Re: Marriage Records for Awbreys in VA
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In reply to:
Re: Marriage Records for Awbreys in VA
Jeanne Stevens 6/12/07
I don't have my notes in front of me, so this should be taken as a mere sketch.
Debtor's prison doesn't necessarily mean pauperism. For instance, Robert E. Lee's father may have left the country to avoid debtor's prison. He was broke, but I don't think anyone would call him a pauper. Thomas Awbrey was probably in a situation similar to that. But it is certain that at least one of Thomas Awbrey's sons would qualify as a pauper. (more on that later)
There are likely a great number of factors that played into the financial woes of Thomas Awbrey. First, we can be fairly certain that he started out in the proverbial "hole". His older brother John inherited the prime plantation property (now the city of Leesburg, Virginia)and then died within two years. His widow then sold the plantation to John Carlyle, who sold it to Nicholas Minor, who established the city. Minor, oddly, was a near descendant of another Nicholas Minor who had been a good friend of John Awbrey, Jr., in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and who had been arrested with John Awbrey, Jr., for disturbing the peace in 1716 or thereabouts. Thomas inherited what was more or less mountain land,and therefore not conducive to tobacco. But that would not have mattered, as Thomas had gained his inheritance only about a decade before the Tidewater planting systems with which he was familiar destroyed the soil in the Fairfax/Prince William/Loudoun County area. By the mid 1750s the whole of the region had taken to growing grain because the land could no longer support their main cash crop of tobacco. This would likely be the reason that two younger brothers of Thomas, Henry and Samuel Awbrey, left Northern Virginia for South Carolina at that exact moment. Also, Thomas began early in his life to dispose of the property left to him, notably his father's iron mines, indicating that he either needed cash to support himself, or that he needed cash to embark on some new speculation that apparently did not succeed. Thomas also, early in his life, stood bond for a number of his fellow citizens. It is not certain that he was held responsible for any of these bonds, but the number of them and their substantial values, certainly put him at risk. These signals show that Thomas, while in his twenties and thirties, perhaps entered into some very risky ventures at the same time that his environment was undergoing dramatic change, and that what happened to him was not necessarily his fault. However, we do know that he was a poor manager of his estate, evidenced by the Loudoun County court's objection to his shoddy management of the Awbrey ferry during the pre-Revolutionary period.
When compared to the estate of his father, comprising fourteen slaves, three or four white indentured servants, mines, a ferry, a store, a tavern, and (at one time or another) some 17,000 acres, it becomes painfully obvious that Thomas was barely hanging on to the vestiges that were left to him, and many of these vestiges did not survive him. What he left to his children was about one hundred acres apiece, and some of this land was apparently so useless that it lay unclaimed for twenty years- until his sons decided to sell it and make the move to Kentucky. Of his sons, Thomas and Samuel seemed to fare better than the others, and Henry did well once in Kentucky. Richard however, appears in a circa 1791 notice of insolvent residents of Loudoun, indicating that he was indeed a pauper.
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Re: Marriage Records for Awbreys in VA
steve jordan 6/05/11