Mar 29

Mar 29 Blog Post: Father Unknown

Frances Lawson had an older sister by the name of Mary E. Lawson. Mary E. Lawson’s name has surfaced in different circles continuously despite her death in 1920. The reason why is due to her once long-term relationship, (marriage was not legal between the races before 1967 Loving vs. Virginia) with Elias Chappelear, a Virginian aristocrat and former slaveholder. Dr. James Hamilton who I mention in the first blog is a descendant of this union, and fought hard to preserve his family’s story. He maintained a family cemetery that I learned about in an online chat while doing my own research. For the first month of podcasting, I searched diligently for this cemetery off Route 211. There are more details in Episode 4 regarding this journey, but his paper trail had given me a jumpstart all while simultaneously raising so many questions.

On the 200 year plus journey into my family’s history, there was a glaring fact that could be not ignored, that fatherhood was often anonymous and the range of reasons more complicated than I imagined. I had to be careful of my own bias because of my own interest in Black women throughout time, I would often find myself not being as diligent having fathers in the forefront of my mind while researching. However, the examination of death certificate after death certificate would capture the anonymity of so many fathers.

Betsey Lawson had married George Lawson according to the tax records of 1813. It seemed to be one of her first acts of freedom. But a few short years later, she disappears from those Stafford County records resurfacing again on paper in 1838 in Rappahannock County. I know neither her mother or father, so she sits as the unquestionable, non-negotiable family figure-head in my mind. Each of her children born free: Charlotte, William, Robert, Peter and my direct line, John. But, by the time her children are born free, she would have had to have been in her late 20s or early 30s. I find it hard to believe that she would not have had children beforehand, but there is no official record of them.

But in this blog, I will focus on the finding of two of her grandchildren in particular, Mary E. Lawson, the elder sister of my 3rd great-grandmother, Frances Lawson, featured in the last blog and my 3rd great-grandmother Frances Lawson. Mary was born in 1840 and according to the free status of both of her parents, my 4th great-grandparents, John and Mary Lawson, she would have been free as well. But something I cannot explain links Mary Elizabeth Lawson to Elias Chappelear. Elias Chappelear had come from the prestigious Chappelear family. The Chappelear family made their home in the Virginia Piedmont in the counties of Fauquier, Culpeper and Rappahannock. The patriarch of the family, William, died in the 1850s and left property to his one of the heirs in Rappahannock County, Elias. Elias, his son, was about the age of 40 at the time he took over the land and managed it.

It is in the 1850s that we know the paths of Mary E. Lawson, my 3rd-great aunt and Elias Chappelear cross paths. She was roughly a teenager then, a free woman of color, born to John Lawson and Mary Richardson Campbell, granddaughter to Betsey Lawson. We do not know the terms under which Elias Chappelear and Mary Lawson encounter one another, and I find myself mulling over this aspect the most because there was such a grand power and age differential.

But, on the 1860 census, Mary Lawson is a mere 19 years old and by the 1870 census she is listed in the household of Elias Chappelear as a domestic servant alongside 12 children. Elias Chappelear would sell his 60 acres of inherited land and the two would have a total of 15 children. Dr. Hamilton would descend from this union and Terita Russell, a Prince George’s County raised cousin who I first met on ancestry.com would also descend from this union. Terita Russell would be one of my first interviewees.

But a close examination of the death certificates of the children that would result from this union, show the anonymity of their father. The fathers are listed as unknown. Featured in this post is a picture of James Henkel Lawson with his wife Aura Phillips who would make their homes eventually in Fauquier County. When John passed at age 63, his mother’s name was present on the death certificate, but his father’s name was listed as unknown. His son Onan Lawson, Terita Russell’s great-grandfather ( featured in first episode) would be listed as father unknown as well.

Elias and Mary would go on to have the following children:

Lucy Lawson

William Lawson

Mary C. Lawson

Sarah E. Lawson

George Lawson

James Henkel Lawson

Frances Ann Lawson

Alias Lawson

Tabitha Lawson

and Onan Lawson.

My direct line, Frances Lawson also raised questions. Upon examination of the marriage certificate for her daughter, Mary Frances Lawson, my second great-grandmother when she married Henry Bailey in 1896, I saw that the listed father was a Jake Woodward. Excited to connect one more generation back, I hurriedly looked for information on Jake Woodward. But there was no Black Jake Woodward to be found. I continued to search but the only Jake Woodward that appeared in the area was not African-American. I was stumped. I did not understand how his name would be listed on the marriage certificate when the miscegenation laws that forbade marriage between the races and official intermixing were strongly in tact. In fact, the year Mary Frances Lawson married was 1896, the year Plessy vs. Ferguson upheld and court enforced segregation.

But there I had a glaring clue to the past. It made no sense to me especially as records indicated that Jake Woodward moved to West Virginia. But in December 2018, I took an Ancestry DNA test and there as a part of the list of matches was the Woodward name. In January, I began to reach out to the Woodwards, and a California -based woman, named Mary Randall. James Woodard would be her great-grandfather. When I told her our connection, she was equally blown away. But, it was the picture of Mary Frances Lawson that really caught her. She emailed me a picture of her Dad right away and noted the resemblance.

We became Facebook friends and eventually she interviewed with me telling me about the life of her great-grandfather and my 3rd great-grandfather.