Frank Robinson, former slave

Francis “Frank” Robinson (a.k.a. Roberson) was born to unknown parents about 1776, probably in Frederick County, Virginia. His mother, clearly, was enslaved because he was born into this institution. The identity of his father, for my part, is a hunch.

His last enslavers were James and Mary Wood; James was an immigrant from Winchester, England, who obtained a large grant of land in the Northern Neck of Virginia from Thomas Lord Fairfax. Wood contributed a portion of his land to establish the town of Winchester, which a few years later became the seat of Frederick County, which was created from a portion of Orange County in 1738. Wood was commissioned in 1743 as clerk of Frederick County, a position he retained until his death in 1759 at age fifty-two.

Mary Wood was James Wood’s widow and an older sister of Robert Rutherford, who was highly influential in Colonial Virginia politics, representing first Frederick County and later Berkeley County in the House of Burgesses and later was the first man elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.1

In Mary Wood’s 1798 will, she bequeathed to her son, Robert Rutherford Wood, Frank and four other enslaved men: George, Jack, Lewis, and John; she did include in her will the instruction to all of her heirs that all of the enslaved people she held at the time of her death were to be emancipated when they turned age thirty-six.

Some of Frank’s living descendants (through his youngest son, William A. Roberson and wife Lucy Jefferson) have several original documents that provide insight into what he looked like and a peak into his life, both before and after his emancipation in 1812 at the age of thirty-six. I began seriously looking at these documents recently, when I decided to start digging into the Roberson side of Robert Jefferson’s family. The first one is a certified copy of his emancipation document:

The document establishing Frank Robinson as a free man of color.

“No. 26

Commonwealth of Virginia, Corporation of Winchester, to wit:

Frank Robinson, a negro man aged fifty-four years, five feet seven inches high and rather slender made, has lost his upper fore teeth and is bowlegged, was devised by Mary Wood dec’d [deceased] to Robert Wood to serve until he was thirty-six years of age and then to be freed, and was accordingly liberated by the said Robert Wood.

Registered in my office the 14th day of August 1830.

I Lemuel Bent, Clerk of the Court of the Corporation aforesaid do herby certify that the above is a true transcript from the records in my office.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name, and affixed the seal of the said Corporation the 14th day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty.

Lem’l Bent”

Two more documents exist in the Roberson family archives: The first is a letter written on behalf of Frank’s character as a former slave; the second is a document that he likely carried with him when he moved the family to Kentucky (dated 15 August 1830):

“I Frank Robinson of Frederick County Virginia make and ordain this my last will and testament. I leave to Doc. Robert W. Wood in trust for the purposes hereafter mentioned all my property both real and personal.

It is my will that the said Robert W. Wood should at such time as he thinks proper after my death, make sale of all my real and personal property and apply the proceeds to the purchase of my wife Matilda and have her emancipated and after her emancipation the balance that may be left after purchasing her to be given to her and in case of her death to her children.2

Lastly I appoint the said Robert W. Wood executor of this my last will and testament. In testimony whereof I have affixed my hand and seal this 30th day of July 1828.

Witnessed by

A.S. Lovall

Comfort Dailey 3

___________________

“The bearer hereof Frank Robinson (a free man of color) who was born and raised near Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, intends shortly to remove with his wife and children, who are slaves of Mrs. Elizabeth Green,4 to Kentucky and who is desirous of having his character known where he settles. We the undersigned with pleasure and with great truth can say he is a person of strict honesty and truth, is industrious and in his intercourse with society perfectly harmless and inoffensive. August 13th 1830

Thomas Allen Tidball

R W Wood

Wm Wood

M.D. Washington

I hastily concur with the above certificate and recommendation. I have long known Francis Robinson and have had frequent dealings and intercourse with him and know him to be a perfectly sober, industrious and trustworthy man. August 13 1830 Wm. Hite

I do cheerfully concur in giving the above certificate.

Thomas Allen Tidball”

___________________

The fact that Frank had personal and real-estate property also shows that he was favored by the Wood family; the fact that he made Robert W. Wood his executor also makes me feel like they were probably raised as brothers. More DNA research will be required to make that connection.

So let’s skip forward a bit. It is clear that he was able to arrange for the emancipation of Matilda and their children, but unfortunately, as far as I can tell, they weren’t living in Maysville in time to be included in the 1830 census there. However, family information given to me by the Roberson-side descendants gives names and birthdates of their children:

Charles, born 1814

Margaret, born 1816

Anthony, born 1818, m. an Emily J.

Julian or Juliana, b. 1820 (gender uncertain)

Rebecca, born 1822

Francis F., born 1824 m. Susan Viola Turner

Robert Isaac, b. 1831 m. Sophia Catlin

William A., b. 1836, m. Lucy Ann Jefferson

Robert and William would be the only two children born after the family moved to Kentucky, and the only two who were born as free people of color. Sadly, Frank died in Maysville, Ky., in 1839, when Robert was about 8 and William was about 3. It was after Frank’s death that nearly all of the family moved on down the Ohio River to St. Louis, where at least the three youngest children would make their fortunes as barbers. Matilda went with them, too, and died in that city in 1867; she is buried there in Bellefountaine Cemetery.

I believe that Frank was a descendant of Benjamin A. Higginbotham, 1729-1790, and was most likely fathered by Benjamin’s son, Caleb. Caleb married Mary Ann Cash, and using ThruLines on AncestryDNA.com, I’ve found dozens of DNA matches to Robert’s descendants who can be traced back to this particular couple. This Cash family also has a much more famous son, the legendary Johnny Cash, meaning that the Roberson descendants are Cash’s distant cousins. (I think that’s kinda cool.)

Collateral family names include Sandidge, Gatewood, Strickland, Ware, Campbell, and Banks. So far, there are no matches that seem to go back to Elizabeth Green, the last enslaver of Matilda. But there are plenty of matches that, I hope, will lead to Matilda’s parentage.

It’s a lot of work, but I love the whole “Sherlock Holmes” part of this kind of research. The answers are there. You just need the right questions. And 200+ years and how many generations later make connecting the right questions to the answers I’ve found difficult, at best.

But I feel as though I’m getting closer. Even after all these years.

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Footnotes:

1. Robert Rutherford has been a focus on this project because he was a friend of Edward Christian of Charles Town, Virginia, (now West Virginia). Christian was the enslaver of Millie Reddiford, who bore Thomas Jefferson’s son, Robert Jefferson. While DNA has not proven a blood-relationship to Millie or Robert’s descendants, in my mind, he remains an integral character in this research.

2. A Deed of Indenture dated 3 September 1815 shows Frank Robinson and Nicholas Spencer, also a “free man of color,” purchasing Lot No. 135 in the Fairfax Addition of Winchester from one Adam Bower.

3. Constance Dailey was Mary Wood’s granddaughter and Robert W. Wood’s sister.

4. Elizabeth Green is a mystery to me. Even using Perplexity.ai, FamilySearch, Ancestry, and anything else I can think of, I cannot determine anything about this woman, especially which man named Green she was married to. There is an Elizabeth Campbell who married a John C. Green, but her father’s will included the direction that all of his enslaved men, women, and children, were to be emancipated when they became “of age,” which was 21 for men and 18 for women. It would seem unlikely that this Elizabeth Green would be a slave-owner in 1830.

There also is a Samuel Ball Green who died in 1815, just 15 years after marrying one Elizabeth Blair, but those documents do not indicate that this is the couple we are looking for. I believe our Elizabeth Green likely was a widow in 1830, as she is mentioned singularly in the second document. But, it is possible she was still married, as women sometimes inherited enslaved people from their parents with the clear intention that her human “property” could not be sold or hired out, or otherwise manipulated, by their husbands. This was a way of guaranteeing that the daughter would have her own property to ensure that should her husband die or leave her, she would not be completely destitute.

5. Robert W. Wood, M.D.; William Wood; and Mary Dorcas (Lawrence) Washington were all children of Robert R. Wood. Robert W. was born about the same year as Frank, so they were most likely raised together, as was a custom in the families of enslavers.