Thomas Cary STINSON

A while back someone wrote here asking about Thomas Cary and Mary Alice STINSON. At the time I could not place them, but they have since been documented and appear on pages 123, 124, of “So Obscure A Person.”

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The Stinson Book

I wrote “So Obscure A Person” and published it on 13 March 2007. It is a genealogy and family history of the STINSON family. It is a story of a man who wanted too much, and his Virginia descendants, who were the beneficiaries of his quests. He was ALEXANDER STINSON Senior of Williamsburg and Buckingham County, Virginia and his lifetime spanned almost the entire eighteenth century of Colonial Virginia. He first appeared in the court records of Virginia as a bound servant boy, “a slave without shackles.” The title of this book comes from the reply of the Virginia Council at Williamsburg in May of 1741, when, as an overly ambitious young man, he made an official petition for land to fulfill his dream of becoming a Virginia planter. After years in bondage, his hopes must have seemed shattered when President Janes BLAIR and the Council denied his plea, explaining that it was “too much land for so obscure a person.”

As his childhood had been passed being owned by tavern keepers along Williamsburg’s Duke of Gloucester Street, young SAWNEY seemed not easily discouraged. He allied himself with some of Virginia’s finest families, and went on to win his Virginia land and much, much more.

Eighteenth century Virginians muddled through life much as we do today. They lived each day, one at a time, the same as do we, but they did so much more during those one hundred years of history. Alexander STINSON moved upcountry from Tidewater Virginia to a place called Willis’s on the branches of Cattail, in what is now the center of Virginia, Buckingham County. He saw the land when it was a wilderness, and he settled it, and built a home for himself and his family. His dream of working the land he had won came true, as he became a Virginia planter. He cleared and built his own roadways, he taught his children, and he helped create a society where there had been no community at all. He and his children rebelled against a tyrannical government, fought a war, and created a brand new nation. While living through it all, he kept intact the faith of his fathers. After having accomplished all that he did, his children moved on to new places to pioneer as he had done.

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DAR Patriot Index

STIMPSON, STIMSON, STINSON Patriots of the American Revolution. The only STINSON from Buckingham County that was ever documented for National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was the Alexander STINSON illustrated above from “The DAR Patriot Index” of 2000. The DAR daughter who submitted his papers long, long ago was Sue Annie STINSON of Alabama, born 1897. She submitted the same spelling for her patriot’s surname as did I: “STINSON.” In that seemingly ancient time of indexing “by hand,” the DAR cataloged her Ancestor under the name “STIMPSON,” even whilst retaining her preferred spelling of “STINSON.” When I submitted my STINSON papers, the DAR kept this same order, as my STINSONs were of the same family, and I was able, with no problems at all, to order my DAR pins with the names spelled as “STINSON.” (See Image Here: My DAR Ancestor Bars)

Since Miss STINSON documented her patriot ancestor in 1969, ten descendants of Alexander STINON Junior have joined DAR on his service. I have personally perused a number of their applications, and all spelled the STINSON name as “STINSON,” just as I and Sue Annie STINSON did on our papers. For those who are suffering disconcertion over the DAR’s spelling of their STINSON surname, I direct you to the FAQ page of the NSDAR Office of the Registrar General’s web page at www.dar.org:

“8. How does NSDAR decide how a patriot’s surname is to be spelled?

“NSDAR combines similarly spelled or sounding names under a common spelling for the clerical convenience of our staff. This in no way indicates that the spelling is a correct or preferred one. Each member should list her ancestor in her chapter yearbook and on her ancestor bar with the spelling which she prefers. In addition, each membership certificate will/should reflect the spelling of a the patriot ancestor’s name which the member listed on page one of her application.”

The next edition of the DAR Patriot Index will include my two ancestors from Virginia, Alexander STINSON Senior, father of the listed Alexander STINSON (c1733-a1813) above, and his son David STINSON, both of Buckingham County, Virginia. 

After gathering together all the historical documents necessary to prove my STINSON lineage to NSDAR standards, no easy feat in a Virginia burnt county, I decided to write a book on the STINSON family of Buckingham County. It is SO OBSCURE A PERSON – The Story of Alexander STINSON and His Virginia Descendants.  In that book, on pages xvi and 1,  I explained the spelling patterns of this name and more.  ~~Edna Barney

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Stinson Genealogy Book

I published “So Obscure A Person”, today 13 March 2007. It is a story of a man who wanted too much, and his Virginia descendants, who were the beneficiaries of his quests. He was ALEXANDER STINSON Senior of Williamsburg and Buckingham County, Virginia and his lifetime spanned almost the entire eighteenth century of Colonial Virginia.

He first appeared in the court records of Virginia as a bound servant boy, “a slave without shackles.” The title of this book comes from the reply of the Virginia Council at Williamsburg in May of 1741, when, as an overly ambitious young man, he made an official petition for land to fulfill his dream of becoming a Virginia planter. After years in bondage, his hopes must have seemed shattered when President JAMES BLAIR and the Council denied his plea, explaining that it was “too much land for so obscure a person.”

As his childhood had been passed being owned by tavern keepers along Williamsburg’s Duke of Gloucester Street, young SAWNEY seemed not easily discouraged. He allied himself with some of Virginia’s finest families, and went on to win his Virginia land and much, much more.

Eighteenth century Virginians muddled through life much as we do today. They lived each day, one at a time, the same as do we, but they did so much more during those one hundred years of history. Alexander STINSON moved upcountry from Tidewater Virginia to a place called Willis’s on the branches of Cattail, in what is now the center of Virginia, Buckingham County. He saw the land when it was a wilderness, and he settled it, and built a home for himself and his family. His dream of working the land he had won came true, as he became a Virginia planter. He cleared and built his own roadways, he taught his children, and he helped create a society where there had been no community at all. He and his children rebelled against a tyrannical government, fought a war, and created a brand new nation. While living through it all, he kept intact the faith of his fathers. After having accomplished all that he did, his children moved on to new places to pioneer as he had done.

Photograph from Flickr

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