Thomas Casey

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Charles Casey was born about 1697; and died.

Notes:

Will dated Apr 17th 1713, recorded June 27th 1713 and appraised Aug 21, 1713. Executors were wife Jane and son Richard.

Nicholas of the Lower Parish. Legatees: son Nicholas, son Thomas, threee youngest daughters by my last wife;. son Richard, daugthers Ann, Mary, Sarah; wife Jane; five youngest children, Marta, Jane, Ruth, Nicholas and Thomas. Wit; John Wheal?, Stephen Smith, Daniel Degan, Joshua Jordan. Source: Wills and Administrations of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, 1647-1800, p. 566 and 569.

English colonists drove the Warraskoyak from their villages in 1622 and 1627, as part of their reprisals for the Great Massacre of 1622, in which the Native Americans had decimated English settlements, hoping to drive them out of their territory.

The first English plantations along the south shore within present-day Isle of Wight county were established by Puritan colonists, beginning with that of Christopher Lawne in May 1618. Several members of the Puritan Bennett family also settled there, including Richard Bennett. He led the Puritans to neighboring Nansemond in 1635, and later was appointed as governor of the Virginia Colony.

By 1634, by order of the King of England, Charles I, eight shires of Virginia were formed with a total population of 4,914 settlers. Warrosquoake Shire included 522 persons at this time. It and Accomac Shire were the only shires given Native American names for the friendly tribes nearby. It was renamed Isle of Wight County in 1637, after the Isle of Wight, an island in the English channel. The river bearing this name was renamed Pagan River.

The original name had come derived from the Native Americans of the area; it went through transliteration and Anglicisation, eventually becoming known as "Warwicke Squeake".

On Feb 9, 1696 Nicholas Casey bought 200 acres of land from Jane, widow of Richard Gross, for 5000 lbs. tbc, according to a deed mentioned in the book "Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia: A History of the County"
The same book shows Nicholas Casey buying 180 acres N.E. sid of Cypress Swamp on May 1, 1693 from William Boddie and his wife Elizabeth.
He also bought the adjacent Henry Dawson's plantation of William Boddie on June 9th, 1703 with woodland of 100 acres where Martha Dawson, widow, and her three sons Henry, John and Martin Dawson lived and were to keep their rights to live.

Said to be an ancestor of Mark Twain.

Nicholas married Jane Elderidge. Jane (daughter of Samuel Elderidge) was born about 1660 in Lowne's Creek, Isle of Wight County, Virginia; died about 1729 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her father Samuel Elderidge came over on the Truelove with Richard Casey.

Notes:

First Casey-ancestor in America.

The busiest years of the Great Migration were those of "The Eleven Year Tyranny" (1629-1640) during which Charles I tried to rule without calling the Puritan-dominated parliament.

For the purpose of stimulating immigration and the settlement of the Colony, the London Company ordained that any person who paid his own way to Virginia should be assigned 50 acres of land 'for his owne personal adventure,' and if he transported 'at his owne cost' one or more persons he should, for each person whose passage he paid, be awarded fifty acres of land.

Richard Casey was transported by Justinian Cooper on the ship Truelove out of London, Robert Dennis, Master, to Virginia City Sept. 16th 1636.

Justinian Cooper was granted 1050 acs. Warrisquick Co., 13 Sept. 1636, p. 380. N. "W. upon the head of Lawnes Creek, S.E. upon the Back Creek, N.E. upon his dwelling howse & S.W. into the woods. 50 acs. for his personal adventure & 1000 acs. for transportation of 20 pers: Richard Casey, Nicolas Man, John Curtis, John Corker, Henry Ranciful, Clement Evans, Henry Bonny, James Smith, George Stacy, William Redman, George Archer, William Bannister, William Cooke, Samuel Eldridge, William Nosse, Mary Clinton, Jno Davis, Robert Radge, Richard Smith, William Underwood and Mary Quarterly, 7 (W) (1) 286.

Richard Casey is one of the headrights in the grant of land to Justinian Cooper for the transportation.
Source: "Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents
and Grants" 1623-1666, Abstracted and Indexed by Nell Marion Nugent.
Volume One, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969, p. 47.

Justinian Cooper, a prominent immigrant, who married Anne Harrison, the widow of James Harrison. Her maidenname was Oliffe. She and Justnian Cooper had no children, but there appears to have been children of Cooper by a first marriage. In taking out several patents to land from 1635/6 on for several years, Justinian Cooper repeatedly used the headright of Richard Casey, when he took out patents.

Transcribed as "Nicholas Richard Coursie" in one transcription from 1642.

Col. Donald E. Casey, compliant of the Casey family genealogy, believes that Richard would be classed as a representative figure, rather than a prominent one. Like so many Irishmen of this time, he came to Virginia during the colony's crucial half century, and in the new world found a home and founded a family. The headright method of making land grants was adopted soon after the colony was getting started. It was probably in this manner that Richard Casey obtained his land, it being thoroughly characteristic of those times. (Col. Casey found no evidence that Richard was indentured.) It was this system that enabled Richard Casey and many men like him to acquire property they probably could never have possessed otherwise.

Many of those brought over were poor Irishmen and women (some of them of good families, but with meager fortunes and prospects) who were unable to pay the six punds Sterling, the average fare then charged for the transatlantic voyage.

Richard Casey and Nancy Jane Rickets are thought to have had nine children, but only four survived to maturity: Nicholas, James, Mary Ann and Peter.

Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia: A History of the County shows Justinian Cooper in his will of March 26th 1650 giving his godchildren each a calf. "To my brother Richard Cossey 200 acres where he and John Snellock lives by the river side after my wife's decease." To Edward Pyland, son James Pyland 500 lbs. tbco. Wife Anne extrx. Friend Cap. Wm. Barnard to be overseer. Gives him a piece of plate worth 10 pounds. Teste (witnesses), James Pyland, Jno Britt.

Surry County Records, Surry County, Virginia, 1652-1684 has records of a Richard Case and wife Isabella, on 100 acres on the west side of Gray's Creek, called Hollowing Pont and ye middle neck adjoining to it at the head of Spring Swamp to the end of Sandy Valley on Nov 3, 1667.
On July 2 1672 this Richard Case, aged 53, depositions between Thos. Gray and Thos. Cruse, and Isabell Case, aged about 56, deposeths same as husband.
A John Case lived in Surry County as well, mentioned in 1639 (purchasing 500 acres) and again in 1669.

Richard married Nancy Jane Ricketts about 1640 in Virginia City, VA, USA. Nancy was born about 1615 in Shandon, Cork, Ireland; died on 17 Apr 1713 in Warrosquyoake, Virignia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her father may have been the Edward Ricketts who came to Isle of Wight County in 1642, transported by Wm. Barnard, Esq.

Notes:

Came over on the Truelove with Richard Casey.

"Wills and Administrations of Isle of Wight County, Virginia 1647-1800.
Page 62 Listed under ADMINISTRATIONS AND PROBATES, 1661-1701
Page 10
ADMINISTRATIONS AND PROBATES, 1661-1701
ELDRIDGE Samuel 1665 Isle of Wight Co., VA Samuel Eldridge dying
intestate, administration of his estate requested by Thomas Moore who married
his relict (widow). 10 Apr 1665, recorded 21 Jun 1665.
Security: George Moore, ___ Brantlie.

ELDRIGE Samll. Justinian Cooper 1050 acs. Warrisquick Co., 13 Sept.
1636, p. 380. N. "W. upon the head of Lawnes Cr., S.E. upon the back Cr.,
N.E. upon his dwelling howse & S.W. into the woods. 50 acs. for his per.
adv. & 1000 acs. for trans. of 20 pers: Justinian Cooper, Rich. Casey, Nich.
Man, John Curtis, John Coker, Henry Bonney, James Smith, Geo. Stacy,
Wm. Redman, Geo. Archer, Wm. Bannister, Wm. Cooke, Samll. Eldrige,
Wm. Nesse, Mary Clinton, Jon. Davis, Robert Radye, Rich. Smith,
Wm. Underwood, Henry Rouncifull, Clement Evans.
Source: "Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents
and Grants" 1623-1666, Abstracted and Indexed by Nell Marion Nugent.
Volume One, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969, p. 47.