Home Tract or Rocky Pen

Home Tract or Rocky Pen - Home of Lawrence Sanford (I) (1778-1858) and his wife Apphia Farmer Sanford
 
The site of Rocky Pen is located along the Rappahannock River in Stafford County. One may reach it by leaving Highway 17 at Berea Church and going to the entrance of what was Greenbanks Farm but just recently has become a golf course. The Rocky Pen house site, approximately 300 feet to the right of this entrance, has become a portion of the golf course and most of the long neglected buildings including the old Sanford house have been razed. The Sanford graveyard enclosed by a fence is located just back of this house site and remains.

 

Lawrence Sanford was born August 10, 1778 in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Joseph and Jane Bunbury Sanford. Shortly after Lawrence’s birth the family moved to Culpeper County where they lived for a number of years and where in 1799 Lawrence married Apphia Farmer, daughter of Daniel and Nancey Farmer. Prior to 1839 Lawrence and Apphia had settled on the ‘Home Tract’ in Stafford County, Virginia where he built his home on a knoll overlooking the Rappahannock River near Berea Church. As the Rappahannock River divided his land holdings in Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties he constructed a ferry on the river which appears on some old maps as ‘Sanford’s Ferry’.

Much of the information contained herein is taken from the Sanford-Morris-Faulconer, Families of Virginia book by Walter E. Sanford, Jr. who is a descendant of Lawrence and Apphia through another of their children. This book devotes a number of pages to the reproducing of both Lawrence and Apphia’s wills which give evidence that they had accumulated a large estate. His will mentions several land holdings that he wills to Apphia and his various children as well as it list at least thirty-three slaves by name willed to his wife, children and grandchildren. Of special interest to our branch of the family is the statement in his will that says:

To my son Lawrence Sanford about 500 acres of land in Spotsylvania about $500 in cash & slaves John, Maria & Ducy all of which I confirm except that my Grand child Jane daughter of Sd son Lawrence shall have the negro Lucy now in my Sd Sons possession.

Lawrence had military service in the War of 1812. He appears with the grade of Private with a Company of Cavalry in 1813 and with a Company of Mounted Riflemen in 1814. The Company Pay Roll reflects his monthly pay as eight dollars and he was allowed eight days in addition to pay for traveling home from Hampton. VA , the distance being 160 miles and forty cents per day for the use of his horse.

Lawrence and Apphia Sanford raised nine children:

Jane Bunbury Sanford (1806-1849) (died unmarried)

LAWRENCE (1817-1898) married Lucy Henshaw Walker (1824- 1915)

Thomas Benson Sanford (1822-1854) married 1st Sarah Jane Greaves 2nd Elizabeth R. Taylor (had a son by his first wife and a daughter by his second wife and eventually settled in Woodbury, TN)

Elizabeth Sanford (1825-1855) married Wm W. L. Benson (had 4 daughters)

Apphia Sanford (1814-1846) married Flavius J. Ballard (had two children)

Joseph Sanford ( - 1871) married 1st Agnes I. M. Cranford 2nd Quincy Lipscomb (settled in Spotsylvania Court House on a large farm and operated the “Spotswood Inn” and

the “Ballard Hotel”. He had 7 children by his first wife and one, a son by his second wife.)

Daniel F. Sanford (1807-1882) married Mary Ann Massie/Mafsie (Moved in 1840 to Braggs Bluff, Greene County, AL on the banks of the Tom Bigbee River where they raised 10 children

Sarah Sanford (1812- ) married John A. Swetman (had 7 children)

Ann Sanford ( ) married Daniel Duerson (had one son)

 

Sanford Cemetery at Rocky Pen
 
Lawrence Sanford, Sr. died at Rocky Pen on August 19, 1858 and is buried in the Sanford graveyard there. On his headstone is the inscription “An honest man the noblest work of God”

Apphia Sanford died at the home of her daughter Ann S. Duerson in Spotsylvania in June 1864. Although there is no stone for her in the Rocky Pen Cemetery, one assumes her remains are there with her husband.

Other headstones mark the burial site for some of Lawrence and Apphia’s children, their spouses and grand children.

 

 

 

Joseph Sanford, Jr. (1744-1828) and wife Jane Bunbury
 
Among the gravestones is a granite marker for Lawrence’s father, Joseph, erected in 1975 to honor him by some of his descendants. It reads “Joseph Sanford 1744-1828". This Joseph was born in Westmoreland County a son of Joseph Sanford, Sr. and his wife Ann Barbary Muse. Joseph Sanford, Jr. married on May 8, 1766 at St. Paul's Church in Stafford County, (now King George) Jane Bunbury, one of twin daughters of Thomas and Sarah Broadburn Bunbury. It appears

that they made their home in Culpeper County prior to moving to Stafford County about 1820 where his will was probated in 1828.

Joseph Sanford served in the Revolutionary War and his name appears on the 5th Virginia Regiment payroll in 1776.

We have no location of Joseph and Jane’s residences except for Culpeper and Stafford County.. There were two children born to them:

LAWRENCE SANFORD (1778-1858) married Apphia Farmer

Lucy Sanford ( ?) Married William Martin of Culpeper County on Oct. 23, 1796

 

St Paul's Church, Stafford County
Joseph Sanford Sr. (1720-1751) and his wife Ann Barbary Muse

Joseph Sanford, Sr. was born in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County to William Sanford and his unknown wife. He married Ann Barbary Muse, daughter of William Muse also of Westmoreland County. This Joseph died when he was about thirty years old leaving a will which mentions two children by name and a third yet unborn. His will which appears to have been written just four months prior to probation in Westmoreland County, is reproduced in the Sanford Family book and indicates a sizable estate for one so young. Ann Barbary Sanford married second, John Tidwell and had other children. Her will is also reproduced. The children of Joseph, Sr. and Ann Barbary Sanford were:

JOSEPH SANFORD, Jr. (1744-1828) - married Jane Bunbury

Mary

Rebecca (the “yet unborn child” listed in her father’s will) married a Dozier

William Sanford (circa 1677-1748) [m. Jemima?]

William Sanford was born in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County to Robert and Ann Sanford. No name is given for his wife in the Sanford Family book nor is it given in his will which is reproduced therein so we can assume that she preceded him in death. His will probated in Westmoreland County list his children as:

JOSEPH SANFORD (1720-1751) married Ann Barbary Muse

William Sanford

Martha Sanford - married Rhodes

Frances Sanford

(In his will he mentions a grandson, John Eithell)

Robert Sanford (died 1700) married Ann [Smith?]

From the Sanford Family book:

The Sanford Family is among the earliest families to come to Virginia. They are of Anglo-Saxon origin and their name is found among the ancient records in England. The branch of the Family coming to Virginia came from Shropshire County, England. It has been well documented that two different branches of the Sanford Family came to America. The Sanford Family that came to Virginia had as its crest –

Crest - A falcon with wings endorsed feeding on a partridge Arms - Quarterly, per fesse indented ermine and az Motto - Nec temere nec timide

Robert Sanford and his wife Ann settled on Nomini Creek on land that had been in an Indian District called Chichacoan later to become Northumberland and then Westmoreland County, Virginia. They had issue a daughter Ann and three sons, Robert, John and William. Their daughter Ann married Jacob Remy, Jr. There are numerous entries in the Westmoreland County, Virginia records for Robert Sanford to clearly establish his contributions to Colonial Virginia.

The Sanford Family book also states that land grants acquired by Robert Sanford in 1692 locates him on land adjoining the property on which the Lee family built their famous home “Stratford” in later years.

The children of Robert and Ann Sanford were:

Ann married Jacob Remy, Jr.

Robert

John

WILLIAM (circa 1677-1700)