Major Joshua WYNNE

  General Notes:

NOTES: Joshua served as Justice in the Charles City County court, Sheriff of Prince George County 1705 -1712, and commanded various militia units in the Virginia Colonies. He made several trips to England trading tobacco, responsible for treaties with Indians from New York to Virginia, and mentioned numerous times as a close family friend of the Byrds of Westover (Colonel William Byrd II's diaries). Joshua was assassinated by American Indians.

4 Jun 1694, Joshua was sworn in as County Sub-Sheriff, and was reappoined on 3 Jun 1695. Joshua was a member of the House of Burgesses for Charles City County, Virginia from 1702-1704.

Joshua and his brother, Thomas were Indian interpreters for the Nottaway, Meherrin, Nansemond, Pamunkey and Chickahominy Indian tribes and were asked to go north with these tribes to help nogotiate a treaty with the Senacas. He devoted many years to keeping peace among the Indians and represented them by presenting their grievances to the Council of Virginia; (remember, the Wynne children and the Poythress children were 1/2 brothers and sisters as they shared the same mother) Joshua was shot and killed by Saponey Indians because a servant of Major Wynne's had killed one of their great men. (information came from David and Barbara Kolle Website).

Major Joshua Wynne lived among the Indians in the Virginia Colony. In 1703, the Nottoway, Nansemonds, and Meherrin tribes requested that Joshua and his brother Thomas Wynne be appointed Indian Interpreters for the tribe. When a Chief of these tribes was taken prisoner by the Senecas, the Wynne brothers were begged to accompany the Indians on this long and dangerous journey, as without them "nothing could be accomplished". This journey was undertaken and their Chief was retrieved, temporarily averting a tribal war.

Joshua Wynne married Mary Jones, the daughter of Major Peter Jones (Commander of the fort built at the falls near present day city of Petersburg, Virginia) and Margaret Cruse. Margaret Cruse was the step-daughter of Maj. Gen. Abraham Wood (commander of Ft. Henry and leader of first English expedition into the Mississippi valley) Gen. Wood was the official negiotiated the British fur trade the Cherokee nation. Wood also testified against Nathaniel Bacon (leader of "Bacon's rebellion") who led a rebel army that massacred friendly Indians in colonial Virginia.

"On 29 March 1715 Major Joshua Wynne was shot and killed by Saponey* Indians because one of Joshua's servants had killed one of the Indian's 'great' men. Upon trial of the Indian, they pleaded that the Wynne's were the aggressors and that they never rest without revenge. The Indians said that they and the Wynne's were then equal, each having lost a great man. To avoid more bloodshed the Indian was pardoned." [*the Saponey or Saponi were of the Siouan linguistic stock, related to the nearby Tutelo tribe. They were unrelated to the Iroquoian speaking tribes Nottoway, Meherrin and the Algonquian speaking Powhatan Confederacy tribes (Pamunkey, Nansemond) that the Wynne brothers enjoyed friendly relations with.

Joshua Wynne's parents were Colonel Robert Wynne and a former widow, Mary Frances Poythress (maiden name believed to be Sloman). Robert Wynne was speaker of the House of Burgesses and served longer than any man in Virginia's history, from 13 March 1661 to 1675. Robert died on 8 October 1675. His will, dated 1 July 1675 and proved 15 August 1678 at Jordan's Parish or Charles City (present Prince George County) shows and estate in Canterbury, England of two houses and a farm, in addition to his 600-acre Virginia estate south of the James River.

The Wynne family name, often spelled "Winn", continued to be carried down as a first name in the Williams family for generations. The Wynne name also is one of the most common surnames among Native Americans living in eastern Virginia, although the genealogical relationship it is not known.

Joshua was overseer of the Berkley plantation during Bacon's Rebellion, was a member of the Governor's Council, and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. After building Fort Henry in 1646, he and three other Virginians, two servants and a guide explored what someday would become Tennessee and Kentucky, and being the first Englishmen to set foot there. After this, Joshua lived in Prince George County, Virginia.

(http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/y/n/Gary-Wynn-IN/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-1637.html)

  Research Notes:

Gary Wynn Family Tree (http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/y/n/Gary-Wynn-IN/index.html)

Joshua married Mary JONES, daughter of Peter JONES and Margaret WOOD, on 6 Jul 1685 in Charles City, Charles City County, Virginia. (Mary JONES was born on 13 May 1665 in Charles City, Charles City County, Virginia and died in 1718 in Henrico County, Virginia.)