Michael Woods Sr.

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Historic marker for Jarman's Gap containing information on Michael Woods Sr. Photo by Robert H. Moore.

Michael Woods Sr. (1684-1762) was a prominent inhabitant of early Albemarle County. The site of Jarmans Gap (formerly known as Woods' Gap) was originally named after him.

Biography

Woods was born in Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland in 1684. He was the second child of Elizabeth Worsop and a certain John Woods, who himself was the son of an English soldier in the Cromwellian army of invasion during the Irish Confederate Wars. Around 1705, Woods married Mary Campbell (1690-1742), a woman reputed to belong to the famous Scottish Clan Campbell. Because of this connection, some genealogists have hypothesized that the Woods family, while originally being of pure English origin, may have migrated to Scotland for some time before coming to Ireland.

Around 1724, Woods and his family (with the exception of his oldest child, Magdalen) emigrated to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. Residing there for the next 10 years, Woods and his family likely began to experience the anti-Scotch-Irish sentiments that were being perpetrated by the colony's original settlers during that time, as they had grown jealous of the prosperity being experienced by these new immigrants from the British Isles and thus wished to incite them to leave. Consequently, in 1734 Woods and his family left Pennsylvania and migrated to Virginia, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains by what became known as Woods' Gap and entering Goochland County, where the governor of the time, Sir William Gooch, was encouraging such families to settle. Davis Stockton was reputed to have been a member of Woods' party during this time, carving his initials into a tree at the location where he and Woods eventually parted ways.

In 1737, Woods entered over 1,300 acres on Mechums River and Lickinghole Creek, and the same day purchased 2,000 acres patented two years beforehand by Charles Hudson and situated on the headwaters of Ivy Creek. It was widely believed that Woods was the first white settler in western Albemarle, and perhaps anywhere along the eastern foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. He went on to establish his home near the eastern mouth of Woods' Gap, about 14 miles west of modern-day Charlottesville. The first church of any faith (excepting the English Established Church) to be created in Goochland was founded in the vicinity of Woods' place in later years. Belonging to the Presbyterian denomination, this congregation was named Mountain Plains Church in honor of the popular name for Woods' estate.

Following the separation of Albemarle County from Goochland in 1744, Woods served in the armed forces of Virginia in King George's War and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.[1] He was involved in several court cases and petitions overseen by the Albemarle County Court throughout the next few years.

Woods died in 1762. His body was interred in the family burial ground about 100 yards from his house. His tombstone, left standing up until the time of the American Civil War, was broken to pieces through unknown circumstances, but a fragment recovered in the late 1800's revealed the man's date of birth.[2]

Legacy

After the site of Woods' estate was willed by one of his sons to Judge Blair in 1788, the area around it became known as Blair Park.

Woods' Gap was originally named in honor of Woods. The feature's name would be changed to Jarman's Gap in the early 1800's in honor of Thomas Jarman (a grandson of William Jarman), who had purchased land on the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains at the pass.[3]

References

  1. Web. Michael Marion Woods Sr (abt. 1684 - 1762), WikiTree
  2. Web. Albemarle County in Virginia, C.J. Carrier Company, 1901
  3. Web. Michael Woods [Sr. of Blair Park], Courier Journal Job Printing Co., 1905