Stith File
From the desk of Walter Charles Scott

(Transcribed by Alan Richard Scott, January 1999)

These notes were in Walter Charles Scott's desk in a "Stith" file folder.   None of it appears to be Walter's work, but rather copies of notes compiled by others and given to Walter (JBS, 1999).

The following was a single typed sheet with two sections:

Stith Name

    Kedah, a Cossack or Arab (Tarter) of Maurienneburg, somewhere in the neighborhood of the Caucasus Mountains, came in the 15th century, before the battle of Agincourt, which was fought in 1412, to the west of Europe; probably in France and carried on the Smith's trade there and was the inventor of  horseshoeing.  Horses were first used in the Battle of Agincourt.

    Kedah, the name was afterward called Kedder in English, when surnames were first adopted, took the word which first designated a Smith's "Stithy" as his name and called himself Stith.  The Stith's seemed to have had a disposition to literature and one of them either in Queen Elizabeth's time of before, wrote a romance which the Queen admired called "Lost Island" and from which Shakespeare took his play called "The Tempest" .  This fact is mentioned in notes in the first edition of Shakespeare.  The author of this romance married Rebecca Bholin.  Catherine, the wife of Peter the Great of Russia, came from this family of Kedah.

Stith Genealogy

(copied from William and Mary Quarterly, June-July 1912-1913, Vol. 21)

    The Stith family appears to have been long settled in the parish of Kerkham in Lancashire and both parish registers and the wills show that the Stith's were quite common in that locality.  Arms of the family are to be found in Papworth's Ordinary in Burk's general armory and on the bookplate of the Rev. William Stith, President of William and Mary College.  They are argent, a chevron engrailed between fleur-de-lis sable.

    Major John Stith came to Virginia before 1656 and had a grant given by Charles II to himself and Samuel Bole of 500 acres of land, on the North side of the James River, in Charles City County, Feb. 15th, 1663 (Va. Land Record Book 5, page 268).  He also had grants of 550 acres, 29th July 1664 and 536 acres 11th May, 1675. (William and Mary Quarterly X, 249, XIII. 121).   Other tracts he acquired by purchase and at his death left a very considerable landed estate.  In 1656, he was lieut., according to some existing fragments of Charles City records.  In 1676, he was captain of Charles City militia and was actively engaged on the government's side during Bacon's Rebellion (Va.  mag.   III 251; IV 6).  He took an active part on the side of Gov. Berkle during Bacon's Rebellion.  In June, 1676, the assembly, which met under Bacon's auspices, dispossessed him, but this act was soon repealed in 1677.  In 1680 he was a major of the militia and was a member of the House of Burgesses for Charles City County in 1685 and 1686.  John Stith married Jane, the widow of Joseph Parsons, in 1656.  He died in 1692.  John and Jane Stith had the following children:

1.)  Capt. John Stith II--married Mary Randolph
2.)  Lt. Col. Drury Stith--married Susanna Bathurst
3.)  Anne Stith            married Col. Robert Bolling

The following was on several pages of xerox copy.  The writing was in very neat cursive handwriting which had been done on lined paper.  It gives the impression of notes made from a magazine or journal.

 (1)

Major John Stith Sr.

    Major John Stith Sr. married Jane Parsons and was the first of the Stiths in Virginia and was in Virginia before 1656.  Their children were Capt. John Stith Jr., Lt. Col. Drury Stith, and Anne Stith.

    Anne Stith became the second wife of Col. Robert Bolling Sr.of Kippox and Farmingdale.

    Col. Robert Bolling Sr. had first married Jane Rolfe, grand daughter of Pocahontas, whose father was Powhatan, the Indian emperor.  There was only one son by Jane Rolfe, and he left a large family.  Among his descendents was the second Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, she having been Edith Bolling.

    Col. Robert Bolling Sr. married Anne Stith in 1681.  They had seven children.  Their oldest son was Col. Robert Bolling Jr. and he married he married Anne Coche.  They had 9 children.  Their third child, Ann Bolling married John Hall.  Their daughter Lucy Hall married Richard Stith Sr.  They became parents of Richard Stith Jr. - the first to come to Ky & Stith Valley in 1805.

    Capt. John Stith Jr. II

    Capt. John Stith Jr. II, son of John Stith Sr. & Mary Randolph, had a son, Rev. William Stith who was an author, educator, and historian.  He was the third president of William & Mary College from 1752-1755, and wrote a history of Virginia, considered the most complete history ever written at that time.  He was an ordained minister.  Rev. William Stith married Judith Randolph, daughter of Thomas Randolph of "Tuckahoe".  Thomas Jefferson's mother was Jane Randolph of the "Tuckahoe" family and they were cousins.

    Rev. William Stith was not the founder of William & Mary College.  The founding of the college was attempted in 1618, but due to an Indian attack in 1622, the founding was in 1693. 

                                                           Lt. Col. Drury Stith Sr.                                                     (2)

    Lt. Col. Drury Stith Sr. of Charles City County was one of the justices of that county in 1714, and high sheriff in 1719, 1724, and 1725.  He married in 1694 to Susanna Bathurst, daughter of Lancelot Bathurst, who was the son of Sir Edward Bathurst of Lecklade, Gloucestershire, England, and came to Virginia before 1680. 

Drury and Susanna had the following children

1. Lt. Col. Drury Stith Jr.   m. Elizabeth Buckner
2. Jane                              m. Thomas Hardaway

                                                          Lt. Col. Drury Stith Jr.                                                       (3)

    Lt. Col. Drury Stith of Prince George County and later of Brunswick County.  He acquired large tracts of land and in several deeds his wife Elizabeth Jones.  In 1726 he was a justice of Prince George, a captain of militia in 1727 and lt. col. before 1735.  In 1732 he was appointed clerk of Brunswick County.  He married about 1717 to Elizabeth Buckner, of York County, daughter of Major William Buckner.

                                                                                                                                                (4)

Richard Stith Sr.

    Richard Stith Sr. was a member of the committee of Correspondence of Bedford County during the Revolution and surveyed Campbell County and laid out the city of Lynchburg, Va.  He was educated at William & Mary College, having received his commission as surveyor from the President & professors.  He was born is Brunswick Co. in 1728 and died in Campbell Co. 1802.  The surveys that he made are preserved in the clerk's office in Campbell Co. Va.  A statement says (Stith acquired a large estate of land.  He began writing his will, disposing of it when he was 54 years old, 20 years before his death.  It is considered to be the best prepared will in the clerk's office).  Campbell Co. records show his widow survived him and administered his estate.  All his children were left large estates in Va in the vicinity of Lynchburg.  Heirs of Richard Stith Jr. compose a veritable clan extending from coast to coast in the U.S.

12 children of Richard Stith Sr.        1727-1802     (4)
&
Lucy Hall         1736-1815

married Dec 29, 1756

* SISTERS AND BROTHER

Richard Stith Sr. came to Ky 1784 ?