Birth and Baptism

The printed Christ Church Parish Register (1897), p. 158, records Ann, daughter of William and Frances Gutherie, born 4 August 1745 and baptized 1 September. Her mother’s maiden surname, Wilbourn, is established through the wider family research.

The Marriage Bond: 1 January 1765

The imaged Middlesex register places Samuel Bristow of Surry County and Anne Guthery under 1 January 1765. James Berry appears in the security and witnesses column. This is the accepted bond date for the couple.

Source: Register of marriages, Middlesex County, Virginia, 1740–1854, p. 15; FamilySearch film 32443, digital image group 007579010, item 2, image 17 of 145. The catalog describes a register compiled in 1933 from original marriage bonds and connecting papers and filmed in 1947. Its “Date of Bond” entry does not separately document the ceremony.

Benjamin’s Will

Benjamin Guthrie’s will of 22 February 1780, proved on 28 February, names his sister Ann Bristow. Ann shares the remainder with William and Samuel after the lifetime provision for their parents. The clause directly connects her married surname to the Guthrie siblings.

View Middlesex Will Book F, pp. 179–180, or the family discussion on Benjamin Guthrie’s page.

The parish register names Samuel, son of Nicholas and Mary Bristow, born 27 March 1730 and baptized 12 April 1730. Later Middlesex entries identify children of Samuel and his first wife Mary. The 1765 bond then places the groom Samuel in Surry County.

The Southampton man uses the surname Brister as well as Bristow and has a wife named Ann. His younger household and the associated marriages, wills, and guardianships provide a substantial family network. These are useful grounds for the proposed continuation, while a deed, estate receipt, or other record naming an earlier residence or Guthrie relative would make the county-to-county link more direct.

The proposed Anne Howard. Howard appears as a middle name among descendants, but no marriage or other record reviewed identifies Samuel’s wife as Anne Howard. The name is a research clue, not an established maiden surname. Likewise, the given name Wilbourn in the Stephenson family is consistent with Ann Guthrie’s maternal family but cannot establish parentage by itself.

Search coverage matters. A failure to find Samuel in a particular deed or will abstract applies only to that collection and its dates. The marriage-bond register itself expressly describes him as of Surry County. Further research should follow that documented clue through records covering the 1760s.

Parish reference: printed register, p. 129. The 3 April baptism sometimes assigned to Samuel belongs to the preceding entry; his baptism reads 12 April.

Samuel Brister: 2 October 1794

Samuel gave wife Ann Brister use of his estate for her natural life and appointed her sole executrix. Whatever remained at her death was to be divided among John, Benjamin, James, Hannah, and Willis. He stated that his other sons and daughters had already been provided for.

The probate endorsement records Ann’s presentation of the will on 11 June 1795, with proof by witnesses James Summerell, Thomas Travis, and Arthur Doles. Samuel therefore died after making the will and by its probate; an exact death in 1794 is not established.

Original record: Southampton Will Book 4, p. 688; also FamilySearch manuscript image.

Nicholas Brister: 3 January 1805

Nicholas expressly names “my loving mother Anne Brister.” He provides for Anne and brother John to use half of his house, plantation, and land during her life, and for wife Penelope to use the other half during hers. His son Samuel was to inherit the land after the deaths of his mother and grandmother. A contingency names brothers John and Willis if Samuel died under twenty-one without a lawful heir.

Penelope and John were named executors. The witnesses include Jacob Turner, Hannah Brister, and Joseph Denson. The will was proved on 20 January 1806. It establishes Anne’s survival to 3 January 1805, without establishing her survival to the probate date.

Source: Ancestry, Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1652–1900, Southampton will books covering 1804–1815; manuscript image supplied with the family research. The record is Nicholas’s will, in which Anne is named as his mother.

Nicholas, Penelope, and Their Son Samuel

Penelope Brister’s marriage to Joel Council is recorded on 15 February 1808. A court entry of 15 January 1810 appoints Joel guardian of Samuel, orphan of Nicholas Bristow. Later accounts record the boy’s boarding, clothing, and schooling. These entries connect the remarried household with Nicholas’s estate.

Samuel’s original will is dated 12 November 1829 and was proved 15 February 1830. It names mother Penelope Council, half-sister Catherine Council, brother William Council, and executor Joel Council. Together with Penelope’s remarriage and the guardianship record, it links Nicholas’s son to the Council household. The will names no wife or children, but that omission alone does not establish that Samuel never married or had children. His death falls between the will and probate dates, rather than being fixed to 1829.

Sources: marriage register, p. 182; original Samuel Brister will, Will Book 10, p. 227. Retained legacy references: Court Minute Book 1809–1813, p. 71; Guardianship Book 1798–1836, pp. 172, 197–198, 212, 220, 232; further account returns in the 1816–1819, 1819–1822, 1822–1824, and 1824 court books.

Lucy Brister and William Stephenson Jr.

Their bond is dated 18 October 1792 and describes Lucy as of full age. Stephen Summerell, S. Kello, and Samuel Brister appear among the security and witnesses. The original court entry in the 1802–1803 volume grants Lucy administration of William Stephenson’s estate, with Nicholas Brister and Edward W. Tyler as securities. That entry places William’s death before the later 1815–1816 dates appearing in some family profiles.

A second original entry, in the 1814–1816 court book, grants Wilborn Stephenson administration of Lucy Stephenson’s estate, with Benjamin Brister as security. Lucy was deceased by that court proceeding. The tree’s “after 1816” notation should therefore remain a flagged discrepancy rather than the accepted death date; the precise court date within the volume still needs to be established.

The retained 1819 proceedings name Wilbourne, Jeremiah, Peggy, James, and William G. Stephenson in disputes concerning William’s estate, with Benjamin acting as guardian for William G. The original guardianship entry in the 1816–1819 volume appoints Benjamin guardian to James and William G. Stephenson, orphans of William Stephenson, with Herod Summerell and Wilborn Stephenson as securities. The entry concerns two wards; the legacy reading “James G.” compresses their names.

These records connect Lucy to the surrounding Brister household and provide a basis for further work on the Stephenson descendants. The property proceedings concern land and the sale of an enslaved person from William’s estate. They should be read as evidence of both the family relationships and the people affected by its estate arrangements.

Sources: marriage register, p. 85; original Court Order Book pages 1802–1803, p. 364, 1814–1816, p. 274, and 1816–1819, p. 12. The 1819 estate proceedings are retained legacy transcriptions, Court Order Book 1819–1822, pp. 81–82 and 148–149; these later pages still warrant comparison with the originals.

The Younger Children

John. The legacy marriage references identify Dianna Bailey on 1 January 1810 and Sally Hart on 18 February 1816 (marriage register, pp. 197 and 245). His original will gives the remaining estate to wife Sally and appoints Joshua Hart executor; it names no children. This does not prove that he never had children. The probate endorsement is dated 18 March 1822. See Will Book 9, p. 139 and p. 140. The legacy notes also retain Joshua Hart’s later estate-account references in the 1822–1824 and 1824 court books.

Benjamin. His original will, dated 20 December 1839, names wife Diannah, sons Benjamin, James, and Thomas J., daughter Sally Camp, and granddaughter Mary Ann Powell. It does not identify Mary Ann’s parents. Thomas J. Brister and Allin Edwards were appointed executors. The endorsement records probate on 19 November 1849, with Edwards declining and Thomas qualifying. These dates bound Benjamin’s death without fixing its exact year. The will includes bequests of enslaved people as well as land and household property. See Will Book 14, p. 227. His road work, estate appraisals, and Stephenson guardianship duties remain useful associates’ records in the legacy research.

Hannah. The original marriage register, p. 182, records her bond with Eli Draper on 28 January 1808, with Thomas Chappell as security. The legacy transcription of the 1850 Halifax County, North Carolina census lists Eli and Hannah, each sixty-five and born in Virginia, with Ann Draper, thirty-six, also born in Virginia. The 1850 schedule does not state household relationships, so Ann’s presence alone does not establish her as their daughter. Hannah’s survival to that census is supported by the retained research; an exact death in 1850 is not established.

Willis. The legacy reference places his bond with Elizabeth Bab on 18 February 1811 (marriage register, p. 206), with Jesse and Eli Draper as securities. The original register, p. 252, confirms his bond with Betsey Bittle on 24 December 1816, correcting the legacy page’s 1818 date. His service as a witness to Lucy Bittle’s will and the later Bittle estate litigation provide further connections (Will Book 8, pp. 107–108; Court Order Book 1819–1822, pp. 83–84, 190, 241, 382).

Willis’s original estate inventory was taken on 31 January 1832 and returned to court on 15 October 1832: Will Book 11, p. 8. He was therefore deceased by the inventory date. The three younger people in his reported 1830 household are census age categories, not identified children. Their names and relationships require further evidence.

The later account in Will Book 12, p. 16 and p. 17 records Clement Rochelle’s administration of Willis’s estate, including a coffin expense in January 1832, a balance carried into 1834, and confirmation on 19 June 1837. These are continuing estate accounts, not evidence by themselves of a second deceased Willis or a father–son pair.

James. Samuel’s will establishes a son of this name. The legacy research identifies a James Brister in Southampton’s 1830 census and court cases in the 1819–1822 and 1822–1824 books. His spouse and children remain unresolved. He must be distinguished from Benjamin’s son James, identified as James W. in later family research.

Collections: Brantley Association Southampton County records. The court-book references provide a guide for checking the original pages and extending the family reconstruction.

• The Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex County, Va., from 1653 to 1812 (1897). Ann’s entry is on p. 158; Samuel’s birth and baptism are on p. 129.
• Gordon Byron Woolley. John Bristow of Middlesex County, and His Descendants through Ten Generations (1969), especially the Samuel discussion on p. 27. Compare its dates and child assignments with the parish, bond, probate, and census records.
• William Lindsay Hopkins. Middlesex County, Virginia Wills, Inventories and Accounts, 1673–1812 and other Court Papers (1989). Includes abstracts relating to Samuel and Mary’s children and their Middlesex associates.
• The Brantley Association’s Southampton Project. Marriage registers, wills, inventories, court orders, minute books, and guardianship accounts.
• Ann in the Guthrie Research Tree. Includes the source trail and working family reconstruction. Research collected by Ancestry contributor amaldo6922 in the Wright Family Tree supplies additional Brister records and competing identity theories.