My Sampson Connection
My Great Grandfather, Wilbur Fisk Davis married a lady named Ella Virginia Sampson. We know she was the daughter of Stephen F. Sampson of Albemarle County, Virginia. On reviewing census records, we are able to determine she was born about 1843. The September 1st, 1882 edition of the Northern Neck News tells us she died on August 21st, 1882 of “a protracted and slowly wasting consumption – borne to the end with the gentlest patience and resignation.” From the March 31st edition of the same paper, we see that her illness followed the birth of her last child, who died on 25 March 1882 at the age of six months and three days. Beyond that, I knew relatively little of my Great Grandmother.
The Sampson Line
Stephen F. Sampson did indeed live in Albemarle County, near Keswick. The family had been there for a long time, and occupied various tracts of land, mostly pieces on both sides of Mechunk Creek, and included at one point the estate known as The Oaks, which was built by Stephen Sampson in about 1834. This was our Great-great Grandfather. From Virginia Marriages, 1740-1850 on Ancestry.com, we know Stephen F. Sampson married Ann C. Lindsay (my g-g-grandmother), daughter of Reuben Lindsay and Mary Goodman, on 6 September, 1841. She died in 1843 not long after Ella Virginia Sampson was born, and marriage bonds and records tell us that Stephen married a second time, to Sarah E. Campbell.
Stephen Sampson was very likely descended from Francis Sampson, a Huguenot who arrived in Virginia with the Huguenot migration in the early 1700s (if not in 1700 proper). They originally settled at “Manakin Towne above the Falls of James River,” which was on the south side of the James River, across from present day Maidens in Goochland County. Francis Sampson was one of the known inhabitants in that area, and his descendants migrated to the north side of the James into Goochland county, eventually settling farther west in the Keswick area near what would become Charlottesville. Records were harder to follow until I discovered that Albemarle County was formed from part of Goochland County in 1744. Now it is apparent that records of an earlier Stephen Sampson’s patent of some land in Goochland County in 1725 probably refer to the early Sampson tract in present day Albemarle. Old maps of the area identify Sampson property on both sides of Mechunk Creek.
In researching the Sampsons, I found The Douglas Register to be a great source of marriage, death and birth records. Also the book, The Sampson Family, proved to have a lot of information in the chapter on the Sampsons of Virginia. There was another family site (now gone from the internet…) that provided some much needed critical thought on the Sampson genealogy as well. Through the use of those sources, I was able to trace the Sampson line as follows:
Francis Sampson (The Immigrant?) married Bridgett B. (Beasley or Beaslet) and had several children, including Stephen Sampson, Sr., born about 1703.
Stephen Sampson, Sr. married Mary Woodson and had several children, including Stephen, Jr.
Stephen Sampson, Jr. married ? and had a son Richard.
Richard Sampson married Anne Curd and had at least 8 children, including Robert, b. 1772
Robert Sampson married Agnes Poore and had at least 5 children, including Stephen F., b. 1812.
Stephen F. Sampson married Ann C. Lindsay in 1841 and had a daughter, Ella Virginia b. 1843
Ella Virginia Sampson married Wilbur Fisk Davis on 30 August 1866 and had at least seven children, six of which lived to adulthood.
From reviewing several other branches of the family and from at least one published family tree, I am able to surmise with fair certainty that Stephen F. Sampson’s middle name was Francis. I may be able to back that up with fact if I can get to Albemarle and review some records. I have some other solid information on the Lindsay branch and can trace that over to the Goodmans, who were in Virginia also in the very early 1700s.
For what it’s worth, Auntie Nell told me that the then Mayor John Lindsay of New York City was related to her.
Auntie Nell’s grandmother was Ann C. Lindsay, the daughter of Reuben Lindsay of Albemarle County, Virginia. There may have been something she knew that is no longer known, but the Mayor’s biography says:
It is possible that the “son of an English brick manufacturer who emigrated from the Isle of Wight” was related to the Lindsays of Albemarle, but those people had been in the Colonies for a long time before 1881. Reuben Lindsay’s family had been in Virginia since the early 1700s and possibly back as far as the late 1600s. It is possible that Mayor John V. Lindsay was kin to Aunt Nell, but that would have been many generations back. I think it is doubtful.
I suppose I am throwing out the mother’s Dutch family who had been here since the Revolution. Perhaps that’s the link, and not the apparently obvious Lindsay connection. Maybe there are some other relations on that side that we don’t know about that make the link. Again, I think it is doubtful.
Wm Sampson, my 5th gr grandad, son of Stephen(Sr), grandson of Francis. Have done extensive research on these Sampsons & been to Virginia many times and found Sampson cemetery at ‘Boscobel’. Richard Sampson(Jr) owned land in Albemerle & then returned to Goochland Co & bought ‘Dover’. Richard(Jr) had a son, Francis S. and he was a preacher and had a son, John Russell Sampson. John Russell & his wife,(Anne Elisabeth Wood, who is the author of “Kith & Kin”, lived in Albemerle and are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Charlottesville. This John Russell Sampson and your Stephen F. Sampson were probably closely related. The area in Goochland Co where old man Francis lived at ‘Boscobel’ is aprox 40 miles from Charlottesville and on the north side of the James River. He bought ‘Boscobel” in 1725. I have a copy of the orginal deed. If interested, my email is twidwell@macomb.com
Do you all know of Richard Sampson who married a Mary Watkins then moved to Missouri? They had 2 sons Thomas Watkins and John Hughs. Thomas had a son John Harris that moved to OK. He had a son Harold Lavern who was my grandfather. Looking for info on them…Thanks