Who Was John Prosser?

Who Lies Buried in Fulton?

By David D. Ryan

Richmond News Leader                         February 16, 1975

John Prosser, who were you?

That question hangs like a mysterious fog over a small knoll in Richmond's Fulton area.

Sitting on top of the knoll about 15 feet above the 4400 block of E. Main St. is Prosser's grave, which overlooks the James River from what once apparently was a cemetery of several grave sites.

Now, however, only Prosser's grave site is marked, although the stone marking the grave of a 14-year-old girl also stood on the knoll 20 to 30 years ago.

A Reporter Heard a story about 10 years ago that John Prosser was a sea captain who docked his ship at the former Rockett's Landing that existed during the 1700's and 1800's on the river bank below the grave site. The story was Prosser had asked that he be buried overlooking the river.

It was the kind of tale that could make a short story. After all, the records listing persons who served in the Virginia Navy during the Revolutionary War included a seaman named John Prosser.

But the John Prosser lying in the Fulton grave--could he have been the seaman's son? -- he would have been a child during the war, and the sea captain story probably wasn't true anyway.

The knoll is still listed on the city's tax records as being in the estate of John Prosser and Sarah Lewis. The words "grave site" show up on an 1809 map of the city, but not on an 1810 map.

The knoll, which sits between two oil company offices, is now littered with beer cans and other trash. It has a carpet of leaves and honeysuckle. Two depressions indicate other graves.

One of them is apparently the grave of Louisa Wright, who died September 29, 1821, "aged 14 years, 1 month, 13 days," according to a 1935 newspaper clipping. She was the daughter of Hezekiah Lord and Nancy Leeds Wright.

Prosser's grave site is an "eye catcher." A large hackberry tree grows directly on top of the granite slab covering his grave. Directly behind the tree is a marker about two feet square and four feet tall.

Most of the lettering on the marker has been weathered away, but it still gives some clues to who Prosser was. First, it tells he died October 25, 1810, "in the 38th year of his age."

"He was truly an affectionate and indulgent husband, fond father, a kind master and sincere friend," the marker says. "Few indeed possessed more of the social virtues. As he was believed and respected, his death was deeply regretted by all who knew him," the marker adds.

Historical records at the Virginia State Library and the Virginia Historical Society list a number of John Prossers. But after researching them, many of the John Prossers can be eliminated, usually because the lived long before or long after the man in question. One or two of the others, however, may have been direct relatives of the John Prosser buried in Fulton.

Some facts immerge though

He must have been fairly well known for his obituary, although sketchy, was carried in four Richmond newspapers, one in Norfolk and one in Fredericksburg.

He lived between 1772 and 1810, and when he died he left a wife, the former Polly Poole of Henrico County and four children.

Mister Prosser took his stand as a member of the community in a business which required assiduity, attention and indefactigable industry," obituaries in the Virginia Argus, a Richmond newspaper, and the Norfolk Gazette said.

So John Prosser was a Richmond businessman, but what kind of business was he in?

The obituary in the Richmond Equirer said that he was of "The house of Prosser and Moncure..."

A search of Samuel Mordecal's Richmond in By-Gone Days" shows that Prossers and Moncure were "partners in an extensive auction business."

About the only other historical record of Prosser while he was living was a list of persons who signed a "subscription" for the construction of the "Protestant Episcopal Church," which later became known as the Monumental Episcopal Church, that was constructed in 1812 on "Shockoe Hill."

Richmond News Leader                         February 17, 1975

The mystery of John Prosser, who was buried in 1810 in a small private cemetery in Richmond's Fulton area, cleared a little yesterday.

Prosser was the son of William Prosser and Elizabeth Otey, according to Mrs. Charlotte Picot, whose great-great-grandmother was John Prosser's sister, Patsy.

The Times-Dispatch reported yesterday that Prosser's gravesite lies on a small knoll in the 4400 block of E. Main Street and that a large hackberry tree grows atop the granite stone covering the grave.

Prosser lived from 1772 to 1810 and was a partner in a Richmond auctioneering firm. He and John Marshall were two signers of a subscription to build an Episcopal church on "Shockoe Hill."

Mrs. Picot, of 2508 Kensington Ave., reported that Prosser's four children were William H., Evalina Matilda, Elizabeth and Julia.

Mrs. Picot said that the family records show that Prosser's wife, the former Mary "Polly" Poole, married Thomas Reade Roots two years after Prosser's death. She died in 1829 and was buried in the cemetery at St. John's Church.

Richmond News Leader                         February 23, 1975

Editor's note: The Times-Dispatch carried last Sunday a story about John Prosser, whose grave rests on a small knoll overlooking the James River in Fulton. Response to the story has brought additional information about Prosser, including information on his will, which was filed with Richmond's former Hustings Court.

John Prosser: Chapter II.

When John Prosser, 38, a partner in a Richmond auctioneering firm, died in 1810, he had accumulated an estate valued at more than $ 81,500, a sizable sum at the time.

Among the requests Prosser made in his will was that his family carriage and horses be kept one year for family use, unless the upkeep was too costly.

Prosser also stipulated that his wife, the former Mary "Polly" Poole of Henrico County, be provided with $500 a year as long as she remained a widow, or be paid a $10,000 sum if she married. She did remarry two years after Prosser's death.

Mrs. Prosser, according to the court records, filed a notice of "renunciation" of the estate of Aug 11, 1811. The estate's personal property was then sold about eight months later, with many of the personal effects being purchased by Mrs. Prosser, who married Thomas Reade Roots.

Among the effects included in the sale were one dozen dining room chairs that sold for $48 and a backgammon table that sold for $14. The sale also included a print of Thoms Jefferson that brought $1.50. The sale brought $3,085.75.

In his will, Prosser stipulated that the executors, among whom was his business partner, William Moncure, invest his money in bank stock, "young male Negroes" and real estate in the city.

Records in the Surry County Courthouse show that Prosser was a descendant of William B. Prosser, who came to Virginia from England in 1678.

These documents, the will and other records that associate John Prosser's name with John Marshall indicate he was a prominent Richmonder of his time.

His gravsite then, which sits on land he owned and is now carpeted with honeysuckle and leaves, stirred a small glimpse into Richmond's past.