BRUNSWICK COUNTY, VA ROOTS
BRUNSWICK COUNTY, VA ROOTS
I am descended from Benjamin Delbridge,b.1780 (grandfather’s g-grandfather) and Benjamin Clary,b.1766 (grandmother’s g-g-grandfather). For the last few months I have collected information from various internet sites, reviewed the courthouse records in Emporia and Lawrenceville and conducted research at the Library of Virginia, DAR Library and the libraries in Brunswick County and Alexandria Virginia.. I did all this with the expectation that I could connect, at least, the colonial past with current Delbridge and Clary relatives.
The near term picture, I soon found out, is largely dependent on the memory of living family members. The process to find them, communicate with them and obtain their recollections is a work in progress.. So far I have concentrated on my father’s paternal ancestry.
The proliferation of the early Delbridges in the United States seems to rest with two brothers, Thomas and Edward, who came to America in the mid 1700s. Starting in Brunswick County, their offspring spread the family to the adjacent Greensville and Dinwiddie Counties in Virginia, the northern part of North Carolina, Tenneessee, and Texas. The early issues have not been extensive as I thought they might be. At this point, however some mysteries still exist which cause discontinuities in connecting the past to the present and are notably as follows:
1. It seems to be generally accepted that Benjamin Delbridge had five children with Sally Jackson and eleven with Lucy Walton. Five children are living w/ him at the time of the 1850 census. Where can an appropriate record and/or proof be found naming the rest of his children? Is there any significance in the fact that the informal data I have indicates that with Lucy there was one son, Thomas D., c1818 , then a long gap before other children were noted starting with Edward Williamton in 1828 and then rather frequent and regular births until 1844?
2. Benjamin E. Delbridge, c1822 is the progenitor of a significant number of Delbridges emanating from Greensville County. He was married to Marey Cordle in Northampton County, NC in 1846. Unfortunately the marriage license is not available in the county seat and I have found no alternate way to identify Benjamin E. Delbridge’s parents. Where did Benjamin E. come from?
3. Thomas and Edwards father has been identified as John Delbridge married to Elizabeth Hodge and buried in Dunster, Sommerset, England. It is interesting to speculate that this John Delbridge is connected to the John Delbridge named by Captain John Smith in his writings, and in other places, as an “Adventurer” (Shareholder) in the Virginia Company doing business relative to Jamestowne. If a connection can be found, our Brunswick County Delbridge’s could claim an American colonial connection. Is there any information concerning the ancestry of John Delbridge, b.1700, d.1778 and buried in Saint George Parish, Dunster?
Feel free to contact me directly if you desire at: [email protected]
Wilfred R. (Dick) Delbridge
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Re: BRUNSWICK COUNTY, VA ROOTS
John Lee Fults 6/07/04