The earliest American ancestor of our branch of the WOOD family was EDWARD WOOD who along with other settlers was brought from England to Norfolk County Virginia by John Ashcomb in 1646. In the book "Cavaliers and Pioneers" by Nell Marion Nugent, page 165, is this item: "Land Grant, Patent Book #2, by Sir William Berkeley, Knight, Governor of Virginia etc, to John Ashcomb 829 acres, upper Norfolk County, October 7 1646. Beginning at miles end of Michael Wilcox, adjacent to land of George White east to a place called Newgate, to Laughler's Creek belonging to the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River. 250 acres due by virtue of the rights of a patent granted said John Ashcomb march 6 1638 which patent is surrendered and 600 acres for transportation of 12 persons to Virginia - John Ashcomb, Winnifred Ashcomb, John Ashcomb Jr., William Lasher, Richard Calloway, Mary Calloway, James Goodcross, Madeline Powell, Henry Jones, Winifred Jones, EDWARD WOOD, Martha Lylls, Elizabeth Coram, John Moore, Thomas Salsberry, Gilbert Lake, and Edward Prince".

EDWARD WOOD did not write a diary, but he and his sons have left a record of Deeds, Wills and Civil Actions in various County Court Houses. These, with other Colonial records, tell us many facts concerning their lives. The grant of land made to John Ashcomb states it is in upper Norfolk County on Laughley's Creek which breaks off from the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River. This description gives us a definite location of his plantation as being in Old Portsmouth Parish in Norfolk County at a point directly west of the present city of Portsmouth, Virginia. It is safe to presume EDWARD WOOD remained and worked for John Ashcomb until he had paid his passage money for the trip across the Atlantic Ocean; this would ordinarily take several years. John Ashcomb himself did not remain many years on his Norfolk County plantation, for while living in the Province of Maryland he sold his land to William Viscombe for "Eight thousand three hundred and fifty pounds of goods, sound merchantable tobacco" to be paid in installments over a period of four years.

History does not record the exact birth dates of EDWARD WOOD or any of his children or grandchildren and it is for this reason that it has been neccessary to calculate these dates. This does by no means indicate a wild guess; various clues have been used in establishing reasonable birthdates. Such clues are dates on wills, deeds, etc. We calculate EDWARD WOOD was born while his parents were in England during the year 1628. This being the case his age would have been 18 when he came to Norfolk County Virginia in 1646.

After living in Virginia for several years EDWARD Sr. fell in love with the daughter of a neighboring planter and they were married ca - 1649 and in ca - 1650 a son was born to them. They gave him the name of John. It appears that the wife of EDWARD Sr. died soon after the birth of their son John. He remained unmarried for many years until around 1670 when he married Katherine, a woman who evidently was much younger than he. We say this for when EDWARD Sr. at a ripe old age made his last will he specified that his wife Katherine should have and live on his Plantation as long as she remained his widow and no longer. She gave him three sons - Edward Jr., Born ca 1672; Mark, born ca 1675; and William, Born ca 1679.

Many of the first settlers entered America through the port of Jamestown, Virginia. When the land on both sides of the James River had been taken up for settlement many settlers moved westward, ever westward, until some of their descendants reached the Pacific Ocean. Others elected to remain near the bays, rivers and sounds of the Tidewater section and these naturally moved toward the newly opened territory around the sounds of northwest Carolina. EDWARD WOOD Sr. was among the latter; after living for several years on his Lockhaven Estate at the mouth of Tanner Creek he moved his wife Katherine and his three youngest sons Edward Jr., Mark and William to a location ten miles to the east into a section of Lower Norfolk County at the head of the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River. This was around 1680. There is no deed or other record in the Norfolk County Court House showing when or where EDWARD WOOD Sr. purchased his plantation. Historians tell us that this was not unusual for that period. Some of the settlers bought their land from the Indians. Others bought and sold land with legally drawn deeds but failed to record them in the Courthouse.

On April 16 1691 that section into which EDWARD Sr. had moved was split away from Lower Norfolk County by an act of the Virginia General Assembly and a new county was formed which was called Princess Anne County. It was in the Court House of the new Princess Anne County that EDWARD WOOD Sr. and his sons filed many Wills, Deeds, gifts and Civil Actions. In the above mentioned papers the Plantation of EDWARD Sr. is definitely located as being on the south side and at the head of the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River. This would be at or very near the well known village of Kempsville in Princess Anne County, Virginia. In various Wood's Deeds and Wills in which land was sold and bought and bequeathed these are at the headwaters of the Eastern Branch, also referred to as the Dam Neck Section. At the present day Dam Neck Crossroads is four and one-half miles east of Kempsville in Princess Anne County and one and one-quarter miles east of the crossroad is Dam Neck on the Atlantic Ocean where from time immemorial fishermen have cast their nets to harvest the fishes of the sea.

EDWARD WOOD Sr. and his sons Edward Jr., Mark and William lived in this area of Princess Anne County for the balance of their lives and their last wills, all of them, are filed in this County Court House. They lived good lives and prospered. When they died they left to their children not only a material heritage of land and other wealth; more important, they bequeathed a spiritual legacy which would sustain them through their entire lives.

(The above paragraphs are quoted from "Notes on the Wood Family in Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties, Virginia and Pasquotank County, North Carolina With Related Families" by William Thomas Wood - May 1965)