About This Website
This website is dedicated to my ancestors who began their lives in the Colony of Virginia, not far from “The Great Dismal Swamp.”
It is for this reason I have entitled my website:
“Echoes from the Dismal Swamp”
David O’Sheal, my 6th great-grandfather, was born 23 January 1690, in London, England and christened at St. Martin in the Fields Parish, Westminster, London, England.
David O’Sheal left England and arrived at the Colony of Virginia in 1714. After establishing himself, he practiced law in the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina and owned properties in Virginia and North Carolina near “The Great Dismal Swamp.”
David O’Sheal’s plantation was “in Nansemond County, on the river of the same name, abt. five miles below the town of Suffolk in said county, Aug. 3, 1749.” (Trent Family Bible Records, Virginia State Library)
The Virginia Gazette (issue of January 4-11, 1738) Lost on the 1st of December last, riding from Major Osheall’s Plantation in Nansemond, through the SWAMP to Mr. Turner’s, Inspector, at Sleepy Hole, thence to Mr. Thomas Brickle’s at Sleepy Hole, and from thence back to Major Osheal’s, a Silver Tumbler of a Seal, engraved on one side a Lyon Rampant, Or, in a Field Vert, the Motto, Deus noblis hae fecit; on another Side, a Crest, a Hand an Arm armed, holding a Man’s Head by the Hair; on the third Side, the Letters I O in Cypher. Whoever returns it to the Subscriber, shall be rewarded to the full Value of it. David Osheal