Re: Charity Larrimore with Ben. Bolling
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In reply to:
Re: Charity Larrimore with Ben. Bolling
2/27/00
Is there any possibilty that the Betsey Bland referred to as the Grandmother is not Elizabeth Blair Bland, but is in fact Elizabeth Randolph (daughter of William Randolph and Mary Isham) who married Richard Bland, Sr.? What if the Elizabeth Bland who he refers to as being married to "John Bolling but he died" is the John Bolling (son of John Bolling and Mary Carie)that was the brother of the Robert Bolling who married Jane Rolfe. Is it possible that Elizabeth Randolph Bland was briefly married to Robert Bolling's brother John before or after her marriage to Richard Bland, Sr.? If so, there could have been children, and specifically a male child that Benjamin could be the son of. If so, then the Bolling surname would be his own and not his mother's surname. Perhaps this is a far out theory to some, but at least it isn't casting illegitimacy on Benjamin without specific proof of such.
DNA testing has shown a close association of the males tested who claim to be descended from Benjamin or his descendents. Even though the testing was not all conducted using at least 25 Markers for most of the participants, which is really needed to better confirm the closeness of the lines. Of course it's possible Benjamin is illegitimate. He could be Isham Randolph's child. That would be fine with me. The Randolph's are a fine family, as are the Bollings, and being in their families would be an honor for anyone. But in order to not malign the Randoplh or Bolling families I would hope that research will continue until the puzzle is solved. It seems that the puzzle could be easily solved by having one proven male descendent of Benjamin Bolling have 25 Markers of their Y DNA done and compare it to 25 Markers of a proven male descendent of the Randolph line of Isham Randolph. It is getting pretty easy to verify these things by DNA testing these days.
Just for fun, I would like to make note of the references of some Bollings claiming a desendency from Thomas of the Swan. This had been interpreted as a Thomas Bolling coming on a ship named Swan. It is interesting to note that the Randolph line had a Henry Randolph II who married a Sarah Swann, daughter of Col. Thomas Swann and Mary Mansfield on December 16, 1687 in Henrico Co., VA. Probably mere chance, but interesting.
I believe in the old saying, where there is smoke there is fire. Many, many people indicate they are descended from John Bolling and Elizabeth Bland (sometimes stated as Elizabeth Blair Bland). Not all these people can be looked on as "glory hunters". There has to be some connection to some man named John Bolling and a woman named Elizabeth Bland. They had to be here in America very early. It may not be Elizabeth Blair, daughther of Archibald Blair, but it may be a Elizabeth Bland. It may not be John Bolling, son of Col. Robert Bolling, but it could be his brother, John Bolling.