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Nancy,
I located Francis Kirtley's trunk in 1999. It is owned by a lady in Virginia. Unfortunately I am on the other side of the country and have not found someone who would be able to visit the owner and take photos.
The following is my story of finding the Kirtley chest.
Regards,
Steve Kirtley
Sir Francis Kirtley's Pine Chest Has been Located!!!
© 1999 Steven Garry Kirtley
The Origin of the Kirtley Chest
In 1710 a young man about twenty years old, with dark hair and blue eyes1, walked down the gangplank of a ship, carrying a wooden chest. He had just arrived in Virginia, and the chest was his "suitcase" containing all his earthly possessions. For a time he was a merchant in Falmouth, Virginia2. Probably, he was engaged in the substantial tobacco trade that was conducted there. By 1722 he had married3 and moved to Spotsylvania County (the part that was later Culpeper County,) and began acquiring land and planting tobacco. He eventually owned thousands of acres of land and became a prominent citizen. He was acquainted with both Governor Spotswood and Lord Fairfax4. He was a vestryman of St. Marks Parish5, which covered all of Culpeper County at the time. This was equivalent to being a modern-day county supervisor. In 1749 these vestrymen hired a 17 year-old George Washington as Culpeper county surveyor6. He was a member of the Virginia Minute Men, a captain of the Spotsylvania County Colonial Militia7, a veteran of two Indian Campaigns, the last in the French and Indian War in which he commanded a company of foot soldiers8.
Francis had four sons and two daughters. At least three of his sons were officers in the Virginia Militia and fought in the Revolutionary War9. Francis didn't live to see American Independence, he died in 1763. In his later years the old wooden chest must have had special meaning to Francis Kirtley. He specifically mentioned it in his will10, leaving to his wife, Margaret: "one Feather Bed & furniture her Choice, ONE CHEST, two Pots, two Dishes, half a Dozen Plates. . .", etc. From there the chest was handed down to their son, Francis Kirtley II, to Francis Kirtley III, to his son St. Clair David Kirtley Sr., to St. Clair David Kirtley II, to St. Clair David Kirtley III, then to his daughter Janie Kirtley. During all this time the existence of the chest was probably not widely noticed outside the immediate family.
In the early 1930's Richard Edwin Kirtley of Kansas City, Missouri, wrote a Kirtley Family History. In it was a picture of the trunk with the caption, "This is the Pine Chest or Trunk in which Sir Francis Kirtley brought his clothes from Wales to America in 1710 and now in the possession of Miss Janie Kirtley, Stonypoint, Va." (Regardless of Richard Kirtley's mention of Wales, modern research has clearly shown that the Kirtley family originates in the northeastern English counties of Durham and Northumberland.)
The Search for the Chest
Now, fast-forward to 1999. Over the intervening years many Kirtley genealogists have seen Richard Kirtley's account of the Kirtley chest and have wondered where it was, or if it still existed. This precious connection to the earliest US Kirtley ancestor is now about 300 years old. Various Kirtley descendants remember hearing something about it, but no one knew exactly where it was. Email messages asking about the Kirtley chest floated about on genealogy forums, without result.
In February, 1999 I decided to search for the Kirtley chest by asking some very specific questions. I knew three things from Richard Kirtley's book: Janie Kirtley, 1930, and Stonypoint, VA. I couldn't find Stonypoint on the Virginia map, so I sent a message to the Virginia Rootsweb Listserver asking for help. Three or four people replied with the location. It was a very small community northeast of Charlottesville.
One of the people who responded said he had grown up in Stonypoint, so I asked if he knew of any contacts who might have known Janie Kirtley. He sent me several contacts, including five Kirtley's out of the local phone book. I called the first two and had wonderful conversations about Kirtley history, but they had no knowledge of the chest. I could tell by her voice that the third person I called was an elderly woman. When I asked her if she knew of Janie Kirtley the answer was "Oh yes, she was my aunt." I asked about the chest. She knew of it but wasn't sure who had it. After more conversation she said she thought it might belong to Janie's grand nephew, Frank Doherty, and gave me his address. (His first name is actually Francis, after Sir Francis Kirtley.)
As soon as I hung up, I searched the web and found Frank's email address. I sent him a message asking if he was the right person. The next day he replied affirmatively, and I immediately called him on the phone. I asked him if he knew where the Kirtley chest was, and he said "I think I own it," but, after hearing his description it was clearly different from the illustration in Richard Kirtley's book. Frank then said, "Well, I think it may have been lost when my mother's house burned around 1939." My heart sank, but at least I had apparently brought closure to the search. This was on a Friday. On Monday, I got an email from Frank saying he had located the Kirtley chest!!! It was in the possession of his second cousin, Janie Bowen, who had inherited it from her uncle James, who was a nephew of Janie Kirtley. Needless to say, I was thrilled. I immediately called Janie Bowen, who lives in southeast Virginia. (Apparently the chest has not left Virginia since it arrived in 1710.) She is a delightful person, and is fully aware of the significance of the Kirtley Chest. She will be sending me photographs in the near future, which I will scan and send as email attachments to anyone who would like a copy. Although I had wondered about the Kirtley Chest for years, the elapsed time from when I began to make a specific diligent search for the chest to when I found it was only a week and a half! Thank you God, and the Internet.
Description of the Kirtley Chest
The chest is similar to Colonial-era blanket chests. I haven't yet gotten the exact dimensions, but it appears to be about 40 inches long, and 18 inches high and wide, made of six boards, one each for the front, back, top, bottom and the two ends. One unusual feature is that the front and back are slanted inward slightly, so that the top of the chest is narrower than the bottom. It appears to have wrought iron brackets holding the corners together, typical long wrought iron hinges for the lid, and inside on the left is a "till", a small wooden compartment for valuables, commonly found on such chests.
Provenance of the Kirtley Chest
Here's the full provenance of the Kirtley Chest: Francis Kirtley Sr. (ca. 1690-1763), left in his will to his wife Margaret Kirtley, to their son: Francis Kirtley II (1733-1774), to Francis Kirtley III (1756-1818), to his son St. Clair David Kirtley Sr. (1770-1845), to St. Clair David Kirtley II (1807-1852), to St. Clair David Kirtley III (1852-1930), to his daughter Janie Kirtley (1877-1951), to her sister, Lucy Pearle Kirtley-Brown (1888-?), to her son, James E. Brown, then finally to his niece Janie Bowen. (Janie Bowen is the daughter of Virginia M. Brown-Bowen, who is the daughter of Lucy Pearle Kirtley-Brown.)
Footnotes:
1History and Genealogies of the Kirtley and allied families, ca. 1955, Mrs. Lena Kyle Miller, Charlottesville, Virginia
2Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers
3Virginia County Records SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY 1721-1800, DEED BOOK B 1729-1734, page 113
4Saint Mark's Parish Vestry Book 1730-1785, 1983, Rosalie Edith Davis
5The Fairfax Line, by Thomas Lewis, 1746, reprinted by Shenandoah Co. Historical Society, Rt. #1, Box1-B; Edinburg, Va. 22824.
6George Washington, A Life, William Sterne Randall, 1997, Henry Holdt & Co., NY
7Virginia County Records SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY 1721-1800, COLONIAL MILITIA
DEED BOOK A 1722-1729, page 517
8Genealogy of Virginia Families, Vol. III, He-M, 1982
9Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Volume I
AUGUSTA COUNTY COURT RECORDS,
ORDER BOOK No. VIII., FEBRUARY 21, 1763.
ORDER BOOK No. XV.
10Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations From the Revolution Through the Civil War
Series M: Selections from the Virginia Historical Society, Part 4: Central Piedmont Virginia
Section 84, will of Francis Kirtley probated in Augusta County,Virginia (witnessed by James Coursey, Jane Crawford, and William Kirtley)
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