A researcher from Canada, descendant of Annie Maria Phillips (Richard Dabney Phillips, Isaac Phillips, Mourning Philips) sent me a photo of this letter, written by a son of Annie Maria Phillips, a granddaughter of Isaac Phillips. The letter contains two errors among the Phillips names: Richard Dabney Phillips is identified as Richard Bowden Phillips and Isaac’s wife is called Elizabeth Grindstone rather than the correct Grinstead. Some of the children of Richard Dabney Phillips are identified by family versions of their actual names, shown in parentheses.
“Your grandmother was born, Anna Maria Philips, the tenth child of Richard Bowden(sic) Philips and Maria Starke Jude. The Philips is spelled with one or two L’s and the Jude was at first St. Jude.
The Philips family were “Puritans” who came over and settled in Virginia near Jamestown on the lower James River during the reign of King James 1st. They were part of the first white settlement in North America, about twelve years before the “Mayflower” came over. . . . [T]hese people . . . at first held their lands in common. When the land was finally parceled out, the Phillips land was called “Camp Ground” because of a large flowing spring near which that part of the original settlement camped. This land was later divided among sons of one of the line, into four plantations called Huntington, Prince George, White Oaks, and Camp Ground. Your grandmother was born on her father’s plantation called Camp Ground.
The children in my grandfather’s [Richard Dabney’s] family were named, in order of age:
Frederick – the oldest (William Frederick)
Bunyan- (Alpheus Bernard)
Theodosia- died at 19
Elvira- later Mrs. Bryant (I’ve found Alvira Jude Phillips, m. Jerome Turpin Glazebrook)
Augustus- an M.D. (Richard Augustus)
James- (James J)
Josephus- (Joseph M)
Martin Luther
Cora- Mrs. [Mansfield Baugh] Jordan
Ann Maria- your grandmother (later Mrs. John Fraser)
Of the six boys, five served during the Civil War with Col. Stuart’s cavalry, and the youngest just a boy ran away from home and joined the infantry during the last of the campaign. None were killed in the war, and none lived long after it.
Your great great grandfather Philip(s) was called Isaac Philips of Camp Ground. He married Elizabeth Grindstone(sic).
During the American War of Independence the American Embassy in Paris were offered help by the *Marquis of Lafayette and some of his friends. After some trouble he, with eleven friends, among them a Marquess of Count St. Jude, succeeded in getting away from a Spanish port. After the war St. Jude married a Virginian and had a son William Lafayette Jude. This son married Theodosia Starke and daughter of theirs, Maria Starke Jude was the wife of Richard [Dabney] Philips, your great grandfather of Camp Ground Plantation in Surrey (sic) County, Virginia. These people came from Surrey County near London, England.
This text was composed from stories told by my grandmother Fraser as far as she could remember names. It does not go back further than the revolution. These stories were in turn sent to me by my father.
Dated at Toronto, this fourth day of April, in this year of grace, nineteen hundred and thirty six.
Solemnly sworn to, and witnessed by Stephen Lennox Fraser.”
*For the citation for the following quote see the first message for the Topic: Mourning Phillips, of Virginia.
Phillips, Mourning (1758-1831) Virginia
May 1776 enlisted under Capt. James Harvey in the 2nd Virginia Regiment for 3 years. Honorably discharged in Spring of 1779 at Philadelphia, Pa. Served in Command of General LaFayette in 1781 until the surrender at Yorktown October 19, 1781.
Male Descendants of Elizabeth and Isaac Phillips (Mourning Phillips)
1 Isaac Phillips b VA abt 1780 m Elizabeth Grinstead
2 Fleming Phillips b Henrico, VA 1816 m Rosena Snead
3 Alonzo Lafayette Phillips b Henrico, VA 1842 m Esprella Blackburn
4 Hubert Mason Phillips b Henrico, VA 1869 m Olive C
5 Mason Lafayette Phillips b Henrico, VA 1895 m Wanda Yarbrough
4 Fleming Edward Phillips b Henrico, VA 1871 m Sallie Turpin Thompson
5 Edward Turpin Phillips d 1987 m Ruby V Gillespie
6 Edward Turpin Phillips Jr. d 1996 m PROB Unknown Jamison-unconfirmed-found in an online FT
7 Living male Phillips
7 Living male Phillips
6 Alonzo Lafayette Phillips d. KS 2006 m PROB Unknown Howell-unconfirmed-found in an online FT
3 Lucian Phillips b Henrico, VA 1853 m Mary J Francis
4 Russell A Phillips d VA 1961 m Annie H
5 Carroll Lucian Phillips d VA 1963
4 Norman Coleman Phillips b VA 1886 m Minnie C
5 Norman Phillips b VA 1920
4 Lucian N Phillips b VA 1888
2 Richard Dabney Phillips b Henrico, VA 1812 m Maria Starke Jude
3 Joseph M Phillips b Henrico, VA 1843 m Mary Jane “Mollie” Collier
4 Garland Joseph Phillips b VA 1870 m Myrtle “Myrtie” Harrison
5 Herman G Phillips b VA 1901 m Marybelle L
6 Herman G b VA 1925
6 Herbert G b VA 1928
5 Reginald W Phillips b VA 1903
3 William Frederick Phillips b Henrico, VA 1831 m Elizabeth B
4 Walter F Phillips b VA 1858 m 1887 Mattie W Gary (can’t find them in 1900; no issue in 1910,1920)
3 Richard Augustus Phillips b VA 1840 m 1864 Virginia Phillips, b. VA 1839, d/o Martin & Emily Pilkinton Phillips
3 Alpheus Bernard Phillips b VA 1835 d VA 1872
3 James J Phillips b VA 1842
3 Martin Luther b VA 1846
