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George Phillips (abt. 1692 - abt. 1763)

George Phillips
Born about in New Kent, Colony of Virginiamap
Son of and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died about at about age 71 in Hanover, Colony of Virginiamap [uncertain]
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Profile last modified | Created 1 Dec 2013
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Biography

George was born about 1692. He passed away about 1763.

Phillips DNA News Page 6 Featured Family Story The Early Years of Phillips Family Group 32 By Sally Phillips with research by Ron Phillips

My husband, Lewis Phillips, traces back on paper to George Phillips, a Newcastle, Virginia, mariner, sailing in the late 1600s. Lew ordered his DNA test purely as a lark. Imagine our surprise when his test confirmed him as a Fitzhugh! We didn’t know what to think! But just a little research led us to a logical, probable conclusion. Since our test results in 2006, four more Phillips men have tested as Fitzhughs, with their DNA matching my husband’s at 37 markers. These men are able to trace back on paper to the same source. Our documented Family Group history begins in 1673/4 when William Phillips patented 3000 acres in New Kent County, Virginia, “uppon both sides of Totopotomoy Creek” near the Pamunkey River in what is now southeastern Hanover County.1
In 1679 he was granted an additional “three thousand Acres of Land located and lying and being in New Kent County upon both sides of Totopotomoy Creek.”2
Nearby lay the land of George Phillips.3
George died in 1687.4
George and William may have been brothers, George may have been the father of George, or George may have been the father of William. Living this close, they were undoubtedly related.5
The Phillips land6 lay a mile or so from Newcastle,7 on the south bank of the Pamunkey River.8
Newcastle and nearby Hanovertown were two ports that handled most of the shipping between Virginia and England.9
George Phillips, Sea Captain, probable son of George or William, inherited the land on Totopotomoy Creek. George was a vestryman at St. Paul’s Church and participated in the processioning of land ordered by the vestry.10
He owned at least two ships, the John and Mary and the John and Margaret.11
An “Order and Instruction” command from the Commissioners of the British Admiralty, on 23 September 1691, calls for “protection [against pirates] to George Phillips, master with 20 unnamed men of the John and Margaret, 200 tons, to Virginia, provided she sails with the convoy.”12
George Phillips, Sea Captain married (presumably) and had sons George, John, Richard, and James between about 1690 and 1710.13
However, DNA testing centuries later indicates that son George was actually the son of one of the mariner’s customers, William Fitzhugh the Immigrant.14
William Fitzhugh arrived in Virginia in the early 1670s15 and purchased land in Stafford County.16
In 1674 he achieved prosperity when he married Sarah Tucker, a daughter of wealth.17
Fitzhugh was a lawyer, a member of the House of Burgesses, and a tobacco planter, shipping his tobacco to London and purchasing household necessities and luxuries in England that were shipped back to Virginia.18
The ship captains who carried his tobacco to London and brought back various sundries often became his close friends.19
Fitzhugh’s correspondence includes numerous letters to his agents in London. Ship Captain George Phillips was the subject of several of these letters in 1691 and 1692.20
Fitzhugh was known to drink, frequently too much, on social and business occasions. Of Fitzhugh, it was written that “...every ship departing with a cargo of tobacco had to be sped on its way by a round of toasts with the embarking captain.”21
Based on DNA testing, we have to assume that, after toasting Captain George Phillips’ embarkation, Fitzhugh continued the revelry with Mrs. Phillips. Fitzhugh died in 1701.22
Two sons of the sea captain, John23 and James,24 remained in the Totopotomoy area with their father. Either John or James had a son Nathan who inherited his grandfather’s land.25
George Phillips’ son Richard 26 and George, the young man he reared as a son, patented land near Beaverdam in the northwest corner of Hanover County.27
George settled on 400 acres in Pug Swamp in 1724.28
Richard was granted 600 acres north of the South Anna River in 1724.29
Eight years later Richard patented 400 acres just north of George in Pug Swamp.30
Richard married Catharine Smith; they had three sons, William, Richard, and Thomas, and three daughters, Anna, Elizabeth, and Catharine Susanna.31
George Phillips, raised as a Phillips but the son of William Fitzhugh, had at least three sons, John, George, and Richard.32
DNA tests have identified five descendants of these sons. Wills and other legal documents connect these descendants back to John, George, and Richard Phillips. John Phillips (with Fitzhugh DNA) was probably the eldest; he inherited the Pug Swamp land 33 and remained there many years.34
In his later years he moved to Louisa County.35
He had three sons, William, George, and John, and a daughter Ann.36
William married Ann Lewis, daughter of John Zachary and Elizabeth Lewis.37 They had sons William, who moved to Georgia; John Lewis, who moved to North Carolina; and Lancelot, who stayed in Louisa County.38
George married Ann Pettus and settled in Caroline County, Virginia.39
They had sons John, William, and Thomas, and daughter Mary.40 Richard Phillips (with Fitzhugh DNA) married Lucy Talbot, daughter of John Talbot and Sarah Haley.41
They settled in Amelia County, Virginia, and had sons Richard, John, William, Peter T., Barney, and Thomas, and daughters Elizabeth and Tabitha.42
Descendants migrated to Prince Edward County, Virginia, and Mecklenburg County, Virginia.43
George Phillips (with Fitzhugh DNA) married Susannah Dyer, daughter of Robert Henry Dyer.44
They settled in Lunenburg County, Virginia, and had sons Dyer, Robert, and John and daughters Betsey, Mary, and Martha.45
Descendants migrated to Greene County, Tennessee, Arkansas, and South Carolina.46
Most members of Phillips Family Group 32 would never have been able to conclusively trace their ancestors without DNA testing. There are too many Johns, Williams, and Georges.

13 Chamberlayne, Saint Paul’s , pages 101, 258, and 273.
14 Family Tree DNA Website, www.familytreedna.com.
15 Richard Beale Davis, William Fitzhugh and his Chesapeake World, 1676 - 1701, The Fitzhugh Letters and Other Documents . The Virginia Historical Society. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carol ina Press, 1963, page 10.
16 Ibid., page 11.
17 Ibid., page 11.
18 Ibid., page 18.
19 Ibid., page 19.
20 Ibid., pages 293 and 302.
21 Ibid., page 17.
22 Ibid., page 54.
23 Chamberlayne, Saint Paul’s, pages 282, 299, and 309.
24 James Filips paid cash, as cited in an accounting of the estate of Mary Alves. Rosalie Edith Davis, Hanover County, VA Court Records, 1733 - 1735, Deeds, Wills & Inventories . Manchester, Missouri, self - published, 1979, page 36. John and James processioned. Chamberlayne, Saint Pau l’s, pages 273, 286, 294, 304, 343, 380, and 416.
25 “For Sale, Three hundred and fifty acres of Land, in Hanover county, within a mile of Newcastle, near one half very xxx xxxxx grounds, whereon is a new dwelling - house xx by 23? Feet, with two fire pla ces, a good cellar the size of the house, with two rooms and a fire place, a good kitchen with two fire places, and all other convenient houses in good repair, fine apple and peach orchards, and is a very pleasant situation. Any Gentleman inclinable to pu rchase may know the terms by applying to Nathan Phillips.” “Extracts from Virginia Gazette,” May 11, 1769. Gregory, page 223.
26 The relationship between Richard Phillips and George Phillips, both near Beaverdam, is an assumption based on timing and pr oximity; the relationship has not been proven.
27 Since certain names recur frequently in this family, knowledge of the sequence of Virginia county formation and parish evolution is essential to distinguishing individuals. The Totopotomoy Creek land was i n St. Peter’s Parish in New Kent County in 1673, in St. Paul’s Parish in New Kent County in 1704, and in St. Paul’s Parish in Hanover County in 1720. The Beaverdam land was in St. Paul’s Parish in Hanover County in 1724 and St. Martin’s Parish in Hanover County in 1726.
28 Virginia State Land Office, Patents 1 - 42, Reels 1 - 41, 9 July 1724, online at the LVA website.
29 Virginia State Land Office, Patents 1 - 42, Reels 1 - 41, 5 November 1724, online at the LVA website.
30 Virginia State Land Office, Patents 1 - 4 2, Reels 1 - 41, 11 April 1732, online at the LVA website
31 Catharine’s will, signed 17 September 1783 and recorded 14 April 1794, and a court order on the division of slaves following Catharine Phillips’ death, signed 3 January 1797 and recorded 13 March 1797, as reported in Nancy Chappelear Baird and Kate Binford Hatch, Abstracts of Louisa County, Virginia, Will Books, 1743 - 1801 , Delaplane, Virginia, self - published, 1964.
32 DNA testing proves these relationships.
33 Gregory, page 251.
34 In 1775 John placed a notice in the Virginia Gazette seeking the return of a stolen horse. He identified himself as located “in the upper End of Hanover. “Extracts from Virginia Gazette,”, 8 July 1775.
35 1800 Deed abstract, George Philips and Anna his wife of Caroline and William Phillips and Ann his wife of Hanover to Anna Mills formerly Ann Phillips of Louisa for 150 tract on Rocky Creek cont. 166 - 1/2 acres being land purchased by John Phillips Sr. of John and Betty Smith 9 Aug 1784. Louisa Deed Book J, page 191.
36 Ibid.
37 Relationships detailed in record of land sale, Augustine and Sarah Lewis and William and Ann Phillips to Jonathan Clark, Spotsylvania County, Virginia, Deed Book O, 6 September 1796.
38 Unpublished and unverified family record.
39 Abstract of will of George Phillips, 12 August 1816, page 223. Glazebrook and Glazebrook, Virginia Migrations, page 102.
40 Kimberly Curtis Campbell, Caroline County, Virginia, Court Records: Will Book 1793 - 1897; Will & Plat Book 1742 - 1840; Will Book 1814 - 1818. Milford, Virginia, Iberian Publishing Company, 1998.
41 Benjamin B. Weisiger III, Charles City County, Virginia, Records, 1737 - 1774, with Several 17 th Century Fragments , Richmond, Virginia, self - published, 1986. Page 2, Will of Sarah Southall. Maiden name of Haley comes from a Talbot descendant (see e - mail chain of May, 2010).
42 Will of Richard Phillips, Amelia County, Virginia, Will Book 5, page 36.
43 Research by Ron Phillips.
44 Will of Robert Henry Dyer, Lunenburg County, Virginia, Will Book 2, page 246.
45 Ibid.
46 Research by Ron Phillips.

Sources

  • Abercrombie and Slatten, "Virginia Revolutionary Publick Claims", vol. 1, p. 191; vol. 2, pp. 648, 730, & 733: provided a horse, meat, drove cattle, and constructed a cattle pen in support of the military during the American Revolution.
  • Public Service Claims, Lunenburg Co., VA Certificates #1781-2 & 1781-2 and Court Booklet pp. 12, 13, & 36.

Hanover County is one of Virginia’s burned counties and records are scarce. Although our DNA test results were a great surprise, they enabled us to prove our ancestry without a doubt. Now we hope another Phillips Family Group will be able to tie to our half brothers John, James, and Richard, and the family will be reunited again.


  • Phillips DNA News, November 2010, Volume 2 Issue 11.

Acknowledgments

  • Thank you to Barbara Bonanni for creating Phillips-7974 on 1 Dec 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Barbara and others.
  • Sources regarding George Phillips' support in the American Revolution added by EuGene Smith




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It may be possible to confirm family relationships with George by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with George:

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