This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing prompt is free space, meaning we can write about anything we want to! I choose to write about my ancestor Stubble Stubbleson in general, and how cool it is that we know the name of two of his 🐄 cows. How often do we know the names of the animals our ancestors had as stock, farm animals, and pets? Especially in Colonial Virginia in the year 1665!

I love cows and think it’s all kinds of cool that I know the names of the cows 🐮 of my 9th great-grandfather!

Luckily, there are some existing records from Colonial Virginia about my ancestor. We know that he was a Dutch (or Deutsch aka German) man, who, if Dutch, probably came to Virginia from the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, now known as New York. New Amsterdam was settled by the Dutch in 1624, it was conquered by the English in 1664, recaptured by the Dutch in 1673, and relinquished to the English in 1674. Or he was a German man that migrated to Virginia from New York, Pennsylvania, or Maryland. It is thought that he was a Dutch merchant, but he equally could have been German. He was declared an alien in the 1660s. When he came to Colonial Virginia, as an unnaturalized citizen, he would have been considered an alien, and as thus, he could buy and own property, but when he died, any acquired real property reverted to the English crown.

Aliens (non-citizens) could neither inherit nor pass on real property. Subjects born in England were considered citizens in the colonies, this usually extended to those born in Scotland and Wales. (1)

People variously list him as born in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. But he is listed in one Colonial American Virginia record as a Dutch man (or Deutsch man). The surname Stubble is most likely from a surname found in the Netherlands and Germany. Probably the surname Stubbe, which is an English, North German, and Dutch surname. Obviously, he was not an English man, for his lands were reverted to the English crown when he died due to him being an alien, a non-citizen, and thus we know he was not English.

There are a few options for the roots of the surname Stubble, it most likely from the surname Stubbe, from the Middle Low German, and Middle Dutch stubbe meaning ‘tree stump’ or ‘tree trunk’, hence a nickname for a short, stout man. (2) A second option is that it comes from the German and Dutch word stoppel, which when translated into the English language is stubble. Although, Stoppel is known as a German surname, not Dutch.

The word for Stubble in Swedish is stubb. The surname Stubb is found in Sweden and Finland, although much more commonly in Germany. There is a chance he was from a Scandanavian country. I cannot rule that out, but it’s much more likely he was Dutch or German.

What we can assume is that he was the son of a man named Stubbe, or Stoppel, and was given his father’s first name, giving him the name Stubble Stubbleson aka Stubbe Stubbeson/Stoppel Stoppelson. Stoppel is a North German surname from Middle Low German stoppel ‘thorn’, hence a nickname for someone with a prickly personality, or for someone with a stubbly beard. Whether his name was originally German or Dutch, or even Scandanavian, his roots were Germanic.

The name of his wife has been lost to time. He had many dealings with Thomas Rawson, including ones that give the names of his 🐮 cows! It is possible he married kin to Thomas Rawson. His wife may have died in childbirth or shortly after, for we know that Stubble only had one heir, and one known child, a daughter, Ann Stubbleson Ferguson (Farguson).

Stubble had some financial means when he arrived in Colonial Virginia.

For on 29 October 1665, Thomas Rawson of the County of Rappahannock, planter, sold to Stuble Stubbleson of the same County, planter, for 1,000 pounds of tobacco with cask, land patented 18 November 1663, 513 acres and four perches except for a small parcell of Woodland adjacent. The land was in the parish of Sittenbourne and on the north side of the mill branch. Signed Thomas Rason [sic]. Witnesses: WMoseley, John Deane. Recorded 3 November 1665. [(Old) Rappahannock County, Virginia, Wills & Deeds 1, pages 41–42.]

We learn the names of his cows in the next record, Dary, a black cow with a little white under her belly, and Cherry, a red heifer.

On 29 October 1665, Stubble Stubbleson sold to Thomas Rawson: “Know all men by these presents that I Stuble Stubleson of the County of rappa. planter do hereby acknowledge to have sold to Thomas Rawson one black Cow with a Little white under her belly named Dary cropt on the Left ear & cheek under the Crop & a swallow ford & hole on ye right & one red heiffer three years old named Cherry cropt on the Left ear & a nick under the Crop & the right ear whole them to be & to belong with their Increase to the sd Rawson or his order & I do hereby warr’t the said Sale to be good honest & Lawfull & that the sd. Cal he did at ye Subscribing hereof properly belong unto me & no person else as witness my hand this 29th:8ber 1665” Signum Stubles his ++ mark Stubleson. Test W Moseley. Recorded on 20 November 1665. [(Old) Rappahannock County, Virginia, Deed Book 1, page 45.]

On 7 December 1667 Stable Stubleson, planter of Rappahannock County, settled a dispute with Thomas Rawson over some property. He signed with a mark. [(Old) Rappahannock County, Virginia, Deed Book 3, page 457.]

On 29 June 1668, Thomas Rawson sold to Stuble Stubleson, for 1,000 pounds of tobacco and caske, land on the North side of the mill Branch at the Head of Tigners Creek, except for a small part of woods. Signed Tho: Rason. Witnesses: Tho. Freshwater, Thomas Sadler. Recorded 1 July 1668. [(Old) Rappahannock County, Virginia, Deed Book 3, page 459–461.]

In 1669, an inquisition on escheated land found that Stuble Stubbleson was an alien: Rappahannock Co., Va. 5 May 1669. John Weire, deputy escheator, by commission 29 Sept. 1668. Writ Feb. 1668/9. Jury find that Stuble Stubbleson was at the time of his decease seazed of about a hundred acres of land in Rappahannock County, also that Stuble was an alien by birth and therefor the land escheat. [Abstract by John Frederick Dorman in The Virginia Genealogist, Volume 19, Number 4, October-December 1975, page 259.]

Between 1 July 1668, when that sale was recorded and 1669, Stubble had died.

Stubble’s land had been left to his daughter Ann Stubbleson. She married John Fargisson (Fargison/Ferguson). We find the following record:

 . . . I, the said John Fargisson as marrying Ann, the only surviving daughter and heir of Stubble Stubbleson, deceased, do hereby . . . make over unto . . . William Jewill . . . with . . . the voluntary consent of the said Ann, my now wife . . . a certain piece of land . . . formerly sold by one Thomas Rawson unto the said Stubble Stubbleson . . .

On 30 March 1674, Theophilus Wheele sold to William Jewill a tract of land “formerly belonging to Stubble Stubbleston aliene and after the decease of the said Stubbleston Escheated by me”. [(Old) Rappahannock County, Virginia, Deed Book 5, page 298.]

In a deed of 1 November 1715, Thomas Jewell, planter of St. Annes Parish, sold John Bagge of the same parish 149 acres in St. Anns Parish it being part of a tract first granted 22 November 1653 to Andrew Gilson and sold by him, 6 May 1657, to Thomas Reson or Roson, and by him sold to Stubble Stubbleson on 29 June 1668, “wch sd Tract of Land upon the death of sd Stubble Stubbleson an alien by an Inquisition taken in the County of Rappahannock the first day of May one thousand Six hundred & Sixty nine, being found Escheat was granted by patent…” Recorded 21 December 1715. [Essex County, Virginia, Deed Book 14, pages 449–450.] Beverley Fleet surmises that he was Dutch.

To learn more about my ancestors Ann Stubbleson and her husband John Fargisson (Fargison/Ferguson) and my related Rogers lines, go here.

My direct line from Stubble Stubbleson:

1. Stubble Stubbleson and possibly ____ Rawson.
2. Ann Stubbleson and John Fargisson (Fargison/Ferguson).
3. Mary Ferguson (Fargeson) and Joseph Rogers.
4. Isham Rogers and Prudence _____.
5. Shadrach Rogers.
6. Peleg Rogers and Mary Ellen Stafford.
7. Nancy Anna Rogers and Aden Barrett.
8. Cynthia Ann Barrett and John Lewis Doughty (my great-great grandparents).

References:

1. Library of Virginia Research Notes #9. Library of Virginia.
2. Stubbe Family History Stubbe Name Meaning. familysearch.org
3. Stoppel Family History Stoppel Name Meaning. familysearch.org

Further reading:

1. Empty Branches on the Family Tree. Blog of a Stubbleson/Fargison (Ferguson) cousin.

If you’d like to learn more about the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, please visit here:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Or join the Facebook group Generations Cafe.

If you use any information from my blog posts as a reference or source, please give credit and provide a link back to my work that you are referencing. Unless otherwise noted, my work is © Anna A. Kasper 2011-2025. All rights reserved. Thank you.