February Black History Month

 My goal was to go through my ancestors and find proof of those who owned slaves...or had dealings with the slave trade.

I get distracted however, and when looking at those who immigrated to Jamestown, I wanted to know where they settled in Virginia.

So let's look at one of the immigrants, who had been born in England, and apparently was on the early rent roles. Did he have slaves?

Peter Rogers, s. of Giles Fitz Rogers, (Capt. immigrant to VA,) is mentioned in a deed recorded in Edward Pleasants' The Valentine Papers, Vol. IV, pg. 2206 as follows:

Apparently Peter left 100 acres and 2,000 lbs of tobacco to Francis Smith, in Spotsylvania Co.

Anyone raising tobacco must have had slaves in order to produce the quantities Peter apparently had.

The DAR and my genealogist cousin think we are descended from Peter Iverson Rogers (1627-1724) I chose to believe his brother John Rogers (1680-1762) was our link to Capt. Giles Fitz Rogers.  That's partly because the DAR folks and my cousin both believe that Peter's wife Mary had been a daughter of William Byrd of Virginia. Not so. 

Records indicate Mary Byrd married someone else, and Peter Rogers probably was married to Mary Armistead.

Whether my line came from either of the brothers, we know that Henry Rogers, Sr. (1741-1794) was the emigrant from Virginia to Tennessee in the 1780s.  Henry Rogers Sr, on my tree is the son of George Rogers (1721-1792) who was the son of John Rogers (1680-1762) and thus the great-grandson of Capt. Giles Fitz Rogers.

And some Henry Rogers is on the rent roles in Virginia in Fauquier County VA...which I had to look up! It's on the NE part of the hump of VA. This Henry Rogers is probably the one I'm related to, because we know that his son (my great great some number grandfather) Rev. Elijah Rogers was born in Fauquier County VA in 1774. Fauquier County was officially formed in 1759, but was settled much earlier.

Here're a detail of 28 July 1763 deed when John Rogers rented 225 acres in Leeds Manor district from the original owner, Lord Fairfax...in which John's sons, Henry and Steven, may inherit the deed upon John's death. The yearly rent was 45 shillings, due on Christmas day.  However this kind of disrupts my sense that my Henry had been the son of George. And the John I thought might have signed this deed, had died in 1762, so it must have been another John Rogers. So that throws into the air that this Henry, son of John, would not have been the son of George instead. Argh!

In both 1770 and 1777, Henry Rogers is on the rent roles of Leeds Manor...now called the Leeds Manor historic district. I'll continue to think of this Henry as my grandfather, and work on figuring out who he was the son of later...

"John Marshall’s Leeds Manor Rural Historic District, centered on the historic Leeds Manor Road, covers over 23,000 acres in the northwest section of Fauquier County. The district’s name comes from two sources: its association with the 18th-century Manor of Leeds, which was part of Lord Fairfax’s Northern Neck Proprietary; and the Marshall family, who bought the land from Lord Fairfax’s heir in 1781. Chief Justice John Marshall, with his family and associates, farmed much of the land well into the 19th century. Many of those large parcels remain intact and are still farmed, continuing to evoke the district’s significant agricultural past. The district also contains several African American communities established in the late 19th century and associated with descendants of the founding families. The district is home to an impressive collection of historic architecture ranging from simple 18th-century farmsteads such as Marshall’s birthplace at The Hollow, to grand 19th- and 20th-century estates such as Carrington and Morven. Most significantly, however, the district retains the sweeping vistas and large open landscapes typical of its past, with minor areas of concentrated modern development.

I'll include some photos from Leeds Manor...which show the early architecture. And then I'll go research those African American communities. The Virginia Historic association must know somethign about them, the descendants of the founding families.

#030-5428_Leeds_Manor_RHD_2021_setting_VLR Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources

Historic African American Sites in Virginia

Launched in February (Black History Month) 2019, this online catalog of Commonwealth sites listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places associated with African American history will continue to grow as DHR adds new listings to both registers.

It is worth noting, the catalog below is an update and extension of DHR’s 1995 book publication Virginia Landmarks of Black History edited by esteemed architectural historian Calder Loth. Introducing the volume, scholar Armstead L. Robinson (1947-1995) wrote, “Virginia does indeed encompass this nation’s longest continuous experience of Afro-American life and culture.” An extension of that book, DHR’s online listing of “Historic African American Sites in Virginia” provides an “official catalog of the historic landmarks associated with that epic encounter,” as Robinson stated about the 1995 publication.

When I then go to the only area I have any knowledge of...Leeds Manor Historic District...I get just the same link that I originally had, with a link to the above info. I can't find out which of the (maybe 75) links might be in that district. I know they wouldn't be in DC, or Richmond...but that leaves all the rest of the sites that I don't know a thing about. I hate circular documentation of research.

So I lost the connection I've been believing for over 15 years to Capt. Giles Fitz Rogers, and will probably go with the DAR one, except for Mary Rogers not being a Byrd!

And I didn't find the Black communities either. A very big change without any fruit from the hunt.