John Ware (ca.1735-1801)
John Ware was one of the first permanent inhabitants of the Seven Islands. After coming of age in the 1750s, John moved to Seven Islands after being willed half the land his father, Peter Ware III, (ca. 1703-1741) owned in the future Fluvanna County, which was located along the James River roughly between the Hardware River and Bremo Creek. John's brother Henry (1739-?) received the other half of the land. After arriving in the area, he bought up more of the surrounding lands and eventually his landholdings covered three miles of fertile riverfront property. John married Mary Watson (1744-1815) in April 1762. Besides farming his vast lands, John Ware also built at least two grist mills in the area: one being near the site of the future Virgin Mills along Rockfish Creek and the other at the site of the future Middleton Mills at Shores (1).
John Ware was also very involved with his community as were most wealthy citizens of the day. Before Fluvanna was created in 1777, Mr. Ware was a judge in Albemarle County. After the formation of Fluvanna, County Mr. Ware became a member of the new county's first court of justices (1). He was an active member of his church, serving as a Vestryman. John Ware also had five children: Ulysses, Washington, John, Polly and Peter. When he died in August 1801, John left his land to his children, who held on to it for a few years before selling most of it off around 1810 (1).Before passing away, John sold a large portion of his land (700 + acres) between The Hardware River and Brickyard Branch (Little Rockfish Creek) to Thomas Shores, Jr. in 1793 (1). After John Ware had died, Thomas Shores Jr. bought more of John Ware's land from John's children. John Ware's daughter Polly died in 1817 and in her will she wrote an interesting note stating that Thomas Shores still owed her family some $6,000 dollars from the land he had purchased from them! By 1822 all of John Ware's original land holdings along the James had been sold out of the family and new families prospered on them.
Thomas Shores, Jr. (1755-1841)
As stated above, Thomas Shores, Jr. bought a portion of John Ware's land in 1793. Thomas was originally from Powhatan County and was born in Hanover County about 1755. Thomas's father, Thomas Sr. (ca. 1730-1815), settled his family along Cunningham Creek near the future county seat of Palmyra several years before Fluvanna County was formed. Thomas Shores, Jr. was a soldier in the Revolution. He served under Washington and Lafayette by enlisting as a private in Captain Matthew Jouett's Company in February 1776 and later serving in Colonel Lewis' Virginia Regiment before being discharged in March 1778 (2). Thomas married Susannah Bugg of Seven Islands (1760-1827) in May 1778. He had eight children with her, their first born in 1779 and last born in 1799.Thomas built a magnificent plantation and grew to be quite wealthy. He not only was a Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, and collector of the "poor tax," but also active in the Seven Islands Methodist Church.
Thomas built his homestead on a bluff to the east of Rockfish Run sometime after 1793. Thomas Shores' homestead included a two-story wooden house, a kitchen, a barn and a gristmill as described in an insurance policy he took out in 1806 (1). Thomas built a large gristmill at the mouth of Rockfish Run around 1802. Virgin Grist Mills "was a five-story frame building with a heavy rock foundation, (with) the overshot wheel on the east side" (3). The mill was the focal point of the Seven Islands community. Around it community members would congregate as their grain was being ground and they would discuss the happenings of the day.
Thomas Shores, Jr.'s plantation was completely self-sufficient. As stated in the Omohundro Book, "He raised everything he really needed to eat; raised and tanned his own leather; has his own shoemaker; raised his own wool; had his carders, spinners, weavers, and seamstresses. He made his own hats, and had all necessary clothes made at home; had his own carpenters, bricklayers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths. He had his own mill on his own farm to grind his own grists and flour; had his own boat to carry tobacco, wheat flour, beeves, hogs, and other produce to market" (2). Thomas also had many slaves (23 as listed among his assets) (1). Thomas's first wife Susannah, died in 1827 and before a year had passed he had remarried Elizabeth Putney, who had already been widowed twice (1). Thomas Jr. died in October 1841 at the ripe old age of 86. A poetic obituary was printed in the Richmond Daily Whig which was most likely written by his son-in-law, Martin Tutwiler (1793-1864) who had married his daughter Mariah LaForce Shores (1799-1873) in 1817. A copy of this obituary can be found in this website's Gallery --> Pre-1900--> Other category.
