Jeffrey Crowley of Virginia

For over two centuries, Jeffrey Crowley (c. 1698 – before 1762) remained one of colonial Virginia’s most elusive figures. Despite generations of research—including Judge Ariel Crowley’s discovery of the 1702 Kinwarton baptism of a base-born son of Agnes—no prior theory could explain the documented facts of his life.In his third book, Grant A. Van Vranken presents the first complete biography of his 7× great-grandfather. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of research, he establishes a compelling new origin: Jeffrey was the older son of William Crawley, planter and sometime Indian trader of Amelia County, Virginia (d. ~1738), whose fragmented will references property in Hertfordshire, England. This links Jeffrey directly to David Crawley Sr., the literate miller of Codicote.This meticulously documented account reveals how Jeffrey thrived in the small world of Spotswood’s Indian traders, seated valuable frontier lands for merchant Humphrey Brooke, forged lasting alliances with the Callaway and Tilley families, and built a lineage of more than 1,100 documented descendants.Van Vranken’s previous books are Benjamin Crowley II: Pioneer of Crowley’s Ridge and Barbary Tope Penrod: An American Pioneer. Read more