The Epes family which descends from Francis Epes I of Virginia, like many other Virginia families, derives from the County of Kent in England. About 1619 "William Segar, Garter Principall King of Armes[(1603-1633)] exemplified, ratified, and confirmed The Armes & Creast of the Ancient Family of Epes, of the County of Kent where they have inhabited for many generations" to the family forever.
The earliest extant reference to the name found so far is a listing of Roger Eppe (Epps) in the Hundred Rolls of 1273. The entry appears under the Hundred of Fourhowe, Norfolk, reading: "Before the Leet Court of the Prior of Canterbury [came] Roger Eppe [and three others] of Wytelwode to declare homage for Depham." The Hundred Rolls were compiled on order of King Edward I on his return from Palestine.
In 1409 John Eps and Stephen Eps witnessed a deed of William Scot of the parish of Brabourne in County Kent. Brabourne is five miles east of Ashford and ten miles northeast of Brenzett. The Scots of Scot Hall in Brabourne were also ancient landowners in Brenzett parish.
William Aps was one of the witnesses to a charter dated 10 July Henry VI [1441] concerning lands in the parishes of Lamberherst and Wadehurst. Lamberhurst is about 20 miles east of Brenzett and Wadehurst is its southern neighbor in Sussex.
On 5 February 1459 William Aps alias Eps of Lamberdherst alias Lamberherst, County Kent, alias County Sussex, "husbondman," was summoned to answer Reynold Derlyngton, citizen and fishmonger of London, and William Batalye, abbot of Robertsbridge, touching debts of £10 and £20 respectively. Four years later, on 24 June 1663, Stephen Aps, late of Lamberherst, Sussex, was charged with not appearing before the justices of the Bench to answer a plea that he render £10 to Robert, son of Reginald Derlyngton, late citizen and fishmonger of London, and William Clyfford, citizen and fishmonger of London, the executors of the will of said Reginald, and on 20 November 1464 William Aps, late of Lamberherst, County Kent, "husbondman," was charged with the same failure.
There is an entry in the records of the Cinque Ports listing Robert Espe deputy for Rye in 1433, a Bailiff of Yarmouth the same year, and mayor in 1436-37. Richard Epse was a jurat of Rye in 1436. Parnell and Symon Espe of Rye were directed to bring process against Robert Godfray of Folkestone in 1442. Folkestone is eleven miles up the coast from New Romney and one of the detached members of the Cinque Ports.
Rye, a Cinque Port, adjoins Kent, across the River Rother, in southeastern Sussex, being about six miles from Brenzett. It was largely destroyed in 1448 during a French raid. Most records were then lost. The remaining records of Rye date from 13 December 1448, except for a few fragments and the Cinque Port records.
The Cinque Ports were originally five seaports on the southeast coast of England. They were Hastings, Romney, Hithe, Dover and Sandwich. Rye and Winchelsea were early added as "ancient towns" with all Port privileges. There were also several detached "members," of which "Lydd" is a corporate town and Old Romney, Bromhill, Dengemarsh, and Oswardstone were non-corporate members, with the same jurisdiction.
The Cinque Ports were formed in the eleventh century under the charter of Edward the Confessor, confirmed by William the Conqueror, and first jointly granted liberties by charter by Edward I in 1278. This charter is 99 years older than the Charter of London. The mayors, jurats and members of the House of Commons from the Cinque Ports were called Barons of the Cinque Ports. A jurat of the Cinque Ports was the equivalent of an alderman. The Cinque Ports were first represented in Parliament in 1265. Each Port sent four members.
The Romney Marsh Corporation was established in 1462. Romney Marsh consists of fifteen parishes. The churches are very ancient and fine. The river Rother, which now has its mouth at Rye Harbor, formerly entered the sea at New Romney until its course was wholly altered during a great storm in 1287. The Romney Marsh Corporation was charged with the proper draining and embanking of the Marsh. The contiguous parishes, Brenzett, Old Romney, New Romney, and Lydd, are all within the liberties of Romney Marsh or the Cinque Ports. The ancient channel of the Rother was embanked on the southwest side by the Rhee (River) Wall and on the northeast side by the Marsh Wall. The sixty-one acres between the walls from Brenzett to New Romney were granted to New Romney by Queen Elizabeth I.
Romney Marsh and the Kent Cinque Ports are ecclesiastically within the Diocese of Cantebury and civilly within the Eastern Division of Kent and the Lathes of Shipway and Saint Augustine.
The earliest proved ancestor of Francis Epes I of Virginia was Alan Epes of Brenzett, County Kent, England. Brenzett is partly within the liberty of the town and port of New Romney and therefore within the liberty of the Cinque Ports. A portion of the northern part of the parish, north of the Rheewall, is within the liberty of the Corporation of Romney Marsh....
Francis Epes, son of John and Thomazine (Fisher) Epes, was baptized 14 May 1597. The date of his arrival in Virginia and the name of the ship on which he came are not known but he must have been a resident of Virginia for some time before April 1625 when we he was elected from Shirley Hundred to sit in the Assembly at James City on 10 May ensuing. Ensign Francis Epes testified, 9 January 1625/6, in the controversy between Mr. Thomas Pawlett and the Rev. Greville Pooley. He was appointed commissioner of forces with Captain Thomas Pawlett to attack the Weyanoke and Appomattox Indians, 4 July 1627. He was also a member of the Assembly of March 1627/8, by which time he was a Captain.
There is no record of Francis Epes in Virginia between 7 March 1628/9 and 21 February 1631/2. He probably returned to England with his wife and two sons, for on 8 September 1630 "Thomas, son of Francis Epes and Marie was born" in London. By February 1631/2 Francis Epes was again in Virginia, serving as a member of the House of Burgesses for Shirley Hundred, Mr. Farrar's and Chaplaine's. On 26 August 1635 as Captain Francis Epes he was granted 1700 acres in Charles City County on Appomattox River for the transportation of himself, his sons John, Francis and Thomas, and thirty other persons, two of whom, John Baker and Thomas Warden, are listed in the Muster among the servants of Capt. William Epes on the Eastern Shore. A portion of this tract, owned by the Epes family of "Appomattox Manor," remained in the family until 1978, and was acquired by the National Park Service in 1979. Until that time it was reputed to be the oldest plantation still in the hands of descendants of the original owner.
[Comment: Francis Epes' original grant of 1700 acres was the present site of the city of Hopewell, Virginia, formerly called City Point, and now in Prince George County.]
[Comment: Sandra Ellerbe Krutilek of Pacific Palisades, California, provided the following information regarding the Epes' family home: "He called his plantation Hopewell Farm and his home Eppington. It was later rebuilt by the Epes family and renamed Appomattox Manor. Thomas Jefferson's daughter Maria married Epes' great grandson and lived in the manor house for several years before she died at age twenty-five. It is now on the "Petersburg Battlefield" at Hopewell, Va."]
A list of the "Names of the cheifest … planters that hath both ventured theire Lives & estates for the plantation of Virginia" which is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University names Capt. John West, Capt. Samuel Mathewes, Capt. William Claborne, Capt. William Peirce, Capt. Francis Eppes, Mr. William Ferrar, Capt. John Uty, Capt. John Pott and Capt. [Thomas] Osborne and as merchants and planters George Menefie, Richard Bennett, Edward Cage, George Downes, Obedience Robinns and Nathaniell Oldest. Francis Epes standing in the Colony is clearly indicated by this petition.
He again served in the House of Burgesses for Charles City, 1639/40 and 1645/6. As early as June 1637 he was recommended for appointment as a member of the Council of Virginia, although it was some time before he was actually appointed to that position.
The maiden name of his wife is unknown and her given name Marie [Mary] is known only from the baptismal record of their son. Mrs. Epes was still alive in January 1643/4 when Capt. Thomas Pawlett of Charles City, a brother of Sir John Pawlett, wrote his will, naming Francis Epes as one of the overseers of the will and leaving him his drum, giving to Mrs. Epes his Bible and 20 shillings to buy a mourning ring in his memory, and to his godchildren, Francis Epes (second son of Capt. Epes) and William Farrar (eldest son of William Farrar), "a silver spoon and my silver bowl and wine cup to be divided between them."
Capt. Francis Epes did not claim his wife as a headright in any existing land patent. Since not all patents have been preserved, however, perhaps she was used as a headright in the now lost patent to his Eppes Island property, referred to in the 1644 patents of Walter Aston and John George.
In April 1652 Capt. Francis Epes was named to the Council of State and soon advanced to Colonel, as in January 1653-54 a patent was issued to Col. Francis Epes, Esquire, one of the Council of State, for 280 acres in Charles City County on the south side of James and Appomattox rivers, joining on the east his 1700 acre tract, due for the transportation of six persons. Since the initial patent was issued during the Commonwealth, following the accession of King Charles II he renewed it on 17 February 1663/4 and the whole 1980 acres was consolidated in one patent, 4 October 1668.
This is the last reference to Francis Epes as being alive. There are no Charles City County records preserved until February 1672-73 when a 48 page fragment of an Order Book begins. Col. Francis Epes is not mentioned therein, although his sons John and Thomas are. He was certainly dead by 30 September 1674 when his son and heir, Lt. Col. John Epes patented a tract of 2250 acres, which included his father's patents of 1635 and 1653-54 and some 570 acres of contiguous land due for the transportation of eleven persons.
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Francis Eppes (1597-1674) arrived in Virginia before April 1625, possibly on his own ship the Hopewell, the name of which he gave to his 1,700 acre plantation at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers. This property was continuously owned by the Eppes family until 1978/9 when it became part of the National Park Service. At that time it was reputedly the oldest plantation in the United States still owned by descendants of the original founder.
Francis Eppes was born in England, but was already resident at the time of the Virginia Census of 1624-5, when he was known and Ensign Francis Eppes. He was subsequently a captain and lieutenant-colonel in the Virginia Militia.
Francis Eppes was elected a member of the Virginia Convention of 1625, and served in the House of Burgesses in the Assemblies of 1627-28, 1631-32, 1639, and 1645.
In the summer of 1627, an order for expeditions against the Indians went out to the colonists. Spread thinly along the rivers and coasts of eastern Virginia -- the total number then in Virginia was probably about three thousand persons -- the colonists had not forgotten their constant danger or the ruinous massacres which had occurred earlier in the decade.
On august 1st, the colonists assembled in local bands and attacked the several Indian tribes. These separate attacks greatly weakened the power of the Indians, and undoubtedly helped drive them westward. Ensign Francis Eppes commanded the colonists from both Shirley Hundreds, Jordan's Journey, chaplain's Choice, and Piersey's Hundred.
In the Assembly of 1631-32 Francis Eppes was one of the two Burgesses for "both Shirley Hundreds, Mr. Farrar's and Chaplayne's". Governor Harvey appointed him a Justice (Commissioner) for Charles City and Henrico on March 1, 1631, and re-appointed him on September 4, 1632.
The antecedents of this first Francis Eppes are not known, beyond the fact that he was a Gentleman, in heraldic language--that is, was legally entitled to bear a coat-of-arms, through a grant from the Royal College of Arms.
Nothing is known of his wife, and for several reasons it seems probable that she died in England without ever having been in Virginia.
In order to encourage colonization, it was the policy to grant fifty acres of land to anyone who paid the transportation of an emigrant from England to Virginia. This policy no doubt stimulated emigration from England, as it resulted in many large grants which are of record and which are plainly of this origin--that is, were the result of a stimulated immigration to the colony.
The earliest known grant to Col Francis Eppes was of this character; for on August 26, 1635, he was granted 1,700 acres along the Appomattox River in Charles City County, for having transported to Virginia: himself, his three sons, and thirty servants. In the grant he is mentioned as "Captain" Francis Eppes and no mention is made of his wife, who presumable did not come to Virginia. This grant in Charles City was on the site of the present City Point in Prince George County, at the junction of the Appomattox and the James Rivers. Much of the land around it is owned by direct descendants of the first Col. Francis Eppes -- an ownership of three hundred years in the same family.
Col. Francis Eppes was one of four Virginians recommended to the English authorities in June, 1637, as persons fit to be appointed to the king's Council for the colony, but he did not receive the appointment at this time. In 1639 he was elected to the House of Burgesses from Charles City County and took his seat at the opening of the Assembly on January 6th. On 30 April 1652, Francis was appointed a member of the Council of
Twelve, and held this office until he died
He died in Virginia probably before 1655, leaving three sons named in the original patent:
1. John Eppes, born about 1626
2. Francis Eppes II (also Lieut. Col.)
3. Thomas Eppes.
Francis Eppes 
- d.1471 in Lydd, Kent, England
