04/11/2026
The Stokes line begins with Christopher Stokes Sr. , living in Tytherton Lucas, Wiltshire, England, in the 1500s. His son, Christopher Stokes Jr. , arrived at Jamestown Island, Virginia, in 1622 with his wife Mary and toddler son William.
William Stokes, age 5, witnessed a December 1624 inquest into another child’s drowning. He later inherited 1,000 acres on the York and Warwick Rivers.
William’s son, Sylvanus Stokes, patented over 800 acres in Charles City County on the Nottaway River in the 1720s. Sylvanus Stokes Jr. , his son, patented over 600 acres in the early 1700s on Raccoon Swamp, south side of the Nottaway.
Mary Stokes (daughter of Sylvanus & Susannah Stokes) married John Edwards Jr. of Buckskin Creek, Dinwiddie County. They then traveled over 150 miles southwest to Orange County, North Carolina, settling on Collins Creek.
Their son, likely named after his maternal grandfather David Jones (who helped build the Truelove plantation for London clothier Rowland Truelove), was David Edwards. David lived on the Haw River and was one of four sons of John & Mary Stokes Edwards. All four sons died between 1781–1782, likely as part of the Orange County Regiment engaged in skirmishes and battles against the British during the Revolutionary War (1776–1782). David died in 1782 at just 37 years old.
⚠️ Some photos and depictions in this reel have been animated by AI and are used for storytelling
