How 17th Century Elizabeth Key Grinstead Impacted Virginia Slavery Laws & Names Of Her Famous Descendants

This pancocojams post presents information about the history of Elizabeth Key Grinstead and how she impacted Virginia slavery laws. This post also shares information about Elizabeth Key Grinstead's famous descendants who were born in the 20th century.

This post was inspired by comments by Zachary Hadden that were published in the discussion thread for the 2016 pancocojams post "1930s Versions Of The Folk Song "Black Betty" http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/04/1930s-versions-of-folk-song-black-betty.html. That post showcases three sound files of the song "Black Betty" and presents some theories about who or what "Black Betty" was. I'm quoting Zachary Hadden's quotes of the sources that he cites in this separate post as a means of further disseminating them.

The content of this post is presented for historical and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Elizabeth Key Grinstead and William Grinstead for their historical roles in United States history. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post, and special thanks to Zachary Hadden for alerting me to this history.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORICAL FIGURE ELIZABETH KEY GRINSTEAD AND HER IMPACT ON VIRGINIA SLAVERY LAWS
Excerpt #1:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Key_Grinstead
"Elizabeth Key Grinstead (1630 – January 20, 1665) was one of the first persons of African ancestry in the North American colonies to sue for freedom from slavery and prevail. Elizabeth Key won her freedom and that of her infant son John Grinstead on July 21, 1656 in the colony of Virginia. Key based her suit on the fact that her father was an Englishman, and that she was a baptized Christian. Based on these two factors, her English attorney and common-law husband William Grinstead argued successfully that she should be freed. The lawsuit was one of the earliest "freedom suits" by a person of African ancestry in the English colonies.

In response to Key's suit and other challenges, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a law in 1662 establishing that the social status of children born in the colony ("bond" or "free") would follow the social status of their respective mothers. This law differed from English common law, in which children's social status followed the social status of their fathers. The new principle was derived from Roman law and was known as partus sequitur ventrem or partus. The legislation hardened the boundaries of slavery by ensuring that all children of women slaves—regardless of paternity or proportion of European ancestry—would be born into slavery unless explicitly freed."...

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Excerpt #2:
From http://slaveryandremembrance.org/people/person/?id=PP031
..."William Greensted (or Grinsted), an English attorney, represented Elizabeth in the courtroom. Witnesses testified to support Elizabeth’s case and her parentage. One decision allowed Elizabeth her freedom on account of her father’s freedom, but another denied her liberty because of her mother’s enslaved status. Eventually, the case rose to the Virginia General Assembly, which appointed a committee for its review.

The Virginia General Assembly resolved “that by the Common Law the Child of a Woman slave begot by a freeman ought to be free.” They considered the value of her Christian faith and determined that her indenture demanded that she be treated “more Respectfully than a Common servant or slave.” The General Assembly decided that “the said Elizabeth ought to be free and that her last Master should give her Corn and Clothes and give her satisfaction for the time she hath served longer than She ought to have done.” After determining the freedom of Elizabeth and her son, the General Assembly returned the case to the lower courts, where they freed Elizabeth.

Prior to the court cases, Elizabeth Kay and William Greensted had a personal relationship and bore a son, John. They were legally married in July 1656 after the court freed Elizabeth and John, and William completed his own indenture. Future mixed-race couples were forbidden marriage after 1691, when Virginia laws prohibited the practice. Centuries passed before the United States Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition of interracial marriage was unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia court case in 1967/68.

After Elizabeth Key’s successful petition for her freedom, legal and social conditions for free blacks and enslaved people began to decline. By 1662, Virginia legislators resolved that the condition of the mother determined the status of the child—opposite the practices of English common law—effectively making slavery a hereditary status. Another consequence of the law was that white fathers were not legally required to manumit or support their bi-racial offspring. Baptism no longer was a determining factor for manumission after 1668, when the Virginia legislature decided that Christian faith did not exempt a person from bondage. Elizabeth and William’s children faced a different world than their parents, as the British slave trade increased to North America, helping to make Virginia a slave society by the early eighteenth century."

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COMMENTS ABOUT ELIZABETH KEY'S PUBLISHED IN THE PANCOCOJAMS POST "1930s VERSIONS OF THE FOLK SONG BLACK BETTY"
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/04/1930s-versions-of-folk-song-black-betty.html.

Disclaimer: These comments were written in response to my attempt to suss out who or what "Black Betty" was.

Note that one of the sources quoted below indicates that the historical person Elizabeth Key Grinstead was the source of the referent "Black Betty". While that may be true, by no means am I saying that Elizabeth Key Grinstead's life was the same or similar to the probably partly or entirely fictitious woman whose story is told in Lead Belly's and other singers' versions of the widely known folk song "Black Betty". Furthermore, I believe that there are various meanings for the referent or term "Black Betty".

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I'm adding numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only and I'm beginning with one of the comment that I wrote in that discussion thread.

The Zachary Hadden comments are given as is, except for hyperlinks which I've added to the sources that he cited. I didn't add quotation marks because in some of these comments I'm not sure where his comments and statements that he quoted begin and end.

1. Azizi Powell, April 28, 2016 at 8:37 AM
"I haven't found any source yet that indicates that the name Elizabeth (or the nickname form of that name such as "Lizzy"?) was used by White folks as a generic name for Black females. But the googling that I've done thus far documents how the name "Elizabeth" was a very popular name for White females and Black females.

Here's a link to a very interesting article that I found about 18th century mixed race woman Dido Elizabeth Belle who lived with her aristocratic White family. Her White cousin Elizabeth Murray also lived with her in that mansion. A recent movie was made about Dido Bell.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10863078/Dido-Belle-Britains-first-black-aristocrat.html

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2. Zachary Hadden, September 3, 2018 at 9:39 PM
You are actually very close. This is where it all began. Elizabeth Key or Kaye was born in 1630 to an unnamed black slave mother and Thomas Key, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

Key represented pre-Revolutionary Warwick County (today's Newport News), but his wife lived across the James River in Isle of Wight County, where she owned considerable property.

The Keys were English-born and likely considered "ancient planters," pioneers who had come to Virginia before 1616, remained for three years,
paid their own passage and survived the Indian massacre of 1622.

At first, Thomas Key tried to deny that he had fathered Elizabeth, blaming instead an unidentified "Turk." Paternity became an issue years later when Elizabeth needed to prove in court that her father was a free man.

A man who knew the family, Nicholas Jurnew, 53, testified in 1655 that he had "heard a flying report at Yorke that Elizabeth a Negro Servant to the Estate of Col. John Mottrom (deceased) was the Childe of Mr. Kaye but ...Mr. Kaye said that a Turke of Capt. Mathewes was Father to the Girle."

However, paternity was established.

Elizabeth Newman, 80, testified that "it was a common Fame in Virginia that Elizabeth a Molletto (Turk), now(e) servant to the Estate of Col. John Mottram, deceased, was the Daughter of Mr. Kaye; and the said Kaye was brought to Blunt-Point Court and there fined for getting his Negro woman with Childe, which said Negroe was the Mother of the said Molletto (Turk), and the said fine was for getting the Negro with Childe which Childe was the said Elizabeth."

The court documents are pretty dramatic--and sometimes graphic--reading.

"The deposition of Alice Larrett aged 38 yeares or thereabouts Sworne and Examined Sayth that Elizabeth ...twenty five yeares of age or thereabouts and that I saw her mother goe to bed to her Master many times and that I heard her mother Say that she was Mr. Keyes daughter."

Once paternity was established, Key didn't try to duck his duty again. Elizabeth, who was referred to as "Black Besse" in various legal documents of the period, was baptized in the Church of England. Sometime before his death in 1636, Key put Elizabeth in the custody of her godfather, Humphrey Higginson. Higginson was required to care for her as his own child and set her free in nine years when she was 15 years old.

At this time, both black and white servants were likely to be indentured for a period of years and it was common for them to get their freedom. In Elizabeth's case, her father did not intend for her to be kept as a slave, but for Higginson to be her guardian until she was of age.

It's not clear what happened, but Higginson did not keep his promise. He was obligated not only to care for her, but to take her with him if he were to return to England. And he did return to England, but left Elizabeth behind and in the ownership of a Col. John Mottram, Northumberland County's first settler.

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3. Zachary Hadden, September 3, 2018 at 9:41 PM
Elizabeth, at age 10 in about 1640, was one of the first non-native settlers in the wilderness of Northumberland County. Her future changed dramatically as Mottram took her 90 miles away from her birthplace to be a servant. She may have never seen her mother again. She was without a contract and, conceivably, could be a slave forever.

There is no record of Elizabeth's life for about the next 15 years, but beginning in 1650 events unfolded that would change Elizabeth's life forever and make her a figure in American history.

That year, Mottram brought a group of 20 men, white indentured servants from England, to Coan Hall, his estate in Northumberland County. For every sponsored servant, a Virginian would receive 50 acres of land. Each indenture would serve for six years.

Among those indentures was 16-year-old William Grinstead, a young lawyer. Although Grinstead's parents aren't known, it's likely that he was a younger son of an attorney who learned his father's trade. Under English common law, only the eldest son could inherit the father's property, and many younger sons sought their fortunes across the Atlantic.

Mottram soon recognized Grinstead's value and had him represent him in legal matters. And it was at Coan Hall that Grinstead met Elizabeth Key. They fell in love and had two sons, John and William, but indentures could not be married. And Elizabeth's future was uncertain without freedom.

When Mottram died in 1655, Grinstead went to work. He sued the estate for Elizabeth's freedom. She had been a servant for 19 years--15 for Mottram.

The court granted her freedom, but the decision was appealed to a higher court, which overturned the decision and ruled that Elizabeth was a slave.

Grinstead took the case to the Virginia General Assembly, which appointed a committee to investigate and decided to send the case back to the courts for retrial.

Elizabeth finally won her freedom on three counts. By English common law, the status of the father determined the status of the child. As Elizabeth's father was free, she was also set free.

In addition to Elizabeth's father's status as a free man, she was a baptized Christian. A Christian could not be held in slavery. Beside that, her indenture was for nine years and she had served twice that long.

She not only gained her freedom, but the court ordered Mottram's estate to compensate her with corn and clothes for her lost years.

When William won the court battle for Elizabeth's freedom, they were not free to marry, as he was still a servant himself. They had to wait until he completed his indenture in 1656.

In a bitter turn of history for many, the slave paternity law was changed in 1662. The rewritten law said the mother's status--slave or free-- determined the status of a child. Starting in 1667, being a Christian did not save black Americans from slavery.

Elizabeth slipped under the wire. And she had a very good lawyer.

Elizabeth (or Black Bessie) became a household name to all negroes and her fame spread throughout Great Britain a did her marriage to Willam Grinstead which was the first interracial marriage in America. She was a beacon of hope to many and allowed the church in the north to adopt a slave free doctrine which eventually brought about the Civil War, and the freedom that African Americans enjoy today. It's very possible if it wasn't for Willam Grinstead's tenacity to free Elizabeth from slavery and sue the Col's estate, we would still be under slavery today.
This information was complied by Martha Hardcastle, a freelance writer for Dayton Daily News. The sources for this post include:

Records of Northumberland County, Virginia: I used the records for 1652-1665. The records are available online through the University of
Chicago at classweb.uchicago.edu/Civilization/American/Supp135/AfricansVA.html [no link available]

PBS: An article by Frontline called The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families is available at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/greenstead.html. [hyperlink added]
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: The referent "Negro" is no longer an acceptable referent for African Americans. Also, spelling that referent with a lower case "n" [except for quoting historical passages] is no longer acceptable.

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4. Zachary HaddenSeptember 3, 2018 at 9:43 PM
Genealogy Web site: Lita Macasieb's `A Generation of Secrets' is at home.pacbell.net/ibgidget/family.html. Lita's husband, Jerry Wilcox, is a distant Grinstead cousin. (I think this link is dead now as it was compiled in 2003)

Consequently, a famous person from this blood line of Grinstead's is Johnny Depp.

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FAMOUS DESCENDANTS OF ELIZABETH KEY GRINSTEAD
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Key_Grinstead

[I added hyperlinks for those names that are hyperlinked on that page.]

Agnes Grinstead, writer and wife of artist Walter Inglis Anderson.

Bob Grimstead, New York Giants football player.

C. M. Grinstead, co-author of Introduction to Probability.

Carl F. Grinstead, partial owner of American racehorse champion, Snow Chief.

Irish, LeMisha and Orish Grinstead,vocalists of 702, a popular R&B singing group. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/702_(group)]

James Fauntleroy Grinstead, appointed Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky in 1907 [5]

J. Grinstead, co-author of The RELIEF, flow tagging technique and its application in engine testing facilities and for helium–air mixing studies

J. A. Grinstead, owner of the Travers Stakes, an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race.

Jay Grimstead, Coalition on Revival leader.

Grinstead, Jesse Edward, Newspaper editor and CEO of Mountain Sun; writer of Western fiction. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Edward_Grinstead

Johnny Depp, actor, 8th great-grandson [6][7] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Depp

Lily-Rose Depp, actor 9th great-granddaughter.[6] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily-Rose_Depp

Grinstead, Stephen F., MD, author of War on Drugs—War on Pain Management

Grinstead, Steve, author of Western Voices: 125 Years of Colorado Writing

Grinstead, Tara, missing Georgia beauty pageant winner and high school teacher [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Grinstead_murder_case

Grimstead, William, author of "Politics of Denial" in The Beast Reawakens

Grinstead, William C., principal of public schools in Danville, Kentucky

Grinstead, Zac, scale Nats champion in slot car racing

Versluis, Laurence Herman, victim of the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre

Fisher, Ray L, co-writer

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