William Baynham (c1690? – 1744) of Caroline County, Virginia

This line produced descendants who retained the “Baynham” form of the name.  The first of this line, William Baynham, does not appear to be related to any of the other American Baynham or Bynum lines, though he may be related, however distantly, to one or more of them through some English line.

William Baynham’s name first appears in Caroline County, Virginia court record on 10 July 1741 when Robert and Margaret Baber acknowledged a deed to William Baynham.[1]   It appears certain from other records that the land he bought was located in lower Caroline County just above the boundary with King William County.[2]  Unfortunately, essentially all Caroline County records are destroyed except for its court minute books and a handful of miscellaneous scattered records.  Neither this nor any other deeds survive.  William Baynham is not only not mentioned in any earlier Caroline records, but is not mentioned in any Caroline patents, not even as an adjacent landowner.  His absence from any earlier court records suggests that he was newly arrived in Caroline County in 1741.   While he may have immigrated to Virginia in or shortly before 1741, the possibility exists that he may have arrived earlier.  Caroline County had been formed in 1728 from the upper part of King William County, whose records for the period are completely destroyed.  It is therefore possible that William Baynham had arrived some years earlier in King William County, and followed the local migration path upriver into Caroline.[3]   (I note, however, that his name does not appear as an adjacent landowner, patentee, or headright among King William records.  Or in any other county, for that matter.) 

The only other record of him is his death.  On 8 June 1744 the will of William Baynham was presented by Susanna Baynham, the executrix, and proved by Benjamin Faulkner and Elizabeth Street.[4]  William Isbell, John Wyatt, Walter Chiles, and Henry Burk were appointed to appraise the estate at the same court, and an inventory was returned on 10 August 1744.[5]    Susanna Baynham’s securities for her bond were Thomas Browning and Benjamin Faulkner.  On 14 March 1745/6 the securities petitioned the court to summon Susanna Baynham “widow and executrix etc. of Wm. Baynham” to give additional security for the estate.[6]   A year later, on 14 March 1746/7, the summons was abated.[7]  The fact that the estate was still not settled, some eighteen months after the will was proved, suggests that there were minor children to whom bequests had not yet been delivered.  The abatement of the summons was perhaps caused by Susanna Baynham’s death, for John Baynham assumed the role a few months later.

1        John Baynham  (c1720 - 1769)  He appears to be the only son of William Baynham, for he is the only Baynham to appear in Caroline County records for twenty-five years after the death of William Baynham.  He took the oath as executor “to his father William Baynham’s will” on 14 August 1747.[8]   Numerous appearances in the court records seem to pinpoint his location in the southeastern part of Caroline near the King William County border.  A court record of 13 November 1747, shows that the county owed him 50 pounds of tobacco for “lumber for the ready [Reedy] swamp bridge” which was located in lower Caroline.[9]   He was appointed overseer of a road in early 1749 and viewer of another road in 1750, both in the same vicinity.[10]   He subsequently appears regularly in Caroline court records, the records being generally of little genealogical value beyond confirming his general location within the county and his apparent social status.[11]   Subsequent records establish that he was a physician, was appointed a justice of the county in 1761, was made a warden of St Margaret’s Parish in 1765, and died in 1769.[12]   He died by 1769 when “Johnann” Baynham was appointed his administratrix.[13]   A Caroline history reports that his gravestone still existed fifty years ago.[14] 

His wife was perhaps the “Mrs. Joanna Baynham” whose death was reported by the Richmond Inquirer issue of 15 December 1807.[15]  If she were a teenager when her earliest children were born, it’s conceivable she could have lived into her 80s.   She had apparently been the widow of a New.  A Caroline County history reports that John Baynham’s stepson Anthony New was appointed to fill the justice vacancy created by John Baynham’s death.[16]   Anthony New was later a Congressman from both Virginia and Kentucky, and Congressional biographies give his birth as 1747 in Gloucester County.  However, Anthony New’s obituary gives his age as 87 when he died on 2 March 1833, suggesting a birth in 1745 or early 1746.   It follows that John Baynham’s children by Joanna were born in the late 1740s or after.

1.1.     John Baynham (c1748? - 1777)  He seems likely to have been the eldest son, as he appears first in the records on 2 August 1770 when, along with Anthony New, he witnessed a deed by Archibald Dick of Caroline County for land in Spotsylvania County.[17]    In 1772 he was apparently an apprentice to the firm of Marshall and Hunt in Caroline County.  He served in the Revolution and died while in service.  On 28 February 1776 he was a cadet in the 6^th Virginia Regiment, was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant by 6 January 1777 and died on 21 August 1777.[18]   A posthumous Revolutionary land warrant was issued to Anthony New, his executor.[19]   Caroline County court minutes show that his will (which does not survive) was proved in February 1778.[20]  A British mercantile claim against him for £17 by Duncan Campbell was written off with the notation that “Baynham died insolvent in 1778 (sic).  Col. Anthony New, who appears as security, says his name was used without his consent and that the sale of Baynham’s estate together with the debts due on his books was not sufficient to pay his debts by £500.”[21]   John Baynham was apparently unmarried and childless. He was evidently unmarried, for he did not leave a wife or children and his estate was eventually awarded to his siblings.

1.2.   William Baynham  (7 December 1749 – 8 December 1814)  Lengthy biographies of this famous physician appear in at least three separate sources.[22]  Additional biographies appear in several other publications.[23]  One of these, which states that he was born in Caroline County on 7 December 1749, calls him the “son of Dr. John Baynham of Carolina (sic).”[24]  Another says he “was the son of an old vestryman of the Episcopal Church in Caroline County, who was also an eminent physician.”  The various accounts of his career differ in the details, an example being that some state that he studied under his father before removing to London to study in 1769, others that he studied under a “Dr. Walker.”  They generally agree that he was educated in London, became prominent there, and returned to Virginia at the age of 36 and settled in Essex County.  Wingfield reports that he settled in 1785 near the Essex-Caroline line and “preached frequently”.[25]  He is credited with several medical “firsts” and was quite a well-known surgeon.  The letters of George Washington, for instance contain three letters he wrote to Dr. William Baynham.  One, written in 1786, seems to indicate that Dr. Baynham and George Washington were well acquainted.[26]   Two others dated in 1799 are regarding one of Washington’s servants whom he sent to Dr Baynham for consultation and, ultimately, an eye operation.[27]

He appears in the 1800 Essex tax list as a single poll with two slaves over 16.  As “W. M. Baynham”, he married Virginia Mathews by Essex County bond of  26 April 1810.  The 1810 census of Essex County shows him, over 45, and his wife, aged 16-26, with nine slaves and no children.  The US House of Representatives considered a bill for “the relief of William Baynham”, apparently regarding interest on Revolutionary indents, which probably referred to this man (it was not pursued by me) for he evidently claimed at least one land grant in Kentucky.  His late-life marriage produced one son.  Whether he had more than one child is uncertain.

1.2.1.    William Armistead Baynham  (19 October 1813 – aft1880)  He did not marry.  One source calls him “son of the celebrated Dr. Wm. Baynham” and states he was schooled in Caroline County and at the University of Virginia, from which he graduated with a medical degree.[28]   This source goes on to explain that ”being a rich man he did not find it necessary to practice his profession for a livelihood...”and became a Baptist minister.”  reminiscence written about the summer of 1857 speaks of Dr. William A. Baynham, a Baptist minister who “though a bachelor” lived in “a fine mansion below Loretto” in Essex County.[29]   His mother was not a head of household in 1820 or 1830, but by 1840 William A. Baynham headed a household of himself (age 20-30), three older females, and 40 slaves.   The 1850 Essex County census shows him (age 37) living with his mother Virginia (age 66) and three apparent boarders or servants named “Micon”.  The slave schedule lists him with 42 slaves.  In 1860 he was in Richmond County, age 47,  in the household of Samuel G. Dishman.  In 1870 he was in the Essex County household of Lucia Waring.  In 1880 he was a boarder in the Caroline County home of John H. Martin.  The History of Caroline County reports that he “boarded for thirty-five years in the home of John Henry Martin.”[30]   I note that his reported wealth dropped precipitously between the 1860 and 1870 censuses, from nearly $50,000 to less than $1000, apparently reflecting the loss of his numerous slaves.  He was listed in each census as a Baptist minister or some variation thereof.

1.2.2.    John M. Bynum ?  It is possible there was a second son in this family.  A John M. Bynum married Margaret Robb by Essex County bond of 5 November 1832.   A newspaper reported the death of Mrs. Margaret G. Baynham “relict of the late John M. Baynham” at the home of her sister Mrs. Elizabeth Waring in Essex County on 6 October 1847.  Neither was a head of household in 1840.

1.3.   Joseph Baynham  (? – 1785/6)  He appears to be another son, by reasonably strong circumstantial evidence.  He served as an Ensign and 2^nd Lieutenant in the same Virginia regiment as John Baynham, resigned on 31 December 1777, and as a 1^st Lieutenant in Louisa County.[31]   Both “the estate of Dr. John Baynham” and Joseph Baynham appear among the estate records of George Marshall in 1779.[32]  Joseph Baynham was perhaps in Louisa County as early as 1774.[33]  He was presumably the same Joseph Baynham who married Keziah Davis by bond dated 25 April 1778 in Louisa.  She was the daughter of Cyrus Davis, who on 12 March 1781 provided 141 acres to Joseph Baynham on the condition that his daughter Keziah have children, with reversion to Cyrus Davis if she had none.[34]   Joseph Baynham did not appar in Louisa tax lists until 1781, but appears in the 1781-1784 tax lists with two tithables, and in the 1782 state census headed a household of three whites and 4 blacks.[35]   (Whether that third white was a child is in doubt.)   He appears to have lived in northeastern Louisa near its border of Caroline, Hanover, and Spotsylvania.  He also was awarded at least one Revolutionary claim (which record I did not pursue).  On 13 February 1786 Thomas T. Davis (his brother-in-law) qualified as his administrator and posted bond in the amount of £500.[36]  The inventory recorded on 13 March 1786 showed a modest estate valued at £172.[37]   The estate records give no indication of any children, nor that his wife survived him.  However, an estate accounting recorded on 18 April 1788 appears to provide additional evidence that he had come from Caroline County.[38]   Several of the accounts due to the estate were from persons whose names had earlier appeared in Caroline records, and the administrator was paid for travel to the courts of both Caroline and Spotsylvania.  His father-in-law Cyrus Davis moved to Kentucky in 1796, where he left a will in 1811 naming among his children Thomas T. Davis, but there was no mention of Keziah.[39]

1.4.   Gregory Baynham (c1753? - c1793)  He appears several times in Caroline County court minutes, the only Caroline records that survive.  A deed to Gregory Baynham from William Meacham and wife was proved in Caroline County court 12 October 1775.  In December 1777 he took the oath as a 2^nd Lieutenant of militia, and in February 1778 was recommended as a 1^st Lieutenant.[40]  He was listed as a 1^st Lieutenant under Robert Graham the following month.[41]  On 9 November 1780 he was recommended to replace Capt. Robert Graham.[42]  He witnessed a deed by Richard Stevens of Caroline County for land in Spotsylvania County on 9 September 1782.[43]   He appears on the 1782 and 1783 tax lists of Caroline County with a single white and six black polls.   By the end of the decade he had moved into Halifax County, where he appears on the 1789 tax list.  Halifax records were not searched, but I noted the recording of his inventory on  27 January 1794.[44]   He evidently left three five children and a widow Mary. The 1810 Halifax census includes John, William, and Mary E. Baynham (on the tax list), and Joseph Baynham and John Baynham (in the census).[45]  Presumably the widow Mary E. was an Eggleston..

1.4.1.    John Baynham  (? – c1815) The 1810 Halifax census shows him heading a household of five males and six females (four of females in the 26-45 group).  He died in Halifax County about 1815, leaving an estate administered by his brother Joseph G. E. Baynham.  One estate record names his children as William G., Howell, John, Charles, Grief, and Mary E. Holt, with John W. Blackwell guardian of the minors.  According to an 1876 biographical statement by one of his sons:  “Dr. Baynham of London, England, settled in Virginia in 1775.  His son, William (sic), married Mary Wyatt, by whom he had – Jonah, Mary, Millie, William, Joseph, and John.  The latter married Sarah Blackwell, of Halifax County, Va., and they had – Mary, William G., Harriet B., John, Joseph, Charles M., and Grief H.  Mr. Baynham [that is, John] died in Virginia, and his wife afterward married John W. Blackwell, by whom she had twelve more children.  Grief H. Baynham came to Calloway Co., Missouri, in 1831, with his step-father...He has since made a fortune, besides raising a large family of children.  He married Martha E. Gaines, of Calloway County.”[46]  The sons named appear in later censuses in Missouri.

1.4.2.    William Baynham   No further record.

1.4.3.    Joseph Gregory Eggleston Baynham  (c1780 – 1848)   He administered his brother’s estate, and appears in the Halifax census in 1810 (one of the “lost” pages) and 1820, and is said to have died in Missouri.  According to correspondents, he apparently took a common-law wife named Grady, as his children carried that surname.

1.4.4.    Joanna Baynham   No further record.

1.4.5.    Mary Baynham  No further record.

1.5.   Richard Baynham  (c1750s – 1805-10?)  Although he may be unrelated, there is reason to believe that he may have been another son of this family.  There is no direct connection to this Baynham family, but there is a reasonably strong geographic one.   Richard Baynham is mentioned among Revolutionary public claims as a quartermaster in both Orange County and Hanover County.[47]   He also appears at least once, in 1779, in Louisa County records.[48]  Presumably the same Richard Baynham appears on the 1783 tax list of Essex County and was evidently living there at about the time William Baynham settled there.  Apparently the same Richard Baynham was in Gloucester County by 1789 when he appears on its tax list with one white and eight black polls, and one carriage.  (William Baynham was taxed in Essex County.)   He was taxed on 250 acres, and Dr. William Baynham was taxed on 125 acres, in Gloucester County in 1790 through at least 1804, the last record checked.   Gloucester is yet another burned county, with virtually no records for the period surviving other than those recorded at the state level.  However, we know that he was a trustee of Ware Church in Gloucester County in 1797 and a member of a Masonic lodge there in 1800.[49]  He was apparently alive as late as 1805, when David L. Smith made bond to Richard Baynham and Nathaniel Fox in King William County.[50]  Richard Baynham does not appear in Virginia’s 1810 census (which exists for Gloucester County), nor does any other Baynham who might have been a widow or son.  Pending further research, it would appear that he died without children sometime prior to 1810.

Excursus:  The “Duke of Baynham”

A history of Halifax County, Virginia reproduces a letter written about 1912 from Dr. C. W. Baynham of Fort Smith, Arkansas to his “relative” Mrs. Mary Jordan Faulkner.[51]  Dr. Charles W. Baynham was born June 1870 in Missouri, according to his 1900-1930 census records.  This letter states:

“...My great-grandfather, John Baynham, came to this country about 1790 and settled in Virginia.  About 1830, his three sons Grief, John Jr., and William, came west and settled in Missouri.  My father was John, named from his grandfather.  I have traced our family back to Mary Queen of Scots.  Sir Walter Scott married Mary Baynham and wrote a poem on Baynham Castle (which you will find on reading his works, and I am sending you a picture of the castle.)  I will leave here April 30^th and sail from New York May 4^th on the S. S. Cedric for Liverpool.  Am going to Scotland to establish my claims...”

This history continues  

“From Fort Smith, Ark., dispatch to the New York Herald, 1912:

Within a few months Fort Smith is to be the home of a real live duke, for the Duke of Baynham, of Scotland, will then take up his residence here.  The duke-to-be is Dr. C. W. Baynham, of Fort Smith, who will leave in April for Glasgow, where he will receive his title and come into possession of the castle with its large estate upon the northeast coast of Scotland.  The estate is situated between Inverness and Romarty on the Irish channel.  The story of the inheritance of this estate by the Fort Smith physician is an interesting one.  The estate has been unoccupied and supported by the government for many years.  The great-great-grandfather of Dr. Baynham was the Duke of Baynham.  He, with his son and grandson, who was the father (sic) of Dr. Baynham, left Scotland in 1801 for America.  The old Duke died at sea, but the others landed at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, April 18, 1801.

In 1890, the father of Dr. Baynham, who was then living at Fairplay, Missouri, made an attempt to get the estate and title, which rightfully belonged to him by inheritance.  He wrote to the Antiquarian Society of Salem, Mass. for the record of his family, and found it could be traced back to Mary Queen of Scots, but was dumfounded to learn that the record showed his father and grandfather had been beheaded.  Knowing this part of the record to be false, the elder Baynham secured the affidavits fo several who had come over on the same ship with them, showing that the old duke died at sea, but that others of the family landed in this country and were not beheaded.  The Court of Royal Judges found that the claim was correct.

The elder Baynham then prepared to go before the Secretary for Scotland to receive his title and property, but died before the date set for his appearance.  Two months later his home ws destroyed by fire and all the papers and other proofs of kinship were destroyed.  Five years ago Dr. Baynham took up the matter where it had been left by his father, only to find that the court records of the time his father had sent in his claim had not been properly kept and he would have to furnish new proofs of his rights.  The papers of the elder Baynham being destroyed and all the men who had come from Scotland with him now dead, this was a difficult task, but with the assistance of a Scotch attorney he was enabled to gather such proof as the judges required, and his case has been favorably acted upon.  Only the sanction of the Court of Royal Judges, which meets in April, remains to be obtained, and this has been promised.”

One wonders if this dispatch might not have been dated on April Fools Day.  Almost nothing about it is credible.