Daniel Akehurst

Will

https://archive.org/details/alstonsallstonso03grov/page/97/mode/1up...

From N. C. Hist, and Gen. Register No. 1 the follow- ing abstract of will of Daniel Akehurst of Warwick county, Va. This will is in the office of clerk of superior court of Chowan county and was probated in 1700 in War- wick county, Va.

Daughter, Filia Christy Akehurst, wife, Ann Akehurst, Thomas Symons, Ex'r., 11th Oct., 1693. Witnesses — William Langhorn, Mary Cary, Miles Cary."

Hon. Daniel Akehurst, Esq., was one of the lord's deputies and secretary of the council in 1694 and assistant justice, N. C, under Gov. Philip Ludwell. (Col. records.)

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/akehurst-ackhust-acorst

In private life Akehurst was a planter and attorney. He owned plantations in both Virginia and North Carolina. In the 1690s, however, he did not live on his Pasquotank property but made his North Carolina home on a plantation, leased from John Archdale, on New Begun Creek.

Akehurst was John Archdale's personal attorney as well as his governmental deputy. He not only handled legal matters for Archdale but also managed the proprietor's North Carolina properties. Other clients included residents of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Bermuda as well as North Carolinians.

Akehurst was active in Quaker affairs in both Virginia and North Carolina. He was associated with the Little River Monthly Meeting in North Carolina and with the Warwick River meetings in Virginia. In 1698 and 1699 he entertained Thomas Story, the English missionary, in his Virginia home, where Story preached several times. He accompanied Story on visits to other Virginia meetings, to a number of which Akehurst himself had preached. North Carolina Quakers, in recording Akehurst's death, paid tribute to the fervor of his ministry among them.

There are minor discrepancies in the records about the date of Akehurst's death, but it seems clear that he died in Virginia in November or December 1699 or January 1700. Akehurst was survived by his wife, Ann, and a daughter, Philochrista (Filiachristy, Filia). There are indications that Ann was Akehurst's second wife, but the records are not clear. His first wife may have been a Mary Akehurst who, like Philochrista, was listed without identification among Akehurst's "transports" when he proved his headrights. No other reference to Mary Akehurst has been found in North Carolina records. Ann, whose name does not appear among the "transports," seems to have lived chiefly on the Virginia plantation, which appears to have been her own property before her marriage to Akehurst. Philochrista was in North Carolina with her father much of the time. By July 1699 she had married a North Carolinian, Joseph Jordan.

Akehurst bequeathed his North Carolina property to Philochrista and his Virginia property to his wife. For some years after her father's death, Philochrista and her husband lived on the plantation that Akehurst had rented from John Archdale. Ann continued to live on her Warwick River plantation.