ALEXANDER BOYD OF MECKLENBURG COUNTY AND HIS FAMILY
By WILLIAM B. HILL
Published in the Virginia Historical Magazine Vo. 50
Transcribed only in part
The circumstances of Alexander Boyd's settling in Mecklenburg County in 1765 are not known. If he began his mercantile business associated with any of the Glasgow firms who had extensive interests in the county and section, it does not appear from the county records. He seems always to have been an independent merchant. His parents and his place of origin he has himself recorded. His "loving and respected mother Elizabeth Boyd otherwise called Elizabeth Anderson" and his sister Mary Wood, otherwise Mary Boyd, were living in the town of Irvine, Scotland, in the year 1785, when he gave them power of attorney, with his friend James King, Sr. "Merchant of Port Glasgow," to sell his interest in the lands of his father, Robert Boyd, in Dunlop Parish, Ayrshire.l
He married Ann Swepson who was born January 22, 1750,2 the daughter of Richard Swepson and his first wife, Jane.3 The date of this marriage is not recorded, and no bond for the license exists in Mecklenburg. Very little is known of the Swepson family. Richard Swepson had come into the county, then Lunenburg, in 1760, accompanied by John Jeffries, who was apparently a relative. They bought adjoining tracts of land on the same day.4
Prospering as a merchant and planter, Alexander Boyd became a justice of the county court in July 1792, an office which he retained until his death. In January 1795, he first took out a license to keep an ordinary, and it is possible that the hotel which still stands in Boydton had just then been completed. This was a business which was conducted by his sons Richard and Alexander, Jr.
Little of personal nature has survived concerning him. The late Thomas Boyd of Boydton wrote in 19085 that his maternal grandfather6 told him he remembered Alexander Boyd well, "that he was very dictatorial in his bearing and autocratic in dealing with the people. He said if a customer dared to question the price of his goods that he had just as leave kick him out of his store as not."
His death occurred August 11, 1801.7 By his will he left each of his daughters three thousand pounds and a negro maid, "when she shall arrive at the age of sixteen or marries," to his wife, an annuity, and a life estate in his home plantation and "twelve of the choicest of my negroes." The rest of his property which included extensive tracts of land in various parts of the county was left to his sons.8
His widow survived him more than a score of years. She died October 20, 1822, at the home of her daughter, Ann, the widow of Governor William Hawkins, in Granville County, N. C. She had suffered a stroke and was paralyzed and is said to have died peacefully in her chair. Her nuncupative will, leaving her property to her daughters was probated at the November term in Mecklenburg, her sons William, Richard and Alexander making depositions that it had always been understood in the family that their mother wished to leave her property to her daughters. James Nuttall, a son. in-law of Mrs. Hawkins, stated that Mrs. Boyd had asked him during her last illness to write her will, but that he had declined from reasons of delicacy, and that she had told him, "her daughters had never an equal share of her deceased husband's estate, and moreover that she had raised many young negroes who would at her death go to and belong to her sons and that she wished what little she might have to go to her daughters."9
Eleven children were born to Alexander and Ann Boyd. John Boyd, the seventh son, born August 1, 1781, died unmarried Sept.14, 1802.10 Susannah Boyd, a fourth daughter, the date of whose birth was not recorded, died "aged about six weeks."11 The others were:
1. William Boyd, the eldest son, born September 18, 1767, married May 19, 1791 Frances Bullock, who was born August 12, 1774.12 the daughter of COL William Bullock of Granville County, N.C. Her mother was Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of John Taylor and Caroline Pendleton, and at the time of her marriage to Col. Bullock the widow of James Lewis.
(Page 122) Sarah Anderson Jones (April 27, 1789),18 daughter of Richard Tingnal Jones, of Mecklenburg, and his wife Sarah Anderson.
Boyd, the only child of this marriage, inherited from his father "Oakley" plantation on Bluestone, the house still standing, which is believed to have been Captain Boyd's residence.
He married secondly, May 14, 1803,20 Tabitha Walker, daughter of Col. Henry Walker of ''Walker’s Hill" and his wife, Martha Bollings Eppes. Colonel Walker had a Revolutionary officer in the Mecklenburg militia, serving as a major at the siege of Yorktown.21 His wife was a daughter of Richard Eppes of Chesterfield County and his wife, Martha Boiling.
Five daughters and one son were born to Robert and Tabby Boyd. He died in the winter of 1819-1820, his will dated Nov. 12, 1819, being recorded March 21, 1820.22 Tabby Boyd's will, dated Feb. 15, 1845, was recorded October 16, 1848.23 She spent her latter years, partly at "Alexandria" in Warren County, N. C., the home of her daughter, Lucy, Mrs. Francis A. Thornton, and partly at "Bellegrade" near Boydton, the home of her son, Col. Francis Walker Boyd.
3. Richard Boyd, born October 16, 1771, was, at the time of his father's death, in partnership with his younger brother, Alexander, and his father under the name of Alexander Boyd and Sons, operating the tavern and a general mercantile business. Richard and Alex Jr. were the owners (together with Major John Nelson of "Oak Hill") of the celebrated running horse "Dungannon," described by Patrick N. Edgar, in his Sportsman’s Herald and Stud Book, as "one of the handsomest and best formed horses in America of his day." Sired by "Hart's Old Medley," he was 15 hands high, a "beautiful dark iron gray." Mecklenburg County at this time was one of the leading centers both for breeding and racing of Thoroughbreds.
In the division of the family property Richard received "the Castle tract" a plantation whose house "Runaway Castle" was an early landmark of the country, several miles north of the court house.24
6. David Boyd, born February 10, 1778, settled in the Bluestone district, his (Page 125) plantation " Pleasant Hill" adjoining the lands of his brothers William and Robert. He was a merchant in the neighborhood. He had married, July 10, 1799, Elizabeth Ott Durell, who was born November 27, 1783, the daughter of James Durell, one of the leading citizens of Petersburg. The owner at one time of Durell's tavern, a well-known early hotel, James Durell was in 1820 one of the directors of the Petersburg branch of the Bank of Virginia.
David was a breeder of Thoroughbreds, one of them being noted by Patrick Edgar. This was a grey mare, "Betsey Palafox," sired by "Palafox"; her dam, "Betsy Mufti." The mare became the property of Dr. Patrick H. Foster, a son-in-law, and may possibly have been taken by him to the West. (He settled first in Tipton County, Tenn., later in Arkansas.)
Nine children were born to David and Elizabeth. He died in 1815 and was buried in the family cemetery in Boydton. His tombstone is the only one that remains except his father's, and bears the inscription:
"To the Memory of David Boyd
Who Departed this Life
March 13, 1815, Aged 37 Years 28 Days
Sacred Forever May this Place Be Made
My Father and Relations Humble Shade
Unmoved and Undisturbed Until Time Shall End
The Turf That's Around Us May God Defend."
Elizabeth eventually removed to Arkansas, where some of her had settled, and died at Spring Hill, September 17, 183530 “Pleasant Hill" became the home of her son, Major Conrad S. Boyd, but the house has now long since disappeared.
6 William Townes of "Occonechee." As he was born May 11, 1791 he would have been a boy when Alexander Boyd died.
7 An obituary notice appeared in the Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette August 25: "Died—In Mecklenburg County, Va., on the 11th instant, Alexander Boyd, Sen. He was suddenly taken with an apoplexy whilst sitting as a member of the court of that county, and a few hours closed his well-spent life."
8 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 4, p. D.
9 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 9, P. 342.
10 Richard Boyd's Bible, in possession of William Norwood Boyd, Warrenton, NC.
11 Bible of Alexander the Younger.
12 Bible of their daughter Frances, Mrs. Fielding Lewis possession of John Taylor. Lewis, Jr., Richmond.
13Mecklenburg D.B. No. 24 p .354 This Alexander Boyd, eldest son of the eldest son and head of the family on the death of his father, had married, Dec. 24, 1819, Ann Lewis Harrison, a niece of Howell and Charles __. The bride was fifteen years old on Christmas day. In 1831 they moved to Tennessee and Alexander died there in 1846. His eldest son to survive infancy, James Alexander Boyd, married Margaret Ann Vaulx who died without issue. His second son was Marcellus Boyd, Clerk of the Court of Haywood County.
18 Mecklenburg Marriage Register.
30Bible of David Boyd and Conrad S. Boyd in possession of Mrs. William K. Sturges, Henderson, N. C. She is said to be buried in "the Pryor family cemetery.” Her daughter, Virginia, married Richard Pryor, of the Petersburg Family.
By WILLIAM B. HILL
Published in the Virginia Historical Magazine Vo. 50
Transcribed only in part
The circumstances of Alexander Boyd's settling in Mecklenburg County in 1765 are not known. If he began his mercantile business associated with any of the Glasgow firms who had extensive interests in the county and section, it does not appear from the county records. He seems always to have been an independent merchant. His parents and his place of origin he has himself recorded. His "loving and respected mother Elizabeth Boyd otherwise called Elizabeth Anderson" and his sister Mary Wood, otherwise Mary Boyd, were living in the town of Irvine, Scotland, in the year 1785, when he gave them power of attorney, with his friend James King, Sr. "Merchant of Port Glasgow," to sell his interest in the lands of his father, Robert Boyd, in Dunlop Parish, Ayrshire.l
He married Ann Swepson who was born January 22, 1750,2 the daughter of Richard Swepson and his first wife, Jane.3 The date of this marriage is not recorded, and no bond for the license exists in Mecklenburg. Very little is known of the Swepson family. Richard Swepson had come into the county, then Lunenburg, in 1760, accompanied by John Jeffries, who was apparently a relative. They bought adjoining tracts of land on the same day.4
Prospering as a merchant and planter, Alexander Boyd became a justice of the county court in July 1792, an office which he retained until his death. In January 1795, he first took out a license to keep an ordinary, and it is possible that the hotel which still stands in Boydton had just then been completed. This was a business which was conducted by his sons Richard and Alexander, Jr.
Little of personal nature has survived concerning him. The late Thomas Boyd of Boydton wrote in 19085 that his maternal grandfather6 told him he remembered Alexander Boyd well, "that he was very dictatorial in his bearing and autocratic in dealing with the people. He said if a customer dared to question the price of his goods that he had just as leave kick him out of his store as not."
His death occurred August 11, 1801.7 By his will he left each of his daughters three thousand pounds and a negro maid, "when she shall arrive at the age of sixteen or marries," to his wife, an annuity, and a life estate in his home plantation and "twelve of the choicest of my negroes." The rest of his property which included extensive tracts of land in various parts of the county was left to his sons.8
His widow survived him more than a score of years. She died October 20, 1822, at the home of her daughter, Ann, the widow of Governor William Hawkins, in Granville County, N. C. She had suffered a stroke and was paralyzed and is said to have died peacefully in her chair. Her nuncupative will, leaving her property to her daughters was probated at the November term in Mecklenburg, her sons William, Richard and Alexander making depositions that it had always been understood in the family that their mother wished to leave her property to her daughters. James Nuttall, a son. in-law of Mrs. Hawkins, stated that Mrs. Boyd had asked him during her last illness to write her will, but that he had declined from reasons of delicacy, and that she had told him, "her daughters had never an equal share of her deceased husband's estate, and moreover that she had raised many young negroes who would at her death go to and belong to her sons and that she wished what little she might have to go to her daughters."9
Eleven children were born to Alexander and Ann Boyd. John Boyd, the seventh son, born August 1, 1781, died unmarried Sept.14, 1802.10 Susannah Boyd, a fourth daughter, the date of whose birth was not recorded, died "aged about six weeks."11 The others were:
1. William Boyd, the eldest son, born September 18, 1767, married May 19, 1791 Frances Bullock, who was born August 12, 1774.12 the daughter of COL William Bullock of Granville County, N.C. Her mother was Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of John Taylor and Caroline Pendleton, and at the time of her marriage to Col. Bullock the widow of James Lewis.
(Page 122) Sarah Anderson Jones (April 27, 1789),18 daughter of Richard Tingnal Jones, of Mecklenburg, and his wife Sarah Anderson.
Boyd, the only child of this marriage, inherited from his father "Oakley" plantation on Bluestone, the house still standing, which is believed to have been Captain Boyd's residence.
He married secondly, May 14, 1803,20 Tabitha Walker, daughter of Col. Henry Walker of ''Walker’s Hill" and his wife, Martha Bollings Eppes. Colonel Walker had a Revolutionary officer in the Mecklenburg militia, serving as a major at the siege of Yorktown.21 His wife was a daughter of Richard Eppes of Chesterfield County and his wife, Martha Boiling.
Five daughters and one son were born to Robert and Tabby Boyd. He died in the winter of 1819-1820, his will dated Nov. 12, 1819, being recorded March 21, 1820.22 Tabby Boyd's will, dated Feb. 15, 1845, was recorded October 16, 1848.23 She spent her latter years, partly at "Alexandria" in Warren County, N. C., the home of her daughter, Lucy, Mrs. Francis A. Thornton, and partly at "Bellegrade" near Boydton, the home of her son, Col. Francis Walker Boyd.
3. Richard Boyd, born October 16, 1771, was, at the time of his father's death, in partnership with his younger brother, Alexander, and his father under the name of Alexander Boyd and Sons, operating the tavern and a general mercantile business. Richard and Alex Jr. were the owners (together with Major John Nelson of "Oak Hill") of the celebrated running horse "Dungannon," described by Patrick N. Edgar, in his Sportsman’s Herald and Stud Book, as "one of the handsomest and best formed horses in America of his day." Sired by "Hart's Old Medley," he was 15 hands high, a "beautiful dark iron gray." Mecklenburg County at this time was one of the leading centers both for breeding and racing of Thoroughbreds.
In the division of the family property Richard received "the Castle tract" a plantation whose house "Runaway Castle" was an early landmark of the country, several miles north of the court house.24
6. David Boyd, born February 10, 1778, settled in the Bluestone district, his (Page 125) plantation " Pleasant Hill" adjoining the lands of his brothers William and Robert. He was a merchant in the neighborhood. He had married, July 10, 1799, Elizabeth Ott Durell, who was born November 27, 1783, the daughter of James Durell, one of the leading citizens of Petersburg. The owner at one time of Durell's tavern, a well-known early hotel, James Durell was in 1820 one of the directors of the Petersburg branch of the Bank of Virginia.
David was a breeder of Thoroughbreds, one of them being noted by Patrick Edgar. This was a grey mare, "Betsey Palafox," sired by "Palafox"; her dam, "Betsy Mufti." The mare became the property of Dr. Patrick H. Foster, a son-in-law, and may possibly have been taken by him to the West. (He settled first in Tipton County, Tenn., later in Arkansas.)
Nine children were born to David and Elizabeth. He died in 1815 and was buried in the family cemetery in Boydton. His tombstone is the only one that remains except his father's, and bears the inscription:
"To the Memory of David Boyd
Who Departed this Life
March 13, 1815, Aged 37 Years 28 Days
Sacred Forever May this Place Be Made
My Father and Relations Humble Shade
Unmoved and Undisturbed Until Time Shall End
The Turf That's Around Us May God Defend."
Elizabeth eventually removed to Arkansas, where some of her had settled, and died at Spring Hill, September 17, 183530 “Pleasant Hill" became the home of her son, Major Conrad S. Boyd, but the house has now long since disappeared.
6 William Townes of "Occonechee." As he was born May 11, 1791 he would have been a boy when Alexander Boyd died.
7 An obituary notice appeared in the Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette August 25: "Died—In Mecklenburg County, Va., on the 11th instant, Alexander Boyd, Sen. He was suddenly taken with an apoplexy whilst sitting as a member of the court of that county, and a few hours closed his well-spent life."
8 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 4, p. D.
9 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 9, P. 342.
10 Richard Boyd's Bible, in possession of William Norwood Boyd, Warrenton, NC.
11 Bible of Alexander the Younger.
12 Bible of their daughter Frances, Mrs. Fielding Lewis possession of John Taylor. Lewis, Jr., Richmond.
13Mecklenburg D.B. No. 24 p .354 This Alexander Boyd, eldest son of the eldest son and head of the family on the death of his father, had married, Dec. 24, 1819, Ann Lewis Harrison, a niece of Howell and Charles __. The bride was fifteen years old on Christmas day. In 1831 they moved to Tennessee and Alexander died there in 1846. His eldest son to survive infancy, James Alexander Boyd, married Margaret Ann Vaulx who died without issue. His second son was Marcellus Boyd, Clerk of the Court of Haywood County.
18 Mecklenburg Marriage Register.
30Bible of David Boyd and Conrad S. Boyd in possession of Mrs. William K. Sturges, Henderson, N. C. She is said to be buried in "the Pryor family cemetery.” Her daughter, Virginia, married Richard Pryor, of the Petersburg Family.
ALEXANDER BOYD OF MECKLENBURG COUNTY AND HIS FAMILY
By WILLIAM B. HILL
Published in the Virginia Historical Magazine Vo. 50
Transcribed only in part
The circumstances of Alexander Boyd's settling in Mecklenburg County in 1765 are not known. If he began his mercantile business associated with any of the Glasgow firms who had extensive interests in the county and section, it does not appear from the county records. He seems always to have been an independent merchant. His parents and his place of origin he has himself recorded. His "loving and respected mother Elizabeth Boyd otherwise called Elizabeth Anderson" and his sister Mary Wood, otherwise Mary Boyd, were living in the town of Irvine, Scotland, in the year 1785, when he gave them power of attorney, with his friend James King, Sr. "Merchant of Port Glasgow," to sell his interest in the lands of his father, Robert Boyd, in Dunlop Parish, Ayrshire.l
He married Ann Swepson who was born January 22, 1750,2 the daughter of Richard Swepson and his first wife, Jane.3 The date of this marriage is not recorded, and no bond for the license exists in Mecklenburg. Very little is known of the Swepson family. Richard Swepson had come into the county, then Lunenburg, in 1760, accompanied by John Jeffries, who was apparently a relative. They bought adjoining tracts of land on the same day.4
Prospering as a merchant and planter, Alexander Boyd became a justice of the county court in July 1792, an office which he retained until his death. In January 1795, he first took out a license to keep an ordinary, and it is possible that the hotel which still stands in Boydton had just then been completed. This was a business which was conducted by his sons Richard and Alexander, Jr.
Little of personal nature has survived concerning him. The late Thomas Boyd of Boydton wrote in 19085 that his maternal grandfather6 told him he remembered Alexander Boyd well, "that he was very dictatorial in his bearing and autocratic in dealing with the people. He said if a customer dared to question the price of his goods that he had just as leave kick him out of his store as not."
His death occurred August 11, 1801.7 By his will he left each of his daughters three thousand pounds and a negro maid, "when she shall arrive at the age of sixteen or marries," to his wife, an annuity, and a life estate in his home plantation and "twelve of the choicest of my negroes." The rest of his property which included extensive tracts of land in various parts of the county was left to his sons.8
His widow survived him more than a score of years. She died October 20, 1822, at the home of her daughter, Ann, the widow of Governor William Hawkins, in Granville County, N. C. She had suffered a stroke and was paralyzed and is said to have died peacefully in her chair. Her nuncupative will, leaving her property to her daughters was probated at the November term in Mecklenburg, her sons William, Richard and Alexander making depositions that it had always been understood in the family that their mother wished to leave her property to her daughters. James Nuttall, a son. in-law of Mrs. Hawkins, stated that Mrs. Boyd had asked him during her last illness to write her will, but that he had declined from reasons of delicacy, and that she had told him, "her daughters had never an equal share of her deceased husband's estate, and moreover that she had raised many young negroes who would at her death go to and belong to her sons and that she wished what little she might have to go to her daughters."9
Eleven children were born to Alexander and Ann Boyd. John Boyd, the seventh son, born August 1, 1781, died unmarried Sept.14, 1802.10 Susannah Boyd, a fourth daughter, the date of whose birth was not recorded, died "aged about six weeks."11 The others were:
1. William Boyd, the eldest son, born September 18, 1767, married May 19, 1791 Frances Bullock, who was born August 12, 1774.12 the daughter of COL William Bullock of Granville County, N.C. Her mother was Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of John Taylor and Caroline Pendleton, and at the time of her marriage to Col. Bullock the widow of James Lewis.
(Page 122) Sarah Anderson Jones (April 27, 1789),18 daughter of Richard Tingnal Jones, of Mecklenburg, and his wife Sarah Anderson.
Boyd, the only child of this marriage, inherited from his father "Oakley" plantation on Bluestone, the house still standing, which is believed to have been Captain Boyd's residence.
He married secondly, May 14, 1803,20 Tabitha Walker, daughter of Col. Henry Walker of ''Walker’s Hill" and his wife, Martha Bollings Eppes. Colonel Walker had a Revolutionary officer in the Mecklenburg militia, serving as a major at the siege of Yorktown.21 His wife was a daughter of Richard Eppes of Chesterfield County and his wife, Martha Boiling.
Five daughters and one son were born to Robert and Tabby Boyd. He died in the winter of 1819-1820, his will dated Nov. 12, 1819, being recorded March 21, 1820.22 Tabby Boyd's will, dated Feb. 15, 1845, was recorded October 16, 1848.23 She spent her latter years, partly at "Alexandria" in Warren County, N. C., the home of her daughter, Lucy, Mrs. Francis A. Thornton, and partly at "Bellegrade" near Boydton, the home of her son, Col. Francis Walker Boyd.
3. Richard Boyd, born October 16, 1771, was, at the time of his father's death, in partnership with his younger brother, Alexander, and his father under the name of Alexander Boyd and Sons, operating the tavern and a general mercantile business. Richard and Alex Jr. were the owners (together with Major John Nelson of "Oak Hill") of the celebrated running horse "Dungannon," described by Patrick N. Edgar, in his Sportsman’s Herald and Stud Book, as "one of the handsomest and best formed horses in America of his day." Sired by "Hart's Old Medley," he was 15 hands high, a "beautiful dark iron gray." Mecklenburg County at this time was one of the leading centers both for breeding and racing of Thoroughbreds.
In the division of the family property Richard received "the Castle tract" a plantation whose house "Runaway Castle" was an early landmark of the country, several miles north of the court house.24
6. David Boyd, born February 10, 1778, settled in the Bluestone district, his (Page 125) plantation " Pleasant Hill" adjoining the lands of his brothers William and Robert. He was a merchant in the neighborhood. He had married, July 10, 1799, Elizabeth Ott Durell, who was born November 27, 1783, the daughter of James Durell, one of the leading citizens of Petersburg. The owner at one time of Durell's tavern, a well-known early hotel, James Durell was in 1820 one of the directors of the Petersburg branch of the Bank of Virginia.
David was a breeder of Thoroughbreds, one of them being noted by Patrick Edgar. This was a grey mare, "Betsey Palafox," sired by "Palafox"; her dam, "Betsy Mufti." The mare became the property of Dr. Patrick H. Foster, a son-in-law, and may possibly have been taken by him to the West. (He settled first in Tipton County, Tenn., later in Arkansas.)
Nine children were born to David and Elizabeth. He died in 1815 and was buried in the family cemetery in Boydton. His tombstone is the only one that remains except his father's, and bears the inscription:
"To the Memory of David Boyd
Who Departed this Life
March 13, 1815, Aged 37 Years 28 Days
Sacred Forever May this Place Be Made
My Father and Relations Humble Shade
Unmoved and Undisturbed Until Time Shall End
The Turf That's Around Us May God Defend."
Elizabeth eventually removed to Arkansas, where some of her had settled, and died at Spring Hill, September 17, 183530 “Pleasant Hill" became the home of her son, Major Conrad S. Boyd, but the house has now long since disappeared.
6 William Townes of "Occonechee." As he was born May 11, 1791 he would have been a boy when Alexander Boyd died.
7 An obituary notice appeared in the Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette August 25: "Died—In Mecklenburg County, Va., on the 11th instant, Alexander Boyd, Sen. He was suddenly taken with an apoplexy whilst sitting as a member of the court of that county, and a few hours closed his well-spent life."
8 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 4, p. D.
9 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 9, P. 342.
10 Richard Boyd's Bible, in possession of William Norwood Boyd, Warrenton, NC.
11 Bible of Alexander the Younger.
12 Bible of their daughter Frances, Mrs. Fielding Lewis possession of John Taylor. Lewis, Jr., Richmond.
13Mecklenburg D.B. No. 24 p .354 This Alexander Boyd, eldest son of the eldest son and head of the family on the death of his father, had married, Dec. 24, 1819, Ann Lewis Harrison, a niece of Howell and Charles __. The bride was fifteen years old on Christmas day. In 1831 they moved to Tennessee and Alexander died there in 1846. His eldest son to survive infancy, James Alexander Boyd, married Margaret Ann Vaulx who died without issue. His second son was Marcellus Boyd, Clerk of the Court of Haywood County.
18 Mecklenburg Marriage Register.
30Bible of David Boyd and Conrad S. Boyd in possession of Mrs. William K. Sturges, Henderson, N. C. She is said to be buried in "the Pryor family cemetery.” Her daughter, Virginia, married Richard Pryor, of the Petersburg Family.
By WILLIAM B. HILL
Published in the Virginia Historical Magazine Vo. 50
Transcribed only in part
The circumstances of Alexander Boyd's settling in Mecklenburg County in 1765 are not known. If he began his mercantile business associated with any of the Glasgow firms who had extensive interests in the county and section, it does not appear from the county records. He seems always to have been an independent merchant. His parents and his place of origin he has himself recorded. His "loving and respected mother Elizabeth Boyd otherwise called Elizabeth Anderson" and his sister Mary Wood, otherwise Mary Boyd, were living in the town of Irvine, Scotland, in the year 1785, when he gave them power of attorney, with his friend James King, Sr. "Merchant of Port Glasgow," to sell his interest in the lands of his father, Robert Boyd, in Dunlop Parish, Ayrshire.l
He married Ann Swepson who was born January 22, 1750,2 the daughter of Richard Swepson and his first wife, Jane.3 The date of this marriage is not recorded, and no bond for the license exists in Mecklenburg. Very little is known of the Swepson family. Richard Swepson had come into the county, then Lunenburg, in 1760, accompanied by John Jeffries, who was apparently a relative. They bought adjoining tracts of land on the same day.4
Prospering as a merchant and planter, Alexander Boyd became a justice of the county court in July 1792, an office which he retained until his death. In January 1795, he first took out a license to keep an ordinary, and it is possible that the hotel which still stands in Boydton had just then been completed. This was a business which was conducted by his sons Richard and Alexander, Jr.
Little of personal nature has survived concerning him. The late Thomas Boyd of Boydton wrote in 19085 that his maternal grandfather6 told him he remembered Alexander Boyd well, "that he was very dictatorial in his bearing and autocratic in dealing with the people. He said if a customer dared to question the price of his goods that he had just as leave kick him out of his store as not."
His death occurred August 11, 1801.7 By his will he left each of his daughters three thousand pounds and a negro maid, "when she shall arrive at the age of sixteen or marries," to his wife, an annuity, and a life estate in his home plantation and "twelve of the choicest of my negroes." The rest of his property which included extensive tracts of land in various parts of the county was left to his sons.8
His widow survived him more than a score of years. She died October 20, 1822, at the home of her daughter, Ann, the widow of Governor William Hawkins, in Granville County, N. C. She had suffered a stroke and was paralyzed and is said to have died peacefully in her chair. Her nuncupative will, leaving her property to her daughters was probated at the November term in Mecklenburg, her sons William, Richard and Alexander making depositions that it had always been understood in the family that their mother wished to leave her property to her daughters. James Nuttall, a son. in-law of Mrs. Hawkins, stated that Mrs. Boyd had asked him during her last illness to write her will, but that he had declined from reasons of delicacy, and that she had told him, "her daughters had never an equal share of her deceased husband's estate, and moreover that she had raised many young negroes who would at her death go to and belong to her sons and that she wished what little she might have to go to her daughters."9
Eleven children were born to Alexander and Ann Boyd. John Boyd, the seventh son, born August 1, 1781, died unmarried Sept.14, 1802.10 Susannah Boyd, a fourth daughter, the date of whose birth was not recorded, died "aged about six weeks."11 The others were:
1. William Boyd, the eldest son, born September 18, 1767, married May 19, 1791 Frances Bullock, who was born August 12, 1774.12 the daughter of COL William Bullock of Granville County, N.C. Her mother was Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of John Taylor and Caroline Pendleton, and at the time of her marriage to Col. Bullock the widow of James Lewis.
(Page 122) Sarah Anderson Jones (April 27, 1789),18 daughter of Richard Tingnal Jones, of Mecklenburg, and his wife Sarah Anderson.
Boyd, the only child of this marriage, inherited from his father "Oakley" plantation on Bluestone, the house still standing, which is believed to have been Captain Boyd's residence.
He married secondly, May 14, 1803,20 Tabitha Walker, daughter of Col. Henry Walker of ''Walker’s Hill" and his wife, Martha Bollings Eppes. Colonel Walker had a Revolutionary officer in the Mecklenburg militia, serving as a major at the siege of Yorktown.21 His wife was a daughter of Richard Eppes of Chesterfield County and his wife, Martha Boiling.
Five daughters and one son were born to Robert and Tabby Boyd. He died in the winter of 1819-1820, his will dated Nov. 12, 1819, being recorded March 21, 1820.22 Tabby Boyd's will, dated Feb. 15, 1845, was recorded October 16, 1848.23 She spent her latter years, partly at "Alexandria" in Warren County, N. C., the home of her daughter, Lucy, Mrs. Francis A. Thornton, and partly at "Bellegrade" near Boydton, the home of her son, Col. Francis Walker Boyd.
3. Richard Boyd, born October 16, 1771, was, at the time of his father's death, in partnership with his younger brother, Alexander, and his father under the name of Alexander Boyd and Sons, operating the tavern and a general mercantile business. Richard and Alex Jr. were the owners (together with Major John Nelson of "Oak Hill") of the celebrated running horse "Dungannon," described by Patrick N. Edgar, in his Sportsman’s Herald and Stud Book, as "one of the handsomest and best formed horses in America of his day." Sired by "Hart's Old Medley," he was 15 hands high, a "beautiful dark iron gray." Mecklenburg County at this time was one of the leading centers both for breeding and racing of Thoroughbreds.
In the division of the family property Richard received "the Castle tract" a plantation whose house "Runaway Castle" was an early landmark of the country, several miles north of the court house.24
6. David Boyd, born February 10, 1778, settled in the Bluestone district, his (Page 125) plantation " Pleasant Hill" adjoining the lands of his brothers William and Robert. He was a merchant in the neighborhood. He had married, July 10, 1799, Elizabeth Ott Durell, who was born November 27, 1783, the daughter of James Durell, one of the leading citizens of Petersburg. The owner at one time of Durell's tavern, a well-known early hotel, James Durell was in 1820 one of the directors of the Petersburg branch of the Bank of Virginia.
David was a breeder of Thoroughbreds, one of them being noted by Patrick Edgar. This was a grey mare, "Betsey Palafox," sired by "Palafox"; her dam, "Betsy Mufti." The mare became the property of Dr. Patrick H. Foster, a son-in-law, and may possibly have been taken by him to the West. (He settled first in Tipton County, Tenn., later in Arkansas.)
Nine children were born to David and Elizabeth. He died in 1815 and was buried in the family cemetery in Boydton. His tombstone is the only one that remains except his father's, and bears the inscription:
"To the Memory of David Boyd
Who Departed this Life
March 13, 1815, Aged 37 Years 28 Days
Sacred Forever May this Place Be Made
My Father and Relations Humble Shade
Unmoved and Undisturbed Until Time Shall End
The Turf That's Around Us May God Defend."
Elizabeth eventually removed to Arkansas, where some of her had settled, and died at Spring Hill, September 17, 183530 “Pleasant Hill" became the home of her son, Major Conrad S. Boyd, but the house has now long since disappeared.
6 William Townes of "Occonechee." As he was born May 11, 1791 he would have been a boy when Alexander Boyd died.
7 An obituary notice appeared in the Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette August 25: "Died—In Mecklenburg County, Va., on the 11th instant, Alexander Boyd, Sen. He was suddenly taken with an apoplexy whilst sitting as a member of the court of that county, and a few hours closed his well-spent life."
8 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 4, p. D.
9 Mecklenburg, W. B. No. 9, P. 342.
10 Richard Boyd's Bible, in possession of William Norwood Boyd, Warrenton, NC.
11 Bible of Alexander the Younger.
12 Bible of their daughter Frances, Mrs. Fielding Lewis possession of John Taylor. Lewis, Jr., Richmond.
13Mecklenburg D.B. No. 24 p .354 This Alexander Boyd, eldest son of the eldest son and head of the family on the death of his father, had married, Dec. 24, 1819, Ann Lewis Harrison, a niece of Howell and Charles __. The bride was fifteen years old on Christmas day. In 1831 they moved to Tennessee and Alexander died there in 1846. His eldest son to survive infancy, James Alexander Boyd, married Margaret Ann Vaulx who died without issue. His second son was Marcellus Boyd, Clerk of the Court of Haywood County.
18 Mecklenburg Marriage Register.
30Bible of David Boyd and Conrad S. Boyd in possession of Mrs. William K. Sturges, Henderson, N. C. She is said to be buried in "the Pryor family cemetery.” Her daughter, Virginia, married Richard Pryor, of the Petersburg Family.
Inscription
Sacred to the Memory of Alexander Boyd a native of Scotland who suddenly departed this life in the courthouse of this county while on the seat of Justice in discharge of his duty as magistrate August 11, 1801 in his 54th year of his age
twas on the bench pon a court day
No doubt you'll read with sorrow
For I was dead before the night
Prepare my friends to follow.
Farewell my children and my wife
Contented may you be
May you obtain eternal life
And safe be lodged with me
God send his soul to rest
They loved him most who knew him best
Family Members
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