HANCOCK.
One of the original patentees of land in the county was
Solomon Hancock. In 1756 he obtained the grant of four
hundred acres between the Hardware and Totier Creek,
Four years after he sold part of it to Giles Tompkins, and
removed to Halifax County. In 1777 he sold the remainder
to William Tompkins, son of Giles.
David Hancock in 1834 purchased from John R. Campbell
eleven hundred acres on both sides of the Rivanna, above the
mouth of Buck Island Creek. He died in 1858. His children
were David, who married Janetta Thurman, Dr. Charles,
who married Catharine Thurman, Gustavus, who married
Lily Wimbert, and lived on James River below Howardsville,
and Virginia, the wife of Dr. Francis Hancock, of Richmond.
David died in 1872, Mrs. Virginia in 1884, Dr. Charles in
1885, and Gustavus 1898. All left families.
Richard J. Hancock was a native of Alabama, and came to
Virginia during the civil war with the troops of Louisiana.
Sojourning in Albemarle while recovering from wounds received
in battle, he married Thomasia, daughter of John O.
Harris. He succeeded his father-in-law at Ellerslie, which
is a part of the old Indian Camp plantation, once the estate
of William Short, Washington's Minister to the Hague, and
the fame of which as a stock farm he has spread abroad
throughout the land.
