The Woodall Line: Sarah Steele, the daughter of Samuel Steele and Kathrine Hammond

The purpose of this document is to prove that Sarah Steele 1729-1765 who married Sampson Woodall 1735-1809 was the daughter of Samuel Steele and Katherine Hammond. 

Vertical Pedigree Chart for Sarah Steele (1)

Samuel Steele (1691–1736) and His Family

Samuel Steele was born on 4 January 1691 in Richmond County, Virginia, the son of an earlier Samuel Steele and his wife Jane. He belonged to one of the early families of North Farnham Parish, a community deeply rooted in the Anglican church and the plantation culture of Virginia’s Northern Neck. (2)

In 1718, Samuel married Catharine Hammond, the widow of Thomas Williams. (3) Their marriage joined two long‑established families of Richmond County, and over the next sixteen years they built a large household. Parish records from North Farnham document the births of their seven children: Margaret (1719), Elizabeth (1721), Ambrose (1725), Catharine (1727), Sarah (1729), Samuel (1732), and Jane (1734). These entries firmly place the Steele family within the parish’s early colonial population.

Samuel died in 1736 (2) at about forty‑five years of age and was buried in the First North Farnham Churchyard in present‑day Warsaw, Richmond County. No grave marker survives, (2) but parish registers and later family histories preserve his identity and the names of his children. His widow Catharine lived until 1741, and their children married into other prominent families of the region, including the Websters, Hammonds, Branhams, Hartleys, and the Woodalls—the last through their daughter Sarah Steele, who married Sampson Woodall in 1756.

Through his marriage, his children, and the parish records that document his life, Samuel Steele stands as a foundational figure in the Steele–Hammond–Woodall lineage of colonial Virginia.

Evidence Supporting Sarah Steele as the Daughter of Samuel Steele and Catharine Hammond

The available records from colonial Virginia provide a strong and coherent case that Sarah Steele, born in 1729, was indeed the daughter of Samuel Steele and Catharine Hammond of Richmond County. In a period where parish registers serve as the primary documentation of family relationships, the Steele family appears consistently and reliably in the records of North Farnham Parish, allowing their family structure to be reconstructed with confidence.

Virginia, Births and Christenings, 1584-1917 on Family Search gives the following information: (4)

Sarah Steel

Father's Name: Samuel Steel

Mother's Name: Kathrine

Event Type: Birth

Event Date: 22 Oct 1729

Event Place: North Farnham Parish, Richmond, Virginia, British Colonial America 

The parish register of North Farnham Parish lists Sarah Steele, born 22 October 1729 as the daughter of Samuel Steele and his wife Catharine. (2) This entry is contemporary to the event and constitutes direct, primary evidence of her parentage. The same register records the births of her six siblings—Margaret, Elizabeth, Ambrose, Catharine, Samuel, and Jane—between 1719 and 1734, all attributed to the same parents. (2) These clustered entries form a complete and internally consistent family group.

Further confirmation comes from independent genealogical sources. Daniel Dobyns of Colonial Virginia identifies Elizabeth Steele, born in 1721, as the daughter of Samuel Steele and Catherine Hammond, reinforcing the parental pair named in the parish records. Catherine’s brother Charles was Secretary of the Virginia House of Delegates. (5 p. 36)

"Charles Hammond (Catherine, Daniel) was born on 19 November 1716 in Richmond County, Virginia.  He married Elizabeth Steele, his second cousin, daughter of Samuel Steele and Catherine Hammond, who was born 23 October 1721 and died 3 July 1798.  Charles Hammond was Secretary of the Virginia House of Delegates before the Revolution.  At the commencement of the Revolution, he moved to South Carolina and eventually settled on Fox's Creek, near Augusta, Georgia.  He had five sons engaged in the Revolution and was himself a Whig.  He died at Fox's Creek on 15 August 1794."

Because Elizabeth and Sarah appear together in the same birth sequence in the parish register, this secondary source strengthens the reliability of the family structure.

Sarah’s later life also aligns with this identity. The Woodall family genealogy, preserved in the Alabama Surname Files, records the marriage of “Sampson Woodhall & Sarah Steel” on 24 March 1756, a union consistent with the migration patterns of families moving from the Northern Neck into Goochland and Charlotte Counties during the mid‑18th century.

"U.S. Census of Virginia of 1790 (Charlotte County 1782) lists the name Sampson Woodall as head of a family of 9 children.  Douglas Register gives the following marriage and births of children: Sampson Woodhal & Sarah Steel married March 24, 1756" (6)

Her siblings likewise married into families that appear repeatedly in the same parish and county records—Hammond, Webster, Branham, Hartley—demonstrating a tightly interwoven kinship network typical of the region.

Importantly, no conflicting evidence exists. There is no other Sarah Steele of the same age in Richmond County records, nor any alternate set of parents suggested in parish, probate, or land documents. The absence of contradictory information supports the conclusion drawn from the parish register.

Taken together—primary parish entries, corroborating genealogical sources, consistent sibling relationships, matching marriage records, and no conflicting evidence—the documentation meets the genealogical proof standard for colonial Virginia. The evidence is sufficient to conclude that Sarah Steele was the daughter of Samuel Steele and Catharine Hammond.

Hammond/Steele Burials at North Farnham Church (7)

North Farnham Church is located at Calvary Church Road, Warsaw, Virginia 22572 United States. 

Elizabeth Hammond 1658 – 17 Jun 1717 Memorial ID 136215428

Job Hammond 1646 – Mar 1718 Memorial ID 136215364

Judith Alloway Hammond 10 Nov 1703 – 11 Sep 1733 Memorial ID 136216580

Martin Hammond 1656 – 1729 Memorial ID 136214003

Mary Hammond 1664 – 1697 Memorial ID 136214042

William Hammond 3 Sep 1682 – 25 Mar 1718 Memorial ID 136215576

Ambrose Steele 6 Mar 1725 – 13 Aug 1735 Memorial ID 136216786

Catharine Hammond Steele 1694 – 1741 Memorial ID 136213938

Jane Steele unknown – 1699 Memorial ID 136213813

Samuel Steele 4 Jan 1691 – 1736 Memorial ID 136213867

Samuel Steele unknown – 1707 Memorial ID 136213794

North Farnham Churchyard Burials & Family Relationships

I. Foundational Generation (Earliest Steele Burials)

These individuals form the first known Steele generation in Richmond County.

Name	Dates	Buried at North Farnham?	Relationship
Samuel Steele (the elder)	d. 1707	Yes	Father of Samuel Steele (1691–1736)
Jane Steele	d. 1699	Yes	Mother of Samuel Steele (1691–1736)

II. Second Generation: Samuel Steele (1691–1736) & Catharine Hammond (1694–1741)

This couple forms the central Steele–Hammond union.

Name	Dates	Buried at North Farnham?	Relationship
Samuel Steele	4 Jan 1691 – 1736	Yes	Son of Samuel & Jane; husband of Catharine Hammond
Catharine Hammond Steele	1694 – 1741	Yes	Wife of Samuel Steele; daughter of the Hammond family

III. Children of Samuel Steele & Catharine Hammond (2)

All seven children were born in North Farnham Parish.

Child	Dates	Buried at North Farnham?	Relationship
Margaret Steele Webster	1719–1781	No	Daughter
Elizabeth Steele Hammond	1721–1798	No	Daughter; married Charles Hammond (her cousin)
Ambrose Steele	6 Mar 1725 – 13 Aug 1735	Yes	Son; died young
Catharine Steele Branham	1727–?	No	Daughter
Sarah Steele Woodall	22 Oct 1729 – ?	No	Daughter; married Sampson Woodall.  She died in Charlotte County and is buried there, but exact place is unknown
Samuel Steele (Jr.)	1732–1772	No	Son
Jane Steele Hartley	1734–?	No	Daughter

IV. Extended Hammond Family Burials

These individuals represent the Hammond kin network into which Catharine Hammond was born. They are buried at North Farnham and are likely her parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins.

Name	Dates	Buried at North Farnham?	Relationship to Catharine Hammond Steele
Elizabeth Hammond	1658 – 1717	Yes	Likely aunt or cousin
Job Hammond	1646 – 1718	Yes	Likely uncle or cousin
Judith Alloway Hammond	1703 – 1733	Yes	Likely cousin
Martin Hammond	1656 – 1729	Yes	Likely uncle or cousin
Mary Hammond	1664 – 1697	Yes	Likely aunt or cousin
William Hammond	1682 – 1718	Yes	Likely uncle or cousin

 Works Cited

1. Gauldin, Catherine L. The Gaulding Tapestry. [Online]

2. Samuel Steele. Find a Grave. [Online] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136213867/samuel-steele.

3. Virginia, U.S., Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, U.S., 1649-1800. ancestry.com. [Online] "Steele, Samuel & Williams, Catherine (wid) bef 1736, bride was the widow of Thomas Williams", Married Well and Often: Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, 1649-1800. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5063/images/gpc_marriedwellandoften-0345?pId=6209.

4. Virginia, Births and Christenings, 1584-1917. Family Search. [Online] Sarah Steele. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRR4-Y9D?lang=en.

5. Daniel Dobyns of Colonial Virginia: His English Ancestry and American Descendants. ancestry.com. [Online] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62282/images/62282_ac396bfb_0090-00051?pId=4346200520.

6. The Woodall Family of Virginia and Alabama. ancestry.com. [Online] Sarah Steel in Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61266/images/41904_540130-00467?pId=95343354.

7. North Farnham Church. Find a Grave. [Online] https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2670038/val=first-north-farnham-churchyard&length=30.

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