Martin Phillips 1724-1781 My Fifth Great Grandfather on My Father's Side

This house built in Mecklenburg in 1751 may be
the type of home inhabited by Martin Phillips
and his family.

Martin Phillips was the father of Pettus Phillips. He was born about 1724 in King and Queen County, Virginia. The county formed in 1691, and in 1728 a portion of the county, along with portions of King William and Essex counties, was carved out to form Caroline County. Records show that Martin lived in Caroline County near Williamsburg prior to 1766 at which time he moved south to Mecklenburg County.  

None of the research I’ve done has provided any clues as to who Martin’s parents were. According to Katherine B. Elliott, a prolific researcher from Mecklenburg County where our Pattillo ancestors are from, “most of the records of King and Queen County were destroyed during the Civil War.” [1]. Elliott notes that “all of the early deed and will books of Caroline County were destroyed in 1865.” So, it is very unlikely that I will ever know who his parents were.[2]

Martin married Anne Pettus in about 1750 when he would have been about twenty-six. He and Anne had seven children that were recorded in the Ancestry of the Land Family written by Samuel B. Land and researched by Katherine Elliott. They were Mary, Dabney, Nancy (Anne), Sarah, Pettus, Elizabeth and William Phillips. According to Samuel Land all the children were born in Virginia between about 1752 and 1768. The only child I’ve researched thoroughly is Pettus, my fourth great grandfather.

A similar style home after restoration from
Mecklenburg in 2017.

Martin married Anne Pettus in about 1750 when he would have been about twenty-six. Anne was the daughter of Dabney Pettus of James City County, Virginia. Dabney was the son of Captain Thomas Pettus of Littleton in James City County.[3] Thomas Pettus married Elizabeth Dabney – the source of this uncommon family name. Anne was born about 1730 in King and Queen County and died before March 17^th, 1794 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.

I found deed records for five land transactions involving Martin between October 1765 and February of 1781. The earliest was his purchase of two hundred acres in Mecklenburg County from a William Sandefer. Martin paid 120 pounds for a parcel of land lying on both sides of the Long Branch of Allens Creek. One of his neighbors was the Brame family with whom we have a connection. Elizabeth Brame Hutcheson was the second wife of Robert C. Land who is my third great grandfather.

This topo map shows the location of the Long Branch of
Allen Creek between the towns of Boydton and Baskerville

Three years later Martin acquired an additional one hundred acres nearby paying fifty pounds to William Hatsel. Then in 1775 Martin made a large purchase – five hundred acres on the Reedy Branch of Allens Creek adjacent to land he already owned. This purchase was from John Rufin for two-hundred and fifty pounds. In 1777 he sold twenty-nine acres to John Goode for forty pounds and three shillings. A few months before he died, he gave his son Dabney nearly three hundred acres of the parcel on the Reedy Branch. In his will Martin left his plantation to his wife Anne and stipulated that his youngest son William would get it upon Anne’s death. The will also left some property to his son Pettus. He signed his will on July 26, 1781.

The Phillips household kitchen likely looked something
like this kitchen from the Clarksburg Museum in Mecklenburg, Virginia

Other records for Martin include a couple of examples of his having witnessed a land deed and two records dated April 8, 1776 of his having supported candidates to serve as delegates for Mecklenburg. I have found one record that Martin supplied bacon and cattle to support the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Though this seems highly probable it needs further study and documentation.

Martin Phillips died before September 10, 1781. He would have been about fifty-seven years old.

Another photo of a bedroom from the Clarksville Museum

Sources for this Post: Mecklenburg land records, Early Settlers of Mecklenburg by Katherine Elliott, The Land Family History by Samuel Land, the Pettus Family History compiled by A. Boher Rudd, the will and probate documents for Martin.

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[1] Katherine B. Elliott, Early Settlers of Mecklenburg Co. VA Vo. II (South Hill, VA: Republished Southern Historical Society Easley, South Carolina 1983, 1965).

[2] I found Martin Phillips on the Phillips surname DNA group and he is far back as it goes. It shows Anne Pettus as his wife and Pettus Phillips as a son.

[1] A. Böhmer Rudd, The Pettus Family, Published in Washington D.C., 1957.