Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-09-28
And II the Frequency of Their Mar.
riaEes Indicates Anything, Were
very FASCINATING DR.. Gerrard's
wife-The Bonum Family-Mnny
Distinguished Descendants.
riaEes Indicates ANYTHING, w
written for the Dispatch.)


We are not surprised to find the history
of those early days dealing with the ex-
ploits of men with seldom reference
TO the women who shared their rough and
perilous fortunes.
If the domestic annals of that era had
been faithfully portrayed and preserved
we would doubtless possess many an Incl
dent illustrative of the hardships and suf-
ferings of the early women, and many
a circumstance equally illustrative of fe-
male fortitude and heroism. The lordly
river never loses the waters which flow
down into it from the fountains of the
far-of hills and inland springs. and the
tide of our public and private virtues, as
it rolls like a river through the centuries,
does not lose the influence of the mothers
who first kept house in our land.
COPLE PARISH.
Cople parish embraced substantially the
lower half of Westmoreland county. The
Hague reposes in the midst of tia hamlet
beautiful for situation and the JOY OF all
who have known it well.
Among the earliest settlers in this vicin- |
ity was DR.. Thomas Gerard, whose pat |
ent for land was dated October is. 1862.
Were one to stand on the hill at Auburn,
the residence of the late Colonel R. M. |
Mayo, and look towards the river, his
eye would survey much Of the ground
embraced in this patent Here, political
fugitive from the Maryland colony, where
he had served as councillor, DR.. Gerard
made his home in 1853. He was accom-
panied by his wife, susanna, (nee Snow,
| and several children, and three years later
! his wife died.
Somewhat earlier, John Tucker. an i'm
migrant. it is said, from Bermuda, had
| settled near fuckers HILL where, dying,
| he left a young widow, Rose, with TWO
| sons and two daughters-the latter, too.
| named Sarah and Rose. If the tradition
| as to her be true, then she was thrice
| mother and a widow ere her list summer
had been reached.
PROPOSED TO MRS. TUCKER.
/ Twas not long after the loss Of his
| wife, susanna, that DR.. Gerard made pro-
posals to Mrs. Tucker, and they were ac-
cepted, despite the disparity in their ages,
and the fact that he already had numer-
Gus children. The double set of children
gathered by this marriage into one family
numbered twelve-five sons and seven
: daughters.
Mrs Gerard, the youthful widow Of
fuckers HID, guided her household well,
if we may judge from the character OF
their descendants. Her daughter, Sarah.
became ancestress Of the Virginia Fitz-
hughs, and Rose, of a long line of Mary
land Blackistons. Her step-daughters in
termarried with the Slyce, Of Maryland,
and the Hutts, Crabbes, Speakes, Pey-
tons, Appletons, Washingtons, and others
Of Virginia. They, too, had in several
instances the experience Of widoWhood,
and its early interruption in a second
marriage.
Mrs. Rose Tucker became within but
few years after her second marriage a
widow again, and as previously she had
found close neighbor bereft of his wife.
SO she found one in this second instance.
THEN CAME CAPTAIN NEWTON.
Captain John Newton, an opulent navi-
| ey9f Of
ton." since corrupted into Wilmington"
a neghhoring plantation, and was left
by the death of the lady whom he had
married in England, widower with sew
eral children tho exact number Of whom,
probably, is not known The captain
seems to have succeeded in managing
a courtslip on land as we'll as a ship on
the sea, and in due course of time he and
the widow Gerard were married. From
this union came at least two sons and q
daughter. whose descendants Of the New
tons and ether allied names have by their
virtues and prominence enhanced our in
terest in this early Rose of Cople from
whom they sprung.
Captain Newton died in 1856, leaving his
wife still hale and vigorous ;and amidst
the graves of her three husbands she lived
in widowhood for seventeen years. sur
rounded by children, grandchildren, and
great-grea t. grandchildren. In the winter
having rounded out her fourscore years.
THE BONUM FAMILY.
In the same community in which the
above named families Quicker, Gerrards,
and Newtons) dwelt there was among the
original settlers Thomas Phillpot, whose
name still clings to the plantation OH
which he lived His children were pro-
badly few. but one Of then-Nargaret-
had married Samuel Bonurn, a settler on
the beautiful saltwater inlet still known
as Bonums creek. Here beside this quiet
stream there gathered in her primitive
home two sons and three daughters. The
subsequent position and relations of her
children seem to indicate that she acted
well her part in their discipline and nur-
ture, and that. too, when bereft of her
husband Two of her daughters were
married to two of the most prominent
and progressive settlers Of the vicinity,
Sarah becoming the wife Of William
Rust whose plantation still bears the
! name "Rust's,'' and Rebecca becoming
the first wife Of Major George Eskridge,
Of the adjoining estate. then and still
appropriately called Sandy Point"
It was her grandson, who bore her
husbands name, Samuel Bonum who
married about the year lbs Elizabeth
Johnston the half-sister Of General
| Washington's mother. And it was to her
daughters husband, George EslSridge,
that Mary Balls mother entrusted her
guardianship and tutorage when she died
in 1921. Much Of the formative part OIL
the latter distinguished woman's life,
from her 18th year to that OF her mar
riage at %, was spent in the Bonum and
Eskridge homes, or fitting between them
on "the young dapple-gray, riding horse, y
kindly given her by Samuel Bonun, who,
in his will, calls her my sister," How
far the influence of the widowed mother,
Margaret, perpetuated in her children,
was felt In the young life of the mother
of our first President we cannot say.
THE WIDOW PAYNE.
Contemporary, or nearly SO, With these
early women and living in the same
vicinity was William Payne, merchant
and owner Of a grist-mill at the head
of Bonums creek, who, dying in early
manhood, left a daughter OF Humphrey
Pope as his widow. Daniel McCarty, a
rising young attorney, who wore a ring
with seven diamonds" the first of the
name in Westmoreland, and endowed
with many virtues and good qualiica-
tions,'' as the epitaph on his tomb recites,
i appears to have been attracted by the
8 charms Of his youthful widow, and they
were married This, at least, is the in
1 ference to be derived from references in
legal documents of the times. and the
4 family traditions, as we'll.
Several children were born to the