The Family Tree Searcher - RootsWeb

Cross County Cousins
volunteer Middlesex County Cemetery Survey Committee had collected the records we
hoped to publish after three years of searching near old homes, through dense forests,
along river banks. Now Roane offered to transfer our cemetery files and photographs to
his Publisher computer program, readying them for printing. With the financial support of
the Middlesex Board of Supervisors and with Roane Hunt’s generous donation of time and
knowledge, a distant likelihood came into closer focus.
Almost as a bonus from our joint contributions, we began to notice that a number of
those buried in Middlesex graveyards had roots in Gloucester County. A few examples are
mentioned here. Perusal of the book, which covers more than 120 private cemeteries and
25 church cemeteries, surely will reveal numerous others.
The “Barn Elms” Grave of Lucy Burwell Berkeley
One of the earliest of these cross -county relationships is personified by the grave of
Lucy Burrell Berkeley. She was born in 1683 at Gloucester’s “Fairfield” to Major Lewis
Burwell II and his wife Abigail Smith. In her teens, charming and beautiful Lucy had
attracted the attention of the Colonial Governor, Francis Nicholson. Obsessively smitten
(redundancy is appropriate here), he passionately pursued her with love letters, poetry and
personal pleadings, much to the aggravation of her well -connected father if not to Lucy. In
time the Queen stepped in. With the stroke of her pen, the love -stricken Nicholson was
transferred to a distant assignment.
Lucy Burwell married Edmund Berkeley and moved across the Piankatank River to
Middlesex to live and raise three daughters and two sons at “Barn Elms.” In 1716, at the
age of 33, she died. She lies within the brick -
walled cemetery beneath an elaborately
carved tomb bearing the Berkeley arms. In
his final tribute to Lucy, her husband of “12
years and 12 days” had these words etched
in marble imported probably from England:
“I shall not pretend to give her full character.
It would take too much room for a grave
stone. Shall only say that she never neglected
her duty to her Creator in Publick or in
Private. She was charitable to the poor, a
kind mother, mistress and wife. She never in
all the time she lived with her husband gave
him as much as once a cause to be
displeased with her.” (Joan Stubbs has
written about “The Berkeley Family in
Virginia” in the Society’s Family Tree Searcher for June 2001.)
Family crest embellishes
Lucy Berkeley’s
1716 tomb
Photographs by Joan Stubbs
Grymes Family Tomstones at Old “Grymesby”
Also on the Piankatank at the plantation called “Grymesby,” and later named “Wood
Farm,” are the early 18th century tombs of the Grymes family. John Grymes settled here
about 1691. One source says he was the son of a lieutenant general in Oliver Cromwell’s
army who came to Virginia after the restoration of the monarchy. Another states he was
the son of Reverend Charles Grymes, a minister in York County and later in Petsworth
Parish. Next to the flat stone marking the burial of John Grymes is that of his wife Alice
Townsley. She was the daughter of Lawrence and Sarah Townsley and the granddaughter
Vol. 5, No. 2 29 December 2001