Samuel Shepard Letter - 1805

[click here for an analsyis of the Shepard letters]

DJY: The following letter, written by Samuel Shepard in 1805, is the first ever mention of a possible connection between the Yanceys and the Nanney/Nannaus of Merionethshire, Wales. Samuel Shepard was the husband of Susannah Holman - who was the daughter of John Holman and Susannah Yancey.  Susannah Yancey seems to have been a probable daughter of Archelaus Yancey.  The letter was probably first published in 1927 in the William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine.

Dear Brother Robert: 10 December 1805

Since I last wrote you, my wife has been very sick in the home of her cousin Charles Yancey, whom she has been visiting.

Every attention was paid to her, before I reached her side, and she was delivered of a fine boy before my coming. The boy even now resembles that old Welsh stock. Charles Yancey says he must play astrologer and prepare the horoscope of the lad.

While visiting Yancey during the convalescence of my wife, we discussed Welsh stock. He tells me Mr. William Evans of Cumberland County says he is Welsh, and descended from some outlandish prince of that country. Mr. Evans who is a broadly cultivated man, says he does not believe the Yancey name is correct, that it was Nanney and got amended in transportation across the Atlantic. Charles Yancey had heard something of this kind from his folks, and my wife has an old arms of the family, that Mr. Evans says belongs to the same Nanney family. He says he believes he has seen it in his father's books somewhere. Mr. Evans, who was a distinguished soldier in the War, speaks some Welsh and pronounces these Welsh names very peculiarly.

Have you heard anything lately concerning Cousin Betty Gannaway? I heard she was married again, but she has not written me. I believe she still lives in Wythe County. When did you last see our cousins the Burwells? I want to go to Gloucester soon to see them, and to James City County where we all came from. I need not write you about our circumstance here as you were so recently our guest. The bad crops this year leaves me inclined to pessimism. The corn turned out badly, the tobacco was diseased, flea bitten, and is now bringing poor prices on a dull market.

Last week some two dozen veterans of the War gathered at the Court House for a reunion. We has excellent punch, some fine port, cakes baked by the Ladies of the village, pastries, venison, pork, turkey and other accessories.

The hero Peter Francisco who entertained us with exhibitions of his strength. He offered to wrestle with me, but though I am large, I did not feel it necessary that I risk widowing my wife. Mr. McGraw, however, challenged Fransisco to a fencing match and neatly overcame him. We sang some songs, talked, and at four o'clock rose from the table to get our horses out. The hour was too cold for me in my exhilarated condition to venture home, and I staid in the village with Mr. Eldridge, sharing my bed with Mr. McGraw, who was overcome with wine. He delivered a speech on women that was as amusing a thing as I ever heard, and would perhaps have gone on talking for a couple of hours had I not smothered him with a pillow.

When you are in town send me some good books. I want a new Shakespeare if you can get it cheap. Mine is worn out and Xenophon.

Love to all the Family

Samuel Shepard

[Buckingham County, Virginia]

[DJY - Peter Francisco - mentioned in the above letter was known as the "Hercules of the Revolutionary War" - as a result of his large stature and his acts of strength and valor during the war. He was an associate of the Yanceys - especially Major Charles Yancey of Buckingham County, Virginia. Various interesting books and articles have been written about him, his obscure origin, and his role in the Revolutionary War]

[William Evans cited above was indeed apparently a man of welsh descent  - and one can find various records concerning his family in America. He was born abt 1756 in Bucks, Pennsylvania. and is to have died 19 September 1839 in Buckingham County. Some records give his father as one Owen Evans.
He appears to be a descendant of the EVANS family discussed on this web site:  ]

Betty - Gannaway - see info on a Gannaway Family BBible.

Further Shepard Family Letters below

copied from:

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=firefly&id=I313

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=firefly&id=I307 

[written by Samuel Shepard]

From Norfolk Co., November 15, 1782, he wrote to Col. William Sheppard, Surry County, NC:
"Dear William, This is to notify you that I expect to visit you next month. I may precede my letter, which I sent by Cousin Burwell, who expects to call on you while in Carolina. I have only returned a few days ago from his house in Gloucester, where I also saw much of our other relatives. I visited the grave of our grandmother and grandfather Robert Sheppard and Jessica Hubard his wife. The graves are very poorly marked and would hardly be distinguished except to one who knew them from tradition. I asked about having them repaired, and will have it left in good hands. Samuel and Thomas are here with me. They are not spoiled by their war experiences, though Thomas has begun to chafe at continuing at home. Anne is well as I could hope, after her accident last spring, of which I wrote you. I had to sell the horse, he threw one of the boys not long after Anne's accident. My own health is not good, I have asthma throughout the year, which now is growing worse. My love to all our people and will be with you soon, God providing. Samuel Sheppard"

He wrote on February the third, 1792:
"My Children, I sit this cold day thinking of the past and decide to put down some of the things I would have you remember. I begin now and will finish sometime when I feel less wearied than I now do. But I do not know whether I shall ever write much more. Time has run, the glass is emptied. I was born on the 3rd of February, 1730, and today is my birthday which set me thinking of the past. I would I had written long ago, there are many things to tell, and my eyes are poor. My mother was Miss Mary Kavanaugh, born in France, of the eminent old Irish family. Her father was Michael Kavanaugh, whose father was James Kavanaugh, married while in exile in Spain Senorita Delores Campamanes. Michael Kavanaugh married while visiting the Irish exiles in France [....] Mademoiselle Berthe Dumas, the daughter of a French gentleman, Rene Dumas and his wife Gertrude Strauss of Vienna, Austria. My father Samuel Sheppard married Miss Kavanaugh in Gloucester, where I and my sisters and brothers were reared. My brother and William moved to North Carolina and reared families. James went to Kentucky country of late, as he was the youngest child. My sisters married and scattered over the state long ago. I married Anne Burwell in Gloucester. The details of your kin you know, or can discover in the record. I would have you remember your origin and consider the words of the Book which lay down the rules of life. I read when a child the words of the Book and I have never learned anything contrary to them. I know they are true now that I have lived my own time. And when you rebel at the sayings of the old prophets, think my children, how knowing those old men were, how long their words have lived when even peoples have passed away and their place knoweth them not. I think no man can dispute the word of God, but many neglect it. Do you not so. May God make you what I desire you to be, is the prayer of your father, Samuel Sheppard."

[Written by Samuel's son Robert Shepard]

He wrote 10 Dec 1805:
"Dear Brother Robert: Since I last wrote you, my wife has been very sick in the home of her cousin Charles Yancey, whom she has been visiting. Every attention was paid to her, before I reached her side, and she was delivered of a fine boy before my coming. The boy even now resembles that old Welsh stock. Charles Yancey says he must play astrologer and prepare the horoscope of the lad.

"While visiting Yancey during the convalescence of my wife, we discussed Welsh stock. He tells me Mr. William Evans of Cumberland County says he is Welsh, and descended from some outlandish prince of that country. Mr. Evans who is a broadly cultivated man, says he does not believe the Yancey name is correct, that it was Nanney and got amended in transportation across the Atlantic. Charles Yancey had heard something of this kind from his folks, and my wife has an old arms of the family, that Mr. Evans says belongs to the same Nanney family. He says he believes he has seen it in his father's books somewhere. Mr. Evans, who was a distinguished soldier in the War, speaks some Welsh and pronounces these Welsh names very peculiarly.

"Have you heard anything lately concerning Cousin Betty Gannaway? I heard she was married again, but she has not written me. I believe she still lives in Wythe County. When did you last see our cousins the Burwells? I want to go to Gloucester soon to see them, and to James City County where we all came from. I need not write you about our circumstance here as you were so recently our guest. The bad crops this year leaves me inclined to pessimism. The corn turned out badly, the tobacco was diseased, flea bitten, and is now bringing poor prices on a dull market.

"Last week some two dozen veterans of the War gathered at the Court House for a reunion. We had excellent punch, some fine port, cakes baked by the Ladies of the village, pastries, venison, pork, turkey and other accessories. The hero, Peter Francisco, entertained us with exhibitions of his strength. He offered to wrestle with me, but though I am large, I did not feel it necessary that I risk widowing my wife. Mr. McGraw, however, challenged Fransisco to a fencing match and neatly overcame him. We sang some songs, talked, and at four o'clock rose from the table to get our horses out. The hour was too cold for me in my exhilarated condition to venture home, and I staid in the village with Mr. Eldridge, sharing my bed with Mr. McGraw, who was overcome with wine. He delivered a speech on women that was as amusing a thing as I ever heard, and would perhaps have gone on talking for a couple of hours had I not smothered him with a pillow.

"When you are in town send me some good books. I want a new Shakespeare if you can get it cheap. Mine is worn out and Xenophon. Love to all the Family, Samuel Shepard"

He wrote 10 Dec 1805:
"Dear Brother L. Thomas: While I am writing a sheaf of letters to my relatives I must write one to you, though I do not know whether, from your steady silence, I owe you any writing. Prosperity must have dislocated your sense of relationship with us Virginians, or, as I trust not, adversity upset your affairs to the extent of causing you to forget the cradle you were born in. I refuse to consider myself the friend remembered not, until you tell me so.

"My wife has another son, upon whose first name we cannot agree, but whose middle name my wife says shall be Yancy. Mrs. Sheppard insists that his first name shall be Sais, but I refuse, up to this time, to yield up my son to such a name. Charles, Peter, Richard, or more appropriately to Robert for our great ancestor - great, because he lived a long, long time ago and perhaps for other reasons suits me better. But my wife has not the bold of the Welsh rulers in her veins for nothing; there may be only a millionth particle of a droplet in her, yet it is sufficient to make her as much a dictator as Queen Elizabeth, of great 'Axial' fame. Our child, however, is delicate and may not live. My wife thinks me foolish but I have had queer sensations that warn me of its hold on life. I pray God I am wrong. There are corners of the mind we do not know of, and I fear, I greatly fear the premonitions that often rouse me in the night. I have had these feelings before, with results in conformity with my apprehensions.

"We are so much separated that we should tell each other in detail of our doings. Our folk in N.C. seem to be as forgetful as you have been, and Brother Robert, set out for the Ohio country, he's not written en route. I hope he has now arrived. Don't you remember father's anxiety to keep the clan connections firm? And do you recall his sitting before the tavern fire in Norfolk, how many years ago! - when we were visiting our people, and telling us stories of our English ancestors, their wars, and their rise and fall! How his eyes shone when he stirred the punch, drank, and gave us what he termed our background in the world! That must have been 33 years ago, and in late December. We wore our uniforms and old war stained swords, and he was dressed in a brown velvet his face beaming over a wave of white lace at the neck, and everyone remarked how old-fashioned his garb and appearance were - well, time passes. Then he went on to N.C., was what I intended concluding with, returning in March the following year. The hour is late and now that I have written and written and written until my hand has gone numb, I will stop. I have written no news, but Xmas night I shall give you a full account of all our doings. May God bless you all, and keep me in your remembrance. Samuel Shepard"

He wrote 12 Mar 1812:
"I promise to pay to my brother L. Thomas Shepard the sum of $250.00, being a debt owed him from the time of our service in the Continental Army in 1778. Samuel Shepard." Witnesses: Robert Shepard, Chas. Yancey, R. Eldridge. Paid 15 Mar 1812.

He wrote to William E. in 1827:
"Son, Not seeing you at the funeral of Mr. Jeffrey Robertson, I inquired and discovered that you were on one of your too common drunks. When you were a child you behaved as a child but you have some time ago arrived at the age of a man if not at the estate of a man, therefore, it is no longer becoming in you to boost yourself with whiskey. If you say if is offence and that you were overcome in good company I must retort that a man is his own best company and must not seek to hide his offences behind social barriers. I am aware that you got quietly tight and took yourself home without offence, yet no gentleman should allow himself to sink into the dull state of inebriation. It does not matter that many men get drunk - they are not gentlemen and not good examples, whatever their standing may be - nor that you behaved after drinking your fill. Restraint is something that belongs peculiarly to the gentleman and the principal evil of drink is the destruction of that quality. I see nothing for you to do but to get married to that person you had in mind. Perhaps her dominating character may serve to give you other things to consider than whiskey. I have not in all my life admired Scottish people, though there may be Scotch blood on my side, of which I am however gratefully unaware. But she can do nothing but boss or harass you and you deserve to have both evils visited upon you. I am, sir, Your father, still, Samuel Shepard"