Lt. Col. Francis Otway Byrd

Notes:

An officer in the British Navy, he resigned in 1775 and that year was
appointed aid to MGen, Benjamin Lincoln. In Jan 1777, he was appointed
LCol. of the3rd VA Light Dragoons and served throughout the war. He was
later sheriff and clerk of Charles City Co, VA.
------------------------
Ralph Roberts
Ralph Roberts is author of GENEALOGY VIA THE INTERNET 2nd ed.
He was an officer In the British Navy. At the beginning of the American
Revolution he resigned and offered his services to America.
In 1775, he was appointed an aide to General Lincoln and two years later
was made lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Virginia Continental Dragoons.
Colonel Byrd served throughout the war and afterward became Sheriff of
Charles City County. Virginia.
He was disinherited by his father because he joined the Continental Army
and became an officer on the staff of General Charles Lee.
He later took up lands in Ohio.

Family/Spouse: Anne Munford. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alt. Birth: 6 Sep 1728; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: 6 Sep 1728, Williamsburg, Charles County, Virginia; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: Between 6 Sep 1728 and 1729, Westover, Charles City County,; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: 6 Sep 1729, Westover, Charles City County,; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Death: 1 Jan 1777, Westover, Charles City County,; Alt. Death
• Alt. Death: 1 Jan 1777, Unknown; Alt. Death
• Alt. Death: 1 Jan 1777, Charles County, Virginia; Alt. Death

Notes:

Of "Westover," Charles City Co, VA; Burgess for Lunenburg Co, VA; Col. of
the 2nd VA Regt
1758 and active on the frontier. William was an avid gambler to
the extent that he sold his lots in
Richmond and Manchester by lottery and left his widow with
great debt.
1777 WILL: Charles City Co, VA, dtd 6 Jul 1774, probated 5 Feb
1777. William asked that he be
buried by the tomb of his sister Evelyn in the old Church Yard.
He stated that through his own folly
and inattention to accounts, inept managers, and villany of
others, he was leaving great debt. He
ordered the sale of 100 Negroes, what part of plate and
household furniture his wife could spare,
together with his library and part of his stock as necessary to
cover his debts. He had a disputed
accont with Col. Chiswell, probably over the Chiswell mine in
Fincastle Co which he left to son
John. He left "Westover" and "Buckland" to his wife as well as
all else left after the sale. At her death
all was to be sold and divided among his Undisclosed children at
that time. To be deducted from the share
was what he had from his first wife and what her children may
claim from his deluded and insane
mother and his ungrateful son William, except the Ferry at the
Falls left to my son John by his brother
William, which gift I have confirmed. He deducted 500
poundssterling from dau. Elizabeth that he
had paid to her husband, Mr. Farley, that sum under the unjust
will of his insane Mother. His son
Tom was to have 400 pounds deducted as that amount had been
paid for his commission and and
further payment for his promotions to be deducted from his
dividends (commissions for officers were
bought in the English service). Tom was to get only one
shilling if he married Susannah Randolph,
dau of the Attorney General in 1774. He stated that if son
Otway should quit the Navy before his
widow's death, he was to get only one shilling (he did just
that in 1775 to join the Patriots and one
wonders if this order was executed}. He gave son Charles, who
had never offended him, 1,000
acres in Fincastle called Salt Springs. All of the children by
his second wife were given two or more
Slaves including his then unborn son, Richard; Elizabeth from
his first wife was given Rachel amd her
family. His son, William Powell Byrd, conceived after the will
was written was not listed but perhaps
there was a codicil. He wished that hisservant, Jack White, be
freed at the death of his widow and
that such be recommended to the Governor and Council as he had
not only been the best of servants
but had served him many times from the grave. Sources: (1)
Nancy Bright - October 31, 2001
Died by self-inflicted gunshot to the temple in the drawing room
at Westover Plantation which he inherited.
He was a godson of Benjamin Franklin.
Inducted in the Middle Temple 1/6/1746-47, educated in England
under his Uncle *Francis Otway*, returned to Westover in 1748,
later introduced horse racing to America and built the first
race track, "Tryal" first race horse, nearly lost all of his
accumulated wealth due to his gambling habits that he acquired
while in England.
Was a noted Indian negoiator with the Catawba & Cherokee
Indians. Sentto Ft. Loudon on TN river that was besieged by
Cherokee Indians that massacared nearly all of the garrison. Col.
Byrd resigned. Saw service in the northern Colonies and
Canada.
The first building of "Westover" nearly burnt to the ground
when William IV was born due to a housekeeper brewing a lotion
on the 3rd floof of the plantation

William married Elizabeth Hill Carter in 1748 in Virginia. Elizabeth (daughter of Hon. John Carter, Honorable and Elizabeth Hill, daughter of Hon. John Carter, Honorable and Lady Cecily Elizabeth Hill) was born on 13 Oct 1731 in Shirley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia; died on 25 Jul 1760 in Charles City, Virginia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alt. Death: 1760, Caen, France; Alt. Death

Notes:

Burke's American Families with British Ancestry, 1975, p. 2597, Byrd
formerly of Broxton.

Notes:

Burke's American Families with British Ancestry, 1975, p. 2597, Byrd
formerly of Broxton.

John married Elizabeth Hill. Elizabeth was born in 1693 in Virginia; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alt. Burial: Christ Church, Lancaster County, Virginia; Alt. Burial
• Name: King
• Alt. Birth: 1663; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: 1663, Corotoman, Lancaster, Virginia; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: 1665, Corotoman, Lancaster County, Virginia; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: 1665, Corotman, Lancaster County, Virginia; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Birth: 1665; Alt. Birth
• Alt. Death: 1732; Alt. Death
• Alt. Death: 4 Aug 1732, Corotman, Lancaster County, Virginia; Alt. Death

Notes:

Col. Robert "King" Carter was America's first millionaire!
Obituary:
Headline:
SACRED GEOMETRY' RETIREE BELIEVES CHURCH IS ARCHITECTURAL
CALENDAR - Publication Date: April 23, 2000 - Source: Richmond
Times-Dispatch
Page: C-4; Subjects: ARCHITECTURE; RELIGION; BUILDING; SCIENCE
HISTORY
Region: Virginia
"Thou has ordered all things in number, weight and measure," quotes
Stephen Stewart from the ancient apocrypha's reference to God that he
said the British royal architect Sir Christopher Wren adopted as his
motto. Wren died in 1723,at least seven years before Lancaster County's
historic Christ Church was begun. But Stewart, who has pursued the
oft-referenced but never proven connection between Wren and the famous
Colonial church, thinks the motto is apt. "Number, weight and measure"
he believes describes the architectural masterpiece right down to the
curious symbols engraved in the metal key escutcheon on its front door
and the church's decorative sunburst pattern of wooden inlay above its
three-tiered pulpit.
Stewart is convinced the 265-year-old registerednational historic
monument is an architectural calendar. He believes it was deftly created
to tell time and celebrate the glory of Easter. It does, he maintains,
through a number-crunching design created with the use of what he calls
"sacred geometry" - the golden ratios of proportion that have existed in
architecture since earliest times. He says Christ Church is adjusted just
slightly south of an east- west alignment. It's the only way possible to
do what it does, he says. Among many things he has cataloged, it allows
the sun toshoot
a beam of light precisely upon the altar table during the midpoint of the
days reserved for Easter in the church calendar.
The building, he says, was carefully planned so its high west elliptical
window can capture the western sun beginning April 4, the midpoint of
Easter according to the moon phase, and continuing through April 8, the
midpoint among the span of days betweenMarch 22 through April 25 that
Easter can fall. The beam slants down to glisten on the altar table or
cross, depending on the day.
Whoever designed Christ Church "was building a house of worship including
all of God's geometry found in nature," says Stewart.
Stewart is not without his critics.
Officials associated with the church foundation say there has never been
a hint that Christ Church was designed to be anything else but a supreme
example of structural art.
"You would expect you'd find some mention" in records that Christ
Church was deliberately calibrated to capture sun rays, says Robert A.
Cornelius, the church foundation's director."
But, in the course of dogged day-after-day observations and record-
keeping over the years, Stewart says he's found that the building is
alive with solar phenomena and references to calendar numbers 52, 365 and
multiples of 13.
He has documented sunbeams striking, fourtimes a year, a tombstone
that's precisely in the center of the church's cross- shaped
intersection. The beams center the tombstone on May 6, Aug. 7, Nov. 7 and
Feb. 5. The dates are referred to in astronomy as "cross-quarter dates,"
Stewart says. They mark the midpoints of spring, summer, fall and winter.
Outside, shadows from the eaves on the west-facing wing move in tandem
withthe beam inside the church, Stewart said. The shadows trace the
course of spring to summer and back to fall as they are cast upon the
west faces of the south and north wings, he says.
There are an average 93.5 days from spring to summer and 93.5 days from
summer to fall. There are 93.5 courses of bricks on the building's walls,
Stewart says. But the tomb, which contains the remains of David Miles, a
former indentured servant who was a county justice, holds aspecial
interest for Stewart, who measured the dimensions of everything in the
church and its church yard before the foundat

Robert married Judith Armistead in 1688. Judith was born in 1665 in Gloucester County, Virginia; died on 23 Feb 1699. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alt. Birth: 1665; Alt. Birth

Notes:

At Old Christ Church, Lancaster Co., VA, east of the church:
"Here lyeth buried the body of Judith Carter, the wife of
Robert Carter, Esq., and eldest daughter of the Hon. John Armistead,
Esq., and Judith his wife. She departed this life the 23d day of
February, Anno 1699, in the -- year of her age, and in the eleventh year
of her marriage having borne to her husband five children, four daughters
and a son, two whereof, Sarah and Judith Carter, died before, and are
buried near her."