Friday, January 30, 2015

Spencer and Elizabeth Pinkard of Culpeper County, Virginia

You may have already heard my Woo Hoo!  from WV where ever you are tonight!  I have a really good buddy who has a Hawkins line that is shown by DNA testing to connect with my Hawkins ancestors.  She is the registrar for a DAR chapter in Tennessee.  Last night she sent me a link for a chancery case that she had found while she was trying to help a gentleman who was working on his daughter's DAR supplementary.  I had never seen this chancery case.  Makes me think about the fact that I have LOTS to look at to solve all of these mysteries of my ancestors.  Here is the link:


On page 6 of this chancery case, there is clear explanation that MY 3-gr-grandmother, Matilda Pinkard Hawkins, was the daughter of Spencer and Elizabeth Pinkard!  Woo Hoo!  All of Spencer and Elizabeth's children are named. And they are:

Thomas Pinkard (decd)
Mary A. Pinkard
Marshall P. Pinkard
Edward W. Pinkard
William Pinkard
Richard Pinkard
Martha Pinkard
H??? Pinkard (Penny Alby believes this is Hiram)
Matilda Pinkard
Robert Pinkard


The Chancery Case seems to have been in progress from 1866 to 1868.  It is titled Robert Pinkard vs Thomas Pinkard +c.  It was heard in the Circuit Court in Culpeper County, Virginia.  I believe that it may have been a friendly case to get everyone's permission to divide up the Dower Land of Elizabeth Pinckard.

I believe that the first four paragraphs basically say that Spencer Pinckard died intestate in Culpeper County.  His wife, Elizabeth, received 63 acres and the home that sat on the acres as her dower land.  Elizabeth has now died.  Robert wants the land and home to be sold and for the proceeds from that sale to be split into tenths.  He believes that he is entitled to receive two tenths because his brother, Thomas, devised the land to him in his will in Tennessee.


Ok....I skipped some pages and will try Edward P. Hawkins' answer:
This answer of Edward P. Hawkins to a Bill of Complaint exhibited against him and others by Robert Pinckard in the Circuit Court of Culpeper.

This respondent making the usual reservation  for answering to said Bill or so much thereof as he is advised it is ???? for him to answer , answering ???? that he believes the statements therein contained to be true.  The small tract of land of Sixty three acres is incapable of division among the heirs of the said Pinckard.  The enclosures and ????have all been destroyed and nothing remains but a small dwelling house.  It might be made a comfortable home for one family but a division would render all portions almost ???? This respondent concludes in the prayer of the Bill for a sale of the land and distribution of the proceeds.  Having fully answered pray to be dis????? with reasonable courtesy.  Edward P. Hawkins

It seems to me that all of the respondents  answer that the land is incapable of division.  They all seem to agree that the land should be sold and the proceeds divided....seven sign such an answer on  page 22 of the case.  and it looks as if these are actual signatures of the seven people.

On page 26 of the suit one can find the will of Thomas Pinkard.  It is a very nice will written 9 May 1846 in State of Tennessee and County of Davidson.  In it Thomas says that he bequeaths all of his interest in his mother's estate to his brother, Robert Pinkard for his kindness and expense in his last illness.

It looks as if the money is split up on page 51.

On page 93 Sheriff of Nelson County commanded to summon H? M Pinckard....he is not living in Culpeper in 1866.

On page 110 Thomas R. Hawkins writes that he is entitled to a life estate  but gives all of his proceeds to his four children.  His signature is very pretty.  Not a lot of information in the 124 pages after the WONDERFUL identification of the children  and grandchildren of Spencer and Elizabeth Pinckard.



In August 2019, Linda Hutcherson Simmons from Missouri sent me a message via Ancestry that she had read my blog post about the Pinkard family.  She shared information that she had about this family that we share.  Her ancestor is Marshall Pinkard who first married Agnes in Culpeper County, Virginia in 1823.  The couple was married by a Baptist Preacher with surname Mason.  Marshall Pinkard is next found in the 1830  Tennessee census with 3 young children and no wife.  In 1831 Marshall Pinkard married Elizabeth Johnson/Johnston.  Linda said she found more about this family line when reading  a TN Supreme Court Case finalized (she thinks) in 1842, after his death.

If you have information about any of the other of these children, I would love to add more to this post.  Contact me at mosesm@earthlink.net

No comments: