Unity West

This profile is for Ursula or Unity Croshaw, AKA Unity Blackwell, Unity Croshaw, Ursala Unity Crenshaw, Ursala Unity Crowshaw, Susanah

Unity Croshaw was a colonist of British Colonial Virginia, the first surviving European colony in North America. Born in the colony, she was the daughter of Major Joseph Croshaw, and a granddaughter of Raleigh Croshaw, who came to the Colony of Virginia in 1608 with the Second Supply to Jamestown.[1] She married Colonel John West.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Croshaw

Biography

Unity Croshaw is believed to have been born about 1636[2] to Joseph Croshaw and his 1st wife. Unity was a middle child and had as many as four sisters and brothers. Unity married Colonel John West sometime before November 1664.[3] As a result of the marriage, and the early death of Unity's half-brother, the intended heir, Croshaw's plantation at "Poplar Neck" passed to John West.[4]

Unity Croshaw and John West had the following children:[5]

1. John West III, married Judith Armistead, daughter of Anthony Armistead.
2. Thomas West 1669–1714, married Agnes 1670-1720
3. Nathaniel West, married Martha Woodward, widow of Gideon Macon.
4. Anne West, married Henry Fox.

Unity died after 30 October 1693, when she relinquished dower in "Poplar Neck."[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_West_(colonel)#Family

By 1664, West married Unity Croshaw, daughter of Major Joseph Croshaw of York, member of the House of Burgesses. The children of Colonel John and Unity Croshaw were:[6]

1. John West III; married Judith Armistead.
2. Nathaniel West, married, as her second husband, Martha Woodard, widow of Gideon Macon and grandmother of Martha Washington.
3. Anne West; married Henry Fox.
4. Captain Thomas Oliphant West (1670 West Point, VA - 23 December 1740, New Kent, VA); married Agnes Frances Estes Burton (1670-1720). They had five children: Nathaniel (1692-1727), Col. Francis (1702-1786), Virginia Agnes West (1705-1750; married Richard Thomas Gregory (1713-1742)), Anne (1714-1780), and Thomas (1718-1808).[citation needed]
5. Unity West (24 December 1658 - 12 May 1708, Elsing Green, King William County; married in 1676 George Thomas Martin (b. 1656). [Disputed as daughter]

West was said to have fathered a son with the Pamunkey leader Cockacoeske about 1656, several years before West's marriage to Unity Croshaw. The child became known as Captain John West.[7] Although there is evidence that Col. West was living apart from his wife in 1685,[8] the year before Cockacoeske's death, the reasons for their separation remain unknown.

Harris, Malcolm H. “‘Delaware Town’ and ‘West Point’ in King William County, Va.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 4, 1934, pp. 342–351. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1923295. Accessed 20 May 2021.

References

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:3QLL-1HZ : accessed 2017-11-26), entry for Ursala Unity /Crenshaw/.
• Not a known daughter of Maj. Joseph Croshaw
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_West_(colonel)#Family cites
  • 6. Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., v.3, p.490
  • 8. Appleton, Thomas H. et al, Searching for Their Places: Women in the South Across Four Centuries
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Croshaw cites
  • 1. Second Supply -- Jamestown Rediscovery
  • 2. This is based upon the report that she was 33 when she died in 1669
  • 3. Deed dated 4 Nov 1664, Joseph Croshaw to John West, mentioning Croshaw's daughter as "wife of the said West". Cited in Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., Vol. 1, p.773.
  • 4. In 1687 "Poplar Neck" was sold by West "and Unity his wife" to Edmund Jenings, who renamed it "Ripon Hall". "Notes and Queries", William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 [1]
  • 5. Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., v.3, p.490
  • 6. Dorman, Vol. 1, p.773

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