Having immigrated from Aberdeenshire, Scotland recently, he established himself in Hanover County on a large tobacco plantation of several hundred acres called Studley Farm.
[1] John Henry, who owned 400 acres of uncleared land in the county, joined Syme to help him work the plantation and to learn tobacco-farming methods.
[1] William Byrd II, who visited Studley Farm in 1732, described the young widow: "A portly, handsome Dame… much less reserved than most of her countrymen… [which] became her well and set off her other agreeable qualities to good advantage.
[5] Henry and John had children of their own, including William, Patrick, and daughters,[5] Jane, Sarah, Susanna, Mary, Anne, Elizabeth, and Lucy.
Patrick attended until the age of ten when he did not have an interest in the subjects at school and resented the severe beatings that boys received from their instructors.
[8] Her husband, John Henry had studied Latin, Greek, geography, ancient and modern history, philosophy, mathematics, and theology at King's College in Scotland.
[4] John Henry opened a school for his boys and neighborhood children, which improved their level of education that they received and brought in extra income for the family.
[7] Also a dissenter, her father held services by "unlicensed preachers" in his house, for which he was fined £300 by the General Court of Colonia Virginia.
[9] Henry also took her children to hear the sermons of Samuel Davies when he preached to Presbyterians in Hanover County, which her brother-in-law did not condone.
"[13] When women sought the right to vote in the United States, a descendant of Sarah Winston Henry wrote to politician Hon.
James Thomas Heflin in Washington, D.C., Dear Sir: My mother asks me to send her congratulations to you for your attitude on the votes-for-women proposition.