Conjecturable Thought on Susanna Burgess Braswell

Written in c1970 by the late Katherine E. Edwards, Deputy Clerk of Circuit Court, Isle of Wight County, Virginia

If  ROBERT BRASWELL, son of REV. ROBERT BRASWELL, married SUSANNA BURGESS as has been stated, the Susanna who had children by RICHARD TOWLE must have been his wife.

We have no indication of any Braswell living here before or after REV. ROBERT BRASWELL's arrival to Virginia, until his children appear in the records. Since REV. ROBERT BRASWELL left only two sons, ROBERT and RICHARD, and Richard married SARAH (Valentine?), I believe it is safe to assume that REV. ROBERT BRASWELL's son, ROBERT, married SUSANNA BURGESS. Susanna definitely appears to be a contemporary.

MARY COLLINS, Susanna's mother, was approximately 50 years of age in 1639. JOYCE CRIPPS, Mary's sister, wrote her will in 1679 naming MARY in her will as well as SUSANNA (Shusan). This was 10 years earlier and already SUSANNA is married. It is probably certain that she was a young woman in 1679, for she wrote her will 35 years later, at which time she was a grandmother. It was in 1602 that RICHARD TOWLE named his children by SUSANNA BRASWELL. This was 24 years after REV. ROBERT BRASWELL died, at which time it will be remembered that he made provisions for his two sons to be educated and cared for, indicating that they were still minors. This would be 11 years before SUSANNA appears as a BRASWELL in her aunt’s will which seems a reasonable time for her to be married. Another factor, is that MARY SKINNER, wife of RICHARD SKINNER, acknowledged receipt of her husband's estate which was left to his daughter SUSANNAH BURGESS. This was done on April 20, 1669 which seems to indicate even more conclusively that Susanna was a contemporary of ROBERT BRASWELL, JR.

The fact that REV. ROBERT BRASWELL's sons were his youngest children and his daughters married with children of their own, as can be seen from a study of JANE's marriages, etc. seems to indicate that he was married more than once. His sons were grown men, or twenty-one years of age, by 1678. It does not sound feasible that a graduate of Oxford University would wait until his sons were nearly grown to attend to their education. This seems to me the proof of their tender years when he died.

RICHARD BRASWELL died about 1725. He had a daughter JANE, which could mean that he was REV. ROBERT BRASWELL's son, and the daughter JANE was named for his sister. A study of the deeds signed by RICHARD and SARAH BRASWELL seems to point even more strongly to his being REV. ROBERT BRASWELL's son, for the RICHARD who was the father of JANE also had a wife SARAH. The only question is the granddaughter SUSANNA BRASWELL. Would he or one of his sons be so tolerant of a relative by marriage that they would name a child for her after she had so shamed the family? Of course we must bear in mind that there may have been a favored relative in Richard's wife's family who bore the name, Susanna. Susanna was not an uncommon name. A study of the deeds definitely seems to prove that the RICHARD BRASWELL who died in 1725 was the son of REV. ROBERT BRASWELL, since his deeds were always co-signed by a wife SARAH. Most of the names of RICHARD and Sarah's children were Braswell family names.

SUSANNAH, if she was the wife of ROBERT BRASWELL, JR., could have quite readily given her children Braswell names. ROBERT may not have been aware of her duplicity for quite some time. "The husband is always the last to know." Knowing the apparent affluence and prominence of this family, it may have seemed inconceivable to all concerned, that she could be such a faithless wife. Certainly the very fact of their position in society would have made her most cautious in her behavior, so that it could have been a very well-kept secret. Her husband, as well as relatives and friends, may have not been aware of her actions until RICHARD TOWLE's will was put to record and once this was done, she probably found herself alone in the world with her small "TOWLE" children to raise. If her mother was as prosperous as was her sister, JOYCE, I feel sure she had no financial problems. It appears that SUSANNA was MARY's only child and thus her sole heir. Once SUSANNA's sons reached manhood, they too could contribute to her support. Also, we must remember that she had received some estate from her father.

A study of some of the old records shows that the people of that day were not as "proper" as we might think. They apparently lived a rather risqué life and when they wrote their wills, used half of the will to praise God for His blessings and ask for forgiveness of "all my sins", etc. So, perhaps the Braswell family was not as rigidly unforgiving as the people of today might think. Perhaps a lot of the gossip had died out by the time RICHARD BRASWELL's grandchildren were born. Certainly SUSANNA must have been quite old when she died, Even if she died soon after her will was dated in 1714, she would have been approximately 45 or 55 depending on how old she was when her father died in 1669. Since she was married 10 years later, she must have born about 10 years of age, or she could have been about 6, making her 16 years of age when she married. Of course, we do not know how long she had been married when her Aunt Joyce died in 1679 This could change her age somewhat, but I believe it is safe to assume that she was between the ages 45 and 55 in 1711. Did SUSANNA really die in 1714+, or did she die about 1732 when her will was probated? Was she so ill in 1714, that she feared she would die and thus wrote her will, but recovered and lived another 14 years? This too poses an interesting question. The two tracts of land which she left to her sons, totaling 100 acres, did she inherit this from her aunt, her mother, or her father? There are no deeds conveying land to her, nor any will devising land to her.

ROBERT BRASWELL, JR. signed several deeds as the records show conveying land that he had inherited from his father, but none of them were ever signed by any person other than himself. Was the law such that it did not require an erring wife to co-sign a deed which would convey her dower interest in such land as was being conveyed? What ever became of  ROBERT BRASWELL, JR.? He could have disposed of all of the land he owned in Isle of Wight County and moved away to live and die elsewhere. Did he move to Nansemond County as did his brother-in-law, ROBERT ELEY, JR. (husband of JANE BRASWELL STOKES)? Certainly, if ROBERT's wife SUSANNAH proved to be the erring wife she was, he would not have wished to remain in the same neighborhood as she. Possibly, the move his brother-in-law, ROBERT ELEY, JR., made to Nansemond County may have motivated his own decision to move there also. He could have received a land grant in that county which may also have been instrumental in his moving. Surely a man with his prominent background would not have departed this life without leaving some record of his death. ROBERT ELEY, JR. was just as prominent as far as being a1and owner of some means, and he, like ROBERT BRASWELL, JR., left no record of his death. The records of ROBERT ELEY, III show that he owned land in Isle of Wight which he inherited from his grandfather ROBERT ELEY, I, as well as land in Nansemond County and a wife, MARTHA DOUGHTIE , who was from Nansemond County.

Although SUSANNAH's children bear the name BRASWELL, they are not actually Braswells by blood and therefore do not fit into the Braswell lineage except by name. Certainly they cannot bear the name TOWLE, nor can they bear the name BURGESS, although perhaps they can be referred to as RICHARD BURGESS-BRASWELL, as a means of separating them from the true Braswell blood line. Or, as shown in Mr. DAVIS' will, they can be called BRASWELL, alias TOWLE.

Robert Flake Sr. (Susannah Braswell mentioned)