| Notes |
- Capt John Jenkins
BIRTH 1658
Westmoreland County, Virginia, USA
DEATH Jun 1717 (aged 58–59)
Warsaw, Richmond County, Virginia, USA
BURIAL Bladensfield Plantation
Warsaw, Richmond County, Virginia, USA
MEMORIAL ID 148126252
Born in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Died June 1717 at Billingsgate Plantation (Bladensfield Plantation), Warsaw, Richmond County, Virginia.
John Jenkins was the son of Nicholas Jenkins and wife Ann/Amy from England. His father died in Westmoreland Co., VA. 1673 and his mother remarried William Rogers before her death in 1677.
Nicholas Jenkins' daughters were:
1. Mary Jenkins (b. c1650) who married James Courtney and had daughter Martha Courtney, the second wife of Vincent Garner, son of John Garner and Susannah Keene.
2. Ann Jenkins (b. before 1660) who was the first wife of Vincent Garner.
John Jenkins married Martha Garner, daughter of John Garner and Susannah Keene (per Jenkins of the Northern Neck by Amelia Gilreath; National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, Lineage Book 8 (2002), p.29).
Cemetery notes and/or description:
Near Warsaw, Virginia: At 53.7 m. on State 3 is a junction with State 203. Left here to a private road, 0.6 mile, and R. to BLADENSFIELD, 1.2 mile.
Bladensfield Plantation is located a half-mile south of the Kinsale Road. The ancient graveyard was located "at the foot of the garden," where the few readable markers included Mr. and Mrs. John Peck and their daughter Alice. The earlier owners of Bladensfield, John and Martha Jenkins, were thought to have been buried there also with some members of their family and servants.
"The original Bladensfield Estate, of 1,000 acres, was patented by John Jenkins in 1653, and the present house was built for Jenkins by Nicholas Rochester, who came from England in 1689. At Jenkins' death, in 1719, Bladensfield was added to the Nomini Hall estate. The house is a large frame building on a brick basement. The walls of nogging covered with clapboards rise two stories to a gabled roof, which has several dormers. The largest of the dormers is over the entrance. Mantels and cornices are hand-carved, and the flooring is dowel-pinned. The house is privately owned and is not open to the public."
From the website of the National Park Service.
The Virginia Landmarks Register had listed Bladensfield previously as built probably by Robert "Councillar" Carter, grandson of Robert "King" Carter, 3rd quarter of the 18th century.
"Bladensfield is one of the oldest houses in the Northern Neck, and is a place of great interest. It is set back from the highway, in a lawn of beautiful trees and shrubbery, through which winds the old, old drive-way. The flower garden back of the house is one of the beauty spots of the Northern Neck. The Ward family, who now own and occupy Bladensfield, take pride in preserving the grounds as they were over two centuries ago....
The original name of the house was 'Billingsgate' and it was not given the title 'Bladensfield' until 1847. The basement of the dwelling is brick-walled, but the walls of the house above the ground are of noggin. Some of the original beaded weather-boarding remains. On the interior are hand-carved mantels and cornice, and paneled wainscot, of a different color in each room. The doors have 'HL' hinges, 'to keep the witches out'. From the hall ceiling still hangs the lamp used in Colonial days. Through the facing of the rear door is the Indian peep-hole. This door has no lock... it never had any. A hard-timbered bar secures it. It is the identical bar that held the door closed against the Indians in the late sixteen hundreds...."
(From "Historic Northern Neck of Virginia" (1934) by Henry Ragland Eubank.)
◦"Bladensfield is one of the very old places in Virginia. One of the two oldest that he knew of, was the surmise of our State Historian and Director of Archaeology when he visited it. Other experts have confirmed his testimony. There is a pleasant mention of the old place in Lancaster's "Historical Homes and Churches of Virginia." Naturally, about a spot that has been the home of many individuals, stories of human interest have clustered --stories that illustrate the ideas and manners of their day and also the surge of our humanity, forever moving, yet forever the same. As the farm was deeded before the present counties of Westmoreland and Richmond were determined upon, the front gate and one of the upper fields are in Westmoreland, the house and the rest of the farm in Richmond County. According to the Guide Book of the Northern Neck, the house was built about the year 1690, by Nicholas Rochester, of the family of Rochesters who founded the city of Rochester in New York. Tradition says the place was for a time the home of George Eskridge, guardian of Mary Ball, George Washington's mother. We know that it was, during their married lives, the home of Ann Tasker Carter (daughter of Councillor Carter of Nomini Hall) and her husband, John Peck, who succeeded as tutor at Nomini Hall, Philip Vickers Fithian, famous for his diary of his stay in the family of Councillor Carter. Mr. and Mrs. Peck and their daughter Alice lie buried in the "Peck Graveyard" at the foot of the garden at Bladensfield. In 1842 the place was deeded to the Reverend William Norvell Ward by Harriet Peck (then Mrs. Captain Lucius M. Davis), only surviving daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Peck. There Mr. Ward and his wife brought up twelve children. The place still continues in the family." (From The Children of Bladensfield (1978) by Evelyn D. Ward.)
The Children of Bladensfield by Ward, and "The Ghosts of Bladensfield" by Catherine L. Milsted (Northern Neck Historical Magazine, vol.31 [1981]) contain several ghost stories relating to Bladensfield. "The Ghosts of Bladensfield," by Catherine L. Milsted was also reprinted in The Ghosts of Virginia vol. 2 by L.B. Taylor Jr., pp. 21-23: Chapter 3.
"Aunt Amy Fauntleroy, a very old colored woman, said when she was a little girl, before we lived at Bladensfield, 'the ghoses' were so troublesome that the Pecks had them 'laid'. Aunt Amy said she was at 'the Laying'. She told us that the grounds were covered with the colored people and that a Baptist preacher came into the hall, from the back of the house, wearing his coat inside out and upside down and read some verses of the Bible going from the bottom line to the top. Aunt Amy said, 'Ef yer hadn't er knowed it was the Bible, yer'd er thought it was pur nonsense.' She added that 'the ghoses' had never been as bad since 'the laying'... However, they were very much in evidence throughout our childhood."(From Evelyn Ward)
HISTORIC VIRGINIA Homes and Churches (1915) by Robert A. Lancaster, Jr., p. 322: BLADENSFIELD.
"The farm near Warsaw, Richmond County, on which this quaint old house stands was once part of the great estate of Robert ("King") Carter. In 1733, on the division of part of his property, it was assigned to his grandson, Robert Carter of Nomini. This gentleman, or his wife, most probably (who was Frances, daughter of Benjamin Tasker, President of the Council of Maryland, and his wife Anne Bladen), gave to the place the present name. In January, 1790, Mr. Carter conveyed Bladensfield to his son-in-law, John Peck, whose heirs, in 1842, sold it to Reverend William Norvell Ward, whose family has since owned it. Well founded tradition states that the home was once occupied by Nathaniel Rochester, a native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, who was a colonel in the Continental Army and for whom the city of Rochester. N.Y., was named. Bladensfield is believed to have been built early in the eighteenth century."
Billingsgate (Bladensfield).
NOTES: See page 132 of Vic Jeter's book.
Capt. John Jenkins was a planter and a mariner; Master of the ship "Seaflower." Family home was "Billingsgate," later known as "Blandensfield" in the northern neck of Virginia.
At 56.5 m. is a junction with State 202
Near Warsaw, Virginia: At 53.7 m. on State 3 is a junction with State 203. Left here to a private road, 0.6 m., and R. to BLADENSFIELD, 1.2 m. (admission 50 cents, children 25 cents), a large frame house on a brick basement. The walls of nogging covered with clapboards rise two stories to a gabled roof with several dormers, the largest of which is over the entrance. There are hand-carved mantels and cornices, dial-pinned flooring, and H-L hinges. The rear door, with peep-hole, is fastened by the hardtimbered bar that held it secure against the Indians in the 1690's. Behind the house is a flower garden containing rare old-fashioned plants.
see: Rappahannock Record, v 66 no. 30, 29 Apr 1982, p.18: "Dr. Holland Talks to UDC About Bladensfield."
The Bladensfield mansion was over 300 years old when it burned to the ground in November 1996.
John Jenkins married Martha Garner by 29 May 1695 when a land transaction (Westmoreland County Deeds & Wills Book (1690-1699) page 24 states John Jenkins of Cople Parish Westmoreland Co. planter...(assigned) to John Garner & Vincent Garner for divers good caused and considerations in the law, all interest in 100 acres commonly called Horne Point on Yeocomico River in Cople Parish. Witness Simon Robins, signed John Jenkins. 29 May 1695.
14 March 1698: John Jenkins and wife Martha sold 1000 acres to John Dunkun. John Garner Jun.(her brother) acted as witness and Martha Jenkins relinquished dower rights (Westmoreland Co. VA Deeds & Wills Book for 1691-1699).
1717:
WESTMORELAND COUNTY ORDER BOOK, 1716-1718; pg 39
Westmoreland County Court 26th of June 1717
"MARTHA JENKINS, Relict of JOHN JENKINS deced. came into Court and made Oath that JOHN departed this life without makeing any Will soe farr as she knows or believes and on her motion Certificate is granted her for obtaining Letters of Administration on the Decedent's Estate in due form, GEORGE ESKRIDGE assumeing in open Court to be Security for her faithfull administration according to Law; And it is ordered that HENRY GARNER, FRANCIS AWBREY, JAMES COURTNEY and SAMUEL RUST or any three of them being first sworn before one of his Majesties Justices for this County, doe some time before the next Court."
John Jenkins and Martha Garner had six known sons:
1.Ezekiel JENKINS b: ABT 1699
2.William JENKINS b: ABT 1704, d.1747 Fairfax Co., VA. m. Mary Ballenger
3.James JENKINS b: ABT 1706, d. before 1782, m. Martha Bailey
4.John JENKINS II b: ABT 1708, d.1773 m. Elizabeth
5.Samuel JENKINS b: ABT 1710, d. before July 1757 Loudon Co, VA., m. Margaret
6.Thomas JENKINS b: ABT 1713, d. 1745 Fairfax Co., m. Ann
7. A number of family trees also include Elijah Jonas K. Jenkins (1696-1771), the 8th-great-grandfather of singer Dolly Parton. Dolly also is descended from Martha Garner Jenkins' brother Henry Garner as well as Capt. John Jenkins' sister Mary Jenkins Courtney.
Family Members
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1658 - 1717 (59 years)
