Three Funerals and a Wedding-- 1842

Died, on the 7th of April, in the 48th year of his age, at Rose Cottage, his residence, in New Kent county, DR. JOHN W. ROYSTER, leaving an affectionate and devoted wife and nine children, to mourn their sad loss. For more then 20 years, he was a successful practitioner of medicine, enjoying considerable celebrity, and the full confidence of the people in neighborhood He was a firm and doubting believer(??) in the great plan of human redemption through the atonement of the Saviour and consequently a practical Christian, and an honorable, conscientious, honest man, commanding the respect of all in life and to death universally lamented. If the warm, heart-felt sympathy of relatives, friends, and a whole neighborhood can alleviate the deep grief of his bereaved family, they have that consolation, for there are many who claim the privilege of mourning with them for the lamented dead.

-Richmond Whig,  6 May 1842

John Woodson Royster was born in North Carolina in 1794.

                                                   

Died, in the town of St. Charles, on the 23rd of March, Mr. William H. Parkinson, late of New Kent County, Va. He was a young man about 22 years of age, well educated, of fair character, amiable manners, and correct deportment. He came to Missouri a few months ago with high hopes and fair prospects, but was accidentally thrown from his horse and died A few days afterwards, in consequence of the injury received from the fall. He died unexpectedly in a strange land, but during a short residence here he had acquired the respect and good will of many friends. The Richmond papers will please copy. 

-Richmond Whig,  18 May 1842

There was a Parkinson family in New Kent at the time but I have been unable to narrow down any direct connection.

                                               

Died at his residence, Hampstead, in New Kent county, at 18 minutes past 9'clock, A.M., this 26th day of July, instant, CONRAD WEBB, Esq, in the 65 year of his age.

-Richmond Enquirer,  29 July 1842

Conrad Webb, the builder of Hampstead, was the last of his line hence the rather small notice for such a wealthy man. Hampstead passed out of the direct family at the time.

and . . .

Married, at St. Peters Church, New Kent county, on the 21st ultimo, by the Rev. Henry Smith, Mr. WM A. CHRISTIAN, of the U.S. Navy, TO  Miss JANE WARREN, daughter of Mrs. Louisa Warren, of the above county. 

-Richmond Enquirer, 12 August 1842

William Armistead Christian was the son of Robert Christian of Cedar Grove. Young Christian was a purser in a variety of US Navy ships including the USS Princeton, USS Cyane, and USS San Jacinto; unfortunately he died in August of 1852 in Gibraltar on the San Jacinto's maiden voyage. 

Interestingly, a lot of the belongings of William A. Christian, including a portrait and a fascinating trove of letters, was up for auction in 2021.

A Double Wedding- Part Four

Married,

In New Kent county, on the 7th instant, by the Rev. Mr. Caroway, Mr. Chas. E Yeatman, of Gloucester, and Miss Harriet R. Royster, of the former place.

At the same time and place, by the Rev. T.V. Moore, Mr. Robert P. Southall, of Richmond, and Miss Ellen Royster, of New Kent.

-The Daily Dispatch: November 8, 1860.

It wasn't too hard to find out about the groom, the young Mr. Yeatman of Gloucester, he has a nice little write up in Clement Anselm Evans' Confederate Military History . . .

Lieutenant Charles Edward Yeatman, of Norfolk, who held official rank in both the army and navy of the Confederate States,- was born in Matthews county, Va., April 26, 1828. He was of a. family of honorable record, both in Virginia and in England. The head of the family in the old country at present is Hayshe Yeatman, bishop of Southwark, the late major-general, Sir Yeatman Biggs, K. C. B., head of the British military in Calcutta, having died without issue. Charles C. Yeatman's great-grand-father, John Patterson, of Poplar Grove, Matthews County, Va. was a Revolutionary soldier, and fought at the battle of Monmouth, where his brother lost his life in the cause of freedom. His grandfather, Thomas Muse Yeatman, a lawyer of repute, being a graduate of William and Mary college, and a law student in the office of William Wirt, married Elizabeth Tabb Patterson, daughter of John Patterson, of Poplar Grove, who served for many-years as clerk of Matthews county, an office in which he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Thomas R. Yeatman. Lieutenant: Yeatman was reared after the age of six years in Gloucester- county at the home of his guardian and brother-in-law, Josiah L. Deans, and was educated at the Virginia military institute, and graduated in 1849. He was of the "49ers" who went to California, being one of a party of seventy-five who purchased the sailing ship Glenmore and sailed via Cape Horn to California. After three years in the land of gold he returned via the isthmus, and in 1854 began a career in railroad employment by becoming a baggage master on the old Virginia & Tennessee railroad. Promoted to passenger conductor, he served on different roads, being the first passenger conductor on the Richmond & York River road. Early in 1861 he was appointed lieutenant in the Virginia army but was instructed by General Lee to continue his duties upon the York River road, then used chiefly for military purposes. After the secession of the State, he was appointed acting master in the navy of the Confederate States, in which capacity he served about two months under Capt. Thomas Jefferson Page at the West Point navy yard. Subsequently and until the evacuation of Norfolk, and the consequent reduction of the naval commissions, he served as purchasing agent for the navy yards in Virginia, under Capt. John Maury. After this he was commissioned a lieutenant in the army and served under Col. T. J. Page as ordnance officer at Chaffin's bluff, until May, 1863, meanwhile participating in the first engagement at Drewry's bluff, one mile above them on the James river.

In May, 1863, being commissioned a lieutenant in the Confederate States navy, he reported to Admiral Buchanan at Mobile, and was assigned to the steamer Baltic, commanded by James Douglas Johnston, where he served as executive officer four months. Subsequently he served several months on ordnance duty under John R. Eggleston, and then took part in the effort to complete the new gunboat Nashville in time to participate in the defense of Mobile. The work progressed night and day for a fortnight, and the officers and crew, seeing they would be too late, begged to be given fighting orders, but the admiral insisted that the completion of the Nashville would be the greatest aid they could render. The work was finished, but on the evacuation the Nashville was destroyed and Lieutenant Yeatman, with the other officers and crew, escaped up the Tombigbee, subsequently surrendering at Owen's bluff to Admiral Thackeray. This body of prisoners was transported from Mobile to Old Point Comfort on the Rhode Island. Just before reaching their destination they learned from a passing boat that President Davis had been captured and was a prisoner at Old Point. The applause of the Federals on board was promptly suppressed by the officers out of respect for their prisoners. On reaching the Point they found that President Davis had not yet landed, and they were disembarked first. They then, some three hundred strong, selected General Ruggles as their commander, and marched in files to a point which Mr. Davis would pass on the way to prison. As he walked by, with irons upon his wrists and head bowed, the Confederate prisoners bared their heads and gave him a silent salute. Subsequently Lieutenant Yeatman was paroled at Richmond, and in 1866 he found' employment at Baltimore with a prominent commission house. A year later he became connected with the Baltimore steam packet company, and continued until 1874, first as collector at Baltimore and then as agent at Portsmouth and Norfolk. In 1874 he became general freight agent of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad company, and was the first agent of the company at Norfolk, serving from 1875 until 1889. He then engaged in insurance and brokerage until 1894, when he was appointed harbor master for the city of Norfolk. Charles E. Yeatman was gifted as a conversationalist, and in his youth was a prominent feature in a social circle, noted for the graceful charm of a day that is passed. Through his checkered career his unblemished honor and his tender heart and genial manners attracted hosts of friends who were devoted in life and death. He was a member of St. Luke's church, Pickett-Buchanan camp, C. V., the Masonic order and several other fraternal organizations. He was married November 7, 1860, to Harriet R. Royster, of New Kent county, and died in Norfolk, Va., February 15, 1898. He leaves two children, Philip Edward, a graduate of the Virginia military institute, who entered the volunteer army of the United States in the war of 1898 with the rank of captain in the Fourth regiment of Virginia volunteer infantry, and Susan E., now Mrs. John F. Egerton.

Note his pre-war occupation as first conductor on the York River Railway, which ran right through the Royster plantation.

A Double Wedding- Part Three

Married,

In New Kent county, on the 7th instant, by the Rev. Mr. Caroway, Mr. Chas. E Yeatman, of Gloucester, and Miss Harriet R. Royster, of the former place.

At the same time and place, by the Rev. T.V. Moore, Mr. Robert P. Southall, of Richmond, and Miss Ellen Royster, of New Kent.

-The Daily Dispatch: November 8, 1860.

Harriet Royster, 24, and Ellen Royster, 22, were the daughters of John W. Royster and his wife Susan B. Royster. They resided at the Rose Cottage estate on the eastern end of the county, which ran along the York River Railway between Dispatch and Tunstall's Stations. John W. Royster was already deceased by the time of the double wedding.

Of parenthetical interest, November 7, 1860 was a Wednesday, the day after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. 

A Double Wedding- Part Two

 As I said, some more facts on the marriage announcement of the Royster sisters . . .

Married,

In New Kent county, on the 7th instant, by the Rev. Mr. Caroway, Mr. Chas. E Yeatman, of Gloucester, and Miss Harriet R. Royster, of the former place.

At the same time and place, by the Rev. T.V. Moore, Mr. Robert P. Southall, of Richmond, and Miss Ellen Royster, of New Kent.

-The Daily Dispatch: November 8, 1860.


First the vicar.
T. V. Moore, was the eminent Presbyterian divine, Thomas Verner Moore, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Richmond.

Here is a little selection from his Fast Day Sermon of November, 1861, discussing the rise of  Abolitionism   . . .

Against this institution[slavery], and thus both the races that are connected with it, has been waged a hostility whose steady course has never faltered nor turned aside. There is something portentous in the rise and growth of this anti-slavery Hydra with which we are now struggling. Spawned in the huge Serbonian bog of French infidelity and radicalism, it was a fitting coincidence that the same year which witnessed the first development of the one in the French Revolution, should have witnessed the first development of the other in the seizure of that magnificent North-Western territory, which the credulous generosity of Virginia bestowed as a free gift to the Federal Government, to rear up on her border a deadly enemy, by the Ordinance of 1787. Again did the Hydra demand and receive a fresh accession to its bulk in the Missouri Compromise, where rights that were solemnly guaranteed by the Louisiana treaty were ruthlessly disregarded, and yielded to the clamors of this voracious and growing monster. Again and again was it swollen by new gorges of new territory, purchased by the common blood and treasure of all the States, and, therefore, rightfully belonging to the whole, and not to any of its parts. Grown by these enormous meals, and stimulated by the secret working of foreign emissaries, who saw in this agent the serpent that might strangle this mighty Republic in its infancy, it planned a more deadly assault on the object of its hate.

A Double Wedding- Part One

Married,

In New Kent county, on the 7th instant, by the Rev. Mr. Caroway, Mr. Chas. E. Yeatman, of Gloucester, and Miss Harriet R. Royster, of the former place.

At the same time and place, by the Rev. T.V. Moore, Mr. Robert P. Southall, of Richmond, and Miss Ellen Royster, of New Kent.

-The Daily Dispatch: November 8, 1860.




More to come . . .