Hello Cynthia.
Thank you for the request to contact. I looked at your chart and its relationship to me. You and I are much more closely related than is shown. I don't know why this is. We are both direct descendants of Robert Goode III. His daughter, Sarah (Sallie) Bland Goode Lyle is my 4th Great Grandmother. She married James Lyle, Jr (1779-1806), of the city of Manchester (now South Richmond), and they lived at the Goode plantation of Whitby on the James in Chesterfield county. James Lyle, Senior, (1725-1812) later acquired Whitby. I owned his 1811-1812 letterbook for several years, which had been passed down in our family. I researched it for publication, and am familiar with everyone Lyle, Sr. wrote to or about. Finally, I sold it to the Virginia State Library, which owns many of our family documents. James, Jr. and Sally were in their teens at the time of their marriage, which was forced by his domineering father. They had 6 children altogether, of which 3 survived beyond early childhood. James Jr. was a bit of a spoiled young man, and it is rumoured that Whitby ended up as property of the Lyles as the result of a horse race at the Broad Run Race Track. It became the property of the old man at young James' death in 1806 at the age of 26. His obituary says he died of "gout of the stomach", which is a connundrum. After his death, Sallie Bland Goode Lyle remained at Whitby, until she remarried a business associate of the elder Lyle, Tarleton Saunders. All of these people were very well known in their day.
I am descended from Sally and James, Jr. eldest surviving child, James Lyle III. He married Jane LeVert Davidson, and they lived at Whitby. Their daughter, Helen Bland Lyle, married Col. (later Judge) Samuel Bassett French, of Norfolk. Col. French was secretary to the 2 wartime Governors of VA, and served on Robert E. Lee's staff. His memoir is published. They also lived at Whitby, which Col. French purchased from the other heirs. They raised their large family there. Mrs. Helen French, my father's great-grandmother, lived into his lifetime, and he remembered her from when he was a small child. When S. Bassett French became judge of the City of Manchester Hustings Court in 1875, they sold Whitby and moved to Porter Street, in Manchester. Sadly the plantation house burned afterward. The property later became a DuPont factory. In the 1950's, Esso (now Exxon) wanted the site of the family cemetery. They tracked down my father as senior representative of the family. They wanted permission to move the graves, and a family witness. Daddy and his cousin, S. Strother Smith went, and witnessed the exhumation of several Lyles and French's . Not much to see, except that Jane LeVert Davidson Lyle had been buried in a lead coffin which conformed to her shape, and had a glass window over her face. There she was - as real as life. Daddy and Strother Smith had a look at their gg grandmother, but for some reason, the workmen opened this unusual casket, and she evaporated before their eyes!
One of the daughters of S. Bassett French and Helen Bland Lyle French was Helen Bland Goode French, who married her third cousin once removed, Robert Bolling Batte (1842-1915). They lived and farmed at several places which they owned in Prince George County, just across the Appomattox River from Chesterfield County.
Robert Bolling Batte and his wife, Helen Bland Goode French had several children. One of them, Samuel Bassett French Batte, (1876-1933), was my grandfather.
S. Bassett French Batte married Mary Campbell Jones, of Denbigh plantation, old Warwick County, VA. They lived in Norfolk during their married lives.
Their older son, Robert Bolling Batte III, (1906-1996) was my father. He married Frances Harrison Drummond (1910-1996) daughter of Joseph Foster Drummond and Lucinda Trezevant Carr Drummond, of Norfolk VA.
Both of my parents were born in Norfolk, VA, as was I, Lucinda Campbell Batte (Russell.)
All of this shows up on my Geni chart. I don't know why Geni had to go round Robin Hood's barn to show another connection between you and me.
Proud and happy to have you as a cousin.
BTW, I would like the profile of James Lyle, Jr. made a master profile. There have been folks trying to hook onto him, because he had a contemporary, another James Lyle, of Albermarle County VA and they would like to conflate them. They appropriated the handsome portrait of "my" James Lyle, Jr. , which I own.
Thank you for your interest in this line. I have passed on a few of the stories, but there are more.
Kind regards, dear Cousin.
Lucy Russell.
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