Fauquier County Tapscotts - Phil

Well, we're down to our final Elizabethan line (sorry for the corny pun) for the Fauquier County Tapscotts, the Phil line.

The name “Phil,” appears in a single record, a marriage register entry for the 1 May 1872 Fauquier County union of William Tapscott and Margaret Proctor. The register gives William’s parents as Phil and Elizabeth, with no last names. Phil’s surname is assumed by many to have been “Tapscott,” but that almost certainly was not his birth name. William’s father was likely a slave since William and his descendants appear to have been at least partially African American.

A slave named “Phil” is known to have lived in Fauquier Co during the early 1800s. From a Fauquier County Minute Book for 1800 and 1801:

The Overseers of Poor of this County are to take the Negro Phil, said to belong to the estate of Joseph Duncan and afford him such support and sustenance as they may deem necessary. The Overseers of Poor shall make inquiry to whom said negro belongs and report back to the Court in order that steps be taken to subject the owner to payments of his expense.

Probate records indicate that Joseph Duncan, who lived in Fauquier County and did own slaves, passed away around September 1793, and his wife, around July 1797. Their slaves were distributed to their children, one of who was Joseph Duncan Jr. And in 1806 Joseph Jr. is known to have had land lying in the Cedar Run area, where the Tapscott lands would one day be. Might Phil have somehow or other ended up with Elizabeth?

Was there a Phil? Perhaps. There was certainly a male progenitor of one of Elizabeth’s lines whose name could have been “Phil.” We’ll take a look at some of “Phil’s” descendants during the next several blogs.