THE LAWSONS

And their relatives the
Fosters, Rigsbys, Barclays

By Margaret Barclay


Due to the fact that each family unit wanted to use the Names “William,” “John,” and “Roger”, it was hard to separate the Lawsons in America. Also, a misprint in a reference book caused much confusion, but after eleven years, the picture emerges quite clearly.

The Lawsons in America were descendants of the Lawsons of Brough, or Burgh, Hall, Yorkshire. (1)The arms are at. a chevron between three martlets sable. Crest: two arms embowed, couped at the elbow, vested ermine cuff as supporting the hands ppr. a ring gold, gemmed gu within the rim the sun in splendor gold. Mottor: Leve et reluis. Patronymics Brittanica states that Lawson means “son of Lawrence”, and that the patriarch was John Lawson who lived in the time of Henry III and was Lord of Tawlesgrave, York. From him, the existing baronet is lineally descended. The arms were patented during the time of Elizabeth I.

Brough (pronounced Broog) was originally written de Breux. In the 12th century, it was changed to de Burgh, sometimes de Burg. It means “stronghold”, coming from the Roman ruins discovered in a field which is now called “The Burrs” at Brough. The old Roman Road ran through the place going through Stamford Bridge, across the ferry to Riding, and down Ermine Street on to Lincolnshire. (2)

The de Burgh Family came over with William the Conqueror. One branch became the Earl of Ulster, marrying into the Plantaganets and eventually furnished a king. The other branch stemmed from the man who was one of the signers of the Magna Carta at Runneymeade.

The Lawsons were for generations seated at Burwell and afterward at Alindell, Northumberland, then at Brough Hall, Yorkshire.

WILLIAM LAWSON of Cramlington, tempus Henry VI, married Agnes, daughter and co-heir of William Cramlington, and had a second son,

THOMAS lAWSON of Cramlington, who died in 1489. He married Isabella, daughter of Killinghall of Middleton, St. George’s. Their son,

SIR RALPH LAWSON, was knighted by James I on 7-23-1603, married Elisabeth, daughter and sole heir of Roger Brough of Brough Hall, Catterick, Yorkshire. They had two daughters (Jane married Thomas Rokeby of Mortham, and Alice, wife of Thomas Ingleby of Lawkland) and three sons. Their eldest son,

ROGER LAWSON, was seated at Heaton, new Newcastle-on-Tyne, whick was afterwards sold. He died in London during the lifetime of his father. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Constable, Knt. of Burton Constable, Yorkshire. She died in 1632 at St. Anthony’s near Newcastle, which belonged to the family. They had numerous issue. Their eldest son,

HENRY LAWSON, of Brough Hall, married Anne, daughter of Robert Hodgson of Heburne, County of Durham. He died in 1636. Among issue, he had Roger, who died young, and Henry, whose widow married the Earl of Deruntwater, and whose daughter, Isabella, married Sir John Swinburn. His Heir,

JOHN LAWSON, was captain of the horse in the service of Charles I. Brough Hall was sequestered and sold by Cromwell and he was banished in 1653. Charles II saw that Brough Hall was returned to him and created him Baron of Brough 7-6-1665. In 1660, he married Catherine Howard, third daughter of Sir William Howard of Naworth Castle, Cumberland, sister of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, and a great-great-granddaughter of the fourth Duke of Norfolk through his son, William. She died 7-4-1668.(13) John died l0-26-1698. Their Grandsons,

HUGH LAWSON, son of John Lawson who went to Ireland and married Mary McConnell, daughter of John McConnell and ______? Caldwell, a cousin of Cromwell, came to America in 1727, first to Lunenburg County, Va., then to Rowan County, North Carolina, where he died about 1770. He married Margaret Moore. (3) and

JOHN LAWSON of St. Peter’s Parish, Virginia, having gone there from Lunenburg, and the husband of Judith Lawson, who married (2) Francis Timberlake of Lancaster County on 3-9-1730. John’s son,

JOHN LAWSON, was baptized 3-8-1690 in St. Peter’s Parish (4). He married Mary ______?. John, a surveyor, died between 1740 and 1749. Mary Lawson of Lunenburg, later of Halifax, left a will in Halifax dated 10-15-1749, showing daughter, Margaret, of Granville, North Carolina, wife of John Boyd, sons being Travis, John, William and David. (5)

WILLIAM LAWSON was born in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1740. He married Jane Banks in Halifax County on 5-24-1759. (6) William was granted two hundred acres of land in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 1784. (7) He is listed in the DAR records as being a First Lieutenant in the Second Virginia Regiment, Captain Quarles Company. He had eight hundred and seventy-five acres in Wilkes County and five hundred and seventy-five acres in Washington County, having petitioned on 3-25-1784 that he was a Revolutionary soldier and wanted bounty in Washington, County, Georgia. He owned land along Shoulderbone Creek a few miles from where it flows into the Oconee River and so did the Fosters. William had claims Nos. 1863 of l-14-1783 for two hundred acres; 1994 of 11-20-1784 for two hundred acres; and 285l of 4-1-1780 for one hundred acres for service in the Virginia Continental line as a private. William’s will (8), dated 4-30-1799, and proved 10-25-1800, showing that he died in 1800, names his wife, Jane, sons John, Thomas, William, Mumford, Dudley, David, Francis and daughters Sarah (Thomas), Mary (Slaughter), Margaret (Bullock) and Jane. His daughter,

JANE LAWSON was born in 1790 in Hancock County, Georgia. (9) She married William Lewis Foster in Wilkes County, Georgia, on 3-11-1808. (l0) In 1799, Jane was named in the will of her father to receive a negro man and negro woman, a bed and furniture, a horse and saddle, two cows and six calves. She lived in Wilkes/Hancock/Washington Counties, Georgia (11) until after 1820, when she and her husband and children moved to Monroe County, Georgia. The family moved to Texas after 1837, and between that date and 1845, her husband died. On 9-1-1845, she petitioned for a land grant, saying that she was a widow, that the family had lived in Texas for over three years, that the grants petitioned by her late husband, William Lewis Foster, were community Property and that she was entitled to the certificates. A six hundred and forty acre grant was made, and another grant of a great deal more was made as court records indicate several leagues. One grant was in Liberty County and one in Galveston County, but they were finally claimed in Angelina and Houston Counties, running together. She made a deed to James Barclay and one to William John Lawson (supposedly a son by a cousin) previous to making her will, in which she left her property to her son, William Lewis. Oil was discovered on the property later and when the Kirby Lumber Company and the Houston Oil Company were attempting to “take it over”, Napoleon Barclay, son of James, led the court fight to retain possession of it. Descendants, which were numerous, received one hundred and sixty acres each. Children of Jane were: William John Lawson, James (who was married and had five children when they came to Texas), Shepp, William, Appless (who married (1) a McGuire (2) Russell Sims, a cousin of her Ogden son-in-law), Sarah (married Napoleon Charlton), Nancy (married Jack Beam), “Polly” or Mary (married Lewis Rigsby), “Betsy” or Elizabeth (married William Ferguson), “Jenny” or Virginia (married James Barclay), and Lewis. Dates of William Lewis Foster are unknown but in the 1880 Census of Tyler County, Mary Foster Rigsby lists her father as being born in Virginia. He died in Texas.

MARY FOSTER (Known as Aunt Polly) was born in Wilkes County, Georgia in 1816 and married in Monroe County, Georgia on 1-9-1831 to Lewis John Rigsby. In 1840 they moved to Texas and lived in Angelina County, then Tyler County. She studied the science and practice of medicine, specializing in the treatment of women, and treated the ill in her community all of her life. She was much beloved for her charitable works. She died in Tyler County on 5-3-1893. Lewis Rigsby was born in North Carolina in 1802 and died in Tyler County on 7-27-1892. (12) Children were: Elizabeth Ann (married Jeremiah Todd Barclay), Jeff, Sarah Jane (married (1) a Burke (2) a Millener), John Lewis, Franklin, Wyley (married Sallie Good), Shep, Monroe (married Mildred Bradshaw), Emily, Anne (married Jim Goolsbey), Frankie and William. She had one set of triplets and several sets of twins in this group.

WOODLIEF FOY BARCLAY was born at Barclay, Texas on 12-24-1882 and died in Waco, Texas on 4-5-1957. He is buried on the Barclay plot in Temple, Texas. He married Margaret Helen MacGregor on 8-4-1904. Children of this union: Margaret MacGregor and Martha Louise.

ELIZABETH ANN RIGSBY was born 7-13-1833, in Monroe County, Georgia, and died 1-21-1890, in Barclay, Falls County, Texas. She was married 1-10-1849 to Jeremiah Todd Barclay (born 7-1-1826 in Alabama) who was killed on election day, 8-3- 1850 by a disgruntled candidate named Hanks. She married on 1-15-1857, Thomas Franklin Herring (9-12-1833 to 188_). Children of this last marriage were Lewis, Cora (married Jake French), Charles, Clinton, Lawrence Rice. She was an accomplished violinist and taught music to all of her children. She had them read classics and the dictionary as they could not go to college.

WILLIAM ANDERSON BARCLAY was born in Tyler County on 12-23-1849 and died in Waco, Texas, on 10-24-1927. He married Martha King Ledbetter (born 9-2-1851 in Tennessee, died 7-16-1934 in Temple, Texas), and both are buried on a family plot in Temple, Texas. Children of this union were Isaac Cramer (died in childhood), Goodhue Wilson, Rigsby Ledbetter, Woodlief Foy and Bernice Martha (married James B. Whitley; only child, James Barclay, died at Corregedor, Phillipines in World War II). was born at Barclay, Texas on 12-24-1882 and died in Waco, Texas on 4-5-1957. He is buried on the Barclay plot in Temple, Texas. He married Margaret Helen MacGregor on 8-4-1904. Children of this union: Margaret MacGregor and Martha Louise.

VIRGINIA ANN AMERICA FOSTER was born in Georgia on 2-1-1827 and died in Texas on 10-15-1867, She married James Barclay (born 2-11-1816 in Tennessee, died 12-14-1873 in Tyler County, Texas) in 1841. Their daughter,

PHOEBE ARIZONA BARCLAY was born 4-13-1859 in Tyler County, Texas, and died 11-10-1947. She married T. B. Bevil (born 9-12-1856, died 4-5-1940) on 2-12-1880. Their granddaughter,

By Margaret Barclay, Waco, Texas, around 1964 HAZEL BEVIL married Carl Hickman.

See attached notes for references.
NOTES
  1. “History of Halifax County” by Carrington, page 226. Habersham Chapter, DAR of Georgia, Virginia Magazine of History, Vol. IV, pages 313, 314, and William and Mary Quarterly, Series I, Vol. 18, page 237, state that the Lawsons spread out over Virginia but all were descendants of Roger Lawson of Brough Hall.
  2. Book on derivation of English names, University of Texas library.
  3. John Goodwin Herndon’s excellent account of the Lawsons states that Hugh Lawson was born in Ulster, came to America in 1727 aboard the “George and Anne”, lived for a while in Chester, Pennsylvania, moved to Virginia in 1743, became presiding judge of the first court of Lunenburg County, a member of the Virginia Assembly 5-5-1746, remained in Lunenburg until at least 1753, obtained land grants in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1755 and 1757, a three hundred and fifty acre grant in 1759. He died in Salisbury, North Carolina, where his will is recorded.
  4. Meade’s “Churches of Virginia” which states, also, that he was a cousin of Hugh Lawson of Lunenburg.
  5. Will Book 1, Halifax County, Virginia, page 36; Cumberland Parish Register, page 316.
  6. Tyler Historical Quarterly, Vol. 16, page 117; Halifax Marriage Bonds. George Mays was surety.
  7. Wilkes County Records, Book 3-E, page 242. This was in Hancock County after 1793. In 1795 Jean (Jane) Lawson made a tax return for her husband, William, for nine slaves, four hundred and ninety-two acres in Hancock County.
  8. Hancock County, Georgia Will Book AAA, page 20.
  9. 1850 Census of Texas.
  10. Wilkes County, Georgia First Marriage Book, page 52. Early Records of Wilkes County misprints this date as 1818. All other 1818 marriages are shown as taken from later pages.
  11. These counties were all formed out of each other and the boundaries changed back and forth for several decades.
  12. Newspaper clipping at time of her death.
  13. See Burke’s “Peerage and Gentry” and Doyle’s “Complete Peerage” for Howard lineage. Lineage as printed in several books, supplied by the Hugh Lawson line, is incorrect for marriages and descent during the Plantagenet period. A complete chart has been compiled and verified by Doyle, Burke, and the “Extinct Peerage” by Margaret Barclay, 4110 Watt, Waco, Texas.


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