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.