Tarleton Fleming, II

Col. Tarleton Fleming

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 237925470

The founder of the Fleming family in America was Sir Thomas Fleming, second son of the Earl of Wigton, of Scotland, who married a Miss Tarleton of England, and emigrated to the Colony of Virginia in 1616. He landed at Jamestown, Virginia, where he first lived, but subsequently removed to Kent County, where he died. He had several daughters and three sons.

His son Tarleton, of Rock Castle, married a Miss Bates of Williamsburg and had three sons, one of whom was named Tarleton. The said last named Tarleton married Mary Randolph, a daughter of Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe, and had one daughter and several sons, one of whom was named Thomas Mann, who married Anne Spotswood Payne, a daughter of Archibald Payne of New Market, Goochland County. The said Thomas Mann had several daughters and a son named Tarleton who married the said Rebecca Elizabeth Coles.

In the genealogical column of the Times-Dispatch, of Richmond, Virginia, of March 27, 1904, is an article on the Woodson-Fleming families of Virginia, and in the Cincinnati Enquirer of April 6, 1913, is an article giving the early English history of the Flemings.

The name Tarlton was originally spelled Tarleton, but it is said that Tarleton Fleming of "Rock Castle," the grandfather of Tarleton Fleming of "Mannsville," Goochland County, VA, dropped the "e" from his name because of something done by Colonel Banister Tarleton which displeased him.

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GEDCOM Note

He was one of the Justices of Goochland Co VA.

GEDCOM Note

(Research):
REVOLUTIONARY WAR SERVICE Tarlton is listed in the «i»DAR Genealogical Research System«/i» as a from Virginia with Patriotic Service & that he was also Member of the Committee of Safety & Member of the House of Delegates for Goochland County, Va. (One source gives him as dying in the Battle of Petersburg, Va.-the Battle of Petersburg was in 1781. However, other sources such as the eulogy below give his death date as entered here.)

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From «i»The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography «/i»Vol. 74 No. 4 Oct. 1966 pp. 448-451 Pub. by the Virginia Historical Society

FAREWELL TO FLEMING by Lewis Littlepage Eulogizes a Patriot edited by Curtis Carroll Davis Specimen of original verse from the Southern colonies during the Revolutionary period are not so numerous as to permit of ignoring a newly uncovered example. When the example proves to be a paean to the character of an individual regionally prominent but not hitherto specially memorialized, its significance, though minor, is obvious. When the example further proves to be the composition of an individual internationally prominent for matters other than the poetic, this significance is doubled. Such is the elegy to Tarlton Fleming by his fellow Virginian, Lewis Littlepage, Preserved as a broadside of unknown date (and accompanied by a fragmentary genealogy of the first five generations of the Fleming family), the poem was first discovered in a Book of Common Prayer presented to the Virginia HIstorical Society in 1931 by a granddaughter of the subject. The prayer itself, as a flyleaf inscription reveals, was a present ot a son by the subject's only daughter*. Tarlton Fleming-eldest child of Tarlton (died 1750), of Goochland County, and Hannah, his wife--represented the third generation of his line in Old Dominion. As a local worthy he is typical both in his contemporary prestige and his present-day obscurity. It has been said that a Southern gentlewoman entrusted her name to the vulgar prints twice only during life, once at her marriage and once her death. Tarlton Fleming's name graces that "court paper" of the gentry, the «i»Virginia Gazette«/i», only six times during his life,and of these appearances only one was of his direct doing. Yet he was sheriff of Goochland (like his father before him) in 1771, a colonel in the militia, a member of its Committee of Safety in 1775-1776, and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1776. When he died, his estate was appraised at the comfortable sum £13, 646. He was the friend of such representative gentlemen as Colonel Richard Adams, of Richmond and Bowler Cocke of "Bremo" in Henrico. Tarlton Fleming's residence, "Rock Castle" on the James-not at all like a castle, and today is known as "Queen Anne Cottage"-has since it builder's time housed several other distinguished Virginia families, and is one of the country's oldest structures still standing. During the Revolution the place suffered a visitation from that bane of home owners, Banastre Tarlton, and his cavalrymen.When the British invader spotted his family coat-of-arms on the parlor paneling of "Rock Castle". a tradition claims that he angrily ripped it off and carried it away with him. As sheriff of a Virginia county in 1771, eldest son of a father who had expired in 1750, Colonel Tarlton Fleming was surely more than thirty years of age. This fact, in turn, would make him appreciably older than the youth who found news of his death-in January 1778 of unknown causes-painful enough to commemorate in verse. The commentator, Lewis Littlepage (1762-1802) of Hanover County, was, therefore, probably honoring a family acquaintance rather than bemoaning a personal friend. Flemings "dear partner", to whom the elegist refers in verse 5, was his wife Mary, sister to Colonel Thomas Mann Randolph of "Tuckahoe", of Goochland County. His "hapless orphans" (verse 16) were an only daughter Judith, and sons Thomas Mann, William Randolph, and Tarlton Fleming. Another Fleming, of about the same age as his cousin Tarlton, would become involved in the various stratagems to which Littlepage's half-brother John Carter Littlepage, would resort in order to get him to Spain in 1780 as a member of John Jay's diplomatic retinue. This was Colonel William Fleming (1736-1824), of Cumberland County-burgess, Continental Congressman, and future president of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Already young Littlepage had memorialized yet a third Fleming, a cousin to the other two and nearer his own generation. This was John, only son of Colonel John Fleming (died 1777), of "Maiden's Adventure" on the James, west of Richmond in what is now Powhatan County. As a major in the First Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line, John Fleming had been mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777. On March14 the «i»Virginia Gazette «/i»at Williamsburg featured Lewis Littlepage's anonymous poem "sacred to the memory" of a fallen officer. Its twenty-eight rimed couplets were not identified and reprinted until 1961. During his same fourteenth year Littlepage had also composed an "Ode to Death" which did not see print until 1848, in the «i»Southern Literary Messenger«/i», and a translation of an Horatian ode which was not published until 1809 (in a Philadelphia newspaper). Between 1806 and 1923, however, this piece was reprinted at least five times, and praised by such critics as John Randolph of Roanoke and Edgar Allan Poe. Littlepage's latest poem to be uncovered-probably also his latest in composition for the period-presumably dates from the early spring of 1778, when he was on the point of entering the College of William and Mary. Whereas his "Ode on Death" and the translation from Horace had been in quatrains, riming a b a b, for his elegy on Tarlton Fleming the young author returned to the couplet form in which had honored the deceased's cousin, John. Here it is in its entirety: Lines written by Lewis Littlepage, a youth at William & Mary College, 15 years of age.

AN ELEGY on the death of the late COLONEL TARLTON FLEMING of Rock Castle, Goochland County, A.D. 1778.

Tyrannic Death, thy triumph now is o'er Life's vision's past, and FLEMING is no more' Once crowned with social virtues, here he shone, Benevolent to all, a foe to none. Thou once dear partner of thy FLEMING'S joys** Once joined by love, and soft hymenial ties, What pangs of sorrow rent the gentle breast, What tides of woe thy tender sour opprest; When to the world, mortaliy, and you, Thy soul's best part, they FLEMING, bad adieu; A sympathetic grief, and tender love, Thy woes in friendly bosom move, Now in thy breast increasing sorrows rise, And tears of soft compassion fill my eyes; Who can without a humane, melting tear, Your mournful sighs, ye hapless orphans hear? May pitying «i»Heaven«/i» your infant years befriend, And Cherubims your innocence defend-- Direct your steps thrtough virtue's thorny way, And with eternal joys your woes repay. But change the scene--new sorrows still arise, And gloomy grief still meets my flowing eyes. Who can your unavailing woes reprove, Or blame your tribute to eternal love? Your sorrows, mourning sisters all must join, And every accent sympathise with thine. Lamented man, adieu; thy present state Nor blind terrestrial being can relate. May unmolested peace attend thy hearse, Till roused from death to sempiternal bliss By the last awful tramp's tremendous sound-- The solemn summons from primeval ground. When to the great tribunal all shall come, And trembling wait their everlasting doom-- Crowned with celestial pomp, O, may you rise, And view the latent regions of the skies, O'er sin triumphant, reach the blest abode, And face the glories of the God of Gods.

• Judith-the inscription reads: "Presented to Thomas Tarleton Webb, by his affectionate Mother Judith Webb, August the 20th 1821." (She married George Webb.)
  • Refers to his wife Mary Randolph.

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WILL Tarlton's will is dated 18 Jan 1778 proved in Goochland Co., proved in Goochland Co. 16 Feb 1778-wife Mary, sons William, Thomas, John (the latter a minor), dau. Judith. Douglas Register: Fleming Tarleton 1750 Book 6 Pg 113 Fleming Tarleton 1778 " 12 Pg 83 Fleming Thomas 1777 " " Pg 14 Fleming Thomas M. 1801 " 18 Pg 252 Fleming William R. 1831 " 29 Pg 210 It states that by marriage contract made ample provision for his wife Mary, and now gives her, in addition chariot, horses etc. Bequests his sons William, Thomas & John (the latter minor). To daughter Judith, ten negroes. The inventory of 'Col. Tarelton Fleming, deceased' was recorded March 1778, included 84 negroes. a collection of books "valued p inventory (25 pounds); total valued personal estate 13646 (English pounds)
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From (Purdie's «i»Virginia Gazette «/i»[Williamsburg] April 3, 1778)-Tarlton Fleming's executors' advertisement offering Negroes and colts from his estate for sale at Goochland Court House. Its signed by Thomas M. Randolph, Thomas Bates, George Webb and William Cocke.
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Tarlton Flemng was one of the witnessess to the will of Isaac Bates which was entered into Probate 9 Aug 1753 in Albemarle Co., Va. (This from Betty Ash of Hillsboro, Ohio.)
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From the Purdie & Dixon's «i»Virginia Gazette«/i»-Aug. 13, 1772-an advertisement from Tarlton Fleming-offering for sale five hundred acres of land along the James in Goochland, thirty miles from Westham. Book Douglas Register, Goochland Co. Douglas Register, Index, older wills, investments, etc. in Goochland Co. Jones Y Y Pp 392 3

GEDCOM Note

(Research):
Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames by Bardsley: Webb-a weaver Listed: Adam le Webbe County Essex 1273 COAT-OF-ARMS Arms: a cross between four falcons or Crest: a demi-eagle desplaced, issuing ourt of a ducal coronet Motto: In Alta Tendo Another version: Arms: gules, 2 wings conjoined in lure, the tips downward or Crest: out of a ducal coronet or, a phoenix in flames proper, wings expanded Motto: Foy Pour Devoir Another version: Arms: Gules a cross humetee engrailed between 4 falcons or Crest: Out of a ducal coronet a demi-eagle displayed or Motto: Principia non homines

GEDCOM Note

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROCK CASTLE
Tarlton settled on the James River-50 miles above what is now Richmond. He acquired great wealth as a merchant like his father.
Location of Rock Castle: This from cousin Marion Babb who had gotten the directions from Aunt Madge's son Jim Corr-(She had been there in 1965). Highway 6 to 600, go to the end...about 10 miles or more, west of town. It is a huge brick house with the front sloping down to the river (James River). "There was a woman there who showed us the carriage house and the slave quarters. Marion said that she sat in the pews that had been marked with Randolph and Jefferson names." I'm not certain if she meant at Rock Castle... [I took my children there in 1985, but just as were getting close to the area, an really nasty storm came up, so sadly we never got there.]

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According to Railey: ....Charles Fleming of New Kent Co., Va., and his wife Susanna Tarleton, who was a descendant of Sir Tarleton Fleming, second son of Sir Thomas Fleming...Sir Thomas Fleming married a Miss Tarleton and emigrated to America, landing at Jamestown, Va., the year 1616. His son, Tarleton married a Miss Bates and they were the parents of Tarleton Fleming who married Mary Randolph, the only daughter of William Randolph and Maria Judith Page.

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From «i»The Bates Booster«/i» newsletter, Nov. 1988 Vol 17 No. 6 102--a reprint from the «i»The Richmond Times Dispatch«/i» 2 October 1988: Old homes, church included on Goochland house tour: For more than 250 years, the little clapboard house has stood on the rocky bluff overlooking the James River & was named for that rocky setting. It is said to have been completed by Tarlton Fleming's father Tarleton in 1731. It has been a Anglican Parish & a post office. About 1920 the cottage was moved about 200 yards from its original location but is well-preserved. Originally named Rock Castle, the house is now known as the Queen Anne Cottage. It is one of the oldest estates in Goochland County and will be one of the five homes and a church featured on the Goochland County Historical Society tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 15. At this writing, the cottage was owned by Mr. and Mrs. William D. Cabell, was part of the plantation held by Tarlton Fleming in the early 18th century. Fleming was married to Mary Randolph of Tuckahoe. During the Revolutionary War, famed British Col. Banastre Tarleton reportedly raided Rock Castle cottage and stole the Tarlton coat of arms from the paneling in the parlor. Col. Tarleton's family is said to be related to the Virginia Tarltons. Thomas Mann Fleming inherited the property from his father. After the death of the younger Fleming, the house was sold to Col. David Bullock, a prominent Richmond attorney. Gov. John Rutherford was the next owner of the property, which became the residence of son John Coles Rutherfoord. He added the Italianate style wings to each side of the house. During the Civil War, the cottage was again ransacked by Sheridan's raiders and reportedly saved by the pleadings of servants in the house. Dr. George Ben Johnston married a daughter of John Coles Rutherford and the house remained in the Johnston family until the late 1920s. The new owners contracted Herbert Claiborne to move the house to the side of the grounds. "During the process, the wings were removed and Mr. Claiborne discovered the original Queen Anne design of the cottage," explained Mrs. Royal E. Cabell Jr., a member of the Goochland Historical Society.