Jacob Walker

Jacob Walker

• Son of George Walker and Elizabeth Oldis
• Rebecca, married Jacob Walker. His will, proved November 18, 1697, mentions no issue, and states that her sister Jane Long was deceased.

Walker Family History

George Walker, an early resident of Mill Creek, was pilot of
James River in 1697. His wife, Elizabeth, was a witness in the above suit. They had issue, (1) Jacob, who married Rebecca Servant, daugh- ter of Bertrand Servant, and had a son George two and a half years old on 27 May, 1697. Parents and child were all dead before 1698. (2) George Walker, who married Ann, daughter of the celebrated preacher and scholar, George Keith. The latter, who had been a leading Quaker, broke with his faith, and returned to the Episcopal Church. In 1702, he was sent to America as a missionary from "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." After spending two years in the northern colonies, where he converted many Quakers, he visited Hampton with another minister, Mr. Talbot. There is this entry in his Journal: "Mr Talbot preached at Kirketan, we stayed there about ten days at my daughter's house at Kirketan, by James River; she is fully come off from the Quakers and is a zealous member of the Church of England, and brings up her children, so many of them are as capable through age, in the Christian religion, praised be God for it." George Walker was in 1723 the gunner and storekeeper of Fort Point Comfort, and apears to have been a Quaker. Religious differences arose between him and his wife. The following appers in the Council book: "April 28, 1708. On reading this day in Council the petition of Anne Walker, complaining that George Walker, her husband, violently restrains her from going to church to atend the worship of God according to the established relig- ion, and praying relief therein as well for herself as for such of their children as are come to the use of reason and can give an account of their faith, and on hearing the petitioner and her said husband there- upon, It is the opinion of the Council that the sd Anne ought to enjoy the free exercise of her Religion and that her husband ought not to restrain her from going to church And as to that part of the petition relating to the children, it not appearing of what Age these children nor how far they are capable of choosing a Religion for themselves, This Board do not think proper to determine anything in that matter at this time." Many years after this Samuel Bownas, a Quaker preacher, told of a visit to Hampton in the following language: "George Walker was very kind, invited us to stay at his house which we did about four nights, and had a meeting or two in his house, his wife being more loving than I expected. She was George Keith's daughter, and in her younger days showed great dissatisfaction with Friends, but after her father's death the edge of that bitterness abated and her husband was very loving and hearty to Friends, frequently having meetings at his house." Bownas stayed at Hampton eleven days, and left there May 29, 1728. George Walker and Anne Keith had issue, (1) Elizabeth, married Stephen Dewey, an eminent lawyer, who qualified as king's attorney of Charles City county in 1740, member of House of Burgesses from Dinwiddie county, and went to North Carolina; (2) Margaret married Thomas Wythe, one of the magistrates of Elizabeth City county, and father of the eminent jurist, George Wythe, who was taught Greek by his mother, and studied law under Mr. Dewey; (3) Jacob, justice, etc., who appears to have married Mary Tucker. Thus in the docket of the General Court (Ludwell papers), there is a suit entitled "Frances Tucker, widow, George Walker and Thomas Wythe, executors of the will of Robert Tucker, deced, vs. Elizabeth Meredith, executrix of Sampson Meredith, deced;" and in Barradall's Law Reports, under date 1740, there is a suit which states that Robert and John Tucker, and Robert and John Cooke were nephews of the testator Tucker, and Jacob Walker's wife was his sister. Jacob Walker and Mary Tucker had issue, a son, George. (4) Helen (I t hink), who married Capt. George Wray, of Hampton, and in a deed (1767) to George Walker, of Mill Creek, son of Jacob Walker, mentions her children, Keith Wray, mariner, George Wray, Jacob Wray, and Anne Stith, wife of John Stith Gent., of Staf- ford county, and James Wray of Dinwiddie count, Gent.

    In a deed dated 1760, it is stated that George Walker, the younger, was heir at law to his grandfather, George Walker, who patented land in 1720.  In the churchyard at Hampton is the tombstone of Capt. George Wray.  He died April 9, 1758, in his sixty-first year.  It bears the arms ascribed by Burke to Sir Christopher Wray, in the time of Queen Elizabeth.  There is a deed in York county from George Wray, of Lon- don, mariner, to Philip Lightfoot dated 1708.

    George Wythe, of Spotsylvania, attorney at law, on May 3, 1748, sold a negro girl slave to George Wray.  George Wythe married, first, Anne (born August 30, 1726), daughter of Zachery Lewis, of Spotsylvania county; second, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard and Eliza (Eggleston) Taliaferro, of "Powhatan," near Williamsburg.  He had no issue.  (See Hayden, p. 381.)