The Dale Family. The following information comes from The Descendants of Captain Thomas Carter, written by Joseph Lyon Miller, M.D.

Transcription

1 The Dale Family The following information comes from The Descendants of Captain Thomas Carter, written by Joseph Lyon Miller, M.D. 1 Among the royalists who sought refuge in Virginia after the death of King Charles I, were Sir Grey Skipwith (DIANA s brother), and his brother-in-law, MAJOR EDWARD DALE, Gentleman. Sir Grey was the second son of SIR HENRY SKIPWITH, Baronet of Prestwould, Leicestershire, whose ancestry goes back to WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, and MAJOR DALE was of the ancient family of Dale of Northampton and London, which originally was of the county Chester, as he used the same arms, the crest of which is shown on his seal to a paper at Lancaster Court House in Virginia. They settled on the Rappahannock River, but on different sides of it. Sir Grey Skipwith in what is not Middlesex County, and MAJOR DALE in Lancaster. MAJOR DALE soon began taking a prominent role in county affairs and from 1655 to 1674 was clerk of Lancaster County; from 1669 to 1684 a Justice, or Commissioner of the County Court, in the years 1670, 1671, 1679 and 1680 High Sheriff, and in 1677 and he was a member of the House of Burgesses. The old records of Lancaster for the first two or three years after the county was organized are not quite complete, but EDWARD DALE appears as Clerk of the County 1 (Miller)

2 in 1655, and continued until May 10, 1674 when John Stretchley took the oath as clerk of the county. In Colonial days the clerk was probably the most important officer after the County Lieutenant, and besides belonging to the local gentry, was one of the leading men in his county. The clerks were also the legal advises to a large part of their constituents, and for a time were permitted to act as attorneys before the court, but even after this privilege was taken from them they probably drew up more deeds and wills than all the other attorneys in the county. From sometime in 1669 until April 1684, EDWARD DALE was Justice of the County Court. According the Act of , the justices were to be chosen from the most able, honest, and judicious citizens in their respective counties. The judges on the county were allowed thirty pounds of tobacco from each litigant who failed to win his case. The old records show that in the years 1670, 1671, 1679 and 1680, MAJOR DALE was High Sheriff of Lancaster, having been chosen by the governor from the names presented to him by the county court. In November 1677 and January 1683 MAJOR DALE received from the county court his pay as a Burgess from Lancaster County eight thousand, eight hundred and fifty-five pounds for each service. POINTS OF INTEREST: Bacon s Rebellion This was a revolt in 1767 by frontiersman, indentured servants, and slaves in colonial Virginia. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon, who organized a militia to deal with Indians who were raiding inland farms. In 1676, Bacon was elected to the House of Burgesses where he continued to promote his Indian raids, much to the dismay of the colonial governor William Berkeley. In his Declaration of the People, Bacon denounced the colonial government for doing little to protect the frontier farmlands and unjust taxation, among other things. Eventually, Bacon s militia turned on the colonial capital of Jamestown seizing and destroying property of the aristocracy for three months. The rebellion ended shortly after Bacon s death, due to body lice. Bacon s Rebellion was the first major rebellion in the American Colonies in which free white men were involved. The date of EDWARD DALE s commission as a major in the Lancaster militia has not been ascertained. He appeared in a list of militia officers in Virginia in 1680 as MAJOR DALE, and in various court records previous to that year. MAJOR DALE s part in Bacon s Rebellion seems to have been that he represented Lancaster County at a Committee (by Order of Ye Grand Assembly) for Laying a Levy in the Northern Neck for ye charge in Raisinge ye forces thereof for the suppression ye late rebellion met at Capt. Beales ye 14 th Ausgust 1677 being present Mr. Wm. Presley, MAJOR ED. DALE, Major Issac Allerton, Mr. Peter Presley, Col. Wm. Travers, Col. Sam Griffin, Col. George Mason & Mr. Martin Scarlett. The existing Lancaster records show no deed to MAJOR EDWARD DALE prior to May 6, 1663, when he had a certificate for 770 acres by assignment from Rich. Perrott; and on the same date 500 acres from Richard Merryman the plantation where Mr. EDWARD DALE now liveth. On February 2, 1664 MAJOR DALE had a deed from Edward

3 Lunsford for 350 acres of land on the Easternmost branch of Corotoman River; and December 14 th the same year, a deed from Wm. Chappan for 700 acres on the same branch, for the two of which he paid 11,000 pounds of tobacco for 500 acres; and in May 1681 a like amount to Thomas Chetwood, merchant, for 600 acres in St. Mary s White Chapel Parish to which he moved and where he lived the remainder of this life. Of these 3400 acres, MAJOR DALE deeded 500 acres to his daughter, KATHERINE CARTER, in 1674, and 600 acres to his daughter, Elizabeth Rogers in In all of his deeds and other papers, he always signed EDWARD DALE, Gentleman, a title that in the 17 th century was defined with legal precision, and its use was not permitted to anyone who did not have a right to it. MAJOR DALE s original will disappeared from the clerk s office at Lancaster Court House, but fortunately his son-in-law, CAPTAIN THOMAS CARTER, sealed his will in 1700 with a seal that shows the crest of the Dales. POINTS OF INTEREST: Cavalier is chiefly associated with the Royalist supporters of King Charles I in his struggle with Parliament in the English Civil Way. It first appears as a term of reproach and contempt, applied by the opponents of the king. Charles in the Answer to the Petition June 13, 1642 speaks of cavaliers as a word by what mistake soever it seems much in disfavor. It was soon adopted (as a title of honor) by the king s party, who in return applied Roundhead to their opponents, and at the Restoration the court party preserved the name, which survived till the rise of the term Tory. Cavalier style of dress included long flowing hair in ringlets, a liking for embellished clothes, and plumed hats. This was in complete contrast to the Roundhead supporters of Parliament, with their preference for short hair and plain dress, although neither side conformed to the stereotypical images entirely. In fact the best patrons in the nobility of the archetypal recorder of the Cavalier image, Charles I s court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck, all took the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. These derogatory terms (for at the time they were so intended) also showed what the typical Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist sidecapricious men who care more for vanity than for the nation at large. The chaplain to King Charles I, Edward Simmons described a cavalier as a Child of Honor, a Gentleman well borne and bred that loves his king for conscience sake, of a clearer countenance, and bolder look than other men, because of a more loyal Heart. There were many men in the Royalist armies who fit this description since most of the Royalist field officers MAJOR DALE was a cavalier or adherent of King Charles I, as is plainly shown in his epitaph, and the fact that he enjoyed numerous political offices under royalist Sir William Berkeley, Govenor, and the following story of him that comes down through his descendants: The story relates that upon one occasion a stranger stopped at MAJOR DALE s house one day just about dinner hour. His horse was sent to the stable and he was invited to join the family at the dinner just then being served. When they were seated at the table the visitor immediately bowed his head and offered a long puritanical prayer, in which he

4 asked rich blessings upon Oliver Cromwell (who was not then dead) and special maledictions on the head of the pretender-charles II. This so incensed MAJOR DALE that he ordered the man from his table, sent a servant for his horse and told him to hunt his dinner elsewhere, thus in his loyalty to his King, transgressing one of the strongest unwritten laws of the time the law of hospitality. A three-quarter length portrait of EDWARD DALE handed down in the Carter family showed him as a portly brown-eyed gentlemen dressed in a black velvet coat, dark red waistcoat, cream-colored satin breeches and a powdered wig. At the close of the civil war, its owner, the late Col. Thomas Carter of Kentucky moved to Chicago, where the portrait, with other valuable pictures and heirlooms, were lost in the great fire in that city. Deeds and Will 8 December 1674 EDWARD DALE of the County of Lancaster in Virginia, as well for and in consideration of a marriage already had and solomonized between THOMAS CARTER of the same County, Merchant of one parte and KATHERINE his wife, daughter of me the aforesaid EDWARD DALE conveys to THOMAS and KATHERINE CARTER, a plantation of 500 acres in Lancaster. His wife, DIANA DALE, signing the deed relinquishing her dower. On the same day they conveyed to THOMAS CARTER and wife, a negro boy named Dick, a gray mare and a two-year old colt, six young cows and their calves and half the hogs on the plantation. 12 March, EDWARD and DIANA DALE deeded to their daughter, Elizabeth, now the wife of Mr. Wiliam Rodgers, son of Capt. John Rodgers in the County of Northumberland, a plantation of 600 acres in Lancaster. 7 October 1687 MAJOR DALE conveyed to MR. THOMAS CARTER AND WIFE, KATHERINE in consideration of love and affection two negro boys named James and Robin, and after the death of THOMAS CARTER and his wife, the boy Robin was to go to DALE s grandson, Edward Carter, and the other negro to his other Carter grandchildren. (they were slave owners) Last Will and Testament In the Name of God Amen, the twenty fourth day of August 1694, I, EDWARD DALE of the County of Lancaster in Rapp k River in Virginia being of Sound & perfect Memory God he praised doe make and ordaine this my last will * Testament in manner and forme following: First I commend my Soule into the hands of Almighty God my Creator and Redeemer. My body to the Earth from whence it Came to bee decently interred without any wine drinking. AS for such worldly Estate as it pleased God to bless me with I dispose of it in manner and forme following: If it shall please God for my wife shall happen to outlive mee I give unto her for her maintenance during her life the whole profit of my Estate whatsoever it being had to her as an honest woman a Gentlewoman, and a great many years my wife

5 After the death of his daughter, KATHERINE CARTER, was to have control and use of all of his estate until his Carter grandchildren were all of age, when it was to be divided as follows: Grandsons, PETER and Joseph Carter, to have his home plantation in St. Mary s Parish with all plantation tools, etc., and a negro man each when they arrived at the age of 21 years. This was about 1711, as in January 1712, they divided their grandfather DALE s plantation. Granddaughter, Elizabeth, his best bed and furniture and a trunk. To daughter, Elizabeth Rodgers, 12 in full of all claims on his estate. The residue of estate to be divided equally between his grandchildren, Elizabeth and Catherine, PETER and Joseph Carter, when they should become of legal age or marry. Daughter, KATHERINE CARTER, and grandson, Edward Carter, to be executors of his will, and granddaughter, Elizabeth Carter, to also be one when she arrived at the age of 16. The inventory of his estate was returned to court on March 20, 1695, and amounted to 10,607 pounds of tobacco. It included, besides the usual household and plantation furniture, a parcel of books, three pictures, two silver dram cups without handles and a pair of silver tongs. His tomb has not been located at either St. Mary s White Chapel yard, near which his home was located or in the neighboring private graveyards. His epitaph, either as it appeared on his tomb or as it was expected to appear, in recorded in the Carter Prayer Book, and is as follows, the inscription being preceded by a faded drawing of the Dale Arms enclosed in a circle, which by its shading indicates that the arms were sunk below the surface of the stone. (ARMS) Hic Depositum Soe certe resurgendi in Christo Quicquid habuit Mortale EDWARDUS DALE, ARMIGER Tndem honorum et dierum Obiit 2 nd February: Anno Dom: He descended from an Ancient Family In England & came into ye Colony Of Virginia after the Death of his Unhappy Master Charles First For above 30 years he enjoyed Various Employments of Public Trust In ye Colony of Lancaster which he Discharged with great Fidelity & Satisfaction To the Governor & People. As a Neighbor Father Husband he Excelled and in early years Crown His other Accomplishments by a

6 Felicitous Marriage With Diana ye daughter of Sir Henry Skipwith Of Preswold in ye County of Leicester Bart Who is left a little while to Mourn Him. The above epitaph shows that EDWARD DALE s wife was DIANA SKIPWITH, daughter of SIR HENRY SKIPWITH of Prestwold, Leicestershire; and the following letter from her brother Sir Grey Skipwith, substantiates it: Brother Dale Pray do me the favor to acknowledge in court on my behalf two bills of sale for Cattle made to Mary Bayley and this my note shall impower you for the doing of it as full as any letter of attorney. Sir, I have not else only our love presented to yourselfe and my sister. Sir I am your lo; brother. Grey Skipwith The above letter is recorded on page 364, Record Book No. 2, Lancaster County, Virginia POINTS OF INTEREST: If you visit Yankee Point Marina and Yacht Club in Lancaster, VA overlookin the sailboats on the water, you will be at the last home site of MAJOR EDWARD DALE, as documented by Charles R. Carter, Carter Society founder and awardwinning researcher. Not far away is St. Mary s Whitechapel, which is still an active Episcopal Church. It was establish in This was one of the churches the THOMAS CARTER and EDWARD DALE families attended, as well as the BALL family, maternal ancestors of George Washington. It is recorded that EDWARD DALE and THOMAS CARTER served as vestrymen here. The interior has the oldest set of alter tablets (The Lord s Prayer, Apostle s Creed, and the Ten Commandments) to survive from Colonial Virginia. Continuing down the road to Lancaster, VA is the Lancaster County Courthouse(where the portraits of EDWARD DALE and THOMAS CARTER, JR, are housed, the Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library.