Elizabeth Percifull, an Overview

 

What do we know about Elizabeth Percifull, mother of the Fauquier Co Tapscotts, beyond her many male companionships?

Well, she was a child of Elijah and, almost certainly, Elizabeth (Carter) Percifull. In fact, as the first girl born to that couple, it is likely that Elizabeth got her name from her mother. Her date of birth has been reported by Beverley Fleet in his usually reliable Virginia Colonial Abstracts, to be 6 Feb 1765. But no source is cited, and that date is certainly incorrect. Were that the date of her birth, Elizabeth would have been in her 50s or 60s when some of her children were born. Besides, with that date of birth, Elizabeth would have been a daughter of Elijah’s first wife, Winifred Wildey, and thus would have had the name “Winifred.” (That’s a joke, Readers. At least, sort of.) The 1850 census gives Elizabeth’s age as 60, corresponding to a birth year of 1789 or 1790, and that appears reasonable. Since a year or two are often knocked off census ages, we will take Elizabeth’s birth year as c1789.

Elizabeth was probably born in Lancaster Co, the home of her parents and grandparents (both sides), but she lived most of her life one hundred miles northwest in Fauquier Co.

Virginia with Lancaster and Fauquier Counties in red. (Wikipedia, public domain.)

Lancaster Co, home of the Percifulls, was also homelands for the Tapscotts. In fact the Tapscott family lived in Wicomico Parish, which ran along the border between Lancaster Co and the next county to the north, Northumberland. And that is where Elijah, and for a while Elizabeth, lived.

Elizabeth probably left Lancaster Co to escape her father, with whom she is known to have had a falling out, undoubtedly due to her unconventional life style. But why Fauquier Co? It may have been due to less-restrictive race relations there, compared to other Virginia counties, at least according to some scholars. At the time Elizabeth moved to Fauquier Co, she is believed to have had at least one mixed-race child.

We don’t know when Elizabeth died, but it was probably between 1850, when she appears in the Fauquier Co federal census, and 1860, when she does not. For convenience I often give her date of death as c1855.

What do I think of Elizabeth? Unlike some, I think Elizabeth was a plucky, loving woman, who had to make do with what she had after the early death of her only legal husband. But wasn’t she a slave owner? Probably. But slavery in Elizabeth’s household appears to have differed from that found elsewhere, though we will never know for certain. Disagree? I would like to hear your opinion.