The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
The registers of North Farnham Parish at Richmond County, Virginia, record the birth of Marmaduke Stanfield, 4 February 1724/25, a son of Thomas Stanfield and Mary. He was named for his half-uncle, Baronet Sir Marmaduke Beckwith, Clerk of the Richmond County Court. Marmaduke’s father died when he was two years old, leaving Marmaduke land at Richmond County. When he was ten years old, he inherited an additional 100 acres from his grandmother, Mary (Newman) Brockenbrough Dalton.
As a young man who had money and property, Marmaduke worked in the courts of Richmond and Orange Counties, Virginia, from 1741-1746, witnessing deeds and putting up securities. By 1748, he had moved to Lunenburg County, Virginia, and was buying and selling property in what are now Charlotte and Halifax Counties, Virginia.
About 1755, Marmaduke married Mildred Banks, a daughter of John Banks and Mary of Bedford County, Virginia, by whom he had the following children: Harrison, John, Abraham, Elizabeth, Ann, Joseph, Ashley, and Fannie. By 1768, he had settled permanently at Halifax County, Virginia, appearing on the list of voters for that year. In 1772, he was recommended for and qualified as a Justice of the Peace for Halifax County.
During the Revolutionary War, Marmaduke served in multiple capacities. He was Commissioner of Peace for Halifax County in 1776, and was appointed by the Halifax County Chancery Court in 1777 to administer the Oath of Allegiance to those loyal to the state and country. Also in 1777, Marmaduke was commissioned Captain of his own company of the Halifax County Militia, which saw military duty in the state of Virginia. He furnished supplies from his plantation to wives of Continental soldiers in 1779, and he provided quantities of corn, oats, fodder, pork, flour, beef, diets, bacon, and tallow to Nathaniel Greene’s Continental troops stationed at Halifax County in 1781. From 1782-1784 Marmaduke served as Justice of the Peace in Halifax County, and he paid the 1783 supply tax, supporting the army.
Marmaduke accepted the commission given by Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, as High Sheriff of Halifax County, 20 July 1786. In August of that year, he was also named Collector of the Parish of Antrim, or tax collector. Throughout his life, Marmaduke Stanfield was addressed as “Gentleman,” a title accorded to those wealthy enough to be exempt from manual labor.
Mildred died at Halifax County about 1782. Marmaduke married for a second time in 1788, to Rachael Pride of Halifax County. After her death, he married a third time, in 1795, to Anne Samuel of Caswell County, North Carolina, when he was 73 years of age. He had no children with Rachael or Anne. From 1795-1801, Marmaduke was repeatedly recommended by the Halifax County Court as Justice of the Peace for the county, but due to advanced age, he declined to act. A respected public servant, Captain Marmaduke Stanfield died at Halifax County in 1801 and is buried at his property there.
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.