1954 - Special Collections

80 YEAR BOOK A~IERICAN CLA N GREGOR SOC IETY
and interpreting these items the Clan knows how this ancestor lived and moved
and had his being from the time he arrived in Maryland in 1652 till he died in
Maryland in 1676. Dr. Magruder also used Maryland and Vi rginia manuscri pt
records to show the improbability that Alexander Magruder, the l st., had a wife
Mar gar et Brai thwai te.
He considered the finding of the original will of Alexander Magruder made
in February 1676 and probated in March 1676/7 among the unindexed papers
brought to the Maryland Hall of Records from Prince George' s County the direc t
result of his efforts to have Governor Ritchie appoint the Maryland Tercentena ry
Commission so that the state could have an adequate celebra tion of the 300th.
anniversar y of its founding.
His funeral was held at St. Anne's Church, Annapolis, by Rt. Rev. Noble
C. Powell, Bishop of Maryland, assisted by the Rev. Dr. C. Edwa rd Berger,
rector of St. Anne's. T he pallbearers were all priests of the Protestant Episcopal
Chur ch. Miss Regina Mag ruder Hill, Hi storian of The American Clan Gregor
Society attend ed the funera l. He would have been pleased that she came for
he always considered each clan member part of his fami ly.
•
M RS. T H OMAS GRA VES BIRCKHEAD
1863-1954
A Tribute by
HELEN EWELL H ORD
Annie Lee Clowes, daughter of Amos Kenda ll Clowes and Helen Pa lmer
Clowes, was born Fe b. 27, 1863, in Lexington, Va. H er pare nts moved to Gordonsville,
Va., when she was a little girl. She graduated from the Gordonsville Female
Institute at the age of 17.
She mar ried a descendant of Alexander Magruder, the Im migrant , Thomas
Graves Birckhead, son of Dr . Edward Francis Birckhead and Corne lia Rachel
Magruder Graves, on May 30, 1883, and lived at "Violet Hill", Albemar le County,
Vi rginia. Two sons were born to them : Edward Francis, II , April 27, 1885, and
Kendall Palmer, June 25, 1889. At the death of her husband she went to live with
her son Kendall at Abingdon, Va., where she died on May 12, 1954. She was
brought back to Albemarle County and buried beside her husband in the Birckhead
Cemetery at "Morven", near Ea rlysville.
She was a member of the Buck Mountain Episcopa l Church for 70 years. She
taught school in Albema rle County for twenty-eight years, and was Educational
Textbook Represe nta tive in Virginia for three publishing houses at different times
(B . F. Johnson Pub . Co., D. C. Hea th Co., and the McMillan Co.).
Mrs . Birckhead was one of the first associate members of the American Clan
Gregor Society. She made severa l contributions to the Year Book, among them
"};lacGregors Daughter", and "Frag ments F rom an Old Virgi nia H ome." She
was deeply interes ted in literature, especially in poetry, writing some herself. Near
the end of her life she wrote,