Part 1, No. 7
Previously on Unsettled
John Kimbrough lived the Colonial version of an immigrant’s dream—the American dream. When he died in 1743, he was an old man of 82 and was respected for all he had done. But he didn’t do it alone. For starters, he married well—to a young woman from his village in Scotland. Mary Douglas surely matched his adventurous spirit as they were building their new life in the colonies. Also, Mary’s father not only helped pay their passage to America, he went along with them. The family would include six children before Mary died at age 35.
John Kimbrough II
John II was an established member of New Kent’s planter class at the time of his father’s death. As the oldest son, John II was heir to Kimbrough’s vast holdings as well to his father’s political and familial connections to Governor William Berkley. (Recall that the elder Kimbrough’s second wife was related to Gov. Berkley.) John II also had the time-honored benefit of marrying well, and Elizabeth Bradley was a good catch by any measure. Not only was she the girl next door—rather the next plantation over—she also was the daughter of Thomas William Bradley, an influential member of Virginia’s House of Burgess. Better yet, she possessed an enviable colonial lineage. Her great-grandparents William and Mary Brewster were among the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower to Plymouth Colony in 1620. (Brewster was one of the leaders of the Separatists, breakaway congregations who denied the divine authority of the Church of England.)
While there’s no record of John II’s land holdings, it is safe to say it was considered a plantation. Virginia’s colonial government set guidelines for taxing different types of property. A plantation, it said, was a property of 500 to 1,000 acres, that cultivated at least two crops (rice and tobacco predominantly), and required the labor of at least 20 slaves. Slaves were considered property. The government also levied a ten percent “tithable” tax on every head of household and slave. In 1755, the headcount for tithes in New Kent County was 465 Whites and 1,209 Blacks, a ratio of three slaves for every White head of household.
John Thomas Kimbrough
John Thomas was the youngest of John II and Elizabeth Kimbrough’s ten children. According to the English common law of succession, which also applied to the colonies, the oldest son inherited the father’s estate, as well as his slaves. Alas, Thomas was at the end of the line of succession (except for his sisters), but he was still a rich man’s son. And as his father had done, he also married well.
On Sept. 20, 1731, John Thomas married Eleanor Graves In New Kent, Virginia. Eleanor was the oldest of three children born to Thomas Graves and Mary Perkins. (After Mary died, Thomas remarried and between his two wives, fathered a total of 16 or 17 children.) At one time Eleanor’s father and his partners owned more than 3,000 acres in multiple counties, including an area along the Pamunkey River. At his death, his will divided his estate among his 16 (or 17) children, creating the predictable disputes and delays with their involvement. Eleanor eventually received her share of her father’s “legacy.” It didn’t go unnoticed.
Eleanor and John Thomas would raise their own family of ten in New Kent. That is until, sometime around 1771, when the family packed up and left Virginia for North Carolina. At the time he was sixty-four years old, hardly an age to be striking out for new territory. Thomas, as a third-generation member of the planter class, found quick entry into North Carolina’s social and political circles. Thomas died in 1777, five years after his arrival in North Carolina, but by then he had accumulated properties that included a plantation, farmland, and 16 slaves, nine of whom were males and seven were females.
In his will, Thomas refers to Eleanor as “my beloved wife,” and arranges for her security by “lending ” Eleanor the plantation for her “natural life.” (Widows couldn’t own property and thus couldn’t inherit the estate.) He also gave her possession of the household furniture, any working tools and “Negros to wit, Sam, George, Cato, Suey & Phebe.” Also named was a horse called Sorrel, mares Bonney and Fly, plus eight cows, four ewes and lambs, three sows and pigs, and “Port out of my stock.” Upon Eleanor’s death (She lived another eight years.), the plantation, other lands and slaves were to be divided among his four oldest sons, William, Robert, Thomas, John, and his daughter Sukey Nowel. Additionally, Kimbrough willed 108 acres to John, and 125 acres to Thomas. With the unexplained exception of Sukey, his married daughters—Sarah Brown, Mary Bryant, Betty Bruce, Franky Carmon and Nancy “Nanney” Turner—each received one Negro slave, and ten pounds of “proclamation money,” the going price of a good horse in those days.