William Byrd I (1652 – December 4, 1704) was an English-born Virginia colonist and politician. In Virginia, the spelling Byrd became standard, and several further generations of his descendants would share the same name, as well as hold important political offices and, increasingly, operate plantations using enslaved labor.

Early life

175px|thumb|left|Coat of Arms of William Byrd

Born circa 1649 He later allied himself with the Governor and became a prominent citizen.

Also in 1676, Byrd established the James River Fort on the south bank of the James River in what is now known as Richmond's Manchester District. The legislature confirmed that landholding in 1679, conditioned upon him seating 50 men and not to exceed 20 men there. Byrd was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1677 and later served many years on the Governor's Council.

Governor Lord Effingham, per instructions from James II, attempted to enforce the Royal African Company monopoly from 1684-1689, despite a drastic decline in the supply of white indentured servants. In 1698 the Board of Trade instructed Governor Nicholson to substitute family farms for more speculative headright tract grants. It proposed that whoever occupied a vacant piece of land would receive one hundred acres apiece for himself and each laborer that he employs within 3 years of the patent grant. Thus, the royal governors began wresting control from the great planter class.

Although some considered headrights impermissible for importing blacks, such importation may have existed very early, although arguably in violation of the Great Charter which required that servants could only serve for seven years, and enslaved workers never completed their terms of service.

In 1688, Theodorick Bland Jr. and his brother Richard conveyed 1,200 acres of their Westover Plantation property to William Byrd I in 1688 for £300 and 10,000 pounds of tobacco and cask. The mansion he built in 1690 were furnished with curtains, tables, chairs and bedsteads imported from Rotterdam. Byrd's grandson built a Georgian mansion there in the 1750s.

Personal life

About 1673, he married a 21-year-old widow named Mary (née Horsmanden) Filmer, a native of Lenham, England. Mary's father had spent time in Virginia as a Cavalier fleeing Cromwell, and her former husband Samuel Filmer (third son of Tory author Robert Filmer) descended from the sister of Samuel Argall, governor of Virginia.

William Byrd I and his wife would become the parents of William Byrd II and three daughters. Their daughter, Ursula, at age 16, married Robert Beverley Jr., Major Robert Beverley's son. They had one child, William Beverley (1698–1756), and Ursula died in 1698, within a year of her marriage. Colonel William Beverley married Richard Bland's daughter, Elizabeth Bland. They had four children. Their son, Robert, married Maria Carter on February 3, 1763. Her parents were Landon Carter and Maria Byrd.

Death and legacy

Byrd died on December 4, 1704, at his plantation home of Westover, in Charles City County, Virginia. He is buried near the original site of the Westover Church.

References

Further reading

  • Murphy, Nathan W. "The Devon Seafaring Origins of William Byrd's Mother's Family: Grace (Stegge) Byrd of London, Thomas Stegge of Charles City County, Virginia, and Captain Abraham Read of Charles City County, Virginia; Including Additional Details about William Byrd's Father John Byrd's Career as a London Goldsmith," The American Genealogist 84 (2010), 241–56.
  • Rice, James D. (2012). Tales from a Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Biography at Virtualology.com