of December 6 (or 17), 1705. Thomas Beverly’s date of 1714 is supported by his first land record in 1735 (age 21). Other than that, there are no anchor dates or confirmed dates for the order of the children. The will lists Charles and Gideon first, because they got land; then son-in-law William Cornwell, who also got land; then two children who received enslaved persons (Ann and Frances), then Thomas, James, and the remaining four daughters who received only one shilling. It would make sense if the daughters, at least, were born in the order listed in the will – Ann, Francis, Susannah, Elizabeth, Agnes. Without more proof, however, this profile continues to list the children in the order provided in Pat Anderson’s Colonial Virginia site.
From Mary LNU – Thomas’s will names William, David, Micajah, and Judah as his four youngest children.
The birth order of these four younger sons seems reasonable since they are listed in this order in the will, and since William and David are clearly older given their emancipated status in the will.
Find-a-Grave and an earlier WikiTree profile add a Joseph as child of Thomas and his second wife, but that information seems clearly incorrect. Joseph’s birth is listed in these sites as 1698, which is before Thomas and his first wife were even married. Joseph’s residence is Essex County, where none of the Andersons, including Thomas lived. No Joseph is named in Thomas’s will, and it is unlikely that Thomas had another child after the will’s execution because Thomas was then 73 years old. Another well-documented site has the same Joseph (with the same spouses) in Essex County, attached to different parents (including father Joseph) and several land records in that county. Colonial Setters in Maryland and Virginia.[23] The prior profile also included a second Elizabeth, which seems highly unlikely as only one Elizabeth appears in the will and Thomas would not have named two daughters Elizabeth.
Thomas died between October 27, 1757, when he recorded his will in Albemarle County, and March 9, 1758 when the will was presented to court. The will names the six sons and five daughters listed above, but not in birth order. The first entries are for those sons who received land – Charles and Gideon. Next is the widower of Thomas’s unnamed daughter, William Cornwell, who also received land he was living on. Then Thomas named two daughters, probably the oldest two – Ann and Frances – who both received an enslaved person. The will then provides one shilling each to the remaining children of Thomas’s first wife – in order, Thomas (the oldest son but not given land because he had moved to Lunenberg County by this time), James, Elizabeth Woodson, Susannah Williams, and Agnes Leah or Leak.
Finally, the will identifies the four “youngest children,” probably the sons of his second wife Mary – William, David, Micajah, and Judah. William was to care for Thomas’ plantation and the two younger sons (underage), Micajah and Judah, while David was allowed to “tarry” on the property and help, indicating that he was recently of age (21). Will Book 2 page 38. Roger Williams who witnessed the will was likely either son of Susannah and her husband John Williams or brother of John (see discussion on the Pat Anderson Colonial Virginia Anderson Rootsweb site). John Gannaway Sr. and John Gannaway Jr. also witnessed the will indicating at least a close friendship and neighbor status, but whether there was an actual marriage connecting the two families by 1757 is unclear.
Will of Thomas Anderson
Probated in Albemarle County March 9, 1758
Albemarle County Will Book 2, p. 38
In the name of God amen. I Thomas Anderson of the County of Albemarle being in a weak ? condition of body but through the abundant goodness and mercy of God in perfect memory to Constitute and appoint this my last will and Testament & Desire it may be recorded by all as such.
Imprimis I most Humbly bequeath my soul to God my maker beseeching his most Gracious Exceptance of it through the all sufficient mercy and mediation of my most Compassionate redeemer Jesus Christ who Gave himself to be an atonement for my sins & is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them and whom I trust will not reject me a returning penitant sinner when I come to him for mercy in this hope & Confidence I render up my soul with Comfort humbly beseeching the most blessed & Glorious Trinity one God most Holy most merciful and Gracious to prepare me for the time of my Desselation & then take me to himselfe into that pease & rest incomparable felicity which he has prepared for all that Love & fear his Holy name. Amen blessed be God.
Imprimis I give my Body to the Earth from whence it was taken in full assurance of its resurrection from thence at the Last Day. As for my Burial I desire it may be dessant without prompoustate? at direction of my Executors hereafter mentioned who I doubt not will manage it with all requested prudance as to my Worldly Estate. I will and positively order that all my Lawfull Debts be paid.
Item: I Give and bequeath to my son Charles Anderson four hundred acres of Land Lying on the branches of Fishpond Creek joyning Peter Brooks's line & Joseph Dabbs's lines to him & his heirs forever.
Item: I Give & bequeath to my son Gideon Anderson three hundred acres of Land on where my Plantation is that I now live to be Laid(?) off in a regular form to him & his Heirs forever. My Will & Desire is that the remaining part of my Land may be regularly Divided Amongst my four Youngest Children William, David, Micajah & Judah Anderson & the Eldest take the first Choice which I Give & bequeath to them & their Heirs forever.
Item: I Give & bequeath to William Connell(??) the Tract of Land whereon he now Lives supposing to be Eighty or ninety acres to a new line from Chamberlayne's line to Thomas Lockart's(?) line to him & the Heirs of his Body Lawfully begotten forever.
Item: I Give and bequeath to my Daughter Ann Allen the Increase of her Negro wench Hannah to her & her Heirs forever.
Item: I Give and bequeath to my Daughter Frances Hughes one Negro man named Coopper to her & heirs forever.
Items: I Give & bequeath to my Children Thomas Anderson, James Anderson, Susannah Williams, Elizabeth Woodson & Agness Leah one shilling sterling apiece ??is that after my Lawfull Debts are paid that the reminder part of my Estate be kept together under the Care of my son William Anderson & that he may take Care of my Young Children provide for them as suitable mantenance & to keep a reasonable allowance for the same & that David Anderson may have a share in each crop if he thinks propper to Tarry with him and that the Family have liberty to Tarry on my said Plantation till they can settle their own my will that my sons Charles, Gideon & William Anderson be Executors of this my last will & Testament. & I Desire my Estate may not be appraised. In Witness thereof I have set my hand and seal this 25 Day of October one thousand seven hundred & fifty seven.<br/
Thomas Anderson
John Gannaway Jr
John Gannaway Senior
Roger Williams
[1]
At a Court held for Albemarle County the ninth Day of March 1758 This last Will and Testament was presented to Court by the Executors therein ? proved by the Oaths of John Gannaway & Roger Williams two of the witnesses thereto ordered to be recorded & on the motion of Charles Anderson, Gideon Anderson & William Anderson who made oath according to Law Certificate is Granted them for obtaining a Probat thereof in due form Giving security whereupon they with John Gannaway their security entered into & Acknowledged their Bond for the due & faithful performance of the said Will.
John Nicholas, Clerk[2]
As noted under the Biography above, many current sources identify Thomas's first wife as one Agnes Gannaway. The source of that information is unclear, and there is no historical support for it. None of the older Anderson family histories that mention Thomas as a son of Robert include the name of Agnes Gannaway as a spouse - the only references are in recent genealogies such as Ancestry.com.
The closest indication of the source of this name found through current research for this profile is a post in FamilySearch dating back to 1976. That post is a comment by one pgilbert2728379 stating: “Information received in March of 1976 suggests that Agnes Gannaway could have been the wife of Thomas Anderson.” Family Search, Elizabeth Agnes Gannaway, Collaborate[24] The message function for this individual is broken.
Wherever the link to Agnes came from, it has been repeated and republished many times without the slightest explanation or reference to an actual source. One Gannaway family descendant and researcher believes that the two John Gannaways, identified as John Sr. and John Jr., who witnessed Thomas’s will, were father and son and that Agnes was the older sister of John Sr. Colonial Virginia Anderson Webpage by Pat Anderson on Rootsweb[25] That is a possible theory, but there is no evidence to support it, only conjecture that such a sister existed.
So is there an Agnes Gannaway who could have been Thomas’s spouse, and where is the evidence for it? The strongest evidence seems to be (1) two Gannaway men served as witnesses for Thomas’s 1757 will; (2) the line of John Gannaway includes several Andersons as first or middle names, indicating a close family relationship; and (3) the name Agnes appears as a daughter of Thomas and among the grandchildren, although infrequently. Let’s analyze the evidence:
1. There is no Agnes Gannaway anywhere in the early records of New Kent or Hanover Counties. Unless someone identifies a record unknown to this researcher, Agnes Gannaway is apparently a made-up person. Someone possibly put together the (much) later connection of Thomas Anderson with Gannaways in Albemarle County, along with the the presence of the name Agnes as a daughter of Thomas. The Gannaway family is pretty well researched, including wills and many names – no Agnes appears anywhere in that genealogy anywhere around the time frame of Thomas’s marriage. Gannaway Family Trails[26]
It is possible that an Agnes Gannaway was the sister of the original immigrant John Gannaway – the Gannaway genealogies do not give the names of John’s siblings, only his children. Immigrant John Gannaway married Zaida Larriategui on January 5, 1704, but the Gannaway book does not say where. Gannaway Family Trails at p. 66[27] This John was born about 1683 or so if 21 at marriage. John the immigrant is thus of the right vintage to have a sister (probably a few years younger, since women typically married younger than men and John Gannaway married first) to marry Thomas around 1705. So there is a window within which “Agnes” could exist, but zero evidence that she did.
2. The Andersons and Gannaways had no common connection until long after Thomas supposedly married Agnes. The Gannaways first appear in St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent County, around 1721 – after St. Paul’s split off and Hanover County was created. Thomas and the other Andersons, in contrast, were in Hanover/St. Paul’s, not in old New Kent/St. Peter’s where the Gannaways were. There is not a single land or church record referencing any Gannaways in St. Paul’s or Hanover Counties. There is also no record of Thomas Anderson having any involvement in New Kent County (where the Gannaways were) after Hanover was created in 1720. The two families thus did not share any geographical, church, or family connection. So it is not clear how Thomas could even have met Agnes (if she existed), much less married her.
3. The other Anderson brothers all married into families that were very closely connected to them in Hanover/St. Paul’s – Dabney, Pouncey, Overton, Waddy, and Massey. Surely Thomas would have done the same? There were no known Gannaways in the same vicinity.
4. Thomas is not connected to the Gannaways until near his death, at age 73 in 1757, via his will. John Gannaway Sr. and Jr. witnessed the will. But this is 52 years after Thomas supposedly married Agnes, and 30 years after her likely death. Thus, this connection between Thomas Anderson and the two Gannaway men seems much more likely to have arisen after Thomas moved to Albemarle in 1748 or so, and the Gannaways became his neighbors.
5. Gannaway family histories, which seem to be well researched, do not include a single Agnes anywhere of the right age, or even to be a niece or grandniece of the wife of Thomas. Family Trails (Gannaway Genealogy) at[28] The three oldest sons of John the younger collectively had 31 children – not a single one named Agnes. Nothing in the Gannaway records identifies or supports any Agnes Gannaway even existed, much less married an Anderson.
6. Family names in Thomas’s line do not support Agnes Gannaway as his wife and mother of their first ten children. Naming conventions of the time regularly used the mother/grandmother’s first or last names as given names for children and grandchildren. Yet among all of Thomas’s offspring, the name Gannaway appears nowhere, not even as a male middle name, a common practice at the time. Thomas did name one of his daughters Agnes - the 8th child. Why would the family wait until the 8th child (and 5th daughter) to finally use the mother’s name? The mother’s name could just have easily been Anne, Elizabeth, Susannah, or Frances – the name of the first four daughters.
7. The names of Thomas’s grandchildren also do not provide much support for their grandmother as an Agnes. Oldest daughter, Anne, for instance, did not name any of her children Agnes or Gannaway (names were Dorcas, Elizabeth, Frances, Anne, Sarah) – very unusual if Agnes Gannaway was Anne’s mother. Second daughter Elizabeth named her children Anderson, John, Anne, Druscilla, and Martha. Fifth child Thomas Anderson named his children James, Frances, Sarah, Elizabeth, Martha, Thomas, Susanna, Mary, Anne, Lucy Maria, Henrietta Maria. Next child Charles named his children Gideon, William, Keziah, Frances, Elizabeth, Mary. This makes 13 daughters in total among these grandchildren and none named after their grandmother “Agnes.” The only grandchild named Agnes was the last daughter of youngest son Thomas by his first wife. This Agnes was born in 1769, 30 years or more after “Agnes” the wife of Thomas died. Either grandmother Agnes was someone the family wanted to forget, or that was not her name at all.
8. The Gannaway line does in fact include adoptions of the name Anderson but nothing that supports the existence of an Agnes Gannaway as aunt/great aunt of the Gannaway children. For instance, a son of John Gannaway Jr., b. 1748 (presumably the son of the John Jr. who witnessed Thomas Anderson’s will) was named Thomas Anderson Gannaway (b. 1783). Library of Virginia, Land and Patent Records, Gannaway Family Papers 1793-1869, Library description of Gannaway family[29] An Anderson Woodson later appears in the records, probably a son of John’s wife’s brothers. But this incorporation of the Anderson name appears several generations after Thomas Anderson supposedly married Agnes Gannaway and thus almost certainly derives from later associations between the families in Albemarle or nearby counties. E.g., a younger Thomas Anderson participated in the estate closure of John Gannaway Jr. in 1781/1787. In addition, Thomas Anderson Gannaway’s father’s sister was Elizabeth Anderson, who married a Woodson – the younger Thomas Anderson could have been named after his aunt. The connection between the Andersons and the Gannaways certainly exists but not until 40-50 years after Thomas supposedly married Agnes.
The sum of this is that it seems highly unlikely that Thomas’s first wife was Agnes Gannaway. Who, in fact, that wife was is unclear. The Library of Virginia has a significant collection of Gannaway papers; some clues might reside in that set of papers.[30]
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A > Anderson > Thomas Anderson
Categories: Virginia Colonists
From Patrick J. Anderson: Thomas's birth date had been corrected (b. after 1680) to reflect the fact that he does not appear as a land holder in the 1704 rent roll and may differ from the writings of William Pope Anderson. Anderson - Overton, A Continuation of Anderson Family Records (1936) & Early Descendants fo William Overton & Elizabeth Waters of Virginia & Allied Families, by William Pope Anderson, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1945.
In 1719 Gilbert Gibson was given a patent adjacent to Matthew and Thomas Anderson in New Kent County. Thomas's association with Robert Anderson I derives from an analysis of precessioning records in St. Paul's Parish published in the book above. Thomas was a church warden for St. Paul's Parish in the 1720's. In 1733 Thomas was replaced as a church warden of St. Paul's parish and ordered to surrender the moneys of the parish to Thomas Merriweather. He continues as a vestryman until 1737 when he was removed as vestryman. In 1739 he is restored as vestryman until 1754. As can be seen in the records below he was dabbling in western lands during this period and even spent some time in jail in 1738. By 1739 he had apparently left his western lands in the control of his eldest sons and had returned to his lands in St. Paul's parish. Frontier life was not to his liking. Thomas's acquisition of western lands would have been in the interests of his many sons and is it unlikely that he removed into western Hanover County to the Goochland border area and into the area that became Albemarle County, Virginia until he was elderly and living with one of those sons.
Goochland Co Wills & Deeds 1728-1736, page 12 09/17/1734 Thomas Anderson witness to deed of John Sorrell November 1734 Thomas and Charles Anderson post bond regarding construction of Chickahominy Bridge Thomas 01/10/1735 Goochland Co 290a both sides Little Byrd near the head patents 16/468 Thomas 09/08/1736 Goochland Co 400a between tear-wallet run & Little Guinea Creek adj Paul Pig patents 17/ 170 Goochland Co Wills & Deeds 1728-1736, page 260 11/16/1736 Thomas Anderson of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover Co., Gentlemen to John Smith for 20 pounds 290a both sides of Little Byrd Creek Goochland Co Wills & Deeds 1736-1742, page 164 Letter of Henry Power desiring that Thomas Anderson, who is in custody, no longer be detained in prison. Recorded 19 Sept 1738 Thomas 08/20/1748 Albamarle Co 400a southside of James River on branches of Appomattox River patents 26/661