THE DEATHERAGE FAMILYThe First Four Generations in America
By: Richard W. Tobin II
ABBREVIATIONS
a-after
b-before
c-circa (about)
dsp-died without children
l-living
m-married
COPYRIGHT 1992
by Richard W. Tobin II
PREFACE
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BEWARE!!! This website may have errors in it. Any printed genealogy no matter how carefully done will usually contain errors. It can be used as a guide and a beginning but all the information should be checked.
In this website I have traced the first four generations of the Deatherage family. I have not repeated family traditions for which there is no proof. I have also not traced the descendants of Deatherage daughters past a listing of their children (which is the recommended genealogical practice). The main reason for this is to make the genealogy more manageable and reduce the errors which occur when dealing with unfamiliar family names. Small roman numerals give an individual's order of birth while an arabic numeral means the individual is listed later in the pamphlet and had issue (children). Information on Deatherages without children will be found with their parents, while information on families other than Deatherage was placed with the individual's spouse or mother with the maiden name Deatherage.
If any errors or if additional information is found please notify me.
This website is built on the work of others. It is based on my book The Deatherage Family: The First Four Generations in America, which is revised and updated. I have also added my sources for almost every event in the text, so that one can readily see where I got my information. I have not been able to check as many original records as I would have liked to. I have relied heavily on other researchers, so always check my work against the original sources for your lines. Happy hunting!
RWT II
Jul 1998
INTRODUCTION
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There are several items that must be kept in mind when using this genealogy of the Deatherage family: the calendar and the formation dates of several counties in Virginia and North Carolina.
Before the year 1752 the Julian Calendar was in effect for the English Colonies. The first day of the year, until 1752, was 25 March and the last day of the year came on 24 March. The Georgian Calendar was adopted in 1752 which besides deleting 11 days made the first day of the year 1 January and the last day of the year 31 December.
It is important to keep in mind when some of the counties in Virginia and North Carolina were formed. Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was formed in 1720-1. It is in the records of that county one finds the first record of the Deatherage family in the New World. The dates that the other pertinent counties were formed in Virginia and North Carolina are found on the charts below.
VIRGINIA
Spotsylvania County formed 1720-1
l
Orange County 1734
l
Culpeper County 1748
l
Rappahannock County 1833
NORTH CAROLINA
Rowan county formed 1753
l
Surry County 1770 Guilford County 1770
l
Stokes County 1789 Rockingham County 1785
DEATHERAGE ORIGINS
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The pre-American origins of the Deatherage family are not known.1 Our ancestor was possibly William, son of John and Mary DITHERIDG, who was baptized on 31 May 1705 at Dudley St. Thomas, Worcestershire, England. He was not buried as an infant and there appears to be no later record of him in that county.2 Further proof is needed before we can claim this man as our forebear.
In A Dictionary of British Surnames3 Deathridge is listed as a variation of Death. It also states that the rare occupational surname of DETHEWRIGHT, DEDEWRITHE, DEDEWRIGHTE which means "fuel tender" survives today as DEATHRIDGE and DETH(E)RIDGE4.
While family tradition has been that the Deatherages were English, there is at least one book that says they were French Huguenot. Mr. Anderson Quisenberry relates the D'Etherage family was one of those French Huguenot families that spread to other parts of the United States from Monikin-Town (an old Indian town) in what was then Powhattan County, now Goochland County, Virginia.5
The first record I have of our Deatherage family in America is a deed of gift6 executed by Philemon Cavenaugh of St. Mark's Parish, Spotsylvania County, Colony of Virginia, on 5 Jun 1734 witnessed by William Deatherage the probable immigrant.7 During this period William was issued a right or certificate for land that was surveyed on 11/12 April 1735. This original patent was located in present Culpeper Co., VA, just west of the town of Jeffersonton. By 1748 this land was in the hands of two Germans and Charles DeWitt. This is not the "Horse Shoe" Farm. See map on page 2.
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1. I am aware of the story that the family is descended from the D'Aeth family of Kent County, England, but this is improbable. See Appendix A.
2. Letter J.S. Griffeth (an English Genealogist) to George E. Deatherage 21 Nov 1985.
3. Reaney, P.H. A Dictionary of British Surnames, 1961.
4. Id. at 91-92.
5. Quisenberry, Anderson C. Extracted From Genealogical Memoranda of The Quisenberry Family and Other Families, 1897, at 1. I only have a photocopy of the first page of this book. I don't know what other information, if any, it may contain.
6. Spotsylvania County, VA, Deedbook C p.133
7. All persons with the Deatherage name are apparently descended from William, but proof is lacking.
8. The record of the issuance of the right or certificate has not been found. The date of the survey is found in Cognets, L. des, Jr. English Duplicates of Lost Virginia Records, at 118 and 121. The patent was issued 9 months later on 10 Jan 1735.
This map is found in Mary J. Browning, "Hackley's Maps of Early Settlements in the Little Fork," in An 18th Century Perspective: Culpeper County, ed. by Mary S. Jones (Culpeper, VA; Culpeper Historical Society, Inc., 1976) p.112. While the Deatherage patent is not listed on that map its location is shown in red below. The location of the original 1735 Deatherage patent is about 3/4 of a mile west of what is now Jeffersonton, Culpeper County, VA. (For citations see Sources this pamphlet.) William sold the eastern 50 acres to Charles DeWitt in 1747 and later that year he and wife Anna sold the western 327 acres to Henry Huffman (see smaller map). I have not yet determined how Frederick Fishback acquired the middle portion of the Deatherage patent.
GENERATION I
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1. WILLIAM DEATHERAGE is probably the immigrant ancestor of the family. According to family tradition he married Susan Eastham and had five children: Robert, Susan, Achilles (who lived in Shenandoah County where he died in 1780 (sic), John (who married Sarah Edwards (sic) and lived in Spotsylvania Co., Virginia) and George. (This account is taken from "The Deatherage Family, "The Lookout: A Journal of Southern Society, 6 May 1916, v.17. Please note that Achilles did not die in 1780 and John married Sarah Edwards Gale.)
William Deatherage first appears in the public records on 5 Jun 1734 when he witnessed a deed of gift executed by Philemon Cavenaugh of St. Mark's Parish, Spotsylvania Co., Virginia. The next year William received a royal patent for 950 acres in Orange Co., Virginia (see pages 1-2). He had apparently sold this land by 1747 but continued to live in Culpeper County as late as 1763-4 where he was involved in two lawsuits. In 1747 he was married to Anna - who was probably a second wife. No records have been uncovered which list any of William's children, give the name of his wife other than as noted above, or give his date or place of death. Sources
issue:
i. Robert c1730-1777 m. Mary Strother
ii Philemon -1778 m. Elizabeth
iii. John -1801 m. 1) Sarah Edwards Gale 2) Rachel Mabe
iv. George -1807 m. 1) Nancy Johnson 2) Mildred Bingham
v. Achilles 1742-1807 m. Nancy Ann Lewis
vi. daughter m. - Taylor
(It is documented that Robert, Philemon, John, and George were brothers.)