RNT Family History

The First and Original Official Repository of the Farthing Family History in America



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  • Title The First and Original Official Repository of the Farthing Family History in America  
    Short Title The First and Original Official Repository of the Farthing Family History in America  
    Author Thomas M. Farthing 
    Publisher Thomas M. Farthing 
    Source ID S110 
    Text Our Farthing Family

    This version is submitted by: Lanette Lathim, written by her father.

    Please note that there are other versions of the Farthing Family History, if you have a family history you would like to have added please email me, you can attach it to your email.

    Notes on our Farthing Family Line to Shane Richard Farthing

    Preface

    The purpose of these notes is to give the younger generations some knowledge of the family history and to encourage the older generations to provide additional information which will help to provide a more accurate and complete record of the Farthing line from the first to settle in America to Shane Richard Farthing. Many questions arose during this compilation and additional evidence and information is needed before a complete and accurate history can be established. It is hoped that these notes will encourage others to help in the task.

    In general, the information on names and dates of family members, not specifically identified with a reference, was obtained from the extensive research of the late Minnie Farthing Watson in some cases from communications with Mrs. Grace Farthing Dietz of Davenport, Iowa.

    note: Most of this material came to us from Bill Farthing of Boone, NC. We placed our line in the writing of this record.

    THE FIRST FARTHINGS IN AMERICA

    Soon after the establishment of Jamestown, a system was established by which emigration from England to the Virginia Colony was increased in order to satisfy the tremendous need for both skilled and unskilled labor. Any person who paid his own passage to Virginia would be assigned 50 acres of land and these emigrants were referred to as "patentees". Many potential emigrants, however, could not afford to pay the passage to the Colony so the system provided free passage for those willing to serve in bondage for a few years. In these cases, patentees paid the passage in exchange for the indentured servitude of the emigrants for a certain length of time as well as receipt of 50 acres of land for each person transported. It is among these indentured servants, referred to as "headrights", that the earliest records of Farthings in America are found.

    The four earliest Farthing emigrants, who are listed as headrights in the abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, and the date on which their sponsor was given title to the 50 acres of land are: Bartholomew (1636), Robert (1637), Charles (1657) and Lewis (1664). It should be noted that headrights sometimes arrived in the Colony long before the patentee entered a claim for or received the land, and therefore the above dates must be considered only as the latest year in which the emigrant might have arrived.

    According to research by the late Minnie Farthing Watson, the Farthings lived in the shire of Somerset, England, during the 15th and 16th centuries where they probably originated. In order to trace these four Farthings back to England, a search was made of the ancient records of Somerset in the city of Taunton, England. Assuming that a man who leaves his homeland in order to make a beginning in a new country is likely to be a young man, the records for the years from 1600 to 1650 were studied. These revealed the information that John, infant son of Valentine Farthing, was baptized February 15, 1606. Bartholomew, infant son of Valentine Farthing, was baptized February 12, 1608. Valentine Farthing lived at Parish Isle Abbotts in Somerset. William Farthing of Enmore, Somerset, was the father of infant son Bartholomew who was baptized March 25, 1609.

    Either of these two Bartholomews would have been young men at the appropriate time to have been the "headright" Bartholomew of record in Virginia. Which of them came to Virginia as an indentured servant is an intriguing question, the answer to which was found in Somerset House in London where ancient records are housed. In April of 1644, the will of William Farthing of Enmore was recorded by sons Bartholomew and Richard. This is the Bartholomew who was baptized in 1609 leaving Bartholomew Farthing, son of Valentine Farthing of Somerset, as the plausible Farthing who came to the Colonies some time earlier than 1636.

    Although definite documentary evidence appears to be lacking, circumstantial evidence and family tradition identifies Bartholomew as the earliest American ancestor of the Watauga County branch of the Farthing family. Based on the assumption that Bartholomew was the first, the following notes present information collected on the member of each generation who is believed to be in the direct line from Bartholomew to Shane Richard Farthing.

    notes: 1 - Bartholomew Farthing

    Prior to September 29, 1636, Bartholomew Farthing arrived from England. He was one of 22 persons whose transportation had been paid by either Edward Garner prior to his death or by Dorothy Garner, his widow, for on September 29, 1634, she received title to 1100 acres in Henrico County "for transporting 22 persons" including "Barr Farthing" (1) .

    (1) Cavaliers and Pioneers, abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1603-1800, by Nell Marian Nugent, vol. 1.

     
    Linked to Farthing, Bartholemew 

  •  Notes