Nichols of Surry, Brunswick & Lunenburg Co VA and Granville & Bute Co NC
There are three names that get repeated over and over in this particular branch of the Nichols family .... first it was Roger but that seems to have died out after Roger III born in about 1683 ....then it was William and Julius, names seen repeatedly after the late 1600s and first decade of the 1700s.
To begin at the beginning, but first to imbed the caveat that not all of the statements that follow are absolutely proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, but those are mostly clearly stated as such and do seem to be correct based on years of concentrated research.
Back to the beginning:Roger Nichols arrived from the U.K.---either England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales---BY 1635 in James City Co as a headright.By 1649 he had patented land just a couple miles south of the James River in that part of James City Co that became Surry Co in 1652.
Not much more is known of Roger Sr except that he apparently died before 1668 and had a son born in, I estimate, 160 ~ 1655, in either James City Co or Surry Co.
That Roger Jr died in or just before 1707 in Surry Co, leaving a widow Sarah and at least two children:William born in 1677 or 1678, and Roger III born in 1682 or 1683.
Not much more is known of Roger III except that he was living in Surry Co in 1730 when he was fined for not attending church.
His brother William seems to have had at least these three children:Winifred in about 1700, who married in about 1715 Robert Cooke;William II who was born estimated about 1702, married Mary unknown and died in Lunenburg Co VA in 1763(will signed 1762), leaving a daughter Eleanor(who married a Hight)and son William III;and thirdly William II had a son Julius, born estimated 1705 Surry Co.
Except for the 1730 record mentioned above for Roger III, I have found no records for any of these folks until 1745/46 in the part of Brunswick Co VA that in just a few months became Lunenburg Co,and I think the reason that no records are found for them in Surry Co or Brunswick Co, both of which have mostly intact records,is because they had moved to Prince George Co---where almost all records are destroyed---and where the aforementioned Robert Cooke and his bride Winifred (Nichols) were living from 1722 and no doubt several years earlier.(This known courtesy of Bristol Parish records and the few Prince George deeds that avoided destruction.)
From 1746 for about the next 20 years all of the records are in Lunenburg Co, mostly for Julius and his brother William, and William’s son William III.
William III had married Mary Jefferson and had at least two children with her by 1762 when Mary’s father Field Jefferson signed his will in Lunenburg Co,and William III is found on Cubb Creek in Charlote Co, an offspring of Lunenburg, in about 1766,three years after his father had died, as mentioned above.
William III’s uncle Julius moved in the early 1760s to that part of Granville Co that became Bute Co, and William III soon followed to Bute Co where he made his will in 1772, leaving no widow---Mary had died earlier---but eight children, one of whom was William IV who married Sarah Bowdoin, as noted by her father in his will, and another son named, of course, Julius.
I would be happy to send much more detailed information to anyone who writes me, either here or at the address below.But hurry ... I’ll be 80 soon.
Graham Louer
Plano TX
More Replies:
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Graham Louer address change
g. louer 1/27/14
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Re: Nichols of Surry, Brunswick & Lunenburg Co VA and Granville & Bute Co NC
Andrew Ayers Martin 4/07/13