Captain Harry Beverley, of "Newlands" plantation, married Elizabeth Smith (only child and heiress of Robert Smith of Brandon) about 1696. To them were born ten children. Elizabeth Beverley was baptized 9 Nov. 1697, and died between 19 Apr and 7 July 1747. Will dated 11-30-1730, proved 2-12-1731.
Harry Beverley, father of Catherine, moved to Spotsylvania 1720. He was a son of Major Robert Beverley, a native of Yorkshire, who emigrated to Virginia in 1663 and settled in Middlesex, where he was Justice and elected Clerk of the House of Burgesses in 1670. He soon became a leader in the colony.
Harry was a Magistrate in Middlesex County in 1702; Surveyor of King and Queen and King William County 1702-14; and assisted in surveying the Virginia-North Carolina boundary line.
About 1720, he removed to Spotsylvania County, where for a number of years he was Presiding Justice of the Spotsylvania County Court. He was also Clerk of the House of Burgesses.
He surveyed and laid off the Town of Tappahannock in 1706, giving the town the names of its streets: Queen, Church Lane, Water Lane, Marsh, Duke, Prince and Earl. (The ambitious design did not spark immediate development, but the plan guided Tappahannock to orderly growth for the next two centuries.
He patented 2,700 acres known as "Portobago" in Essex County, which had been owned earlier by his wife's grandfather Major General Robert Smith of Middlesex. He also owned 1,017 acres which the Upshaw family acquired in 1699. Capt. Beverley owned land amounting to about 32,000 acres in several counties.
His title of Captain derives from the fact that Governor Spotswood sent him on the sloop, the Virgin, as it's Commander to acquire gold from Spanish ship wrecks.
"In the summer of 1716, Governor Spotswood fitted out a sloop named the Virgin, which he put under the command of Harry Beverley (hence his title of Captain), with instructions to go to the Bahamas and the Isle of Providence in quest of Pirates, Spanish wrecks, etc. The Governor sent a copy of the instructions to Beverley, which were dated June 5, to the English authorities.
"The day after sailing 'she was surprised with a violent hurricane and drove as far eastward as Bermuda. On the 5th day, the sloop was taken by a Spanish man-of-war (though the countries were at peace), rifled and the men striped, abused and made prisoners.
"Captain Beverley wrote from St. Domingo that he had petitioned for a trial, but had been refused, and that all he had to expect was that he and his men would be sent to the mines. He and his crew were taken to Vera Cruz, where a trial was still refused, and no subsistence was allowed him or his men, but what the Assiento factory (the English agency under the Assiento treaty) bestowed out of charity.
"Several men perished for want of necessities, and many of them reduced to beg about the street till they could find an opportunity of getting off. After seven months imprisonment, Beverley escaped and reached Virginia shortly before August, 1717.
"Though ostensibly the chief object of this voyage was to obtain information in regard to the pirates or to attack them, yet it seems probable that 'Spanish wrecks' are mentioned in the instructions to Beverley. Mrs. Elizabeth Churchill, in her will dated November 9, 1716, provides that if Mr. Harry Beverley brings back any money or other returns from the wrecks, her share should go to certain of her grandchildren."
The Beverley Family of Virgina by John McGill.
Capt. Harry Beverley died at his plantation "Newlands" in Spotsylvania Co. in 1730. He and his wife Elizabeth (Smith) Beverley were the ancestors of several generations of Beverleys who lived at "Newlands."
Children
1. Elizabeth BEVERLEY b: 9 Nov 1697 in Christ Church, Middlesex, VA
2. Mary BEVERLEY b: 11 Nov 1699 in "Newlands", Spotsylvania Co., VA
3. Robert BEVERLEY b: 6 Nov 1701 in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex, VA
4. Margaret BEVERLEY b: 27 May 1704 in Middlesex Co., VA
5. Susannah BEVERLEY b: 15 Nov 1706 in Christ's Church Parish, Middlesex Co., VA
6. Catherine BEVERLEY b: 17 Dec 1708 in Middlesex, VA
7. Judith BEVERLEY b: 25 Oct 1710 in Middlesex, VA
8. Peter BEVERLEY b: 2 Jul 1712 in Middlesex, VA
9. Agatha BEVERLEY b: 22 Sep 1716 in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex Co., VA
10. Lucy BEVERLEY b: 3 Jul 1720 in Middlesex, VA
Harry Beverley 
- b.~ 1525 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England d. in Beverley, Yorkshire, England
- b.~ 1530 in Nottinghamshire, England