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VIRGINIA GLEANINGS IN ENGLAND; The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Page 273-274; THOMAS OPIE of the City of Bristoll, Mariner, now in Virginia. Will 16 November 1702; proved 26 July 1703.
To be buried in the grave of my Grandfather Mr. David Lindsay.
To my Brother John Opie my second best bed, etc., likewise my large silver cup to my brother Lindsay Opie.
To my three sisters, Hellen, Susannah, and Sarah Opie, remainder of bedding or lynen, &c.
To my Sister Hellen my Silver Tankard, Sister Susannah Opie my gold chaine, Sister Sarah Opie my Dyamond ring and other rings (my signett ring excepted).
To Susannah my silver pap- dish and spoone.
To my three sisters my eighth part of the ship Adventure ,and Cargoe.
If my Brother John hath my Fathers Signet ring, then I give mine to my Brother Lindsay Opie, otherwise to John.
To my brothers and sisters what my father left me, only the Plantation will fall to my Brother John.
To Uncle Edward Opie 20S. mourning ring my hat and gloves.
To Mr. Francis Thruppe the same.
To Mrs. Anne Keen, widow, and Mrs. Sarah Keen, both of Cherry point in Potomak in Virginia, mourning rings of like value to be sent them.
To an old servant named Mary Edwards £3.
To Brother Lindsay Opie the produce of my watch sent to Jamaica by Mr. William Williams, or if undisposed the watch. Executrix : my Sister Susannah Opie, first paying George Bartlett and all other debts with what bills of exchange I have drawn upon my own account since my being last in Virginia.
Item: I would have likewise have sent by my Executrix a Tombstone to Virginia to be put over my grave with my Grandfather's on top. Witnesses: Fra's Thruppe, William Burwood, Edward Evans.
Degg, 116.
[This will, recently discovered by Mr. Withington at Somerset House, throws most interesting light on a mysterious and much debated question. In 1889 was published by the Munsells, of Albany, a work on "The Lindsays of America." by Miss Margaret Isabella Lindsay. In Chapter IV she gave an account of Rev. David Lindsay, an early minister of Northumberland county, Va. He is frequently mentioned in the county records, and by his will, dated and proved in April, 1667, gave his whole estate to his daughter, Helen Lindsay, apparently his only child. On page 49 the author says: " In 1849 my father commissioned a relative to visit the old homestead and burying place on it, and he took from the stone the following inscription, although even then it was difficult to decipher ; it was surmounted by the engraved coat of arms of the family :
" Here lyeth interred ye body of That Holy and Reverent Devine, Mr. David Lindsay, late Minister of Yeocomico, born in ye Kingdom of Scotland, ye first and lawful sonne of ye Rt. Honerable Sir Hierome Lindsay, K'nt of ye Mount, Lord-Lyon-King-at-Arms, who departed this life in ye 64th year of his age ye 3d April, Anno Dom. 1667."
In the account given in the earlier portion'of the book, relating to the Scottish Lindsays, it is shown that Sir Hierome Lindsay had a son, David, who was baptized January 3, 1603. It would not appear from her book that the author was ever in Northumberland county, or claimed to have seen the tomb herself.
Miss Lindsay also states (page 4t) that in the same tomb with the epitaph of Rev. David Lindsay, quoted above, was the following :
"Here also lyeth the body of Captain Thomas Opie, Jr., of Bristol, grandson of Mr. David Lindsay, who departed this life 16 November, 1702."
In 1902 Rev. G. W. Bealy, D. D., the foremost antiquary of the Northern Neck of Virginia, visited the old Lindsay burying ground in Northumberland. He found one massive stone which bore, with a few verbal differences, the inscription in regard to Thomas Opie, Jr., which has been quoted, but which had in regard to Rev. David Lindsay only the following :
" Here Lyeth The Body Of Mr.
David Lindsay, Doctor of
Divinity, Who Departed This Life
The 3d Day Of April, 1667."
There was no question as to the authenticity of this description ; so the only conclusion which could be drawn was that the copyist for Miss Lindsay's father had deceived him.
In 1906 Mrs. Juliet Opie Ayres, a descendant of the Opies, also visited the place and had excavations made in and about the graveyard. As the existence of two tombstones over one grave is a most unlikely thing to expect, it is not known what suggested that digging might result in discoveries ; but it did, and two fragments of a stone were found which had sufficient portions of an inscription left to show that it must have been the one quoted in " The Lindsays of America."
Immediately a warm discussion began in the press. Mrs. Ayers produced the evidence of several reputable citizens of Northumberland and of a geological expert, but many of those who did not know her were unconvinced. That there should be two stones over one grave, erected in memory of the same people, seemed most improbable, and the doubt was heightened by the fact that Miss Lindsay's copy quoted correctly the Opie epitaph, which was stated by the copyist to be on the same stone with the Lindsay epitaph quoted by her.
The will in the text, coming to light after an interval of more than two hundred years, settles the question in a most remarkable manner. Thomas Opie says : " I would have likewise sent by my Executrix a Tombstone to Virginia to be put over my grave with my grandfather's on top." So the unprecedented did happen, and here was a grave with two tombstones upon it-one above the other. And the copyist quoted in " The Lindsays of America," Mrs. Ayers and Dr. Beale were all absolutely correct in their statements of what they found.
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1699-1706 Northumberland County, Virginia Order Book, Part 1; [Hamrick]; Page 292
Northumberland County Court - 22d day of June An'o 1704
- Whereas SUSANNAH OPIE Exec'x of the Last Will and Testament of THO. OPIE was returned Non est Inventus at the Suite of WILLIAM PLANNER Jr. for fourteene pounds Sterl. and hath failed to Appeare An Attachment is Awarded the s'd PLANNER ag't the s'd SUSANNAH in her s'd Quality for the s'd sum'e & Costs returnable to the next Court.
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1701-1707 Westmoreland County, Virginia Deeds-Wills No. 3; [Antient Press]; Page 87. 20 July 1702,
Thomas Opie of the City of Bristol, mariner, appoint my well beloved friend Capt. Gerrard Hutt attorney to receive sums of tobacco belonging to me in Westmoreland County,
Thomas Opie
Wit: Temp. Blanchflower, Osman Crabb.
20 Aug. 1702. Proved by Mr. Osmond Crabb.
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Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia's Northern Neck Counties
1672 - 1703 (31 years)