The Black Tynes Familes of Virginia

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Isle of Wight, Virginia
Surnames/tags: Tynes Black History Virginia

by T. Mark James

A look at the 1850 census for Virginia shows that more than half of the Tynes (or Tines) families in that state were African-American. They were not slaves (since slaves were not listed on the regular census); their entries are marked “F.N.”, for Free Negroes. Their story is an interesting one.

In the spring of 1802, Timothy Tynes (abt.1750-abt.1802), a white plantation owner in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, died without heirs. He was the grandson and namesake of Timothy Tynes (abt.1675-bef.1752) who was the patriarch of the Isle of Wight Tyneses, and had inherited a good part of his grandfather’s land and money. His will begins: “My Will and desire is that all my slaves of every description [...] be fully & freely liberated from all Slavery & stand discharged from Slavery & bondage to enjoy all the priviledges that Free Negroes are entitled to by the Laws and regulations of the state of Virginia. It is to be understood that all my slaves & their increase are to be liberated.” He names 81 of the slaves in his will, and bequeaths the major part of his extensive land holdings to the slaves to ensure their maintenance. Much of this land is still in the hands of the descendants of these freed slaves, who took the surname Tynes.

Timothy Tynes’s will gives special treatment to a slave named Beck and her children, suggesting that these may have been Timothy’s own offspring. Beck’s son John inherits an entire river plantation. Timothy also singles out slaves named Sukey, Prince, Tim, Sam, Dick Unge, and Little Charles, for bequests of land or money. Two members of his white family (a niece and the son of a cousin) also receive land. The rest of the freed slaves are to share a large tract of land of which Dick Unge has been given 100 acres.

Why did Timothy Tynes free his slaves? Certainly his will shows a great deal of affection for them. Many descendants of his slaves have sung Timothy’s praises, quite literally — one of them even wrote a poem in his honor. On the other hand, Timothy’s white relatives, who had expected to inherit the land and slaves themselves, were considerably less impressed with Timothy’s forward-looking generosity, and ascribed somewhat darker motives to his actions. Clinton Maury Kilby, great-grandson of Timothy’s nephew Robert Tynes, tells that Timothy offered Robert all of his slaves if Robert would name his first-born son Timothy, after him. Robert declined, perhaps believing that he stood to inherit the slaves anyway; whereupon “the old man got mad and freed his slaves.”

Timothy’s nephews and nieces attempted to contest the will and to prevent the freeing of the slaves. They sued the executor of the will, James Johnston, and succeeded in delaying the process:

The complainants in this Cause, having this day filed their Bill, in which setting forth that injustice will be done to them, if the slaves supposed to be emancipated by the last Will and Testament of Timothy Tynes decd., are permitted to receive the instruments of their emancipations, required by Law. It is decreed and ordered that James Johnston Executor of said Timothy Tynes and all other be injoined and restrained from taking out or delivering to the said slaves, or any of them, copies of the Will of said Timothy Tynes decd., or any other instrument of emancipation whereby the said slaves or any of them will be at liberty to go without the County of Isle of Wight.

James Johnston held firm, however. The will was upheld and the ex-slaves were permitted to go free.

From Virginia to Nova Scotia

Not all of Timothy Tynes’s slaves thought of him as a kind master, nor did they all wait until 1802 to find freedom. A generation earlier, in 1780, a slave woman named Betty fled from the Timothy Tynes plantation and headed north. This was the period of the Revolutionary War; when she arrived in New York, it was under the control of the British army. By 1783 the British had lost the war and were preparing to withdraw from New York. Guy Carleton (1724-1808) offered several hundred escaped slaves passage to Canada, and Betty, fearful that the incoming American government would return her to Virginia, accepted. On 23 April 1783, Betty Tynes, age 30, and an unnamed son, age one month, left New York on the ship Baker & Atlee for Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving there four days later. There are still black Tyneses in Nova Scotia today.

Many of the escaped slaves who traveled with Sir Guy Carleton had fought for the British, and were known as Black Loyalists. Carleton’s account of these voyages is called The Book of Negroes.

A. J. Tynes

There is at least one African-American Tynes family of Virginia which does not descend from the slaves of Timothy Tynes’s plantation. Anderson Jackson Tynes (A. J. or “Jack”) was born in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1846. He was probably born a slave of Mary Tynes, widow of Isaac Tynes (1768-1819) of Halifax County, or of one of her children. After the Civil War he went to Mercer County, West Virginia, to work in the mines; but by 1880 he was back in Virginia, in a town called Dry Fork in Bland County. He married twice: first to Julia Ann Calendar, second to Emma Gardner or Gordon. Here is a summary of his descendants. The Tynes Chapel in Bland County was named for A. J. Tynes.

Copyright and Permission

Copyright © 1998-2007 T. Mark James All rights reserved.

PERMISSION NOTICE Permission is granted to make and distribute copies of this work, provided that: (1) such copying and distribution are performed completely free of charge or other consideration, and that (2) the copyright statement appears on all copies, and that (3) this Permission Notice appears on all copies.

Tynes Page revision 2.11, last updated on 23 November 2008.

• October 29, 2023. Some references to other online sources have been deleted because the webpages are no longer available. Links to Wikitree profiles have been added. Kathryn Morse.