| Notes |
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jhm&id=I03794
In England in the year 1658, brothers John and James Grigsby, probably nat ives of Kent, had been faithful supporters of Oliver Cromwell all during t he turbulent years following the beheading of Charles I. Cromwell di ed at this time, and his son was a weak and ineffectual man. All the whi le the sentiment in Parliament was leaning ever closer to the restorati on of the monarchy under Charles II. John and James Grigsby probably fe lt their future no longer tenable in England, and decided to immigra te to the colonies...no record has been found for the date John and Jam es embarked, nor upon which ship.
John and James Grisby are next known to be in Tidewater, Virginia, where J ohn Grigsby is recorded as owning land on the Rappahannock river as ear ly as 1660, and later in the Batain Tract at the mouth of the Occoquan Riv er, where he owned a large plantation of 887 acres.
The Fry-Jefferson map of 1755 shows a port of 'Grigsby' at this site.
John Grigsby had married Jane Prosser - possibly Rosser - earlier, and th ey raised a family of five sons and one daughter. They were John, Charle s, Mary Ann, James, William, and Thomas.
From Henrietta Hamilton's book:
"Many American families, particularly Virginians trace their descent fr om John Grigsby, whose ancestors were unquestionably of Welch origin, a nd who settled in this Country at a very early day, and were a potent fact or in the social and intellectual development of the Communities in whi ch they lived. As a people, they have been noted for their refined taste s, gracious manners, broadmindedness and liberality, and entire absen ce of anything like narrow clannishness, in religion or political matter s, and for unswerving devotion to the interests of higher education."
On Sept. 9, 1690, John Grigsby was one of the appraisers of the esta te of Ralph Elkin of Stafford County, father of Richard Elkin. "He may ha ve been related to the Ashtons' and Elkin', for in Richard Bryant's will d ated 1703, April 5, bequeathed to his son Nathaniel Bryant, "all my land w hich I now enjoy in Virginia, his mother to live wholly upon the plantati on where I now live, to daughter ELIZABETH ELKIN, 400 # tobacco and RICHA RD ELKIN to give to my grandson RICHARD ELKIN, a mare
(Ref. Virginia Historic Genealogies, "by John Bennett Boddie", Gen. Pub. C o., Inc. Baltimore, 1965, Page 69.)
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1624 - 1730 (106 years)