John West (colonel)

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Lieutenant-Colonel John West, Jr. of West Point, Virginia (1632–1691) was commander of the New Kent Militia in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and a representative of the same county in the House of Burgesses.

Biography

John West was born about 1632. He was the son of Governor John West of Virginia and the grandson of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr.

West served in the militia from 1652 to 1673, ending with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was a supporter of Governor Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion, and appears in the list compiled by the King's Commissioners of those who suffered grievances during the uprising:

Col. John West a person greatly impaired in his stock & goods by the Rebells, and a most constant Loyall Gentleman during the late Rebellion, and was for some time after Bacons death Imprisoned by the Rebell Partie.[1]

West served as a member of the courts-martials which tried the rebels.[2]

In 1659, West's father died, the last of the four sons of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr who came to Virginia. In recognition of the family's contributions to the colonial enterprise, the Virginia Assembly passed the following Act:

WHEREAS the many important favours and services rendred to the countrey of Virginia by the noble family of the West, predecessors to Mr. John West, their now only survivor, claim at least that a gratefull remembrance of their former merrits be still continued to their survivor, It is ordered, That the levies of the said master West and his ffamily be remitted, and that he be exempted from payment thereof during life.[3]

In 1685 West represented New Kent in the House of Burgesses. His will dated November 15, 1689, was probated about 1691. It was destroyed along with the other County records in a fire in 1787.[4]

Family

In 1664, West married Unity Croshaw, daughter of Major Joseph Croshaw of York, member of the House of Burgesses. The children of Colonel John and Unity Croshaw were:[5]

  • John, married Judith Armistead.
  • Thomas, married Agnes (?)
  • Nathaniel, married Martha Woodard, widow of Gideon Macon.
  • Anne, married Henry Fox.
  • Ursula Unity Susanna West, (b. 24 Dec. 1658, married George Thomas Martin (b. 1656) in 1676 and died on 12 MAY 1708 at Elsing Green in King William County.

West was said to have fathered a son with the Pamunkey leader Cockacoeske about 1656, several years before West's marriage to Unity Croshaw. The child became, and known as Captain John West.[6] Although there is evidence that Col. West was living apart from his wife in 1685,[7] the year before Cockacoeske's death, the reasons for their separation remain unknown.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ "Persons who Suffered by Bacon's Rebellion. The Commissioners' Report", The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Jul., 1897), pp. 64-70
  2. ↑ Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, p.27
  3. ↑ Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 1, p. 547
  4. ↑ New Kent County, Virginia Genealogy Project
  5. ↑ Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., v.3, p.490
  6. ↑ The Beginning, Progress, and Conclusion of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, In the Years 1675 and 1676 Jefferson Papers, American Memory Collections, Library of Congress
  7. ↑ Appleton, Thomas H. et al, Searching for Their Places: Women in the South Across Four Centuries

Sources

  • "The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture. Rountree, Helen C., University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
  • "Cockacoeske, Queen of Pamunkey: Diplomat and Suzeraine." W. Martha W. McCartney.
  • "Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast by Peter H. Wood.

Notes on John West's daughter Ursula Unity Susanna West: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=beverlyj_bell&id=I7683

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