What jobs did Poythress families have in old Virginia, and how did they fit in?
Research question: What did Poythress households in colonial Virginia own, work at, or hold office in, and how did they fit into local life?
The records show Poythress men acquiring land: John Poythress Sr. of Deep Bottom received 350 acres on the Nottoway River as a reward for transporting seven persons in 1701 6, and Joshua Poythress bought the Flower de Hundred plantation in 1725, which the family kept until 1949 8. Court records from 1661 identify a John Poythress, son of the deceased Cap. Francis Poythress, who was given 50 acres at Jordans 9, and Francis Poythress is placed in Charles City County 1. The facts do not directly show Poythress men holding county office; they describe vestrymen as a powerful local body in colonial Virginia 7 and describe a strong Quaker presence among Isle of Wight County justices of the peace 10, but no fact ties a Poythress to either body. The family's claimed link to John Rolfe through a 'Jane Poythress' rests on a claim by Wyndham Robertson 3 that later genealogy treats as a non-existent personage 4, and the one recorded marriage is that of Mary Poythress to Putnam Stith 5.
Sources
"Francis Poythress lived in adjacent Charles City County and his name ended in s !"John Rolfe
"the family of Poythress was already settled in Virginia."John Rolfe
"Wyndham Robertson, a Bolling descendant, wrote in Pocahontas Alias Matoaka and Her Descendants (Richmond, 1887), 'I adopt "Jane Poythress" (not "Poyers") whom he is stated in the Bolling Memoirs to have married in England.'"John Rolfe
"The result has been the acceptance of a non-existent personage, 'Jane Poythress', in the Bibles of Virginia genealogy, as the bona fide ancestress of many illustrious Virginians."John Rolfe
"Francis and Rally (Williams) Epes bad 1st Peter. 2nd Francis, 3rd Thomas W., 4th Mary Poythress. mar married - ried married Putnam Stith."Image 10 of The Montgomery advertiser (Montgomery, Ala.), June 14, 1903
"for the transportation of seven persons."THE POYTHRESS FAHILY OF FLOWER de Rtn,:l)RED By Richard Hcl. Dunn ,-
"vestrymen controlled a great portion of colonial Virginia life."~:-. THE LINE OF DESCENT OF HANNAH PEEBLES AND JOHN WRIGHT Virginia .
"He purchased Flower de Hundred in 1725."THE POYTHRESS FAHILY OF FLOWER de Rtn,:l)RED By Richard Hcl. Dunn ,-
"son of Cap. Francis Poythress, deceased, 50 acres at Jordans"THE POYTHRESS FAHILY OF FLOWER de Rtn,:l)RED By Richard Hcl. Dunn ,-
"a strong Quaker presence in Isle of Wight County reached up even into the ranks of the justices, differentiating them from the conventional conception of colonial Virginia's gentry class""Men of Substance and Ability of Body and Estate": Justices of the Peace and the Rise of a Creole Elite in Isle of Wight County, Virginia at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century (2010)