The following information relates to research to determine the Asbury family ancestry beyond Henry Asbury (1650- 1707) of Westmoreland County, Virginia. Sources of Reference Used by Carl Asbury to determine father of Henry Asbury (1650-1707) THE GENEALOGY OF THE HOLTZCLAW FAMILY BY DR. B.C. HOLTZCLAW, JR. SEE ALSO, HOLTZCLAW'S WORKS PUBLISHED IN THE VIRGINIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY BULLETINS IN 1967-68 EARLY SETTLERS TO MARYLAND BY GUST SKORDAS ARCHIVES OF MARYLAND, VOL.17, P.91 MARYLAND CALENDAR OF WILLS, VOL.1, P.182 (by Baldwin?) Early Arrivals from England: John Asbury - Arrived from England by sailing ship in 1661 in the Province of Maryland and according to the Maryland Hall of Records received a land patent for 50 acres of land which he, along with many others, gave to Nathaniel Wye, a merchant, for their transportation to America. Year 1661, Vol. 4, page 576. Francis Asbury - Arrived from England by sailing ship in 1665 in the Province of Maryland and according to the Maryland Hall of Records received a land patent for "one right" (50 acres) in Kent County for his services. He and others signed over their one right to Richard Fitz Allen, February 5, 1665. This is document 79657, patents dated 1665, Vol. 9, page 191. William Asbury - Arrived from England by sailing ship in 1670 in the Province of Maryland and according to the Maryland Hall of Records received a land patent for "one right" for 100 acres of land which he signed over to Alice Durant in the presence of Edward Roco, Robert Ridgely and Thomas R TO Obgood. Dated May 16, 1670. Document Patent date of record 1670, Vol. 12, page 548. Thomas Asbury - Arrived from England by sailing ship in 1676. He, along with several others, were transported to America by a merchant, Samuel Lead Beater, who received 2,650 acres of land for transporting 53 persons. Date January 6, 1676. Hall of Maryland Records patents year 1676, Vol. 15, page 300. There is no information as to how many there were with each of these gentlemen but it is believed that Francis had at least 2 sons, Francis and Henry. Henry later moved into Virginia. No record has been found concerning what happened to some of these early settlers except that Francis Asbury was granted land in Kent County in 1681 and he was accidently drowned there in 1682. His wife, Mary and daughter, Mary, are briefly mentioned in the Maryland records (Warrant C.B. No. 2, Vol. 375, Maryland land office); Kent County Bonds, Box 1, Folder 55, Archives; A Francis Asbury who died in Kent County, Maryland in 1703 was probably a son of the first Francis (Kent County Accounts, Box 1, folder 27, Maryland Department of Archives), and it is possible that Henry Asbury was another son though he appears in St. Mary's County, not Kent County, Maryland. Henry Asbury (1650-1 707)( I) - First appeared in the records of Westmoreland County, VA, February 27,1678 (Order Book 1675/76 – 1688/89 p. 151). The tradition in the Asbury family is that he came originally from Maryland and this is confirmed by his mention in a suit before the Maryland Provincial Court, June 18, 1678 by John Palmer against Thomas Robinson, late of St. Mary's County in which a promissory note from Robinson to Henry Asbury was in question (Archives of Maryland, Vol. 67, pp. 377- 78). I gathered the following information from the sources listed below: Passenger and Immigration Lists Index Ashbury, Francis Maryland 1665 Ashbury, Francis Maryland 1681 Ashbury, John Maryland 1661 Ashbury, Thomas Maryland 1676 Ashbury, Robert Virginia 4/26/1637 on the ship Tristan and Jane from London, England Some of the above referenced in: The Early Settlers of Maryland: An Index to Names of Immigrants Compiled from Records of Land Patents, 1633-1680, in the Hall of Records, Annapolis Maryland (8510) by Gust Skordas on page 13, Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Company, 1968. WV State Archives call no. 929.3752 s628e Ashbury, Francis - Transported 1665. Servant. Service 1672. Ashbury, John - Transported 1661 Ashbury, Thomas - Transported 1676 Certain words that recur frequently in the "remarks" column have a special meaning as used in this index. "Immigrated", means the individual furnished his own transportation to Maryland, while "transported", means that someone other than the person indexed paid for his passage. Quite often a person "transported" is also described as a "servant", which means that he had contracted to repay the cost of his transportation by agreeing to act as a servant for a period of years. Under certain of the Conditions of Plantation, a servant was entitled to claim 50 acres of land upon completing his period of servitude satisfactorily. Such claims are indicated by the word "service". - Gust Skordas, Assistant Archivist, State of Maryland, Annapolis, Maryland, February 1968. Above Robert Ashbury referenced in: Immigrants to America before 1750; An Alphabetical List of Immigrants to the Colonies before 1750, Compiled from Official and Other Records; Surnames A through Bat. (9450) by Frederick A. Virkus, editor. Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Company, 1965. Robert Ashbury also referenced in (720, pg. 74) (9143, pg. 89) arid (3090, pg. 430. The following information contains my personal thoughts and hypotheses about the father of Henry Asbury (1650-1707), by James E. Asbury II: Francis Asbury Timeline according to Carl Asbury's book: 1665 - Arrived from England - Received land in Kent County, MD. - signed over to Richard Fitz Allen 1672 - Presumably finished time as indentured servant and should have received own land. 1681 - Granted land in Kent County, MD.* 1682 - Died by drowning in Kent County, MD.* * I think this reference to Francis refers to a second Francis Asbury who, according to Gust Skordas, arrived in Maryland in 1681. The Francis who arrived in 1665, likely, by 1681, would already have been settled and would not be receiving additional land. Further, information states that a Francis died in Kent County, MD in 1703. This person could be one of three Francis Asburys: 1. The original 1665 Francis – presumed to be the father of our Henry Asbury 2. The 1681 Francis 3. Francis, one of two sons (along with Henry) of the original 1665 Francis, who exists according to Carl Asbury's research as stated above. The 1682 death of a Francis Asbury, mentioned above, could be the original Francis' death or the sons death. There are inconsistencies in the story, since the original 1665 Francis' sons appeared in different counties (Francis' 1703 death and Henry's appearance in St. Mary's County, MD). The possibility that the 1681 Francis could account for the 1703 death, would make it just as plausible that the sons of the 1665 Francis, were indeed both in St. Mary's County. Not that that would necessarily matter; but it lends credibility to the fact that if families stayed together and the two sons of the 1665 Francis went to St. Mary's County together. With that being said, I will play devil's advocate and suggest that Francis Asbury was not the father of our Henry Asbury. Carl Asbury's research suggests that it is believed that the 1665 Francis Asbury had two sons. No one has been able to put forward any proof of this fact. In fact to backtrack a bit, in the above notes by Carl Asbury the following assertion is made: "…Francis Asbury was granted land in Kent County in 1681 and he was accidentally drowned there in 1682. His wife, Mary and daughter, Mary, are briefly mentioned in the Maryland records…" If this is the father of Henry and Francis, why are they not mentioned in the will? I think this lends further credence to the fact that the 1682 death of Francis was the Francis who immigrated in 1681, and has no direct bearing on our research. Another hypothesis of mine is that our Henry's father was an Asbury other than Francis. Carl's list (based on B.C. Holtzclaw's research) of Asbury immigrants and Gust Skordas' compilation of Asburys listed above, provide several possibilities for our Asbury ancestor. Assuming this list of Asburys is nearly complete and using what little information has been gleaned lets review the possibilities after the two source lists have been combined: Ashbury, Francis - Maryland 1665 Ashbury, Francis - Maryland 1681 Ashbury, John - Maryland 1661 Ashbury, Robert - Virginia 4-26-1637 Ashbury, Thomas - Maryland 1676 Asbury, William - Maryland 1670 Without knowing any definitive information, we could suggest that any one of these Asburys is the father of our Henry Asbury. Hypothesis 1: We think Henry was born about 1650-55, which would mean he was born in England unless his father was Robert Asbury who came to Virginia in 1637. In that case, Henry would have been born in America. He could have later went to Maryland where he appeared in records and then came back to Virginia later on. I don't have much enthusiasm about this notion, but it is possible. In the English church records I have checked, there was no Henry Asbury born/christened during the early 1650's, but I doubt I have the complete list of English Asbury records. If you have information that would clearly rule this hypothesis out, please let me know. Hypothesis 2: William Asbury who came to Maryland in 1670 could be the father of Henry. The time frame fits and there is mention that William signed over his right of land to Alice Durant. Our Henry was married to Mary Durrant, daughter of Henry and Sarah Durrant. Possible family connection? 1670 would have been about the time that Henry Asbury and Mary Durrant would have married, considering their first child Catherine was born in 1672. So theoretically, William Asbury's son, Henry is marrying Mary Durrant, whose relative Alice Durrant (possibly grandmother, aunt or sister) pays passage for the Asburys to America in exchange for the land right of William Asbury. Again, some imagination has to get involved, but a possibility none the less. If you can refute this theory, let me know. So this is where we are in terms of continuing the search on back for our Asbury ancestors. If anyone has evidence of support or refutability for anything related to this issue, please e-mail me at jamesasbury@hotmail.com