1686 - 1726
Virginia
The first Sams we really connect to is James Sams, who was born in 1686 in Old Rappahannock or Essex County, Virginia (Essex County was formed from Rappahannock in 1694). There is no record of who the parents of James Sams are. Crawford Sams, by a process of elimination, makes William Sams who sailed from Bristol, his parent. Another person (Beck Sams) has James as the son of Robert Sams, born 1639-1668 Cardiff, Wales, came to SC 1720, died 1693-1671 - married an unknown Fuller (French Hugenot) b.1665-1708; she died 1693-1759.
I'm not sure where Old Rappahannock County was, but Essex County today is just a bit up the Rappahannock River. The early settlers of Virginia, beginning in 1607, settled on the coast and gradually moved up the rivers. In 1644 there was a massacre which pretty much drove the settlers from the upper reaches of the Rappahannock and back to the coast. In 1700 settlement in Virginia extended only about 50 miles inland, and the population was only 55,000 - or half the number that had been brought there since the beginning! Starting in about 1713, people moved inland again, to the Piedmont and as far as the Smokey and Blue Ridge mountains. People from Pennsylvania also moved into this territory - and so, eventually, did James Sams.
In 1715 (May 10) , James was a witness to a will in Essex County (the will of John Ferguson)
In 1716 he married Kathryn Allyn Tolbut, daughter of Thomas Allen and Eleanor
Unknown.
Mother Eleanor was also married more than once - as were many people of those
days (think of George Washington and the widow Custis). Eleanor (or Elinor)
married Richard Kemp, and when he died in 1714, he willed things to his daughters,
Eliza and Joan, his son Richard jr, his widow Elinor - formerly Elinor Allyn - and his
step-daughters Kathryn Tolbut and Mary Nalle.
Sometime between 1716 and 1723 James and his family moved to Spotsylvania County, further up the Rappahannock river - although I think they did not live on that particular river, which forms the boundary to the county. 1723 was the year James purchased 300 acres from John Chew. Later on he purchased 34 (or 43) more. (Patent #18 of 1739 confirms 240 out of the original 340 acres.) The land is "astride Pike Run and Bluff Run including their junction above Cattail Marsh. The combined Runs known as the Pike Run enter the Ta River, which in turn joins the Po Ni River. The Po Ni River is the combined Po and Ni Rivers. The Matta and Poni combine to form the Mattaponi River." (SFOV, p. 14) Nice and clear, eh? My map doesn't include such detail, but the Mattaponi runs pretty much through the center of Spotsylvania County, so. (Crawford Sams also says that on the Geological Survey Map, the Pike Run is (mis?) labeled the Glebe Run, and the combined Pike and Bluff is (mis?) labeled the Bluff Run.)
The Sams family stayed on this land (and in fact descendants, though no longer called Sams because they descended through the female line, were still there when Crawford S. wrote his book in 1981) for 82 years. During those years, there were 18 land transactions, and at its largest (in 1795) the plantation was 773 ½ acres.
James and Kathryn had 4 children:
William b. 1717 (our next ancestor)
James jr b. 1718
Mary b. August 28, 1723
John b. & d. 1727
James died 6 Dec 1726; Kathryn died sometime after 1739. They are buried on the family property, but there are no stones. Also buried there are James jr and his wife, Mary and John.
William
Our next ancestor, William, will be discussed more fully in the next section. Briefly, he was
born ~1717, married Mary Unknown ~1744, moved west to what is now Henry County
~1746. Seven children: John, James, Littlebury, William, Edmund, Elijah and Rice.
William died 1779, Mary died sometime after 1768.
James jr
Born ~1718, James jr inherited half James sr's property (William got the other half).
William moved west; James stayed in Spotsylvania. He married Ann Powell ~1744. Six
children: Joseph b. 1756 (m. Nancy Pratt - son John Shirley Sams b. 1783), Ann (m.
Richard Long), Sara (m. John Carnahan), John b. 1767 (m. Mary Bledsoe), Mary (m.
William Dawson), Fannie. Joseph sold the last of the Sams property to sister Ann & her
husband Richard Long in 1805. James died 5 Dec 1768; he and Ann are buried in the
family plot.
Mary Sams
Born 7 Aug 1723, Mary died when she was only 5, in 1728, and is buried in the family
plot.
John
Born and died in 1727. Buried in the family plot.
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Forward to next ancestor, William Sams
contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com
page last updated 6 September 2004