Munday Family of Essex County, Virginia

************** UNDER CONSTRUCTION MAY 2022 ****************

Thomas Munday (c1645? – 1703)

  1. Thomas Munday (c1682 –  1718) He was called “my eldest son” in his father’s will written on 1 August 1702, which also devised him the upper part of his father’s plantation.1. Thomas may have still been a minor at the time, as he was still living at home and had not yet appeared in any record as an adult.2  He was named a co-executor (which merely required that he be 18 or older) and posted bond a year later, by which time he has surely reached majority.3  Thomas Munday subsequently appears regularly and frequently in Essex County records, often as a witness or security for bonds.

    By 1707 he had married Mary Reeves, as on 6 October 1707 “Thomas Munday & Mary his wife late Mary Reeves” were among the administrators of the estate of her brother James Reeves.  Both were children of Henry Reeves, whose 1686 will identified six children, all minors, including James and Mary.  The will of his widow Elizabeth Reeves, .dated 4 May 1709, gave ten shillings to the same children (less the deceased James), including Mary, and a horse to “my grandson Thomas Munday”.4 In 1717, in response to a suit by James Boughan, Thomas Munday presented an account of his administration of his father’s estate which showed that he had paid five brothers and sisters in 1715 and 1716.  ((Essex County, Virginia, Order Book 5, page 67 – abstracted, original not read.)) About the same time Martha Munday had complained that she had not received her portion of the estate.5

    Thomas Munday died intestate sometime in October or November of 1718. The court ordered an inventory of his estate on 18 November 1718, which was presented by Mary Munday as administratrix on 18 February 1718/9.6. Mary Munday filed an estate accounting a few months later listing a very modest estate, half of which was owed to satisfy a debt to Joseph Munday, and all but £5 of which was consumed by fees.7  Thomas may have been a carpenter like his father, as the inventory included 1,840 “nailes”

    With few assets and young children to raise, the widow Mary surprisingly did not remarry.  Her will was written on 6 December 1748 and proved on 17 January 1748/9.8. In it she made bequests to her sons Thomas and James, to two sons of James, and to several granddaughters.  The will also made gifts to Elizabeth Bevin, relationship not identified.

    1. Thomas Munday (c1707 – 1769) He was given a horse by the 1709 will of his grandmother Elizabeth Reeves, probably when but a baby. The next mention of him is on 17 September 1729 when he gifted 50 acres to “my beloved brother James Munday“.9. The deed describes the land as part of “a tract of land given by Thomas Munday of the aforesd. p’sh County and Colony aforesd dec’d grandfather to Thomas Munday party to these p’sents, by his last will and testament to Thomas Munday of the p’sh County and Colony aforesd., dec’d, father to the aforesd. Thomas Munday.”  His mother’s 1748 will identified her sons as James and Thomas and listed several of her granddaughters.

      Thomas Munday appears in relatively few records, perhaps due to illiteracy.  When the will of Nicholas Faulconer (Faulkner) was proved in court on 20 September 1743 Thomas Munday declared that, while he heard the testator acknowledge a document to be his will, he couldn’t verify it because he “declared that he can neither write nor read.”10  When Thomas Munday acted as security for the executor’s bond, he signed with his mark, which the clerk rendered as an “X” rather than the “T” he had used in the deed fourteen years earlier.11. He appears in only a few subsequent records until 20 June 1769 when the the Essex County Court ordered an inventory of his estate, which was recorded on 20 October 1769.

      Thomas had two sons, as his mother’s will of 1748 bequeathed a horse to her son Thomas Munday and a “mare big with fold (sic)” to “my son Thos. Munday’s two sons James & Thomas”.12. The same will mentioned several granddaughters without identifying whose children they were. By eliminating known daughters of James Munday, we guess at three daughters of John Munday as shown below.

      I saw no mention of a sale of Thomas Munday’s inherited land.  His eldest son (or his own heir) would have inherited that tract if a son was still alive in 1769.  If both sons were dead without heirs of their own, the daughters would have inherited equal shares in the land 00 that might explain why there is no deed from a Munday disposing of the tract.

      1. James Munday (c1730 – ?). There does not seem to be further record of him in Essex County, so I assume that he either died or migrated elsewhere.
      2. Thomas Munday (c1730 – ?) There does not seem to be further record of him in Essex County, so I assume that he either died or migrated elsewhere.
      3. Elizabeth Munday (? – ? ) She was given a cow in the 1748 will of her grandmother Mary Munday. Since Elizabeth, daughter of James Munday, was under age in 1771, and therefore not yet born in 1748, this  must have been the daughter of John Munday.  However, I saw no further record of her.
      4. Frances Munday (? – ? ) She was given a cow and cloth in the will of her grandmother. Since she was not an heir of James Munday in 1771 we assume that she was a daughter of John Munday. I saw no further record of her.
      5. Ann Munday (? – ? ) She was given a two-year old heifer in the will of her grandmother. Since she was not an heir of James Munday in 1771 we assume that she was a daughter of John Munday. I saw no further record of her.

    2. James Munday (c1708 – 1762). He first appears as a witness in an Essex County Court  case in September 1727.13  As mentioned above, in 1729 his older brother Thomas gifted him 50 acres of the land he had inherited from their father.  On 17 November 1732 James Munday and Thomas Merritt jointly purchased 200 acres described as adjacent to both James Munday and Charles Munday.14 Thomas Merritt sold his interest in the tract to James Munday in early 1736.15 and three years later James Munday sold 130 acres of his 250-acre tract, describing it as adjacent to both Thomas Munday and Charles Munday.16  He was married by this time, as his wife Lucy relinquished her dower interest.17 He was sworn as a constable in October 174118

      James Munday purchased an additional 115 acres of land from Mary Paget and on 4 May 1744 sold that tract to William Beverley for £10 and immediately leased it back, describing it as “the messuage and land whereon the said James Munday and Lucy now dwell”.19  He was executor of his mother’s 1748 will which made several bequests to him, his wife Lucy and several granddaughters, most of whom were apparently children of James.20  His mother may have been living on James’ original land, for a few years later in 1752 James and Lucy relinquished the lease to William Beverley, perhaps reflecting a move to his earlier property.21

      Administration of his estate was granted to his widow Lucy Munday on 22 September 1762.22 An inventory, which included five slaves and a still (perhaps the one inherited from his mother), was not filed until more than four years later on 19 January 1767.23. Four years later on 30 January 1771 James Munday’s land, 294 acres on Piscataway Creek in South Farnham parish, was divided among his five daughters.24 Later that year, on 14 December 1771, the slaves were divided among the daughters.25 They were identified in these. divisions as Ursula, wife of John Boughan, Katherine, wife of Thomas Shelton, Mary, the wife of James Croxton, and two minors named Lucy and Betsy. According to the land partition, the widow Lucy Munday was deceased.

      Lucy was the daughter of Ephraim Paget.  On 22 November 1767 Lucy Munday mortgaged two tracts of 130 acres each, describing one as land she had inherited from a brother and the other as land bought by her husband “of her sister Peggy Paget.”26. The land description matched the 294 acres that was dived among the children a few years later.

      1. Ursula Munday ( ) was married to their next door neighbor John Boughan sometime before 1771.
      2. Katherine ( ) was married to Thomas Shelton sometime before 1771.
      3. Mary Munday ( ) was married to James Croxton sometime before 1771.
      4. Lucy Munday ( – ) She evidently under 14 in 1769 when John Bougham was appointed guardian to Lucy and her sister Elizabeth.27. She and Major James Boughan married on 4 March 1774.28
      5. Elizabeth Munday ( – ) She was also evidently under 14 when John Boughan was appointed her guardian in 1769.  She was still unmarried on 17 March 1777 when John and Ursula Boughan sold their inherited land described as adjacent to Elizabeth Monday.29

  2. John Munday (c1684 – 1740) He was mentioned second in his father’s will and devised part fo his father’s plantation.  He next appears in the records when the 1708 inventory of the estate of James Reeves, the brother of Thomas Munday’s wife, listed him as a creditor.30 By 10 December 1710 he was married to Elizabeth Harrison when her father Andrew Harrison gifted 2000 acres to his daughter Elizabeth Munday.31.  (On the same day he gifted an adjacent tract to his son William Harrison, who was married to Hannah Munday.). In 1711 John Munday posted bond as guardian of his brother Charles Munday.32 He subsequently appears often in court records and in deed records as a witness, notably to the deed of gift by Thomas Munday mentioned above.

    His will was written on 27 October 1739 and proved less than six months later on 18 March 1739/40.33. He made bequests to six sons named John, Thomas, Joseph, Charles, Ambrose and Harrison Munday and to five daughters named Sarah Ware, Mary Ware, Margrett, Vinifred (sic) and Tabitha. His plantation and land were devised to his son Joseph Munday.  His wife Elizabeth and son John Munday were named executors, though only Elizabeth actually served in that capacity. By 19 May 1741 the widow Elizabeth was married to James Atkins when James and Elizabeth Atkins filed an estate account as executors.34

    Elizabeth’s second marriage did not last long, as James Atkins wore his will on 1 December 1741 leaving a slave to his (unnamed) wife for her lifeto=ime and the rest fo his estate to a friend and the friend’s sons.35 The will was probated three years later on 21 August 1744 by which time Elizabeth was deceased, the slave given to her being sold as part of the estate.36

    The children are listed below in the order in which they appear in the will.

    1. John Munday Although clearly the eldest son, he was given only one shilling by his father’s will.  We might infer from his father’s will and estate records, and from lack of record of him in Essex County, that he had left the area.  John Atkins estate records contain two mentions of him that suggest he was living in Caroline County — he was reimbursed for provisions and tools for the slaves working on James Atkins “Caroline Quarter”.37
    2. Sarah Munday. She was Sarah “Ware” in her father’s will.  She may have been the wife of Nicholas Ware. Probably the wife of a Waring, as I notice that payments from her father’s estate were made to Thomas Waring and to Thomas Waring Jr.
    3. Thomas Munday
    4. Mary Munday She was Mary “Ware” in her father’s will.
    5. Joseph Munday Although he inherited his father’s plantation, he did not vote in the election of 1741, implying that he was not yet of age.
    6. Margrett Munday
    7. Charles Munday
    8. Winifred Munday
    9. Ambrose Munday
    10. Harrison MUnday
    11. Tabitha Munday
  3. Charles Munday (c1695 – 17747)   He was still a minor on 14 April 1714 when Joseph Munday posted bond as his guardian.38  He appears in several court records.  He died intestate in 1747. On 18 August 1747 Jane Munday was granted administration of his estate.39 The three securities for her bond were all gentlemen justices of the county, an indication of her social status.  The appraisal of the state totaled £306, a considerable sum for the time., and included seven slaves, a copper still, several beds, several books and enough household furnishings to stock a largish house.40.  In July 1748 the estate was divided and distributed among the widow Jane and five children as listed below.41. Jane Munday left a will dated 18 October 1780 and proved on 20 September 1784 leaving legacies to granddaughters and dividing the rest of her estate equally among three daughters, Hannah Davis, Sarah Lane, and Susanna Crittendon.42
    1. William Munday was perhaps the eldest child. On 21 June 1748 he bought an acre of land on Gilson’s Swamp opposite an acre “whereon the said William Mundays Mill now stands.”43
      1. Catherine Munday
    2. Hannah Munday  She was Hannah Davis in her mother’s will.
    3. Richard Munday (c1725 – ?) He may have died as a youth, as he was not mentioned at all in his mother’s will and does not seem to appear in any record after the distribution of his father’s estate.
    4. Sarah Munday She was Sarah Lane in her mother’s will, which made gifts to her daughters Jane Lane, Sarah Lane and Molly Lane.  The will also mentioned “Susanna Crittendon’s part I lent to her daughter Catherine”.
    5. Crittenden Munday.  On 14 September 1747 Jane Munday executed a bond as guardian of Crittenden and Susanna Munday.44 The distribution of Charles Munday’s slaves in July 1748 mentioned that Janes was the guardian of “her two youngest children Ctetenden & Susanna Munday”.  ((Essex County Will Book 8, pp74.))
    6. Susanna Munday She was Susanna Crittendon in her mother’s will.
  4. Joseph Munday (c1695 – 1750 )   It is n’t clear whether Charles or Joseph was the younger son, but Joseph was listed last in his father’s will.  When his brother Thomas Munday’s estate accounting was filed in 1717, it included a debt to Joseph Munday of £16, apparently due to him from his father’s estate.  We infer from this that Joseph had probably only recently reached majority.  Indeed, his first appearance in the records as an adult was his witness to a deed on 17 November 1717.45 He had died intestate by 20 March 1749/50 when the court ordered an inventory of his estate.46 The administrator was Joseph Smith who filed record of an estate sale four years later on 18 June 1754, noting that the bulk of the estate had been sold “before administration”.47. Settlement of the estate recorded a month later listed payments to William Davis, Richard Munday, James Munday,John Merritt and Francis Waring. Whether these persons were related is not evident.
      1. Stephen Munday (? – 1784)  On 25 June 1773 Stephen Munday mortgaged 140 acres “whereon I now live which contains 140 acres left to me by my father Joseph Munday” adjacent to the land of Jane Munday.48. Ten years later on 1 March 1783 he and his wife Rachel sold 50 acres on Gilson’s Creek, apparently part of his father’s inherited land.49  His will was written on 7 September 1783 and proved on 21 June 1784.50 It lent 30 acres of land to daughter Elizabeth Munday “as long as she remains unmarried” and lent the remainder of his land to his wife Rachel during her widowhood, after which the land was to be split between “my two sons Jeremiah Munday and Benjamin Haile Munday”.   The remainder of the estate was to be “divided amongst all my children except my two sons Jeremiah Monday(sic) and Benjamin Haile Monday(sic)” although no other children were mentioned by name.  Stephen Munday was taxed in St Mary’s parish through 1783 and Rachel was taxed thereafter.  Rachel was evidently Rachel Greenhill. The 1790 will of Ambrose Greenhill and its codicil made bequests to Ben Haile Munday and his son Harrison Munday, and to Ambrose Greenhill Munday the son of James Munday who was called “my nephew… son of Stephen Munday”.51 Rachel was not mentioned, may not have been alive in 1790.
        1. Benjamin Haile Munday (c1761 – ?)  He was apparently the eldest son, His father was taxed on one unidentified male over 21 in 1783 (but not in 1782) and Benjamin was taxed on his own in 1784 and thereafter.
        2. Jeremiah Munday (c1764 – ?). He was not taxable in 1784 but on 3 August 1786 he mortgaged 37½ acres adjacent to his brother.52 On 15 February 1791 he sold 49 acres “which his father Stephen Munday dec’d gave him by will” on Gilson’s Creek to his brother Benjamin.53
        3. James Munday (? – ?). A codicil to the will of Ambrose Greenhill (see above) gave a legacy to “James Munday son of Stephen Munday”.54
  5. Hannah Munday (c1683 – ?) She married William Harrison. On 17 July 1717 when Thomas Munday accounted for legacies paid to his siblings, £42 was paid to William Harrison.  His father, Andrew Harrison Sr., in 1710 had gifted land to his son William Harrison and his daughter Elizabeth Munday (wife of John) on the same day in deeds witnessed by Thomas Munday.55  (Many genealogists have confused her husband with a different William Harrison who married a woman named Hannah Christianson.) I did not trace this couple further.
  6. Frances Munday (c1690? – ?) She married Henry Crittenden, who died in early 1717.  On 19 March 1716/17 Frances Crittenden executed bond as administratrix of his estate.  ((Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 15, p18.))  The inventory was taken on 9 April 1717 and presented to the court on 22 May 1717 by Francis Crittenden.56  On 17 July 1717 when Thomas Munday accounted for legacies paid to his siblings, he had paid a share, a bit over £41, to Frances Crittenden.
  7. Mary Munday (c1690? – ?)   She married Samuel Prosser.  When Thomas Munday accounted for payments to his siblings in 1717, a share was paid to Samuel Prosser.  Mary Prosser relinquished her dower right in a land sale by Samuel Prosser in 1719.57  Samuel Prosser’s will in St. Mary’s parish was signed on 9 May 1726 and proved two months later appointing his wife Mary as executrix.58 The will names children John (a minor) and daughters named Eliza, Martha, Winifred and Mary.
  8. Martha Munday (? – ?). She was apparently the youngest child and still single when she complained that she had not received her share of her father’s estate.
  1. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 11, pp55. [↩]
  2. The will of Thomas Munday Sr. bequeathed several items to. his son Thomas “as soon as he shall go into housekeeping.” [↩]
  3. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 11, p61. [↩]
  4. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 14, p16. [↩]
  5. Virginia State Library, Research and Information Services Division, Essex County Loose Papers, 1717–1752, No. 29400, 18 items, Ms D. found online at https://h600.org/wiki/B09-MundayOfVirginia. [↩]
  6. Essex County Will Book 3, pp81. [↩]
  7. Essex County Will Book 3, p91. [↩]
  8. Essex County Will Book 8, pp126. [↩]
  9. Essex County Deed Book 19, p83. [↩]
  10. Essex County Order Book 13, p274. [↩]
  11. Essex County Will Book 7, p42. [↩]
  12. Essex County Will Book 8, pp126. [↩]
  13. Essex County Order Book 7, p185. [↩]
  14. Essex County Deed Book 19, pp376. [↩]
  15. Essex County Deed Book 21, pp149. [↩]
  16. Essex County Deed Book 22, pp92 [↩]
  17. Essex County Order Book 16, p18. [↩]
  18. Essex County Order Book 12, p273. [↩]
  19. Essex County, Virginia, Deed Book 23, p150-153 and p153-154. [↩]
  20. Essex County Will Book 8, pp126. [↩]
  21. Essex County, Virginia, Deed Book 26, p101. Although the deed clearly identifies his wife as “Lucy”, the dower relinquishmen was entered as “Mary” which I assume is an error on the part of the transcriber. [↩]
  22. Essex County, Virginia, Order Book 24, p150. [↩]
  23. Essex County Will Book 12, p258-260. [↩]
  24. Essex County Deed Book 30, pp506. [↩]
  25. Essex County Deed Book 30, pp508. [↩]
  26. Essex County Deed Book 30, p185. [↩]
  27. Essex County Order Book 27, p45.. [↩]
  28. Boughan family Bible. [↩]
  29. Essex County Deed Book 31, p300. [↩]
  30. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 13, p153. [↩]
  31. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 13, p188. [↩]
  32. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 13, p419. [↩]
  33. Essex County Will Book 6, p242-3. [↩]
  34. Essex County Will Book 6, p303-4 [↩]
  35. Essex County Will Book 7, p188. [↩]
  36. Essex County Will Book 7, p280, pp391. [↩]
  37. (Essex County Will Book 7, pp391. [↩]
  38. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 13, p419. [↩]
  39. Essex County Order Book 15, p61. [↩]
  40. Essex County Will Book 8, p18-22. [↩]
  41. Essex County Will Book 8, pp74. [↩]
  42. Essex County Will Book 13, pp441. [↩]
  43. Essex County Deed Book 24, pp310. [↩]
  44. Essex County Will Book 8, p122-23. [↩]
  45. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 15, p117. [↩]
  46. Essex County Will Book 8, pp317. [↩]
  47. Essex County Will Book 9, pp324. [↩]
  48. Essex County Deed Book 31, p143. [↩]
  49. Essex County Deed Book 32, pp159. [↩]
  50. Essex County Will Book 13, p430. [↩]
  51. Essex County Will Book 15, p188 and p189. [↩]
  52. Essex County Deed Book 33, pp24. [↩]
  53. Essex County Deed Book 33, p320. [↩]
  54. Essex County Will Book 15, p189. [↩]
  55. Essex County Deed Book 13, p367. [↩]
  56. Essex County Deeds & Wills Book 15, pp54. [↩]
  57. Essex County Deed Book 16, pp131. [↩]
  58. Essex County Will Book 4, p162. [↩]