General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Major
(Research):Note:
From The Adventurers of Purse and Person we find that Eliza
beth Spencer
was the second wife of Robert Sheppard. Robert patented 30
0 acres at the head
of Chippoakes Creek, current Surry County, 19 July 1635. H
e was a Burgess for
James City County from 1646 until 1648. In 1652/3 he was re
ferred to as
"Robert Sheppard of Lawne's Creek, Gent.", at which time Sh
eppard deeded
1100 acres at the mouth of the creek to Lt. William Caufiel
d. Sheppard was
deceased before 5 July, 1654, when Elizabeth asked a Mr. Br
ewster to
represent her in a transaction. Chippoakes, named for an In
dian Chief, is now a
lovely park, standing on a cliff overlooking the James Rive
r. This area was first
considered as the location for Jamestowne but the cliffs hi
ndered the
colonists access.
Robert Sheppard and Elizabeth Spencer had three sons, John
, Robert, and
William, all of whom died without issue. Only their daughte
r, Anne
Sheppard, who married Thomas Hart, carried the bloodline.
Elizabeth (Spencer) Sheppard then married "Thomas Warren o
f Smith's Fort,
Gent." Mr. Warren had served as a Burgess in 1644 when he w
as only twenty
two years of age. He and Elizabeth may have had one child
. From
Genealogies of Virginia Families, Volume IV, 1981, we fin
d the following: On September 23, 1654, Elizabeth (Spencer
) Sheppard, widow, and Thomas Warren of Smith's Fort, Surry
, Gent., entered into a premarital contract in which Elizab
eth was to retain the estate of her deceased husband, Majo
r Robert Sheppard, including one gold seal ring marked D. S
., one pair of silver tongs marked R. S., and one silver in
k horn marked I. S. Mr. Warren was also to give certain hor
ses and cows to her children Anne, John, Robert, and Will
. Priscilla and Susanna Sheppard, daughters of Major Sheppa
rd and his first wife Priscilla -, were also mentioned.
Thomas and Elizabeth (Spencer) Sheppard Warren lived at Smi
th's Fort
Plantation in Surry County, Virginia. Warren had built hi
s house two years
prior to their marriage on land which he had purchased fro
m Thomas Rolfe,
son of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. For many years it was bel
ieved that the
existing house was indeed the Rolfe house. John D. Rockerfe
ller purchased
the house and saved it from destruction, as the previous ow
ner was selling the
"Rolfe bricks" to tourists at one dollar apiece. It was lat
er found that the
Rolfe's never lived on the south side of the James. It wa
s then assumed to
have been built by Thomas Warren and therefore carried hi
s name and for a
number of years a handsome brass plaque declaring such coul
d be seen beside
the front door. A core of wood taken from a beam has prove
n that this
house was not built until about 1760, thus by the Falcone
r family. It is now
thought that the Warren house burned to the ground in 1710
. The current house
is built on the foundation of Thomas Warren's "fifty foot h
ouse". The larger
and rougher foundation bricks can be seen in the "dayligh
t basement", which
also houses the gift shop. The Warren House was recorded a
s a one story
dwelling and Holtsclaw's volume on the Spencer family refer
s to it as having
been a stone house. No doubt, however, our Elizabeth move
d within these
old walls, perhaps helping to select foodstuffs from the co
ol root cellar for the
evening meal.
The children of Robert Sheppard and Elizabeth Spencer:
Children: Anne
John
Robert
William
Bebenjohn <Bebenjohn@@aol.com> (by way of Ann McWhirter)