The early history of the Rector family in America is a lesson for family genealogists. The family had been specified through the third generation and, though there were points which for which the evidence was weak, most everyone was in agreement. If probabilities had been assigned to the truth of some of the facts in the story, most of the facts would have received a rating of 95% or more. Usually, this is creditable rating to a statistician. But then, John Gott, John Alcock, and Barbara Vines Little contributed their findings to the history and the world was turned upside down. Two of the finds involved loose papers (the findings of the Johns), and the third find was the act of digging out records that were known and reinterpreting them (the mark of the true professional, which Barbara is). Some other contributors will be mentioned along the way.
How do loose papers come about? One way is that a court case is never resolved, and never ordered to be recorded in the books. The case goes on and on without ever coming to a head. Papers pertaining to it are held to one side, and finally it is clear that no further action will be occurring. Then the papers are assigned to a box of incomplete cases. As to what eventually happens to these is arbitrary. Some are burned to heat the office. Maybe they continue to gather dust. Others are organized, indexed, and made available for research.
John Gott found a case among the loose papers in Fauquier County, Virginia, which went on from 1774 to 1791. It was Robinson (sometimes written as Robertson or Roberson) versus Rector Executors. Within the body of the suit, it becomes clear that it was a suit by the children of a women against her and another man, a half-sibling of the plaintiffs. The suit started when George the Third was the head of judicial system and the last action occurred when the Virginia Commonwealth was the head.
The principal plaintiff was David Roberson (Robinson), though at one point it appears he was joined by his siblings, Ann, who had married Henry Rector; Joseph Roberson; and William Howell, who had married another sister of David. William Robertson had married Catherine Taylor and they had five children, the eldest of which was David. The father, William Roberson, died on or about the _____ day of _____ seventeen hundred and _______, leaving a personal estate of stock, furniture, tools, utensils, and crops of corn and tobacco. Catherine, William's wife, took possession of these items, and before long married John Rector. David claimed that John Rector intermingled the assets of his father, William Roberson, with his own assets, without ever making an account of the assets of William Roberson.
David claimed to be the heir at law to his father's estate. While he was a minor, he worked for John Rector "like a slave and had no education", but when he reached his full age, he applied to John Rector for his share of his father's estate. He was told by John Rector, with perhaps the help of his wife, Catherine, who was David's mother, that William Roberson's estate had been blended and intermixed with the estate of John Rector and it was impossible to distinguish them.
David's sister, Ann, married Henry Rector, and his sister Francis married William Howard. They were invited to join with David's brothers, Joseph and William Robertson, in the suit as plaintiffs, but they refused to join. David presumed that they had received some small satisfaction already. Now it appeared to David that they had combined with Catherine and Henry Rector, who are the executors of the estate and the defendants in the case, to defeat and defraud David out of his share of his father's estate.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.