Early Feminine Lives in Middlesex

In honor and celebration of Women’s History Month, I thought we could look at some life-stories from our county’s past. Throughout our long history we have had many women step up to the plate and make their mark in the varied times that they lived. Gumption, tenacity, bravery: these girls knew what had to be done. They rolled up their sleeves and got to work. As supporting roles in their lives as wives and mothers, they also left their marks in their offspring and their lives. Let’s look at these ladies chronologically, and start with Agatha Eltonhead (baptized 1623). You have to admire her. 

Her father, Richard Eltonhead from England, was a well-known Royalist who suffered a severe financial setback after the civil war. For assisting the king's forces against the parliament, he was penalized and endured a reverse of fortunes. Agatha and several of her sisters were sent to the American colonies to find husbands amongst the Royalists who had already fled there. At a young age, she was sent to a new country far away from all she knew.

There she met and married Luke Stubbins of Accomack and York counties and helped to develop his career and expand the family land holdings.  (There is not a surviving historical record for this marriage.) When Luke died, his connections helped her marry another, Ralph Wormley, Sr. whom she married at the age of 22. At that time, he was a justice for York County. He became a member of the House of Burgesses soon after and bought 3,200 acres in Middlesex County. There they together built Rosegill Plantation House. They had two sons. But then Ralph dies in 1651.

Two years later, at the young age of 29, Agatha again marries, a third time, to Sir Henry Chicheley. He was the lieutenant governor for the Virginia colony.  Daddy’s connections pay off as Sir Henry was also a Royalist who had to leave England. Her third marriage lasted 29 years. Historical records show that she spent much time with her sisters that traveled across the ocean with her and that her husband and their husbands served together in Virginia’s governing body.

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Our second story is of Lucy Grymes. Her father Phillip Ludwell Grymes and their extended family members were amongst the most politically influential and powerful citizens of the early Virginia colony. Born in 1743, she was the eldest of 8 children. She was well-educated and throughout her life, lived amongst her many male cousins and uncles who would become the Founding Fathers of our nation and signers of the 1776 Declaration of Independence. She married Thomas Nelson, Jr. early in her life and was by this side as he became a member of the House of Burgesses, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Virginia during the War for Independence. They had 11 children together which survived to adulthood.

But then her life took a turn. By the end of the war, the family’s personal fortune was ruined. The Nelsons had used their substantial money to pay for the costs of the militia and other needs of the war. They were never recompensated. Her husband’s health declined and he died. She outlived Thomas by some thirty years but never remarried. With the help of her sons and daughters and frugal management, Lucy endured throughout her long widowhood: through sickness, blindness, and the deaths of four of her children. Lucy died at the age of 82 in 1830 and at the time of her death, had 119 living descendants.

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Our third resident also lived during the 1700s.  As a young bride, Priscilla Chowning’s husband left to serve as a soldier in 7^th Virginia Regiment and died fighting for Independence in 1778. Pricilla was not from a wealthy family and was illiterate and unable to read or write. She did not own land. We do not know a lot about her as she left few historical records. We do know that she fought for her war pension. After the war was over, and nine years after her husband died, she was granted an annual sum of six-pound sterling to support her and her son. She signed the official paperwork for the pension each year with an X.

And our fourth story takes place just a little after Priscilla’s. In 1810, Cedar Park Plantation was built for James Ross. James was a Scottish Factor and owned a store located in Urbanna (which is still standing today). He was a prosperous businessman and prominent community leader.  At his death in 1825, James Ross freed five of his enslaved Africans and in an unprecedented move for the times left the plantation and all his land holdings to descendants of his "mulatto" enslaved African, Mary Woodford (who died in 1801). Her strong influence and steadfast devotion to her family was rewarded after her death.