Travers Tarpley (abt. 1717 - 1768)

Born about 1717 in Richmond County, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Sydnor) Tarpley — married about 1737 in Richmond Co., Virginia

Descendants

Died 18 Feb 1768 at about age 51 in Richmond County, Virginia

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Biography

Travers Tarpley, the eldest son of John Tarpley (1695- c. 1737) and his first wife Elizabeth Travers Harwar Tarpley, was born about 1717 and before 23 Nov 1717.^[1]

Marriage and Family

Travers Tarpley married Elizabeth "Betty" Sydnor. Travers and Betty were known to have the following children:

• Elizabeth (Tarpley) Peachey, baptized 28 July 1738, Farnham Parish^[2]
• Winifred (Tarpley) McCarty, baptized 1 Nov 1740, Farnham Parish^[2]
• Frances "Fanny" Tarpley, baptized 2 July 1743, Farnham Parish^[2]
• Lucy Tarpley, baptized 7 Jan 1745, Farnham Parish^[2]
• Nancy Tarpley
• Samuel Travers Tarpley, baptized 15 Dec 1748, Farnham Parish^[2]
• Mildred Tarpley, baptized 28 Sep 1756, Farnham Parish^[2]

Professional and Public Service Positions

Travers Tarpley served as a justice of the peace or gentleman justice in Richmond County from 4 Nov 1742 to 1748^[3] and again beginning in 1761.^[4]

In 1748, he became deputy county clerk under Sir Marmaduke Beckwith and later was promoted to county clerk, serving until 1761.^[4] His son-in-law, Leroy Peachy, and then his grandson, Bartholomew McCarty, succeeded him as county clerk.^[5]

Travers also served as administrator of Billington McCartys Estate and Guardian of Rawleigh Colston.

Military Service

Travers was a lieutenant in the Virginia militia by 1739, captain by 1755, and major by 1758.^[6]

Death, Will and Probate

Travers Tarpley wrote his will on 18 Feb 1768. His will described some debts owed to him by his full brother John Tarpley.^[7] He died sometime later in 1768 and is buried in Farnham Churchyard.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ Richmond County Will Book 5, 1725–1753, pp. 338–9, in which grandfather John Tarpley (c. 1661-1739) named his grandsons Travers and John Tarpley as his executors. Young John Tarpley was under age, but Travers had reached his majority and thus was at least 21 years suggesting a birth date prior to 23 Nov 1717.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5} Extracts from the Register of Farnham Parish, Richmond County, Virginia, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jul., 1899), pp. 52-64 at p. 59
3. ↑ Wilmer L. Hall, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, 6 vols. (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1967), 5:104.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Gwenda Morgan, The Hegemony of the Law: Richmond County, Virginia, 1692–1776 (New York: Garland Publishing,1989),76.
5. ↑ F. Johnston, Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks (Lynchburg, Va.: 1888), 327. A.G. Roeber, Faithful Magistrates and Republican Lawyers, Creators of Virginia Legal Culture, 1680–1810 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 123, 251, 309.
6. ↑ Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, Virginia’s Colonial Soldiers (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988), 32–3.
7. ↑ Richmond County Will Book 7, 1767–1787, pp. 11–2.
8. ↑ Richmond County Will Book 7, 1767–1787, pp. 283--4.

• Scott Tracy, "Mayflower Descendant Col. John Tarpley ( 1720-1786/7) Richmond, County, Virginia", Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, vol. 50#2, pages 121-142 (May 2012)
• Scott Tracy, "Revisiting the Narrative of Col. John4 Tarpley of Richmond County," Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, vol. 56#3, pages 173-193 (Aug 2018)
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