Newsletter 2 1978.pdf - The Grayson Family

Page 40.
HISTORY OF ALBEYARLB
GRAYS0
mrilliam Grayson mas a native of Spotsylvania, and came
to Albemarle some time before the Revolutionary War. 1,
1761 he, bought land on the head of liechum's River from
Speaker John Robinson. who was then selling off the im,
mense tracts'in Rockfish valley, patented by his brother-in.
law, John Chiswell. Having sold this property a few years
after, he purchased from Gamaliel Bailey and Obadiah
Martin at what nras then known as the Little D. S., ~ h ~ ~ . ~
the old Richard Woods Road forks with that passing through
Batesville, and where his descendants have been living ever
since. In lS@l he sold n small parcel at this place to Ii'i].
liam Simpson, who there established a tanyard that for
many years went by his name, and afterwards by the name
of Grayson, and that mas one of the most noted landmarks
in that neighborhood. Simpson in 1818 sold it to Joseph
Grayson, a grandson of William. IVilliam died in 1829,
having attained the remarkable age of ninety-seven gears,
His wife was Aun, daughter of Thomas Smith, and his
children were John, Thomas, hfartha, Elizabeth, the wife of
Joseph Sutherland, and Susan, the wife first of Isaac Wood, :,
and secondly of a Tomlin. Joseph Grarson married Rhoda,
daughter of Daniel White, and died in 1867. His children
were Thomas, who married Mary, daughter of John Jones,
Ann, the wife of James H. Shelton, Frances, Elizabeth, the
wife of Benjamin F. Abell. John and William.
. HAbIh'ER.
Tradition relates, that the immigrant Hamoer bore the
name of Nicholas, that he came from Wales and settled in
Middlesex County, and that hc had six or seven sons. Three
of them fixed their homes in Alhemarle. The first wbo
appears an the records was I%'illiam. In 1759 he bought
from Thomas Fitzpatrick nearly five hundred acres on the
south fork of Hardware, not far from Jumping Hill. The
same year he obtained a patent for nearly two hundred acres
on the north fork of Hardware, and acquired near by upwards
of seven hundred more, all of which he sold in 1782