Francis Poythress (1609 - 1651)

Born Jul 1609 in Newent, Gloucestershire, England

Husband of Mary Frances (Sloman) Wynne — married before 1651 in England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1651 in Virginia

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Francis Poythress resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

Francis Poythress "came to Virginia about 1633, and patented lands on James river, in that part of Charles City county now known as Prince George. He was burgess for Charles City county in 1645 and 1647, and for Northumberland county in 1649. He had the rank of captain. [Francis] married, and had a daughter who married Thomas Rolfe and a son Francis."^[1]

Research Notes

Francis Poythress is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society

The Francis Poythress who is a Jamestowne Qualifying Ancestor was Burgess for Charles City County and then Northumberland County.^[2]

Unsourced

Information presented in this profile needs better sources. The dates and locations appear to be primarily supported by Ancestry sources: An Ancestry link is not a source & the sources from Ancestry that are cited are not considered reliable.^[3]

Conflated

Many profiles for France Poythress were merged. Some of the information appears to be for people other than the Francis Poythress born 12 July 1609 in Newent, Gloucestershire, England and died in Virginia in circa 1651. (From information in datafields as of 1 March 2019.)

For example, the text for this profile notes that he immigrated to Virginia in 1639, yet records for a Francis Poythress in Virginia exist prior to that (see Facts, below), which fits better with an imported bit of information that he immigrated in 1633.

The following sections - Imported Information and Facts - are intended to present information not supported by a reliable source and facts that are, whether or not they belong to a particular Francis Poythress. The next step will be to attempt to find reliable sources for imported information, moving the information to the Facts section when supported by a reliable source; then the task will be to sort what facts go with which Francis (it is supposed that the Francis Poythress who was Burgess for Charles City County in the 1640s left a string of descendants named Francis Poythress; it is likely that Poythress siblings of every generation also left descendants named Francis Poythress).

Imported Information

There are various dates and places for Frances' birth (ranging from 1610 and 1614 in Virginia to 1614 in England. He arrived in Virginia in 1639. Frances died 1661 in Charles City, VA, USA.^{[citation needed]}

Born:

• Born 1610 VA^[4]

Baptism:

• 12 July 1609, Newent, Gloucestershire, England (see Facts - baptismal record for a Francis, son of John of the same date/location)

Immigration:

• about 1633, Virginia
• arrived 1639, Virginia^[5]

Marriage:

• 1629, Jamestown, James City, Virginia, United States^[6]

Death

• between 1651 and 1657, Virginia^{[citation needed]}
• 1661, Charles City, Charles, Virginia, United States^[7]
• A comment citing a Rootsweb link that can no longer be accessed^[8] noted that research by R. Bolling Batte implies that the Francis Poythress who married Rebecca died in England after December 1688 (based on a Dec. 1688 court case mentioning that "Poythress shortly afterward went to England and died".

Facts

Baptism:

"b. 1609 Newent, Gloucestershire. Baptismal record from St. Mary's Parish, Newent, Bishop's Transcripts book for year 1609: 'ffrancis poythres the sonne of John Poythres was baptised the 12. day of July'. -Source: researcher John M. Poythress"^[9][10]

In Virginia:

A Francis Poythress was in Charles City County, Virginia by 16 July 1637, when "Francis Poythers" received a patent for land there that was "bounded on the West by Bayle’s Creek; and bounded on the East by the land of Captain Woodliffe."^[11]

A Francis Poythress was Burgess for Charles City County, 1644-1645:^[11][2]

• Mr. Fra. Poythers (October 1644)^[11]
• Leift Francis Poythres (February 1644/45)^[11]

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import. It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Sources

1. ↑ Entry for Poythress, Francis in Tyler's Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (accessed 1 March 2019).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Jamestowne Society: Poythres(s)/Poythers, Francis - A6402; Charles City Co.: 1644, 1645, 1647-48 (Burgess); Northumberland Co.: 1649 (Burgess). accessed 30 November 2019.
3. ↑ For more information about reliable sources, see the pages under Category: Reliable Sources for Pre-1700 Profiles.
4. ↑ Ancestry info
   • Birth 1610 VA, USA (APID: 5769::3593031): http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepoolb&h=3593031&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt
   • Birth 1614, VA, USA (APID: 5769::3593032): http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepoolb&h=3593032&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt
   • Birth 1614, London, England, Middlesex (APID: 5769::3593033): http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepoolb&h=3593033&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt
5. ↑ S-2125780825: Virginia; 1639; Page Number: 492; APID: 7486::4085688: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=pili354&h=4085688&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt
6. ↑ S1224164606: Family group sheet, FGSE, listed as parents; Submitter Code (not given, but means this information was user-supplied information): http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=worldmarr_ga&h=975712&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt (APID: 7836::975712)
   • Birth 1614, En; Marriage place "of VA"
7. ↑ Source: S1224245685, S-2143607653 (APID: 5771::2096153, APID: 7249::109116379) - http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepoold&h=2096153&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt & http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=millind&h=109116379&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt
   • Born 1614, London, England
   • Death 1661, Charles City, VA, USA
8. ↑ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=va_families&id=I00042 (on 1 March 2019, the link did not go to a page with the information mentioned)
9. ↑ From the entry for Francis Poythress (1609-c1650) posted by Diana Diamond in her Rootsweb database "Some Early Virginia Families".
10. ↑ See also at rootsweb.com/thread/13150470/ this page, which shares the same baptism info and addesses who the it might be for (page accessed 1 March 2019).
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3} Citation was to a link no longer "live", which was captured by archive.org's WayBack Machine (here, accessed 1 March 2019).

• Genealogy.com: Capt. Francis Poythress
• Geni: Capt Francis Poythress
• WayBack Machine, information by L Poole:
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20161107022514/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~timsx001/lpoole.html
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20161008082454/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~timsx001/date1633.html
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20150216014807/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~timsx001/batte.html
• New home for Poythress Surname History (Chapter 12 is now Early Poythress Family in Virginia, accessed 23 February 2021).
• Ancestry Family Tree links (Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members):
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=48729764&pid=317
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=48729764&pid=148
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=37129626&pid=515
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=8544673&pid=1202
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=8544673&pid=2092
• other Ancestry links:
  • #S1224245685 - http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepoold&h=2096153&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt (Text: Death 1661, Charles City, VA, USA
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=millind&h=109116379&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt - APID: 5771::2096153 Source: #S-2143607653 (Text: Arrival date: 1639, Virginia)
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=15024057&pid=1160
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=12630124&pid=509580808
  • Gale Research, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s (Ancestry Online publication, 2009). Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2009.
  • Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (Ancestry Online publication, 2004).

Yahoo! search results (March 2019)

• Poythress.org: Poythress Surname History
  • http://poythress.org/family-studies/early-poythress-family-in-virginia-lou-poole/
• Geni: Captain Francis Poythress
• Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia's Northern Neck Counties: Francis Poythress
• Our Family History: Francis Poythress
• Wikipedia: Jane Rolfe. Source citations for her parents:
  • Snow, Megan (May 2003). "Thomas Rolfe" [link]. Historic Jamestowne. National Park Service. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  • Pecquet du Bellet, Louise (1907). "Bolling Family". Some prominent Virginia families [link]. Lynchburg, VA: J.P. Bell Co. p. 304. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  • "The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case", by Elizabeth Vann Moore and Richard Slatten, Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, XXIII, no.3, pp. 3–16, cited by John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., Vol. 3, p. 26, fn23–24. Moore and Slatten traced the suggestion that his wife was a Poythress back to a comment by W. G. Stanard in "Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents", Virginia Historical Magazine (I, 1894, 446–447): "His wife is said to have been a Miss Poythress (if so, doubtless a daughter of Francis Poythress." According to Moore and Slatten, Stanard cited as evidence handwritten notes on the flyleaf of a copy of A Complete Collection of All the Laws of Virginia Now in Force Carefully Copied from the Assembled Records (London, 168[?], now in the Library of Virginia. Moore and Slatten state: "Interestingly, Thomas Rolfe here is recorded as married to a 'Miss Payers'. We recall that in John Rolfe's will the name of his third wife is spelt Pyers (Peirce) and that it was John who married a "Jane". Here again a Bolling descendant confused the son with his father. Not recognizing the name 'Payers' as another variant of Peirce, someone searched the records for a name beginning with 'P' and having a 'y' in the first syllable. Francis Poythress lived in adjacent Charles City County and his name ended in s! Stanard wrote, 'His wife is said to have been a Miss Poythress (if so, doubtless a daughter of Francis Poythress).' (VMHB I, 446) Wyndham Robertson, a Bolling descendant, wrote in Pocahontas Alias Mataoke and Her Descendants (Richmond, 1887), 'I adopt "Jane Poythress" (not "Poyers") whom he is stated in the Bolling Memoirs to have married in England.' He added in justification of his charming adoption of an ancestress, '...no such name as "Poyers" is anywhere known ... the family of Poythress was already settled in Virginia.' ... The result has been the acceptance of a non-existent personage, 'Jane Poythress', in the Bibles of Virginia genealogy, as the bona fide ancestress of many illustrious Virginians. Who the wife (or wives) of Thomas Rolfe may have been remains an unanswered question."
• Source: S-1601358972 Repository: #R-1690532405 Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created. Page: Ancestry Family Tree Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=48729764&pid=373
• Repository: R-1690532405 Name: Ancestry.com Address: http://www.Ancestry.com Note:
• Wulfeck, Dorothy Ford, Marriages of Some Virginia Residents 1607–1800 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1986); Volume II; Page 319; Quote: WYNNE Robert, from Kent in England, res. 1658, Charles City Co. will, 1678; m. Mary (_______) Poythress, widow of Capt. Francis Poythress. 12T173.
• https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t6zw2gx2q&view=1up&seq=7&skin=2021 Capt. Francis Poythres acquired 750 acres in Charles City County, 1648

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