William Grinstead and Elizabeth Key
Husband William Grinstead
Born: Abt 1632 - England Christened: Died: Abt 1662 - (Northumberland Co., Virginia) Buried:Marriage: 21 Jul 1656 - Northumberland Co., Virginia 1
Wife Elizabeth Key
Born: 1630 - Warwick Co., Virginia Christened: Died: Bef 1667 - (Northumberland Co., Virginia) Buried:
Father: Thomas Key ( -Abt 1636) Mother:
Other Spouse: John Parse ( -Abt 1667)
Children
1 M William Grinstead
Born: Bef Jan 1656 - Northumberland Co., Virginia Christened: Died: Abt 1696 - Northumberland Co., Virginia Buried:
2 M John Grinstead
Born: Bef Jan 1656 Christened: Died: Abt 1697 - Northumberland Co., Virginia Buried:
3 F Elizabeth Grinstead
Born: Bef 1660 - (Northumberland Co., Virginia) Christened: Died: Between 1660 and 1667 Buried:
General Notes: Husband - William Grinstead
The following items are from DEED AND WILL ABSTRACTS OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA (Ruth & Sam Sparacio, The Antient Press, 1993). Six volumes cover 1650-55, 1655-58, 1658-62, 1662-66, 1666-70 and 1670-72, 1706-11. The original entries are in the Northumberland County, Virginia Record Books for the same time periods. The page numbers refers to the original books. The items are presented in chronological order.
1 ***** pg 44
February 12, 1653 -- "Signed & dd. in ye prsts. of the marke of Wm. Greensted"
2 ***** pg 53
William Grinsted aged 22 yeares or thereabouts sworne & examined sayth that hee this Depont. had the oportunity to lay his hand upon the thigh of Alice Atkinson her ( ) being betweene and farther sayth not
<pre> Wm. Grinstead, his marke
20th August 1655 Jurat in Cur </pre>
There are 2 other depositions relative to Alice Atkinson. In one of them the deponent "saith that generall report of Alice Atkinson that hee ever heard was shee was an whore . . ."
3 ***** pg 73
March 30, 1655 -- Wm. Grinstead appears to be acting as an agent for Col. Mottrom.
4 ***** pg 62
September 29, 1655 -- "To Wm. Grinsted for one wolfe - 0100"
5 ***** pg 60
November 20, 1655 -- Richard Rice sells to John Pearcy and Wm. Grinsted a tract of land. Wm. Pearcy is a witness.
6 ***** pg 85
These are to Certifie whome it may concerne that Willm Greensted and Elizabeth Key intends to be joyned together in the Holy Estate of Matrimony if anyone can shew any Lawfull cause why they may not be joyned together lett them speake or ever after hold their tongues. Signum Wm Greested Signum Elizabeth Key 21 July 1656 this Certificate was Published in open Court and is Recorded.
7 ***** pg 94
November 1, 1656 -- Wm. Greensted paid for 3 wolf heads
8 ***** pg 109
May 24, 1657 -- To secure the payment of 2900 pounds of good tobacco to Francis Clay on or before November 10 of the current year Wm. Greensted and Jno. Parse "mark over & engage two cowes with their claves nowe falne being Bull claves, five sowes, two barrowes, a boare, 3 shoats & two gunns". Signed by Wm. Greensteed and John Parse and witnessed by John Trussell & Hugh Lee.
9 ***** pg 97
22th 7br, 1657 -- Wm. Grinsted mentioned
10 ***** pg 133
September 24, 1657 -- "To Wm. Greensted for a wolfe - 0100"
11 ***** pg 28
p 28 I Capt. Richard Wright, Administrator of ye Estate of Coll: Jno: Mottrom deced., doe assigne & transferr unto Wm: Greenstead a Maid Servant formerly belonging unto the Estate of the sd. Coll. Mottrom, commonly called Elizabeth Key, being nowe Wife unto the sd. Greensteed and doe warrant the sd. Elizabeth & doe binde my selfe to secure her & the sd. Greenstead from any molestacon or trouble that shall or may futurely arise from or by any p:son or p:sons that shall pr:tend or claime any title or interest to any manner of service whatsoever from the said Elizabeth;
<pre>Witnes my hand this 21th of July 1659
Teste William Tho( ) Richd. Wright
James Awston </pre>
21th July 1659 This Writeing was acknowledged in Court by the sd. Capt. Richd: Wright unto the sd. Wm. Greensted & is recorded
12 ***** pg 39
p 39 KNOWE ALL MEN by these pr:sents that Wm: Greensted of Chicacoan in the County of Northumberland and Collony of Virginia doe give for his marke of Cattle and hoggs (vizt,) a ( )yle on ye right eare, the left eare cropt and a hole in the ( )
19th June 1660. This marke was recorded
13 ***** pg 44
p 44 KNOWE ALL MEN by these pr:sents that wee John Peirce, Hannah Lee and William Greensted of County of Northumberland for the love and affecon we have and beare unto the two Children of William Greensted John & William, wee doe by these pr:sents ( ) John & William each of them a Cowe Calfe ( ) John Greensted about two moneths old by the name of Cherry, the marke a hole & a swallow forke crop & hole & a peice taken of ( ) the Calfe belonging to William Greensted ( ) knowne by the name of Caole and the ( ) the former red Calfe; To have & to hold the said Cowe calves & their future increase for ever: Hannah Lee, William Greensted & John Peirce doe by these pr:sents give to the above named John & Wm: Greensted one black heyfer with a white spot or two in the flanke two yeares old & upwards, the marke a crop in the left eare with two slitts in it, and a slitt in the right eare and a small peice cut of on the top of it; To have & to hold the sd. heyfer & her future increase as their pper: goods for ever; onely the first cowe calfe wee doe give to Elizabeth the Daughter of William Greensted and the male cattle that shall come of the whole stock shall goe to the Father or Guardian of the sd. Children for his care of the Stock, And if eyther of the Boyes dye before they come to age the Survivor shall enjoy the whole Stock And if the boyes doe live till they come to age, then to be devided equally betweene them, And we the aforesd. John Peirce, Hannah Lee & William Greensted Junior doe bind us our heires Exrs. & Admrs. to defend the aforesd. Gift of two cowe calves & heyfer & their increase from the claimes of any p:son or p:sons whatsoever; In confirmacon wee have caused this Deed of Gift to be made this 16th day of June And have sett our hands & seales
Signed Sealed & Delivered in the pr:sence of us
<pre>Thomas Adams, John Perse ye Seale
Michaell Vanlandigham ye marke of Han: Lee ye Seale
Will: Greensted ye Seale </pre>
20th July 1660. This Deed of Gift was acknowledged in Court by the above menconed John Perse & Wm: Greensted & by Richard Flynt, Attorney of the abovesd. Hannah Lee, and the sd: Deed is recorded
Mr. Flynt, my respects pr:sented; I received of William Greensted a Cowe Calfe for bringing his Wife twice to Child bed. I have given the sd. Calfe to his Sonne, William, and I doe authorize you my loveing Freind to acknowledge it in Court; Yor loveing Freind <pre>
Teste John Perse, Hugh Lee Hannah Lee her marke
20th July 1660 This Lre. of Attor: was recorded </pre>
14 ***** pg 62
On October 1, 1660 William Grinsted, aged 29 or thereabouts, gives a deposition concerning certain mares in the possession of Col. Mottrom which belong to the children of Mr. Richard Thompson. On the same date John Peirse gives a similar deposition and Elizabeth Key, aged about 28, gives a deposition about certain cows and calves belonging to the same children.
15 ***** pg 60
July 22, 1661 -- Wm. Greensted is one of the appraisers of an estate.
16 ***** pg 79
On July 21, 1662 "two gall: & 1/2 of Drame which is due from Wm: Grinsted" is mentioned in a will.
</pre>
The following is from VIRGINIA COLONIAL ABSTRACTS, Vol 1 (Beverley Fleet, reprinted in 3 volumes in 1988, originally published in 34 volumes from 1937 to 1949):
17 ***** Northumberland Co. Record Book 14, pg 67
Two children born to William Grinsted and Eliz. Kaye prior to 20 Jan 1655/6.
COMMENTS:
The first two items indicate that in 1653 and in 1655 William Grinstead signed a document by making his mark. This is a bit strange since he was supposedly trained in the law when he arrived. Did he only learn to write in Virginia?
Item 2 suggests that William Grinstead was 22 in 1655 and item 14 suggests that he was 29 in 1660. Birth year 1632 is a compromise.
Items 5 and 8 suggest that William Grinstead and John Parse had a close working relationahip before William's death. Both of them gave a deposition in the case mentioned in item 14. The gift deed of item 13 indicates a close personal relationship between William Grinstead and John Parse.
It is difficult to interpret the deed; it is not a model of clarity. It appears to me that John Parse, William Grinstead, and Hannah Lee are giving two calves and a heifer to the 3 children of William Grinstead, namely, his two sons John and William and his daughter Eliza. Hannah Lee states that she earlier received a calf from William Grinstead as payment or in appreciation for her assistance in the birth of two of his children. She is now giving that calf to the son William. If John Parse and William Grinstead supply one animal apiece we have the 3 animals being given to the children. It appears that the two sons each get a calf and share the heifer, and that Eliza somehow shares one of the calves.
This deed is the only evidence we have that William and Elizabeth had a daughter as well as two sons. The fact that she is not mentioned in the 1667 will of John Parse suggests that she died in childhood.
Item 16 indicates that William Grinstead was alive as late as July 21, 1662, the last date on which his name appears in the record books. Since it appeared fairly regularly before, he probably died not long thereafter.
Although the court declared in 1656 that Elizabeth Key should be free, three years elapsed before Richard Wright, the administrator of Col. Mottrom's estate signed a document releasing her from servitude. She was "transferred" to William Grinstead.
General Notes: Wife - Elizabeth Key
The following is a minor modification of the Wikipedia article entitled "Elizabeth Key Grinstead":
Elizabeth Key Grinstead (b. 1630 - d. c. after 1665) was the first woman of African ancestry in the North American colonies who sued for her freedom from slavery and won. Grinstead won her freedom and that of their two young sons John and William on July 21, 1656. She sued based on the fact that her father was of white English ancestry and that she was a baptized Christian. Based on these two factors, she argued successfully against being enslaved for life. Grinstead's lawsuit in 1655 was one of the earliest freedom suits filed by a person with African ancestry in the English colonies.
Partly in response to Key's suit, in 1662 the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a law mandating that the status of children born in the colony would follow the status of the mother, "bond or free", rather than the father, as had been the precedent in English Common Law. This was the principle of partus sequitur ventrum. This legislation hardened the boundaries of slavery and ensured that mixed-race children fathered by planters and overseers would be kept as slaves unless explicitly freed. It freed the fathers from responsibility of acknowledging the children as theirs, supporting them, arranging for apprenticeships, or emancipating them.
Elizabeth Key was born in 1630 in Warwick County, Virginia (an extinct county on the north side of the mouth of the James River; now Newport News) to a black slave mother and Thomas Key, a planter and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Key represented Denbigh in Warwick County, but his wife lived across the James River in Isle of Wight County , where she owned considerable property. The Keys were English-born and were considered to be "ancient planters" because they had come to Virginia before 1616. They had remained for more than three years, paid their own passage, and survived the Indian massacre of 1622.
In a civil case in about 1636, Thomas Key was charged with fathering the slave Elizabeth, which he at first tried to deny. He blamed an unidentified "Turk". The question of paternity was an issue years later when Elizabeth needed to prove in court that her father was a free man. Once paternity was established, Key did not try to duck his duty again. He arranged for the baptism of Elizabeth in the Church of England. She was referred to as "Black Besse" in various legal documents of the period. Sometime before his death in 1636, Key put Elizabeth in the custody of her godfather, Humphrey Higginson. Higginson was required to care for her as his own child and set her free (from indenture) in nine years when she was 15 years old.
During this period in early Virginia, both African and European servants were likely to be indentured for a period of years, often in payment of passage to the Americas, or to work off an apprenticeship training period. It was common for them to earn their freedom. They lived, worked, ate, played together as true equals.
In Elizabeth's case, Key did not intend for the girl to be kept as a slave, but for Higginson to be her guardian and for her to serve as an indentured servant until she was of age. It is not clear what happened, but Higginson did not keep his promise. He was obligated not only to care for Elizabeth, but to take her with him if he were to return to England. When he returned to England, he left Elizabeth Key in the ownership of a Col. John Mottram, Northumberland County's first settler. Elizabeth, at age 10 in about 1640, was one of the first non-native settlers in the wilderness of Northumberland County. Her future changed dramatically as Mottram took her 90 miles away from her birthplace to be a servant. She may have never seen her mother again. She was without an indenture contract and, conceivably, could be a slave forever.
While there is no record of her next 15 years, events beginning in 1650 would change Elizabeth's life forever and lead her to become a figure in American history. That year, Mottram brought a group of 20 men, white indentured servants from England, to Coan Hall, his plantation in Northumberland County. For every sponsored servant, a Virginian would receive a headright of 50 acres of land. Each indentured person would serve for six years to pay for passage.
Among Mottram's new indentures was 16-year-old William Grinstead, a young lawyer. Although Grinstead's parents are not known, it is likely that he was a younger son of an attorney and learned his father's trade. Under English common law of primogeniture, only the eldest son could inherit the father's property. Many younger sons sought their fortunes in the colonies across the Atlantic.
Mottram soon recognized Grinstead's value and had him represent him in legal matters. It was at Coan Hall that Grinstead met Elizabeth Key. They fell in love and had two sons, John and William, but indentured servants could not marry. Elizabeth's future was uncertain without freedom. When Mottram died in 1655, Grinstead went to work. Grinstead sued the Mottram estate for Elizabeth Key's freedom. At age 25, she had been a servant for 19 years \emdash - 15 for Mottram, far beyond the usual bounds of indenture. One of the basic issues the Court needed to settle was whether Elizabeth Key's father was a free man, as she claimed. Testimony depended on what neighbors knew.
Nicholas Jurnew, 53, a man who knew the family, testified in 1655 that he had "heard a flying report at Yorke that Elizabeth a Negro Servant to the Estate of Col. John Mottrom (deceased) was the Childe of Mr. Kaye but ... Mr. Kaye said that a Turke of Capt. Mathewes was Father to the Girle."
Elizabeth Newman, 80, testified that "it was a common Fame in Virginia that Elizabeth a Molletto, now (e) servant to the Estate of Col. John Mottrom, deceased, was the Daughter of Mr. Kaye; and the said Kaye was brought to Blunt-Point Court and there fined for getting his Negro woman with Childe, which said Negroe was the Mother of the said Molletto, and the said fine was for getting the Negro with Childe which Childe was the said Elizabeth."
The court documents can be dramatic reading. "The deposition of Alice Larrett aged 38 yeares or thereabouts Sworne and Examined Sayth that Elizabeth ...twenty five yeares of age or thereabouts and that I saw her mother goe to bed to her Master many times and that I heard her mother Say that shee was Mr. Keyes daughter."
The Court accepted the argument for Thomas Key's paternity and granted Elizabeth Key her freedom. Mottram's estate appealed the decision to a higher court, which overturned the lower court and ruled that Elizabeth was a slave.
Grinstead took the case to the Virginia General Assembly, which appointed a committee to investigate. They decided to send the case back to the courts for retrial. Elizabeth Key finally won her freedom on three counts, including that by English common law, the status of the father determined the status of the child. Elizabeth Key's father was free, she had been baptized as a Christian, and she had served as an indentured servant past her "coming of age" - becoming an adult. Primarily it was Key's father's status that gained her freedom. The court ordered Mottram's estate to compensate Key with corn and clothes for her lost years.
A certificate stating the intention of William Grinstead and Elixabeth Key to marry was published in open court July 21, 1656, the same month in which she won her freedom. Presumably they married soon thereafter. William died an early death in about 1662.
Elizabeth later remarried the widower John Parse, who died in 1667. Since she is not mentioned in the will she presumably died before he did. Their sons inherited 500 acres. As a consequence of the Elizabeth Key freedom suit (and similar challenges), in December 1662 the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a colonial law that required Negro women's children to serve according to the condition of the mother, known as partus sequitur ventrum. The statute was a dramatic departure from the English tradition in which a child received his or her social status from his or her father. This law set into motion the enslavement of all children born to slave mothers in the United States for another 204 years. Only in 1865 did the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolish slavery.
**********
For a detailed analysis of the legal issues involved in Elizabeth Key's freedom suit see the following article by Taunya Lovell Banks, Professor of Equality Jurisprudence, University of Maryland School of Law, and published in the Akron Law Review:
http://www.uakron.edu/law/lawreview/v41/docs/Banks_final08.pdf
"The Cases of Fernando and Elizabeth Key: A note on the Status of Blacks in Seventeenth-Century Virginia" is an article by Warren M. Billings in William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, 30, 3 (1973), pgs 467-74. The extant court documents relative to the Elizabeth Key case have been reprinted in The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth-Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1689 by the same author.
See also
jonesandrelated.blogspot.com/2012/02/elizabeth-key-grinstead.html
1
Ruth & Sam Sparacio (The Antient Press, 1993), Repository: Clayton Library, Houston, Texas.
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