EARLY.
The name of Early is first mentioned in the records in
1790, when Joel, executor of Jeremiah Early, purchased
from Charles Hammond three hundred acres on the Rivanna
in the Burnt Mills neighborhood, which had formerly belonged
to Walter Carr. It is probable these persons were
citizens of Orange. In 1809 James Early, certainly from
Orange, bought eighteen hundred and ninety-four acres on
Buck Mountain Creek from the representatives of Major
Henry Burke, who had been a magistrate of the county, and
Major in the Eighty-Eighth Regiment, and who died in 1803.
The children of James Early and his wife Elizabeth, were
John, James, Joab, William, Lucy, the wife of James Simms,
Theodosia, the wife of George Stevens, and Elizabeth, the
wife of Thomas Chapman.
John Early in 1822 bought from the executors of Richard
Durrett nearly a thousand acres lying between the Buck
Mountain Road and Jacob's Run. From him the village of
Earlysville derived its name, and in 1833 he gave to Thomas
Lane, David Thompson and Henry Marshall the ground on
which its church was built. He was twice married, first to
Sarah, daughter of Richard Durrett, and secondly to Mrs.
Margaret Allen Timberlake. He died 1833. His children
were James T., Isaac Davis, Susan, Elizabeth, the wife of
Edward Ferneyhough, Amanda, the wife of Joshua Jackson,
Mildred, the wife of Richard Wingfield, Thomas, Frances,
Joseph, Jeremiah A. and William. James, son of James,
married Sarah Carr, and among his children were John F.
Early, who some twenty years ago opened a female Seminary
in the Shackelford house on High Street, and afterwards
removed to Texas, Mary, the wife of Thomas Durrett, and
Frances, the wife of Isaac Davis, and mother of Mrs. W. R.
Burnley. Joab married Elizabeth Thompson, and his children
were William T., well remembered by many as Buck
Early, and James and Nathaniel, of Greene County. William,
son of James, married Sarah Graves, and his children
were William L., of Madison, and Thomas J., who married
Caroline, daughter of the elder Drury Wood.
