Woods, Michael Sr.

1684 - 1762

• Name	Woods, Michael Sr.
  Suffix	Sr.
  Born	1684	Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Immigration	1724	Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
  	from Ulster, Ireland
  	Michael and the others in his band of immigrants landed first in Pennsylvania, taking up residence in Lancaster County.
  Migration	1732	Botetourt County, Virginia
  	from Pennsylvania
  Migration	1734	Albemarle County, Virginia
  	from Botetourt County, Virginia
  Will	24 Nov 1761	Albemarle County, Virginia   [3]
  	In the name of God, Amen, this twenty fourth Day of November One thousand seven Hundred and Sixty one, I, Michael Woods of the Colony of Virginia and County of Albemarle, being very sick and weak in Body, But of Perfect mind and memory thanks to God, Therefore calling to mind the Mortality of my Body and Knowing that it is apointed for all men once to Die, Do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament that is to say principally and first of all, I Give and Recommend my Soul into the Hands of Almighty God that gave it and my Body I Recommend to the Earth, to be Buried in Decent Christian Burial, and as touching such Worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me in this Life, I give devise and Dispose of in the following manner and form. Firstly, Get all my Debts paid.  Second, I give and bequeath to my Son Archibald Woods ten pounds.  Thirdly, I give and bequeath to my Son John Woods Ten pounds.  Fourthly, I give and bequeath to Daughter Sarah Ten Pounds, Fifthly, I give and Bequeath to daughter Hannah Ten pounds, Sixthly, I give and Bequeath my Deceased Daughter Margaret's children Ten Pounds.  Seventhly, I give and bequeath to Son Archibald and Son John my six hundred and eighty acres of Land Lying on Ivy Creek and the said Land shall be Sold and the Money Divided among Sons John and William Wallace's Families and that each Grand child now in being shall have an Equall Share.  Eighthly, I give and bequeath to Son William Woods Twenty Shillings which shall be paid out of Said Land. Ninthly, I give to William's Son Michael Twenty Shillings which shall be paid out of Such Land.  Tenthly I give and bequeath to Daughter Sarah one pistole which Shall be of the Ready money now By me. Eleventhly, I give and Bequeath to Son Archibald's Son Michael my Great Coat. And I do hereby utterly revoke and disallow all and every other former Testaments Wills Legatees Bequeaths and Executions by me in any ways before named Willed and Bequeathed, Ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament  In Witness whereof, I have hereunto Set my Hand and Seal the Day and Year above written. /s/ Michael Woods Signed Sealed Published Pronounced and Declared by the said Michael Woods as his last Will and Testament in presence of us the Subscribers. Michael Woods, Minor Michael Wallace I Do by this presents constitute and appoint Son Archibald Woods,  John Woods & William Wallace to be my Sole Executors as Witness my hand the year A.D. above written. /s/ Michael Woods
  Died	1762	Mount Plains, Blair Park, Albemarle County, Virginia   [2, 4]
  Buried	1762	New Monmouth Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Lexington, Lexington City, Virginia   [3]
  Probate	11 Jun 1762	Albemarle County, Virginia   [5]
  Notes	The Woods and Campbell families were people of culture and property, but they were Dissenters and Presbyterians who had likely endured many petty tyrannies at the hands of the English ecclesiastics.  The tide of population from Ireland to the American colonies was just then of tremendous volume, and thousands of the very best people of Ireland were seeking homes beyond its borders.  Their objectives were twofold: to escape persecution, and to make a start in the perceived land of promise across the Atlantic.  In America, good land was abundant and cheap, and the promise of freedom and protection to all must have been inviting. In 1723/1724 , Michael's brother-in-law Peter Wallace Sr. died. With that event, our people decided to emigrate, and it was off to America. Along with his brother, Samuel, Michael had served in Marlborough's first campaigns on the Continent, and both were knighted about 1705 in London, obtaining a monetary award for their services to the Crown that they could build upon to afford later migration and land.  They both met their wives in London, sisters whose father was a member of Parliament (1705-1707), and had many daughters to marry off and only limited funds for that purpose. In 1724, at the age of 40,  Michael and his wife Mary (Campbell) Woods, along with their eleven children, his widowed sister, Elizabeth and her six children, and his brothers William, James and Andrew Woods and their families boarded ship.  Michael's wife, Mary, was of the mighty Campbell clan of Argyle. Nothing is known of Lady Mary (Campbell) Wood's brothers; James, Gilbert, and Alexander. It is possible they too were on board. It is also possible that other family members, whose relationship is unknown, were also on board.  These people always moved as families, members of clans, and communities. Arriving in Pennsylvania, Michael Woods spent about ten years in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  In 1734, owing to the attitude of the Quakers and the insistence that the proprietary government pass restrictive measures against the Scotch-Irish, Michael Woods decided to move to a new location. He had had enough of oppression and constrictions. The Virginia frontier seemed attractive and Gov. William Gooch, of that colony, was favorable to dissenters, other than Episcopalians, as defenders of the English of Eastern Virginia. Too, he was a Scotsman and knew the sturdy and reliable character of these Scotch-Irish. The following article is taken from the The Daily Progress newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia (1762-1962). It quotes a book by Mary Rawlings, published in 1935. Therefore, the article had to be written after that date. Michael Woods Led A Band of Settlers Most of Albemarle's first settlers followed a gradual westward movement from the Tidewater.  Mighty Michael Woods did not. In 1734 this ancestor of countless local residents and scores of western pioneers brought a band across the Blue Ridge Mountains from the Valley of Virginia. They had come from Pennsylvania, traveling over 200 miles, and are believed to have been the first whites to come through Woods' Gap by the old Indian trail.  There were 25 or 30 of them. Michael's wife, Mary Campbell, his sons and his sons-in-law and their families. They took up large holdings from Greenwood to Ivy. In 1737 Woods entered a claim for 1,300 acres on Mechum River and Lickinghole Creek. He also purchased 2,000 acres on the head waters of Ivy Creek. Woods was born in the north of Ireland in 1684 and came to this country "sometime in the decade of 1720. Landing on the banks of the Delaware, he spent some years in Lancaster County, Pa., thence ascended the Valley of Virginia and crossed the Blue Ridge." His home was near the mouth of Woods Gap and there he was buried in 1762 in the family burying ground a short distance from the dwelling. His will mentioned six children, three sons and three daughters. Historians say there is evidence that there were four other children, two sons and two daughters. Miss Mary Rawlings, in her book Ante-Bellum Albemarle, wrote that the family was Scotch or Scotch-Irish, a family of education and refinement. One of Michael's daughters, Hannah, was married to William Wallace who settled on the Piedmont plantation in the Greenwood neighborhood. This land remains in the hands of the Wallace family. While many of the family descendants remained here, many more joined the westward movement. They went to the other areas of Virginia then being settled, and they went west and south--to Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio--where they were prominent in the early affairs and government of those areas. Of Michael Woods home, Miss Rawlings wrote "the original name of the plantation was Mountain Plain, the Mountain Plains Church having been built on a part of the land and named in commemoration. With the passing of the property to Chief Justice John Blair prior to 1788, the name of the home was changed and it has since been known as Blair Park. One of the Woods researchers was the late St. Clair County, Missouri historian, John Mills. He once found the graves of both Michael Woods (Sr.) and his wife, Mary Catherine Campbell near the first site of the Forks of the James Meeting House, somewhere near Glasgow, Virginia. That site has now been lost. Graves were moved to accommodate either a freeway or highway junction, leaving only these two behind -- and unmaintained. On the monument that may still exist with these graves, according to the late Mr. Mills, is an inscription noting that Mary was the first white woman in the Valley (Shenandoah) murdered by Indians in 1742. It is believed this was the same incident in which her son-in-law John McDowell sold liquor to the Iroquois party on its way to attack Cherokee on a hunting excursion that went too far north. There are several contemporary accounts of the military aspect of all this, with a mention of a few white settlers (unnamed) having been killed before McDowell was ordered to go after them. Some accounts, among the Preston papers (Capt. Preston of the late colonial militia and early Revolution) can be found in the Lyman Draper collection in the Library of Congress and at the University of Wisconsin. [3]
  Person ID	I3525	Wheeler

  
  

  Father	Woods, Sir John Jr.,   b. 1654, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Woods, Elizabeth,   b. Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Married	Est 1681	County Meath, Ireland
  Family ID	F4444	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Campbell, Lady Mary Margaret,   b. 2 Jun 1690, Edinburgh, Mid Lothian, Scotland ,   d. 1742, Virginia
  Married	Abt 1704  [6]
  Children	1. Woods, Sarah,   b. Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown   2. Woods, Archibald,   b. 11 May 1706, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. 11 Dec 1768, Albemarle County, Virginia   3. Woods, William,   b. 1707, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown   4. Woods, Hannah,   b. Abt 1710, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown   5. Woods, John,   b. 19 Feb 1712, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. 14 Oct 1791, Albemarle County, Virginia   6. Woods, Margaret,   b. Abt 1714, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown   7. Woods, Andrew,   b. 1722, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Last Modified	8 Dec 2012
  Family ID	F1161	Group Sheet

  
  

• Event Map	Load the map	Born - 1684 - Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland Immigration - from Ulster, Ireland - 1724 - Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Migration - from Pennsylvania - 1732 - Botetourt County, Virginia Migration - from Botetourt County, Virginia - 1734 - Albemarle County, Virginia Will - 24 Nov 1761 - Albemarle County, Virginia Died - 1762 - Mount Plains, Blair Park, Albemarle County, Virginia Buried - 1762 - New Monmouth Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Lexington, Lexington City, Virginia Probate - 11 Jun 1762 - Albemarle County, Virginia  = Link to Google Maps   = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Sources

  [S2126] Woods-Wallace Cousin Clues, Ruth Lamar Petracek, (Tustin, California; 1973. 212 pp.), CS71.W875.1973c., p. 38 (Reliability: 3), 29 Mar 2008. [S2114] Virginia, Annals of Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, Lewis Preston Summers, (Lewis Preston Summers, Pub., Abingdon, Virginia: 1929. Kingsport Press, Kingsport, Tennessee), p. 297 (Reliability: 3), 30 Mar 2008. [S627] Cecilia Linda Fabos-Becker Research, Cecilia Linda Fabos-Becker, (Various Internet message boards. "Google" her name to find messages associated with the Woods Family of Dunshaughlin Castle, County Meath, Ireland.). [S2106] Virginia, History of Albemarle County in Virginia, Rev. Edgar Woods, (Heritage Books, Inc. , Repository: Personal library of Gene Wheeler). [S2127] Archibald Woods of Albemarle County, Katie-Prince Ward (Mrs. Jerome A. Esker), (Virginia Historical Magazine, V. 51, (Oct. No. 1943), p. 366-376). [S63] Hearsay and Random Clues, (Unverified and often unattributed data obtained from on-line searches and elsewhere. May be imbedded in forum postings, public family trees, etc. May provide a clue for further research.).