Joseph has traditionally been listed as a son of Robert Coleman and Elizabeth Grizzell.  There is no evidence to support this theory, although Robert Coleman was a near neighbor of John Adelston (father of Agnes who married Joseph Coleman\).  For purposes of this record, and until evidence proves otherwise, Joseph will be included as a child of the immigrant Robert Coleman and his wife Elizabeth Grizzell.

    The fate of Joseph’s descendants is unknown.  If the females survived childhood and married, their Coleman surnames have been lost in the records.  The male descendants either left Gloucester Co. by the end of the 1700’s, or migrated westward after the American Revolution.

    Joseph Coleman owned land in both Abingdon and Petsworth Parishes, Gloucester County, Virginia.  The Petsworth Parish land of his brother, (6) John Coleman, was exchanged in 1730 for land in Hanover Co. John left no descendants in that parish.  Three men whose names were listed on the 1782 Gloucester Co. Tax List may have been descendants of (3) Joseph Coleman: Captain Thomas Coleman, William Coleman and Richard Coleman.

    Of Captain Thomas and William Coleman, nothing further is known.  Richard, however, was listed on the tax list with 136 acres of land, four negroes, two horses and eight cattle.  Another entry for the same year mentioned "Robert Yates for Richard Coleman" 390 acres and four negroes.  Robert Yates was a vestryman for Petsworth Parish, according to an entry made in the vestry book on 24 Nov 1784.  The 13 May 1784 Petsworth Parish Vestry Book lists an entry "to Richard Coleman for Bread and Wine for Use of the Church, 200 lbs.  tobacco." A census of 1784 Petsworth Parish shows Richard Coleman with six white souls, one dwelling and two other buildings.  (Tidewater Virginia Families, Vol. 2, No.  1, May/June 1993)

    Judge Solon B. Coleman thought Joseph and Agnes were the parents of the William Coleman whose wife was Faith Godfrey.  William was the son of William Coleman, Sr.  of Charles City and Prince George Counties.  While his father was alive, the William who married Faith was listed on the tax lists as "William Coleman, Jr.".  His uncle was the Robert Coleman whose family is chronicled in The Robert Coleman Family – From Virginia to Texas 1652-1959 by former Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman, now deceased.  See Early Colemans in Virginia section, p. 44 #22.

From Robert Coleman/Elizabeth Grizzell

(3) JOSEPH COLEMAN            b.  ca 1658

                        d.  after 1704

                        m.  Agnes Adelston

Joseph was mentioned in land granted to Richard Barnard on 23 Oct 1690.  His land adjoined that of Robert Cary, William Bernard, Francis Ironmonger and William Fleming in a patent dated 28 Oct 1697 \(PB 9, p. 90).

Joseph received a grant of 344 acres in Petsworth Parish on 28 Oct 1697 adjoining land of William Pritchett, William Fleming and William Bernard for the transportation of 7 persons into the colony \(PB 9, p. 107).

On 13 Oct 1699, he witnessed a deed from John Stoakes of Abingdon Parish to Ralph Walker \(Deeds and Bond Bk. 1694-1701, p. 228, York Co. Records\).

John Adelston, father of Agnes was a neighbor of Robert Coleman (1).

John Adelston was granted 500 acres of land on the south side of Mobjack Bay on 19 May 1651 \\(PB 2, p. 371).  He later obtained a joint grant with Lieutenant Colonel John Chessman in the same neighborhood, 13 May 1654 (PB 3, p. 231).  In 1671, John Adelston was appointed attorney for James Holt (Records of Colonial Gloucester Co., Polly Cary Mason, p. 111.

26 Apr 1698, Joseph Coleman was mentioned in a deed of John Ross "adjoining the orphants of William Cooke and lands of Joseph Coleman and William Fleming".  \(DB 9, p. 146)

Joseph was listed on the 1704/5 Gloucester Co. Rent Rolls with 200 acres in Abingdon Parish.  There is no mention of the land he acquired in Petsworth Parish, although he was mentioned in the Petsworth Parish Vestry Book in 1701.

From Petsworth Parish Vestry Book 26 Oct 170[ ]: "to Richard Burnitt for Goeing to Joseph Colemans 50 lbs.  tobacco".

The only Coleman on the Petsworth Parish Rent Rolls for 1704/5 was (6) John Coleman, brother of Joseph, with 200 acres.