Go to Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Diana, Goddess of the Hunt — for Ancestors!
 
Go to Every-Name Index
Every-Name Index
John DE WORSION / John Archer WORSHAM
Arabella Duval YARRINGTON
There are many questions regarding the family group sheet of Arabella Duval YARRINGTON, the true answers to which Arabella may have taken to her grave.

1.  Are John DE WORSION and John Archer WORSHAM the same person? 

2.  If John DE WORSION and John Archer WORSHAM are the same person, how did they each get enumerated in the 1870 census, the former in New York City and the latter in Richmond, VA?

3.  If John DE WORSION and John Archer WORSHAM are the same person, how could he have pulled off being married to Annette and to Arabella at the same time?

4.  If John DE WORSION and John Archer WORSHAM are not the same person, is John DE WORSION a real person or is he fiction, created by Arabella to hide the fact that her son was illegitimate?

5.  Was either John actually married to Arabella?

6.  Was John Archer WORSHAM actually married to Annette, or was she his sister?

7.  Was either of these John's the father of Arabella's son, or was his father Arabella's lover, Collis Potter HUNTINGTON?

Husband:  John DE WORSION
Birth:  1824/5, VA
Occupation:  stockholder in bank
Marriage:
Wife:  Arabella Duval YARRINGTON
Birth:  1 Jun 1852, Richmond, Henrico Co., VA
Death:  1924, NY
Other Spouse:  m2. 12 Jul 1884, Collis Potter HUNTINGTON; m3. 16 Jul 1913, Henry Edwards HUNTINGTON
Father:  Richard M. YARRINGTON
Mother:  Catherine J. SIMMS
Child — adopted by Collis Potter HUNTINGTON:
1.  John DE WORSION / Archer Milton HUNTINGTON, b. 10 mar 1870, Manhattan, New York City, New York Co., NY
Keywords for search engines:  genealogy; USA, US, United States, New York, Virginia

Sources:

1.  LDS.  Family Search: Internet Genealogy Service:  IGI - International Genealogical Index (online at FamilySearch.org).
Arabella Duval YARRINGTON
Birth: 01 Jun 1852, Union Springs, Bullock, Alabama
Death: 1924, New York, New York
Burial: San Marino, Los Angeles, California
Marriage: About 1869, Of New York, New York
Spouse: John Archer WORSHAM
Birth: About 1828, Of Henrico, Virginia
Source: patron submission

2.  1870 Census Index/Images (online at Genealogy.com; Image #12 of 86):  New York (Ward 15, District 8), New York Co., NY, Roll 994 (Book 1), p. 597B, PN 12, enumerated 12 Jun 1870, official enumeration date 1 Jun 1870 (extracted by Diana Gale Matthiesen):
52 68 Yarington C J 45 F W Keeping House 15,000   Virginia
    Ashburn E.P. 23 F W Authoress  5,000   "
    Yarington Emma 21 F W       "
    De Wersion Bell 19 F W       "
         "     John 45 M W Stock Holder in Banking Estab     "
    Yarington R M 17 M W At College     "
        "     John D 15 M W At school     "
    De Wersion John 3/12 M W       "
    Stinner J 49 M W Man. of Boots & Shoes 10,000   New York
    Ladd Geo 23 M W Patentee     Mass
    Eagan Aurthur 21 M W Dry Goods Clk     Ireland
    Peirson Howard 23 M W Patentee     Conn
  69 Abbey Horatio 52 M W Music Pub  4,000   New York
      "   Cordelia 40 F W Dress Maker     "
      "   Gertrude  6 F W       "
      "   Bessie B  2 F W       "
    Maguire Mary 20 F W Domestic Servt.     Ireland
C. J. YARRINGTON is Arabella's mother.  E. P. ASHBURN appears to be Arabella's widowed/divorced/deserted sister, Eliza Page YARRINGTON.  Richard M. YARRINGTON and John D. YARRINGTON are Arabella's brothers.

3.  LDS.  Family Search: Census Records: 1880 United States (online at FamilySearch.org):
Census Place: New York, New York (Manhattan), New York City-Greater, New York
Source: FHL Film #1254895; NARA Film #T9-0895; Pg 355B
  Relation Sex Marr Race Age Birthplace Occupation Fa Mo
Belle D. WORSHAM Self F W W 28 AL Keeping House AL AL
Arthur M. WORSHAM Son M S W 10 NY Scholar AL AL
Cathrine YARRINGTON Mother F W W 61 AL At Home AL AL
William SKEPWORTH Other M S B 30 VA Coachman VA VA
John HURBERT Other M S W 30 IRE Coachman IRE IRE
John CASSIDY Other M S W 30 IRE Coachman IRE IRE
Katie KEENAN Other F S W 18 NY Servant IRE IRE
Elizabeth CLARK Other F S W 40 SCOT Servant SCOT SCOT
In the 1900 census, Belle gives her father's birthplace as MD and her mother's as VA.  Clearly, Belle was well off before she married Collis, but then, she'd already been his mistress for about ten years at this point.  "Arthur" should be "Archer."

4.  Stephen Birmingham.  1982.  The Grande Dames.  Simon & Schuster, NY.
Henry Huntington nephew of the late C.P., built Rancho San Marino in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles to lure his beloved Arabella to the West Coast.  When they eventually married, they assembled at San Marino one of the most important private collections of rare books and art in the world.  Its contents, including Gainsborough's Blue Boy, were to become the Huntington Art Museum.  They lived in the house only a month or so every year.  Where Arabella led, her adoring Henry followed.

5.  Kevin Starr (California State Librarian).  1985. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era.  Oxford Univ. Press, NY (excerpts online at Friends of California Libraries web site):
Arabella Huntington was a strange, imperious woman, whose aristocratic hauteur (so evident in the portrait of her painted by Sir Oswald Birley in 1924, the year of her death) masked a continued fear of discovery.  She hid her tracks skillfully — no birth certificate, no baptismal record, no marriage license — but it is very probable that before she met Collis P. Huntington she lived in wartime Richmond, Virginia, as the mistress of a gambler and faro banker, one John Archer Worsham, who, after the war, abandoned her (most likely pregnant) in New York City.  In any event, like Scarlett O'Hara, Arabella was a survivor.  A few years later she resurfaced as the mistress, lobbyist, and business advisor of Collis P. Huntington, president of the Central Pacific.  She eventually became his second wife.  Her son Archer was either Huntington's or the result of her early liaison with John Archer Worsham.  By 1900 Arabella Huntington had not only survived, she was one of the richest women in the world...
Starr somewhat overstates his case — for dramatic effect, I presume — because there was no such thing as "birth certificates" until well into the 20th century and, even had she been baptized, few church records survive, nor have most southern marriage records survived.  In fact, antebellum marriage records in the south are a sad joke amongst genealogists because half the court houses in the south were burned during the Civil War.  In most cases, the best you can do is deduce that a marriage occurred (e.g., by finding a couple living together in the census).

Contact Home
Page
Table of
Contents
DNA
Hub
Biddle
DNA
Carrico
DNA
Corbin
DNA
Cupp
DNA
Danish
DNA
Ely
DNA
Lyon(s)
DNA
Rasey
DNA
Reason
DNA
Rose
DNA
Straub
DNA
Pedigree
Charts
Census
Records
Every-Name
Indices
Everything I have is online at this web site.  I have no further information, so please don't write asking me if I do.
On the other hand, if you feel I've made an error, please don't hesitate to notify me, but in which case,

please include a link to the page you are referencing.
There are over 18,000 pages on this web site, and I simply don't remember every page, much less every person on every page.

"The Cloud" is double-speak for "dumb terminal on a main frame." Been there; done that. Never again.
You are giving away not only your privacy, but control of your data, your apps, and your computer to a corporation. Is that really where you want to go?
The IT guys on the big iron hated the Personal Computer because it gave users freedom and power; now they've conned you into being back under their control.
Table of Contents
Go to Table of Contents
 
Privacy Policy ______
Every-Name Index
Go to Every-Name Index

¤