Marquis
Calmes I
Marquis de la Calmes was born in France in
about 1675. His father, Guillaume de Calmes,
held the title of Seigneur de Barbeiran. While
the family was titled, Marquis was probably
not a rank [see notes]. The family was
Huguenot, and Marquis fled with his parents
from France to England in about 1685 to avoid
the religious persecution in France, as the
Edict of Nantes, promulgated in 1598 by Henry
IV, was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.
.
Marquis de la
Calmes arrived in Virginia between 1696 and
1700 with his wife Isabella. They first lived
in a Huguenot settlement on the James River,
then in 1705 they moved to a plantation in
Stafford County, where he died prior to 1741
(although this cannot be confirmed due to the
destruction of records during the Civil War)
and his wife died in 1742.
.
Marquis
Calmes II
Their son, Marquis II, was born in Stafford
County in 1705. He was educated in France,
returned to Virginia about 1723, and lived for
a while in Williamsburg. He married Winnifred
Waller in 1725 and in 1734 they left Stafford
County for land west of the Blue Ridge. They
eventually settled in the Shenandoah Valley,
in the part of Frederick County that
eventually became Clarke County. In 1747,
Marquis Calmes secured one of the Minor Grants
for Land West of the Great Mountains, which
Lord Fairfax confirmed by a deed when he took
up his abode at Greenway Court. That tract was
Calmes Neck.
.
Marquis II
was a leading citizen, holding office in the
county government as well as in his parish.
When Frederick County was organized in 1743,
Marquis II was appointed one of the original
twelve justices, and served until 1753. He was
a church warden of Frederick Parish in 1746
and several succeeding years. He was
commissioned a Captain in the militia against
the Indians and attained the rank of Major in
the Virginia Militia during the French and
Indian War.
.
Marquis II
and Winnifred lived on the Vineyard Plantation
(the main house of which is on Route 621,
across the river south from the Calmes Neck
recreation area, now owned by Charles
Burwell). The 1747 deed shows a Calmes house
across the river west of Calmes Neck, on land
more recently owned by Richard Plater. Plater
claimed to have found the foundation of such a
building. There is no record of Calmes leasing
or owning any part of Vineyard Plantation,
which was then owned by Robert Carter. Marquis
II is thought to have caused the planting of
the vineyard on the Plantation, which was the
first vineyard planted west of the Blue Ridge.
.
Marquis II
had considerable land holdings in addition to
Calmes Neck. In 1741 he purchased 108 acres in
Stafford County. He and others were granted
60,000 acres on the Monongahela River in what
is now West Virginia. In addition, Marquis II
owned a lot in Winchester when it was laid out
in 1753, as did George Washington. On at least
one occasion, Marquis II employed Washington
to conduct a survey.
.
Marquis
Calmes II died in 1755 and was buried on the
Vineyard Plantation next to his wife. A
century later, Winnifred’s tombstone was moved
to Old Chapel Cemetery, but that of Marquis
was beyond repair and was not moved.
.
Marquis
Calmes III
Their son, Marquis Calmes III, born in 1726,
was likely the first family member to live on
Calmes Neck, probably from about 1750 until
his death in Jan. 1794. Marquis III served as
a Captain of Colonial Troops under Lord
Dunmore during the French and Indian War, and
as a major in the Revolutionary War. His
nephew, Marquis Calmes IV, was a captain in
the Revolutionary War, after which he settled
in Kentucky. Marquis IV also served as a
general in the War of 1812.
.
In 1790,
Marquis Calmes III brought a suit against John
Graves for encroaching on his land. Graves had
built a house near the end of Little River
Lane and claimed it was on his own property,
until a 1792 survey demonstrated otherwise.
.
Subsequent
disposition of Calmes Neck
Marquis III’s wife Betty Combs Calmes lived at
Calmes Neck until her death in Sept. 1804.
Calmes Neck was willed to George Gibbs Calmes
by Marquis III and he took possession on the
death of Betty Combs Calmes. George Calmes
never lived on Calmes Neck, but lived in
Hampshire Co., now in West Virginia, across
the Potomac from Cumberland, Md. In 1834 his
will transferred Calmes Neck to heirs
including his daughter Lucy Perry. When Lucy
Perry died she left nine children, including
George Calmes Perry and Marquis Perry.
.
The Calmes
Neck property was finally sold “in the case of
George C. Perry and others vs. Marquis Perry
and others” in 1884 to Thomas M. Nelson.
Marquis III’s will had provided for the
reservation of twenty acres to be laid off
around the family burying ground “in case my
said Nephew Capt George Calmes or his Heirs
should ever Sell” the property. No mention of
the burying ground is made in the Nelson deed
or any subsequent deed, nor does any map of
which we know record where that burying ground
might be.
.
Nelson owned
the property for 22 years before he died, but
in the following 54 years there were 14
changes of ownership, culminating in the
purchase of Calmes Neck in 1960 by Double E
Land and Cattle Company.
.
In all of
that time, Calmes Neck remained with the
boundaries defined in 1747 in the grant from
Lord Fairfax. The original grant did, however,
retain mining rights and “reserving also all
Deer, Elks and Buffaloes, Bears and all manner
of game”. Lord Fairfax may have taken the elk
and buffalo, but we have more deer now than
Marquis Calmes or Lord Fairfax ever imagined.
Notes:.
Excerpt from Clarke Times-Courier, June 28,
2000, page 5 “Cemetery is marked for future”:
“Another mystery concerns the progenitor of
the Calmes family, the first Marquis Calmes,
who came to the colony in the late 1600s. Was
he really a French Marquis, a title of the
nobility? “[Jerry] Dalton [of the Genealogical
Society of Versailles, KY] doesn’t think so.
He said there is a chateau in France belonging
to the de Calmes Family, but they would have
been the ‘lesser’ nobility. Marquis was too
high a rank,” for the owner of that little
chateau, Dalton said. His research shows the
family rose to the nobility by providing some
of the money to ransom the king of France from
the Spaniards.”
Other sources:
Buck, Walter H. A short sketch of the Calmes
family. Proceedings of the Clarke County
Historical Association, Vol 10, 64-72 (1950)
Calmes Notes, Volume I, Issue I, January,
1992, issued by the Genealogical Society of
Versailles (KY)
Calmes Notes, Volume VII, Issue III, July,
1998
Calmes Notes, Volume VII, Issue IV, October,
1998
“Calmes Family” in Pioneers in the Shenandoah
Valley
“A History of the Calmes Family” compiled by
Shannon Bennett, which in turn cites
Campbell, Mary Calmes (Mrs. Palmer Campbell)
Calmes Data – from the records of the late
William Fletcher Boogher, Richmond, Virginia.
Meade, Everard K. Frederick Parish, Virginia
1744-1780–part 1. Proceedings of the Clarke
County Historical Association, Vol 5 (1945)
Proceedings of the Clarke County Historical
Association, Vol 2, 28 (1942)
Volume 3 (1943) of the Proceedings of the
Clarke County Historical Association contains
reference to the dealings of Marquis II and/or
III and land purchases of their relatives.
Personal correspondence to Fran Endicott from
Eugene Cox.
Personal correspondence to the author from
Eugene Cox.
This document is a work in progress. Further
documentation of sources will be added to
revisions of this document. Comments are
welcome.
Revised: April 3, 2004
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