Life History

Notes

• After Richard Gregory died in 1701, his wife Katherine married Thomas Snead the next year.  When Katherine died, all her inheritance and those of her children with Thomas Bourne and Richard Gregory fell to her husband Thomas Snead.  They were minors at time of writing his wil in 1700 and his death in 1701.  They later had to sue Thomas Snead to spur him to make distribution of their inheritance.  The ultimate fate of the three youngest, Elizabeth, John and Sarah is unknown.
  
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  RICHARD  2 GREGORY (circa 1650-1701) and KATHERINE, his wife, had issue:
  
  1. RICHARD 3 GREGORY of Essex County; of whom hereafter.
  2. Elizabeth 3 Gregory.
  3. John 3 Gregory.
  4. Sarah 3 Gregory
  ...
  [footnotes]
  ... of the sd. deed. their ful proportion of the sd. decd [es]tate.  [Rich]ard & Katherine by virtue of the sd admraton, possessed themselves • • • aforesd the sd Richard Dyed making his wife the sd Katherine his • • • [the sd Kath]erine since intermarried with the sd Thomas, the deft & dyed, by virtue of • • • the sd Thomas Snead became possest of all & singular the goods & chattels of the [said Thomas Bo]urne decd. & of the sd Richard Gregory & Katherine, his wife & therefore ought to have paid to the orphans of the sd. decd. Thomas Bourne all their parts or portions of the sd. decd's estate, but so it is that upon denial of Thomas Snead to pay to the orphans of the sd Thomas Bourne decd their parts or shares of the sd decds estate they recovered agt. the pltf as exr of the sd James Taylor decd [certain items of personalty, cattle, tobacco &c], Thomas Snead ap­pears and confesses same.  Ordered that the deft pay to pltf the like prop­erty out of the estate of sd. Richard Gregory; also costs. (Essex Records, Order Book, 1708-14. page 311.)
  
  1 Richard Gregory by his will, dated February 17, 1700, bequeathed to his sons Richard and John and to his daughter Elizabeth certain lands which by their descriptions in the said will were certainly in Essex County; to his daughters Sarah and to his sons in law [step-sons]: Thomas and William Bourne he bequeathed lands which by their descriptions were at that date in King and Queen County. later King William. (See will of Richard Gregory, above).
  It is not positively known what eventually became of Elizabeth, John and Sarah Gregory.  All four of Richard Gregory's children were under age when their father made his will in February, 1700.  At Essex Court, December, 1712, John Gregory and Sarah Gregory were given liberty to choose their guardians and they thereupon made choice of William Bourne, who gave bond for his guardianship in the sum of £100 sterling (Essex County Records).  For suggestions as to what may have eventually become of John, Elizabeth and Sarah Gregory, see post page 247, the discussion in the notes to the will of their brother, Richard Gregory, who died in 1725.
  
  --  Gregory Family of Rappahannock and Essex Counties, Virginia," in Winston of Virginia and Allied Families, by Clayton Torrence (Richmond, Virginia: Whittet & Shepperson, 1927), p 243
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  "The suggestion is made ... that John Gregory (brother of Richard Gregory, the testator above) died prior to November, 1718.  That John Gregory died prior to his brother Richard Gregory seems certainly attested by the fact that Susannah Meadows was "heir at law" to said Richard."
  --  "Gregory Family of Rappahannock and Essex Counties, Virginia," in Winston of Virginia and Allied Families, by Clayton Torrence (Richmond, Virginia: Whittet & Shepperson, 1927), p 248.

Sources

• 1. Virginia Will Records
• 2. Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850