Article from The William and Mary Quarterly, Ser. 1, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jan., 1900),
pages 183–186.] Hathitrust.org Accessed July 28, 2026.

Original transcription by Carol A. Morrison, c. 1997 with review, corrections, and formatting for readability by Ed Olsen, county coordinator, 2026.

Sir Thomas Lunsford

      Among the cavaliers who came to Virginia in 1649 was Sir Thomas Lunsford, knight baronet. He was knighted December 28, 1641, and made lieutenant of the Tower of London. On the 27th of December, while walking through Westminster Hall with twenty or thirty of his friends, and meeting a band of apprentices, he and his companions drew their swords and wounded twenty or thirty of them and denounced them as "Roundheads" because of their fashion to cut the hair round. He married, it seems, three times. His second wife was Catherine, daughter of Sir Henry Neville, of County Berks, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Smith, of County Kent. By her he had a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1642, who in 1667 married Daniel Norton of County Berks, Philippa, who died young, and Maria, born in the Tower of London, who in 1665 married Thomas Collier, a brewer of Shoe Lane, London. (Neill's Virginia Carolonum, p. 381.) There was a William Lunsford, Esq., probably a son, mentioned in the land grant given him on his arrival in Virginia.

      This grant, dated Oct. 24, 1650, was for 3,423 acres "lying upon a Bay on the south side of Rappahannock river." The consideration was his transportation of sixty-five persons, who are named in the records as fallows [follows]:

      S^r Thomas Lunsford Kn^t  Bar^t., the Lady Lunsford, Mrs. Elizabeth Lunsford, Mrs. Philippa Lunsford, Mrs. Mary Lunsford, Wm. Lunsford Esq^rs, M^r Foster, M^r Henry Benskin, M^r Bird, M^r Cook, M^r Warren, M^r Cartwright, M^r David Phillips, M^r Wm Caldwell, M^rs Peirce, M^rs Ann Bradley, M^r Thomas Marshall, James Randall, Robert Beard, Edmond Roberts, William Bush, Valentine Harvey, Thomas Aldridge, Thomas Davis, Francis Roberts, Richard Millard, Richd Greene, Isabella Maidhone, John Butcher, John Beech, Nicholas Menlgo, John Madley, Nicho. Church, Antho: Griffith, Wm Fletcher, Richard Holdrich, Cassanamjius Smith, John Williams, George Weeden, Edmond Hawkes, John Bradbury, Thomas Menloe, Thomas Hodskins, William Velley, Tho. Maidstone, Yarmer Jones, Mrs. Jones, Jones his child, Jones his child, Robert Hallowes, W^m Griffeth, W^m Copeland, James Wheafsby, Old Buck, Wm Harphy, Christopher Godwon, Eliz^a Scotchwoman, Martha, Isaac Cavalier, Gregory, Dandall, our called Indian, Penelope Harris, M^rs Maidstones child.

      A pedigree of the Lunsfords in the British Museum mentions that Lunsford "sould all and went into Virginia, where he married his third wife." He was made by Sir William Berkeley lieutenant-general of the Colony and a member of the Council. ([William and Mary] QUARTERLY, IV. [ser.1:v.4], p. 202). He died before 1656, as in that year the Dame Elizabeth Lunsford appears in the Lancaster records as transacting business in her own name. She was the widow first of Richard Kempe, Esq., secretary of state, and after Lunsford's death, married Major-General Robert Smith, of Middlesex county.

      "I Thomas Stegge do hereby acknowledge that I have receaved of the Lady Lunsford Twoe Thousand pounds of Tobaccoe & Caske w^ch is in full of all Accompts between M^r John Calvert & M^r Richard Kempe, as witness my hand this first of December 1656.  
"Recorded 7 ^o Jan A^o 1656 Thomas Stegge."

       Sir Thomas Lunsford was buried near Greenspring, the residence of Sir William Beckeley, and there was a monument there to the joint memories of Thomas Ludwell, Esq., secretary of state, Richard Kempe, his predecessor in the secretary's office, and Sir Thomas Lunsford. This tombstone is now in the churchyard at Williamsburg, whither it was carried some years ago. The Lady Lunsford, who survived him, was his Virginia and third wife. In the Lancaster county records occurs a deed, dated April 28, 1656, from Dame Elizabeth Lunsford to her loving friend Richard Lee, for fifty acres on Rappahannock river, "being part of a dividend assigned me by Sam'l Abbot." She had one daughter, Catherine, so called by reason of the custom of our ancestors of naming the eldest child after the dead wife. In the records of the General Court appears this entry some years latter:

12^th of October 1670.--
      Governo^r S^r Sir Henry Chicheley, Tho. Ludwell, Secr, Edw^d Diggs, Majo^r Gen^ll Smith, Theo. Bland, Coll Swann, Lt Coll Parke, Coll Brown, Coll Jennings, Tho. Ballard.
     *    *
      Whereas S^r Thomas Lunsford Kn^t Barron^t decd was by pattent possesst of a tract of land conteyning about three or foure thousand acres of Land lying in the freshes of Rappa river commonly called portobacco and whereas at this Court M^rs Katherine Lunsford one of the Daughters of the said S^r Thomas petitions this cort that she might be permitted to seat such p^t of the said land in her owne right as this court should thinke fitt to allow The Cort doth thereupon ord^r that she doe seat and possesse herselfe of some pt of the said land that may not p^rjudice the Indians now liveing upon pt of the said land And whereas there are three daught^rs in England by a form^r venture who hath not made any claime to the said land It is ord^rd that if they doe not make their clayme to the sd land according to Act, that then the said Katherine to have hold possesse and enjoy the same to her and her heires forever and the petition of the said Katherine ordrd to be recorded.

      Madam Katherine married, first, Peter Jennings, attorney-general, and, second, about 1672, Hon. Ralph Wormely, Esq., secretary of state, and her death in 1685 is thus recorded in the parish register of Middlesex county:

       The Honorable Lady Madam Katherine Wormeley wife of the Hon^ble Ralph Wormeley Esq^r Departed this Life 17th of May 1685 & was buried in the Chancell of the Great Church between ^ye Hon [Sir Henry] Chicheley &  *  *

       She had issue, by Wormely, two daughters, (1) Elizabeth, who married Mr. John Lomax, son of Rev. John Lomax and Catherine Gray his wife, (2) Catherine, who married Gawin Corbin, but left no issue.

       "Mr. John Lomax & M^rs Elizabeth Wormley were Married June ^ye 1st 1703" (Middlesex Register).

       There is of records in Essex county a deed, dated April 8, 1707, from Gawin Corbin, releasing his right to "John Lomax of the county of Essex, in the Colony of Virginia, gentleman, and to Elizabeth Lomax, his wife, late Elizabeth Wormeley, daughter of Ralph Wormeley, Esq., deceased," in an island of 500 acres included within the land called Portabago formerly granted to Sir Thomas Lunsford, knight and baronet, on October 24, 1650. The deed recites that Gawin Corbin and John Lomax and Elizabeth his wife "have actual possession of said land," and that Gawin Corbin "has a life interest in a moiety of the same, after whose death the reversion thereof is the proper inheritance of the said John Lomax and Elizabeth his wife, late Elizabeth Wormeley, in fee simple."

     Issue of John Lomax and Elizabeth Wormeley: Lunsford, born Nov. 5, 1705; Catherine, born Oct. 5, 1707; Susanna, John, Frances.

     Lunsford Lomax married Mary Edwards, daughter of William Edwards,* of Williamsburg, June 14, 1729. The ceremony was performed by Rev. James Blair at Mr. Ludwell's (Greenspring).

     Thus, through the Lomax family and its intermarriages, Sir Thomas Lunsford has numerous descendants in Virginia, among whom may be mentioned Lunsford Lomax Lewis, Ex-President of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. (See Virginia Magazine, Vol. I., and Lomax Family.)

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*William Edwards resided more often in Surry where his ancestors had long been seated.