Frances (Evans) Evans

FRANCES EVANS, the daughter of MORRIS EVANS & JANE GIBSON, was born a free woman of color, and she moved to New Kent County, Virginia, where she worked. She gave birth to several children, probably all of them illegitimate since there is no mention of a husband or the name of the children's father, but only 2 of the children are named in the petitions - TOM & FRANCES, a.k.a FRANKY, who were bound out as servants or apprentices to GOODRICH LIGHTFOOT of New Kent.

Since FRANCES EVANS was a free woman, her children were entitled to the same freedom since the laws governed the children's status according to the circumstances of the mother. But TOM & FRANCES/FRANKY EVANS were illegally enslaved during the time when they were supposed to be free, and it set the stage for what happened to the family over the next 200 hundred years.==

All of FRANCES/FRANKY EVANS children were born into slavery, and most of her descendants spent many years trying to obtain their freedom through the Virginia and North Carolina court systems. '''TOM apparently ran away from LIGHTFOOT and was caught and hanged in Hanover County, VA,''' so since that County was formed in 1721, it had to have been sometime after that; perhaps he realized he was being treated as a slave and was not happy with his circumstances when he made his decision to run, nothing is said about his reasons, but it was said that he was a young man. '''FRANCES/FRANKY was sold to WILLIAM MERIWETHER upon the death of GOODRICH LIGHTFOOT, which occurred in 1738;''' FRANCES/FRANKY remained a slave of MERIWETHER for the rest of her life and died while in his possession; WILLIAM MERIWETHER died in 1756, so FRANCES/FRANKY EVANS had to have died prior to that. FRANCES/FRANKY EVANS had 3 children while enslaved: TOM, SARAH COLLEY, & THOMPSON. TOM was given to NICHOLAS MERIWETHER, son of WILLIAM; then after NICHOLAS' death in about 1740, his widow, MILDRED THORNTON, remarried in 1741 to DOCTOR THOMAS WALKER, and TOM went with her to her new home with WALKER; TOM ran away, and one report says he was hanged, while another just says that he was dead by 1791, not sure which is correct, but it is possible that his fate by hanging may have been confused with the earlier TOM, his mother's brother.

THOMPSON died as a young man while still in WILLIAM MERIWETHER's possession, but another report said that he was living in North Carolina. SARAH COLLEY (surname was from her father, JAMES COLLEY, a white servant who worked for WILLIAM MERIWETHER) remained in MERIWETHER's possession until his death in 1756, at which time, she was given to RICHARD MERIWETHER (1719-1766) , son of WILLIAM. RICHARD MERIWETHER died in 1766 Albemarle Co., VA, and upon his death, SARAH was sold to COL. EDWARD CARTER of Albemarle County, VA, a MERIWETHER in-law, because SARAH had requested to be with a Slave of CARTER's, whom she had fallen in love with. By 1756, SARAH had already had 6 children, 2 of which were listed as "deformed", probably meaning they were stillbirths. The 4 named children of SARAH COLLEY were KATE, BECK, HANNAH & AMEY, the youngest of which was a newborn by the time of WILLIAM MERIWETHER's death in 1756; HANNAH & AMEY were both given to RICHARD MERIWETHER in 1756 along with their mother; KATE & BECK were given to WILLIAM HUDSON (wife: JANE MERIWETHER), whose family eventually moved to Georgia. In 1791, KATE was said to be last been a slave in Georgia, and that she had children. BECK was listed as in Richmond, and her 2 children were DAVID & TOBY. HANNAH's fate after becoming a slave of RICHARD MERIWETHER is not mentioned except that she was dead by 1791 since her name was not among those of her family who were freed at that time, but she did have 9 children: MILLEY, MINGO, SALLEY, HARRY, NANCY, AMEY, NELLY, RACHEL, & BEN. MINGO won his freedom and took the name of THOMAS GIBSON.

More recently found documents found in Brunswick County, Virginia, say that HANNAH was sold to DAVID ROSS by THOMAS MERIWETHER, who had received HANNAH after the death of his brother, RICHARD MERIWETHER, in 1766; at the time THOMAS lived in Halifax County, Virginia. MILLEY, also had children: ARCHY, JIM, ROBERT & MELAH. SARAH COLLEY's daughter, AMEY, remained with RICHARD MERIWETHER, until his death in 1766, at which time she was given to his brother, THOMAS MERIWETHER (1718-1783), who moved to Halifax County, Virginia. AMEY had about 10 children (even though her chart says 9, the court records indicate 10 names): CHARLES, AMEY, SUKEY, SINAR, SOLOMON, FRANKEY, SALLY, MILLY, ADAM & HANNAH EVANS

SOURCES: