February 14, 2009

Skeletons in My Closet

I was just reading an excerpt about my 6th great grandparents from a genealogical website:

The King of England by his representatives in Augusta County Virginia charged Repentance Townsend on two counts.

Repentance Townsend and Mary were summoned to court in May 1755 on a charge of not bringing up their children in a Christian-like manner.

The defendant was summoned but did not appear, therefore must pay the church five shillings and fifty pounds of tobacco and that he pay cost of court.

Wonder what those neglectful parents did that brought down the wrath of the Church and the King of England? Were their prayers not long enough? Did they whisper in church? Or worse, did they smile on Sunday? I see that by tax time in November of 1755 the family had skedaddled to the wilds of North Carolina. Yeah, I would have beat a trail out of there too.

But then in North Carolina he took an oath to the king in 1773. A Tory at the head of the family! I guess the rebellious streak of independence that runs in my family didn't come from him. I wonder what he did to earn a name like Repentance? And I thought my parents hung an antiquated handle on me!

Marti

6 comments:

  1. yup, Repentance is one of my greats also. I was doing a web search and found your posting.

    keithtownson@sbcglobal.net

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  2. Hi Cousin! I can only imagine how many descendents they have now. Repentance's granddaughter Anna Townsend McConnell had 80 grandchildren before she died at age 65.

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  3. Edwin Hardee Turlington jrFebruary 3, 2012 at 3:58 PM

    marti you know the oldest 4 of his 5 sons fought in the revolution
    against the king

    http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gaunion/mm073009.htm

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    1. No, I didn't know that. My line comes from one of his daughters, and I hate to admit that I haven't done any more than finding parents for maiden names. If I ever get the paternal lines done, I'll spend more time on the maternal names. Looks like an interesting website you have there.

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  4. that isn't my website. I am reworking mine and it is in disrepair. But I am making a page for repenatnce here
    http://zerobeach.us/genes/townsend/repentance.html

    where id you find that Repentance took an oath of loyalty to the king?

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    1. I don't remember now, but I bet if you put it in a search box with quotes, you'll find several places.

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