William Stith

Very little is known about William Stith, the third husband of Elizabeth (Bray) Allen Smith Stith.

James Bray II (son of James Bray I)

James Bray II, the son of James Bray I, married Mourning Glenn Pettus, widow of the late Thomas Pettus of Littletown (later Kingsmill) plantation in ca. 1697. Through their union, James II inherited Mourning's legal interest in her former husband's property. James Bray II and his sister, Ann Bray Ingles, inherited from their brother, David I, a residual interest in his property (Hening 1809-1823:VI:414-415; Goodwin 1972:56). In 1700 James Bray II purchased from the Walker and Pettus heirs "all those tracts called or known by the name or names of Littletown and Utopia… containing 1280 acres." He also bought a 500 acre tract that straddled the line between New Kent and James City Counties (Stephenson 1963:6).

James Bray II and his wife produced at least three children who lived to adulthood: Thomas II, who married Elizabeth Meriwether; Angelica, who married Henry Baker; and Elizabeth, who married Arthur Allen, the builder of Bacon's Castle. After Arthur Allen's death in 1711, Elizabeth wed Arthur Smith, who died in 1728. Her third and final husband was William Stith of Charles City County, whom she married sometime prior to 1763. James Bray II and his wife, Mourning, lived at what became Kingsmill Plantation, where he unified the Littletown and Utopia tracts and built a substantial home. However, he also had a brick house and lots in Williamsburg. Mourning died in 1711 (Stephenson 1963:5, 12; Fry and Jefferson 1751).

The will James Bray II made on November 17, 1725, was presented for probate on March 14, 1726. He left to his son, Thomas II, "all his real and personal estate now in [his] possession" and stipulated that his "Brick House and lets belonging thereto at Williamsburg" were to remain in the hands of his executor until the same can be sold by son, Thomas." The funds derived from the sale were to go toward the education and maintenance of the testator's grandson, James Bray III, who also stood to inherit his grandfather's land in Wilmington and Bruton Parishes. James Bray II bequeathed to his daughter, Elizabeth Allen, life-rights to the Pettus plantation, Littletown, until James Bray III came of age, and he left to Elizabeth "forever" the plantation called Rockahock on the Chickahominy River. Elizabeth Allen and her sister, Angelica Baker, were authorized to keep "all personal and real estate formerly delivered to them forever" and he bequeathed to Elizabeth "two single lots in Williamsburg forever" (Stephenson 1963:5; Winfree 1971:382; C.O. 5/1389 ff 66-68) .

Although James Bray II's will reveals that he had a brick house and lots in Williamsburg, plus the two single lots that he bequeathed to his daughter, Elizabeth, nothing in that document reveals how he acquired his lots or precisely where they were located. However, when daughter Elizabeth Bray Allen Smith Stith made her will in 1764, she bequeathed to her granddaughters "my House and Lots adjoining the Lott which Dr. Hay purchased of Col. Philip Johnson and Facing the Lott where the Doctor formerly lived." Elizabeth also left to James Allen Bridger "my single Corner Lott lying near the Colledge & facing the Lott where Mr. Cambell formerly lived" (Stephenson 1963:7, 12-13) . This may be one of the two lots she inherited.

LAND OWNERSHIP PATTERNS AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE PLANTATION: REPORT OF ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

by Martha W. McCartney, Historian, 2000

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series - 1724

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, Williamsburg, Virginia, 2010

http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary/view/index.cfm?doc=Resea...