Richard (“Hard”) Chichester

Our third Richard Chichester married twice—with Anne Gordon, in Lancaster Co, Virginia, on 9 Jun 1759, and with Sarah McCarty, sometime after 1765.

Richard’s first wife was born in 1743 to James and Millicent (Conway) Gordon. Irish-born James Gordon was a wealthy Scotch-Irish merchant with numerous ties to the Lancaster Co Tapscotts.

According to his Lancaster Co journal, on 23 June 1761 James Gordon spent the night with “Mr. Tapscot” (Capt. Henry Tapscott, son of Henry the Immigrant). The next day, Gordon recorded that, “Mr. T. went with me to Mr. Chichester’s before breakfast.” “Mr. Chichester” was Richard (“Hard”) Chichester. Following James Gordon’s death in 1768, Capt. Henry Tapscott was one of those chosen to divide the estate.

Richard’s second wife, Sarah, was a daughter of Daniel McCarty, a Revolutionary War soldier, and Sinah Ball. Like her mother-in-law, Ellen (Ball) Chichester, Sarah was related to George Washington. Sarah McCarty’s grandmother Sarah Ball, Daniel McCarty’s mother, was Washington’s second cousin. In fact Sarah McCarty was the grandniece of her mother-in-law, Ellen Ball. Multiple relationships were common among the Balls.

Mount Air Plantation House c1960, where Richard lived
and died, suffered fires over the years and is no
 longer extant. (Edith Moore Sprouse, Mount Air.)

Richard and his second wife settled in Fairfax Co, Virginia, living in the Mount Air plantation house, which had been owned by the McCarty family for generations. Richard’s 1793 Fairfax Co will listed his six multiply-named (Southern-style) children—Sarah McCarty, Richard McCarty, Daniel McCarty, Sinah Ellen, Mary Syms, and Doddridge Pitt—three daughters and three sons.

Richard Chichester presented a fabricated appearance of respectability. It was said that

[He had] acquired the reputation of an accomplished hypocrite, owing to his extra airs of piety. . He was even accused of that species of gallantry technically called “flirting with a wench.” He had long been known among his equals as St. Richard and among the vulgar by the less euphonious, but not less expressive, sobriquet of Pious Dick.

But these odious behaviors were nothing compared to Richard’s malicious attributes. Richard had a reputation for treating his slaves badly. He is said to have placed an ad in an Alexandria paper for a runaway weaver named “Immanuel,” who was described by “His back and arms much scarred with the whip, proceeding from his uncommon villainy.” But any “uncommon villainy” was Richard’s.

A codicil to Richard Chichester’s will states

Whereas it occurs to my mind, that it may so happen that some of the slaves I have in my will bequeathed, or devised unto my beloved wife, Sarah Chichester may be induced to run away from her service, in order to perplex and distress my said wife – Therefore to prevent such an evil I Do then in that Case give and bequeath unto my said beloved wife, full and complete power and absolute authority to sell and dispose of any, and every one of said slaves, that shall violate the laws of the land and their duty

Find a Grave.

Richard’s nickname “Hard,” given by many biographers may be due to his cruel treatment of slaves. On the other hand, Richard’s gravestone in the Chichester Family Cemetery in Lorton, Virginia, is broken and the “RIC” is missing from his name. The stone reads “SACRED To the memory of …HARD CHICHESTER.” Which came first, the nickname or the broken stone?

Richard died a wealthy man. In his will, he bequeathed over three thousand acres in Fairfax and Fauquier counties to his heirs, along with livestock, plantation equipment, and 126 slaves. He even had some property back in old England, in Colchester, and a copy of his will was filed with the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, England.

Two of Richard’s children ended up with Tapscott descendants—Richard McCarty and Doddridge Pitt. We will take a look at the descendants of each, though the Doddridge Pitt line produced the greater number of Tapscott descendants, primarily due to Doddridge’s grandson, William Doddridge Chichester, who did his best to increase Virginia’s population on his own.

The Early Chichesters

 One cannot research the Tapscotts of Fauquier Co without including the Chichesters, with whom they have had numerous connections. An old, famed, and well-to-do British family, the Chichesters have been traced back to 1086, when a chap named “Engeler” held land in the manor of Cicestr’ in the County of Sussex in southeast England. The next resident of the manor was Henry de Cicestr’ a name that went to “Cicester” and eventually “Chichester,” and dropped the “de.” A major branch of the Chichester family developed in Devon, and it is from this branch that the line important in Fauquier Tapscott history originated.

The first of that line to come to America was Richard Chichester, one of a confusing number of Richards we will encounter. Our tale’s first Richard was born 5 Mar 1657, baptized eleven days later in Silverton, Devon Co, England, and married to one Anna sometime before 1681 in Widworthy Devon. Richard then traveled to America, where on 11 Jul 1719 he made bond in Lancaster Co, Virginia Colony, to wed Ann Chinn (widow of William Fox), his first wife apparently having died. Ann Chinn was a sister of Rawleigh Chinn Sr., grandfather of Mary Shearman, second wife of Capt. Henry Tapscott of Lancaster Co, giving us our first connection between the Tapscotts and the Chichesters. How about that for a stretch?

The bond for Richard’s second marriage was witnessed by Rawleigh Chinn. John Chichester, Richard’s son from his first marriage, who had traveled from England to Virginia, provided the security. On 14 Apr 1734 in Lancaster Co. our first Richard signed his will, which was probated on 12 Jun 1734. The will made Richard’s grandson, a second Richard, the executor. John Chichester had died by that time.

Parish Church, Widworthy 2007. (Expedia.)

When John Chichester traveled to Virginia in the early 1700s, he left his wife, Elizabeth Symes, and two sons in England. The family had probably been living at Widworthy, Devon, where John had been baptized on 10 May 1681. Several years later Elizabeth and son Richard (that’s number two) joined John in Virginia, but then returned to England around 1726. Elizabeth died there about 1728 and when Richard returned to Virginia, he found his father had also died. The orphaned Richard settled in Lancaster Co, Virginia Colony, where on 2 Jul 1734, he made bond to marry Ellen Ball, a first cousin once removed of Mary Ball Washington, mother of the first U.S. president. Mary Ball’s father, Joseph, was the brother of Ellen Ball’s grandfather William.

Ellen Ball was also a second cousin once removed of Capt. Henry Tapscott’s second wife, Mary Shearman. This very remote connection along with the one mentioned earlier, may have led to Capt. Henry naming one of his sons “Chichester,” an act that resulted in several subsequent Tapscotts also having “Chichester” as a given name. But Capt. Henry may have been stretching things to introduce this highly respected name into his family.

Richard Chichester and Ellen had five children, named in Richard’s 1743 Lancaster Co, Virginia, will—John, Richard, Elizabeth, Ellen, Mary, and Hannah. But it is Richard (the third) who continued the line of interest to us.