In Which Robert Abernathy Participates in an Inquest
3 August 1665 Charles City Co., VA
p.565 We underwritten being sum'oned and sworne to inquire and examine the cause of the unnaturall death of Katherine the daughter of John Lanier, do find and returne our verdict (as we have discovered by proffe and circumstance) that the 7th of this instant May the sd child being layd on a bed to sleepe (and none by to take care of her) tumbled, by reason of the heat till she came under a rayle fastened at the beds side where, with the face downward, she recd her accidentall death, haveing the body ov'r the bed and hanging by the head stivled agst the bed and clothes. Witnesse o'r hands this 8th Day of May 1665 Tho: Holford, Richard Dodd, Tho" T Cuerton, James Blamore, John Poytres, Tho: T Cahappel, Tho: T Douglas, Robt X Abernathy, Byron X Connell, Edward X Amas, Tho" X Parrham, Robt R. Godwin. I Parceval Barton do declare to the Jry that I found the child of John Lenier smothered and dead betwix the bed and a rayle, the 7th of May 1665. Parceval Barton.
Fleet, Beverly, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Volume III, p. 324 (Charles City County Court Orders and Fragments, 1664-1696): 1988 Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, originally published in 1937 and 1949 by mimeograph. Reproduced on Family Archive CD #503 (Genealogical Records: Colonial Virginia Records, 1600s-1700s).
Transcribed by Margaret Ogilvie