Not the same as Susannah Marriott

Susannah married Cornelius DABNEY. (Cornelius DABNEY was born ca. 1640 and died ca. 1693). Susannah next married David ANDERSON.

Susannah wrote a will in 1722 naming two sons, Cornelius Dabney and David Anderson. and two daughters, Mary Carr and Dorothy Trice, and a grandson, William Anderson.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/trice/529/

Biography

Last updated 27 March 2025

Susannah, parents unknown, was born about 1660, and died at St. Paul’s Parish, Hanover County, Virginia, between March 1722 (will written) and 5 February 1724 (will probated).

From http://www.dabney-early-virginia.info/getperson.php?personID=I92&tr...

Cornelius Dabney l was married first to Eedeth (__), probably during the 1660s. They had three children: James, George, and Sarah, who were probably born during the 1660s or early 1670s. She was still living in 1678, when Cornelius mentioned her in a letter to Col. Moryson, but probably died soon after.

Cornelius remarried to Susannah (__) about 1679. They had six children, of whom 4 survived into adulthood:

1. Dorothy, born before 1680, died about 1732;
2. Benjamin, born ca 1682, died before March, 1722;
3. Elizabeth, born ca 1684, died April 4, 1688;
4. Cornelius II, born ca 1686, died 1764/65;
5. John, born ca 1687, died April 7, 1688;
6. Mary, born January 22, 1688, died September 7, 1748.

Benjamin is known from only two records, but both are official documents and therefore reliable. No records have been found for their birth dates except for Mary, so their birth order and dates are mostly estimated from indirect evidence.

After Cornelius death, Susannah remarried to David Anderson. They had one child,

1. David Anderson, Jr. David Sr. died about 1716.
   

Susannah died after March 7, 1722, when she signed her will. She left bequests to her then living children:

1. Cornelius Dabney II;
2. Dorothy (Dabney) Anderson Trice, wife first of Capt. William Anderson and second of James Trice;
3. Mary (Dabney) Carr, wife of Capt. Thomas Carr;
4. David Anderson Jr.;

and her grandchild,

1. William Anderson.

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Estimated birth date

Birth seen as October 10, 1643 Pamunkey River, St. Peters Parish, New Kent, Virginia Colony. Her son David Anderson Jr was born after 1694 (Cornelius Dabney died early that year) and it is unlikely she was 50, so have adjusted her estimated birth to after about 1650 and before about 1660.

Will

In Old New Kent County, Vol. 2, p. 883, Dr. Malcolm Hart Harris reported that after the death of his first wife Eedeth, Cornelius Dabney married Susanah, whose second husband was David Anderson. In her will dated 5 February 1724 (Hanover County Will Book 1, 1862-1868, Reel 1, pp. 632-634, Virginia State Library), Susanah Dabney-Anderson named her children:

Cornelius Dabney, the executor of her will. He married Sarah Jennings on 17 April 1721 (Virginia Marriage Records, by Wm. M. Clemons, Virginia State Library). His will was proved on 7 Feb. 1765 in which he named his wife Sarah and children William, John, Cornelius (deceased), Mary Elizabeth Maupin, Fanny Maupin, and Anna Thompson (Hanover County Will Book 1, 1862-1868, Reel 1, beginning page 634, Virginia State Library).An executor of his will was his second son, John Dabney, who became a Brigadier General in the Revolutionary War.[SIC: not this John Dabney]

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Disputed origins

• Susannah was the second wife of Cornelius Dabney, Cockacoeske's English interpreter. They had several children, and after Cornelius' death in 1693 Susannah married a man named Anderson. There is a lengthy and detailed article on the Dabneys (found at JSTOR). There is no mention anywhere of a Native American connection. If Cornelius Dabney married the daughter of an Indian Queen it surely would have been noted in the colonial records.
• Maiden name possibly Swann, but more likely she was from the family of Powhatan Indian Chief Totopotomoi and/or Cockacoeske, of the Pamunkey tribe. (see discussion at http://hylbom.com/family/paternal-lines/paternal-cl-to-du/dabney-3046/) Totopotomoi, Weroance of the Pamunkey
• By tradition, a daughter of Col. Thomas Swann & his 1st wife Margaret Swann Perhaps she was fostered in that family.

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The following is an excerpt from wikitree on this theory https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Swann-336

Another, more speculative but nonetheless intriguing, history has circulated in the Dabney family for generations. It claims that Susanna Swann was, in fact, a full or partial Native American. Some versions say she was the illegitimate daughter of Thomas Swann by a daughter of Algonquin chief Totopotomoi and his wife Cockacoeske, sister of the united clan chief, Powhatan. Other versions say she was a full-blood Algonquin, a grand-daughter of Chief Totopotomoi & wife Cockascoeske, that was "adopted" by Col. Thomas Swann after both her parents died, shortly after her birth.

(Col. Thomas Swann was widowed 4 times and married 5 times during his 64 year life span (1616-1680). He was an influential man in 17th Century Virginia both economically and politically. He also had close ties with the local Native Americans, serving as the official English translator for the Pamunkey Algonquin tribe.)

Some of these legends also indicate that she was not born in 1643 but around 1664 and that Cornelius Dabney was her first husband, married when she was about 18 years old. This would mean that Susanna had her children in her 20s (not 40s) and she was only 34 when her last child, David Anderson, was born (and not 55). [4]

Frank S. Crosswhite has said this of "Susannah Swann":[5]

"When a high-status Englishman visited a [1600s] Virginia Algonquian village, he was given sumptuous meals, an elegant high-status house for overnight accommodations and a young woman to share his bed. This was an intentional mechanism to bring genes from high-status Englishmen into the local gene-pool. The villagers knew the identities of the English fathers and bestowed the appropriate father's surname on the appropriate child. Thus, Queen Cockockoeske had a son named John West and her daughter Betty (later Queen Betty ) had the daughter named Susannah Swann. Betty was a daughter of Cockockoeske by Totopotomoi (a ruler descended from the ranking sister of Powhatan)..."

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Taken from http://ww.wgrogan.net/data/nti11702.html

The David Anderson family of Stafford Co., VA had close ties with the family of John West of Stafford, reputed son of Queen Cockacoeske, a Pumunkey Indian, the possible mother or grandmother of his wife Susannah Swann.

VA land patents

1702 David Anderson adj. William Andrews at Pamunkey Neck.

• * The Quit Rents of Virginia, 1704, by Annie Laurie Wright Smith, Virginia State Archives; 1957.
• Anderson, Robert New Kent County 700 acres
• Anderson, Robert New Kent County 900 acres
• Anderson, David New Kent County 300 acres
• Anderson, John New Kent County 100 acres
• Anderson, John New Kent County 100 acres
• Anderson, Richard New Kent County 200 acres

This is David and his father and brothers and uncle John

• * St. Paul's Parish Vestry 1 Oct 1707 - Pursuant to an order of the court dated July 28, 1707, appointing Mr. David Anderson & Samuel Waddy to clear the Pamonkey River on the south side thereof from Piping Tree to Hardings Landing, formerly Youels, they applying themselves to this vestry for assistance with instruments or materials to comply with the order of the court. This vestry has thought that this parish is not able to comply with that order.

Piping Tree is along the Pamunkey River in the northeast corner of the bend that occurs just above the border between current New Kent County and Hanover County. It is downstream from Totoppotomeys Creek. This bend sticks into KIng WIlliam County and suggests the reason so many records of this family reference a residence of King WIlliam County.

The St. Paul's parish vestry book survived from 1706 to the 1780's and there are precessionings in 1708 and 1711 and so on. Robert Anderson. Sr, and Robert Anderson Jr. and Richard, David, John, Matthew and Thomas Anderson all appear in the 1708 precincts list all of them near each other between Crumps Creek and Tottopotomies Creek and Mechumps Creek to the north of current Mechanicsville, Virginia

• 1708/9 David Anderson precessioner St. Paul's Parish Vestry Book
• 1711 David Anderson precessioner St. Paul's Parish Vestry Book
• 26 Oct 1713 - David Anderson & Samuel Waddy again applied for assistance & were turned down.
• 1715 David Anderson precessioner St. Paul's Parish Vestry Book
• 15 Oct 1715 - David Anderson (without Samuel Waddy) again applied and was turned down.

David Anderson

• 06/16/1714 90 acres King William County
• VA land patents book 10/ page 127
• upper side of mouth of Woodyard Creek or Swamp on Pamunkey River.

VA land patents

• 1714 David Anderson adj. Thomas Devenport, St. John's Parish
• 1715 David Anderson adj. William Terrill

This David is not traced well and one reason may be that he crossed to the North side of the Pamunkey River and had land in both New Kent/Hanover and King William County. A further examination of King William Records might provide further information on him.

• 1. William Pope Anderson, Anderson Family Records, (W. F. Schaeffer & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio; 1936).
• 2. William Pope Anderson, Anderson - Overton, A Continuation of Anderson Family Records (1936) & Early Descendants of William Overton & Elizabeth Waters of Virginia & Allied Fa, (Cincinnati, Ohio; 1945.).
• 3. C. G. Chamberlayne, The Vestry Book of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, Virginia 1706-1786, (Clearfield Company, Inc.; Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland 1999).

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From https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190197949/cornelius-dabney

Cornelius DABNEY was married to Edith he became the interpreter and close companion of Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey Indians, and widow of Chief Totopotomoi, a grandson of one of the two sisters of Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas. Cornelius Dabney's second wife, Susanna, is considered by many to have been of the family of Chief Totopotomoi and Cockacoeske. Queen Cockacoeske had an illegitimate son, Capt. John West, by John West, son of Gov. John West of Va. Capt. John West was with his mother, Cockacoeske, and Cornelius Dabney in the late 1670s when the famous Treaty of Middle Plantation was signed by the various leaders of the tribes under Queen Cockacoeske
In 1679 the Pamunkey Indians leased for 99 years "six or seven hundred acres" to Cornelius Dabney (English Duplicates of Lost Virginia Records, compiled by Louis des Cognets, Jr., p. 58). In Sainsbury's Abstracts of Colonial State Papers, in the Public Records Office in London, there are two letters from Cornelius Dabney, the "Interpreter to the Queen of Pamunkey." The first is a state letter from the Queen of the Pamunkeys translated by Cornelius Dabney in his official capacity and transmitted to Colonel Francis Moryson of the Royal Commission of Virginia. The second is a personal letter to Colonel Moryson, dated Virginia, Jun ye 29th, 1678, in which Cornelius Dabney concluded: "...Sr. my wife Eedeth has her humble service p'sented unto y' Hono'. (she) would gladly send y' one of her Boyes a yeare or two hence. My humble service to y' Hono'. I am: Sr: y' Hono's most humble servant in all obedience. Cornelius Dabney." (Charles William Dabney, "The Origin of the Dabney Family of Virginia," Va. Mag. of History and Biography, April 1937, Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 134)
Cornelius was the interpreter for Queen Cockacoeske of the Pamunkey Indians from Virginia, who was the daughter of Chief Opechancanough whom was the brother of Chief Powhatan. Chief Opechancanough was a brilliant tactician and War Chief. On a raid in 1622 that was comprised of an assault front that was no less than 140 miles in length. His warriors killed over 350 colonists and destroyed the towns' ironworks. This was so effective in hindering the colonists that there were no further raids until 1644. He could have easily wiped out the remaining colonists at Jamestown, however his goal was to curtail the encroachment of the settlers on his hunting grounds that were needed to feed his people. This treaty was ratified in the year 1677 and was signed by Queen Cockacoeske who was known as the Weroansqua. An excellent website complete with historical art and pictures that explores the history of the Powhatan Confederacy and associated tribes may be found at The Mariners Museum.

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Descendants

Descendants of Cornelius Dabney and Susannah West include William Deyo, official tribal historian of the Pamunkey; Patrick Henry (the orator and Governor of Virginia), Dabney Carr (brother-in-law of President Thomas Jefferson), Nancy Astor (first woman to sit in the British House of Commons), Zachary Taylor (President of the United States), and his daughter Sarah Knox Taylor, the first wife of President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy.

Tribal historian Bill Deyo generously provided most of the information and theories in this sketch and developed this outline of the daughters of Thomas Harrison and Cockacoeske's daughter. Bill Deyo's ancestor was Seth Anderson (#2 above) as well as Susannah West Dabney, the daughter of Cockacoeske and her interpreter Cornelius Dabney, and a sister of "Jane" West Harrison. Some family trees suggest Susannah could be much younger and a daughter of her sister Mrs. Harrison, but most references agree she was Cockacoeske's daughter. Shawnee Heritage IV by Don Greene, vol. IV, p.396, shows Susannah as born c1653, and married first 1666 Cornelius Dabney and c1669 David Anderson (see #2 above). If she was born as early as 1653 or 1649 (as some suggest) she had to be the daughter of Cockacoeske, not granddaughter.

SNP Cousin results - see Isomgosiono's profile for the claimants of the Swann and the Pounds descendants.

References

1. 3013 W. P. Anderson, Anderson Family Records (Cincinnati, Ohio: Press of W. F. Schaefer & Company, 1936), 106.
2. Genealogies of Virginia Families
3. Ancestral File (R)
4. International Genealogical Index (TM)
5. http://www.dabney-early-virginia.info/getperson.php?personID=I92&tr...
6. http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/a/x/Marlene-D-Maxwell-...
7. http://www.juch.org/gedpages/fam/fam00983.htm#SRC
8. McCauley, Lanier, Hankins, Hopkins & Taylor Families
9. http://bransoncook.systemaxonline.com/gedcoms/branson_ancestors/paf...
10. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockacoeske

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Swann-336
• Susannah wrote a will in 1722 naming two sons, Cornelius Dabney and David Anderson. and two daughters, Mary Carr and Dorothy Trice, and a grandson, William Anderson. https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/trice/529/
• Will of Mrs. Susannah (___) Dabney-Anderson, Hanover County Will Book 1. Page 632. http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/hanover/wills/anderson501gwl.txt
• The Vestry Book and Register of St. Peter's Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia, 1684-1786 transcribed and edited by C.G. Chamberlayne, page 428. (Also available on Archive.org.) < Archive.Org >
• Virginia Historical Magazine (Swann Wills) < Archive.Org >
• Another Theory To Ancestry < link > Susannah 1653-1724