This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/VBC.2ACI/723.730.750.1.1 Message Board Post: No, I don't know the names of Jemima's parents, but you could probably figure out her father's name from the Hanover County censuses. A descendant of this Phillips family wrote a letter to his daughter in 1962 describing his family's history. Here are some excerpts about his great grandfather Lancelot Phillips and Lancelot's three wives: "Lancelot was born at Montcalm on April 2, 1797. There is no known picture of his likeness, but his granddaughter and my aunt Nora Camm Phillips ... had it told to her by her father, Andrew Jackson Phillips, that Lancelot was a big fellow with a head of heavy black hair and the typical Phillips grey eyes. Apparently Lancelot lived the life of a gentleman and most of his time was spent in gentlemanly pursuits of the time such as supervising his land operations, visiting with other planters, horseback riding and pitting some of his runners against other horses in match races. It is rumored that he also had developed his own strain of game chickens which carried feathers of a bluish cast and were descendants of Cuban origin and that he was not adverse to pitting the cocks. He was a man jovial by temperament and disposition but could be very stern when occasion demanded. One of his eccentricities was that he forbid any conversation at table during meals. Evidently Lancelot! was of a mind to concentrate on the job at hand. He had learned surveying and also ... [Nora Camm Phillips] told me that he was quite accomplished in this calling, he only made a survey when the spirit moved him. In other words hard to get. However, in this connection there appear on Hanover records many instances where his name is signed as land surveyor. I have found no record which would indicate that Lancelot was connected with any church or specific religious denomination. In all probability he followed his ancestors into the Episcopal Church. But more important, he did have a bible which he bought in 1818 when he was twenty-one years of age. He wrote his name in the bible and the date of purchase and the cost which was $4.50. This old bible is one of my prized possessions and even more so because I bear his name and as strange as it may seem my own birth date was the same as his with the little exception that the dates were 103 years apart but after all what is 103 years between friends. It is of more than passing interest as to how I came into possession of Lancelot's old bible. [Inserted by hand below the middle of this paragraph is the following, some of which runs off the paper: See records Hanover Hist Society, Lancelot was possibly captain in State militia, also U.S. postmaster at Beaverdam, Va.] Probably in 1940 or 41, I was doing some research in the State Library. I was getting ready to leave and stood talking to a very gracious lady on the library staff. Presumably I introduced myself (I always do to gracious ladies). She stated that she was Mrs. Pollard and asked what my given name was. When I told her it was Lance, short for Lancelot, she said she had a book that belonged to me and had been waiting for me to claim it as it had the same name in it as mine and should be in my possession. I went to her house that night on Confederate Avenue in Richmond and the book she handed me was the aforementioned bible. I have forgotten just what but there was some marriage connection somewhere that brought Mrs. Pollard into possession of the bible. Lancelot also went a-courting and on June 4, 1818, married Martha Bumpass of Hanover County. Eight children James Overton, Edward Lancelot, Ann Elizabeth, Mary Lewis, Joseph Nicholas, Martha Overton, Barbara Harris, and Maria Louisa were born to this union. Martha, his wife, died October 22, 1832. A man can't go on alone in the world and particularly where there are a lot of small children that need the loving care of a good woman. Apparently Lancelot, in spite of his grief, was very lonely because on November 8, 1833 a scant year after the loss of his first love he married his deceased wife's sister Ann Nelson Bumpass. Ann produced three more children for him in addition to aiding and comforting him in his grief. These three were John William born in 1835, whom I personally remember, Virginia Jackson born 1836, whom I also remember well as she lived until May 10, 1922 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. Last but not least by any means was Andrew Jackson who first saw the light of day on August 8, 1839. Unfortunately the infant's mother Ann Nelson died on August 12, probably from some complication of childbirth. From the record (Lancelot's old bible) it would appear that Captain Lancelot was really up against a little more than any man can take. Two beloved wives under the sod and by this time a house full of ten little children. Captain Lancelot decided that they also needed the loving care that only a good woman can provide. Accordingly he must have turned this serious matter in his mind rapidly and promptly. Having come from a long line of men of action, Lancelot lost no time in doing something about a bad situation. There was a spinster lady in the county one Jemima Cosby. She was of an excellent family and very attractive and doubtless let our Captain know of her great sympathy toward him in his sorrow and trouble. It has also been said upon good authority that Jemima had a stocking full of gold. Although we are quite sure that light and love were the real attractions, it may be presumed that the Captain offered her his hand in spite of her gold. On February 19, 1840, after six months of widowerhood, Lancelot and Jemima were married. It is unknown at this time whether Lancelot or Jemima died first, but from this union there were no children. Probably Jemima thought she had inherited all of the children she needed. The old graveyard on the Phillips estates around Beaverdam has long since become once more just a part of the landscape and its site is unknown."