Ancestors

Ann Colvill

Ann Colvill was the wife of James Colvill, who farmed on Cedar Creek in Frederick County, Virginia, south of Winchester and within four miles of the North Mountain. Her maiden name is not recorded. Nothing is known of her parents or of where she was born.

She married James about 1720. That date comes from a visitor. On Sunday 4 June 1775 Philip Vickers Fithian, a young Presbyterian preacher, preached twice at Cedar Creek. After the service he went home with the old man who had taken up the collection, and wrote of him in his journal: "His wife is old and flaxen haired as he. Both are hearty, lusty and nimble. In this happy condition of life and friendship by Hymen's blessing they have lived together fifty-five years." Hymen was the classical god of marriage. Fithian names his host only as Mr. Colville. He was almost certainly James, an elder of the Cedar Creek congregation who lived on the creek near the mountain.

Fithian found "three daughters at home, virgins, and well risen in years." The household had "some books, much poultry." The house stood on the bank of Cedar Creek, and on the far side the bank rose forty feet. Fithian stayed the night. In the morning he breakfasted "heartily and soundly on the richest products of a fat farm. Boiled milk, highly buttered, and fine cheese of two kinds, one made last summer, the other last week."

Her name is written two ways. A deed of 4 October 1763, by which James sold six and a half acres to four Philadelphia merchants, calls her "Jane his wife" in its body. Researchers' abstracts of the same deed give her signature as "Annie (X) Colvil," signed with her mark. O'Dell's abstracts of Frederick County records describe that deed, and a deed of 1774 to her son Samuel, as made by "James and his wife Anne." Her husband's will calls her Ann. With Fithian's fifty-five years of marriage, the "Jane" is most probably a clerk's slip, and James had one wife.

James made his will on 16 March 1776. Ann was to live with their son John, who took the plantation on the Long Meadow. She had a horse, two cows and a third of the household furniture. She also had a fifth share of the home plantation on Cedar Creek, beside her daughters Margaret Newell, Ann, Jannet and Eleanor Willson. The will was proved on 2 September 1777. When she died is not recorded.

As James's only recorded wife, she was very probably the mother of all his children: John, Samuel, Margaret, Mary, Ann, Jannet, Eleanor and Martha. Mary married a Marquis and was dead by 1776. Martha married Joseph Colvill, the eldest son of Joseph Colvell of Opequon Creek, and went with him to Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Martha's place in the family rests on two wills. James's will of 1776 left "my daughter Martha Colvill Ten Pound" and "my Grandson James Colvill the son of Joseph Colvill one Heifer." Her brother John Colvil's will of 1802 left a sixth of his estate "To my Sister Martha Colvil," less fifty pounds kept back for "her Daughter Ann." Joseph and Martha Colvill had a daughter Ann, the wife of John Adams, and John Adams was one of John Colvil's executors. That Ann was Martha's mother rests on Fithian's date. Ann was James's wife from about 1720, and Martha, whose son was born in 1767, was born well within that marriage.

If Ann Colvill is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Ann Colvill", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ann-colvill-247533.