James Dabney

70 - Aft 1710  (> 164 years)

• Name	James Dabney
  Born	1660-70	New Kent County, Virginia   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Died	Aft 1710	King William County, Virginia   [2, 3]
  Person ID	I87	Dabneys of Virginia
  Last Modified	14 Jul 2017

  
  

  Father	Cornelius Dabney, I,   b. Dec 1631, Bucknall, Lincolnshire, England ,   d. 1693/94, New Kent County, Virginia  (Age ~ 62 years)
  Mother	Eedeth (__),   d. Aft Jun 1678
  Family ID	F71	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Ann Sherwood,   b. 1666, Sittingbourne Parish, Rappahannock County, Virginia ,   d. 1752  (Age 86 years)
  Married	Bef 1690	Old Rappahannock County, Virginia
  Children	1. Cornelius Dabney,   b. 1690-98, King And Queen County, Virginia ,   d. Bef 1738, King William County, Virginia  (Age < 164 years)   2. Welthan Dabney,   b. bp 8 Jan 1698/99
  Last Modified	18 Jul 2009
  Family ID	F69	Group Sheet

  
  

• Notes

  James Dabney was born to Cornelius and Edith Dabney about 1660-1670. It is likely that he was their eldest male child, since he was mentioned first in the commission report recommending issuance of patents to Cornelius’ eldest four children and his patent was recorded first in the patent books. He married Ann Sherwood between November, 1685, when Ann was identified as single in a court order and April, 1690, when James and Ann sold two tracts totalling 125 acres in Old Rappahannock County that Ann had inherited from her father, Philip Sherwood. James and Ann had at least two children: Cornelius, born about 1690-98, and Welthan, baptized January 8, 1699, but has not been found in later records and probably died early. A third possible child is Elizabeth Dabney (ca 1705-1794), who married Thomas Waller (1705-1765) about 1725. The only evidence, which is merely suggestive, is her early birth and the marriages of James’ other two brothers’ daughters named Elizabeth to other men. In April, 1701, James received a patent for 204 acres in Pamunkey Neck, part of King and Queen County (later King William County). On the same date, his brother George and sisters Sarah and Dorothy received similar patents. All four patents adjoined each other and are shown in (Figure _____). They received the patents because their father was one of eight men who had early land leases from the Pamunkey Indians. In 1679, a government commission reviewed the leases and recognized the lessees’ rights to patents for the land when issued in future. In 1699, a committee of the Assembly recommended that patents be issued to 45 persons having claims derived from the original eight claimants together with 75 others whose claims derived from events during the 20 years after the original recommendation. The Virginia House of Burgesses approved the patents in 1701 and the patents were issued in the next few years. In 1702, James received a second grant of 1000 acres on Mehixen Creek that later passed out of his hands. According to the 1704 Quit Rent Rolls, he also acquired 320 acres in New Kent County, probably by purchase from a prior owner. The grants to James and Sarah provide important documentary evidence for a direct line of descent from Cornelius the immigrant through his son James, to his son Cornelius, to his son William, to his son Isaac, to his son William Jr., who died in 1803. The map for a court-ordered division of Wiliam Jr.’s land to set off his widow’s dower portion shows that his tract was the same as the combined patents of James and Sarah Dabney (Figure ______). In January and June, 1703, James Dabney served as a witness on two deeds in King William County. In September, 1704, he was appointed one of three appraisers for an estate. In the same year, he was assessed quit rents, a form of land tax, on 200 acres in King William County and 320 acres in neighboring New Kent County. He and his brother-in-law, William Anderson, were appointed Justices of the Peace for King William County in 1710, a position that combined the duties of a county judge with those of a county commissioner. Nothing has been found to indicate when he or Ann died, because very few of the fire-damaged records of King William County have survived between 1706 and 1721. [1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]

  
  

• Sources

  [S156] [S17] p. 889. James Dabney was in the Commission of Justices for King William County in 1709 and left out in 1714, perhaps due to death.. [S155] v.3, p.244.. [S95] [S88] [S912] [S97] [S96] v. 3.. [S96] v. 3, p. 58.. [S159] [S39] p. 237.. [S98] pp. 26, 43.. [S99] p. 83.. [S17] p. 889.. [S155] v. 3, p. 244, 27 Apr 1710. [S1194] p. 4..