Daniel Maupin Sr.

Daniel Maupin Sr. (March 25, 1700 - September 20, 1788) was an inhabitant of early Albemarle County. He was the progenitor of the area's famous Maupin family.

Biography

Death notice for Daniel Maupin Sr. in a local Virginian publication. Reproduced from Find a Grave.

Maupin was born on March 25, 1700 either in London, England during a port of call on his parents' journey to North America or upon their arrival in York County in eastern Virginia. His parents, the Williamsburg tavern keeper Gabriel Maupin and his wife Marie Hersent, were both Huguenot immigrants (hence their last name of French descent), with Gabriel having been officially naturalized as an English subject through an act of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1705.

At 20 years old, Maupin married Margaret Via, a daughter of the French immigrant Amer Via who had been born in the vicinity of White Hall in 1701. Maupin and his wife are believed to have remained in Williamsburg only a relatively short time after their marriage, with their oldest child Gabriel having been born there in 1720 at the home of Maupin's father.

In the 1740's, Maupin's family and his brother Gabriel emigrated to Albemarle County. In 1748, Maupin obtained a patent for land on Moormans River, purchasing it from the original patentee Thomas Moorman. He would go on to enter more than 1,500 acres in the vicinity of White Hall.

Maupin died on September 20, 1788. He was buried alongside his wife beneath an old boxwood tree in the Daniel Maupin Cemetery (located adjacent to the Mount Moriah Cemetery), which is situated on what was once their estate in White Hall. Tombstones for both Maupin and Margaret were erected in 2000.

Maupin's tombstone in White Hall. Photo by Jan Hensley.

Family and descendants

Maupin's father, Gabriel, was reputed among the family to have been born in southern France around 1655 and to have been the son of General Amos Maupin, an officer in the French army of Louis XIV. After the proclamation of the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau (which suspended the freedom of all Protestants within the Kingdom of France), Gabriel, a large landowner, increasingly incurred the wrath of the populace on account of his religion and thus fled to England in 1699, there marrying Marie Hersent. In 1700, the couple emigrated to North America on a vessel named the Nassau. At one point during the voyage, the ship sprang a leak and fellow passengers requested Gabriel, a very religious man, to pray for divine assistance, which he promptly did. When the group finally landed in Virginia, a large fish was said to have been found tightly wedged in the opening. Upon his settling in Williamsburg, Gabriel was appointed the Commandant of the Royal Arsenal there and became heavily involved in Virginia's first Masonic lodge, serving in several important offices and permitting fellow members to use the large dining room of his inn for their events until the eventual construction of their own temple. He died around 1720.

Maupin and Margaret had seven sons named Thomas, Gabriel, Daniel, John, William, Zachariah, and Jesse. Thomas was born in Hanover County at an unknown date, Gabriel was born in 1720 in Williamsburg, John, Daniel, William, and Zachariah were born in Hanover County in 1725, 1727, 1732, and 1734 respectively, and Jesse was born in Louisa County in 1740. Three brothers from the county by the names of Daniel, William, and Cornelius who were Revolutionary War veterans were, in all probability, grandsons of Maupin via his son John. Maupin and Margaret also had three daughters named Mary, Margaret, and Jane. Mary was born in 1723 in Louisa County and married Matthew Mullins, Margaret was born in 1736 in Hanover County and married Robert Miller, and Jane was born in 1738 in Hanover County and married Samuel Rea.

Maupin's brother, Gabriel, died in 1794, having settled in the vicinity of Free Union with his family. His wife was Marah and their sons were Thomas, Bland, Daniel, and Gabriel.

Dr. Socrates Maupin was the son of Chapman W. Maupin, who himself was third in descent from Maupin and had been appointed a magistrate of Albemarle County in 1835 before dying in 1861. Another of Chapman's sons, Addison, resided on Carr's Hill prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.