A LITTLE VIRGINIA MAID

A STORY is told of a worldly minded Virginia maiden, who, when asked by a relative anxious about her spiritual condition whether she wished "to be born again," promptly replied, "No, because I might not happen to be born in Virginia.

Although many of the distinctive features of the life in the Old Dominion have passed away with the exchange of manorial homes upon vast estates for dwellings in cities, and with the abolition of slavery from her borders, Virginia still weaves a charm all her own for those who love to wander among her historic landmarks and listen to the voices of her past.

For such she unfolds many a tale of love and adventure dating back to the early settlers, some of whom were lured hither by traditions of a Southern sea, upon whose tran

quil bosom they might sail away to China and the Indies, traditions which obtained as late as the time of Governor Berkeley, and floated like an alluring mirage before the minds of Alexander Spotswood and his Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. To get beyond the mountains to the lakes was the avowed object of these well-shod equestrians; but the picture of the good Governor and his followers setting forth upon an exploring expedition, and loyally drinking the King's health from the newly discovered Mount George, has about it a flavor of the adventurous and imaginative spirit of the century that produced Columbus and the Cabots, and that led Raleigh and De Soto to sail strange seas in search of new paths to the treasures of Cathay.1

1 A small golden horseshoe, with jewels for nail heads, was given by Governor Spotswood to each of his companions upon their return from their famous expedition to the Western mountains. The motto of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe was Sic juvat transcendere montes.

Nathaniel West Dandridge, a near relative of Martha Dandridge, owned one of these golden horseshoes. The Rev. Edward Murdaugh told a member of the Dandridge family, some thirty years since, that while carrying this horseshoe from the bank of Williamsburg, where it was kept, to show it to an old lady, he dropped it in the street, and never saw it again. He said that he never after walked through the streets of Williamsburg without thinking of it and hoping to find it; but the golden horseshoe, like Captain Kidd's treasure, has thus far eluded the most diligent searcher.

Into this old Virginia life, into the best part of it, was born a child whose name was destined to become a household word all over the land. Little Martha Dandridge, whose birth is recorded in the family Bible, June 21, 1731, was the eldest child of Colonel John Dandridge and Frances Jones, who were married July 22, 1730.

On her mother's side. Martha came of a goodly line of scholars and divines. Her grandfather, the Rev. Roland Jones, son of another Rev. Roland Jones, of Berford, Oxford County, England, was the first of the family to come to America. He was in 1633 graduated from Merton College, Oxford, whence he came to Virginia to minister in Bruton Parish from 1674 until his death in 1688, as is recorded upon his tombstone in that church. Orlando Jones, son of Roland, and grandfather of Martha Dandridge, was burgess of New Kent County in 1718. His wife was Martha Macon, daughter of Gideon Macon, of New Kent County, secretary to Sir William Berkeley. To this maternal grandmother Martha Dandridge was indebted for her good old English name.

Colonel John Dandridge, the father of Martha, was a planter in New Kent, and, according to recent genealogical investigations,

was a brother of the Hon. William Dandridge of Esling Green, King William County, who married Unity, only child of Colonel Nathaniel West. It has long been believed, and frequently stated, that Martha Dandridge was descended from the noble and influential West family, of which Thomas, third Lord Delaware, was the good genius of the early Virginia settlements, as well as their Governor and Captain-General. It is now maintained by an excellent authority 1 that the only connection between the Dandridges and Wests was through the marriage of the Hon. William Dandridge to Unity West, a great-great niece of the third Lord Delaware. This William Dandridge, a brother of Colonel John, was himself a prominent figure in Virginia history, being in 1727 a member of the Colonial Council, and one of the commissioners appointed with Colonel William Byrd to settle the dividing line between his own Colony and North Carolina. A few years later he entered upon a distinguished career of naval service. From 1737 until his death in 1743, Captain William Dandridge commanded the Wolfe, the South Sea, and the Ludlow Castle, all three in his Majesty's service. While in command of the

1 The Dandridges of Virginia, by Wilson Miles Cary."William and Mary Quarterly," July, 1896.

South Sea he took part in Oglethorpe's attack upon St. Augustine and Admiral Vernon's siege of Carthagena. This gentleman and his brother John used the arms of the Dandridges of Great Malvern, Worcestershire. William Dandridge settled upon one side of the Pamunkey River,1 near West Point, which bore the name of his wife's ancestors, while Colonel John settled upon the other side of the same river in New Kent County, where his children were born, and where he served as county-clerk, an honorable and lucrative position in Colonial days.

Colonel John Dandridge died in Fredericksburg. His tombstone, in St. George's Churchyard, bears the following inscription:

"Here lies interred the Body

of Col. JOHN DANDRIDGE
of New Kent County, who
Departed this life the 31st day

of August 1756, aged 56 years."

1 Mr. William Wallace Tooker traces back the name Pamunkey to a curious and interesting derivation. He says that the name, originally "Uttamussack at Pamunkee," did not designate the stream, but the triangular peninsula formed by the two main branches of the river York, where the town of West Point is now situated. Here Powhatan and his tribes had their great home filled with images of their kings and devils, and tombs of their predecessors, and here, as John Smith related, the natives received him when a captive "with most strange and fearful conjurations," lasting through three days. See "The American Antiquarian," September, 1895.