Lucy Ludwell

Lucy Higginson

• Gender: Female
• Birth: circa 1626 Fairfield, Gloucester County, Virginia, British Colonial America
• Death: November 16, 1675 (44-53) Fairfield, Gloucester County, Virginia, Colonial America
• Place of Burial: Abington Episcopal Church Cemetery, White Marsh, Gloucester County, Virginia, United States
• Immediate Family: Daughter of Capt. Robert Higginson & Joanna Tokesay

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• Married 1) 1648 in Gloucester Co., VA to Major Lewis Fairfield Burwell
• Married 2) 1655 in Isle of Wright Co., VA to Colonel William Woolhouse Bernard
• Married 3) 1667 in Isle of Wright Co., VA to Honorable Philip Cottington Ludwell

Family

Maj. Lewis Burwell (Edward2, Edward1); baptized 5 Mar 1621/22 at Ampthill, Bedford, England; m. Lucy Higginson, daughter of Capt. Robert Higginson and Joanna Tokesey, 1648; 1st husband; d. 18 Nov 1653 at age 31; bur. at Abington Church, Gloucester Co., VA.He resided at 'Carter's Creek', Gloucester Co., VA. He resided at 'Fairfield', Gloucester Co., VA.

Lucy Higginson married Col. William Bernard, son of Francis Bernard and Mary Woolhouse; 2nd husband.

She married Col. Philip Ludwell, son of Thomas Ludwell and Jane Cottington; 3rd husband, 1st wife. She died on 6 Nov 1675. She died on 16 Nov 1675 at Virginia.

Married 1) 1648 in Gloucester Co., VA to Major Lewis Fairfield Burwell Married 2) 1655 in Isle of Wright Co., VA to Colonel William Woolhouse Bernard Married 3) 1667 in Isle of Wright Co., VA to Honorable Philip Cottington Ludwell

Issue with Lewis:

1. Major Lewis II Fairfield Burwell (1651-1710)

Issue with William:

2. George Woolhouse Bernard (1658-?)(moved to England)
3. Lucy Higginson Bernard (1660-?)
4. Elizabeth Tokesay Bernard (1664-1710)

Issue with Philip:

5. Jane Cottington Ludwell (1668-?)
6. Honorable Philip Cottington Ludwell Jr. (1672-1726)

Governor Philip Cottington Ludwell of Carolina is interred in the crypt of St. Mary, Bow Church, London, England.

Among the great-grandsons of her third marriage were the brothers and signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee.

Grave was moved from Fairfield AKA Carter's Creek in 1911.

Stone is damaged and very worn. Inscription courtesy of "Epitaphs of Gloucester and Mathews Counties in Tidewater, Virginia, through 1865" by the APVA, 1959.

Inscription:

• (In per)petual memory of y[e] virtuous
• (Lucy B)URWELL the Loveing and Beloved
• (Wife of) Major Lewis Burwell of y[e] County
• (of Clos)ter in Virginia (long since deceased)
• (She was des)cended from the Ancient family
• (of the H)igginsons. She was y[e] only Daughter
• (of the v)alient Capt Robert Higginson
• (One of the)e first Comand[rs] that subdued
• (the cou)ntry of Virginia from the power of
• (the heat)hen who not being more worthy in her
• (birth th)an Vertuous in her life Exchanged this
• (World for) a Better one on the 6th November, in
• (the ...) yeare of her Age, Anno Domini 1675.
• (She was) buried on the (ri)ght hand of her
• (Husban)d.
• (Erected to) her M(emory by severa)ll of her
• owne Grand Children.

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https://www.ludwell.org/lucy-higginson/

… Professor David Hackett Fisher called Lucy one of the few “Matriarcha” of colonial Virginia and historian Leonard Labaree wrote that “one sixth of all Virginia councillors after 1680 could refer to [this] good lady as ‘Grandmother Lucy.’” While Lucy Higginson’s genealogical legacy is profound, her own history is just as interesting and is worthy of attention. …

1640s, Lewis Burwell I had settled in Virginia from his native Bedfordshire, England, and by 1650 owned at least 7,000 acres of land in the colony. From her position in a “manner destitute,” Lucy Higginson’s fortunes began to change with her marriage to Burwell in late 1650. Their only son Lewis Burwell II was born in 1651 or 1652, probably in Gloucester County. In November 1652, Burwell died. Although Burwell was a wealthy man when he died at the age of 33, it wasn’t at all clear at the time that the Burwell family name would rise to the prominence it held in future years, given that Lucy and Lewis had had only one son. However, that son, Lewis Burwell II, would build one of the family dynasties of colonial Virginia. As Encyclopedia Virginia puts it:

A major in the militia and often identified as a gentleman, Burwell evidently never held political office, but his family ties and the prominence of many of his near neighbors guaranteed that he was well known and respected by persons able to advance his fortunes. Marital alliances and the seemingly insatiable desire for land are common themes in the rise of the great families that dominated Virginia during most of the colonial period, and few families more clearly illustrate these themes than the Burwells.

Marriage to William Bernard, Councillor and Planter. While sickness and death were prevalent at that time, losing her husband must have been a devastating event for Lucy Higginson, who must have also been concerned for the welfare of her newborn son, Lewis Burwell II. Within approximately a year, in 1653, she married William Bernard, a resident of Virginia for nearly 30 years and a member of the Council of State. According to the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery, the couple resided at Lucy’s Burwell plantation, Fairfield. … the Encyclopedia also mentions Bernard’s interest in silk cultivation: “Col. Bernard took part in the effort to make silk culture a success in Virginia, …”. … This second marital connection shows that Lucy Higginson was now not only a member of the ruling class in Virginia, which was collectively navigating a decade of the Commonwealth followed by the Restoration, but was also raising the next generation of planters and leaders. In addition to caring for her son Lewis, she and William Bernard had three children: Lucy, Elizabeth, and George. Elizabeth married Thomas Todd of Toddsbury, Gloucester County. Among their descendants was Lucy Higginson’s great-great grandson Thomas Todd who was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807, after Jefferson had expanded the Court from six justices to seven. Todd, a Jeffersonian, was the first Supreme Court Justice from a western state, having moved from Virginia to Kentucky in the 1780s. William Bernard passed away in December 1665, leaving Lucy with three young children.

A Third Marriage – to Philip Ludwell I. Within two years, Lucy remarried, this time to Philip Ludwell I – a rising planter with family connections to the royal governor, Sir William Berkeley. Ludwell was the younger brother of Thomas Ludwell, who was serving as the Secretary of the Colony. The Ludwells were from Bruton, Somerset, in England, just like the Berkeley family, and it is probable that Philip and Thomas’s mother was a member of the Berkeley family. Lucy and Philip had two children – Jane was born c. 1670 and Philip Ludwell II in 1671/72, both at Carter’s Creek in Gloucester, where the family lived. By this time, Lucy’s family was a prime example of a colonial extended family caused by premature death. Spousal deaths were followed by remarriages, and siblings grew up in the same house with step-siblings and step-parents, creating new webs of family alliances even before any of the children were married off.

Daughter Jane Ludwell and Her Descendants. Lucy’s daughter Jane married Daniel Parke Jr, a passionate son of a landed Virginia family who had ideas of his own: to become the first native-born royal governor of Virginia. Jane and Daniel had two daughters, Lucy and Frances, and Daniel’s gubernatorial dream didn’t turn out the way he wanted. In service to the Duke of Marlborough, Daniel received the honor of rushing across the European continent in order to personally notify Queen Anne of the victory over the French and Bavarians at Blenheim in 1704. As a result of this, he expected to be named the next governor of Virginia, but was disappointed to land the difficult assignment of Governor of the Leeward Islands instead. Proud and uncompromising, he ended up being beaten to death by an island mob. He no doubt caused his Virginia-based wife Jane and his daughters much angst while he tilted at windmills in Europe. However, they landed on their feet, with Lucy marrying William Byrd II and Frances marrying John Custis IV. The first marriage was tumultuous. Byrd was a prominent planter and member of the Council who spent much time abroad in England. He mapped the Virginia-North Carolina border; founded the future capital city of Virginia, naming it after Richmond in London; and left behind a secret diary that seemingly leaves no detail unspoken about everyday life in colonial Virginia. Frances’ marriage to John Custis IV was an unhappy one, but their son had two children with his wife Martha Dandridge – these would one day be the step-children of George Washington.

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Ownership history of Fairfield Plantation.

Source: Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery

References

1. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition ... page 188. GoogleBooks
2. https://www.ludwell.org/lucy-higginson/
3. http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~marshall/esmd42.htm
4. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41153359
5. Edward W. Greenfield. “Some New Aspects of the Life of Daniel Parke.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 54, no. 4 (1946): 306–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4245434.
6. Lucy Higginson: A “Matriarcha” of Colonial Virginia and Grandmother of Philip Ludwell III < link >
7. Dorman, John Frederick. 2004. Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5. Genealogical Pub. Co. 4th edition. Vol 1, Page 261, book lookup by Hill, C. [03/04/2024]