A Beginning

Elisha Bellamy was born on January 10, 1760, in Cumberland County, Virginia. Though I still have not unearthed a primary record confirming this date, it seems to be the consensus of most of the secondary sources I’ve found. The secondary sources also suggest that Elisha was the first of eight children born to Samuel and Amy Bellamy.

Cumberland County was much like the rest of colonial middle Virginia: a frontier county on the western border of Virginia which gradually became a middle county, acting like a buffer between the frontier and the more heavily populated tidewater area.[1] Elisha was born as the county began its transition toward middle county-hood. As a result, the community that surrounded Elisha during his growing up years would have been more established than it had been in Cumberland’s frontier days: multi-storied brick houses would have marked where the county’s wealthy planters lived. Tobacco fields would have added a sense of civilization by breaking up the woodlands with their even, well-manicured rows.

Still, the wealth of the upper class did not hide the poverty of those not privileged to be born to planters. Slaves’ and poor farmers’ dwellings dotted the countryside around the plantations. There were clearly distinct and separate lifestyles that could be lived in Cumberland County. Although more research is needed to be sure about Elisha’s early situation in life, it is probable that Elisha grew up in a comfortable farming home on its way to becoming planter elite in the next few generations. Or if he didn’t come from such background, but rather from a poor farming home, he was able to build a rather successful future from meager beginnings.

---

[1] Garland Evans Hopkins, The Story of Cumberland County Virginia (privately issued, 1942), 18.