Northern Neck of Virginia

I started reading the book The Willis Family of the Northern Neck in Virginia 1669-1737.  Partly I am reading this because my dna connects to participants who connect to every child of Benjamin Hawkins and his wife, Sarah Willis.  Benjamin is one of the orphans of John and Elizabeth Hawkins who both die in some sort of an epidemic c. 1715/16.

The book is worth the purchase price just for the information about the area in which families were living around what is now Richmond County in the Northern Neck of Virginia in the time period in which I have interest.  I have not read the entire book.  The author spent years doing research.  There is too much to read in a few sittings.

I have to add to the above that I have never proved that Sarah had maiden name Willis.  I have not found anyone yet who does have that proof.  Sarah is the daughter of  the oft married Sarah who married and had children with William Willis, Henry Wood, and Rush Hudson....then after the death of her third husband married a man with last name Turberville (I am to lazy to look him up right now to be sure of his first name) and died in Orange County, Virginia with last name Turberville.  There were no children with this last husband.

Benjamin Hawkins was a witness or some such thing on his wife's mother's will....again I am not double checking ...in a hurry to just put this paragraph in place quickly.  This author admits that she does not have proof to which of the oft married Sarah's husbands her daughter Sarah descends.

I just needed to put these paragraphs SOMEPLACE tonight.  They are found on page 97 of this book. I will put notes from me in [ ] .

Isaac Arnold's name is found on many of the documents for William Willis and his wife Sarah from the will of John Willis Sr. to Turberville's administration of Rush Hudson's estate, but no direct relationship was found.  It is known that Isaac and his wife Margaret were given 40 acres by her father Thomas Goff in 1707/08 (see Chapter IV)/  This tract was undoubtedly part of either the 403 acres which Goff and Kendall purchased jointly with John Willis Sr. in 1687/88 or Goff's 1696 grant of 105 acres which adjoined John Willis Sr.

[ notes from me on that paragraph:  Isaac Arnold is the man that John Hawkins names as executor of his deathbed will c.1715/16.  There is no doubt in my mind that these men are neighbors and friends.
http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/11/will-of-john-hawkins-of-richmond-county.html]

In November 1758 William Willis (son of William and [the oft married Sarah]) placed an attachment on the estate of an Isaac Arnold in Orange County, and James Arnold paid the debt to Willis in 1759 [footnote says Orange County orders] While Issac Arnold Sr. of King George County wrote his will in September 1757 and it was proved the following May, Isaac did not have a known son named James, and it seems doubtful that this was the man whose estate was attached by William Willis.  Review of the records for the Arnold family continues because of their proximity to the Willises in both Richmond/King George and Orange Counties.

The Butler connection to the Willis family is elusive, but a Christopher Butler witnessed John Willis Sr's deed to his son William in 1701, and earlier references to the Butler family can be found in other parts of this manuscript.  If or how Christopher was related to Richard Butler or Caleb Butler is unknown.  What is clear from the records is that  Richard Butler and wife Susanna were neighbors to the Woods and Hudsons, and that Henry Wood was related to the Butlers, and that Richard acted as guardian to both William Wood and Benjamin Hawkins who migrated to Orange County with the extended Willis family.