University of Virginia Library

BISHOP.

A William Bishop was the grantee of a small parcel of
land on the south fork of Hardware in 1756, which his

descendants sold in 1774 to George Eubank. In 1782 James
Bishop entered four hundred acres on the Blue Ridge in the
Afton neighborhood, which he and his wife Elizabeth subsequently
sold to other parties. About the end of the last
century Joseph Bishop began to purchase land in the county,
and continued to purchase from time to time in various
localities, particularly in the Biscuit Run Valley and the
vicinity of D. S. In 1803 he bought from John Carr twelve
acres bordering on the west side of Charlottesville, and extending
from the Staunton to the Whitehall Road; with this
tract his name was more intimately connected. He established
the tanyard at the west end of Main Street. He
erected the first buildings in Random Row, and gave lots on
Vinegar Hill to most of his children. The largest part of
this land he sold not long before his death to John Neilson,
an Irishman, who was one of the contractors for the University
buildings. Joseph Bishop died in 1825. He left nine
children, John T., who married Mary Ann, daughter of James
Jeffries, and removed to Dearborn County, Indiana, Joseph,
James, Ann, the wife of Johnson Pitts, Patience, the wife of
Gustavus Parsons, Mary, the wife of William Young,
Frances, Jonathan A. J., who removed to Missouri, and
Lucy Jane, the wife of Ezra M. Wolfe. Joseph Bishop's
wife was Jane, daughter of Edmund Terrell, and his wife,
Margaret Willis, a grandaughter of Henry Willis, the founder
of Fredericksburg, and his wife, Mildred Washington Gregory,
sister of General Washington's father. His son, Joseph,
was an active dealer in Charlottesville real estate. He was
one of the original trustees of the Disciples Church.