Joseph Croshaw
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Major Joseph Croshaw (1610-1667) was a substantial planter living near Williamsburg in the US Colony and Dominion of Virginia who served in the Colonial Militia during the Indian massacre of 1622.
[edit] Biography
Crowshaw was born in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, the son of Captain Raleigh Croshaw. He became a substantial planter and lived just a few miles from present-day Williamsburg, Virginia. He served in the Colonial militia during the massacre of 1622. On December 10, 1651, he was listed as owning 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) in York County, Virginia. The land was on the South side of the York River (Virginia), commonly known by the name of the poplar Neck, abutting North West upon the mouth of St. Andrews Creek, North East upon said River and South East upon Croshaw Desire Creek, dividing this from the land now in possession of his brother Richard Croshaw, South West along the Indian field upon the land of James Harris and West by North upon the land of Samuel Snead. In one of the rooms of his house, Joseph Croshaw of York had hung five pictures, whether portraits or landscapes it is impossible to discover from the inventory of his estate.
Major Joseph Croshaw was listed as having eleven horses and seventy-seven head of neat cattle in the inventory of 1657. The 1667 listed Major Joseph Croshaw of York as the owner of forty sheep. The 1668 inventory of the estate of Major Joseph Croshaw included the following pewter objects: two candlesticks, forty-two dishes, four porringers, thirty-six spoons, one bedpan, and one still. Some of his flagons, tankards, plates, saucers, salts, basins, and chamber pots, although unspecified as to material, were undoubtedly also made of pewter.
The inventory of 1668 also listed The Croshaw estate to have in it’s possession a large quantities of 1000 bricks manufactured either by their own servants or by transient laborers. It also listed the “Croshaw Personality”, a silver sack-cup, a silver tankard of the largest size, valued at four pounds sterling, perhaps equal in purchasing power to an hundred dollars in our modern currency, and twenty-four silver spoons.
Croshaw married five times and had six children:
1. Finch. She is said the be the mother of his first five children.
- Mary Croshaw (1632-1687), married 1. Henry White; 2. Thomas Taylor.
- Rachel Croshaw (1635-1670), married 1. Ralph Graves; and 2. Richard Barnes.
- Unity Croshaw (1636-1669), married Colonel John West.
- Benjamin Croshaw (1640-1645), died young.
- Joseph Croshaw (1642-1650), died young.
2. Elizabeth Yeardley, the daughter of Governor George Yeardley.
3. Anne Hodges (d.1663).
4. Margaret Tucker (d.1664).
5. Mary Broomfield, who survived him. She gave him one child just before he died.
- Richard Croshaw (1667-1682).
Other genealogical sources have stated Elizabeth Yeardley and Anne Hodges to be mothers of his first five children. However, records show that Croshaw married Elizabeth Yeardly in 1644 and Anne Hodges in 1661, much later than the birthdates of his older children.
In his will that was dated March 10, 1667, Joseph Croshaw bequeathed three silver spoons and three silver sack-cups to his wife, and one silver beaker, one silver candle-cup, and two dram cups of the same metal to his son Richard Croshaw. This will was probated on April 10, 1667 in York County, Virginia.
[edit] Sources
- "Crowshaw", by Martha Woodroof Hiden; William and Mary Qtrly (2), XXI, pp265 70.
- "General Historie", by John Smith, 1624, Vol III, pp 78 81, Vol IV, pp. 151 154.
- "The Complete Works of Captain John Smith", edited by Philip L. Barbour; Vol II, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 1986.
