Elizabeth Cason

(This is from the Norfolk Newspaper, 1972 or 1973)

The testy character of Madam Sarah Thoroughgood-Gookin-Yeardley, first grande dame of Lower Norfolk County, has rumbled down the centuries like the muffled thunder of far-off artillery.  Sarah had a definite mind of her own, and the early Norfolk area records are besprinkled with her legal wrangling.

One of the first things a newcomer learned in her day was to steer clear of anything remotely connected with her.  Those who disregarded the warning usually had the sheriff pounding on their doors before their criticisms were cold.  Born in London in 1609, Sarah was a daughter of Robert Offley, "Turkey Merchant," and Anne Osborne, daughter of Sir Edward Osborne, Lord Mayor of London in 1583.

In 1624, when she was 15, Sarah was married in St. Anne's Blackfriars, London, to Captain Adam Thoroughgood, who had only recently been released from a four-year indenture to Edward Walters of Elizabeth City County, Virginia.  Both Sarah and Adam were ambitious and by 1635, with the aid of powerful friends in England and Virginia, they were the proprietors of a princely grant of 5,350 acres of land on the Chesopean, later known as the Lynnhaven River.

In 1636, one year before the establishment of lower Norfolk County, of which he was the leading citizen, Adam Thoroughgood was named to the governor's council at Jamestown.  Four years later he was dead.

Six months after burying him, Sarah slapped a suit against Elizabeth Cason for saying that her late husband never paid a bill.  Elizabeth lost the suit and was forced to beg Sarah's pardon publicly on her knees in Lynnhaven Church.