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I have been searching the history of our family. We are African Americans. We trace our family line back to Africa, but by way of Virginia. Seeing that it was the custom for freed African slaves to take the last names of the slave owners, we are assuming that, at some point in history, that is where we got the Birchett name. In talking with a white Birchett, in Hampton Virginia, I learned that there were about five small plantation owners in Prince George County, who had the surname Birchett. Each had about 5-8 slaves. Apparently information about this is in the libraries and archives in Virginia. In searching the internet, I discovered that, as early as 1787, there was an Edward Birchett in Prince George County, Virginia. He witnessed a sale of land (http://10.3.16239/library.htm. in the Brunswick County Court, September 24, 1787. Apparently an Elizabeth Thweatt married an Edward Birchett as early as 1758. A Joseph Birchett married an Ann Roberts Post in Kent, England, in 1586.
Someone by the name of Max Keller (emoss@erols.com) e-mailed me to say that an Edward Birchett married an Ann in 1713, in Prince George county, Virginia, and they had four slaves (Hannah, Bess and two children). However, these slaves were Native Americans, and were given to a James Thweatt in exchange for care (I suppose they were ill?). A James D. Thweatt is listed on the Internet as a colonial soldier for Virginia. He was in a Corporal in Company K of the 50th Tennessee Confederate Infantry.
It appears that the slaves owned by Edward Birchett became descendants of Henry Batts??? www.familytreemaker.com
The names Edward Birchett, Henry Batts and James Thweatte appear again in a deeds registry of October 31, 1673. It is said to have been described in more detail in a book called Cavaliers and Pioneers, Volume 2, 1666-1695, by N.M. Nugent, p. 137. Three are other places where these names appear in connection with land and the reference book cited is Historical Southern Families, Volume I, by J.B. Boddie, p. 166 and Cavaliers & Pioneers, Volume 2, 1666-1695, by N.M. Nugent again, p. 332. Various disputes about slaves, fought in the courts, appears for 1717, and 1720, and the references listed are Magazine of Virginia Genealogy Society, 1984, #4, p. 41 and 1987, #2, p. 6
Well, Happy Hunting!!! If you find out any more information about Edward Birchett, his descendants or the descendants of the slaves he owned, please let me know, so I can round out this history of the African American Birchetts.
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