Savage Grant

In my area of the country there are still markers along what the surveyors call the military line that are original markers from the surveys made for the Savage Grant.  My husband and I and my son and daughter-in-law bought land between Barboursville, WV and Huntington in the Pea Ridge area.  I spent some time with the surveyor and was amazed at the fact that we found two of the markers while looking at the boundaries of our land.

Below is a photo of the larger of the two stones.  The people that own the property on which the stone stands, elected to paint the "x" with white paint.

This sign stands along Route 60 between the two entries into the town of Barboursville.  Remember that when the ladies of the Colonial Dames erected this sign, Route 60 would have been the major highway in the area.  The marker was dedicated April 10, 1930 by the West Virginia chapter of the Colonial Dames of America.  

A map of the Savage Grant can be found on the Marshall University Special Collections website at:

go to

https://mds.marshall.edu/ts_maps/7/

Another article about the Savage Grant can be found at:

http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/183

An article written by James E. Casto that appeared in the Herald-Dispatch says the following:  "On Dec 15, 1772 John Murray, Virginia's royal Governor, acting as agent for King George III, granted more tan 28,000 acres along the Ohio River and the lower Guyandotte and the Big Sandy rivers to John Savage and 59 other men who had served under George Washington at the 1754 Battle of Great Meadows, Pennsylvania in the French and Indian War.  Murray is generally known as Lord Dunmore.

In 1775 some of the grantees met on the land grant and drew up a partial division.  A year later, after differences arose among some of the grantees or their heirs, a suit was brought in the Superior Court at Staunton, Virginia, asking that the earlier division be voided.  The court appointed five men to act as a commission to divide the grant into equal parts.

The commission hired General Edward W. Tupper to conduct a survey.  It wasn't until 1814 that Tupper completed his work.  He divided the grant into 61 equal parcels of approximately 460 acres each, beginning with Lot 1 at the western end of the grant and terminating with Lot 61 on the eastern end.  In 1819, the court upheld Tupper's division.  

This article goes on to say that William Buffington purchased 20 acres at the mouth of the Guyandotte River from Jonathan Savage's grant and willed the parcel to his sons, Thomas and Jonathan Buffington.  The sons came about 1796 and settled on the tract,  Thomas built his house on the East side of the Guyandotte while Jonathan built on the west side.  

John Savage was the lieutenant under Andrew Lewis in the militia in 1754.  A list of other men in the same militia group can be found at:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~appalachian/History/Era_of_French_Indian_War/era_of_french_indian_war.html

There is another version of this at:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wvnichol/bd/frenchindwar.htm

Both give Crozier’s Source: Crozier's "Virginia Colonial Militia"pp. 9-57  as the source for their information.

There seems to be similar information in:

The soldiery of West Virginia, in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's ... By Virgil Anson Lewis

Information about lots #32,33, and 34 is found at:

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/county/clark/dr-john-mccormick.html

Information on Savage Grant found on KYOWVA website:

http://www.kyowva.org/newsletters/savage_grant.html

Where were the men in this militia group from in this time frame? 

I found an article written in the Wayne County News April 10, 1924 that someone had downloaded from the West Virginia Archives and History website in 2006.  The article was titled:

                                    Ancient Savage Land Grant was sold for Taxes

The article does not name an author

Not a single person entitled to a share of the Savage Grant ever took possession of it.  The lands were sold after the War of 1812 for United States direct tax of two cents on an acre.  Cabell County which included Wayne at that time, had to raise $1,546,50 and the old soldiers or their heirs forfeited their tracts of 400 acres rather than pay the $8.00 accessed against it.

It had been decreed that if the land taxes were not paid by July 1, 1819, the land should be sold.  In 1817 surveyors were directed to come here to make such surveying as might be necessary to make appraisal reports.

General Edward W. Tupper was the surveyor.  The commission was composed of George Summers, Lewis Summers, John Henderson, William Sterrett, an Andrew Parks.

I have made a copy of the rest of the article and filed it in file labelled Savage Grant,

Another good source of information is an article in the KYOWVA Fall 2016 Newsletter on page 13.  This is in Volume XXXIX No 3.  It is a reprint of an article by Eunice Proctor Perkins that appeared in the Herald Dispatch, Sunday, April 6, 1930.  I have filed this in the same file as above.

Woodson

My mother-in-law, Sue Harris Moses, did DNA testing for me in November 2013.  I have explained her Harris connection in other posts as well as her Shelton and Johnson connections.  Harris is on her father's side; Shelton and Johnson are on her mother's side.  However, a match has been in touch this week that may be on her father's Woodson side.  I am going to explain the little bit that I know about this Woodson connection in this post.

I will start it by telling the story that Sue grew up at least part of her childhood next door to her Grandfather, Samuel Sterling Harris and her Grandmother, Louise Frances Woodson Harris.  This was after the couple had moved from Buckingham/Appomatox area of Virginia to the coal fields of WV.  Sue loved her Grandmother Lou!  Anytime she talks about her childhood, she tells something nice about this woman who according to Sue:  Married Samuel Sterling and raised his four children by his first wife as well as the 9 children they had together and then raised grandchildren in her home as well as caring for Samuel Sterling in his old age.  According to Sue he went to bed and stayed there for years while Grandmother Lou waited on him hand and foot.  Sue says that Grandmother Lou had everyone for Sunday dinner after church and that no one ever helped her ....so that it was always Sue who finished the dishes and the clean up with her grandmother.

It is Samuel Sterling and Lou who had the Harris family Bible that contained the family pages that son, Hewitt, tore from the Bible.   The pages are now have in my possession.  If you would like to see the pages for yourself, go to Gregg Bonner's site:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gbonner/bible/apperson.html

Now to the small amount that I know about this Woodson connection:

Louise Frances Woodson was orphaned very early.  Her father died of typhoid fever in 1862....the same year that Louise was born.  Her mother died sometime after she was the informant on her husband's death information in Buckingham County and the census of 1870.  In the census of 1870 the children are found in the homes of various relatives:

1870 census shows children in homes of the following Uncles:

Uncle James H. Routon caring for Richard and Louisa Woodson

Uncle George D. Woodson caring for George E. & Lucy Virginia Woodson in Appomattox Co.

Uncle Peter H. Routon caring for Samuel Woodson in Bedford Co

In the 1870 census Frances Louise is living in household of James Routon who is 50 years old.  Also in the household are Lucy Routon who is 76 (likely to be mother of James),  Eliza Routon who is 40, Finnet G. Routon who is 30 and female, Richard Woodson who is 10 and Louisa who is 8.  This would have been right after Louisa’s mother died.  This is located in Francisco in Buckingham County, Virginia.  

The above information came from Fran Hill who also  told me that the mother of Louise was Martha Routon,   Martha was a sister to Fran's 2-gr-grandmother.  I looked for Louise in the census of 1880 and it appears that she was living with her brother, George who was married and only 23 years old with a wife and two very small children living with him.  No old maids in that household.  They are in Lovingston in Nelson County, Virginia.  However, I may have found the household that Louise talked about in her story.  In the 1880 census there is a household headed by Jas. H. Woodson in which his mother, Lucy,  who is 86 and a sister, Eliza, who is 55 and single and four black persons who are said to be servants.  This is in Francisco in Buckingham County.  This is indeed the same household that Louise would have been in in 1870.  It was not two old maids...it was a grandmother and a maiden aunt.


The family folklore told by Lou's son, Hewitt Samuel Harris is:

Louise never knew her father. He was captured by the Yankees in the Civil War and died at Camp Lookout from Typhoid Fever.  I have a note that says that Louise was in the kitchen when Yankees came through--but I don’t know anything else about that episode.  She did not remember her mother as she died when Louise was two.  She was raised by two old maid aunts.  They were Baptists and they were so mean that she became a Methodist.

Pop Harris (Hewitt Samuel Harris) said that Louise raised 4 step-children, 9 of her own, and 4 grandchildren and had all of the family for Sunday dinner every Sunday.  He said that she was great.  Samuel Sterling was in bed for five years at the end of his life and she waited on him.

In my data base I have the following:

I do not have the marriage certificate in hand, but in a letter to Ollie Mae from a genealogist in Amherst, Va. he says:  in marriage register 3, page 120 bond secured on Aug 30, 1882, and return by minister, Jno N. Jones, Sept 3, 1882.  Groom S. Sterling Harris-age 34--widowed--born in Appomatix and lived in Amherst--white--son of Samuel and Nancy Harris.  Occupation--miner--bride: Louisa F. Woodson--aged 19--single--white--parents: George and Mahala Woodson. 

In looking for Allen's Creek on the internet, I found the following:

http://pages.suddenlink.net/phelpsdna/Southern_Phelps_Research/VirginiaPhelps/PropertyTrailJohnOFGoochland.htm

This link mentions surnames of Woodson and Glenn which make me think that this is in the right area.  I also found work that someone has done to locate Allen's Creek which seems to have totally disappeared even as early as 1895:

http://www.roadsidethoughts.com/va/allens-creek-xx-nelson-genealogy.htm

http://www.roadsidethoughts.com/va/allens-creek-xx-nelson-map.htm

From reading the information on the roadsidethoughts site I lean towards the thought that Allen's Creek was very close to where the arrow is on the above map.  I have been unable to locate Francisco.  But it would have been on the Buckingham side of the James River ....not the Nelson County side as Allen's Creek.

There is a map of Buckingham showing some land that belonged to Woodson men at:

http://home.southwind.net/~crowther/Dibrell/Map-VA.html

Below map is one that I found in my Harris files.  I am embarrassed to admit that I do not know where I found it on-line, but I am sure that it is on-line somewhere:

I am viewing a map on the Library of Congress site that is a c. 1864 map of Amherst and Nelson Counties that shows some land owners.  I have clearly looked at a Harris Ferry on the James River and also a landowner in Amherst with surname Harris.

http://www.loc.gov/item/2002627457

I have also been viewing a modern DeLorme atlas that shows Allen's Creek.  It is clearly an area that is VERY close to all four counties:  Amherst, Nelson, Appomatox, and Buckingham:

Mueller and Miller

I descend from Jacob Mueller who founded Muellerstadt which later became Woodstock, Virginia.  A mention of a book came across a mail list the other day.  It was a Genealogy of the Carter family that could be read on-line.  Because there is a Carter in my ancestry in Louisa County, Virginia, I decided to take a quick look.

The descendants of Capt. Thomas Carter of "Barford," Lancaster County, Virginia : with genealogical notes of many of the allied families (1912)

The book is by Joseph Lyon Miller who was born in 1875.  

I did not find anything in my brief look about my own Carter family.  However, there were several  Pieces of information about my Miller family.  I suspect that the author also descended from my Jacob Mueller.

The first piece of information is on page 190:

https://archive.org/stream/descendantsofcap00byumill#page/190/mode/2up/search/190

There are a couple of the traditional stories about John Miller and there is also a portrait of Christian Miller of Woodstock on the facing page.

The search function is amazing!  I would like to spend more time searching through books on open library.org.

Family Finder Matches for Sara Ann Hawkins

I just received information on results for my mom's and my mother-in-law's FF tests.  They have been more fun that my own matches.  The three closest matches for my mother are clearly matches with Mom's Logan County, WV and Eastern Ky ancestors.  And I have filed our chats via e-mail on this in file labelled DNA my FF matches, since  all of mom's matches that are close are also matches to me.

However, I just received an e-mail from a man in Australia whose sister is a match...she is not a close match.  What is of great interest is the fact that he says that the match is on chromosome 6 which has shown to be a strong McDonald section of his sister's DNA.  As I began to answer his e-mail, I decided that I did not want to loose the ideas that he had sent nor the ideas that I was thinking about.  So here it is posted to the blog.

First I looked to see what I could find about McDonald.  First I looked at the area of Scotland from which the McDonald name is associated:

Map from:    http://www.clandonald-heritage.com

The website calls the map The Lands and Islands of Clan McDonald

Note that the lands include County Antrim in Northern Ireland as a stronghold of the McDonald Clan.

Next I looked to see what surnames are associated with Clan Donald:

http://www.clandonald.info/clandonaldnames2.html

Here is what I wrote back to Rob:

We live in West Virginia.  Mom's ancestors were on these shores very early.  They seem to have been mostly in the area of Virginia during the Revolution and then moved west into Eastern Kentucky and what is now southwestern WV just after the Revolution.  These people were very likely to have been Scotch-Irish .....Here are some of the surnames that are likely to have connected:

Salmons/Sammons
Mom's maiden name is Salmons.  A lady named Ruth Sammons Nassar who was a first cousin to my mother's father did a great deal of research on the Salmons family in the second half of the 20th C.  Ruth says in her book:  The Salmons came to America in the 17th C and were probably descendants of the Highland Scots who migrated across the North Channel into Northern Ireland as early as 1584....Ruth also suggest that it was possibly at one time McSalmon (Son of Solomon).

However, a quick look on-line tells me that the name could also be associated with England or Wales.  So while this is a possibility, it is not certain that this is the link.

Wooten

Don't know yet about origin of Wooten/Ooten name.  Websites on-line associate it with English:  The Anglo-Saxon name Wooten comes from when the family resided in the county of Kent.  Their name is derived from the Old English words  wudu meaning wood and tun meaning enclosure or settlement.  This family is first found in Kent where they had a family seat at Marley before and after the Norman Conquest in 1066.  Hensley

Hensley
  
Hensley seems to be English in derivation when one looks on-line

Osborne

I have recently been in touch with a lady named Betty Harrell Gerlack who wrote a book (that I have ordered from her) connecting my Edward and Sally Burchett Osborne to the Thomas Osborne who moved from to Virginia in 1619.  Others on-line tie this line in with an English Thomas Osborne.  I will correct this when I read the book if Betty does not agree with the English ties for this line.

Webb

Websites say that this is an English and Scottish occupational name for a Weaver.

Family History Monthly (http://www.familyhistorymonthly.com/surnames/surname-detail/10) says:
The surname Webb is England and Wales’s 79th most popular surname. This isn’t surprising as it was an occupational surname for a weaver and without weavers our ancestors wouldn’t have had clothes. Weaving required skill and also fairly complicated equipment, in the form of looms, and these were passed down in families for generations – in fact, this is how we derive the term ‘heirloom’.

Morrison

Other researchers tell me that my Morrison line moved to Pittsylvania County from County Donegal in Northern Ireland in the last half of the 1700's.  Morrison is clearly a Scots name from looking at Wikipedia and other websites.

above map from:  http://cmsna.x10host.com/public_html/clanorigin.htm and also paragraph below:

There is little in the way of historical information on the origins of Clan Morrison. It is generally accepted that the hereditary judges, or brieves, of the Isle of Lewis were chiefs of the clan until that office disappeared in the early 1600's. The seat of the brieves was at Habost in Ness, near the Butt of Lewis. One tradition is that this line of brieves were descended from a Morrison heiress of the original line and a Macdonald of Ardnamurchan who married her in the 1300's. The Morrisons of Harris claim to be of the original line.

Ward

Ward seems to be English according to casual google search.

Castle

Again a brief google search shows Castle to be a Norman-English name as well as having French and German associations. Wikipedia

Carey

Wikipedia suggests that Carey is likely to be Irish in derivation:

Carey is a surname arising from: 1) at least five distinct patronymics in Ireland,^[1] and therefore numerous;^[2] 2) a habitation/topographic name in both Somerset and Devon, and possibly also Cornwall, occurring also as Cary;^[3] 3) a habitation/topographic name in Normandy, Burgundy and Franche-Comté in France, occurring also as Carrey and Cary;^[4] 4) less frequently a habitation name from Dyfed, Wales, which normally exists in the formCarew.^[5]

and on Ancestry the Irish connection is corroborated:

Carey Name Meaning

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ciardha, a midland family name meaning ‘descendant of Ciardha’, a personal name derived from ciar ‘dark’, ‘black’.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Fhiachra ‘son of Fiachra’.English: habitational name from Carey in Devon or Cary in Somerset, named for the rivers on which they stand; both river names probably derive from the Celtic root car- ‘love’, ‘liking’, perhaps with the meaning ‘pleasant stream’.English (of Norman origin): habitational name from the manor of Carrey, near Lisieux, Normandy, France, of uncertain origin.Welsh and Cornish: variant of Carew.Possibly an Americanized form of German Gehrig or Gehring.

Carter

According to Wikipedia:  

Carter is a family name, and also may be a given name. Carter is of English origin and is an occupational name given to one who transports goods by cart or wagon.^[2] It is the 64th most common surname in the United Kingdom.^[3] Within the United States, it is ranked as the 40th-most common surname.^[4]

Burchett

Quick google search shows at least three sites agreeing that Burchett is English

McNeely

Much to my disappointment McNeely is not one of the names associated with Clan McDonald.  It seems that McNeely is not Scots as one would guess with the "Mc" prefix.  Surname Database says that it is generally recorded in Ulster and translates as son of the poet to the clan.  There seem to be McNeely's named in County Down and County Antrim.  House of Names says that they are first found in Armagh and Monaghan where they held a family seat from ancient times.

Ancestry site says:

Scottish (Galloway) and northern Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Fhilidh ‘son of the poet’.Irish: Anglicized form of the Connacht name Mac Conghaile ‘son of Conghal’ (see Connolly).

So it seems that the most likely connections would be with Mom's surnames of Salmons/Sammons, Morrison, and McNeely.  How to explore these ideas?

1.  we might look to see if the known McNeely, Sammons, and Morrison matches with Mom share the Chromosome #6 match that Rob's sister shares with mom.  I have to stop for today, but I'll try to look at that possibility later.

2. I might find a Morrison male to test for both yDNA and also FF while the FTDNA test is going on.

3.  I might zero in via Chromosome browser to see which of Mom's other matches might share this match by putting in Mom and Rob's sister and then checking against other matches.

Osborne family connections

I spent some time straightening the cubby on the chest in the office that is labelled Hensley/Webb.  In the cubby is a file that is labelled Ruth Sammons Nassar's book My Begetters Vol II Osborn and Hensley.  I am not doing major research on either family this fall, but I don't want to loose some thoughts about this family.

Ruth highly recommends a book by Elizabeth J. Harrell on the Osborn family.  I tried to access it digitally via the Family Search website....but I was not able to sign into the site on which the book was said to be available.  Family Search tells me that it is because it is copyrighted and that I can view it through a LDS FHL.  However, much to my delight, I was able to get in touch with the author by using the information at the below website and White Pages.  I have ordered the book.

http://www.osborne-origins.org/contrib/dave-osborne/osborne_reference_literature.htm

While chatting with the author, I was very excited to hear that she was able to connect the early Thomas Osborns by using names of slaves.  I can hardly wait to read Betty's book!  Betty gave me permission to add her e-mail to the blog in case someone else would want to have a copy of the book:
bhgerlack@gmail.com

This site also mentions a book by Donald Lewis Osborn that I would like to view that is said to be available at the Boyd County Library.  I have filed this information in a file that is labelled Boyd County Library.

I also viewed information on the FTDNA site that seems to indicate (if I am interpreting it correctly) that there is a DNA participant who believes that he descends from Edward and Sally Burchett Osborne who is a match for DNA group #1.  This group seems to have research that indicates a connection to the Five Thomas Osborne generations whose family migration took the family from England to Henrico County, Virginia.  I have sent an e-mail in hopes of contacting this possible cousin.  I tried using the e-mail address on the site to contact the participant but the e-mail was returned to me.  I will contact the Osborne DNA administrator to see if he/she can put me in touch.

My own connection to this Osborne family is through the first wife of Rowland Salmons:  Edna Osborne.  Rowland and Edna were married in Floyd County, Kentucky at Prestonsburg 7 June 1821.  I descend from their son Rowland (Bud) who married Lucinda Hensley.  Edna's parents were Edward and Sally Burchett Osborn.

Webb families in Warren County, Kentucky

What do I know about Warren County and area in Kentucky?  The area must have been growing quickly in the time period of 1796:

In June 1796, all of Western Kentucky was either in Logan or Hardin County.  Logan was the southern part....Hardin was the norther part.

By June 1797, the southern part that had been Logan had been split into (going from east to west) Greene, Warren, Logan, Christian

By June 1799, Barren had been carved out of Warren and  Greene

By 1810 there had been no more huge boundary changes in Barren, Warren, and Logan counties.  The below map shows in pink where Warren County is located today:

The following Webb males are found in tax lists in the following years in Warren County: 

1802 Martin Webb, Sr  Green River

        Lazarus Sinking Creek

        William Webb

1803 Merry

        Martin Green River

        Henry Beaver Dam

1804 Martin Sr. Green River

        Merry

        Lazarus

1805 William

         Martin Green River

        Martin Jr.  Green River

        Lazarus

1806 Martin

        Henry

        Henry

1807 Martin

        Henry

        William

        Lazarus

I have a note in my files that says:  Lazarus and Eli Webb lived in Warren County until they moved to Illinois about 1815-1818.  Lazarus was here as early as 1797. Lazarus and Eli have two younger brothers:  William b. 17 Dec 1776 and Charles.  My notes say information from dianmah@juno.com   This same lady says that Elizabeth and Lazarus moved to Franklin County, Illinois which is quite a bit south of Clay County.

In 1810 there is a William Webb with a young family (2 males and 1 female) in Logan County, Ky.  There is no William Webb in Illinois.  William Webb seems to be in Warren County in 1820.

Coleman surname associated with my Hawkins line

I want to do a bit of a study on all possible connections with the Coleman surname in Orange County, Virginia in the time period between 1750 and 1850.

Sarah Coleman is named in the will of Benjamin Hawkins (proved in Orange County, Virginia 1857)

3rd AFter the decease of my wife, I give to Sarah F. Coleman my negro woman Judy (?) and her children to her and her heirs forever.

and

8th All of my stock of horses, cows, sheep, hogs and plantation utensils, I give to be divided equally between Sarah F. Coleman and Mary Marshall to them and thier heirs forever.

and 

9th It is my desire and wish that my executor sell my negro men Jack, Bill and Carter (?) and that these said negroes be allowed to choose their master that the monies arising from the sale of said negroes be divided equally amongst Thomas R. Hawkins (heirs?), Sarah Coleman and Matilda W. Marshall to them and their heirs forever.

Matilda Marshall was the daughter of Coleman and Joanna Bickers Marshall.  Matilda is actually found living in the home of Benjamin and Mary/Polly Bickers Hawkins in the census of 1850.  She is 15 years old at the time.

Thomas R. Hawkins is also a nephew of Benjamin Hawkins.

So the question is if Benjamin Hawkins is uncle to these three people is Sarah Coleman also related as a niece to the couple?  She is not a niece on the Bickers side...so if she is a niece, she is a Hawkins female married to a Coleman.

What else do I know about the Coleman name?  Coleman Marshall was best buddy to both Benjamin Hawkins and to my Thomas R. Hawkins.  Not one of these men ever went to the courthouse that the other two did not tag along to sign as a witness.

Don't forget the comment in the margin on a tax sheet that .....hmmm....I think that it might have been James Hawkins.....but it was definitely a Hawkins male who was described as being a son-in-law to Coleman.

The entire night, I have been remembering that Moses Hawkins' widow, Susannah, married Thomas Coleman.  However, I don't think that this is likely to be where Sarah Coleman comes from because this entire family moves to Kentucky.  They are not likely to be around in Orange County.  Thomas had been a good friend of Moses Hawkins and a neighbor to Moses and Susannah.

Marriage between James Hawkins and Betsy Coleman 3 September 1799.  Wit Joseph Bledsoe and Reuben Scott,  bondsman Joseph Bledsoe, and Parent James Coleman.  Wonder who this James hawkins is?  Wonder who this Betsy Coleman is?

Alexander Hawkins of Orange County, Virginia

I pulled out a few books this evening.  The first one that I looked at is Marriages in Virginia Spotsylvania County, 1851-1900 and Orange County, 1851-1867 by Therese Fisher.

I looked at a marriage between Alexander Hawkins and Ann Hume.  I wanted to make a note to myself on this man, but I absolutely do not know where to make that note....so here it is:

Hawkins, Alexander s/o Nicholas and Betty Hawkins age 74 W Farmer POB Spotsylvania  POF Orange  and
Hume, Ann d/o Francis and Lucy Hume age 34 S POB and POR Orange, POM Orange, 27 May 1859.OMR (OMR stands for Orange County Minister's Return.

going by reported age and date of marriage, Alexander Hawkins was born c. 1783.  This makes this man somewhat older than my Thomas R. Hawkins but probably younger than Thomas' uncle Benjamin.

An Alexander Hawkins married Anna Scott 17 Oct 1807.  bondsman was George Scott and minister was Nathaniel Saunders.

Hawkins in the Northern Neck

I am cleaning out my bottomless pit of an inbox this morning.  I have grandkids who are sleeping in and I am just doing mindless "housework" on my computer while I wait for them to get up.  I hesitate to spend many hours on Hawkins from the Northern Neck until I do the research that I still need to do to break down the brick wall in Louisa, Orange and Culpeper Counties for parents and grandparents of Thomas R. Hawkins and his uncle Benjamin Hawkins.  These men are my "for sure" relatives/ancestors.  I am quite sure that Thomas R. Hawkins (my 3-gr-grandfather) will indeed connect to the Northern Neck as will many of us who connect through DNA results in Hawkins DNA group #1, but I have not yet done the research to make that connection.

If you were sitting beside me chatting with me as I make these notes, I would begin by telling you that I have spent many hours looking at the man that I call Thomas Hawkins of Old Rappahannock County.  I have no research to connect this Thomas to any of our Hawkins DNA lines yet.

I have also spent many hours looking at John Hawkins who died and left a will  before 1716 in Richmond County, Virginia (also a part of the Northern Neck).  This man names children and friends and relatives and has wife Elizabeth (perhaps Elizabeth Butler).  This John Hawkins has been proven by DNA to relate to my own Hawkins line.

This John and Elizabeth line has been proven to be ancestors to the line of Janet Shamiri.  Janet's DNA participant is a match for my father:  James Marshall Hawkins who is now deceased.  Janet has a lot of good information on this line on her own blog:

http://jaceychasinghistory.blogspot.com

I have some maps and information on my blog already that I would want to review next before adding anything below.  It has some maps as well.  It carries the same title that this blog post has:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/05/hawkins-in-northern-neck.html

However, as I file some "stuff"  I want to make reminders of where I put ideas.

I just filed several e-mails from Fred Duncan in the mail folder labelled Northern Neck.  These include the wonderful maps that Fred sends me from time to time.  His Peter Duncan seems to have been a neighbor and a buddy of Thomas Hawkins of Old Rappahannock County and Thomas's father-in-law, Thomas/Jacob? Lucas.  John Catlett seems to also live in the neighborhood and is also a son-in-law to Thomas Lucas.

There is an excellent map in my Northern Neck mail folder from Fred Duncan that has date January 2013.

I want to add one more idea that is nagging in the back of my mind.  It is a post that I made to

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2013/01/hawkinsrowzeecatlett-connections.html

There is no doubt that I should never start looking at the Hawkins surname in the Northern Neck without reviewing the information that I posted on this blog in January 2013 that I can access with above link.

Nantucket Families

I descend from Nantucket families who are found on the island from 1659 until just before the Revolutionary War.

The below is taken from Wikipedia:

Nantucket's settlement by the English did not begin in earnest until 1659, when Thomas Mayhew sold his interest to a group of investors, led by Tristram Coffin, "for the sum of thirty Pounds...and also two beaver hats, one for myself, and one for my wife". The "nine original porchasers" were Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleafe, John Swain and William Pike. Seamen and tradesmen began to populate Nantucket, such as Richard Gardner (arrived 1667) and Capt. John Gardner (arrived 1672), sons of Thomas Gardner (planter).^[9]

In his 1835 history of Nantucket Island, Obed Macy wrote that in the early pre-1672 colony, a whale of the kind called "scragg" entered the harbor and was pursued and killed by the settlers.^[10] This event started the Nantucket whaling industry. A. B. Van Deinse points out that the "scrag whale", described by P. Dudley in 1725 as one of the species hunted by early New England whalers, was almost certainly the gray whale, which has flourished on the west coast of North America in modern times with protection from whaling.^[11][12]

Herman Melville commented on Nantucket's whaling dominance in Moby-Dick, Chapter 14: "Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires." TheMoby-Dick characters Ahab and Starbuck are both from Nantucket.

Whale weathervane atop the Nantucket Historical Association Whaling Museum

By 1850, whaling was in decline, as Nantucket's whaling industry had been surpassed by that of New Bedford. The island suffered great economic hardships, worsened by the July 13, 1846 "Great Fire" that, fueled by whale oil and lumber, devastated the main town, burning some 40 acres.^[13] The fire left hundreds homeless and poverty-stricken, and many people left the island. Another contributor to the decline was the silting up of the harbor, which prevented large whaling ships from entering and leaving the port. In addition, the development of railroads made mainland whaling ports, such as New Bedford, more attractive because of the ease of transshipment of whale oil onto trains, an advantage unavailable to an island.

If one is is descended from one Nantucket family, one is likely descended from most of the Nantucket families.  And that is part of the reason that my 5-gr-grandfather must have moved his family to Guilford County, NC just before the Revoution.  It is said that the families who moved made their move because they were worried about the vulerability of the island if a war would begin.  But also because it was getting hard to find perspective spouses for their children who were not cousins because the families were so intermarried.  Quakers did not believe in marrying cousins.

The below information is taken from The History of Guilford County, North Carolina (1902)  by Sallie W. Stockard

This source can be read on-line at:  https://archive.org/details/historyofguilford00stoc  What I have copied below is on pages 16-17 in this source:

 In 
1780 two-thirds of the inhabitants of Nantucket were Quakers. Among 
their leaders were the Coffins, Starbucks, Folgers. Barnards, Husseys. 

■'During a period of five years there were no less than forty-one cer- 
tificates recorded at New Garden Monthly Meeting from Nantucket out 
of a total of fifty certificates received. 

'In this number there were eleven families, including many that have 
since been prominent in Guilford County. Among them were : Libni 
Coffin, William Coffin, Jr., William, Barnabas, Seth (and wife), Samuel 
(and family), Peter and Joseph Coffin; Jethro Macy, David. Enoch, Na- 



iVO/v'77/ CAROLINA. 17 

thaniel. Paul (and family). Matthew (and five children) and Joseph Macy ; 
William. Gayer. Paul (and family), and William Starbuck; Richard, Wil- 
Ii:im, Stephen and Stephen Gardner; Tristrim. Francis and Timothy Bar- 
nard; Daniel. Francis and Jonah Worth; John VVickersham. William 
Recce. Jonathan Gifford. Reuhen Bunker. Nathaniel Swain, Thomas 
Dixon " 

The Pennsylvania and Xantucket Quakers did not mingle and 
inter-irarry with the Scotch-Irish, whose whole modus vivendi 
was the opposite of their own. 

Ahnost all the members of the denomination at the present 
day who are "birth rij^ht," can trace their descent from one or 
both of these sources, and those who cong^ratulate themselves upon 
their Xantucket origin may be interested in the followinjr doggerel 
which was supposed tersely to describe those same ancestors. 

The Rays and Russells coopers are, 

The knowing Folgers lazy. 

A lying Coleman very rare. 

And scarce a learned Hussey. 

The Coffins noisy, fractious. loud, 

The silent Gardners plodding. 

The Mitchells good, 

The Bakers proud, 

The Macys cat the pudding. 

The Lovetts stalwart, brave and stern. 

The Starbucks wild and vain. 

The Quakers steady, mild and calm. 

The bwains sea-faring men, 

And the jolly Worths go sailing down the wind. 

The reason that I chose to add this blog post this morning is that I wanted to put a link to the Nantucket Historical Society as a reminder for future study:

http://www.nha.org/library/librarydatabases.html

I was lucky enough to visit the library several years ago....I would also like to add photos and information about that trip to this post.

Foster in Amelia County, Virginia

WOW!  This is such a random post that I have to laugh at myself! Ira Harris posted the below on the HH mail list this morning:

Source: CAVALIERS AND PIONEERS
Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants
Volume IV, 1732 - 1741
Abstracted by Nell Marion Nugent
Edited by Dennis Ray Hudgins
Virginia State Library

Patent Book 17, page138

THOMAS FOSTER, 350 acs. Amelia Co., upper side of Stock's Cr., near sd Foster's House, in the Fork of JOHN HARRIS's Br.,
adj. John Dawson, Thomas Pruit & JOHN HARRIS; 10 June 1737, p. 355. 1 pound 15 shillings.


Ties in with previous one sent.
Any comments, please pass along through HH so that others may be helped.


Ira L. Harris III
Group 6, Harris Y-DNA Family Study.
Line of Robert Harris of Ware Creek, New Kent County, Virginia.


Don't know why .....but I decided to google to see if there was information on this Thomas Foster and found a website that I liked a lot:  

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fosterameliacova/

The lady's name is Laurie and she has a very nice map on the site showing where the various Foster men lived in Amelia County.,,,,I just wanted to save this thought and here it is.

Hensley in Cabell County, West Virginia

I am cleaning out the file labelled Hensley on my old computer this morning.  I have a few notes that I don't want to loose:

My notes tell me that there were no Hensleys in the Cabell County Tax list in 1810.  The census for Cabell County is lost for 1810.  So the Hensley family had not yet moved here from Virginia.....Bird Hensley who is the oldest son of Solomon Hensley says that he was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia when he tries to enlist in service as a man in his teens.  I do not think that this is random....I believe that it was true.  Bird's estimated birth date is 1810 or 1811 (Bird is said to be 39 in the 1850 census)  I also have information somewhere when he tried to enlist but is proved to be too young and is denied.  This happened just before he moved to Illinois.  I can not find it quickly this morning, but will add the information in the future.  The other fact that leads me to accept Bird's Pittsylvania information as true is that many of the names that are listed in dealings with the Hensley family are Pittsylvania area names.  They may have moved as a group from the Pittsylvania area to what is now Cabell County, WV.  For a possible location for where they may have been in Pittsylvania before the move look at my blog entry:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/10/hensleyfoster-connections.html

When I look at the land records my gut feeling is that the older generation moves into Cabell County sometime between 1814 and 1816.    These men are Solomon, Stephen and William Hensley.

The next generation in Cabell County is Samuel who buys land in 1830 and John who buys land from Soloman in 1833.

We find Stephen Hensley buying land from Henry Farley in 1814.  It is near the Big Sandy River.  At this time Cabell Count was very large and took in a big part of the southwestern part of the state.

We find Solomon buying land from Daniel Witcher, Jr. in 1815 near Beech Fork.  We find Wm buying land from Wm Dingess in 1816 also mear the Sandy River.  An Stephen buying from Wm Holderby et all in 1815 near the Big Sandy River.  Again in 1820 Solomon buys more land from James T. Watson (who lived in NY....his attorney handled the sale) on Beech Fork of 12 Pole Creeek.  By 1823 Stephen is dead as land is being bought by his heirs.  This is land on the Beech Fork and the Tug Fork of the Sandy River.

Wooten in Surry County, NC and elsewhere in NC and Virginia

The Wooten family that is found in Surry County, NC may not have any relationship to my mother's Wooten ancestors who are found in Eastern KY and Southwestern WV in the 1800s and on into today.  But a message came across the Surry County, NC mail list today that made me do a bit of poking around on the internet.  A man mentioned that a couple who have ties to Surry County had married in Grayson County, Virginia.  And that started my thinking about the Quakers who lived in Surry who I think I remember correctly were a part of the Westfield Meeting that reported to New Garden in Guilford County.  And that the Quaker families who lived in what is now Grayson also reported to New Garden.

The facts that I know are that I have no clue about the parentage of my 4-gr-grandfather, Silas Wooten who served in the Revolutionary war and was married to Phebe Worth.  He is documented as having enlisted to fight in the Revolution in Halifax County, Virginia.  He is documented as having had dealings in Guilford County, NC just after the war (1786-1787).

Silas and Phebe were married c. 1784 based on age of oldest child.  Both of the oldest two children say that they were born in NC in Census information.

1786  Thomas Hooten and Thomas Hooten Jr. as well as a George Hooten are found in Surrey County in 1786:

http://www.fmoran.com/1786a.html

this is in Capt.  Adkins District which is said to have been in the southern region of present day Surrey County along the Yadkin River.

http://southernkin.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/surry-county-nc-map.jpg

Thomas Wooten Sr died c. 1793 and left a will in which he names his children .  Silas is not named as a son.

http://books.google.com/books?id=UxAmLimPdVsC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=Will+of+Thomas+Wooten+in+Surry+County,+NC&source=bl&ots=vwcw_Brono&sig=11aJVlRGCiALae2xG4K5orA1t2c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=t89WUp32FY_G4APimoGwCA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Will%20of%20Thomas%20Wooten%20in%20Surry%20County%2C%20NC&f=false

1790 United States Federal Census of 1790 on Ancestry.com has 45 Wooten (or sound alike) Head of Households in NC in Caswell, Craven, Dobbs, Edgecombe, Gates, Sampson, Surry, Wayne, Wilkes, Halifax, Hyde, Iredell, Jones, Lincoln, Martin, New Hanover, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt, Rowan, Sampson, Surry, Wayne, and Wilkes Counties.  None of them are named Silas.

I find Thomas Wooten in Surry:

http://www.newrivernotes.com/surry_enumerations_1790_tax_list.htm

There is also a J. Wooten who has the 200 acres.....and a Richard Wooten who has 150 acres.  Both men are in Atkin district.  John Stotts is also listed in this tax enumeration but in Edwards district.

1792  1792 Next information take from:  http://home.att.net/~hbridges/williamsonfam.htm

John Hunt may have been a brother of Nancy Hunt. He along with Isaac Williamson and Silas Wooten 

witnessed the inventory of the estate of River Jordon, Jr. on 11th Oct. 1792.

There is a John Hunt living very close to Francis Worth on the Guilford County Map.  Is it possible that this John Hunt travelled down to Richmond County to Witness this estate?  Do i know that River Jordan, Jr's estate was in Richmond County?

1795  Martha Sisler gave me information that shows a Silas Wooten as 1 poll with no acres in Wilkes County, NC.  My Silas seemed to have rarely been a farmer....more often he is listed as a teacher later in Kentucky.  This could be my Silas Wooten.

Wilkes is next door to Surry County

1800 Silas appoears in tax list of John Hoge’s district in Montgomery County. Va

Was the family beginning their trek to Kentucky?  

1804 his son, George, was apprenticed to David Summers in Montgomery County, Va…George says later in life in the census information that he was born in Virginia….the older two children say they were born in NC, and the child just younger than George--Silas G. says he was born in OHio

1803 Silas G. Wooten born in Ohio.  Silas G. gives his age as 46 in the 1850 census Lawrence County, Ky and as in range 30-40 in the 1840 census of Lawrence County, Ky

1804 Silas received a land grant of 400 acres at Georges Creek on Levisa Fork of

Big Sandy River Certificate #115-- date of the Survey was Nov 6, 1804. 

(Kentucky) {another source says: April, 1, 1781 in Tazewell Co. Va.  Pension #S.40730}

1804 Rebecca said to have been born in KY.  Rebecca married first NAthan Blevins and second Berry Pack.  She gave her age as 46 in the 1850 census in Johnson County, Ky.  

I don't want to lose the thought that I found Hooten in Surry?  Wilkes?  I need to figure out where I was looking

Why do I look at the Surry County Wooten family?  Because there is a family in Eastern Kentucky who have a child named Silas Ooten/Wooten who is not connected to my Silas Wooten.  Anne Stotts is married to John Stotts.  We do not know what Anne's maiden name was.  She was married to a male Wooten/Ooten/Hooten who died.  She and this man had children.  After his death, she married John Stotts in Surry County, NC.  She and John moved to Eastern KY.  It is perhaps just a coincidence that she had a child named Silas....or perhaps there is a connection....just don't know yet.  My information says that Anne:


Afterwards, Anne and her children including Levi, Nancy & Jordan were living in Indiana by 1840. Her son Silas  was already deceased by then and his widow remarried and his children remained behind in the Tug River Valley.

WOW!  She had a child named Jordan.  I just looked....Jordan married a Williamson....does this marriage connect to the Isaac Williamson who was present when the estate of River Jordan was witnessed in 1792.  Don't know yet.