William Pierce II

Born [date unknown] in England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Bourne (Bennett) Pierce II — married 1594 in Dorset, England

Descendants

Died about 13 Jul 1647 in Mulberry Island, Richmond, Virginia [uncertain]

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Biography

Name: William Pearse

Gender: Male

Record Type: Christening (Baptism)

Baptism Date: 25 Aug 1591

Baptism Place: St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England

Father: William Pearse

Notes

The following excerpt relates to a putative parental relationship with Margaret Bailey/Bayley and her presumptive father, Colonel William Pierce, JP of Northern Neck and Sheriff of Westmoreland County, as reported in the below cited text^[1].

". . .as spelling varied greatly even among literate people’s names. It would waver and drift among his descendants—Masingo, Mazingo, Massingo, Massengil, Mosingo, Muzingo, Mowzing, Montzingo, and Monzingo—but by and large remained the way it was spelled that day.

"Edward lived another forty years after he was freed, settling in the Northern Neck on or next to the property of Walker's daughter Ann and her husband. He married a woman named Margaret. They had three sons and grew tobacco and raised livestock on a little creek called Pantico Run, on the border of Richmond and Westmoreland counties.

"What we know about Margaret is circumstantial. A professional genealogist named Gareth Mark wrote a lineage report on the Mozingos in 1990, concluding that she was the white daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Pierce Bailey, who were people of high station. Elizabeth’s father, Colonel William Pierce, was a justice of the peace and a sheriff in Westmoreland County, and had patented thousands of acres in the Northern Neck, including the plot the Mozingos lived on. The Baileys' son Samuel, a lawyer, lived next to Margaret and Edward Mozingo and posted a bond to secure their appearance in a court case, something relatives commonly did. His name showed up in numerous land leases and lawsuits involving Edward and Margaret and the two of their sons who survived to adulthood. If Samuel was not Margaret’s brother, he was close to the family somehow. . .

"Debt was a way of life in Virginia, and pro forma lawsuits over payment of them were ubiquitous in the court record. Edward was as much a part of the system as anyone else. Despite the hardening of racism at the time, the court books show him standing up for himself, suing for tobacco he felt he was owed, and fighting similar suits against him. He and Margaret also filed a complaint against a Robert Withrow for assault and won a settlement (of a sum not legible in the record). They seemed to be well established in society."

Sources

1. ↑ Mozingo, Joe (2012). The fiddler on Pantico Run: an African warrior, his white descendants, a search for family. Free Press: New York.

• London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812; Reference Number: P93/DUN/255. Source Information: Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. amb 19:47, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

WikiTree profile Pierce-1097 created through the import of Ancestor's that we lost, the Decendants they left behind_2011-08-28_01 (2).ged on Sep 12, 2011 by Willette Bryant. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Willette and others.