Abraham Seay II (abt. 1690 - aft. 1771)

Born about 1690 in Elm, Cambridgeshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Naomi (Loving) Seay — married 1740 in Albemarle County, Virginia

Descendants

Died after 23 Sep 1771 after about age 81 in Fork Union, Fluvanna, Colony of Virginia

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Biography

This profile is part of the Seay Name Study.

Abraham De See was born in 1684 in England, the son of Abraham Seay and Anne ___. He was christened on 22 March 1684 at Elm, Cambridge, England.^[1]

There is disagreement about the origins of this family. Most believe that they came from England about 1700 to America. Abraham came alone and was later joined by his wife and three sons, possibly settling near Richmond, Henrico County, Virginia.

Abraham II married Naomi Loving in 1740 in Albemarle County, Virginia. They had the following children:

1. Alley Seay,
2. Amy Seay,
3. Naomi Seay
4. Amy Seay,
5. Mary P. (Seay) Stone,
6. Stephen Seay,
7. Joseph Seay,
8. Abraham Seay III,
9. Susannah Seay,
10. Betsy Seay,
11. Sarah Seay,
12. Ann (Seay) Moore, Anne Seay,
13. Austin Seay and
14. James Seay

Abraham II was awarded a land grant of 385 acres In what was then Goochland County, which was later called Albemarle and is currently Fluvanna County. The grant was awarded by King George II of England. It is now located near the town of Fork Union about 10 miles from Palmyra which is the county seat.

Abraham II had two houses, one of which was used for a tavern. It burned but the location is still discernible. Abraham II lived here until he died on August 20, 1764.

Abraham II and wife Naomi Amy Loving Seay are buried at the Abraham Seay Cemetery in Fluvanna County, Virginia, USA. The Abraham Seay Cemetery is located on private property about a half a mile from the town of Fork Union. There are only three markers that are visible. This small family cemetery is located in a field on the south side of Academy Road behind Fork Union Military Academy. It is near the Maintenance Building.^[2]

The Bulletin of the Fluvanna County Historical Society

The Monacan Indians

The earliest inhabitants of the section of Virginia in which Fork Union is located, about which we know anything at all, were the Monacan Indians.

Nearly three centuries have come and gone since the Monacans, a loose Confederacy of approximately five tribes, last roamed and lived their free, picturesque, sometimes barbaric lives among the forests and streams of present-day Fluvanna.

Large numbers of artifacts of tremendous variety have been found: arrowheads in infinite shapes and of many materials, milling stones and bowls, moccasin stones, stone knives, and projectiles of every kind imaginable. These memorabilia speak of a proud, vigorous, and busy people.

Mrs. W. E. Hatcher wrote that she and Dr. Hatcher maintained a small museum at Careby Hall of Indian relics picked up on, and around the foot of, the hill upon which their home at Fork Union was erected. On property now owned by Fork Union Military Academy and on land now belonging to Mr. Austin White, large quantities of Indian artifacts have been recovered.

The Seay Land Grant and Fork Union Military Academy

On August 20, 1745, an event of enduring significance to the future village of Fork Union took place. A crown grant of land in the amount of 385 acres "in Goochland County, Virginia, in the Fork of the James River, on both sides of Crooks Creek was awarded to Abraham Seay II, son of a Huguenot immigrant to America by the same name. The grant was made in the name of King George II of England and signed by William Gooch, lieutenant-governor and commander in chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia." (William Anne Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, was governor-in-chief at the time, but, like several other royal governors, he never came to America to see the land he governed.)

Issued from Williamsburg, the colonial capital, this grant was made "for divers good causes and considerations but more especially for and in consideration of the sum of forty shillings of good and lawful money."

Today, the largest portion of the Seay land grant, since 1777 a part of Fluvanna County, is within the 500 acre landholdings of Fork Union Military Academy.

The original 17 acres of Academy land was never sold in all its history. The 17 acres was inherited and given as two gifts of six and eleven acres of land respectively to the Academy in 1900 and 1902 by Mrs. W. P. Snead (the former Julia Moore Seay). Other acreage originally belonging to Abraham Seay II has been purchased gradually by the school.

Abraham Seay II , "the Colonist", as he is called by many writers, is known to have erected two pre-Revolutionary War houses on his property. Exact dates for them are unknown and must be established through guesswork. Provisions of the royal grant required that the tract be occupied, cultivated, and improved ("3 acres of every 50 acres") within three years of 1745; otherwise, all land would revert to the Crown.

The Very First White Resident

Unless Mr. Abraham Seay II, the very first white resident of what is now Fork Union, was already on the land in 1745, in anticipation of his application for a grant being approved, his first house was erected about 1748. This first house, "Three Chimneys," was a combination house and tavern for travelers, especially those who used the stagecoach. It was destroyed by fire many years ago, and the chimneys being all that remained, the property became known as "Burnt Chimneys." The site is easy to locate today; traces of the foundations and an old Seay Burial Ground adjacent thereto are approximately two and one-half miles from Fork Union village.

On a small, steep hill overlooking Crooks Creek, a mile east of Fork, Union Baptist Church of present times, Abraham Seay II built his main plantation house facing in a southwesterly direction. Really two separate houses that were joined soon after construction, this old place was apparently built soon after the 1745 patent. The year 1755 seems to be the latest construction date possible if all the eight Seay children, whose birthdates are established, were born in the house; they are quoted in many sources to this effect.

At first nameless, but in later times affectionately called "Dipperville," the house was a gem of colonial wilderness architecture. It was razed at nearly 200 years of age about 1943 by Fork Union Military Academy so the land could be used for other purposes. In retrospect, the destruction of the Seay homeplace was a genuine tragedy.

The Seay House was a long, somewhat rambling structure with a gable roof; and a wide, inviting porch stretched the entire length of its basically heart of pine. There were two enormous chimneys, one at either end of the house. Each was half native rock and half brick, the either end of the house. Each was half native rock and half brick, the latter made by plantation slaves. The wide, double front doors faced the Richmond-Charlottesville Stagecoach Road (River Road). Inside the house was a broad hall leading from front to rear, and every room had a fireplace with high mantel over it. The log kitchen was separate from the house and stood some distance away in the yard. Meals were prepared by slaves, carried across a cobblestone walk to the basement of the main house, and served there in a dining area having a dirt floor and an open fireplace equipped with reflectors to retain heat. Practically everything in this house was made by hand.

An apparatus called a windlass or waterboy, originally invented in Wales, led from the log kitchen of the Seay house to a spring at the bottom of the hill to the rear of it. Buckets of fresh water could be drawn without the necessity of leaving the house in inclement weather.

Because the Seays were deeply interested in education, they always had tutors, some from as far away as Boston, to teach their children. In time, the children of many neighbors were invited to attend sessions, so the old house was also an early Fluvanna school.

Around the house Abraham Seay II had built, there developed over the years a complex of establishments that were in essence a tiny village, precursor to Fork Union. There was a tannery, a blacksmith and a wheelwright shop, a general merchandise store which served as a colonial post office, numerous slave cabins, barns, orchards, and a grist mill for the grinding of meal and flour. The grist mill, known as the Austin Seay Mill, was operated by water power from a large 30-acre lake affording boating, bathing, and fishing. The lake was created by an 18 foot dam on Crooks Creek; both dam and mill were built in 1803 by Austin Seay, Sr., son of Abraham Seay II. It is said that the Stagecoach Road passed directly over the dam, a large, broad "crib type" construction.

The peculiar name, Dipperville, which was applied for many years both to the Seay House and to the settlement that grew up around it, was coined to indicate, in a joking manner, the numerous business interests of Austin Seay, Jr., grandson of Abraham Seay II. Ambitious and industrious, his enthusiasm for business ventures of every imaginable type led him at times to overextend himself financially. His inclination to dip into so many businesses earned for him the sobriquet, Austin, the Dipper. Thus, in time, Dipperville evolved.

In 1900 and 1902 Mr. and Mrs. William Pumphrey Snead of Fork Union presented two gifts of six and eleven acres of land respectively to the Academy for a campus. These seventeen acres are now the central segment of a much larger campus, and they form a most historic landholding because they were originally part of the old Seay wilderness plantation which Mrs. Snead (formerly Julia Moore Seay) had inherited. This land has never been sold since it was granted by King George II of England in 1745 to Abraham Seay II, Mrs. Snead's ancestor. Both Mr. and Mrs. Snead, original Guarantors, were ever firm partisans of the Fork Union Academy.

As the Seay family men and their wives of the past sleep the long sleep in their home burial grounds, the great plantation which they loved serves as the site of a fine military school (Fork Union Military Academy), echoing with bugle calls and the voices of youth. One has the feeling that the sleepers would not object to this development very much, if at all. ^[3]

Will of Abraham Seay, 1771

In the name of god Amen. I Abraham Seay of Albemarle County being in perfect health and sound sense and memory but calling to mind the uncertainity of this transitory world and that all flesh must yield when it pleaseth god to call, therefore I do make this my Last Will and Testament and desire it may be recieved by all persons as such.

Impaimis (?) I give my soul to Almighty god who gave it to me and my body to the Earth from whence it eas taken to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executors here after named in this and certain pages of the Resurrection at the last day and as touching my wordly Estate or what it is pleases god to bless me with I give and dispose of it followeth to Witt.

Item. I give an bequeath to my son John Seay all that part of the tract of land wherein I now live on the South Side brooks Creek above the mouth of Timber Tree branch to him and his heirs forever.

Item. I give and bequeath to my son Austin Seay all that part the Tract of land wherein I now live below the mouth of Timber Tree branch and all on the north side of said creek with all the improvements thereto belonging to him and his heirs forever and should it please god that either of my two mentioned sons should die without heirs my will and desire is that his part of the said land shall fall to my son Abraham Seay Jun.

And my will and desire is that all my land and chattel continue and remain in the possession of my dearly beloved wife Amy Seay during her natural life and after her decease all my stocks of horses, cattle, hogs, etc. with my household furnishings to be equally divided amongst my three sons Viz; Abraham Seay, John Seay, and Austin Seay, at the discretion of my dearly beloved wife Amy Seay and my son Abraham Seay Jun. Whom I appoint as Excutrix and Excurtor of this last will and testament. In witness whereof therefore let my hand and seal this twentieth day of September in the year of our Lord Christ 1761. Abraham Seay Witnesses: Cabell Stone, Elijah Stone, Benjamin Wright

I Abraham Seay having by gods mercy continued in life to this day and being under great weakness of body but of perfect mind and memory and now find it will be convenient to make a schedule to the above will which I now qualify and confirm except in some few particulars herein afterwards to be mentioned.

I give to my son Stephen Seay five schillings, current money and also to my son John Seay his first choice of feather beds, I also give to my son Austin Seay my young sorrell mare, I give to my daughter Ann Seay one cow and calf. I also give to my daughter Susanna Seay one cow and calf.

All the rest of my estate personale I desire may be (at the death of my wife) equally divided between my sons John Seay and Austin Seay but these my last legacies given in this schedule is to remain in the use of my loving till her death as mentioned in my will above.

I likewise desire it may be noted and it is whereas I made my son Abraham Seay joint Legassee with my sons John and Austin in a former clause of this my last Will and Testament written in the year of Our Lord 1761. Time which he has married and gone from me and I've already given him a full proportion and my will and desire is that he shall have no more of my estate and I also desire that instead of my son Abraham Seay I do appoint my son John Seay with my loving wife Amy Seay Exectrix and Executor to this my last Will and Testament.

In witness thereof I hereto again affiixed my hand and seal this twenty-third day of September in the year of Our Lord 1771.

Abraham Seay^[4]

Will of Abraham Seay II and Death Date

FindAGrave Memorial: Abraham Seay (105837411)

2021-03-01: Suggested edit: I have just read the addition to the will of ABRAHAM SEAY II FILED IN ALBEMARLE COURT RECORDS WILL BOOK 2 pages 208 and 209 which gives the date on the original writing as 20th day of September 1761 and the addition to the original will says he is in great weakness of body, but has continued in life and this addition is dated 23rd day of September 1771. He changes his Executor from Abraham Seay III to son John Seay, also. FIND A GRAVE gives his date of death as 20th AUGUST 1764. I started doing family history in 1960 when my 1st cousin and I started collecting HARVEY records. Many years later someone in my adopted town of Bloomfield, N.J. asked me why I had not joined DAR and I have never found absolute proof for a marriage record for Richard HARVIE, so I took my father's two militia captains JOHN LOVING and William Loving (whose son James md. John LOVING's dau. Nancy). I JOINED DAR USING JOHN LOVING AND NEOMY SEAY. I BECAME INTERESTED IN THE SEAY FAMILY BECAUSE JOHN LOVING md. NEOMY SEAY, DAUGHTER OF ABRAHAM SEAY II & NEOMI LOVING. ALSO THE SEAY NAME WAS THE FIRST NAME WE RECOGNIZED WHEN IN 1987 WE WENT TO ZEELAND TO FURTHER DO MY HUSBAND's HUGUENOT ANCESTORS. Mary-Elizabeth Harvey De Mallie 01 March 2021.

FindAGrave Contributor: Mary-Elizabeth De Mallie (49407307).

Abraham Seay Historical Marker Inscription

Memorial to Abraham Seay

In 1745 Abraham Seay, French Huguenot settler was granted Leters Patent from King George for land which includes these church grounds, Military Academy campus, and the nucleus of the village of Fork Union.

Abraham, his son Austin - a Revolutionary War soldier, and other early kin are buried one mile east near the site of the Seay house which stood for 190 years.

Erected 1987 by Point of Fork Chapter NSDAR, Seay Descendants, and Fort Union Military Academy.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Settlements & Settlers. In addition, it is included in the Daughters of the American Revolution series list.

Location. 37° 45.749′ N, 78° 15.787′ W. Marker is in Fork Union, Virginia, in Fluvanna County. Marker is at the intersection of James Madison Highway (U.S. 15) and West River Road (State Highway 6), on the right when traveling south on James Madison Highway. Located adjacent to the Fork Union Baptist Church. Marker is in this post office area: Fork Union VA 23055, United States of America.

Notes

Abraham Seay II and Naomi Lovigne Seay's daughter Naomi "Amy" Seay married Revolutionary War Capt. John Loving Jr.

Abraham II is the second great grandfather of Col. Judge Abraham Jefferson Seay, born in Amherst Co. Virginia, who went on to become the 2nd Governor of the Oklahoma Territory, who was also an Oklahoma State Supreme Court Justice. Civil War veteran, etc. Col. Abraham Jefferson Seay's mansion is a historical site, open for visitors.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Jefferson_Seay

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NBF8-Q61 : 10 February 2018, Abraham De See in entry for Mary De See, ); citing - 2:2V8RQP0, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,040,577.
2. ↑ [Find A Grave Memorial https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/105837411/
3. ↑ The Bulletin of the Fluvanna County Historical Society. https://archive.org/stream/bulletinfluvann00socigoog/bulletinfluvann00socigoog_djvu.txt
4. ↑ Albemarle County Will Book 2, p.208-209.

See also:

• Descendants of Abraham Seay, by Burwell W. Seay 1966, 1971
• A Genealogical History of the Seay Family In America and Kindred Families As Chronicled by Mary Mills Emory.
• Read, Carl & May 1981. The Loving Family in America, 1705-1981: Plus, Lovan, Lovein, Loven, Lovern, Lovin, Lovorn, Lovvorn, and Those who Add an "s" to the Name. Harp & Thistle, GA. Pages 7-9, paragraph A2.
• 2020-11-02 John Seay - Rebecca Moore - Douglas Register.jpg.
• 2020-09-25 Seay Family Homeplace.jpg
• 2020-11-22 Rassawek of Fluvanna Co vs Abraham and Naomi Seay.jpg
• THE HISTORICAL MARKER DATABASE
• https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=31355