Elizabeth Michaux WOODSON

   Other names for Elizabeth were Mrs. Elizabeth Michaux VENABLE and Mrs. Nathaniel VENABLE.

   User ID: P00051907.

  General Notes:

Elizabeth Woodson (Jody's 4th Great Grand Mother), wife of Nathaniel Venable (1733­-1804), was born in June 1740; died September 29, 1791. She was a daughter of Richard Woodson, of "Poplar Hill," Prince Edward County, by his wife, Anne Micheaux, daughter of Abraham Micheaux and his wife Susan­na Rochette, or la Roche, Huguenots. "In the reign of Louis XIV, during the religious persecution consequent on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Susanna Rochette lived in Sedan, France. When about 15 years of age she escaped to Amsterdam, where she married Abraham Mich­eaux (a Huguenot), and continued in Holland until she had six children; they emigrated to Virginia and settled in Henrico [some accounts say Stafford] County early in the 18th century. Abraham Micheaux was the nephew of the celebrated M. James Saurin, minister of the French Church of the Savor, in the Strand, London, in the year 1703." A prayer book, with this note in French inscribed on a blank page, "M. Saurin, minister, has sent this Book of Common Prayer to his nephew, Abraham Micheaux, in Virginia," was presented in 1857 by N. F. Cabell, Esq., through Bishop Meade, to the Theological Seminary at Alexandria.

The foregoing is the family tradition, which in the course of time has gotten somewhat mixed. Smiles says: "Jacques Saurin was the greatest of the Protestant preach­ers. He was the son of an advocate at Nismes, whose three sons all took refuge in England, -- Jacques, the pulpit orator; Captain Saurin, an officer in William's army; and Louis, sometime minister of the French Church in the Savoy, and afterwards Dean of St. Patrick's, Ardagh. From Louis were lineally descended the Right Revd. James Sau­rin, Bishop of Dromore, and the Honorable William Saurin, Attorney-General for Ireland from 1807 to 1821. Jacques Saurin was one of the ministers of the French church in Threadneedle Street, London, in 1701-1705; he then went to the Hague, and Weiss says: 'Nothing can give an idea of the effect produced by his inspired voice, which for twenty-five years resounded beneath the vaulted roof of the temple at the Hague, unless it be the profound venera­tion and pious worship with which the memory of the great author, continually revived by the perusal of his writings, has remained surrounded in Holland.'"

Papers of Harriet V. Miller: "When Tarleton and Arnold invaded VA, a detachment of their forces passed through Pr. Edw. Co. on genearl plundering expedition. They raided 'Slate Hill,' with the purpose of capturing Nathaniel Venable, but he escaped them,having received in time warning of their approach. They committed some robberies, destroyed some furniture and one oftheir number pointed at the breast of Mrs. Venable, demandedthat she reveal her husband's whereabouts or he would shoot herdown. Her calm reply was , "Fire away, my husband has hiscountry to defend." At this instant an officer intervened and ordered away the man who had offered the indignity, severely reprimanding him." [Note from Sandra Lake Lassen, 1999: I don't know the source ofthis family story, but find it spurious, as what "hero" would hide from the enemy, and leave his wife there to deal withthem?]

Elizabeth married Nathaniel VENABLE, son of Abraham VENABLE II and Martha DAVIS, on 29 Mar 1755 in Prince Edward, Virginia, USA, "Poplar Hill". (Nathaniel VENABLE was born on 1 Nov 1733 in Louisa County, VA, died on 27 Dec 1804 in Slate Hill, Prince Edward County, Virginia, USA and was buried in Slate Hill, Prince Edward County, Virginia, USA, "Family Cemetery".)