A summary of a history of the settlement of North America and the Eastern Shore of Virginia to be published in May 2019 by Charles Landis.
Back in the day (1606) King James ( I’ll call him Jimmy) invited some of his buddies over to his house to chat about setting up a Council of Virginia and appointing members to charter two private companies which would issue stock to finance establishing colonies in North America. One of the charters was for North Virginia and called the Plymouth Company, the other was the South Virginia charter and was called the London Company.
The Council was a guy thing but the daughter, Cicely Ligon, ( I call her Cis) of one Jimmy’s best buddies, Sir William Ligon (who I call Billy) and who’s ancestor came over to England with William the Conqueror ( I call him Willy) wanted to join the Council. However, because girls could not be members of the this men’s club, King Jimmy appointed Cis’s son, Sir Fernando Georges ( I call him Freddy) a member of the Council. He was named after Cis’s uncle Fernando Ligon.
In 1624, because things were not working out so good with the London Company’s part of Virginia, King Jimmy appointed Freddy Commissioner and he disbanded the London Company and made it Jimmy’s Royal Colony of Virginia. Freddy stayed on as Commissioner and a member of the Council for Governance of Virginia. He also became Governor of New England and was granted the Province of Maine. Freddy then granted 1600 sq, miles of Maine to some buddies in London which he named Lygonia after his wife Cis (aka Cicely Lygon (Ligon). A Ligon/Landis descendant lives in Lygonia/Ligonia today.
Meanwhile, back on the Eastern Shore, at about the time Virginia was changed to a colony, a long time resident native (Chief Debedeavon aka King D) gave a big piece of land to an employee of the Company (a white guy named Thomas Savage (who I call Tom). However, because King D was not a member of Freddy’s club, Tom needed Freddy to sign off on the grant which was done.
Later, in 1641, Thomas Ligon ( I call him Tommy) a boy at age 17, had a chat with his aunt Cis, Freddy, Billy, and cousin William Berkley ( I call him Willie) who had been appointed Governor of the Virginia colony and invited Tommy to come with him to Virginia which he did. Note :Tommy was related to Willie 6 different ways. One of Tommy’’s descendants, Annie Ligon (I call her granny Annie) married Augustus Landis ( I call him grand-daddy Gus) who I am named after as C. Augustus. ( Call me Gustus).
In 1990 Gustus migrated to the Eastern Shore of Virginia and became a famous historian and topical commentator. With great modesty and humility, Gustus wrote this history about his ancestors ( Billy, Willie, Freddy, Cis, Tom, Tommy, Annie, and Gus; a true story about his ancestors who were “huugeely” important in settlement of North America and specially the Eastern Shore. Muchly a family thing.
About the Author
Well I am certainly looking forward to this publication, as I married the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of “Tommy” Ligon. I enjoyed reading this brief history- Thank you!
If you do not have a copy of “The Ligon Family and Connections” published by Sir Willian Ligon, 8th Earl Beauchamp in 1947 and would like to see the book call me @ 757-787-5617 or email at charland2@verizon.net. The book is 941 pgs and took 40 years to research and write..
Thank you for the generous offer. We do have a copy of the 2011 reprint and it served as a valuable resource in researching my husband’s genealogy. We are eager to read your book!