Are you a Wash-tub Woodson or a Potato-hole Woodson? Although it sounds like a nonsensical question, it was a common one at Woodson gatherings in years gone by and for a good reason. There are many writings of this story throughout history, many available online and almost all guaranteed to be written better than what I can do but I am going to give it a try.
John Woodson was born in 1586 to John and Alice Hammon Woodson in Dorset, Dorsetshire, England. He went to school at St. Johns College, Oxford, England and graduated a doctor in 1604. He began working for Sir George Yeardley as a surgeon. Years later, in 1619, John married Sarah Winston. Yeardley had been appointed lord governor of Virginia in the fall of 1618 after the unexpected death of the incumbent governor and so he gathered a group of soldier and recruited John and his new bride and set sail on the ship "George" to Virginia in early 1619 and landed in Jamestown, Virginia in April 1619. (Over a year and a half before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock!) John and Sarah eventually settled at Flowerdew Hundred near what is now Richmond, VA
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Photo by Elaine Hatfield Powell. She her post and photos
about John Woodson here |
and had two sons, John and Robert.
On April 18, 1644 the Powhatan attacked the Virginian settlers in a third attempt to drive them from their land. On the second day of this raid, a group attacked the Woodson's home. Dr. Woodson was returning home from visiting patients when the attack began. Sarah Woodson and her two boys were home alone with the exception of a man named Ligon. (Sources are all over the place about who Ligon was: schoolmaster, indentured servant, shoemaker, friend.) The only weapon they had was a huge fowler that hung over the door. Ligon was a good shot and able to use the gun effectively against the Indians. Sarah frantically searched for a place to hide her boys. She told Robert to hide under the potatoes in the hole where they were stored and John to get under the washtub. Sarah watched out the window as her husband, John, was killed. Sarah and Ligon fought hard and in the end nine of the attackers were dead and the rest ran back into the woods. Her sons crawled out of their hiding places unscathed and from then on were called "washtub" and "potato hole".
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| English Long Fowler (“Woodson” musket), mid 17th century, Barrel; about 1750, Lock; about 1800, Stock, VHS accession number: 1929.8 (On loan from Charles Granville Scott and conserved with gifts from Woodson descendants). By Woodson family tradition, the oldest part of the gun was used by Lt. Col. Thomas Ligon, who helped Sara Woodson defend her Prince George County home from an Indian attack on April 18, 1644 |
Both John "Washtub" and Robert "Potato-hole" went on to have large families.
John (1632) married Mary Pleasant and had son John (1655)
John (1655) married Mary Tucker and had daughter Christian
Christian married Thomas Hodges and had son Edmund
Edmund married Nephany Walker and had daughter Susannah
Susannah married John Slayden and had daughter Martha
Martha married William Bourland and had daughter Martha
Martha married Buckner Williams and had son Plummer
Plummer married Malinda Mills and had son Sanders
Sanders married Agnes Lewis and had son James
James married Mollie Savannah Conway and they gave birth to my great-grandfather, Sanders
John and Sarah Winston Woodson are my 12th great-grandparents.
You've heard of at least one other Woodson, outlaw Jesse Woodson James. He was a potato-hole Woodson.
Notes:
- Flowerdew Hundred Plantation was probably named after Sir George Yeardley's wife, Temperance Flowerdew.
- There are probably over a hundred sources for this story and hundreds of stories and blogs about it. If you want to read more, and trust me, there is more, do a Google search for Dr. John Woodson Jamestown or the Powhatan Wars.
- The Woodson DNA must be of stout stuff because, even though they are fairly distant ancestors of mine, I have found many, many DNA cousins (13th cousins!) with the Woodson as MRCA (most recent common ancestor). This is very surprising considering I have a few 4th and 5th great-grandparents whom I have almost no cousins through.
Sources:
- Woodson, Henry Morton. Historical Genealogy of the Woodsons and Their Connections.1915
- Hood, John. "Hidden in a Potato Hole." Carolina Journal, 19 Oct. 2012
- U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. Yates Publishing. Ancestry.com Operation Inc. 2004. Provo, UT
- Yawkey, C.C.. "Yawkey, Richardson and allied families; a genealogical study with biographical notes.". 1939. N.Y. American Historical Co.
- Deetz, James. Flowerdew Hundred: the archaeology of a Virginia plantation, 1619-1864. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995
- Stebbins, Sarah J. "Chronology of Powhatan Indian Activity." National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, May 2009.
- Dorman, John Frederick. Adventures of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1907-1624/5 4th Ed. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2007
- Bogan, Dallas. "Progenitor of Family Here Died In Indian Battle" LaFollette Press.
