Watkins and Rockett: Fancy Seeing You Here

“It’s a small world after all.” Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman

In 1689, the Anglican churches in the Colony of Virginia needed priests, and Rev. Jacob Ware decided to answer the call. On 11 November 1689, just prior to his departure from England for the colonies, he signed this receipt:

"Recd then of William Jephson Esq By mee Jacob Ware Clerke the sume of Twenty Pounds as of his Majesty's free guift and royall bounty for & towards ye charges of my transportacion to Virginia where I am going. Chaplaine I say recd by mee."

Jacob Ware settled in New Kent County, Colony of Virginia, and at the 12 May 1690 meeting of the Vestry of St. Peter's Parish, he was named as the parish minister. He was to receive 12,000 pounds of tobacco (the currency at that time) per year.  

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church by Jjmusgrove created 2014 from Wikipedia.org

BAC’s WATKINS Direct Ancestors:	HRB’s ROCKETT Direct Ancestors:
1687-88 - Jonathan Morfield, possible father of Daniel Murfield, dies February 18. p. 64	1690-91 - Jacobb Ware marries Susanna Adams February 3. p. 52
1708 - Daniel Murfield marries Rachel Coker/Cocker on July 22. They are Rachel Elizabeth Murfield’s parents. p. 48	1694-95 - Anne Ware daughter of Jacob Ware clergy bap January 5. She is the future wife of Baldwin Rockett. p. 42
1730-31 - John Slayden son of Arthur and Rachel (Murfield) Slayden born February 22 and baptized March 4. p. 105

Source: The Parish Register of Saint Peter’s, New Kent County, Va. From 1680 to 1787, published by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia. (Baltimore: Clearfield Publishing, Reprint 2000).

From 1687 to 1757, the Murfield, Slayden, Rockett, and Ware families were witnessing numerous baptisms, marriages, and deaths at this church. Who knew that over 300 years later, these same families would unite in marriage in what was then the wild Indian lands of the frontier!

Close-up from cartographer Guillaume de L’Isle (1675-1726), L’Amerique Septentrionale, dated 1700, Paris.

Today, St. Peter’s is an Episcopal church still in operation and on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located in modern-day Talleysville, New Kent, Virginia.