Amer Via

was born in 1650/1656 in France. He died in 1709/1711 in New Kent, Virginia.

The Via family are of French Huguenot stock, and according to tradition, the name was spelled DeViar, but the first Via to come to America dropped the de and r, and most branches of the family have also dropped them since. A few still spell the name Viar. The first record of a Via in America was in 1688, when Amer Via, of New Kent County, Virginia lost a daughter, no name. He and his wife Margaret had other daughters later, Judith Via, baptized April 11, 1699, Margaret - baptized August 3, 1701, and baptized Mary February 27, 1703/1704. There may have been others. It is thought they also had a least two sons, William (l) and Robert. We have no definite proof these two were Amer's sons, but since he is the only Via on record at that time who could have been their father, we can assume he was. Robert Via remained in the Tidewater, and his descendants, at least some brancches of them, spell the name Viar. The Margaret baptized in 1710, married Daniel Maupin, and came to Albemarle and settled at White Hall. She was the mother of all the Almarle Maupins.

Excerpts from "The Totem Pole" by Harold Houston Via Issue #6

....Our aim is to start with Amer Via and his wife Margaret, who after a frustrating and fruitless living in Williamsburg that accumulated in his having to serve a few days in the stockage for his stubbornness. His decision to strike out into the wilderness that was at that time inhibited only by Indians. What a decision it must have been to strike out with their family which at that time consisted besides himself and his wife Margaret, four known sons but strong suspicion that there was a fifth. The four known were William, Robert, Gideon and Josias but I am almost positive that there was another named David who was but a baby when they struck out on their own. How they followed the Chickohominy River northward and then overland about twenty miles to New Castle Ferry on the Pamunkey River and settled slight westward on what was to be a site for a church. At this time, this territory was listed under Blisland Parish but before the first daughters were born, this was changed to St. Peter's Parish where the recording of the death of Naomi occured on March 26, 1688. The birth of the other daughters followed, Judeth on April 11, 1688, Margaret on August 3, 1701 and Mary on February 27, 1703. We were able to trace most of these children, one back to Williamsburg when Margaret married Gabriel DeMaupin in 1720. Gabriel Senior ran a tavern in Williamsburg and seemed to have done well. At his death his property went to his son Gabriel, who was the oldest and Daniel, who was with his uncle. William Via, along with his sister, Margaret Via Maupin, went to what is now Albemarle County. Daniel settled at White Hall on the old Maupin place and William, who also had a son named William, and as far as we have been able to learn, he was the one who settled near Doylesville on what is know as the Rhodes Via place. This was around 1750, long after Margaret had seen her good friend, Martha Dandridge married at the Custis mansion. Incidentally, it was the Martha that later married a Colonial in the French and Indian War by the name of George Washington.

November 8, 2002

Good Morning, Maupin and Via Group!!! Made it through the twenty seven pages of Statham material. Looks even better than I had expected. Now William (Amer) Via can be proud of the fact that he was the ancestor of at least two Presidents of the United States. We found out several months ago that Daniel and Margaret Via Maupin had a descentant named George Bush, Rep. President from Texas. Now it is reported that Robert and Jean Via Thompson had a descentant named Lyndon B. Johnson, Dem. President from Texas. Well this will balance our Political Ticket.

William Albertson maupinreunion@carrollsweb.com

Leon Via EFCHvia@aol.com 25 January 2003

The Via family coat of arms is REAL! I did primary research in Holland and France in their national genealogical libraries and found the oldest coat of arms books included the VIA family coat of arms which I believe was given to a particular VIA prominent family. In the 1300's the Via family in France, before Huguenot peruenot persecution two Via men held prominent positions in the church as relatives who were appointed to be Bishops. This coat of arms was given to a particular Via family but which one I do not know. Leon Via

Good Morning, Group!!! I have posted information on my opinion before on the subject of the real name of the first Via to come to America. I realize several of you or perhaps most of you do not agree with my findings but I feel that I should at least post additional information as I find it.

Recently, with in the past three weeks additional information has been found. In the records of Charles Smith Maupin and his son Addison Amos Maupin. This information, dated 1932, was written/typed by Addison Amos Maupin from information given to him by his father Charles Smith Maupin. First let me state that in 1998 while I was planning the 2000 Maupin Reunion to be held in White Hall/Charlottesville, VA I thought it appropriate that we put up tombstones for Daniel Maupin and his wife Margaret Via. I decided that the names of their parents should also be on the tombstone. My problem was that there was a dispute or information lacking on the name of Margaret father, was it really Amer. After spending alot of time reviewing all the data available I found that the name was most logically William Via and not Amer Via. However, to make sure this would be somewhat accurate we used William (Amer) Via on the tombstone. This would serve to identify him in either case. At that time I was certain that Daniel and Margaret had named their son William after Margaret's father since there was not a William in the Maupin family before that time. Also I said to several of the people who worked with me on this, "If the real name is to be found it will come from descendants of this William Maupin line." The use of the name William Amos Maupin is a common one in this line and the use of the name of Amos Maupin also. We cannot connect this use of the name Amos to any other earlier Maupins also. Unless they are previous to Gabriel Maupin born abt. 1666 in France. We have thus far not been able to establish the names of his parents. Now back to the current findings. In the papers of Charles Smith Maupin and his son it states that Margaret Via's father was William Via, there is no mention of the name Amer or Amos. This statement was not documtented as to where it originated from, but the chain of information indicates that this is correct. Charles Smith Maupin was born in 1846 in Albemarle Co. VA. His father William Amos Maupin, a Medical Doctor died in 1848. So this indicates that Charles did not get this information from his father. However, Charles was raised until 1861 by his grandfather, Chapman White Maupin born July 4, 1777 and died August 27, 1861 in White Hall, VA. Chapman lived his entire line living across the road from his grandparents Daniel and Margaret Maupin's home. We now refer to this as the "Maupin Homeplace". Chapman was eleven when his grandfather died and twelve when his grandmother died. His father William Maupin also lived across the road from the "Maupin Homeplace" his entire life. Now after the death of his grandfather, Charles was raised by his grandmother,Mary Graves Spencer Maupin b. December 25, 1779 and died July 23, 1868. During this time the guardians for Charles were Socrates Maupin and Addison Maupin his two uncles. All three of these Maupin brothers, William Amos, Socrates and Addison were highly educated individuals, going to the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and Hamden Sidney College of VA. Most of you know that Dr. Socrates Maupin of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville was our first Maupin Researcher. He began his work about 1830 and worked until his death in 1871, however, some or perhaps most of his work has disappeared through the years. What remains of his notes and writings are at the University of Virginia in the Alderman Library Archives. As I have worked over the past thirty years, however, I have found mentioned in several research works of family members of seeing Socrates papers and these notes contained informantion I found to be true, but not in the papers that are located at Alderman. This was supported by the report that these papers were circualted by mail to family members doing research in the early 1900's and people were believed to have removed pages and not returned the entire collection to Socrate's grandaughters where were their owners at that time. Therefore we may never know just how many pages are missing from his original writings. The most compelling fact that I feel that supports the idea that these Charles Smith Maupin writings are accurates are these. During 1992-1998 while living in White Hall working on the Maupin family I was determined to find out the death date of Margaret Via Maupin. Socrates papers that were left stated "Daniel died in 1788 and Margaret died the next year and were buried in the yard of the homeplace". By doing some examination of personal property tax and the recording of the inventory of Daniel Maupin esates I found that Margaret must have died during the last two weeks of March or the first week of April 1789. In Charles Smith Maupin papers he states that Margaret Maupin died March 22, 1789 This was just where the date should have been according to court records. We therefore used the date of April 1789 as the death date for Margaret on her tombstone. But the biggest find was the statement that William Maupin was born near Cukoo, VA. December 2, 1732. We had more or less established the date of birth as 1732, but had not previously know the month and day. I in 1994 while working on locating the 250 acres of "headright" land Gabriel Maupin received in 1705, I found that this land had been passed to the two sons Gabriel and Daniel and Gabriel had left his share to his brother in his will in 1742. Two hundred acres of this land was after 1742 located in Louisa and 50 acres was located in Hanover County. The Hanover County, deeds were, for the most part, destroyed in the Civil War but the Hanover deeds were not. This made it possible to establish the dates when Daniel sold this land, now broken up in several parcels. I personally visited the land in Louisa and talked to the present owner about the land. He said "It is no wonder Mr. Maupin moved on, This is nothing but a swamp". But I do remember this land is located very near was was once a town called Cuckoo, VA. Until I was sent these Charles Smith Maupin papers no research had ever mentioned the town of Cuckoo, but this is correct, I know personally. I realize that this is still not "documented proof" of the true name of Mr. Via, but again I suggest that we all keep an open mind to this fact. If we continue to look in France for Amer Via we may never find him, but if we also check for William or even Amos Via we may someday find our Via family in France. William Alberston

As many of you know Harold H. Via spent many years researching the Via family. I have recently received a copy of a letter written by Harold in 1988 and would like to share a portion of this letter with you. Amor Via "had first gone to Williamsburg and had a blacksmith shop at the rear of his property. Somehow he got embroiled with his neighbor. Who had a side entrance for their carriages but had to 'swing wide' across Amor's back yard to gain alignment to enter their side entrance. We don't find just why Amor made the decision but assume that he just got tired of having an entire section of his yard being used for his neighbor's purpose and one day he erected a metal pole just at the edge of his property and thus disallowing turning into the side entrance. Not being of the 'official' (Episcopalinas) religion of England, he was 'called up' and was sentenced to seven days in the stockade. It was at this time we assume that Amor talked to William Rea and arrangements were made to be transported. After being released, Amor loaded all his wagons and posessions and 'headed out'. first traveling up the James River towards Richmond but then taking a 'due north' course' and arrived on the Mechamps River. He first took land on a hillside (about ten feet elevation) but later on donated this property to the church and moved almost to Mechanicsville which was right in the middle of the Swamp."

I believe Amer was born about 1655. He was transported to Virginia in 1677. And was not listed as a minor in the transportation records. Therefore he was at least 21 years of age in 1677. Judy Maupin Pons Jlmaupin@aol.com (Burgundy France)

St. Peter's Parish Church in New Kent County, Virginia. Built in 1701, the church is believed to be the location of the marriage between George and Martha Washington on January 6, 1759. One of the oldest churches in the Commonwealth, the site was originally purchased for 146,000 pounds of tobacco. In 1862, Union soldiers marching from Fort Monroe toward Richmond used the building as a stable. The original portion of the church is one of the few Jacobean baroque style structures in America; the 1740s stump tower is also unusual. Located on S.R. 642 (St. Peter's Lane) off S.R. 609 (Old Church Road) near Talleysville. Church grounds are open to the public every day, but the interior is open only by appointment. Regular worship services are held at 9 and 11 a.m. Sundays. Call (804) 932-4846 for information. (Source: "Discover New Kent" - August 1988)

AMOS married MARGARET in 1678/1680 in St. Peter's, New Kent, Virginia. MARGARET died about 1716 in Hanover, Virginia.

Per Harold Houston Via: It is believed that Margaret was the second spouse of Amer and came from the Parmunkey Indain Tribe who lived in that area.