Stephen Caudill, the great Appalachian Progenitor

To know the story of the Wright and Day family trees, is to know the story of the Caudills. Much, if not most, of the sprawling Appalachian Caudill family originated from one common ancestor, Stephen Caudill.

The reason the Caudill family is so pertinent to our Wright/Day family tree, is due to the fact that in almost every family line starting with Mammaw and Pappaw, there is at least one connection back to Stephen Caudill; in some of these family lines, there are … more than one.

The story of Stephen Caudill begins in 1680, across the sea in Argyll, Scotland. Facing an unknown future, Stephen is believed to have left his homeland and traveled to the New World sometime around the turn of the 18th Century, where he eventually settled in the growing British Colony of Virginia. He married Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Fields and together, they had at least 4 children. All 4 of those children are our direct ancestors, at least once, and in some cases, multiple times over.

On August 5, 1731, Stephen secured a King George II patent for 195 acres on the north side of the Nottoway River in what was then Surry County, Virginia. This patent—the equivalent of a deed today—marked his formal entry into Landownership in the Colony. As the Colonial borders shifted, this land would later become part of Brunswick County and eventually Lunenburg County, Virginia, reflecting the ever-expanding frontier he lived upon.

Stephen was also documented in other areas, as he was later found buying a large tract of 446 acres on the south side of Rocky Run Creek in Brunswick County, VA, a parcel that would later fall into Dinwiddie County. These land records, where his name appears with varied spellings like Caudle, Cordle, and Cordell, are the most concrete evidence of his life as an early Colonial Planter and Landowner.

Stephen Caudill's life represents the classic immigrant success story of the early 18th Century—a move from the Old World to the New, establishing a family, accumulating property, and setting the course for his descendants to become integral figures in the settlement of the American frontier. Stephen passed away in Lunenburg County, Virginia, on October 21, 1758, having successfully transitioned his family from Scottish roots to American soil, and paving the way for his grandsons to push even further west into Kentucky.