William Buckner (bef. 1668 - bef. 1716)

Born before 1668 in Virginia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 21 May 1716 at about age 48 in Yorktown, York County, Virginia

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Biography

William Buckner is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society

William Buckner was a Virginia colonist.

William Buckner ^[1]

William Buckner was extremely active in government and business. William was appointed attorney for Elizabeth Revett in 1688,^[2] so he was definitely born prior to 1667. The earliest known reference to him is when he witnessed the return of the inventory of the estate of John Sims in Stafford County, Virginia (with Phillip Buckner) on 8 Jun 1687.^[3] (Sims was the son-in-law of Hugh Dowding, a frequent associate of William's father, and a neighbor of Phillip Buckner.) He practiced as an attorney in Stafford Co. VA from at least as early as 1689 through 1697, about which time he moved to York Co. In Stafford, he also served as a deputy surveyor and justice; in 1691 he was recorded having refused the oaths of allegiance to William and Mary due to a perceived conflict with a prior oath to James II.^[4] In York, he served as a burgess,^[5] collector for the York River, justice of the peace, sheriff, militia officer (up to major), and tobacco agent. In this last capacity, he was responsible for constructing the first tobacco warehouse in Yorktown, which his family ran for many years. He was the executor of the will of his uncle Phillip Buckner of Stafford Co. (prob. 1700) and apparently raised his cousins Robert and Andrew Buckner, per Phillip's request. William and Phillip apparently had a close relationship in Stafford Co. from at least 1689 on, and regularly appear in the same record contexts. Phillip's will and pertinent records are particularly important in establishing the relationship between the immigrants Phillip and John Buckner, as William was explicitly identified as John Buckner's son in a 1694 land grant record^[6] and explicitly stated that Phillip was his uncle in a court record.^[7] He was also a co-executor of John Buckner's 1695 will with his three brothers. William's own will was probated in York Co. in 1716 and still survives. It confirms that William was a brother of John, Thomas, and Richard Buckner, who were executors in addition to Col. Miles Carey and Robert Reade.^[8] The inventory of William's personal estate was valued at an astonishing £1000^[9] (roughly equivalent to a few hundred thousand 2017 US dollars). This excludes his real estate holdings in York, Essex, and Stafford counties, so he was certainly a millionaire relative to modern standards. One of his many business ventures was a windmill in Yorktown, which was recently reconstructed by the County of York and the Colonial National Historical Park.^[10]

William was also named an executor in the will of Col. Thomas Ballard of York (1706, prob. 1711), who was probably his father in law.^[11] William and Katherine (Ballard) Buckner were married at least as early as 1693 when they witnessed a York Co. deed together.^[12]

Both his sons died without living issue, so his male line is extinct, but his daughter Elizabeth (Buckner) Stith had numerous descendants and William's property in Stafford and York counties descended to them after John Buckner's death in 1748. William's will mentions his "daughters" so there were at least two daughters alive in 1716, though only Elizabeth is known from other sources.

Sources

1. ↑ Buckner, William - A1210; died 1716 York Co.: 1698-99 (Burgess).
2. ↑ R. Sparacio, Stafford County Virginia Deed and Will Book 1686-1689, Antient Press, 1989, p. 96a
3. ↑ R. Sparacio, Stafford County Virginia Deed and Will Book 1686-1689, Antient Press, 1989, p. 41a
4. ↑ “Notes from the Records of Stafford County, Virginia, Order Books (Continued).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 45, no. 3, 1937, pp. 243–259. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4244801.
5. ↑ New River Notes, Colonial Virginia Register
6. ↑ Gertrude Entz Gray, Virginia Northern Neck land grants, (Genealogical Publishing Com, 1993), vol. 1, p. 8, from Northern Neck Grants Book 2-96
7. ↑ "Proceedings of Visitors of William and Mary College",The Virginia magazine of history and biography, Volume 4, p. 166 - note
8. ↑ York, Virginia, Orders, Wills, etc. 1709-1716, No. 14, part 2, 513 (21 May 1716); images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-992Z-C4KJ : July 22, 2022), image 468 of 473; Virginia. County Court (York County).
9. ↑ "York County Records, Tyler's Quarterly Vol. 2, Richmond, VA: Richmond Press, 1921, p. 272 [1]
10. ↑ http://www.yorktown-windmill.org/
11. ↑ J.B. Cabell, The Majors and Their Marriages, Richmond: W.C. Hill Printing Co., 1915, pp. 71-76, see [2].
12. ↑ "Washington Deeds, York County", Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, V. 22, p. 314, 1914 - from Deed Book I p. 613, 614

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Gretchen Taylor for creating WikiTree profile Buckner-348 through the import of Taylor Family Tree.ged on Oct 11, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Gretchen and others.