Thomas Sr. had purchased this tract of land (and others) from Jost Hite, a head right settler who brought a number of (mostly German) immigrants into the lower Shenandoah Valley. Under the head right system, Hite received acreage for each settler he brought to the area. Unfortunately a portion of the land the Hite group settled actually legally belonged to Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, Lord Proprietor of Virginia. When Fairfax arrived from England in the 1730's and discovered the encroaching German settlers, a lawsuit ensued that would outlast both combatants. On an interesting side note, Fairfax would be the only English peer to make his permanent home in the colonies when he settled on the Manor of Greenway Court (a residence that would have been considered a modest farmhouse in England) in the 1740's.
Thomas Branson's land adjoined Hite's and his grant of 850a was situated at the head of the "south branch of the Opeckon (creek), nigh a cattail meadow." Later he would secure a patent for 1370a on both sides of Crooked run, near his brother Jacob. Thomas Sr. must have lived in the valley at some point in the 1730's for in 1734 one John Dyer was deposed (apparently in regard to the dispute between Fairfax and Hite) and related that Fairfax had come over the mountains to visit his proprietorship and stayed at the home of Thomas Branson. Branson dared to broach the topic of land ownership west of the Blue Ridge and Fairfax reassured him that he "would not have any poor man quit the place for want of land" and that no one was to worry, it would simply mean a change of landlord (paying quitrents to him instead of to the the crown treasurer). According to Dyer's deposition, "[Fairfax] was desirous of having the Land settled."
In this, the old Baron was true to his word and his tenants held him in high regard. Had he lived to see the end of the war (he died in 1781) there is speculation that his tenants would have been reluctant to strip him of his hereditary land ownership.
Thomas Branson Sr.'s will was proved 21st November 1744 in Springfield Township, Burlington County NJ. I'm not sure why he returned to New Jersey and did not permanently settle his tracts of land in Northern Virginia. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth. His will named sons David, Joseph, Jonathan, Lionel, William, "Day," Thomas, and John, and daughter Sarah Owen. He also mentioned the children of Zachariah and Mary Robins, and William and Elizabeth Rogers and called those children his grandchildren. To grandson Thomas Branson (son of John), he left the 200a tract of land on the Shenandoah which he had laid out for Thomas Alexander about a decade earlier.
Two years later, sons Thomas Jr. and John appeared in court in Frederick County, VA to finalize the division of the 690a left to them by their father. They agreed to evenly divide the land on 26th of February 1746/7 and a few days later, Thomas Jr. sold his 340a parcel to Samuel Earle, who took "peaceable possession" of it before witnesses John Branson, James Remy and Thomas Satcher on the 5th day of March, 1747.
Documents attached.
This information is relevant to the Brooks family members who descend from the union of Elizabeth Branson and John Corder through their daughter Mary Elinor "Nellie" Corder who married John Huff in Botetourt County VA, 6 October 1782.
