John Williams Green (1781 - 1834)

Born 9 Nov 1781 in Culpeper, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Browne) Green — married 24 Dec 1805 in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Virginia, United States

Husband of Million (Cooke) Green — married 9 Oct 1817 in Stafford, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 4 Feb 1834 at age 52 in Greenwood Plantation, Culpeper, Virginia

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Biography

John Williams Green was born to William Green and Lucy Clayton (Blackwell) Green on 9 Nov 1781 in Culpeper, Virginia.

John Williams Green (Noy. 9, 1781 - Feb. 4, 1834), later Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, began to assemble the Greenwood tract in 1813. Judge Green was a great-grandson of Robert Green, one of the earliest settlers in what is now Culpeper County. Although Green family tradition holds that Judge Green's parents, William and Lucy Williams Green, went to live at Greenwood" after their marriage in 1780, no documentary evidence has been found linking the Green or Willis families with any portion of the present Greenwood property prior to 1801. The reference to the couple living at Greenwood may possibly refer to another tract of Green land (William Green was deeded several hundred acres on the Gourdvine River by his father, Col. John Green, in 1782), or perhaps may indicate that the couple lived on Cedar Farnj, the Williams estate near what later became the Greenwood property of John W. Green.

William Green was lost on the brig "Defiance" in 1782, when the ship apparently went down with all hands. A prolonged search by the family, .and by the ,American government, which extended even to an investigation into the activities of the Barbary Pirates, failed to turn up any trace of Capt. Green. After his disappearance, the guardianship of his infant son, John

Williams Green, was assumed by the child's uncle, William Clayton Williams. In 1811, John Williams Green and his wife, Mary (the former Mary Brown of Stafford County whom he married Dec. 24, 1805), and John's mother, Lucy Williams Green, then all residing in Fredericksburg , sold the property of William Green, dec., on the Gourdvine River. Two years later, John W. Green, still a resident of Fredericksburg, began to accumulate the tracts which would eventually constitute Greenwood, purchasing a tract of 543 acres from his uncles, William c. and Isaac H. Williams, and a tract of 165 acres from the estate of Richard Y. Wiggenton. . Additional tracts of 123 acres and 80 acres, assessed to Lucy Williams Green, then also living in Fredericksburg, appear in the 1813 Land Books (probably transferred to her through inheritance, as no deed for this land is recorded in the Culpeper records.) By the following year, Lucy W. Green was deceased, and the tracts are charged to her son, John W. Green. All the tracts are described as being "near the Courthouse" "2(miles) S(outh)." John Green continued to accumulate land holdings both in the vicinity of Culpeper Courthouse and at other points in the county. Land Books indicate that he remained a resident of Fredericksburg until 1823. In the 1824 Land Book he is listed as living "on the land" (i.e., the land near the Courthouse--the Greenwood tract. ) It should be noted that no dwellings are mentioned in any of the deeds to John W. Green for this tract, and it is impossible to deduce from the deed description the specific tract on which the present house would be located; similarly, no buildings are indicated on any of the tracts of Greenwood in the 1824 Land Book, a1 though a small building (i.e., the nucleus of the present house) may have escaped valuation. (see footnote #1 under "Architectural Analysis".) Since Judge Green was living on the land, a small dwelling of some type must have been extant by this time. The following year, the four tracts which comprised Greenwood were combined into a single tract of 832 1/2 acres, with a building value of $660.00 given, indicating the construction of most of the present Greenwood house between 1823-24. The following year, on August 24, 1825, Lafayette, his son, former President James Monroe, and other dignitaries (including the county escort who had met the party at the Culpeper county line and accompanied them to the county seat) were entertained at a reception at Greenwood. The party had come to Culpeper following a visit with James Madison at "Montpelier" in Orange County. Before proceeding on to Culpeper Courthouse, the Marquis was formally presented to his escort of honor on the lawn at Greenwood. This event has been recorded in a number of publications and writings and a re-enactment of Lafayette's visit was held at Greenwood 100 years later. The occasion is also recorded on a, historical marker placed near the entrance to Greenwood on U. S. Rt. 15 South. (Marker placed by Conservation and Development Commission, 1929.) After Judge Green's death in 1834, the Greenwood tract, by then 910 acres, was acquired by one of his sons, John Cooke Green, a son of Judge Green by his second wife, Million Cooke, a granddaughter of George Mason of "Gunston Hall", wtiom he had married October 2, 1817. Upon John C. Green's death in 1860, a projected sale of the property (adyertised in the Richmond Enquirer August 7, 1860) was cancelled. The widow Green and her two small daughters remained at the house through the Civil War, including the period of occupation of the property by Federal troops, during which time the lawn in front of the house was used as a cannon emplacement, the trenches of which are still visible. Mention of the guns "on the Greenwood hill" is made by Maj. Daniel Grimsley of the 6th Virginia Cavalry in his memoirs. The property remained in the hands of the widow of John C. Green until 1909, when it was sold as two tracts of 204 and 32 acres, respectively. The property, with the acreage steadily being reduced, passed through several owners in the 20th century, before being acquired by James Williams Green, father of the present owner (direct descendants of Judge John W. Green) in 1950.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Green
• https://prabook.com/web/william.green/1067803
• Find a Grave, database and images * (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50809271/john-williams-green: accessed 29 August 2022), memorial page for Judge John Williams Green (9 Nov 1781–4 Feb 1834), {FindAGrave|50809271}, citing Fairview Cemetery, Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia, USA; Maintained by 47117651 (contributor 47117651).
• https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/204-0070_Greenwood_1985_Final_Nomination.pdf