Susannah (Hatcher) Burton

1646 – c.1706

Thomas Burton settled in Bristol Parish, Virginia. In the mid 1600s, he purchased a piece of land on the Appomattox River near Swift Creek called “Cobbs Plantation” or “Cobbs Hall” after its original owner, Ambrose Cobbs. Here he and his wife Susannah reared four sons (Thomas Jr., John, Isaac, and Abraham) and a daughter, Ann. (Mary Etta Hazlewood descended through Susannah’s daughter. See  chart.)

Thomas Jr. apparently had a close relationship with his Grandfather Hatcher, Susannah’s father. William Hatcher left a codicil to his will giving the boy a farm. Though generous, Hatcher was also a contentious old man who seemed to always be stirring up trouble. One such altercation took place in 1680, which is where this account begins.

“Lantroope picked up the axe as instructed.”

He took one good whack at the canoe owned by Mr. Robert Woodson. William Hatcher ordered Lantroope to do the same to any other boats found in the swamp. The former Burgess didn’t tolerate neighbors fishing on his land without permission.

His daughter, Susannah knew only too well how combative her father could be. Three years earlier, he had been found guilty of supporting Bacon’s Rebellion. Long ago, when she was only a child, the court forced her father to publicly apologize on bended knee for slandering a public official. This time was different, however. This time it involved her son.

Mr. Woodson sought redress in civil court for the damage done to his boat. Sixteen-year-old Thomas Jr. having witnessed the event was questioned. Susannah’s son testified “that he saw John Lantroope strike a piece out of the head of Mr. Robert Woodson’s cannoe with an axe, and that ye deponent heard Mr. William Hatcher order ye said Lantroope and his other servants to splitt all ye cannoes they found in the swampp and further saith not.”

Susannah may have wanted to keep Thomas Jr. from spending so much time with his grandfather after such an incident. But it wouldn’t matter. William Hatcher died shortly after the April court date. Her father was gone.

Five years later, the other important man in her life lay on his deathbed. An ailing Thomas Burton was about fifty when he dictated his will. In it he gifted 100 acres of land to each of his sons. Susannah widowed at age forty quickly remarried. She became the new wife of Mr. John Stewart. In turn, Stewart became a step-father to Susannah’s children.

The older couple was blessed with a child of their own. Little Mary Anne Stewart would be Susannah’s last baby. No doubt she relied on her daughter Ann to help look after her much younger half-sister. As for Susannah’s sons, the Burton boys had grown into young men. Thomas Jr. married and moved to Boston, opting for a cosmopolitan life in the busy seaport.

Bad news arrived from Massachusetts about 1691. Susannah’s eldest son had died in the prime of life at age 27. Her brother, Benjamin Hatcher traveled to Boston to help settle the estate. According to her father’s will, the farm William Hatcher had gifted to his grandson was only for Junior’s lifetime. A Virginia court awarded the land to Benjamin upon his petition.

Life went on. Susannah watched her Mary grow from toddler to little girl. At the same time, she saw her teenage daughter Ann mature into a young woman. A summer wedding in 1693 joined Ann Burton and Bartholomew Stovall, a former indenture on a neighboring plantation. Step-father John gave his surety. Susannah looked forward to many grandchildren in the years to come.

One of Susannah’s grandsons, Bartholomew Stovall, Jr. would continue the family line to later include Mary Etta Hazlewood.

Timeline

1646       Susannah Hatcher born

1676       Bacon’s Rebellion and the burning of Jamestown

1692       Salem Witch Trials (Susannah’s son lived about 15 miles from Salem.)

1700+    Susannah Hatcher Burton dies before her second husband

1706       Benjamin Franklin born

Sources

Henrico Co. Deeds & Wills 1677-92, p. 121.

Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia (McIIwaine), p.458; Heming’s Statutes at Large, (Hening) vol 2, pp. 551-2.

“Thomas Burton, Sr.” Thomas Burton, Sr b. Abt 1634 HenricoCo, VA d. Abt Feb 1685 HenricoCo, VA, 7 Dec. 2011, hatcherfamilyassn.com/getperson.php?personID=I40981&tree=WmtheIm.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/life/food/2013/05/130501_FOOD_Jamestown.jpg.CROP.article568-large.jpg.

Yates Publishing. US and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

 

 

William Hatcher

c.1614 – 1680

During the 17^th century, the House of Burgesses convened in Jamestown, Virginia. One of Mary Etta’s ancestors, William Hatcher served as a Burgess representing Henrico County. He was elected five times while civil war raged in England.

When Cromwell’s Reformation ended, the monarchy reassumed power. In 1676, one hundred years before the American Revolution, a young Burgess named Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against the local colonial government. He and his followers challenged Governor William Berkeley, set fire to the capital Jamestown, and ravaged the plantations of Royalist neighbors. But Berkeley’s soldiers soon regained control over the chaos.

Hatcher like many others was prosecuted for his support of Bacon’s Rebellion. Several men were sent to the gallows the following January. More executions followed.

“Sentence of death therefore past upon him…15^th instant.”

A specter of death arrived in Virginia on the Ides of March 1677. Giles Bland, Robert Jones, Anthony Arnold, Richard Farmar, Robert Stokes, John Isles, and Richard Pomfrey climbed the steps of the gallows. Governor Berkeley was on a vengeful tear. Over twenty colonists would hang for their participation in Bacon’s Rebellion of the previous year.

William Hatcher’s trial was about to begin. Four cases were scheduled that ominous day before a civil court. Hatcher’s would be the first. The elderly governor himself was there, presiding along with his commissioners.

Sir William Berkeley governed Virginia by appointment of King Charles II of England. Despised by Bacon for his unwillingness to defend frontier settlers from native Indians, Berkeley subsequently lost favor with his King. In a royal proclamation the previous autumn, Charles granted a general pardon to the rebels. Instead, Berkeley brought charges of treason against Bacon’s supporters in military court. Those found guilty hung by their necks.

The governor’s flagrant disregard for the King’s order resulted in royal commissioners sailing to Virginia. Beginning March 1^st, rebels were no longer tried at court martial. The commissioners insisted on a trial by jury. Hatcher would have the advantage of a civil court.

At age 63, William Hatcher was an old man. He had left England many years before to make Henrico County, Virginia his home. As a large landowner and former Burgess, he had attained a certain social standing in the community. Now in the court room awaiting the jury’s decision, he appreciated that more than just his reputation was at stake.

The room quieted as the judgment was read aloud:

“William Hatcher being brought before the court for uttering divers mutinous words tending to the disquiet of this his majesties country, and it being evidently made appeare what was layd to his charge by divers oaths, and a jury being impanelled to  assesse the damages, who bring in their verdict that they award the said Hatcher to pay tenn thousand pound of tobacco and caske, which verdict of the jury this honorable court doth confirme; but in respect the said Hatcher is an aged man, the court doth order that the said Hatcher doe pay with all expedition eight thousand pounds of drest pork unto his majesties commander of his forces in Henrico county, for the supply of the souldiers, which if he fayle to doe, that he pay eight thousand pounds of tobacco and caske the next cropp, and pay costs.”

No hangman’s noose. A relieved Hatcher walked outside into the early spring air a free man. He could afford the loss of several hogs. Even so, the penalty must have stung.

Berkeley used the civil courts to target wealthy landowners. He imposed fines of tobacco and butchered livestock to feed royal troops, the same soldiers who had put down the rebellion. Hatcher probably took some satisfaction when King Charles recalled Sir Berkeley to England a couple of months later. The hanging governor no longer held power over the Virginia colonists. In fact, William Berkeley died that May. William Hatcher survived his nemesis by three years, dying in 1680.

Sources

“William Hatcher.” William Hatcher b. Abt 1613 England d. Bef Mar 1680 HenricoCo, VA, hatcherfamilyassn.com/getperson.php?personID=I43718&tree=WmTheIm. Accessed 7 Sept. 2017.

Ridpath, John C. Governor William Berkeley and the insurgents. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Governor_Berkeley_and_the_insurgents.jpg. Accessed 7 Sept. 2017.

Papers relating to Bacon’s Rebellion The Statues at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, From the First Session of the Legislature, in 1619., http://www.virtualjamestown.org/exist/cocoon/jamestown/fha/J1061. Accessed 7 Sept. 2017.

“Dale & Henrico Parishes Hatcher Wm.” Ancestry, http://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/111400652/person/360085875806/media/4f0e6b44-454c-429b-bd83-7c072223fc19. Accessed 7 Sept. 2017.