Christopher Branch (circa 1600–1681) was an early English settler in

Colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

, tobacco planter, and a member and justice of the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

. He was a three times great-grandfather of United States President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

Early life and marriage

Branch was born in England around 1600. or 1602. His parents were Lionel Branch and Valentia Sparks of London. He married Mary Francis Addie, daughter of Francis Addie of

Darton Darton is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley (part of South Yorkshire), on the border with West Yorkshire, England. At the time of the 2001 UK census, it had a population of 14,927, increasing to 21,345 for both Darton War ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, on 2 September 1619 in St. Peter's, Westcheap,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Christopher and Mary Branch sailed to Virginia on the ''London Merchant'' in March 1621 and survived the

Powhatan attack of 1622 The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English Colony of Virginia on March 22, 1621/22 ( O.S./N.S.). The English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his ''History of Virginia'' that warriors of the Powhatan "cam ...

the following year. They were living at Colledg Land in Henrico by February 1623 when their son Thomas was nine months old. According to the ''William and Mary Quarterly'', Thomas was born in 1623. They then had two more sons. William was born in 1625 and Christopher was born about 1627. His granddaughter Mary became the great-grandmother of President

, making him the three times great-grandfather of the president.

Career

Branch acquired land in Henrico (now Chesterfield) County on the south side of the James River and north of Proctors Creek beginning in or before 1634 and established the Kingsland and Arrahattock Plantations. Branch first settled at Arrahattock on the north side of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

. The Kingsland Plantation, which grew to 450 acres by 1639, was located across the river from Arrahattock. Branch operated a

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

plantation and due to a glut in the market, a limit of the tobacco crop to a percentage per planter was established by the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

. The remainder of the tobacco crop was to be destroyed. In 1639 he was a member of the

from Henrico County and was named a tobacco inspector that year. He was a member of the House of Burgesses again in 1641. In 1656, he was the Justice of Henrico County. He died in 1681 while living on the Kingsland Plantation. His wife, Mary, died many years earlier, likely before 1630.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Branch, Christopher People from colonial Virginia 1600s births 1682 deaths House of Burgesses members People from Chesterfield County, Virginia Tobacco plantation owners

Early life and marriage

Career

See also

Notes

References