Elizabeth Worsham Kennon
Elizabeth Worsham Kennon, daughter of William Worsham and Elizabeth Littlebury, was the wife of Richard Kennon who purchased Conjurer’s Neck in 1677. Richard died in 1696. Elizabeth likely stayed on the home plantation at Conjurer’s Neck as it was common practice for widows to do so. Widows were entitled to a life interest in a third of their deceased husbands property. In a 1719 deed of gift, Elizabeth granted to her son, Richard and his wife to be, Agnes Bolling, 444 acres of land at “Wintepock”, part of a land grant Elizabeth had received in 1703. This deed of gift also gave them 107 acres of land at a ferry Elizabeth had operated, just a short ways upriver from Conjurer’s Neck. It was a common practice in colonial Virginia to gift enslaved people and/or land as wedding gifts. In the deed of gift, Elizabeth gave Richard and Agnes “Seven negroes Vis. Sam, Tony Moll Amy Frank Jenny Tom boy To have and to hold.”
As her husband Richard did, Elizabeth gifted a slave, “my Negroe man Named Saul”, to her grandson, William Kennon in her 1743 will. This was one of the horrors of slavery. Families being split up in wills and sent to other plantations further away from family and loved ones. For more information about Elizabeth Worsham Kennon, see the following link: Elizabeth Worsham Kennon: Independent Woman – Kennon Family History Research Group
References
Kennon, Elizabeth. “Henrico County Miscellaneous Court Records, Vol. 4, 1738-1746”, reel 2, page 1225, 1743.
Kennon, Elizabeth. “Tom, etc.: Deed, 1759 (1108028_0018_0003. Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.” Henrico County (Va.) Deeds, 1650-1931 (bulk 1813-1931), 1719.
Morgan, Edmund S. Virginians at Home: Family Life in the Eighteenth Century. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1952.