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From: <>
Subject: AdeUstone/ROGERS Pt 4 of 5
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 01:13:40 -0400


Continued from "AdenRoger3.Txt"

Part 4 - The Adenstone-Rogers Families of Virginia;

Tracing a Colonial Lineage through Entailment and Naming Patterns

NGSQ, Vol. 77, June 1989, No. 2

(Spellings are exactly as found in the article.)

GENERATION FOUR:

4. John Adduston Rogers [Adduston Rogers (3); Agnes Adeustone(2); John
Adeustone(1)] was the eldest of three siblings but less than sixteen years of
age at the time his grandfather Rogers deeded him a cow and calf in 1703; he
was probably born in the early-to-mid 1690s, if his father married in his
early-to-mid twenties as common in this society. He died as a young man,
surviving his father by only eighteen months. On 16 June 1729,
administration on his estate was granted to his widow Elizabeth Moss, with
Edward Wright and William Palmer as her securities; again, a portion of a
crucial document is destroyed.

Elizabeth was apparently quite dilatory in settling her deceased husband's
affairs, as it was not until the court held on 16 May 1737 that the following
item was recorded:

"It is ordered that Jones Irwin, John Chapman and Thomas Powell or any three
of them do meet and lay off the Dower of Elizabeth late the wife of John
Addusten Rogers, the lands & tenements whereof the Deceased died possessed."

At the same court, there also was recorded:

"Upon the petition of William Addusten Rogers leave is granted him to have a
Guardian and accordingly made choice of John Burcher who together with
Lawrence Gibbons and Benjamin Moss his Securities entered into and
acknowledged his Bond for the care of the said Orphan's Estate."

In the early-eighteenth century, a petition of this type would be strongly
suggestive of an imminent change in some family status. Actually, the change
had occurred already, although there is no specific record of it in the above
quoted notation. The remarriage of the widow Elizabeth Rogers is first
evident from the will of her mother Elizabeth Moss, written on 15 January
1736/37, which stipulates:

"I give to my five children Viz. Edward Moss, Ann Palmer, Elizabeth Burcher,
Jane Armistead and Rebecca Moss each one Shilling Current Money to Cutt them
off from having any Further right to any other part of my Estate...I do
appoint my loving son Benjamin Moss to be my true and Lawfull Executor."

Thus, prior to 15 January 1736/37, Elizabeth Rogers, widow of John Adduston
Rogers(4) and mother of the minor William Aduston Rogers (5) [As he preferred
to write his name] had married one John Burcher, who thereafter was chosen by
her son as his guardian. Subsequent guardianship accounts filed by Burcher
covered only costs of materials for "cloathing," with two exceptions. One
was the fee paid for the petition for guardiancy. The other, and more
important, was a charge for having paid quitrent for the boy--indicating that
William Aduston (5) owned property by inheritance while yet a minor. It will
be further noted that this is the only time an accounting of this
guardianship was made. It appears that William Aduston(5) attained his
majority about that time--placing his birth year about 1719.

On 20 June 1743, a settlement of the estate of John Adduston Rogers(4)
finally was made and recorded. Again, it was John Burcher who requested the
settlement, and it was probably he who had done the work necessary to bring
the estate to a point where an accounting and settlement might be made.
Sometime before July 1756, Burcher died; and although he had made a will, it
was "spirited away" before probate. Dissension arose in the Rogers-Burcher
family regarding the estate of the deceased husband, father, and stepfather;
and at a court held for York County on 19 July 1756, it came to a head in a
suit brought by the widow against those who would take away her properties.
The testimony has a family story to tell:

"Elizabeth Burcher, Widow, Plt. :

agst, :

John Burcher, John Hay and Ann, his wife, :

and Clary Burcher, Moss Burcher, James : In Chancery

Burcher, and Mary Burcher Infants by :

Dudley Digges, Junr., Gent., their Guardian :

specially Assigned, Defts. :

...The Depositions of William Adeuston Rogers, Edward Moss and Elizabeth
Stroud taken & returned...On Consideration whereof It is the Opinion of the
Court that the said Depositions contain the purport and true meaning of his
last Will and Testament of John Burcher decd.., taken away and secreted or
destroyed as in the said Bill is mentioned...

William Adeuston Rogers of lawful age being first sworn on the Holy
Evangelists deposeth that he was a Witness to a Will made by John Burcher,
decd., in about the year 1745 and that Walter Chapman, decd., was also
another witness to the said Will and that since that time he has been with
him, the said Burcher, in several fits of illness and never heard him propose
making any other will alledging that he was very well satisfied with the

Will that he had already made for that what he had got came by his wife and
that he thought that she had the best right to it as long as she lived and
this Deponent further saith upon reading the said will since the death of the
said John Burcher remembers that his whole Estate was given to his Widow and
after her decease to be divided among his children and that his Estate was
not to be appraised nor his widow who was appointed his Executrix to give
Security...[signed] William Aduston Rogers.

Edward Moss of Lawful age...deposeth that being at the House of the late
John Burcher, decd., about three or four days after the death of the said
Burcher, William Aduston Rogers put into this Deponent's hand an Instrument
of Writing which he said was the poor old man's Will, meaning the deceased
John Burcher...and this Deponent verily believes the signing of the said Will
to be hand Writing of the said John Burcher decd...

Elizabeth Stroud...Deposeth that being at the House of the late John Burcher
decd., about a year and a half before his death upon conversation about a
Will this Deponent asked the said John Burcher if he would not make a will as
he seemed to be very ill and was answered by the said Burcher that he had
made one and that if it did not please his wife he should make no other and
upon further conversation this Deponent told the said Burcher she had heard
that he intended to give his two young Negroes that he had bought to his
three youngest children upon which he answered this Deponent that when their
Mother died they would have it all amongst them and that he should not
trouble himself to make any more wills."

No further record is found of Elizabeth (Moss) (Rogers) Burcher. She is
presumed to have died in York County, although no verification of this fact
is found in the parish records or in the various books of the courts.

Known children of John Adduston Rogers(4) by his wife Elizabeth Moss are as
follows:

+ 5 i. William Aduston Rogers(5), born about 1719, died between 5
December 1784 and 17 October 1785.

ii Barbara Adduston Rogers, born before 1729; never married. The will of
her brother in 1784 noted that she was living in his home and left to her a
life estate. Only one other record has been found of Barbara: on 12
September 1748, she, her mother Elizabeth Burcher, and her brother William
Aduston witnessed the will of one Rebecca Goodwin of Yorkhampton Parish.
Barbara's identification in that document--i.e., Barbara Adduston Rogers--
echoes the precautionary measures that this line of the family took to
insure its possession of the entailed estate. Having no second son to bear
the name Adduston in the event that the elder one should die, John Adduston
Rogers(4) and wife Elizabeth appended that all-important family name to
the given name they chose for their daughter.

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