[WHB: Some family historians have suggested relationships resulting from marriages between the families of Suddarth, Ellgey (or Ellzey), and Travis (Travers or Traverse) without providing documentation or even a convincing hypothetical explanation of how they may be related. The existing records of Stafford County, Virginia are scanty and fragmentary, and the idea that at least the Suddarths were descended from French Huguenots that settled in North England or Scotland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes is, I believe, inadequately defended. That said, I think there may be some substance in the speculations. I believe that it might be useful to list some genealogical studies and some selected known documents that might be relevant chronologically. The following attempts to do so.]
1658
From William Suddarth of Stafford County & Albemarle County, Virginia, printed by Richard D. Hirtzel, 1999:
“In 1648, a James Sudward, with various spellings of his surname, migrated with his wife Mary and daughter Elizabeth to the colony of Maryland. James was not indentured and he transported his wife. Probably they were from England. A few years later, James was in Virginia and summoned back to Maryland for a court action. His location in Virginia was not provided, and there is no basis for knowing that he was in Stafford County. The population of the colonies was sparse at that time, and James had some legal reasons to be located other than in Maryland. No further records of the family have been found after the 1760s in Maryland. So the possibility exists that he may have settled in Virginia. He would have been of an age to be the father of the first Lawrence Suddarth in Stafford County, Virginia. For this reason, the records available on his activities in Maryland are included in this booklet.”
1691
” . . . The first Suddarth of record [in Stafford County, VA] was Lawrence Suddarth, who served on a jury in 1691 and is found on other records over the next two decades. In later generations, there were several other men with the name of Lawrence Suddarth. This suggests the possibility that the senior Lawrence Suddarth was the patriaarch of the Suddarth family in Stafford County, and that later persons with the same name were his descendents. The early American records provide enough information to suggest relationships with other persons, but frequently not enough to actually document the speculation that naturally arises from the ages and locations of these early settlers.”
1723
Stafford County Quit Rent roll
Thomas Ellzey 518
John Elszey 150 [folio 4]
William Purlow 150 Part of Henry Filkin’s land, Refuseth … S [mutilated – several lines lost]
Rawleigh Travers 3525 Paid 362 lbs tobacco – in part Due 484 lbs Tobacco
1724
Tenders of Tobacco for Overwharton Parish
Virginia State Library, Archive Colonial Papers, folder 52, no 34 (list 1)
Several “Purlers”
At Mr John Fitzhugh’s Quarters: William Travis + James, ___, Alice Parker, 4 Negroes (7 20,270)
A list of the tithables allowed to end tobacco and quantity of plants in the preceincts between Aquia and Quantico [Creeks] viz.]
1724
A list of Tobacco Tenders from the South Side of Potomack [Creek] to y3 Lower End of Overwharton Parish
John Travis (21,102), Nathaniel Morgan, Owen Sullivant, Thomas Handeman, 6 Negroes
Lewis Elzey’s Quarter (19,469) John Smith, Joseph Waugh, 4 Negroes, 1 Negro boy
South Side of Potomack
Henry Suddarth (154 plants)
John Elzey (50 plants)
1728
Land Patents an d Grants of Hanover County, Virginia (1721-1800), compiled by Charles P. Blunt IV.
Hanover County Deeds, Book 13, page 467,
“Christopher Clark of Hanover County, Gentleman (28 September 1728) 1, 326 acres . . . on both sides of North East Creek . . . by Sudeth’s path . . branch of dirty Swamp”
1742
Quit Rent Roll, p. 1
Elzey, Thomas
Elzey, Lewis
Mills, Willliam 100 acres 0 lb 2 s 0 d.
Source: Virginia State Library Archives Division, Miscellaneous Reel 444b [Stafford County Quitrent Roll 1729; Original in Huntington Library (Brock Collection BR 297(2) San Marino, California
Quit Rent Rolls, p. 2
Scott, Rev Mr James 9,354 acres 9LB 7s d.
Suddart, Robert 150 acres 0 LB 3s 0d.
Suddart, Henry
Traverse, Rawleigh 3300 3 LB 6s 0d.