All in the Family

Authors often write about their relatives, but not without their knowledge. Imagine my surprise when I discovered my paternal antecedents once shared a neighborhood with those of the characters in my new book, Defamed. The title refers to Nancy Randolph (1774-1837), the most scandalous member of the vast Randolph clan, one of the oldest, wealthiest and most celebrated families in Virginia. As I delved further into this unexpected connection, I learned that the Llewellyns played an important part in the incredible Randolph saga on not one but two fronts. You might even say we gave them a boost when they first began cobbling together an empire that would eventually encompass tens of thousands of acres, eleven plantations and hundreds of slaves.

My story unfolds in 1604 with the birth of my seventh great-grandfather, Daniel Llewellyn, in Chelmsford, England, 30 miles from London. Daniel’s father, Sir John Llewellyn, was a knight of the realm, and his mother was Lady Carol Larson. Daniel enjoyed a privileged upbringing, but his father, like many of his class, lived far beyond his means. By the time Daniel was 26, both parents were dead, and he had inherited his father’s considerable debts.  He tried to whittle them down by selling cattle and produce from his various properties, but after three years of struggle, he was still drowning in debt. Like others of his class who were similarly trapped, Daniel’s only hope for survival lay in the New World. Unfortunately, to pay for the voyage he had to sign an indenture, a contract promising to work without pay until his passage was paid off. His bold decision required a vertiginous plummet from lord of the manor to lowly servant, but Daniel more than rose to the challenge. He arrived in America in 1633, and, after laboring on Buckland Plantation in North Carolina for three years, he paid off his contract and crossed the border into Virginia where more hard work and some Welsh thrift eventually enabled him to buy 856 fertile acres on Turkey Island.

In addition to becoming an affluent planter, enabling him to commute between Virginia and England (hardly a short flight away!), Daniel was made a member of the House of Burgesses and served as sheriff of nearby Charles City. After earning the rank of captain in the local militia, he was addressed as Captain Llewellyn. Granted he bore no lofty title like his father, but he had something far better – a solid financial portfolio! When Daniel died in 1663, he left a sizable estate to his wife Anne and their three children. One of their two daughters, Margaret, married James Crewes, another immigrant and neighboring planter with 451 acres on Turkey Island. Crewes was famously fiery and, in 1676, allied himself with fellow planter Nathaniel Bacon in opposing tyrannical colonial governor William Berkeley who, among other complaints, failed to protect colonists from the ever-present Indian threat and gave preferential treatment to his political toadies. The infamous 1676 incident, known as Bacon’s Rebellion, pitted frontiersmen, planters and common citizenry against the British army and is considered by many historians and President Thomas Jefferson (another character in Defamed) to be the first armed uprising in the American colonies. The rebels drove Berkeley from Virginia and burned Jamestown, the capital, to the ground, but were ultimately defeated by superior British forces. Crewes was one of 23 men tried and convicted of treason, and on January 26, 1677, he was hanged.

By law, the property of condemned men was confiscated by the Crown, but for unknown reasons, King Charles II did not proceed against Crewes’ considerable estate. (This was not the fate of Nathaniel Bacon’s plantation, Curles Neck, also near Turkey Island, which was snapped up by one William Randolph who had begun buying local properties in 1670.) Crewes’ descendants, and those of Captain Llewellyn, held onto their plantations until August 1684 when they were sold to the aforementioned William Randolph, the great-great grandfather of my heroine, Nancy. By the time she arrived on the scene, the glorious Randolph empire was…well, you can find out here.

 

Coming Summer, 2022