Saturday, February 13, 2010

18. & 19. Caroline and Henrietta Anthony

Two students with the surname Anthony attended the Mordecai school:

Caroline Anthony was there for two years, 1817 and 1818, and the name James Gordon may be associated with hers in the ledger.

Henrietta Anthony was there for four years, 1811-1814, and an H. Anthony is associated with her account in the school ledger.

That doesn't seem like much to go on--no hometowns, no definite parent names, no reason to believe they're even related to each other. But there was pair of sisters, Henrietta and Caroline Anthony, who turn up in Southside Virginia Families Vol. 1 as the daughters of John Anthony (d. 1812) and Elizabeth Hill. John Anthony was apparently from Philadelphia, a cousin of the portrait painter Gilbert Stuart. Elizabeth Hill was the daughter of Col. Whitmel Hill and Winifred Blount--which connects these girls to the Hills, the Alstons, the Blounts, the Pollocks, the Nashes, the Camerons, the Norfleets, and many other families in the neighborhood of the Mordecai school. There's mention in one family history that Caroline was raised in part by her older sister--which would neatly explain the "H. Anthony" next to her name in the ledger.

So, retelling their story in light of what we can find in online genealogies...

Henrietta Maria Anthony left her home in Sussex County, Va. Scotland Neck, NC, in 1811, when her father John Anthony was still alive, to attend the Mordecai school in Warrenton. After John's passing, her account was paid by James Gordon, her uncle brother-in-law (he was married to John's sister Henrietta's older sister Eizabeth Anthony; strikeouts explained in comments). Henrietta later sent her younger sister Caroline Matilda Anthony (1806-1861) to the same school in its last two years, 1817 and 1818. Both girls would have been at school with many cousins as their classmates.

Henrietta married a Cyrus Dillard of Surry County, Virginia, in 1817, and had at least two children, Joseph and Henrietta (b. 1829). Caroline married a William Henry Pegram (1803-1852) in October 1824, and had four children between 1825 and 1842. Her daughter Ann Pegram died as an infant; Caroline Pegram was widowed at age 46, when her youngest child was ten. (That boy, William Anthony Pegram, would die in the Civil War ten years later.)

1 comment:

  1. Got an interesting comment on this from "Anonymous" but it seems to have disappeared from blogger. Sorry Anonymous! It's very interesting and I thank you for the added details. Here's the comment:

    "Hello--
    I've found your profiles of students most interesting. Thanks for this look at a boarding school from a different time.
    I've been researching the Anthony family and have a few tidbits to add. John Anthony actually was born in Newport and yes was first cousin to Gilbert Stuart. His father, Joseph, a merchant of note, moved the family to Philadelphia in 1780. As a young man, John was a merchant and in this capacity traveled to North Carolina where he met and married Elizabeth Hill in 1788. He then settled and raised his family in Scotland Neck, NC (not Sussex County, VA). John died as noted in 1812 and his wife, Elizabeth Hill Anthony died in 1815. Although John had a sister Elizabeth, she died as a baby. The Elizabeth Anthony who married James Gordon in 1807 was the older sister to the two students.

    Caroline was born in 1806, so she was quite young when attending Mordecai. "

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