Figure of the Week

The Wamsley family seems to have come to Stafford County, Virginia from Maryland and they were here by at least the time of the American Revolution.  In 1871 Benjamin C. E. Wamsley (c.1814-1886) paid taxes on 264 acres on Cannon Run.  This land is now part of the Marine Corps reservation.  He was the son of Benjamin Wamsley (died c.1846), also of Stafford.  Benjamin C. E. Wamsley married Eliza F. Shelkett (c.1827-1879), the daughter of John Shelkett (1793-1857) and Nancy Stark (1786-1834).  Benjamin was a magistrate in Stafford from at least 1853 to 1856.