James Tarpley Family

James Tarpley Family
Virginia

James Tarpley
b. 8 May 1692 North Farnham Parish, Richmond Co., VA*
d. 1765 perhaps in or near Charlotte Co., VA

1m. Mary Camp 5 Jan 1733/34 King and Queen Co., VA
b. c 1708/9 King and Queen Co., VA
d. 1758 North Farnham Parish, Richmond Co., VA
her father: Thomas Camp I
her mother: Catherine Barron

Was there a marriage to Mary Oldham?
(see the Mary Oldham-James Tarpley argument page)
his father: James Tarpley
his mother: Mary Biddlecombe

Children
Thomas Tarpley	b. 28 Oct 1734 North Farnham, VA*	d. 8 Aug 1788 96th Dist., S.C., buried in Charlotte Co., VA	m. Mary Camp (his 1st cousin) 3 Apr 1759 Culpepper Co., VA
Lucy Tarpley	b. 17 Aug 1736 North Farnham, VA*	d.	m.
Sarah Tarpley	b.13 Sep 1738 North Farnham, VA*	d.	m.
Mary Tarpley	b. 30 Oct 1740 North Farnham, VA*	d. 17 Aug 1789 Old 96th Dist. S. C.	m. John Camp c1760 Lunenburg Co., VA (son of Thomas Camp & W. Starling)
James Tarpley	b. 21 Jul 1743 North Farnham, VA*	d.	m.
Elizabeth "Betty" Tarpley	b. 16 Aug 1746 North Farnham, VA*	d.	m. Reubin Bennett Sr. (ten children)
Winifred Tarpley	b. 9 Jun 1748 North Farnham, VA	d.	m. Nathaniel Campb1744 (son of Thomas Camp & W. Starling)
Nancy Tarpley	b. 6 Oct 1750 North Farnham, VA	d. after 1811 Walton Co., GA	m. Thomas Camp IV b. 1747 (son of Thomas Camp & W. Starling)

*childrens birth dates as listed in the Register of Farnham Parish, Richmond County, VA [McGhan p 434]

James Tarpley apparently was a diligent farmer and kept to his business of farming and raising his family. From the birth places of the children he stayed in North Farnham Parish, Richmond Co, Virginia for most of his life. He was not involved in public life and seldom entered into any court proceedings.
Many documents of this region have been lost and we may never be able to prove conclusively that all questions of lineage and marriage have been answered.

I don't know if story of the Burton Church Bell is the same James Tarpley but he certainly was in the area and was the only one that appears to have the right age and the money to make such a major donation. These James Tarpleys, who are very likely related, seems to have been deeply committed to the Williamsburg, Virginia community and in the later part of his life donated a bell, known as the Plantation Bell, to the Bruton Parish church in Williamsburg, Virginia. The record of Bruton Parish Church, by Rev. William Archer Rutherfoord Goodwin, D. D. LL. D. , page 16, states:

"The outside of the church also received some attention at this time (1755). The steeple on the brick tower was erected in place of one which was beyond further repair, and arrangements were made to have a belfry in it. This was soon followed by the fit of a bronze bell with this inscription on it: "The gift of James Tarpley to Bruton Parish, 1761," This bell is still in use. It is sometimes spoken of as the "Liberty Bell of Virginia," as it rang out proclaiming the passage of the Declaration of Rights in the House of Burgesses on May 15, 1776."

Additionally it may have also rung out the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 and the adoption of the first complete act of sovereignty by any of the colonies, May 15, 1776, six weeks ahead of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. On October 19, 1781, it celebrated the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and later the peace with Great Britain.

A plaque in the vestry room of the church states:

The Bell

in the tower is engraved: " The Gift of James Tarpley to Bruton Parish, 1761." In 1766 it celebrated the repeal of the Stamp Act. On May the 15th, it celebrated the passing of a resolution by the House of Burgesses to establish a State Constitution and Declaration of Rights, and to instruct the Virginia Delegates in Congress to offer a resolution to declare the united Colonies free and independent states. In 1783 it celebrated the ratification of the Treaty of Peace between the the United States and Great Britain."
[Mann pp. 11 - 13]

The Farnham Parish records used here to build this family apparently had been recopied from much older sources according to the editor, Judith McGhan. She thinks that it was probably a very dilapidated record of nothing more than loose pages. When it was copied any previous date sequence and catagories were lost such as births, deaths, marriages and perhaps more information. It is presently in the county clerk's office in Warsaw, Virginia. One of the things that is interesting about this record is that it also contains many of the associated families that the Tarpleys marry into from 1673 to 1781. You see here Davenport, Glascock, Peachey, Webb, Griffin, Barber and a few others. Notably absent are the Camp and Oldham families. [McGhan]

The documentation of this family is based largely on the work of Judge Zelma Wells Price in her book on her ancestry, Of Whom I Came, From Whence I Came published in 1963. She claimed to have had good family sources for the make-up of this family and its history in terms of the marriages of the Camp women to Tarpley men. This information has been lost to researchers but the birth dates listed are very specific that I believe they came from a bible reference and verified by the Farnham Parish register. This source needs to be found to prevent the on-going arguments that this James Tarpley may have married Mary Oldham. In extracts from North Farnham Parish register in Richmond County we do find a Mary Oldham born to John and Sarah Oldham on June 25, 1712, however, no marriages are listed for any Oldham or Tarpley. [McGhan pp. 434 - 459]

(see the Mary Oldham-Tarpley argument page)

sources:

Ancestral Rolls, South Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution, Compiled 1938 by Mrs E. T. Crawford, State Registrar.
Mann, Col. Robt. Neville and Catherine Creek-Mann, Camp-Kemp Family Hist., Vol. I- II, 1969
Landrum, Dr. L. B. O. . History of Spartanburg County, South Carolina 1900, reprinted 1954.
Price, Judge Zelma Wells, Of Whom I Came, From Whence I Came published 1963
McGhan, Judith. Virginia Vital Records, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, MD. 1982
Williams, E. Russ,Jr., The Kemp, Turner, and Roberts Families on Little Silver Creek, Washington Parish, Louisiana, The Story of Three Pioneer Families of Early Louisiana, their Ancestors and Progeny., Williams Genealogical Publications, 514 Cole Ave., Monroe, LA 71203.,1992,

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