WARNING: Few Sources to Document This Family!
This month’s 12 for ’25 features the Jarvis family of Maryland, North Carolina and possibly Virginia.
A reader contacted me and shared a theory that my husband’s Zadock Jarvis line MIGHT be:
- Francis Jarvis, arrived Accomack County, Virginia 1636
- John Jarvis, born c1646; married Mary (MNU)
- John Jarvis, born c1675; died 1720; married Elizabeth Wilkinson
- James Jarvis, born c1700; married Mary (MNU)
- Zadock Jarvis, born c1750-died after 1830, possibly Union County, Indiana
I hate even listing these generations because I can’t find a single source for any of these men with the exception of a couple of mentions of Francis and the agreement for James Jarvis to rent Quince Orchard in Frederick County, Maryland.
A friend is checking a 2002 book for me – Francis Jarvis: A Person of Quality, seemingly found only in the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City and an Ontario, Canada library.
Today, we begin with a look at documenting the life of Francis Jarvis, who arrived in Accomack County, Virginia in 1636 with the head rights assigned to Francis Shockley, an Eastern Shore tobacco planter.
Francis Jarvis was said to be about 14 years old when he arrived from Gravesend, England. [There is no source for the estimation of his age.]
A baptismal record has been found for one Francis Jarvis, baptized July 1623 in Bishopwearmouth, Durham, England and this person is supposedly the same Francis who emigrated to Virginia.
Bishopwearmouth is 300 miles from Gravesend, so my first question would be how a 12 year old boy got there by himself. Not impossible. Perhaps he was one of the kidnapped children who was sold and sent across the sea. However, I have not seen any proof that these two Francises are the same person.
What can be documented about Francis’s life in Virginia?
The most common fact shared about Francis Jarvis:
Francis Stockley, tobacco planter received 50 acres of land in Accomack for the transportation of one servant, Francis Jarvis, recorded 22 December 1636.
In the book Migration and Origins of the English Atlantic World by Alison Games, 1999, Francis Jarvis is mentioned on page 93:
He “ran away from his master Thomas Ward because, he told Daniel Pighles “hee could not beat at the Morter.”
Two more facts:
A man named Francis Jarvis received 460 acres of land in Kingston Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia in 1679.
Non-documented statements about Francis Jarvis:
Francis Jarvis reportedly married Anna Gascoigne, but I have not found any reference to a marriage record or other document that supports this statement.
Francis and purported wife Anna ARE SAID to be the parents of seven or eight children:
- Thomas, c1643-1694
- Elizabeth, born c1644
- John, born c1646
- Edward, born c1648
- William, c1653-1709
- Henry, born c1654
- Humphrey, born c1656
- Richard, died 4 April 1706, Westmoreland County, Virginia: Online trees have him, but this man was supposedly born 3 years after the undocumented death date for Francis
Now it’s time for me to see what other factual material can be found pertaining to immigrant Francis Jarvis.