Buckingham Mysteries: Maynards Church
Buckingham Baptist Church (foreground section, Old Buckingham Church).
Photo by Joanne Yeck.
In 2013, I posted the following about Buckingham’s four original, Colonial-era churches:
The “mother” church, known as Buckingham, was located near present-day Gold Hill . . . this first glebe land was in the northeastern part of Buckingham, not far from Hunt’s Creek. By 1774, there were four churches in Tillotson Parish. In addition to Buckingham Church, Buck and Doe Church was named for a stream near Willis Mountain and New Store, in the southeastern section of the county. Maynards was the third, and Goodwin’s Church (a.k.a. Goodlin’s and Goodings) was located about eleven miles north of Buckingham Courthouse, near today’s Highway 20.
Following the American Revolution and the severing of ties with the Anglican Church, Tillotson Parish’s mother church, Buckingham, was eventually claimed by Rev. Rene Chastain and the congregation of Buckingham Baptist Church. The exact timing of this is unclear but the Baptists used the structure long before they finally held a deed to the property in the late 19th century.
If anyone can help with the location of Maynards Church, please let me know.
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Slate River Ramblings reader, Ed Ayres wrote to me with the following helpful information:
In his History of the James River Baptist Association 1832-1982 Robert L. Wood says that in 1775 a group met at “Maynard’s Corner” to start Liberty [Baptist] Chapel. He located Maynard’s Corner about five miles south of Bent Creek – which would put it in present day Appomattox County. Another clue can be found in the few remaining Tillotson Parish vestry records. From 1772 through 1775, John Patteson was paid 1,250 lbs. of tobacco each year for acting as “Reader & Sexton [at] Maynards Church.” Presumably he lived near the church so if anyone knows where he lived it may give another clue. It does seem Maynard’s Church was in the southwestern part of Buckingham as it was defined in the 1770s.
Does a Slate River Ramblings reader know where John Patteson lived in the 1770s?
To learn much more about the establishment of Tillotson Parish in Colonial Buckingham County and its first minister, Rev. William Peaseley, consult my book “At a Place Called Buckingham.”
slate river ramblings . . . . 
Joanne, I also notices in the Survey Platbook of Buckingham Book that Buck and Doe Creek was a stream running into the Willis River most likely as stated between New Store and Willis Mountain. It may also be on my 1863 map. I hope to check and let you know if I find it.
L. D.
Thanks for following up on Buck and Doe Creek. Let me know what you find.
Joanne
Kathie,
Yes, my Alexander Smith married Diana Phelps in about 1760. Their daughter Matilda married Littleberry Patteson. I have not worked on this line and don’t know how it might connect to the Buckingham County Pattesons.
Joanne
Some of my cousins descend from Littleberry and Matilda, so I’m familiar. I think there’s a definite close connection between Littleberry and our local Pattesons. I know Charles and Jonathan Phelps had dealings with him too.
K.
Les- the area you mentioned around the present day Wildway Rd is correct. Liberty Chapel/Maynards was in this area.
Note: The other church I mentioned, “Liberty Meeting” (circa 1776) was located across present day hwy 26 over in Stonewall/Wreck Island area. It later became known as Red Oak Baptist (and later moved to Oakville). Some people confuse this with Liberty Chapel).
Joan- question: how many John Pattesons were there? I have in my notes that my Charles Phelps inherited part of “a” John Patteson’s estate. I know where this property is at. It’s not the Wildway Rd area though. He could have possibly owned more than one property…..i haven’t researched my Patteson connections in depth yet, but I’m aware there are several.
Kathie
Well, the original question was where John Patteson lived (in the 1770s), so this isn’t off topic, but the deed file plots 8 properties listed as belonging to him, dating from 1746 to 1802 and are kind of scattered all about. There are more properties plotted where his name is mentioned (in a measurement such as “along Jno Patterson’s line).
Not quite sure how to post images here, but I did save the maps produced by the search string “jno pat”. This caught any possible spelling variants of “Patteson”.
The one property of John Patteson that Charles Phelps inherited is (if you’re looking at a modern map) on North Creek at Hwy 26 as you approach Oakville, going towards the James River. Look for North Creek Rd. to get an idea of location. (In the older patents, North Creek was formerly known as Elk Creek). We can cross this particular property off the list. This wasn’t close enough to be the location of Maynards.
Kathie
Kathie,
I don’t know how many John Pattesons lived in the area. Likely more than one!
My Smith family (which intermarried with the Phelps family) attended Red Oak Baptist. Thanks for mentioning it.
Joanne
Alexander Smith? and Diana Phelps, correct? (Didn’t one of their daughters also later marry a Patteson?)
K.
As I look through my notes, things are coming back to me…..if I’m not mistaken, Richard Phelps was the closest of my men in proximity to Maynards Church. (This line of my Phelps inter-married with the Pattesons). So find Richard, to get the closest to “x” marks the spot on your deed mapper software.
Also note- there are several mentions in the old records of “Liberty Meeting House”- they do not all refer to the actual “Liberty Chapel/Maynards”. More to come on that. (Several churches used the name Liberty- it’s too complicated to explain until I can reference some maps first).
Kathie
Thanks, Kathie, it’ll be this evening before I can get to it. It’s not app based yet, unfortunately.
To clarify, the source for my earlier post about Maynard/Liberty Chapel being the same was from an Appomattox heritage book published in Oct 2002, and on Google Books, p. 35 & 41.
One of those histories said “in letters, the church is referred to as Maynard’s Liberty Chapel” but it is unsourced and heritage books with user-submitted histories are caveat emptor.
Only showed James, William, Philip, Robert, and Thomas Phelps, no Richard that I’ve found yet.
The names you mention would have been the earlier patents (1745 forward). Richard was a son of William. I know his property is mentioned in the later deed indexes (I wonder if the later deeds have been added to the deedmapper software yet?). His children inherited. They were Richard (who died young), Charles, David B., and possibly 2 daughters. Sorry if it seems like I’m rambling- I am leading up to the answer to the original question. : )
The reason I’m honing in on Richard is due to the metes and bounds of his property specifically naming Maynards adjacent. We could possibly use Maynards, Richard Phelps, and John Patteson to triangulate the location of the original church.
Kathie
I found the Oakville property. It’s about 6.5 miles from Liberty Chapel, but Patteson also owned a good-sized parcel adjoining Nicholas Maynard under 2 miles from LC.
As for the deed files, they are all user-submitted and the program allows users to add their own in a variety of formats, including metes and bounds.
I believe most of the files are grants, the records of which were kept at Richmond, given the loss of most local records in 1869.
Can you email me the files you saved for John Patteson, etc.? I am very familiar with the area- something might jump out at me. If you don’t mind, send to kpmann72@msn.com
Let me know which software you are pulling from for your mapping. I could possibly enter some of the properties not shown to fill in the gaps (you did say it was user submitted, correct?).
Thanks,
Kathie
Milton and Joann,
I have always heard from older relatives that “Maynards” and Liberty Chapel were one and the same…..I didn’t have solid proof, (just family lore) so i didn’t include that in my original post; but yes, many believe they are the same thing. Milton- you’re definitely in the right area- Robert Phelps was one of the men I was thinking about who was close by. Let me dig- I think there is a surviving chancery suit or papers I have which mentions this area in the estate of Robert Phelps. (I had this discussion with someone who was looking for an ancestor in this area too- maybe Roger Ward?). I will check my notes and let you know.
Kathie
Kathie, thanks for letting me know I’m on the right track. These aren’t my relatives but everyone out there seems connected in one way or another.
The software I use (I haven’t mentioned a vendor name because I am unsure about the appropriateness of that here) allows the user to export a property to a .kml file which is readable by Google Earth and it brings up a current map with the old property boundaries overlaid.
As I understand it, the deeds are all user submitted / compiled, mostly from records held at Richmond, since few survived in Buckingham.
The files used by the plotting program are free to anyone, you just download the county’s mbl file (if it exists), change the suffix from .mbl or .nz to .txt and you can read it with any text program like Notepad.
Theoretically if you’re handy with a map and compass, you could plot them yourself on modern map overlays.
The files are indexed but those are for the landowners only. The real “gold” comes from the property boundary descriptions which name neighboring landowners/surface features not named in the actual deeds.
For instance, my Joseph Scott’s land deed isn’t in the file but his boundaries are mentioned in the deeds of David Bell and William Spencer.
Les,
Thanks for sharing more about the deed mapping software.
Joanne
Kathie,
Thanks for digging into your notes. More posts coming about Maynards and John Patteson.
A history of Appomattox churches equates Maynards and Liberty Chapel as one and the same, a name change occurring around 1840…the present site of Liberty Chapel is about 1.75 miles (as the crow flies) from the 1781 property boundary of John Patteson.
I used several different search strings, but using the word “church” in Appomatox county’s metes/bounds file for Deed Mapper turned up a few mentions of pointers (lines or points) either on or crossing “church road”. These were in the 1796 deed for Robert Phelps and the 1781 deed for Wm. Patteson.
Exporting the coordinates onto Google Earth, it *looks* like (I’m no map expert) that what they’re calling “church road” is 616 highway / Wildway Road about 3/4 mile southeast of Liberty Chapel Baptist Church…if that helps at all.
These locations are near lands owned by Nicholas Maynard.
Joann,
They are correct. I don’t know the exact location, but it was in the Oakville/Liberty Chapel area of what is now Appomattox. David’s Creek was also close by. Several of the Phelps men had land in that area. You also see it listed in old patents and tax lists as “Mainyards” Church- say it with a French accent and you realize it was a phonetic spelling of Maynard. : )
Thanks,
Kathie Phelps Mann
Kathie,
The alternative spelling of Maynards is a great detail. Thanks for sharing it!.
Joanne
I’ll check my map software tonight, but a look at the deed files the software uses for Appomattox and Buckingham (user-compiled) shows several entries for John Patteson beginning in 1746 that are classified by the mapping software as “well located”. Entries for Patteson by about 1793 refer to him as “decd”.
Perhaps as significant are several properties listed for Nicholas Maynard in the same area.
This program will produce images overlaid on Google Earth so they can be located using current surface features.
An old 1860-ish map I saw also shows a branch or tributary of David’s Creek known as Maynard’s Creek that may further help locate the approximate site of the old church.
Nicholas Maynard is the only Maynard listed in the deed file/property descriptions in the meets and bounds files.
Let me know if you think this might be helpful
Milton,
Many thanks for this information. It is helpful! I’m planning followups to today’s post and will share your comment. If you find more, please send it to me at jlyeck@gmail.com.
Joanne
Joanne:
Maps inbound to your email. Thanks, Kathie, for the “Mainyard” spelling, it brought up a couple more property descriptions in my mapping software.