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I have been looking at some articles of early Saponi, Cheraw etc histories and a brief mention of this school was on the web site “Colonial Williamsburg”.
While I was researching Charles Griffin the Saponi school master, this Brafferton school was mentioned.
There has been several Charles Griffins, most likley descendants of the original school master, most listed as “Indian,” Cheraw etc.
Anyway the Brafferton has some unusual history in that it’s original students were purchased!
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The Brafferton
The College of William and Mary raised the Brafferton in 1723 a few yards east of the Wren Building to house its Indian school. The simple brick five-bay Georgian house is the most substantially original colonial edifice on campus. INDIAN SCHOOL AT THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY: Using funds from the estate of Sir Robert Boyle, the College of William and Mary established a school to educate young Indian men in 1697, just four years after the College’s founding. To encourage enrollment, in 1711 Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood began remitting tributes for area tribes who sent students. Students from tribes outside Virginia also enrolled. The Brafferton was constructed in 1723 to house the school which provided instruction in reading and writing English, arithmetic and religion. The American Revolution caused British financial support to cease in 1776, and soon the school closed.
William and Mary’s 1693 charter committed it to train young Native Americans as Christian clergymen and missionaries to their people. Investment income from the estate of English natural philosopher Robert Boyle (the Yorkshire manor of Brafferton) was earmarked for an endowment in 1697. The Indian school’s first students were six boys purchased from Native Americans who had captured them from enemy tribes. By 1712, the Indian school’s master had charge of 20 scholars, but there were none by 1721. Revived after the building was finished, the Indian school faltered on, its endowment applied to other projects or wasted. The last, lone Native American student entered in 1775. Thomas Jefferson, a member of the college’s board of visitors by virtue of being Virginia’s governor, engineered the Indian school’s discontinuance in December 1779. Some 52 feet tall and long, the Brafferton is 34 feet deep. It has two main floors and a finished attic. Now used for offices, it has been, among other things, a classroom building, a dining hall, and a professor’s residence.
Interesting. I think someone posted a few years back about whether or not any student rolls survived. I think the answer was no.
Another thought. I talked to an elderly distant cousin who shares my ancestor from MD I’m sure was a mixed blood. She comes from a long line of missionaries. She grew up on Rosebud reservation, where her father was a missionary. This account makes me wonder . . .
Well the rolls for this school are worth looking for, Iam curious .. is this the school that Charles Griffin may have been at? or/and on the fort Christanna Indian Reserve.
There was a couple of posting re. these records from the British Trading co. that contained some of this information, in two seperate locations, Wisconsin was one a maybe Penn. the other … something like that the info was posted but I cannot find the posts.! Any suggesetions.
Also the Charles Griffin that is listed above what became of him, is this his son? if he indeed married a Fort Christanna woman? Is it Charles I or II that is listed raising cane with Saponi men?
This would make a great story, a rouge school teacher on the rampage against early colonists!
Griffin was just noted as being at the Fort, I believe. What are saying about WI or PA?
What is you found about the younger Griffins?
Just a wild guess, and you didn’t ask me — but usually when old records are being cited and the source is “Wisconsin,” it turns out to be something in the Lyman Draper collection of manuscripts relating to American frontier history, at the Wisconsin Historical Society (in Madison). Microfilm copies of those documents may be studied in the Manuscripts division of the Library of Congress, and now (I’m fairly sure) at other big research libraries. Or you can buy a set of the films, if you are a bazillionaire. There’s a brief description, and a link or two, at this url:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/military/draper/
I don’t know what’s at Penn; usually that means the U of PA in Philadelphia, and if you’re talking Indians, it means their excellent anthropology museum. But it might also mean the Historical Society of PA, a whole different thing (but also excellent) at 1300 Locust, in Philadelphia — if memory serves.
By the way, the Penn anthro museum has a nice, sort of primitive portrait of Shikellamy. I think somebody has said on this forum that that he had a Tutelo wife.
Linda:
I have folks who I found on Rosebud in 1910 also. They went west from Iowa. I have wondered about the missionary angle. Most of my folks have the same name as ministers in the early Presbyterian Church, and I know that my Potters had lots of ministers.
Techteach
Hey Linda, well the mr. griffin that I have read about left a manuscript of his time as a math teacher at the fort and that’s what I would like to locate.
ASwell from what I can see it looks as though he may have married some one from the Christanna rez.. the are Griffins noted in early records dealing with the SAponi etc, so he may have had a wife that was Indian or atleast children.
The references that I have seen about these doc.’s was posted here and the manuscript may have some of the material that Iam looking for.
PappyDick, thanx for the input, I hope that some where we can locate these records from the Christanna era. There is an index to the Draper manuscripts in local libraries so I’ll check those out first.!!
Here is an article that I should have in a week or so, and will share when I have it.
“Jay Hansford C. Vest – From Nansemond to Monacan: The Legacy of …In fact, during the 1740s Charles Griffin [Jr.], the apparent son of the Fort … on the Saponi-Monacan-Tutelo peoples include: Jay Hansford C. Vest, …
muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_ indian_quarterly/v027/27.3vest.html – Similar pages “
Vest, Jay Hansford C. “From Nansemond to Monacan: The Legacy of the Pochick-Nansemond among the Bear Mountain Monacan”
The American Indian Quarterly – Volume 27, Number 3&4, Summer/Fall 2003, pp. 781-806
University of Nebraska Press
Excerpt
The American Indian Quarterly 27.3 (2003) 781-806
[Access article in PDF]
The Legacy of the Pochick-Nansemond among the Bear Mountain Monacan
Jay Hansford C. Vest
In 1948, Library of Congress scholar William Gilbert wrote: “Indian blood still remains noticeable in our eastern States population in spite of the depletions arising from over 300 years of wars, invasions by disease and white men from Europe and black men from Africa.”1 Noting that Virginia’s surviving Indian groups tended to retain traditions of their Native origin, Gilbert identified several Indian groups along the Blue Ridge and Piedmont zones of the state. Stating these concentrations “beginning with Rappahannock County in the north and continuing southward along the Blue Ridge through Rockbridge and Amherst counties and striking directly southward to Halifax County on the North Carolina border,” he gave definition to the geographical occupation of these interior Virginia tribal groups.2 Specifically he identified five hundred to six hundred mixed-bloods in central and the extreme western end of Amherst County near Bear Mountain and Tobacco Row Mountain of the Blue Ridge. Known locally as “issues,” he describes these people as having “a very rich brunette with straight black hair and Caucasian features.”3 Acknowledging a second group northwest of Amherst County, he further identified a population of over three hundred “Brown people” exhibiting “a mixture of white, Indian, and occasionally Negro blood.” While self-identified as American Indians, these groups were locally considered to be “mulattos” but acknowledged as “a group apart from both whites and Negroes.”4
Before proceeding with this history of a Pochick-Nansemond band among the Monacans,…
Hi, I realize I am replying to an old post but I just ran across this one while researching Griffins. Did you find the Vest article mentioned here and did you post it? I am very interested in Charles Griffin, the schoolmaster and his descendants, if any. This excerpt would indicate he did indeed have descendants. Thank you for any help. e-wi
Thanks for bringing this post forward, it’s interesting. I didn’t realize the Brafferton biulding is still standing. We should take Ms. F there. She can do with archeological sites what some psychics do with forensics. She can tell us who was there!
Techteach, I’m thinking about both of our family groups who originated out of MD and apparently moved along together through PA, IN and WI/IA over the next century. We both have stories of missionaries, ministers in the mix. I wonder if this is where we got started? Perhaps we have a common kin who as at Brafferton, then moved along with those who migrated to Blackfoot Town in MD.
I just saw this post. Here is some information that I was able to obtain at William and Mary regarding student rolls. Hope this helps.
Sonia
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These notes are from Karen Stewart “So Good Work: The Brafferton School”, William and Mary College.
June 1715. Griffin’s students numbered 70 boys and girls. (Fort Christianna)
Brafferton School
Year Number Other Info
1711 10 1 Chickahominy, 2 Meherrin, 2 Nansemond,
2 Nottoway, 3 Pamunkey (Spottswood)
1712 20 plus 4 brought years ago
1713 17 Spotswood; in the past as many as 7 or 8 at a
time; now can get very few (Hugh Grove)
1736-1742 3 Will[iam Jeffries]; Thomson; Jno. Ward
(Wharton)
1743 4 Scarborough; Stephen; Tomkins; Jno.Ward;
two boys
1754-1755 8 William Cooke; Gideon Langston;
John Langston; John Montour; Charles Murphy;
John Sampson; Thomas Sampson;
William Squirrel
1769 2 Robert Mush; George Sampson
1770 5 [W&M Bursar]
1771 5 John Nettles
1772 5
1773 5
1774 5
1775 6 Mons.Baubee; George Sampson; Reuben Sampson
1776 5 James Gunn; Edmund Sampson
Thomas Wharton – treated students for their various illnesses 1736 thru 1743.
Jno. Ward
Stephen
Will
Scarborough
Tomkins
Thomas
Thomson
Masters Of Brafferton
Christopher Jackson – 1716
Christopher Smith -1716-1718
Rev. Charles Griffin – 1718-1720
Richard Cocke – 1728-1729
Rev. John Fox – 1729-1737
Rev. Robert Barret – 1737-1738
Rev. Thomas Dawson – 1738 – 1755
Emmanuel Jones – 1755-1777
Rev. John Bracken – 1777 – 1779
Hey There E-Wi well so far there are peole here with the article by Jay Vest they may reply to your post privately , but it is also in many locations.
Sonia thanx for the materials if I have not already said so, the name Griffin is an original and needs to be explored, after the Fort Christanna rez, was dissolved Mr. Griffin dissapears from all records but about 40 years later the “Charles Griffin -Saponi Indian ” appears in records, from what I understand there is a small town or was a small town that is being researched re. the diaspora directly from Christanna, that Mr. Griffin may have relocated to with probably his Saponi family.
I also have a Griffin in my family but it is a first name, and although of Eastern Blackfoot lineage I cannot say for sure if my Griffin is a member of the school matsers family.
I’d sure like to know though!Thanx for the replys and welcome to SAponi Town!
Thanks, Tom. I can pull up the Vest article on several websites but they want me to subscribe to something or other before I can access the full document so I thought perhaps someone here would have access to a copy they could post for all of us. I am very interested in exactly what Vest wrote about Charles Griffin and if the “Jr” is his addition or someone else’s. My own Griffins seemed to have been in the same time and place as the Saponis, namely Lancaster and Berks PA, Greenbrier VA then left Greenbrier for KY about the same time a lot of other Native Americans were leaving Greenbrier, ca 1783. Of course Griffins were in all the VA/NC Saponi sites too but as yet we can’t connect to them which is, of course, what we are trying to do if in fact they are ours. So any and all help appreciated. Thanks, e-wi
e-wi,
You can contact me. I have copies of the following Vest articles for my personal use:
From Nansemond to Monacan: The Legacy of the Pochick-Nansemond among the Bear Mountain Monacan
The Vengeful Wife and Other Blackfoot Stories
From Bobtail to Brer Rabbit: Native American Influences on Uncle Remus
An Odyssey among the Iroquois: A History of Tutelo Relations in New York
Also by Heriberto Dixon:
A Saponi by Any Other Name Is Still a Siouan
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