Richard “the Immigrant” Yarbrough

• Not the same as Richard Yarbrough, of Petersburg
• Cannot have been a child of Sir Nicholas Yarborough, of Balne Hall

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Disambiguation

http://yarbroughfamily.org/catalog/Vol97.pdf

• Richard (the Immigrant) Yarborough was never married to Frances Proctor; Ambrose Yarbrough did not immigrant from Yorkshire; he is now believed to be a descendant of Richard the Immigrant;
• There are so far only two proven sons of Old Richard – John and Richard II;
• There is so far no evidence proving Joshua Yarborough I to be a descendant of Old Richard.
• The “Old Country” referred to in old documents and letters is the Colony of Virginia, not England or the Old World.
• There were not seven brothers who immigrated from “the old country”; in fact, it now appears there were three brothers and four sons of the brothers. Which were the fathers and which were the sons are so far unknown

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Contrary to what was earlier believed to be true, later research has shown that while Frances Proctor may have been married to a Richard Yarborough (b. ~1615, d. 1702, buried at Old Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, VA), this is not Richard the Immigrant (as the first known Yarborough is known). As of this time, nothing is known about who was the wife of Richard (the Immigrant) Yarborough.

There are deeds, wills and grave markers and other records still available that show Richard Yarbrough married Elizabeth Mason in 1680 and also married again a lady named Williams and had the following children:

• 1. Richard, Jr.
• 2. William Williams Yarbro
• 3. Edmund
• 4. John
• 5. Henry
• 6. James Charles
• 7. Thomas and
• three girls whose names I don't know.

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After Englishmen arrived in Virginia in 1607, Powhatan, the name taken by the chieftain of the Powhatan confederation of tribes, chose to trade with them rather than resort to force. Yet hostilities prevailed until 1614 when Powhatan and the English negotiated peace. Powhatan died in 1618 and his brother Opechancanough eventually succeeded him. Of the Powhatan confederation of tribes, the Pamunkey Indians were among the most aggressive at repelling English incursions. On 22 March 1622/3 Opechancanough wiped out one-sixth of the English population in premeditated attacks along the James River. A treaty of 1625 set aside Pamunkey Neck 'that land between the Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers, including all of present-day King William County' as an Indian reserve, where no white man was allowed to settle. Although no longer threatened by the white settlers, Pamunkey still faced attacks from other marauding tribes. Needing the powerful English as allies, they opened settlement of their lands to within three miles of their villages. A tenuous peace reestablished in 1632 was shattered 17 April 1644 when Opechancanough slaughtered 500 colonists in remote settlements. The English retaliated and defeated Opechancanough and his warriors, essentially abolishing the Powhatan chiefdom. Although Indians continued to menace the settlers in the Northern Neck, Gov. William Berkeley , did nothing to quell the uprisings, perhaps, as some allege, he and his associates benefitted from the Indian trade. Nevertheless, in 1676 Nathaniel Bacon and his volunteers ignored the governor's policies and successfully raided the Pamunkey and Occaneechi villages. Bacon's Rebellion, as it was called, fell apart with the death of its ringleader that same year. On 29 May 1677 the English entered into a peace treaty with what remained of six tribes, including the Pamunkey, all of whom swore allegiance to the king of England and the queen of the Pamunkey (her husband Totopotami having been killed in 1656). Among the Indian interpreters was Richard Yarbrough. He could speak the languages of the Seneca, Iroquois, Chickahominy, Pamunkey, and Mattaponi. Following the peace treaty of 1677 he arranged with the queen to lease him more than 4,000 acres of land in present-day King William County for ninety-nine years. The Virginia House of Burgesses engaged Yarbrough to join other authorities to travel to New York to seek to halt Indian raids on Virginia from the north. As Yarbrough was motivated to sell portions of his lease to new settlers, he possibly took the occasion to promote Virginia as a place to live. Yarbrough was still living at the mouth of lower Herring Creek when Edmund Jennings secured a patent to 705 acres there in 1696. Richard was dead by June 1699 when a committee issued a report on settlers intruding on land set aside for the Pamunkey. The King had evidently failed to grant the Indians a formal patent for their reservation, contrary to the Articles of Peace. In June 1694 settlers began surveying land on the reservation prompting the 'Queen of the Pamunkey Indians together with the great men belonging to the said Nation', to complain that they never received their formal grant. The committee considered the complaint and concluded that Crown must uphold its agreement as laid out in the fourth paragraph of the Articles of Peace, as follows: 'That for prevention of injuries and evill conseq'ts that may arise for the future by the Violent intrusion of diverse English into & upon the Land Granted to the said Indians by the aforesaid Articles to ye great disturbance of the Peace of His Maj'ties Colony and involving it into crime & misery. It is concluded and established that noe English shall seat or plant nearer than three miles of any Indian Town.' Yet about 50 tracts under 99-year leases were already in the hands of English. Among those listed in the June 1699 report were John Yarbrough 'for himselfe and the children and devisees of Richard Yarbrough', Richard Yarbrough, Henry Isbell , and nine individuals who had purchased a total of 3,920 acres from Richard Yarbrough. Should these tracts revert to the Crown, the Indians would have the first right to them. Among these individuals was Andrew McAllister whose land patent in 1701 was next to '... old Richard Yarberough's whole tract leased of the Pamunkey Indians.' The Yarbroughs were originally parishioners of St. Johns' Parish that ran the 60-mile length of King William County. After 1721 the upper 30 miles became part of St. Margaret's Parish. The upper portion of King William County became part of Caroline County in 1728 and St. Margaret's spanned both counties. Absent records of King William County, we can never know for certain who all Richard's children were. We know John and Richard were sons and we presume the other men in the next generation in that county 'William, Charles, and Edward' were his sons. In Amelia County, where William Yarbrough settled, were two other men named Yarbrough, undoubtedly connected with William. We have placed them as his brothers, sons of Richard Yarbrough. Together, Henry Yarbrough and Thomas Yarbrough secured a patent to 800 acres in Amelia County on the south side of the Nottoway River 10 June 1740 the same day William got his patent in Amelia County. Henry and Thomas evidently split the patent in half. Both Thomas and Henry witnessed the will of Moses Yarbrough . With James Jeter, husband of Priscilla Yarbrough , they witnessed the will of Matthew Wallis. - from Virginians - the Family History of John W. Pritchett (website) as placed in research notes by Varla Wright (contact varlajw at msn.com)

THE YARBRO FAMILY

Chapter XIV

From Lillye Younger, The History of Decatur County Past and Present (Southhaven, MS: Carter Printing Company, 1978).

Special thanks to Constance Collett for permission to make these web pages.

In Memory of Lillye Washburn Younger 1912-1998.

Thanks to www.tnyesterday.com for contributing this transcription.

Clyde Yarbro

The Yarbro" family is indeed one of the oldest families in our county, they have been here since Colonial times.

The name "Yarbro" has been spelled many ways through the years such as Yarbor-Yarboro-Yarbrough-Yarber-Yarberry-Yarbur-Yarburgh Yarbour-Yarbourugh-Yerby, and possibly others.

The reason for these many spellings is primarily because many people could not read and write and when giving their name it had to be spelled phonetically, therefore the spelling was changed. It has been found that brothers living within the same area had different spellings.

Regardless of the spelling all the "Yarbro's" in America today are related in some manner and can trace their ancestory back to the Three "Yarbro's" who came to America from England. These three men came to America at different times, yet they were all related and upon arriving here they also married into the "Yarbro" family, so if you can connect your family line to the "Yarbro's" in America today, you will have one of the longest genealogies anywhere!

According to a chart that was prepared by The College of Arms, London, England, the original spelling was "Yarburgh or Yarborough" which have the same meaning, therefore they were used interchangeably.

Yarborough really meant the place of residence, Borough in Anglo-Saxon days meant house or manor. The English Yarborough family is one of the oldest families in England. It can actually be traced back to 853 AD when the House of Yarborough was formed by Germund. The family was of Danish origin and it is assumed that they came into England (then known as Anglo-land) during the Danish invasion in 800Ad. The Danes in England were enemies of the Anglo-Saxons and they sided with William, the Conqueror of Normandy during the invasion of 1066AD. As a result William awarded these Danes various estates when he came into power. According to records at this time Eustachius de Yarburgh, a descendent of Germund, was made Lord of Yarburgh, which was known by both names, (Yarburgh & Yarborough) This estate of course received a charter from the King and was allowed a representative in Parliment.

The Yarborough or Yarburgh family is reportedly the eleventh oldest recorded family in England. (Much of this information was not known until World War II, at which time an old monastery was bombed and it unearthed enough information to trace this line back to 853AD in an unbroken line.)

Very few families have such a rich history, nor can be traced so far back. Actually this is a heritage one could be proud of, but others don't know it, so the least you can do is go about your daily tasks with an inner pride and feeling of self confidence and individualism. Just to help you out in this respect, I might add, it was in the "Yarborough" section of England that we find the Robinhood legends originated and the Canterbury tales too.

The first permanent settlement in America was in 1607 and it was only 36 years later that Richard Yarbrough came to America.

from other research...

Contrary to what was earlier believed to be true, later research has shown that while Frances Proctor may have been married to a Richard Yarborough (b. ~1615, d. 1702, buried at Old Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, VA), this is not Richard the Immigrant (as the first known Yarborough is known). As of this time, nothing is known about who was the wife of Richard (the Immigrant) Yarborough.

Source - Leonard Yarbrough, editor, The Yarbrough Family Quarterly. More information may be obtained at www.yarbro.org, the website of the Yarbrough National Genealogical & Historical Association, Inc.

Richard Yarbrough married Francis Proctor in London, England in 1635 and made application for passage to America in 1643. He married at least twice more after he came to America. According to the old land deeds and wills which are now on record in Cossit Library in Memphis, Tenn. he was a large land owner in Amelia County, Va.

It is said that a Yarborough won heavily in a high stake poker game with the King of England about this time. The King paid off his gambling debt with land in the new country, therefore he had to come to America to collect his debt. In all probability this was Richard for there is no known record of any other Yarbrough that had come to America at this time.

Also, we know that the Yarborough's in England were card players for there was a hand of cards named after them. This was in a game called "whist", the "Yarborough" hand consisted of a five card hand with nothing higher than a nine. It is said that one of the Lord Yarboroughs would make a side bet each deal that the dealer wouldn't catch such as hand, and give him 1000 to one odds. (The actual odds are 1827 to 1) (That is a Yarborough for you!) This inner pride previously mentioned may be deflated some when you consider this fact: You are literally here by chance! (And think of those odds!)

There are deeds, wills and grave markers and other records still available that show Richard Yarbrough married Elizabeth Mason in 1680 and also married again a lady named Williams and had the following children: 1. Richard, Jr. 2. William Williams Yarbro 3. Edmund 4. John 5. Henry 6. James Charles 7. Thomas and three girls whose names I don't know.

The honorable G.W. Yarbrough, Senator from Alabama, who is a historian has traced this line back as far as possible and has made these remarks regarding the Yarbro line:

"It is remarkable that the same given names have been used over and over in each generation, which makes it even harder to trace the family line. There is still a striking resemblance in this blood line of physical features and also other characteristics such as, generally serious minded, quiet, and intelligent. It is also very noticeable that for about 200 years after Richard came to this country the boys doubled the girls in birth rate."

Not one "Yarbrough" family is known anywhere outside Virginia before 1720. It was somewhere between 1720 and 1775 that the migration started into North Carolina. The migrants were the sons of three families, John, Thomas and William.

From N.C. three distinct lines went elsewhere to the South and West and finally populated the entire country. From time to time you will hear them referred to as: The Tennessee Line, The South Carolina line and the Alabama line.

The English cousins surely kept in contact with the Yarbro's of America for Ambrose Yarborough left England about 1732 and came directly to Amelia County, Va. to a member of the Yarbrough family and married one of his cousins. This line went into South Carolina, then to Georgia and Ala. and finally into Mississippi. There was also another line went into St. Clair County, Ala. but this was later during the 1800's.

There was also, another Yarborough, which made the third one, who came to Virginia from England in the 1750's. His name was Guy Yarborough, he was from Lincolnshire County, England. He was a relative of Richard, so he may as well face it, all Yarbrough's are related, regardless of the spelling.

The sons of John Thomas and William who migrated to N.C. during the 1700's were Zachariah, Archibald, Manoah, Alexander, Thomas, Henry, John.

Up to now I have a broken line in the geneology at this point.

The first Yarbro to come to Decatur County (at that time it was known as Perry Co.) was Edmund Yarbro and his immediate family of which I have a detailed history from his arrival in this County up to now but I can't connect him with any particular one of those seven listed above. I know he was the son or grandson of one of them, but I don't know which. (I am still searching for info on this!) I have ruled out two of them, Henry and Manoah, but that still leaves 5 who could have been his forefathers. Henry's descendants went into Tipton County, Tenn. and Manoah's went into Alabama.)

References

• http://lsyarbro.com/ypages/archives/PeterY/PYArticle.pdf
• https://www.yarbroughfamily.org/YMbrs/archives/YFMTCY/YFMTCYv6.pdf
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Apr 8 2018, 3:04:20 UTC