Life History

Notes

• -------------------------------
  On 18 Sep 1642, shortly after Robert Vaulx patented his 1,200 acres, he is listed as the creditor in Virginia of James Stone, merchant of London.  By 1646, the same James Stone  calls  him “Robert Vaulx, merchant of Virginia.”
  
  On 18 Sep 1642, shortly after Robert Vaulx patented his 1,200 acres, he is listed as the creditor in Virginia of James Stone, merchant of London.  By 1646, the same James Stone calls him “Robert Vaulx, merchant of Virginia.”
  
  The exact location of Vaulx’ 1,200 acres is not certain.  However, Poropotank Creek forms the boundary between the present-day Virginia counties of Gloucester and  King  and Queen, so this land was certainly located in one or both of them.  In any case, because of a loss of records for these two counties, it is not possible to trace the subsequent disposition of the entire 1,200 acres.  However, there is a record of 30 Sep 1654 in which one Richard Wilchin is listed as the grantee of 300 acres in Gloucester County on the northeast side of Poropotank Creek, adjoining the land of John Thomas and Mr. Vaus, and running to a creek dividing this land and the land of Mr. Canho and Mr. Vaus.
  
  According to the patent, 200 acres of this land was due by virtue of a bill of sale from Mrs. Elizabeth Vaus, the attorney of Robert Vaus, and confirmed by Mr.  Humphrey Vaus and Mr.  Croshaw.  The other 100 acres was due to Wilchin for transporting himself and his wife, Rachel, into Virginia.  There is a further record of this 300 acre tract in the Virginia land patent books that shows it was granted to Roger Gregory on 28 Apr 1711, when it was described as 300 acres of escheated land late in the possession of Richard Wilchin, deceased.
  
  ** This would probably be Col. Roger Gregory of King and Queen County, the son of Richard Gregory and his wife Frances.  Col. Gregory married Mildred (Washington) Lewis, the widow of John Lewis.  There is also a 28 Apr 1691 patent to Richard Gregory of New Kent County for 400 acres of land and marsh, called escheat land that was formerly granted to William Canhoe, clerk -- the term “clerk” was used in the early days to mean a minister, or cleric. **
  
  --  Michael L Marshall, The Vaulx Family of England, Virginia, and Maryland, October 2012, p 18, http://www.bennett-twins.com/documents/GenealogyReports/Vaulx%20Vass%20Report.pdf
  -------------------------------
  
  -------------------------------
  "Gregory Family of King William County Virginia"
  Winston of Virginia and Allied Families
  
  "Were Richard Gregory, of King William County, and Roger Gregory, of King and Queen County, brothers, and sons of 'Collo. Richard Gregory,' of King and Qeen, who was living as late as 1703?"
  
  (7) In view of the above, the following is presented as a tentative pedigree of the King WiIliam County Gregorys:
  
  Collo. Richard Gregory,       =       Frances.
  of King and Queen Co; ,     |         "Frances Gregory,
  justice of the pence, 1702;  |         Widdo." in King
  living as late as July,            |         and Queen in 1704.
  1703.  (See Notes 1 and      |         (See Note 3 above.)
  2 above.)                              |
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  |                                     |                                                                 |
  Roger Gregory, of        Richard Gregory,    =    Agnes West.      Hannah Gregory1;
  King and Queen           of King WilIiam       |                                m. Robert Baylor.
  County as early            as Co; living there  |
  1711; living there         1727; justice 1732; |
  1726; died prior to      sheriff 1742.              |
  1734 ; m. Mildred                                         |
  Washington.                                                |
  |
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  |                     |                    |              |    |    |    |
  Roger Gregory,   Richard        West        Frances,  m.  Wm.
  b. May I, 1729;    Gregory.     Gregory.      Phillips.
  d. Oct. 2, 1803.                                         Christiana, m.
  Saml. Meredith.
  Agnes.
  Unity.
  
  --------------------
  [footnotes]
  1 The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume XXV., page 320, says:  "In an account of the Brooke family based on family documents are traced the descendants of Dr. Robert Baylor, who is said to have been the son of Colonel Robert Baylor and his wife, Hannah Gregory, daughter of Richard Gregory, an Englishman."
  
  [265]
  
  --  "Gregory Family of King William County, Virginia," in Winston of Virginia and Allied Families, by Clayton Torrence (Richmond, Virginia: Whittet & Shepperson, 1927), p 265
  -------------------------------
  
  ------------------
  "Roger Gregory.  Son of Richard Gregory (i).  Born about 1690; died prior to 1732.  Married Mildred, daughter of Lawrence Washington.  On the 17th of May, 1736, Roger Gregory and Mildred, his wife, deeded the Mt. Vernon estate to Augustine Washington.  They were then residents of Stratton Major Parish, King and Queen County.  The witnesses were William Aylett, John Washington, and Lawrence Butler.
  
  Issue: Frances, who married, September 3, 1736, Francis Thornton (see Thornton Excursus); Mildred, who married, October 28, 1740, John Thornton, and
  Elizabeth, who married four times:
  first, April 29, 1743, Henry Willis, son of Colonel Henry Willis (who had married her mother);
  second, Reuben Thornton;
  third, Doctor Thomas Walker, the Explorer, and
  fourth, Colonel Alcock, of the British Army.
  Mildred Gregory, the elder, was the godmother of General George Washington."
  --  Peyton Neale Clarke, Old King William homes and families; an account of some of the old homesteads and families of King William County, Virginia, from its earliest settlement  (Louisville: John P Morton And Company, 1897), p 58, https://archive.org/stream/oldkingwilliamho00clar/oldkingwilliamho00c
  ------------------
  
  ------------------
  Augustine, second son of Lawrence Washington and Mildred Warner; married for his second wife, Mary Ball; their oldest son was George Washington (President of the United States); their only daughter, Betty Washington, was the second wife of Colonel Fielding Lewis, by whom she had a numerous progeny, notable in themselves and their descendants.
  
  Mildred, the only daughter of Lawrence Washington and Mildred Warner, married, first, Roger Gregory, by whom she had three daughters, Mildred, Frances, and Elizabeth, who married three brothers, Colonel John, Colonel Francis, and Reuben Thornton; she married, secondly, Colonel Henry Willis, the founder of Fredericksburg, by whom she had a son, Colonel Lewis Willis, and a daughter, Anne, who married Duff Green.
  
  --  Peyton Neale Clarke, Old King William homes and families; an account of some of the old homesteads and families of King William County, Virginia, from its earliest settlement (Louisville: John P Morton And Company, 1897), p 75, https://archive.org/stream/oldkingwilliamho00clar/oldkingwilliamho00c
  ------------------
  
  The Washington Family had various associations with the Gregorys and other notable colonial families in colonial Virginia in the 1600s.  This provides a context in which a Gregory might have Washington as a middle name aside from the later fame of General George Washington in the Revolutionary War.  Some sources report that Richard Gregory had one son born in 1760 named George Washington Gregory.  This name is also found in later instances of the Gregory family, in the same areas where this Gregory lineage lived or later moved.  Many more instances are found of George W Gregorys with no record of what the middle initial stood for.
  
  There is an even stronger tie, which documents the connection of the Gregorys to the home estate of George Washington, general and then President of the United States.  The plantation of Mount Vernon was originally a Gregory property.  Mildred Washington and her husband Roger Gregory owned Mount Vernon plantation, which they deeded over to Mildred's brother Augustine Washington, George Washington's father.  This estate is famous as the home of President George Washington, Augustine's oldest son.  An old publication on the old families and homes of King William County, Virginia, provides important perspective on the relationship between all the old colonial aristocratic famlies there.
  
  "Mr. Lawrence Washington had a silver waiter with the Butler-Beckwith arms engraved thereon.  Beckwith Butler was guardian of the children of Margaret, the widow of William Robinson. Lawrence Butler, William Aylett, and John Washington were witnesses to the deed from Roger Gregory conveying the Mount Vernon estate to Augustine Washington in 1726.  Lawrence Washington left his Godson, Lawrence Butler, a tract of land adjoining Meredith Edwards  in 1697."
  --  Peyton Neale Clarke, Old King William homes and families; an account of some of the old homesteads and families of King William County, Virginia, from its earliest settlement (Louisville: John P Morton And Company, 1897), p 32, https://archive.org/stream/oldkingwilliamho00clar/oldkingwilliamho00clar_djvu.txt
  
  Mildred Warner Washington was not only the aunt, but also the godmother of George Washington who later became President.
  

Sources

• 1. Virginia Will Records
• 2. The Vaulx Family of England, Virginia, and Maryland
• 3. Find a Grave Memorial Registry
• 4. Archive.org
• 5. Family Data Collection - Individual Records