General Notes

from BOOKLET----BUNCHES OF BARLOWS    CHAPTER 11--RASH

It seems most likely that Joseph Rash Sr. was either from the early Rash
family in Delaware or else was a himself an immigrant direct from England, as
his patron Joseph Martin is said to have been.  In Fredericksville Parish,
Louisa Co. VA Joseph Rash in 1755 witnessed a deed from Joseph Martin, Gent.
of that Parish, to Francis Merriwether of Spotsylvania Co VA.  Martin was the
father-in-law of Livingston Isbell whose sister Mildred married Joseph Rash
Jr.
Joseph Sr , who apparently was not a land owner, may have been a tenant of Martin who owned extensive lands on Pritties Creek.  On 16 April 1764 and again on 5 November 1766, the vestry of Fredericksville Parish directed the church wardens to "provide for Joseph Rash what seems necessary for them" indicating that he was probably an elderly man in straitened circumstances and failing health.  It is likely that he died about 1676 as there are no further mention of him in the vestry minutes.

The idenity of the first wife of Joseph Rash Sr. is unknown, but she was the mother of his known children.  Between 1754 and 1763, he married a second wife, a younger woman named Barbara Holcomb, who had two illegitimate sons--Grymes Holcomb and Thomas Holcomb b 15 April, 1754.  When Grymes Holcomb was bound out on 21 November 1763 to learn the carpenters trade, he was described as "a bastartd son of Joseph Rash's wife".  In February 1776 the parish accounts included a payment to Mary Evle, widow of Joseph Evle, Jr. " for attending Barbara Rash in her illness."   It is likely that Barbara died about this time.  Men named Grymes Holcomb and Thomas Holcomb were in Surry Co., NC by 1786, and the will of Thomas Holcomb was probated there in 1807.  It seems at least possible that these are Barbara's sons.  Other items in the vestry minutes of Fredericksville parish include a list of insolvents and removals from the parish and included Thomas Rash and Grymes Holcomb.