Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/138

 132 Southern Historical Society Papers.

and Dutch. Among the last were skilled artisans, and one of that

race on e Doodas or Doodes Minor, or Minor Doodes, for the name

is thus variably recorded was the ancestor of a family of eminent educators. 21

Welsh blood has been among the motive powers of many eminent sons of Virginia, and of their descendants in the South. Various biographers claim that Jefferson Davis was of this descent, and the immigrant ancestor of Thomas Jefferson, it is known, was a native of Wales. Although it has been claimed that he was of Scotch Irish blood, yet not a single ancestor of his was of either strain.

There were refugee Huguenots who found asylum desultorily in Virginia before 1700, but the chief influx was in that year, when more than 500 came and settled, chiefly at Manakintown. The virtue of this infusion is manifest in the names of Dupuy, Fontaine, Marye, Maury, Micou, Michaux, and others, quite concluding the alphabet with Venable and Youille, many of them being numerously repre- sented among us.

Of the Scotch, but few immigrants before the union of Scotland with England, in 1707, may be identified. William Drummond, who had been Governor of North Carolina, and who was hung by Berkeley in 1676 as a rebel, is said to have been a Scotchman. The founder of the distinguished Nelson family was called, it may be sig- nificantly, "Scotch Tom," but he was born in Cumberland county, England. Dr. James Blair was a Scotchman, but he came to Vir- ginia through the alembic of England as the famous race of the Val- ley of Virginia, whose brains and brawn have so impressed them upon the history of our country, did through that of Ireland, follow- ing, in 1734, from Pennsylvania, the Dutch leader, Joist Hite, who came in 1732. After the union, " Scotch Parsons," so potent as ed- ucators, and merchants, who quite monopolized the trade of the country, pervaded Eastern Virginia.

Some writers seem to delight in the assertion that Virginians are largely the descendants of felons vile criminals. The chief author- ity for the charge " Hotteri s List of Emigrants to America, 1600- ijoo " comprehends, according to the title page, " Persons of Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Exiles, Serving-Men sold for a period of years, Apprentices, Children stolen, Maidens pressed, and Others." These lists include shipments to the West India Islands and to New England, as well as Virginia. Although the latter des-

21 The Minor family.