Thomas Graves (abt. 1617 - abt. 1675)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1675 at about age 58 in Gloucester County, Virginia

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Biography

Thomas Graves was a Virginia colonist.

This profile is part of the Graves Name Study.

Thomas was born about 1616. Thomas Graves ... He passed away about 1674.

Birth could be 1612 in England or 1608 Ireland. ^{[citation needed]}

The Graves Family Association states that some accounts list Thomas' birth as 1617. They also state that his wife's name is not known, but was possibly Elizabeth (there is apparently no record of his wife's name being Elizabeth Perrin, despite popular opinion, if someone has documentation to the contrary, please contact one of the managers for this profile).

The Graves Family of Granville page 1/4 - electronically transcribed from original copy 12/5/2022. (Note: Numbers are listed 1-etc. for children, as the name of their parents are listed above and the continuous numbers are confusing. Original image in images on this profile.)

In his will in CASWELL County in 1800 Col. JOHN WILLIAMS mentions only three of his children (p. 196) though he had at least SIX (see page 237, in which the name of his daughter HENRIETTA SIMPSON was omitted by error). BETSY, or ELIZABETH, carried AZAHIAS GRAVES. This AZARIAH GRAVES. AZARIAH GRAVES was a grandson of HENRY WHITE GRAVES, and his wife MARY WILLIAMS and MARY WILLIAMS was the aunt (?) of COL. JOHN WILLIAMS of CASWELL COUNTY, N.C. and the sister of his father NATHANIEL WILLIAMS.

The lineage and family history of the GRAVES FAMILY of GRANVILLE, CASWELL and CHATHAM (sp?) Counties, NORTH CAROLINA is very interesting and dates back to one THOMAS GRAVES who came to VIRGINIA and settled in ACCOMAC (?) and NORTHAMPTON COUNTIES, before the later county was erected out of the former. He is said to have arrived in VIRGINIA before 1630, and appears to have had at least THREE CHILDREN:

(1) RICHARD GRAVES

(2) RALPH GRAVES (1st)

(3) ANN GRAVES

The descendants of RICHARD GRAVES were perhaps numerous as those of his brother RALPH GRAVES, but this compiler has not attempted to identify and follow them. Their names on the record are accounted (?) for as his descendants, who they do not apparently belong with those of his brother RALPH. (illegible) there were many of them in NORTH CAROLINA, among them, doubtless being THOMAS GRAVES of SPOTSLYVANIA COUNTY, Virginia, who is known to have come there and who was NOT a descendant of RALPH.

ANN GRAVES, daughter of THOMAS GRAVES and sister of RICHARD and RALPH GRAVES became the wife of the celebrated REV. WILLIAM COTTAN/COTHAN (?), of ACCOMAC (?) COUNTY, VIRGINIA, whose sister married CAPT. WILLIAM (STOA?-ILLEGIBLE), who became GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND. VIRGINIA COTHAN/COTTAN (?), the daughter of REV. WILLIAM (illegible, sorry), married THOMAS (ILLEGIBLE-BURNETT??) and eventually settled in CHAR(illegible) COUNTY, MARYLAND, where GOV. THOMAS STONE(?) sought refuge in his old age after a hectic career in Maryland Politics (sic) and a narrow escape from the wrath of the second or third LORD (illegible) and his crowd. The (illegible-BURNETT?) and HARRISONS of MARYLAND intermarried and the name VIRGINIA/VIRLINDA (?) is perpetuated in both families.

LIEUT. JOHN WEST, (illegible) of the GOVERNOR, and (most sentence is illegible) child of ENGLISH parentage born in the COLONY OF VIRGINIA, was a brother-in-law of the FIRST RALPH GRAVES (son of THOMAS and brother of ANN who married REV. WILLIAM (illegible). They both married daughters of the emigrant JOSEPH CROSHAW, who (illegible) considerable land in YORK COUNTY (VA) and along QUEEN'S CREEK. In one account of JOSEPH CROSHAW (Vol. 2 W.A.M. p. 270, first series) it is said that he married at least THREE TIMES (1) the widow of FINCH (?-illegible), (2) ANNA DODGES (illegible this is my best guess), and (3) MARGARET (?) the widow of DANIEL TUCKER/TURNER (?). His children by his first wife. They were (1) BENJAMIN CROSHAW, (2) JOSEPH CROSHAW, (3), RACHEL CROSHAW who married RALPH GRAVES, (4) MARY CROSHAW who married MR. HENRY WHITE, and (5) UNITY CROSHAW who married LIEUT-COL. JOHN WEST.

RALPH GRAVES I (the first) died MAY 9, 1667. He and his wife RACHEL CROSHAW, according to the (illegible) mentioned, had FOUR CHILDREN:

(1) ANN GRAVES

(2) RALPH GRAVES II

(3) WILLIAM GRAVES

(4) MARY GRAVES

RACHEL (CROSHAW) GRAVES, after the death of her husband, married second one RICHARD BARNES(?), by whom she probably had children who married into the COTTEN(?) FAMILY, some of whom came to NORTH CAROLINA.

WILLIAM GRAVES, son of RALPH and RACHEL may have been an ancestor of some of the GRAVES FAMILY in SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY. This fact has greatly complicated the lineage of some of the members of this family and has almost ran some of the genealogists crazy in trying to straighten them out. This compiler has kept his eye on the RALPH GRAVES set, because (illegible) from the beginning that they were the GRANVILLE set.

Sources

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G9SF-RYT

• WikiTree profile Graves-1829 created through the import of My Tree.ged on Aug 10, 2012 by Jennifer Justice. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Jennifer and others.

• The Graves Family of Granville. Page 1.

• “My Maternal Ancestors” Compiled by Ruth Cobb Oliver (1987); Ruth Cobb Oliver and her mother did extensive genealogical research. They traveled to archives across the United States gathering information which was documented/copied/compiled in a book "My Maternal Ancestors" in the Ashville, Alabama archives.

• The Graves Family Association Website