HOPEWELL FRIENDS HISTORY 1734-1934 Frederick County, Virginia
Benjamin Borden, 850 acres. This land lies upon the western slope of Apple Pie Ridge in Frederick County, and 750 acres of the tract were sold by his executors, Benjamin Borden Jr., his son, and Zeruiah Borden, his widow, on February 7, 1744. In this deed the grantee is referred to as [p.26]"Benjamin Borden, Gent., late of Orange County, Colony of Virginia, Deceased." Neither Benjamin Borden nor his family ever resided on this tract, which appears to have been one of his many speculations in land. His home plantation, known as "Borden's Great Spring Tract," of 3143 acres, granted him October 3, 1734, joined Greenway Court, the home of Lord Fairfax, on the southeast. Borden's house stood at, or near, the present residence of Thompson Sowers Esq., in Clarke County. He also had a tract of 1122 acres on the Bullskin Marsh near Summit Point, now W. Va., and a large tract on Smith's Creek, near New Market, Shenandoah County, Va. On November 6, 1739, he secured a patent for 92,100 acres on the headwaters of the James River, which became known as Borden's Manor, and lay mostly within the bounds of present Rockbridge County, Va. He appears to have been on intimate terms with Lord Fairfax, and by persistent tradition is generally believed to have acted in some way as Fairfax's agent. That Lord Fairfax purchased from his son John Borden, in 1756, 608 acres of the "Great Spring" tract at the very time he was waging a violent controversy with some settlers who claimed under Crown patents, certainly indicates some friendly arrangement with the Borden famil
Benjamin Borden was born in 1692, a son of Benjamin Borden and ---- Grover, near Freehold, N. J., and died in Frederick County, Va., in 1743. He married Zeruiah Winter of West New Jersey, and came to Virginia sometime in 1732. He was prominent in the affairs of the county and was appointed to the first bench of justices on the organization of Orange County in 1734, and of Frederick County, when it was set off from Orange in 1743. He with others was the subject of religious persecution by the Orange court in October and November, 1737. His will, dated April 3, 1742, and probated October 9, 1743, in Frederick County, mentions his wife Zeruiah, his sons Benjamin Jr., John, and Joseph, and his daughters Abigail, wife of Jacob Worthington, Hannah, wife of Capt. Edward Rogers, Mercy, wife of William Fearnley, Rebeckah, wife of Thomas Branson, Elizabeth, wife of ---- Branson, and Deborah and Lidy, still single. Witnesses: Thomas Sharp, Lancelot Westcott, Edward O. Borden, Thomas Hankins, and Thomas Rogers.
