Purton Tour

NMDA visitors were given a wonderful welcome by the owners, as well as their special horses, goats, dogs, chickens AND 35 peacocks enjoying life at "Purton" in Gloucester.

There are many references to the house known as "Purton." A 1649 grant for 1665 acres was made to William John Clarke. This house in Gloucester, commanding a view of the York River, was built on that land.

"Old Purton," the early Barnard-Bernard home, and the first church of Petsworth Parish were near each other and were both probably built about 1650. The parish may have been named for Mrs. Barnard’s home parish in England.

(Descendants will note that Lucy Higginson Burwell’s second husband was William Bernard, and their daughter, Elizabeth, married Thomas Todd of "Toddsbury" in Gloucester. Elizabeth Bernard Todd’s sister married John Cooke, and it is through this line that Gloucester’s "Church Hill" home is brought into the family venue. A later newsletter will tell of "Church Hill.")

"Purton,"south of the old house, was built in the early 18^th century for John Smith, grandson of Augustine Warner.

It was near "Purton" that some indentured servants, who were former soldiers of Cromwell, held a rendezvous in 1663, at which they planned a rebellion. One of them (a man named Birkenhead, who was employed by John Smith of "Purton") gave away the plot, so they were prevented from carrying it out by Governor William Berkeley. Birkenhead was freed and given a generous reward for saving many lives, and September 13 was declared a day of thanksgiving because the country had been spared "a desperate conspiracy" undertaken by "certain mutinous villians." According to Robert Beverley II’s account, "Four of these rogues were hanged." The memory of the servant uprising lived on and in April 1670, people from Gloucester, York, and Middlesex counties asked the Council of State to prevent convicts from being imported into Virginia. The Council responded by forbidding mariners to bring ashore "any Jaile bird or such others who for notorious offenses have deserved to dye in England." This order was to remain in effect unless disallowed by the king.

"The history of ‘Purton’ includes references to the Berkeley family, the Bernard family, also the Whaley family; but it is the Smith family which is most frequently identified with ‘Purton.’ And to be a descendant of the Smiths, of ‘Purton,’ is almost like being descended from royalty." (re: "Old Virginia Houses - The Mobjack Bay Country" by Farrar, p. 25) Other sources include: "With Reverence for the Past: Gloucester County, Virginia" by McCartney, p. 45, 148; and article by Jean Meyers and Page Warden, in NMDA 2004 Tribute Welcome folder.

THE NICOLAS MARTIAU DESCENDANT ASSOCIATION
MAY 2004 NEWSLETTER, Volume X, No. 1

08/14/2004 05:15:10 PM