• AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Yep. I’m directly descended from Rev. D. Rice. The guy owned about ⅔ of The Virginia Colony, because he’s a direct descendent of House Rice, and House Wellington. He saw which way the wind was blowing in 1765 and started selling off his land. He donated the raiesd 1,500,000 pounds sterling to his good friends Tom, Jim, and Ben. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. The joke in my family is that we paid to found the US Army and US Navy.

    My cousin still has his diary, which is how we know this even happened, well that and a map of his land.

    • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      That’s some incredible history. I hope your family has (carefully) taken scans and such!

      That was an incredibly prescient move by the Reverend. And also an insane amount of money!? That’s somewhere around a quarter of a billion pounds today?

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        He had, quite frankly, an insane amount of land. Yes, my late great Aunt Binny (Virginia) was a professor of history at the University of Louisville, and had scans done by her department before she died. The scans were done in 2002.