Capt. Thomas Wilford

• Death Notes
  • Probate: September 11, 1667, Westmoreland County, Virginia
    Will: September 11, 1667, Westmoreland County, Virginia, Wills, Book I.
    
    "In 1676 Thomas Wilford was one of three prominent landowners who joined Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., in leading a rebellion against heavy taxes and Governor Berkeley's failure to suppress Indian massacres. Through their efforts James Towne was partially burned and Governor Berkeley was temporarily driven from the capital. At the peak of their success, however, Bacon died suddenly. The Governor promptly sent out raiding parties and captured Major Chisholm, Thomas Hansford, and Captain Wilford. The latter two were taken before Berkeley's court on shipboard in the Eastern Shore area, where they were summarily condemned and later hanged. Major Chisholm escaped a similar fate only because he had died in prison 'of hard usage.' The property of all three was ordered confiscated.
    
    "Governor Berkeley's vengeful course of execution and confiscation was so violent as to cause his recall by King Charles II, who remarked that, 'the old fool has killed more people in that naked country than I have done for the murder of my father.'
    
    "A latter-day historian had this to say about one of Bacon's three lieutenants: Captain Wilford, the third of the distinguished prisoners, was the second son of a knight who had lost his life and estate in the late King's quarrel with his parliament.  'He was a little man, yet he had a great heart, and was known to be no coward.' Bacon had made use of him with the Indians as an interpreter. In the recent fighting he had lost an eye but he made a jest of it, declaring that, as the governor had long ago promised him a hanging as being one of those who went out with Bacon in his first expedition against the Indians, it made no difference whether he had one eye or two eyes, for that in either case the governor would see him well guided to the place of execution.
    

• General Notes
  • "Early Virginia records indicate that Captain Thomas Wilford was the father of at least two sons, Charles and Thomas Wilford 2nd. The latter son died some years before his father, for his will was probated on 11 September 1667.
    
    The Wilford/Williford/Wilsford family was established in Colonial Virginia by the second son of Sir Thomas and Lady Margaret Wilford, who was known as Captain Thomas Wil(s)ford. It is likely that he emigrated from England because as a younger son he could not inherit from his father under England's laws of primogeniture and, also, his very existence was endangered by his family's loyalty to the Crown at a time of national crisis. It is entirely understandable that an ambitious and adventuresome young man would cast his lot with the Virginia colonists, especially one who undoubtedly had been influenced by his grandfather's liberal views. Thomas Wilford, of course, had more than ordinary ties with the struggling colony. His grandfather Sir Edwin Sandys and his uncle George Sandys had both served as treasurer of the Virginia Company; his cousin-in-law Sir Frances Wyatt had served as the Colony's second governor and later would be returned to office, while his distant cousin Edward Digges was to become governor at a later date.
    
    "Captain Wilford settled in the Northern Neck, a peninsula between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, which soon became Northumberland County; years later Westmoreland County was created from most of the northwestern part of the peninsula. One of his neighbors and friends was a fellow emigrant from England whom he quite likely had known in their native land. This was John Washington, whose great-grandson was destined to become the first President of the United States and two of whose aunts had married relatives of Captain Wilford. That a close tie existed between the two men is borne out by numerous old records, one of the most interesting of which bears the signature of Wilford as a witness when Mrs. Frances Peyton granted to Washington a power of attorney. (Later she became Major Washington's third wife and he the third of her four husbands.)
    
    He settled between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers in Northumberland County, VA.
    
    November 10, 1649, Thomas Wilsford, Gent., patented 210 acres on Perry's Creek in Northumberland County.
    *October 22, 1650- Commissioned Clerk of Court of Northumberland County.
    
    1651-- Represented Northumberland County in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
    
    November 25, 1652- Nominated "Collector for Economic and Cherryport"
    
    For some years was an Indian interpreter.
    
    On May 22, 1652, patented 50 acres NW of Chetank Creek.
    
    On 13 April 1652 Captain Wilford was one of a group of Englishmen who affixed their signatures to a document affirming that, 'Wee whose names are published doo promise and engage ourselves to be true and faithfull to the Common wealth of England as it is now established without King or house of Lords.'
    

Click here for details of Thomas' family with <Unknown>

---

This page is within a frameset. View the entire genealogy report of Wilford families, or surname index of Wilford pedigrees or report summary of Wilford heritage from "Pearson Family Genealogy".
Gedcom Viewer.

---

© 2006 GenoPro Inc. All Rights Reserved.