One branch of the Randolph family of Virginia came to
Mississippi in 1822. Peter Randolph
(1779-1832) brought with him three daughters who would marry into the Stewart
family---two to sons of Duncan Stewart and one to a son of Elizabeth Stewart
Ventress, Duncan’s sister.
In discussing this family we find connections to John James
Audubon and to the Percy family of West Feliciana.
Children:
1. Algernon
Sidney Randolph m. Phoebe
Elizabeth Vail
estate offered to sell 80 acres with a
newly built dwelling located on the
Children:
1. nn
Randolph
2. John
Randolph
2. Sarah Ann Yates Randolph m. Tignal Jones Stewart
b. 30 Sept 1809
b. 20 April 1800
d. 23 Jan 1892 d. 20 March 1855
3.
Augusta Maria Randolph m. (7
Feb 1828) William Charles S. Ventress
d.
d. 1883, age 79
Children:
1. William
Ventress
2. Peter
Ventress
3. Florence
Ventress
4. Louisiana
Ventress
b. 24 Mar 1813 b. 26 Jan
1819
d. 18 Sept 1883 d. 1904
b. 1 Dec 1814 b. 14 July 1811
d. 6 Feb 1898 d. 28 Aug 1883
6. Cornelia Virginia Randolph m. (23 May 1839) Charles Augustine
Thornton
1. Charles
Augustus Thornton
b. 1843
d. 1849
2. John Randolph Thornton m. Elizabeth Smith
b. 1846 b. 1856
d. 1917
Children:
1. Robert
Smith Thornton m. Margaret Smallwood
b. 1883 b. 1889
d. 1920, Alexandria LA d.
1920
lived Rapides Parish
Children:
1. John
Randolph Thornton
1911-1950
2. Mary
Smallwood Thornton m. James
Alexander White II
b. c. 1913 b. 1910
3. Algernon Sidney Thornton
b. 1848
d. 1849
b. 30 Apr 1811
d. 8 April 1874 at son’s North Bend
Plantation
Pointe Coupee Parish
Child
b. 30 Oct. 1830 (1829) b. 1836, W. Feliciana Parish
Children:
1. Mary
Randolph, b. 1855
2. Courtney
Randolph, b. 1857
3. Elizabeth
Randolph, b. 1860, d. 1943 m. John
B. Lobdell
4. Adine
Randolph, b. 1861 m.
1. Edward P. Dennis
2. Hugh H. Davis
5. Josephine
Courtney Randolph, b. 1864, d. 1904 m.
Llewellen Pugh
6. Lisa
Randolph, b. 1865, d. 1923
7. Elsie
Courtney Randolph, b. 1868 m. John
Slaughter
8. Peter
Randolph, b. 1868 m. 1. Nannie Schlater
9. Henry
C. Randolph, b. 1869, d. 1953 m.
Fannie Howell
10. Thomas
Percy Randolph, b. 1872, d. 1925 m. Ella
Davis
11. Laura
Randolph, b. 1873, d. 1929 m.
Charles O. Werk
12. Cornelia
Randolph, b. 1879 m.
Ralston Green
The first of the Randolphs to immigrate to America was Henry
Randolph (1623-1673) who came in 1642 and settled in Henrico in the Virginia
Colony. Henrico was originally settled
in 1611 by Sir Thomas Dale who left Jamestown to establish the town of Henrico
at what is now Farrars Island (This is south of present day Richmond on the
James and nearer to Petersburg.). Peace was established with the Indians in
1614 when John Rolf married Pocahontas[18]
the daughter of Chief Powhatan. But on
Good Friday, 22 March 1622 Henricus was attacked and destroyed. In 1634 Henricus became one of the 8 original
shires of the colony. In 1640 the court
was at Varina and in 1752 in Richmond.
In 1749 Henrico County was split with Chesterfield being formed on the
south and west side of the James. Henry
Randolph was clerk of Henrico from 1643 to 1669 and was clerk of the House of
Burgesses 1660 until his death in 1673.
He is said to have died in Henrico County and buried Bristol Parish.
Bristol Parish was established 1643 for all of the Appomattox River Valley. In the early 1700’s several
churches were built. In the same year that Henry died, his brother Richard and
nephew William immigrated to Virginia and they would start another line of
Randolphs in Virginia.
Henry the immigrant had a son Henry II (b. 1664 Appomattox,
d. 1692, Henrico) who also had a son Henry III (b. 1688 Henrico, d. 1726
Henrico) who had a son Henry IV (b. 1720 Appomattox, d. 1771 Henrico). It is not entirely clear where the family
lived. It would seem that they remained in Henrico County which after 1749 was
north of the James, but the Appomattox River is south and west of the James in
Chesterfield County. In any case they
lived in the upper reaches of the James in the vicinity of the Appomattox
River. The next son is Peter Randolph
(1750-1812). Peter’s son Peter
(1779-1832) was born in Nottoway County, married there and had a family
there. Nottoway County was formed in
1788 from Amelia County and is south of the Appomattox River Valley. It would
seem that the family had moved slightly west.
In 1798 and 1799 there are land transactions in Nottoway County on
Cellar Creek by Peter Randolph and his wife Sarah. This would be Peter
Randolph, the elder.
Peter Randolph (1779-1832) was born in Nottoway County,
Virginia. He attended the College of
William and Mary in Williamsburg. Read
law in 1806. He was in private practice
in Nottoway County, Virginia from 1806 to 1812.
He served as a member, Virginia House of Delegates. Lieutenant Colonel, Virginia State Militia
1807-1810. Judge on the General Court of
Virginia, 5th Circuit 1812-1820. He received a recess appointment
from President James Monroe on 25 June 1823 to a seat vacated by William B.
Shields (by death) (permanent appointment, 5 Dec. confirmed by Senate, 9 Dec
1823) as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District
of Mississippi. He served until his
death in 1832 and was replaced by Powhatan Ellis July 14, 1832. He was a planter after moving to Wilkinson
County Mississippi.
Peter Randolph left Virginia in 1819, moving to Wilkinson
County Mississippi. He established Elmwood Plantation, just south of Woodville.
The home vanished many years ago but in 2007 Randolph descendants from
Louisiana purchased a small plot in Woodville’s Evergreen Cemetery and had the
original marble monuments from the Randolph cemetery at Elmwood removed to
Evergreen and added a new marble monument added with the inscription, “In
memory of these Randolph family members whose remains lie undisturbed where
they were buried, south of Woodville.” The six names listed are: Hon. Peter R.
Randolph Jr. (1780-1832), Sarah Greenhill Randolph (1761-1830) (mother), Sarah
(Sallie) Cocke Randolph (1789-1825), Cornelia Virginia Randolph Thornton
(1819-1849) (daughter), Charles Augustus Thornton (1843-1849), Algernon Sidney
Thornton (1848-1849).[19]
Closer to Woodville was the plantation of Moses John
Liddell, Elmsley. Liddell (1785-), a native of Abbeville SC played a prominent
role in the American Revolution. He and his wife Bethia Frances established
their plantation in the Mississippi Territory. It is a simple raised
cottage. Here were born four children.
Moses and James died as infants in 1822.
St. John Richardson Liddell was born in 1815 and after poor grades led
him to resign from West Point in 1834 his father bought him a plantation in
Catahoula Parish, named Llandra. He did serve as a brigadier general in the
Civil War and was murdered in a revenge in 1870. A daughter, Emily Jane, was
born in 1818 and made a propitious marriage in 1837 when she married her
neighbor John Hampden Randolph of nearby Elmwood. Liddell presented his daughter a dowry of
$20,000 and 20 slaves.[20]
Peter Randolph’s sister, Sarah Greenhill Randolph Yates and
her husband William Yates moved to Mississippi in the early 1820’s with Peter.
Letters on 8 and 10 October 1821 were sent from William Yates to Sarah
Greenhill Randolph Yates, c/o Kennedy’s PO, Virginia while traveling overland
with Peter Randolph to Mississippi, the first from Wythe Court House, Virginia,
the second from Surgoinsville, Tennessee. (The route apparently goes from SW
Virginia down the valley to the Holston in Tennessee. Presumably from there over the Cumberland
Mountains to Nashville and perhaps down the Natchez Trace.) Sarah Yates was still in Virginia in 1822 when
her husband, William, wrote (18 April and 3 May) from Woodville, Mississippi
about practice in the Mississippi Superior Court in Wilkinson and Amite
Counties and his plans to attend the State Supreme Court at Columbia on 1 June
1822. He was writing to her at Kennedy’s PO which is apparently in Brunswick
County Virginia, south of Nottoway County.[21]
Sarah Ann Yates Randolph, Peter’s daughter, wrote in 20 Dec
1821 (from ?), to her aunt, Sarah Greenhill Randolph Yates in Brunswick County
Virginia telling her about piano lessons.
Sarah’s teacher, Julia Melford, added that Sarah Ann studied reading,
writing, history, geography and French but primarily music.[22] Is Sarah Ann now in Mississippi? Probably not yet as the family is noted to
have come in the fall of 1822.
Nottoway County is located a short distance southwest of
Richmond in Virginia and was important to the family. Peter’s son John Hampton Randolph named his
palatial plantation home in Louisiana, Nottoway. Sarah Ann had inscribed on her tombstone: ‘Born
Nottoway County Virginia.’ The Virginia county was named for the Nadowa tribe
of Iroquois people and means rattlesnake.
It was established in 1788 from Amelia County.
Mrs. Yates is in Woodville by 20 June 1823 when her cousin,
Edward P. French wrote from Manchester (a southern suburb of Richmond)
reporting on a recent journey by ship from New Orleans to Richmond. He noted he had recently married Matilda
Burfort. He also noted he was putting
the possibility of a move to Mississippi.
He had visited Mr. Epps[23]
at Nottaway.[24]
Judge Peter Randolph’s father had died in Georgia in
1812. The internet source of the
Randolph genealogy has his father marrying a second time but Doug Lewis has
Judge Peter Randolph’s mother Sarah Greenhill Randolph as living with his
family in Mississippi. The Randolph home in Wilkinson County was about four
miles from Woodville. Wilkinson County
Cemetery Records show the Randolph Cemetery to be off present day US 61 a few
miles south of Woodville. The only
Randolph graves there are:
Cornelia Virginia, wife of CA Thornton (Apr 2, 1819-Mar 3,
1849), Randolph (no name), wife Hon. Peter Randolph (c. 1788-July 1825),
Randolph (no name), Peter Randolph (1780-Jan 30, 1832). Sarah Randolph, mother
of Peter Randolph (c. 1761-Apr 2, 1830).
The burial of Peter’s mother is sufficient evidence that she did
accompany the family to Mississippi. In the Woodville Republican we read on
April 10, 1830 that “died 2nd of April, Mrs. Sally Randolph at the
residence of her son, the Hon. Peter Randolph, age 69. She moved from Virginia along with her son
and his family in the autumn of 1822.
She leaves a son and daughter to deplore their loss.” The second marriage of Peter Randolph, Sr.
noted above seems unlikely.
West Feliciana Parish today bills itself as Audubon
Country. John James Audubon taught Eliza
Pirrie briefly in the summer and fall of 1821 at Oakley Plantation, southeast
of St. Francisville. Audubon returned to
New Orleans after being dismissed from his post at Oakley. Audubon’s wife Lucy
and his sons joined him in New Orleans on 18 December 1821. Not doing well in
New Orleans he tried Natchez and in September 1822 Lucy joined him there. A friend found Lucy a position in Feliciana.
In 1823 Lucy Audubon was teaching at the Percy plantation, Beech Woods, north
of St. Francisville toward Woodville.[25] John James later joined her but “his
sensitive nature and short temper in combination with Jane Percy’s tendency to
criticize and dictate were ideal ingredients for an explosion. The blowup was
not long in coming.” They got into an argument over portraits he was doing of
the Percy daughters. Jane Percy ordered Audubon off the plantation.[26]
Lucy remained in her teaching position as it provided the
most financial security that she had seen.
John James took his son Gifford to Natchez. Lucy was sent
word several weeks later that both her husband and son were seriously ill with
yellow fever. She took a horse and gig to the plantation of George T. Duncan to
nurse them. Jane Percy did relent and invited Lucy to return and bring her
husband and son with her to care for at Beech Woods.
In addition to the Percy daughters, Lucy was teaching a
number of other young girls: Isabel Kendrick, Miss Marshall, Ann Mathews (Sarah
Randolph’s daughter, Penelope Stewart would later marry into the Mathews
family), Ann Eliza Ratliff, the Swayze girls[27],
Julia Ann, Sallie Ann, and Augusta Randolph (the first two would marry Duncan
Stewart’s sons, Augusta would marry into the Ventress branch of the Stewarts),
Caroline Hamilton (Duncan Stewart’s
daughter Elizabeth would marry a Hamilton. This Hamilton I believe to be
related.[28]), and
Virginia Chisholm.[29]
Ann Eliza Ratliff was the great-granddaughter of Olivia
Ruffin Barrow. She married as his second
wife, William Brandon of Arcole Plantation of Wilkinson County, in 1833 at her
home, Ellerslie Plantation of West Feliciana, a magnificent Greek Revival
mansion completed in 1833.[30]
Besides teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, Lucy
Audubon taught literature, music, and even swimming in the springhouse. She
instructed in sewing and was a confident to the students’ adolescent problems
and dreams.
John James took their oldest son to Louisville and he
traveled on to Philadelphia and New York.
In September 1824 he was in Pittsburgh. He made his way to Cincinnati
and thence to Louisville to see his son Gifford and then on back to Bayou Sarah
to join his wife. He had been gone 14
months. In the winter of 1825 they agreed that John James should go to Europe
to promote his book of birds. They needed more money and for a year and a half
John James and Lucy lived and worked together at Beech Woods. They decided that
whenever John James was not working on the collection he would offer lessons in
art and dancing to any of Lucy’s students who were willing to pay the extra
tuition.
Life on the isolated plantations was lonely especially for
the young girls of the planter families.
Attending Lucy Audubon’s school was an opportunity for the young ladies
to associate with other girls and was as much a social as an educational
experience. On one occasion one of the
Randolph girls, obviously trying her best to make a favorable impression on
John James, asked one of her friends, probably Ann Mathews, to teach her
something in French that she could repeat to Mr. Audubon. Evidently, Ann could not pass up this
opportunity to play mischief. She
carefully instructed her to say “Bon soir, chat.” Miss Randolph proudly repeated this greeting
to John James who promptly flew into a rage.
The girl was appalled to learn that she had said “Good night, cat.”[31]
The Audubons were in the Felicianas to make some money to
promote John James’ publication of his bird prints. Complementing Lucy’s program, he began
teaching music, French and drawing there, as well as cotillion dancing at
regular soirees held in the swept-out barn where cotton was ginned. On the Randolph plantation in Woodville,
Mississippi, fifteen miles northwest of Beech Woods, he taught Judge Peter Randolph’s
three sons how to fence.[32] (Peter had two teenage sons at this time but
his third son was born in 1830.)[33]
Another source says that it was 1825 when Audubon taught the Randolph boys
fencing at Elmwood.[34]
The Audubons quickly realized that the planter families in
West Feliciana were virtually starved for a taste of social life and for
cultural entertainment. They decided
that dancing lessons offered on the weekends with all the pupils gathered at
the same time would be a profitable undertaking. It was arranged that on Friday and Saturday nights
for a period of three months John James would give lessons in the hotel
ballroom at Woodville. A class of sixty
pupils, ranging in age from eight to eighty, was organized.[35]
A report was made in 1848 Woodville Republican of Audubon’s
visit to Woodville in the fall of 1831 when his wife had a school at Mrs.
Percy’s in West Feliciana. (This would have actually been in 1825) It was noted that as an adjunct to his study
he was devoted to field sports and thus fell naturally into the society of such
men as Hon. Harry Cage, the late Judge Peter Randolph, William Ventress, Major
Feltus and Levin K. Marshall, Esqr. The
latter two “felt a lively interest in the great work—the history and
classification of natures feathered tribes—in which Monsieur Audubon was
engaged.” These gentlemen induced
Audubon “to teach a dancing school in the town of Woodville which they, with
other married men, attended in company with their children; and to swell the
list of his scholars and consequently the profits of his school, they all took
lessons in dancing. The dancing school
added to the pleasure and amusement of the juveniles, to see their fathers and
a grandfather taking their first steps.”[36]
One source notes that the dancing was taught at the home of Major AM Feltus in Woodville at the corner of
Boston Row and First South St. (The house is known as the Catchings Home
today.) However Audubon refers to the location as a “hall” and one source
suggests the old Market Hall on Main St.[37]
These weekend soirees rapidly became the favorite
entertainment of the well-to-do for miles around. It was an opportunity for boy to meet
girl. For wives, mothers, and
grandmothers, it was a chance to leave the lonely plantation with their men and
to see and talk with each other. For the
men, too, these outings provided an opportunity to speak to other planters
about crops, slaves, and hunting. After
the first gathering, Audubon’s reputation as an entertaining performer spread,
and many came merely to watch the antics of the flamboyant Frenchman.
John James described opening night of the dancing classes:
One day I
went over to begin my duties. I dressed
at the hotel, then with my fiddle under my arm entered the ballroom. My music was highly appreciated at the start. I placed the gentlemen in line thinking to
let the young ladies compose themselves a little. How I toiled before I could get one graceful
step or motion! I broke my bow and,
nearly, my violin in my excitement and impatience! Next I had the ladies, alone, take the same
order and try the same steps. Then I
tried both together—pushed one here, another there---all the while singing to
myself to assist their efforts. The many
parents who were looking on seemed to be delighted. At the close of this first
lesson I was asked to dance to my own music.
This I did—until the whole room came down in thunderous applause, in the
clapping of hands and shouting. Thus
ended my first lesson and an amusing comedy.
Lessons in fencing, for the young gentlemen, came next.[38]
When I would make a misstep, one of his young ladies
remembered, he would throw up his hands.
“De udder foot, my darling!” was his affectionate admonition.[39]
In the spring of 1826 Lucy and John James decided that the
time had come for Audubon to begin his journey to Europe. He left 27 May and would be gone for 3 years
and 8 months.
With John James gone much of the time Lucy lived in
Feliciana, she sought out the conversation and companionship of adults. She visited the Bourgeats, the Popes, Judge
Mathews, and the Holls.[40]
There had been trouble with Jane Percy at Beech Woods all
along. Percy and Audubon did not get along although she loved Lucy. Not long
after Audubon left Beech Woods for Europe, a quarrel erupted between Lucy and
Jane Percy. It was an argument over John James but the exact cause is not
known. Lucy was also having trouble collecting tuition. A friend, Nathaniel
Pope helped Lucy to procure another position.
After the end of the fall term Lucy took another position in 1827 with
the Johnson family at Beech Grove.[41] (William Garrett Johnson [1776-1861] m.
Judith Collins [1780-1861] owner of Beech Grove.)[42] Classes began in February 1827. Her students at Beech Grove included the two
Johnson girls, Susan and Malvina, Jane and Susan Montgomery, Jane and Mary Harbour,
Mary, Anne, and Louisa Carpenter, Margaret Butler, Caroline Hamilton, and Mary
Rucker.[43]
The Randolph girls are no longer in attendance. That summer, 1827, Lucy
attended the biggest social event in the parish, the wedding of Ann Mathews,
one of Lucy’s most mischievous charges at Beech Woods, and William Chase. Many
of the guests at the wedding had been Audubon’s students at the weekend dance
sessions that he had conducted in Woodville.[44] The Stewart association with the Audubons and
the people of the Felicianas no doubt had an influence in drawing the attention
of the children and later especially the grandchildren to select mates from
that area of Louisiana. Sarah Randolph
Stewarts daughter, Penelope would marry Ann Mathews’ younger half brother, Charles
Mathews.
At some point Juliana Randolph (and perhaps her sisters) was
sent to the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans for instruction.[45]
The Ursuline Nuns arrived in New Orleans in 1727. Their primary mission was the
universal education of females. Today the New Orleans’ Ursuline Academy is the
oldest continuously operating school for girls in the United States and is now
located in the Garden District.[46]
The first marriage of the Randolph girls was to Duncan
Stewart’s son Tignal Jones Stewart to Sarah Ann Randolph, the eldest of Peter
Randolph’s girls in June 1825, just six months after Audubon had begun his
teaching in Woodville. They were married
by Mr. James Angel Fox in the newly constructed St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in
Woodville according to Doug Lewis.[47] He was 25, she not quite 16. The Woodville Republican records the marriage
at Sligo. The family’s plantation was
south of Woodville as is Sligo and they were probably married at Sarah
Randolph’s home, Elmwood Plantation.[48]
Duncan Stewarts son, James Alexander, age 21, married Sarah
Ann Randolph’s younger sister, Juliana, age 18, in February 1832.
Forty-nine year old Peter Randolph married a second time to
a 17 year old, Elizabeth Leatherbury in 1828. Elizabeth Leatherbury[49]
(1811-1874), Peter Randolph’s second wife, was born in Salisbury MD, the
daughter of Dr. Perigrine Leatherbury and Elizabeth Handy. Dr. Leatherbury was born Salisbury, Somerset
Co. MD. The new couple had one son, also named Peter in 1830. The elder Peter
Randolph died in 1832. WCS Ventress was appointed to be executor of the Peter
Randolph estate in 1840.[50] This is 8 years past his death in 1832.
Peter Randolph’s widow, Elizabeth Leatherbury Randolph
married Thomas Butler Percy on 4 June 1833.
The wedding was solemnized by Rev. Pierce Connely, Rector Trinity,
Natchez, at the church.
The Percys settled at Beech Wood, West Feliciana Parish, the
plantation Thomas had inherited from his parents and where the Randolph girls
had been educated by Lucy Audubon who had been hired by the widow, Jane Percy
in 1823.
Thomas B. Percy’s Anglo grandfather, Charles Percy, settled
in Spanish West Florida where he served as alcade. He drowned himself in Percy
Creek in 1794. Charles’ son, Robert Percy, came to West Florida when his father
died to settle with his step mother and her children, the legitimate heirs.
Robert Percy at eight years old had joined the navy in 1770 and retired from
the British Navy in 1802. He had been promoted to lieutenant in 1783 for
gallant conduct near Quebec during the American Revolution He married his
Scottish wife Jane Middlemist in 1796 in London. He acquired a 2200 acre
plantation on Big Bayou Sarah called Beech Woods. He also served as alcade,
appointed by Governor Don Carlos de Grand Pres, but became a leader in the
revolution of 1810 against Grand Pres’ successor, Carlos de Hault de Lassure.
Robert Percy along with Fulwar Skipwitdh and Shepherd Brown were members of the
first high judiciary of West Florida. They ordered Gen. Philemon Thomas to take
the fort in Baton Rouge.[51]
Thomas Butler Percy, the 5th of seven children of Robert Percy, was
born in 1809 in Feliciana Parish. He was
appointed by President John Quincy Adams to West Point, 25 Feb 1826. After West Point he went to the Medical
College in Philadelphia. He moved to
Natchez to practice where he married the widow Randolph.
Retreat Plantation was built on a bluff above Little Bayou
Sara by Sarah Bingman and her husband Stephen Cobb in 1823. She then married
Capt. Clarence Mulford who had been stationed at Ft. Adams and was involved in
the arrest of Aaron Burr. He named the home Soldier’s Retreat. In 1857 his
widow donated 5 acres for the building of St. Mary’s Church. She died in 1859.
Retreat was then purchased by widowed Elizabeth Leatherbury Randolph Percy
beginning six generations of Percy’s at Retreat. The home is now owned by Mary
Cleland de Laureal Owen, the great niece of Edward McGehee Percy, and her
husband CB Owen. It is a story and one half Anglo Creole cottage with a brick
walled cellar and four round brick columns.[52]
1740-1794 1745-1785
In the 1770’s Charles Percy was on the Leeward island of St.
Eustatius where he met Dr. Robert Dow (1753-c. 1841). Charles Percy was an
Irishman in the short-lived regiment of “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne. While in
Kilkenny (1758-63) he sired two children: Sarah (1767-1781) and Robert
(1762-1819). He sailed alone, leaving the mother and her two children, in the
early 1770’s, to or via Bermuda to North Carolina, where he claimed to have had
an extensive property. Charles Percy arrived in July of 1775 in St. Eustatius
as a Tory refugee from the American Revolution. From the Dutch island Percy and
Dow sailed together in September 1776 to Pensacola. To the military veterans
and other Loyalists, the British government was offering grants of land in its
new territories of the trans-Appalacian “Old Southwest.” Governor Peter Chester
of Pensacola appointed Percy a Natchez officer and he began to develop land
east of the future Ft. Adams. Dow traveled to New Orleans in 1778 where he
obtained an appointment from the Spanish Governor Bernado de Galvez to the
Royal Hospital in 1779. Dr. Dow married a recent widow, Angelica Monsanto (c.
1744-1821) who had two sons, Thomas Urquhart (1773-1841) and David Urguhart
(1778-c. 1840’s). They married at St. Louis Cathedral on 9 September 1781.
Angelica was Jewish immigrating from The Hague but became an ardent protestant
and her husband became Senior Warden of the newly-founded Christ Church. In May
1785 Dow left New Orleans for an extended trip to Europe perhaps because of the
terminal illness of his father, Rev. R. Dow (1701-1787) in Aryshire. During
this visit, Dr. Dow met for the first time Lt. Robert Percy of the Royal Navy
(1762-1819), the son of Charles Percy. They established a fraternal bond which
would link them the rest of their lives. Robert and Jane Middlemist Percy later
named their first son, Robert Dow Percy (1804-1863) after his godfather.[54]
b. 1762, Kilkenny b. 1772, Edinburgh
d. 19 Nov 1819, Feliciana d. 12 Mar 1831
Children: 7
1. Jane
Letitia Cowan Percy (1797-1872) m.
James C. Williams
2. Margaret
Isabelle Jessie Percy m.
George Washington Sargent
1802-1865 1802-1864
3. Robert Dow Percy m. 1. Ellen Hampton Davis of
Wilkinson Co.
b. 1804, Beechwood 2. Pauline Routh, Tensas Parish
d. 1863, Vernon Plantation, Adams Co.
Children:
1.
Eleanor Hampton Percy
Robert Dow Percy took John James
Audubon into the dense woodlands of his father’s plantation to paint the
world-famous “Wild Turkey Cock.”[56]
4. Susan Catherine Percy
5. Thomas Butler Percy m. Elizabeth Leatherbury Randolph
b. 29 Sept 1809
b. 1811
d. 7 June 1851 d. 8 Apr 1874, at the home of her son
Dr. Peter Randolph, North Bend
Children:
1.
Thomas Butler Percy nm.
b. 18 Nov 1834
d. 22 Nov 1862
2.
Clarence Percy m.
Annie Matilda Hereford
1836-1909
1836-1898
Children:
1. Margery Percy m. W. Eugene Bingham
2. Louisa Johnson Percy m. William Heard Wright, Sr.
1903-1981
1900-1968
Children:
1. William H. Wright, Jr m. 1. Mary Arvin Patrick, b.
1930
1927-2014
2. Madeline Noland
3. Annie Matilda Percy m.
Oscar Menes Thompson
b. 1899 1899-1990
Children:
1.
OM Thompson, Jr. m. Laura
Noland
b. 1927
b. 1927
2.
Hereford Percy Thompson
3. Dr. James Rowan Percy
4. Elizabeth Rowena Percy
5. William Chaille Percy m. Sarah Richard Jenkins
b. 1840 b. 1846
d. 1891, Retreat
d. 1923
Children:
6
1867-1914
1869-1895
Children:
1. Nellie Percy, b. 1915
2. Eleanor
Courtney Percy, b. 1870
3. Rowena
Hereford Percy m. Dr. Charles Lewis
Ramage
1873-1907
1862-1918
Children:
1. Rowena
Percy, b. 1901
2. Eleanor
Carter Percy m. Thomas E.
Williamson
b. 1902
Children:
1. Eleanor Carter Williamson, b.
1936
3. Charles
L. Ramage, Jr. m. Wilma Howell
b. 1904
Children:
Charles L. Ramage, III, b. 1937
b. 1878
Children:
1.
Francis
S. Percy, Jr. b. 1910
2. James
Fisher Percy, b. 1911 m. Mary Womack
Children:
1. James
Michael Percy, b. 1942
3. Harmon
Wallace Percy, b. 1913
b. 7 Sept 1914, Highland
d. 19 May 2005[64]
Children:
1. Stephen
Phillip DeLaureal
2. James
Thomas DeLaureal, Reno
Children:
1. Ryan James DeLaurel, Reno
Children:
1. Howard Wade Owen, Gaithersburg
MD
2. Margaret Davis Owen, Wheaton,
IL
5. Naomi
Fisher Percy, b. 1920 m. Frank Pratt
Lathrop
Children:
1. Frank Percy Lathrop, b. 1943
5. George
Carter Percy m. Lucille Gildart
1879-1918
d. 1941
Children:
1. William Gildart Percy m. Lula Kathrine Lunceford
b. 1907
b. 1885
Children:
1.
Eleanor Carter Percy m. Richard
Holcombe Kilbourne
b. 1915
2.
Edward Carter Percy, b. 1919
3.
Nora Stewart Percy, b. 1922
4.
Lucy Greyson Percy, b. 1926
6. Robert Sargent Percy
7. Margaret Jane Percy
All the 5 sons of Thomas Butler Percy fought for the
Confederacy. Thomas died of Typhoid in
1862. Clarence served four years, the
first 2 with the Army of Virginia where he fought in 1st and 2nd
Manassas.
6. Anna
Christiana O’Connor Percy
7. Charles
Evans Percy
Both Thomas Percy and Elizabeth Randolph Percy are buried
Grace Church, St. Francisville LA.
Charles Percy (1740-1794) married in Bermuda but had no
issue with this his first wife. He then married Susanna Collins (d. 1803) and
had children: 6
1. Sarah
Percy
2. Susanna
Percy
3. Thomas
George Percy m. Maria
Pope
1786-1841
1797-1847
Children:
1. William Alexander Percy m. Nannie Armstrong
1837-1888
1835-1897
Children:
1. John Walker Percy m Mary Pratt Debardeleben
1864-1917
Children:
1. Leroy Pratt
Percy m. Martha Susan
Phinizy
1889-1929 1890-1932
Children:
1. Walker
Percy MD, 1916-1990
2. Leroy
Percy, b. 1917
3. Phinizy
‘Phin’ Percy
4. Catherine
Percy
5. Luke
Percy, died young
6. William
Percy, died young
[1] Daughter
of Acrill Cocke, who was the son of Thomas Cocke and Susanna Acrill.
[2] I have
found the 1779 in a couple locations on the web. The Wilkinson Co. Cemetery Records gives his
birthdate as 1780.
[3] His
plantation in Wilkinson County. One source calls it Elmridge.
[4]
Wilkinson County Cemetery Records, p. 212.
The birthdate is given as c. 1788.
She and her husband are buried in the Randolph Cemetery which is south
of Woodville off Hwy 61, past Ogden Rd. on the right going south opposite
Ashwood Ln. Their monuments have been moved to Woodville but the graves left
undisturbed.
[5] From
Jones Stewart family Bible
[6]
Woodville Republican, 18 Nov 1837.
[7]
Woodville Republican, 15 Feb 1840.
[8] T Jones
Stewart family Bible. Penciled in by WCS Ventress was July over September.
[9] In Jones
Stewart family Bible the name is Hampton.
[10]
Wilkinson County Marriage Records
[11] Jones
Stewart Bible has 24 April.
[12] She is
buried at the Randolph Cemetery, Cemetery Records, p.212.
[13] see
Thornton genealogy
[14]
Woodville Republican, Nov/Dec 1828, originally from the Southern Galaxy.
[15]
Graduate Medical College of Philadelphia.
[16] West
Feliciana Parish
[17] both
buried Magnolia Cemetery, Baton Rouge.
[18] Col.
Richard Randolph of Curles Neck married a descendant of Pocohontas and Rolf.
[19] The
Plantation World of Wilkinson Co. MS, p. 65.
[20] The
Plantation World….p. 60-62.
[21]
Randolph and Yates Papers, Wilson Lib, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC
[22]
Randolph papers, UNC
[23] Peter
Randolph’s (b. 1779) grandmother was an Eppes.
[24]
Randolph papers, UNC
[25] Beech
Woods was established by the Robert Percy’s in the early 1800’s. It was located
on Sligo Road but the exact site is not know. Flags Along the Way, p. 102.
[26] Lucy
Audubon, A Biography by Carolyn E. DeLatte, p. 140.
[27] LA
Portraits, p. 240 has a portrait of Frances Margaret Swayze (1835-1856). Notes that Fanny Swayze and her two sisters
were pupils of John James Audubon while he taught at their plantation, “Cedar
Grove,” near Jackson, East Feliciana Parish.
The portrait in oil attributed to John James Audubon. Doug Lewis says Audubon did not do oil
portraits. Fanny Swayze b. 1835 would be
too young to have been a pupil of Audubon.
[28] See the
Hamiltons.
[29] Lucy
Audubon, by Carolyn E. DeLatte, 2008. pp. 138,144.
[30] The
Plantation World…..p. 15-16.
[31] Lucy
Audubon, pp. 144, 155.
[32] John
James Audubon, The Making of an American, by Richard Rhodes, 2004. p.232.
[33]
wc.rootsweb.com
[34] The
Plantation World…p. 67.
[35] Lucy
Audubon, p. 155.
[36] WR, 21
Nov 1848.
[37] The
Plantation World……p. 67.
[38] Lucy
Audubon, pp. 155-156.
[39] John
James Audubon, p. 232.
[40] Lucy
Audubon, p. 164.
[41] Beech
Grove was a double galleried brick home located on highway 421, Spillman Rd. It
burned. Flags Along the Way, p. 103.
[42] LA
Portraits, p. 145.
[43] Lucy Audubon,
p. 171.
[44] Lucy
Audubon, p. 180.
[45] Memoirs
of Ms. Part 2, 1891.
[46] Country
Roads, June 2015, p. 45-47.
[47] The
Founding and Embellishment of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Woodville, MS, an
address given at St. Paul’s in Oct. 2007.
[48] Elmwood
is the name I found at Nottoway as the Wilkinson Co. home of the Randolphs. Nov
2010. I found it listed on the web as Elmridge.
[49]
Louisiana Portraits, Colonial Dames, 1975, p. 158. Miss Leatherberry’s portrait
is by an unknown artist. Sitter age 14.
[50]
Woodville Republican, 25 Jan 1840.
[51] Old
Families of Louisiana, 1931, Stanley Clisby
Arthur.
[52] Audubon
Pilgrimage 2015, Anne Butler.
[53] Most of
the Percy genealogy comes from The Percy Family of MS and LA, 1776-1943, by
John Hereford Percy, Baton Rouge.
[54] Neal
Auction, Nov 2014, pp. 85-87. A portrait of Dr. Dow appears in this issue of
Neal Auction by Jose Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza (Mexican/New
Orleans, c. 1750-1802). It was a wedding present to his sister Ann Dow
(1765-1822) and her husband Alan Ker (1761-1828), Greenock, Scotland. The
painting descended to their son, Robert Dow Ker (1793-1881) by direct descent
to Mrs. AG Ker, Shropshire and to her heirs, Dreweatts, UK., 2013. Sold 2014
for $210,000.
[55] St.
George’s Church, Bloomsbury, London.
[56] Neal
Auction, Nov 2014.
[57] One
source says Dr. Peter Randolph died in Baton Rouge. Had he moved?
[58]
Daughter of Robert Dow Percy and Pauline Routh.
[59] No
relation
[60] Lived
Greenwood Plantation. Greenwood was built in 1830 by William Ruffin Barrow who
grew cotton. He grew sugarcane in 1850 on his 12,000 acres with 750 slaves. He
died in 1862. The house was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Percy in 1915.
Opened to the public 1940-1960. Struck by lightening 1 Aug 1960. It has since
been rebuilt and is run as a B&B.
[61] raised
Greenwood, graduate Dominican HS, NOLA, LSU. Taught St. Joseph’s Academy in BR.
After her marriage her husband was stationed at Pearl Harbor where she was an
eyewitness to the bombling in 1941.
[62] 1940
[63]
graduate US Naval Academy
[64] at
Beauport, W. Feliciana Parish, bur Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
[65] Wheaton
IL
[66] lived
Ellersllie, owned Retreat and his heirs lived there until purchased by Mary
Cleland and CB Owen.
