Buckingham Notables: The Allens of Hunts Creek, Part III

Snowden For Sale. Jesse Jopling, Trustee for Zachariah Nevil.

The Fall 2018 Issue of Central Virginia Heritage includes three Allen family wills transcribed by Jean L. Cooper. These wills inspired “The Allens of Hunts Creek.”

Need to catch up? Click here: Buckingham Notables: The Allens of Hunts Creek, Part I

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Jesse Allen, 1780 will, continued

To my surprise, I recognized Jesse Allen’s legatee Jesse Jopling, first encountering him through a Nevil-Jefferson connection. (Recall that Jesse Allen’s mother was Betheniah Thomas. Her father was James Nevil, making her kin to Zachariah Nevil of Nelson county who died in 1830.)

In 1803, Randolph Jefferson’s only daughter, Anna Scott Jefferson, married Zachariah Nevil. When Nevil died suddenly in 1830, he left no will and two of his four children were minors. Anna Scott (Jefferson) Nevil had predeceased her husband.

Their oldest son, James Lilburne Nevil, and Jesse Jopling were appointed administrators to Nevil’s estate. Lafayette Nevil chose Jesse Jopling as his guardian.

Jesse Jopling grew to have a wide influence. In 1810, while living in Buckingham County, he owned thirty slaves, three of them may have been the individuals inherited from Jesse Allen. By 1830, he lived in Nelson County. He died in Albemarle County in March of 1837 and, in July of 1839, his plantation was advertised for sale in the Richmond Enquirer. Located in Albemarle County, “Peach Orchard” contained 700 acres. It was Jopling’s home at the time of his death, described as “valuable and very desirable. . . . Having on it a large and good dwelling house, an excellent young Apple Orchard of choice fruit, grape vines, peach trees, &c.” In addition to these Albemarle lands, there was property in Nelson, to be sold by Holman Jopling and James Pamplin.

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For more about Jesse Jopling, the Jeffersons, and the Nevil family, see “Anna Scott Jefferson: The Rise and Fall of the Nevils of Nelson County,” in my newest book: Peter Field Jefferson: Dark Prince of Scottsville & Lost Jeffersons.

Coming next: Buckingham Notables: The Allens of Hunts Creek, Part IV