PATRILINEAL LINE
The Warwicks
BEFORE AMERICA
The Warwick English Roots
The First Families of Virginia: English Origins
The families that became Marguerite Warwick's ancestry did not come to Virginia for religious reasons. They came for land, opportunity, and in some cases to escape political danger after the English Civil War. Virginia under the Crown was an Anglican society governed by county courts and parish vestries. Unlike New England, where land was distributed relatively broadly, Virginia quickly developed a system of enormous grants concentrated in a few hands.
The Virginia side of this family tree connects to six of the founding families of English colonial Virginia. The Warwicks arrived by 1664, first documented in Middlesex County records. The Byrds arrived around 1669; William Byrd Sr. came at his uncle Thomas Stegge's invitation, his Cheshire ancestry mirroring the Davenport family's medieval origins in the same English county. The Randolphs, from Moreton-Morrell in Warwickshire (the same county where Rev. John Davenport was born in Coventry), arrived around 1673. The Carters arrived around 1649; Robert "King" Carter became Acting Governor, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and Treasurer of Virginia. The Beverleys arrived around 1670; Robert Beverley's son wrote the first history of Virginia by a native Virginian (1705). The Blands arrived around 1654 as part of the Royalist diaspora following Charles I's execution.
THE WARWICK LINE
Eight generations
to Louise Marguerite Warwick
GENERATION I
Thomas Warwick & Penelope Paine
unknown – bef. 1678 · Middlesex Co., Virginia
The first Warwick documented in Virginia. His land patent of 1664 is the earliest record of the name in the colony, granting him 200 acres on the Rappahannock River at the head of Parratt's Creek. By 1670 he was serving as a vestryman at Christ Church Parish. He died before 1678.
GENERATION II
Thomas Warwick & Mary (Lee) Jones
1673–1717 · Middlesex Co., Virginia
Son of the first Thomas, he married Mary Jones in 1711 and appears frequently in the parish records of Christ Church, Middlesex County. The inventory of his estate was recorded in October 1718.
GENERATION III
John Warwick & Agatha Buford
1711–1744 · Middlesex Co., Virginia
He married Agatha Buford Twyman in 1735, a widow. He died March 4, 1744, in his early thirties, when his son Abraham was barely six years old. Agatha Buford outlived three husbands and died at the age of 80.
GENERATION IV
Pvt. Abraham Warwick & Amy Campbell
1738–1808 · Middlesex → Amherst Co., Virginia
He moved to Amherst County in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, where he kept a tavern and later purchased the property known as Mount Jury. He served in the Amherst County militia during the Revolution (DAR Patriot A121744). He was known for saying: "I thank God that no man can call me brother." His wife Amy lived to approximately 101, keeping house entirely for herself until the very end.
GENERATION V
Maj. William Sidney Warwick & Sarah Barksdale
1765–1832 · Amherst Co. → Lynchburg, Virginia
One of the most prominent citizens of Lynchburg. He served as a sergeant in the Virginia state artillery during the Revolution (DAR Patriot A121758) and later became President of the Branch Bank of Virginia at Lynchburg. His 1832 obituary described him as possessing "clear judgement and sterling integrity," as "uncompromising and fearless in the expression of the truth," and remarkable for his "gentlemanly deportment and urbanity of manners."
GENERATION VI
Corbin Warwick & Margaret Elizabeth Bradfute
1792–1877 · Richmond, Virginia
He came to Richmond as a young man and spent more than fifty years in the tobacco trade, in which he was long a recognized leader. When the Civil War came, nearly all of a large fortune was swept away. In those same years he lost his two sons, Bradfute and Barksdale, both killed in Confederate service. His obituary described him as "a kind-hearted, generous, and true old Virginia gentleman, the very model of an upright and courteous businessman." He died January 23, 1877, at his residence on Grace Street.
GENERATION VII
Byrd Warwick & Ida Louise Burrows
1848–1894 · Richmond, Virginia
He became a central figure in Richmond business life. He was senior partner in Warwick Brothers, president of the Standard Spike Company, and a director of the First National Bank. He died suddenly of heart failure on June 24, 1894, at 608 West Franklin Street, in the 46th year of his life. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery, where John and Marguerite also rest.
GENERATION VIII
Louise Marguerite Warwick & John Sidney Davenport Jr.
1880–1968 · Richmond, Virginia
Born in Richmond, the daughter of Byrd and Ida Warwick, she grew up in the city her ancestor William Byrd II had founded and carried the full weight of its oldest families into the 20th century through her marriage to John Sidney Davenport Jr. in 1904. She outlived her husband by twenty-two years, dying in 1968 at the age of eighty-eight. See the page on John & Marguerite.