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1749 - 1834 (85 years)
Frances Hunter (Lawrence) Arbuckle (1750-1834)
Frances Hunter (Lawrence) Arbuckle: "The Widow Arbuckle" Chapter 7, page 69 Joseph C. Jefferds, Jr. "Captain Matthew Arbuckle, A Documentary Biography" The Hunters were a prominent, landed family in Ayrshire, Scotland, for centuries before representatives come to this country. The Hunter of Hunterston is said to have been established by a Robert Hunter in the time of Alexander II (1224-1249). A coat of arms was adopted by this family in the fourteenth century.
Frances Hunter was born March 10, 1750, the daughter of Scotsman John Hunter and English-born Frances Mortimer. She married James Lawrence, Jr. also of Augusta County, Virginia, and they had one daughter, Elizabeth, who is said to have died as an infant. James Lawrence, Jr., purchased 150 acres on the James River June 7, 1770, paying the sum of seventy-six pounds, five shillings. Tradition is that Frances was born on a wooden sailing ship en route to this country (although her father, John Hunter, was born in Augusta County many years before 1750) and that she was sixteen and James eighteen when they were married. In the fall of 1773 the young husband died as a result, according to tradition, of wounds inflicted by Indians.
In December 1774 in Botetourt County, Frances married Captain Matthew Arbuckle, himself a widower. Nothing is known of their life together except that she raised the two sons of Captain Matthew's first wife, that she had four sons of her own by Captain Arbuckle, the oldest, James, probably having been born in the fort at Lewisburg, and that Arbuckle was away for much of their short married life on duty at Fort Randolph, on trips to Williamsburg and acting as a frontier guide and hunter. She raised strong children who led long active lives and contributed greatly to the establishment of this country. Captain Arbuckle was killed on June 27, 1781. In Lewisburg on March 11, 1783 Frances married Alexander Welch, a surveyor and a native of Scotland.
Frances Hunter Lawrence Arbuckle Welch had four more children an son and three daughters. One of these daughters, Agnes (called Nancy) married Thomas B. Reynolds. They had a son, Alexander W. Reynolds, a brigadier general in the Confederate army, who refused to surrender and went to Egypt where he became military commander of the forces of the Khedive of Egypt. There is a monument to General Reynolds in the Old Stone Church burial ground in Lewisburg, but he died in Alexandria, Egypt, and was buried there.
Our clearest picture of Frances in contributed by Anne Royall, on of this country's first woman journalists. Miss Royal wrote: I am now (1824) sitting on the site where this fort once stood, not the least vestige of it however remains. It is now the property of Mrs. Welch, whose house and garden stands within the limits once occupied by this fort. From Mrs. Welch, who is now in her seventieth year, I collected these particulars. She is now sitting by me and goes on to relate: " That she was one of the earliest permanent settlers of Greenbrier and lived within a mile of the fort just mentioned, which was called Fort Savannah. She was then the wife of a Mr. Arbuckle who was in the famous battle of the Point, and spent all his life in guarding the settlements. There was, besides Fort Savannah, another about eight miles northeast of it called Donnallys Fort...." But to return to Mrs. Welch, the most extraordinary woman I ever saw, she has been and now is possessed of much personal beauty.
Although this female has spent her life in the western wilds of America; often running from the Indians and cooped up in forts among people as rude as the savages themselves, yet she is eminently qualified to adorn the most polished assembly.
Her pleasing and courtly manners are unequaled and every was bewitching; and a mind unimpaired, she possess all the gaiety and sprightliness of youth; but her predominate trait is benevolence. God knows what she must have been in youth for she is irresistible now. She has a daughter living here, (Mrs. Reynolds) and in every respect her counterpart.
How nature managed to combine so many virtues and charm in one family is a matter of great wonder. There are few people in whom we do not see something to admire; but on Mrs. Welch nature has bestowed the choicest of her gifts; and has adorned her with a liberality that seldom marks her munificence to the six.
What more could anyone possibly say!
Frances Welch died July 25, 1834. Her grave marked by a gravestone, is in the Ballard Smith graveyard (identified as the "Welsh Cemetery" by a historical marker) a small plot on the west side of Houfnagle Road. This road leads south from U>S> Highway 60, from a point about two miles west of Lewisburg, to the Davis Stuart School Road. Also located in the cemetery is a stone monument, commemorating the Clendenin Massacre, which took place nearby.
Frances Welch's will is recorded in Greenbrier County. Among its provision are the follow directives: 1.All her just debts and funeral expenses be paid 2.$10.00 each to be given to the wives of three of her Arbuckle sons, James, Thomas, and Samuel. 3.$100.00 each to the three Arbuckle sons. 4.That Nancy Reynolds receive two Negro women, the three children of each, "and their future increases." She stated that "The object and intent of the foregoing device is to secure my daughter, Nancy Reynolds, a life estate alone in the Negroes, herein before devised to her free from control, hindrance or molestation of Thomas B. Reynolds and any other person whatsoever." 5.She directed that another Negro woman and her two children be sold and the the money be put at interest and the interest go to her daughter Frances Bright.
A truly remarkable lady."
James Harvey ARBUCKLE b: 17 NOV 1776 in Fort Donelson
Matthew ARBUCKLE b: 28 DEC 1778 in Greenbriar County, West Virginia Thomas ARBUCKLE b: 15 JAN 1780 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia Samuel ARBUCKLE b: 15 FEB 1782 Agnes Nancy WELCH b: ABT 1785 in Greenbrier County, Virginia (West Virginia) Unknown WELCH Frances WELCH Unknown WELCH
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