George Brickhouse Sr. ¹

Old Northampton County, Virginia connections. From his will paraphrased below, and using Ralph T. Whitelaw's famous two-volume book set called Virginia's Eastern Shore - A History of Northampton and Accomack Counties (Peter Smith Publishing, Gloucester, MA 1968), we can narrow in to where George Brickhouse (c1635-1688) owned land. One very interesting chunk was the piece of land he leaves to his daughter Anne Brickhouse in 1688. She gets the land but Brickhouse's wife Hannah to get use of the land "until Anne reaches age 15 or until married". This is interesting in that it shows how women were kind of expected to be married young - in this case age 15!

The land tract is interesting as well as it is where a Quaker Meeting House stood and Brickhouse carves a one acre lot out for the meeting house and gives to the Quakers. It is still unclear to this compiler whether Brickhouse was a Quaker but this points to some level of probability that he was. Whitelaw identifies this land as tract No. N87, patented to Francis Martin for 300a in 1645. Martin assigned the land to Thomas Clifton who expnded the patent 400a that same year. The land changes ownership several times until, in 1679, Frances and Richard Gill sold 100a to George Brickhouse (as Briggus in the records). Frances Gill was evidently the widow of John Trueman who had remarried Gill and she had formerly been the wife of John Williams who had repatented a portion of the original tract for 100a in 1666. We do not know her maiden name but we know how Frances (?) (Williams) (Trueman) Gill had come to own the land George Brickhouse bequeaths to his daughter Anne in 1688.

Whitelaw shows tract N87 as being located on a modern map (2017) as extending NE from and including the NE portion of Franktown, VA along the Bayside Road about 3/4 mi west of Nassawadox, VA. The one acre carved from the tract for the Quaker Meeting House is very near Franktown and likely is the same land on which the Franktown Methodist Church currently stands at the intersection of Bayside Rd. and Rogers Dr. It is unsure how long the old Quaker Meeting House stood but certainly from before 1688 till at least 1717 and maybe as late as 1750. (See Whitelaw, Vol. I, page 455-456 for Tract N87 and the enclosed map in that volume) Anne Brickhouse eventually marries Jeremiah Townsend and, in 1699, sells the 100a she inherited to Richard Smith

George Brickhouse also was part of a triparte patent in 1672 (with John Stringer and Robert Foster) of the 2100a land tract designated in Whitelaw as N63. After disposition, the tract ended up with 1900a total. It seems as if George Brickhouse's portion goes to son George Jr. when he died in 1688. By 1690, Stringer bought out Foster's portion and, in 1694, Stinger sold all that to George Brickhouse Jr. who now owned the entire tract. The tract gets left to George Brickhouse Jr.'s sons William, Jedidiah, Peter and John when he died in 1713.

Of more particular note to this compiler focuses on the 200a George Brickhouse left to his daughter Hannah Bell (c1662-1736), wife of George Bell (c1653-1723), who is my 8th great grandmother and 8th great grand aunt.

This land was a 200a section George Brickhouse had purchased from Col. John Stringer in a 1684 deed. Brickhouse had only one surviving male child so a good portion of his bequests went to his four surviving daughters, which was rather rare in the late 17th century (for women to inherit land tracts). The 200a tract was also described as "where Richard Jester formerly lived and whereon David Evans now lives" so we get an idea of some of the nearby neighbors in 1688. Back to Whitelaw, we see that this 200a is part of a larger tract of 300a patented for John Foster in 1643 which Foster expanded via a new patent in 1647. John Foster's son inherits the land and expands it more via patent to 750a in 1665. The northern-most 200a of that tract he sold to Vrinson Foster in 1672 who exchanged land with with Robert Foster who sold it at that time to Col. Stringer in 1675 to complete the ownership lineage.

This is Whitelaw's tract No. N60 and is located on a modern map (2017) in an area between Trehearneville and Birdsnest, VA (south and north bounds), bounded to the east by the water and to the west by Seaside Road (See Whitelaw, Vol. I, page 365-368 for Tract N60 and the enclosed map in that volume). Brickhouse's will shows how his lands disseminated in 1688. Tract N63 described above is just to the east of N60 and is mainly marshland in the modern day.

George Brickhouse Sr. wrote his will on Nov 19 1688 and it was proven in Northampton Co., VA on Jan 2 1688/9:
- To daughter Hannah, wife of George Bell, 200a of land I bought of Col. John Stringer whereon Richard Jester formerly lived and where David Evans now lives.
- To daughter Anne Brickhouse the plantation which I bought of Richard Gill formerly belonging to John Trueman excepting one acre where the meeting house stands which I give to the Quakers
- To my daughter Ellenor Brickhouse the plantation where Francis Brooks now lives with the land on this side of the branch
- To daughter Sarah Brickhouse 100a being part of the plantation whereon I now dwell at Nassawattox to be laid out at the bottom of my land adjacent to my neighbor Thomas Browne and bounded on the creek
- To my beloved wife Hannah for life the plantation whereon I now dwell and then to son George
- My negro to my daughter Anne Brickhouse, my wife to have use of him until Anne is 15 or longer if she remains unmarried and lives with her mother.
- Executors to be son George and son-in-law George Bell
Witnesses: Henry Stott, Jeremiah Walter, Philip Jacob, John Tankerd (NoVAW-XV-12:400)

George married Mary Hannah Luddington, daughter of William Luddington and Garterude (?), on 04 Nov 1661 in Hungars Parish, Northampton Co., VA. (Mary Hannah Luddington was born about 1643 and died after 1688 in Northampton Co., VA.)