NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE.
On the Potomac, and within sight of the bay, are the remains
of an old graveyard, belonging to what has always gone by the
name of the "Northumberland House." The place was originally
settled and a house built on it by a Mr. Presley, one of the earliest
settlers, who was murdered in it by his own servants. It was
afterward owned by Mr. Presley Thornton, who lies buried there.
The following extract from the letter of a friend is worthy of insertion:—
"I have also, according to promise, visited the graveyard of old Northumberland
House, and found the remains of but one tombstone. This,
although erected of the heaviest materials, has been so much mutilated
by lightning and the waste of time, that nothing more can be deciphered
than that it was erected to the memory of Presley Thornton, who was
elected in early life to the House of Burgesses from the county of Northumberland,
which office he held until 1760, when he was appointed one
of the Council of State for this Colony; and that he filled both offices
with great credit to himself and to the public emolument. He departed
this life on the 8th of December, 1769, in the forty-eighth year of his
age, having enjoyed all the chief honours of his country."
To this I add that, in the absence of the vestry-books and court-records,
I find that at an early period the Lees, Presleys, Poythresses,
Kenners, Thorntons, Newtons, &c. were the leading persons
in Northumberland.
The assertion by Mr. Lee that Charles II. was proclaimed King
in Virginia before he was received as such in England is a matter
of dispute among historians. Beverley, our earliest, who published
his work in 1705,—about forty-five years after the event is said to
have occurred,—affirms it as a fact. Robertson, the historian, and
Chalmers, another writer of that day, repeat the same. Burke,
who published in 1805, agrees with the foregoing so far as to think
that something of the kind took place, though not in a regular way.
Dr. Hawks agrees with Beverley and his followers. Mr. Henning,
in his Statutes at Large, compiled by order of the Virginia Assembly,
and commenced in 1809, is of opinion that there is no foundation
for any such supposition, and appeals to the entire absence of
all notice of such proceeding in the documents of that period.
Mr. Bancroft and Mr. Charles Campbell adopt the opinion of Mr.
Henning. Of course, if it was an irregular, partial, or tumultuous
act of individuals, as Mr. Burke supposes, we could not expect to
see it among the recorded Acts of Assembly, as we do see the later
and more formal acknowledgment of Charles II. It is not, however,
a matter of sufficient importance to produce a Trojan war.
It is scarcely probable that Mr. Lee is mistaken in the tradition
that his ancestor was a zealous loyalist, and did, on his return to
England, visit Charles at Breda and hold communion with him on
the subject of his acknowledgment by Virginia, then having so
many staunch Cavaliers in it, whatever uncertainty may rest upon
the subsequent proceedings.
Since the foregoing article was written, I have received some
further information concerning the first of the Lee family and his
children, which is worthy of insertion. The will of the first Richard
Lee, dated 1663, may be seen in Mr. Charles Campbell's History
of Virginia, p. 157. From it I extract the following:—"I, Colonel
Richard Lee, of Virginia, and lately of Stratford-Langton, in the
county of Essex, Esquire, being bound out upon a voyage to Virginia
aforesaid, and not knowing how it may please God to dispose
of me in so long a voyage," &c. "First, I give and bequeath my soul
to that good and gracious God that gave it me, and to my blessed
Redeemer Jesus Christ, assuredly trusting in and by his meritorious
death and passion to receive salvation, and my body to be disposed
of, whether by sea or land, according to the opportunity of the
place, not doubting but at the last day both body and soul shall be
united and glorified." Here again we see the faith and the divinity
of that day. He then directs that his wife and children, who it
seems had not yet been to Virginia, should be sent there, except
Francis, to whose option it was left. To his wife Anna he left
Stratford-on-the-Potowmacke (to which he had removed from Cobbs)
and Mock Necke, together with servants black and white, and other
property during her life. To his son John he leaves his plantation
called Matholic, with servants, &c. This is now the Mount Pleasant
farm owned by Mr. Willowby Newton. To his son Richard he
leaves his plantation called Paradise, and the servants there. To
his son Francis he leaves his plantations called Paper-Maker's
Neck and War Captain's Neck, with servants black and white. To
his five younger children, William, Hancock, Betsy, Anne, and
Charles, he leaves a plantation, including Bishop's Neck on the
Potomac, four thousand acres on the Potomac, together with Stratford
and Mock Neck at the death of their mother. To William he
leaves his lands on the Maryland side; to Francis an interest in
his two ships. He also leaves a fund for the better education in
England of his two oldest sons, John and Richard.
Since writing the account of the marriages of Richard Henry,
as given by his brother William Lee, I have received two communications,
stating that one of his wives was a Miss Gaskins, so that,
unless he was married three times, there must have been a mistake
as to the name of one of those before mentioned.
