Lawne's Creek Chapt2

Chapter 2

For some strange reason very little was known about Arthur Allen prior to his appearance at Jamestown in 1649 and little was ever known about him afterwards as to where he had migrated from or how he had acquired his immense wealth. Especially puzzling was why he would build such a huge lavish mansion in the wilderness of the ‘New World’. He patented his first tract of land in Surry County on March 14, 1649. On October 6, 1661 he purchased additional land and upon this parcel several years later, he began construction of his fine brick Jacobean mansion. Heretofore, no information was uncovered as to who had designed the house, etc., but for the purpose of this article it is really not relevant. Later, when I went back to Ashover, Derbyshire, England doing computer research, I did stumble onto several clues that might unlock the puzzle about the design and construction of the mansion. I found clues that led me to believe that he had someone design the house prior to him leaving for Jamestown for it had been laid out along the lines of many of the Tudor Mansions of that area within that particular time frame. From all the sketchy information I uncovered, there must be some truth there. As no one else seems to be have been able to determine much along these lines previously either. I don’t feel quite as bad now.

Records show the house was finally finished in 1665 and Allen and his wife Alice Tucker moved in. He died only a few years later in 1669 and his son Arthur Allen II inherited both the house and lands.

So far, I have not been able to find conclusive information as to what happened to Arthur Allen and his wife Alice after they died or where either had been buried. I did find references to the fact that the first Lawnes Creek Church was built in 1628 at Hog Island Point. In 1639 it became Lawnes Creek Parish. Another Lawnes Creek Parish was established further inland toward the castle in 1650 and a second church was built on the site where the Surry Nuclear Plant now stands. A final church was built in 1754 near State Route 10 and the castle. It became the final Church of the Lawnes Creek Parish. Being as there are no surviving tombstones prior to 1848 in the graveyard of this last Lawnes Creek Parish Church or Lower Southwark Church, as it was now often referred to, is perplexing to say the least. The word surviving puzzles me the most. Does this mean that there were earlier graves there and at some later date, the tombstones were removed? It only seems reasonable to assume that Arthur Allen, who had died at the age of 60 in 1669, would have been buried at the site of the second church built in 1650. There are no records available to me thus far as to where the graveyard was located or who had been buried there. If the last church was built in 1754, then he could not have been buried there unless it had previously been a private family graveyard of sorts. Then again, perhaps when the last church was built, his body was moved there to be closer to his home? Had his son Arthur Allen II also been buried in this graveyard also? This is a lot to surmise in order to try to prove the identity of the ‘light’, but I have tried not to leave a stone unturned. Perhaps it could be the second Arthur Allen II himself who was buried at this last Lawnes Creek Parish graveyard and he is the real ‘ghost’? Now that I know his history it does make sense and convinces me that it is his ghost we know as the Ghost Light!