Buckingham Notables: Archibald Cary

Col. Archibald Cary

( “Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia,” by Richard Channing Moore Page)

In September 1742, when Albemarle County was still a twinkle in Goochland County’s eye and Buckingham County was nowhere on the horizon, Henry Cary transferred 4,132 acres, lying on both sides of Willis’s Creek, to his son, Archibald “Old Iron” Cary. The deed included ten slaves and was witnessed by David Bell, who married Henry’s daughter, Judith Cary, and became the first Clerk of Court of Buckingham County.

In 1744, these Cary holdings were cut from Goochland, becoming the far eastern edge of the newly established Albemarle County.  The family called the place, Buckingham. The name persisted, and in 1746, Albemarle road orders mention the “Buckingham Path,” in the vicinity of Slate River.  It is entirely possible that the continuation of what became the “Buckingham Road” was the single biggest factor in the dissemination of the name throughout the region.

Archibald Cary held his “Buckingham tract” for thirty years when he considered selling. An advertisement in the Virginia Gazette, which ran in April 1772, offered the property coupled with an additional 3,000 adjacent acres. In the end, Col. Cary did not part with the Buckingham land prior to his death. Instead, he passed it to various family members in his last will, dated February 12, 1787. To his son-in-law, Archibald Bolling and his second wife, Jane Randolph (daughter of Richard Randolph), he gave the 1000-acre plantation known as Red Oak, on Mountain Creek of “Willis River,” in Buckingham County.  Another 1,000 acres, adjoining Red Oak, went to his grandson Archibald Cary Bolling, the son of his daughter Sarah Bolling, deceased. To his daughter, Betty Cary, he left the remaining 2,000 acres at fork of Willis in Buckingham.

In addition to Red Oak, other Cary plantations lying in Buckingham County included “Half Way Branch,” “Taylor’s Branch,” and “Caryswood.” None, it appears, was called “Buckingham.” Each developed its own identity, and the original reference to Buckingham as a specific plantation drifted out of memory.

Coming up next:  More about David Bell and his home, Bellmont.