John V. Henry (b. ca. 1799), educator, was a brother of TJ’s caretaker at Natural Bridge, Patrick Henry (of Rockbridge County). The son of a manumitted slave, he was born free in Westmoreland County, and by 1817 he had followed his elder sibling to the Shenandoah Valley. Henry settled in Lexington, where he was a custodian of buildings and grounds at Washington College (later Washington and Lee University) by 1840. A Methodist and a leading member of the free black community, he purchased and emancipated his enslaved wife and children in 1845. Henry owned two draft animals and a four-wheeled carriage valued at $75 in 1849. Listing his occupation as teacher, he immigrated to Liberia with his family early the following year. On his arrival in the West African nation Henry established a mercantile firm, but he reportedly died soon thereafter (Marie Tyler-McGraw, An African Republic: Black & White Virginians in the Making of Liberia [2007], 58–9, 145–6; Rosemary Brana-Shute and Randy J. Sparks, eds., Paths to Freedom: Manumission in the Atlantic World [2009], 372–3; Westmoreland Co. Deeds and Wills, 21:178; Vi: RG 48, Personal Property Tax Returns, Rockbridge Co., 1817, 1849; DNA: RG 29, CS, Rockbridge Co., 1830; Rockbridge Co. Deed Book, Y:280; African Repository, and Colonial Journal 26 [1850]: 103–6).

oltletree ares: James Ocheltree’s heirs.