General Notes

Also Known As:<_AKA> The /emigrant/
In 1720 New Kent County, Virginia was divided and Hanover County was formed.
Southern Biographies and Genealogies, 1500s-1940s

The Winston--Henry Genealogy.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, September 21st, 1876.

MRS. DANIEL SLAUGHTER.

Dear Madam: I have been informed that your maiden name was Winston. and that you have a family tree. As I am very anxious to learn accurately the Winston ancestry of my grandfather, Patrick Henry, I trust you will pardon me for asking a copy of the tree, or if it is a very large one, of that part which relates to his ancestry.

I am, very respectfully,
WM. WIRT HENRY.

CULPEPER, VIRGINIA, October 10th, 1876.
DEAR SIR:

My sister, Mrs. Daniel Slaughter, has requested me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st ultimo, and to answer it. The account of the Winston family in our possession was written for the satisfaction of her own family by my grandmother, whose maiden name was Lucy Coles, a grand-daughter of Isaac Winston the emigrant; and she married her cousin Isaac Winston, a grandson of the same emigrant. I will compile a genealogy of the family from my grandmother's record, and from information of a later date derived from other sources. I have compared her record with the old wills, also in our possession, and I find it correct for two generation.

Isaac Winston, the most remote ancestor of that name that I can traceback to, was born in Yorkshire England, in 1620. A grandson of his pursued his fortunes in Wales, where he had a large family. Three of his sons emigrated to America, and settled near Richmond, Virginia, in 1704. Their names were William, Isaac and James. It is the genealogy of the descendants of Isaac, the second of these brothers, that my grandmother has written.

Isaac Winston the emigrant, married Mary Dabney, and died in Hanover County in 1760, leaving six children, William, Isaac, Anthony, Lucy, Mary Ann, and Sarah. I do not mention them in the order of their births; on the contrary, I think Sarah, the last mentioned, was the oldest.

1. William, son of Isaac Winston; the emigrant, ("He was said to have been endowed with that rare kind of magnetic eloquence which rendered his nephew, Patrick Henry, so famous."--Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 520. See also Wirt's Life of Henry, m. Sarah Dabney, issue, Elizabeth, Edmund, (Judge Winston) and Mary Ann. 1. Elizabeth m. Peter Fontaine, issue, 1. John m. Martha Henry dau. of Patrick Henry, issue, Patrick Henry (other children not known). 2. Sarah Fontaine m. Charles Rose; issue, John, Peter, Sarah and Alexander. 3. William Fontaine m. Ann Morris. 4. Mary Fontaine m. first Bowles Armstead; issue, William, Elizabeth, Mary and Peter, m. second John Lewis a nephew of General Washington; issue, Frances, Howel and Mary Ann. (The other children of Peter Fontaine and Elizabeth Winston were James, Edmund, Judith and Susanna, but their marriages are not given in the record. The Rev. William Spotswood Fontaine, now of Reidsville, N. C., and the Rev. Edward Fontaine, now of New Orleans, belong to this branch, and are grandsons of John Fontaine and his wife Martha Henry.) 2. Edmund (Judge Winston) m. 1. his cousin Alice Winston; issue, 1. George m. Dorothea Henry dau. of Patrick Henry; issue, James a distinguished lawyer and politician of Mo., (died in 1852.) 2. Sarah m. Dr. George Cabell. 3. Alice m. Frederick Cabell. 4. Mary m. Mr. Jones of Buckingham. 5. Edmund m. Eliza Wyat. Judge Edmund Winston m. second the widow of Patrick Henry, no issue. His descendants are scattered in N.C., Mo., and Miss. Dr. Wm. Winston, now of Toccapola, Miss., is his great-grandson. 3. Mary Ann Winston m. Dr. John Walker; issue, Benjamin, John, Frances and Edmund.

2. Isaac, son of Isaac Winston the emigrant, m. Marianne dau. of Rev. Peter Fontaine, Rector of Westover Parish, (great-great-grandson of John de la Fontaine, martyred in France A. D. 1563, ancestor of all the Fontaines and Maurys i