Revolutionary War Vouchers for Silas Wooten

Nancy Wooten sent me links to Revolutionary War Vouchers for Silas Wooten this morning.

It is somewhat hard to read, but here is what the reader at family research believed that it said:



and here is the link if you want to read it on the Family Search site for yourself:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2WT-P41J

Here are my questions....Silas was discharged from service in 1781 in Caswell County.  I do not know at this time if his entire unit was discharged there after their service in the battle of Guilford County.


Certainly the three counties of interest to us in this time period adjoined each other.  Guilford (Gu), Caswell (Was), and Orange (Or).  Orange is the County for which Hillsborough is the county seat.  I don't think that there is any doubt that Silas was "hanging out" in this area of NC.  Now where he was from before the war is a huge puzzle.  I think it more likely that Silas was not living in Hillsborough...but was probably in Guilford when he heard that there was money to be collected if he would ride to Hillsborough.  But this is certainly a guess.

Nancy says that there is an earlier pay voucher for Rowan County:

 One is 16 Aug 1782, Salisbury, Rowan, NC



again here is how the reader who indexed this document interpreted it:



and here is the link if you wish to visit the site on Family Search:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9WG-X63B?i=723&cc=1498361



I think that those of us who look at Silas, have a Nagging thought in the back of our mind that perhaps Silas could have been living in Surrey or Wilkes before the Revolution.

Information from Mr. Jude: 

Thomas Whootan, III b. abt. 1760 died bef. 1820 NC. He was married to Anne Unknown b. 1776 NC died after 1850 

Mr. Jude also guesses that his name might be Thomas because:

1810 Surry Co., NC census entry:

Thomas Wooton  2 males 10-15  1 male >45  1 female <10, 2 females  10-15, 1 female 26-44

According to this entry, Thomas Wooton was born before 1765 and his wife was born between 1766 and 1784 or about 1776. 

He also says:  Since this Thomas Wooten is not on the 1820 census, he may have died and his widow may be Ann who married John Stotts and then moved to the Tug Valley.  

Ann's Wooten children born in Surry County are the family that goes by the name Ooten in the Tug Valley.  They include a Silas Ooten.  Anne married John Stotts before her move to Kentucky with her children.  

My notes for Ann say:  

There were two seperate Wooten and/or Ooten families in the Tug River Valley in Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia in the early 1800's who have been misconstrued and/or misidentified. One family was headed by the Revolutionary War veteran Silas P. Wooten and his wife Phoebe Worth. The other family was headed by a woman whose first name was Anne and whose maiden name is unknown. Her husband's surname was Wooten and remains unidentified. He was possibly Thomas Whootan, III who was born in Surry Co., NC, where Anne married her second husband John Stotts before coming to the Tug River Valley.

After Anne's first husband died in Surry Co., NC, she later married John Stotts abt. 1810 in Surry Co., NC and moved to the Tug River Valley and had additional children with him also. Afterwards, Anne and her children including Levi, Nancy & Jordan were living in Indiana by 1840. Her son Silas P. was already deceased by then and his widow remarried and his children remained behind in the Tug River Valley. While Anne and her children were all in Indiana by 1840, the children of the Revolutionary War veteran Silas P. Wooten & Phoebe Worth remained in the Tug River Valley. This obviously suggests they were two seperate families since they both eventually lived so far apart.

There are researchers who say Silas's mother had maiden Jordan.  Is there reason to think of possibilities that Silas and Thomas Wooten were brothers?  Thomas may have named a child after his brother, Silas....or perhaps both our Silas P. and Ann's son Silas P. Ooten were named after someone in a generation or two earlier than our Silas P.

But the Pay voucher in Rowan could perhaps suggest Silas' return to Surry/Wilkes.  While the slightly later pay voucher could suggest his move to Guilford County.

Cornwallis was defeated at Yorktown Oct 1781.  So I would guess that Silas was discharged just after the defeat.  Silas was wounded at Eutaw Springs and left to be transported with the baggage back to wherever he was taken.  So perhaps he was recuperating when he received his first pay in Rowan County.  I am not sure why there would then be a second pay voucher after that date in Hillsborough since he had already been discharged.  Back pay?  Lots of questions. But I am very indebted to Nancy for having shared these documents.

I would add one more thing from my own Quaker research in NC.  Surry County Quakers were part of Westfield MM. 

Surry County records dated from the 1770s and 1780s cover parts of present-day Ashe, Alleghany, Forsyth, Stokes, Wilkes, and Yadkin Counties.

The Meeting dates back to the 1760's when pioneer Quakers from New Garden (now Guilford College) crossed Quaker Gap of the Sauratown mountains to plant a new community in the valleys of Big Creek and Tom's Creek. Early Quakers began holding meetings at Westfield by 1772 under the care of New Garden Quarterly Meeting and continued until the monthly meeting was established in 1786. Representatives from New Garden were sent to hold services for them. This is said to have lead to the name, "Westfield." The Quakers at New Garden regarded the work as a mission project and since it was located west of New Garden it was referred to as, "The Western Field." Thus comes the name, "Westfield."
The meeting was officially established November 13, 1786. The Westfield friends would send representatives all the way to New Garden, 67 miles, every month

 So there was a huge connection between the New Garden MM in Guilford County to which Phebe Worth's family had been connected and that of those living in the Westfield area.  This may not be a factor in connecting Silas P. Wooten to Surrey ....but it is something to think about.  

Wonder if there were any Worleys or Blankenships or Wards in Surry County?  

Proof that Richard Moore is the son of John Moore and Jane Cureton

I sent out several messages on Ancestry today as participants had added information giving Richard Moore wife of Sarah Jenkins and then actually added parents for Sarah as well.  I was hoping to find someone who had some proof of the maiden name of Richard's wife, Sarah.  The first message back had a researcher who had clearly mixed up several families.....dead end.

The second man offered no proof but wanted to know if I knew if Richard Moore's parents were John and Jane Cureton Moore.  I told him that indeed I had that connection in my data base, but I would have to think if I had proof.

This post is about proof of that connection.  First I found the birth of Richard Moore to parents, John and Jane Moore:


This document is from the Radnor MM and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.  It is said to be in Delaware County.    I found the copy of the register on Ancestry's amazing collection of the original Quaker records.


You will notice that the date of birth is said to be the 20 day of the 12th month of 1697.  Ancestry interprets that date to be 20 February, 1697.  I know that in that period of time, Quakers often used numbered months as they found the names of the months to be Pagan.  But if I take time to confirm that Ancestry has interpreted correctly, I will loose my train of thought.

So yes, we have proof that John and Jane Cureton Moore did indeed have a son named Richard.
And next I am thinking about proof that this is the Richard Moore who moved to Berks County around 1740 and then on to Orange County, NC around 1755.  The dates work well for a man born in 1697.  And all of the information say that he was an old man when he moved to Wrightsboro.

As I looked for documents of removal for Richard, I found the following.  I am not clear if this is MY Richard, but I suspect it is:



Again, I interpret this to be Richard's effort to become a part of the East Sudbury MM in 1733.  This document is also found on Ancestry's collection of original Quaker records.  I had trouble finding East Sadbury and find that our modern records refer to this MM as Sadsbury.

And then this next document seems to be the same Richard Moore being readmitted to Radnor MM from Sadsbury: (Sorry I had to blow it up this large in order to be able to read it....you may have to manipulate the image)



Again this image is from Ancestry's collection of Quaker records.  I did not see a date on this page, but Ancestry has labelled this image for Richard as follows:



I am not clear at this time if this is an actual move by Richard and Sarah or if this is just preparation for their move to Berks County.  But it would seem that if they received a certificate of good standing it should have been from Radnor MM.  Phooey!  There is not a list of Certificates of Removal issued as early as 1730.  They do not start for Radnor until 1784.  Ok....next look to see if there is a Certificate of Removal received in Berks County.

I could not find a certificate accepted in Berks County for Richard Moore.  The records were just not kept early enough.  So I am thinking that I should look at the men who moved to the Robeson area together to see from where they moved.

"The third settlement of Friends was in Robeson township, on the west side of the Schuylkill River about the year 1740. Moses Embree, Owen Humphray, John Scarlet, Sr., John Scarlet, Jr., Thomas Thomas, Robert Long, Peter Marsh, Richard Moor, Evan Thomas, David Cadwallader, David Jenkins, John Wells, David Morris and Ephraim Jackson were the earliest Friends in this territory. “

While looking at the early minutes for Robeson, I saw many entries for the Scarlet family and the Thomas Thomas family and the David Morris family and Ephraim Jackson and his wife as well ( I am thinking it was death dates for both of them, but I am doing that from memory.  Using Hinshaw's Quaker encyclopedia, it would seem that Robeson is not included in his volumes.  There is no record of any sort of Ephraim Jackson.  Only one for John Scarlet.  It is that he was accepted at Cane Creek in 1758.  So he continued to move with Richard Moore.  Moses Embree is mentioned quite a bit in Hinshaw, but this Moses Embree is in Virginia.  So it is possible that it is the same man but that he did not move to NC with Richard's group.  The only mention of a David Cadwallader is a different man unless he moved by 1759 to Fairfax MM in Chester County.  This is a possibility if when others moved south, he moved back to Chester County.  Remember I wrote a blog that explained that there were Indian Troubles in the area around Berks County which I believe caused the Quaker families to move.  They were peace loving and the facts that neighbors were being murdered must have been quite frightening.  Could not find Owen Humphrey.  Could this Evan Thomas be the same Evan Thomas who settled at Hopewell?  When I get a chance I need to check the date for the settlement at Hopewell.  I can not find definitive proof of John Wells....but there is a Wells family at Cane Creek.

I found an entry in the Exeter Monthly Meeting Book A in which David Jenkins is admitted to the Quaker faith 26th day of 4th month of 1753.   It does not mention his having a certificate from somewhere else.  This document is found among the Ancestry Quaker document collection.  David Jenkins is also mentioned in the Cane Creek MM records.

For Richard and his family, Hinshaw gives this:



So, Richard and his wife, Sarah are received with a certificate 1757, 6, 4.  Son, John, is received as well.  Prudence is the first one that gives us the evidence that they are moving from Exeter and that she is bringing her certificate from that Monthly Meeting.  Perhaps I have been looking at the wrong MM for Richard and his family....or perhaps Robeson is not a MM at this time but only a preparative meeting.

The only thing that I have in my data base about Prudence is that she is named as Prudence Ryan in Richard's will.  Mordecai is my ancestor.  I am guessing that he is dis for marrying out of unity.  I am a bit confused as to his wife.  I will look at that another time.  Abigail married Nehemiah Thomas.  She is one of my favorite non-ancestors.  She and Nehemiah remained childless.  They moved to Newberry County, SC rather than Wrightsboro.  When she was ready to move, she asked for forgiveness and was reinstated as a Quaker.  Abigail remained in the Quaker faith until her death in Warren County, Ohio.  The next entries are almost certainly in preparation for the move to Wrightsboro....there was probably not a MM at Wrightsboro when they first moved, this certificates were for the closest MM to the area.

But this pretty much firms up my belief that Richard and his family moved from Berks County to Cane Creek MM.  I believe that they were connected with the Eno preparatory Meeting that answered to Cane Creek.  I wrote a blog post about Eno.  If you would like to read it, use Eno as search word.

I found it!  I found the record in which Richard Moore presented his certificate from Sadsbury!  Again, in order to make it easy to read, I had to make the image original size.  You may need to manipulate it to read.  So it is no Robeson nor Exeter that he takes his certificate.  It is Oley!  A google search shows:

Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting established Oley Monthly Meeting in 1737. In 1742, its name was changed to "Exeter".

My note on these next pages is that they are probably easier to read on Ancestry.  But I wanted to add a few notes on some of the pages.

Oh, these pages are where Joseph found the complaints against Richard Moore for owing money.  I am looking at pages found on Ancestry Quaker records.  The heading is

Pennsylvania  Berks  Reading Monthly Meeting Minutes 1737-1765.  I found them by a search for Richard Moore.  But the very interesting thing is that these minutes are indexed by the original author.  Thus he has listed all of the pages on which Richard Moore is named.

And here is the application made by Richard Moore to obtain a certificate for his wife and children and his son John who must be the oldest child.



This is in 1755 as he is preparing to move to Orange County, NC.

And here is the page that documents the fact that the meeting is considering drawing up a certificate for Richard and his family to take with them to NC.  And this names the underage children.

And the very next page has a note that John Embree wrote from NC that he condemns his Fornification.  And that he is frequenting the Eno preparatory meeting.  The note says that there are also some lines written from others who are a part of Eno.  The MM will consider what to do...

And next the certificate has actually been made and signed:



I am fairly certain that the below is MY Mordecai, son of Richard Moore.  Mordecai is not named among the children of Richard and his wife, so I assume that he is grown.




And this next page makes it clear that John and Mordecai are indeed sons of Richard:

Marriage of John Lee and Virginia Beuhring Hawkins

Ancestry sent me a hint today for my Hawkins line that is very interesting.  It is the marriage record for John Lee Hawkins and Virginia Beuhring.  The record is found in the court records of Kenton County, Kentucky.  I saved it to my ancestry account, but I am not very good at that yet and it is on E.P. Hawkins' page rather than that of John Lee.

Kenton County is the county in which Covington is found. The record is found on pages 112-113.   The date of the marriage is 11 Dec 1884.  So Henry Harrison Miller would still have been alive and living in Covington.  Did they go to Covington to be married at Daisy's grandfather's home?  Was John Lee working their temporarily?  The record says that John Lee says that his residence is Huntington, so they are not living there at the time.  I think this is very fun!

Revolutionary War Timeline

I am working a bit on the Morrison family this morning and Ronald's time line.  I just found a wonderful timeline for the Revolution and don't want to loose the link:

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.html

Grandaddy Marshall's WWII experience

Jason and his kids are sitting with me on the porch as we watch a storm get closer.  I had thought earlier that I should write a Memorial Day blog but didn't get around to doing that.

I told Jason and Jackson that Granddaddy Marshall (James Marshall Hawkins) had been training to be a gunner during WWII.  But that the war had ended before he was actually sent into battle.  He spent his time during the war playing basketball to entertain the troops.  He had been playing college basketball at the University of TN when the war broke out and he left school and enlisted in the Air Force in the middle of his college career.  After the war he returned to UT to play basketball.  And graduated after 1947.  I was born in 1947 and both Mom and I accompanied Dad during his final years at UT.



I wasn't absolutely positive that I remembered correctly about Dad training to be a gunner.  But Jason remembered his grandfather telling him that the gunner sat in the nose of the plane.  And that the gunner was supposed to move out of the nose when the plane landed.  But that Grandaddy Marshall had always remained in his seat to have the view of the landing from the nose.

Jason says he is not absolutely positive that the B 17 Bomber is the right plane, but the photos that I googled for the B17 are perfect to illustrate the story.





Above photos can be found on the Chattanooga Times Free Press Newspaper site:

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2017/sep/26/b-17-flying-over-chattanoogweekend/451070/

William Morrison

I want so much to do a blog post today about whether William who is the son of Patrick Morrison of Pittsylvania County (during the Revolution) and William who married Rachel Witcher are one and the same or if these are two separate men.  However, I have only 3 hours before I start my two week lymphedema treatment and that is not enough time....plus I need to some things around the house more than I need to do this....but here are some notes for two weeks from now:

Need to get permission from Ronald to use his time line.
Need to make sure there are no other Morrisons in the general area.
Need to look at Fold 3 for all of the William Morrisons who received Rev pensions.
Need to look at children of this couple.  This morning what is bothering me the most is the statement made by Patrick Henry Morrison of Cabell County that he and his ....hmmmm....I can not put my hands on this information....but it was something like came to Cabell County with his three brothers and one sister....and that sister would have been Viola....not Elizabeth.  I need to give this some thought.  Does this suggest that Elizabeth was not his sister....or does it just mean that Elizabeth and Solomon came at a different time?  Remember that Ed Griffith has given me information about proofs that at least a couple of the children are proven children of William and Rachel....I think one was death information .....I need to look to see if there is other proofs in Cabell for any of the other children.

Bath County, Virginia

Lynn asked me if I had a book in my library that had marriages in Bath County, Virginia 1791-1853.  I don't.  But her request had me looking on my computer to see what I DO know about Bath County, Virginia.  And what popped up was my Clendenin family.  My data base has the death of Archibald Clendenin Sr. as 1749 in Bath County, Virginia.  It took only a few minutes to see that I need to edit this information.  The reason the book begins in 1791 is that that is the year that Bath County was formed. Bath County was formed out of Greenbrier, Augusta,   hmmm....I need to add this tomorrow.  Almost certainly my Clendenin family was living on the Calfpasture river in either Greenbrier or Augusta.  Why do I know this?  Because I have the information from the store in which they bought rum....and also I have the information that Archibald Jr. had will probated in Augusta County.

I will edit this to make more sense.

Settlements in the Wautauga/Nolichucky area in the 1700s

I am still thinking about the Morrison/Goad/Hensley settlers in the Nolichucky area of what is now Tennessee but was then North Carolina.  I am reading today the First Families of Tennessee: A register of Early Settlers and their Present-Day Descendants.  These are pages that I copied on my visit to the Washington County-Jonesborough Library in Jonesborough, TN this winter.  The book was published by the East Tennessee Historical Society, so I am guessing that it is available on their site.  On page 19 of the book, the statement is made:  "The eighteenth-Century movement of people into Tennessee was fundamentally shaped by geography.  The places from which immigrants came and routes they took were largely dictated by topographical considerations.  In the North American interior, where early overland traffic moved on foot, unbroken ranges of high peaks presented a formidable obstacle.  ....The great valley of Tennessee, on the other hand, formed a natural extension of the Shenandoah Valley and the Valley of Virginia...."  The first area of what is now Tennessee was in four areas:  the North Holston, Watauga, and Nolichucky rivers and in Carter's Valley.  Slightly later settlers settled along the French Broad River.

Ronald explained to me that Patrick and his family were concentrated in Carter's Valley.  James and David were on Beech Creek.  William, Betsy and Jeannette were on Lick Creek in the Nolichucky settlement. John was just south of the Nolichucky settlement.

Oh, but wait a minute, I have more information from Ronald that is a little different from the above:

Wikipedia shows these rivers with today's boundaries:

Actually Patrick never lived on the Nolichucky. His property was all on the Lick Creek basically just south of Chimney Top Mountain. Two hundred acres was at the mouth of Long Fork Creek where it empty into Lick and just above Cedar Creek (not on any map). The three hundred acres was just off Lick Creek on Jarrotts Branch this is where William lived on 100 acres of the 300. This land is close to where Greene, Sullivan and Washington met near Chimney Top. James and David's land was on the north side of the Mountain on Beech Creek and John's land was on Sinking Creek off Nolichucky.

There is a deed of sale in 1791 (copy in Morrison file in file that says documents) in which Patrick is selling land.  He sells 200 of the 300 acres that he owns,  but excludes the 100 acres on which William Morrison lives.  The land is on Jarrott's Branch.

This gives one a sense of where the settlers were.

Several of the other pages that I read today talk about the fact that many of the settlers who went to the Nashville area early traveled via the Wilderness trail into Kentucky and then south into Tennessee from there.  There were other explanations of trails and routes taken.  I filed the pages that I copied into my Morrison cubby.  When you see the map below, you think that this seems "out of the way".  But it seems to have been the best way in the time period that we are looking at.



this map is from:  http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/history/virtual-tours/virtual-tours/cumberland-gap.2426131

And here is the comment taken from the page on this site:




I want to add something to the end of this....it is half baked....Patrick Henry Morrison of Cabell County says that his family traveled through the Cumberland Gap to get to Salt Rock.  We all know this is geographically not likely!  However, it works that the family did go through the Cumberland Gap if they traveled to the Nashville area before they returned to Pittsylvania County. It works if William and Rachel Witcher Morrison went to the Nashville area before they decided to return home to Pittsylvania County.  What I am reading today says that many of the settlers who moved to the Nashville area traveled on the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky before traveling south into the Nashville area.  This was a normal route for this migration pattern.

Our Morrison group has been talking about the fact that the group for the most part believes that Patrick lived and died in the area of TN that is now Sullivan County.  His son James also lived and died there.  Both men are thought to have been buried near to each other in the Providence Baptist Church Cemetery.  Ronald had taken notes several years ago when the group met in the Nolichucky River area that said:

Kevin gave us a history of his family that descends from James Morrison through his son James Morrison, Jr. He showed us much of his research and gave Travis a copy of the Morrison family from a book that is located in the Rogersville genealogy center. He was quite enlightening relating that family tradition had been passed down from James Morrison Jr.  family that Patrick Morrison, James Morrison Sr. and James Morrison Jr. are all buried in the older part of Providence cemetery near the old cedar trees (which were now very large and still quite visible to us). Patrick, James Sr. and James Jr.'s  exact burial locations however are unknown since they were only buried with fieldstones.

Ronald also says in this notes:

Providence Baptist Church cemetery located on Highway 70 a few miles from the end of Tarpine Valley Road.  

Goad and Morrison in PIttsylvania County

I ran into Jason Goad on Wednesday evening.  I told him that I have been looking at the Goad family in Pittsylvania County, Virginia in connection with what I hope is my Morrison family.  John Goad bought land on the North Fork of the Frying Pan Creek in 1753.  My research indicates that he was living next door to Patrick Morrison during the Revolutionary War.  Patrick's land was on Frying Pan Creek.

Last fall when we had our Morrison homecoming in Pittsylvania County, I wrote a blog post that includes information about the location of this land close to the end of the post:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2017/09/h2-morrison.html

Jason and I exchanged contact information and yesterday morning I sent him an e-mail giving him some information about my Morrison line and the Goad line that is intermarried and living next door in Pittsylvania County.  Also I included information about who had signed:

Petition for the State of Franklin was made to the General Assembly of North Carolina in December 1787. It is also known both as “Petition from Inhabitants of Western North Carolina Concerning a Separate Government” and “Petition of the Inhabitants of the Western Country.

You can find this information on my blog post (again close to the end)
http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2018/02/trip-to-jax-2018.html

Patrick Morrison and his family, John Goad Jr. (interpreted as Good in the document transcription that I looked at) and Gabrielle Goad and William Goad as well as Owen Atkin and Benjamin Hensley signed.  Almost certainly these people were moving together from Pittsylania County area to the Nolichuky and Wautauga area.  There may have been others that I don't recognize yet.  Jason's answer to my e-mail indicated that the Goad family may have been the driving force  for this move!  John Sevier was the nephew of John Goad, Jr.  Sevier was the son of John Goad Jr's sister, Joanna, who had married Valentine Sevier.  There was family over among the inhabitants of the Western Country!

So here is the information that Jason Goad shared with me:

It looks like this is one of the John Goads in my direct blood line.  The name John and Aaron go back hundreds of years and seem to alternate.  But, if you look at the entries from 1753 you will see Pittsylvania county.  Also, if you ever have any questions about Goads, the Michael Nestor (whose email is at the top) knows more than anybody.  Anyway here is the link:

http://www.mdnestor.com/goad/goad2.html

And here is the information from Michael Nestor's site that is relevant:

 1771, 23 Jul Bedford Co Will Bk 1, p 132-34 (dated 7 Jul): John Goad's will proven, executor his son John.  Listed daus Joannah
.                   Sevear, Elisabeth Cox, Hanna Bennet, Ann Risden, sons William, Abraham, Robert, William, son Abraham's son James, and
.                   grandson Thomas Goad, son of John, and wife Ann Goad:
.                                  In the Name of God Amen:
.                                  I John Goad of Bedford County, Being in Perfect Sence and Memory, do constitute and appoint, this my last wlll and Testament.
.                   Emprimus  First, I Bequeath my Soul, to Almighty Goad that gave it me, and my Body, to be Buried in A Christian like manner, at the descretion of
.                                   my Executor.
.                         Item   I give to my Daughter, Joannah Sevear, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I give to my Daughter, Elisabeth Cox, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I give to my Daughter, Hannah Bennet, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I give to my Daughter, Ann Risden, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I give to my Son, William, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I give to my Son, Abraham, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I give to my Son, Robert, one Shilling Sterling, to be paid out of my Estate.
.                         Item   I lend to my Son, William, the Use of my Cow known by the Name of Blossom, with her Increase, till his son John, Shall come to the
.                                  age of twenty one years, and then the property to vest in Sd. John, But if the Sd John Shoud die, without heir, then the Sd. Cow and her
.                                  Increase to be devided among the rest of my Son William's Children.
.                         Item   I lend to my Son, Abraham, the Use of my Cow known by the Name of Star, with her Increase, till his son James Shall come to the age
.                                  of twenty one years, and then the property to vest in Sd. James, But if Sd James Should die without heir  then the Said Cow, with her
.                                  Increase to be devided among the rest of  my son Abraham's Children.
.                         Item   I give to my Grandson, Thomas Goad, Son of John Goad, my least gun.
.                         Item   I give to James Waldrop, the gun he has, of mine.
.                         Item   I give to my Loving Wife, Ann Goad, all of the Estate that She brought with her, when we was married, and all the rest of my personal
.                                  Estate, not yet menion'd, after my Just Debts is paid, I lend her the use of During her widowhood, and at her marriage, or Death, to be
.                                  Equally Devided between my son John Goad and his Children.
.                         Item   I lend to my Son, William Goad, the use, of that part of my land that he now lives on, as it is mark'd of to him During his life, and at his
.                                  Death, the property to vest in his son, John Goad, and his heirs for ever.
.                         Item   I lend to my Son Abraham Goad the use of that part of my land that he now lives on, as it is mark'd of to him, During his life, and at his
.                                  Death the property to vest in his son James Goad and his heirs for ever.
.                         Item   I lend to my Loving Wife the use of that part of my land where on I now live as it is laid of to her which She agrees to take for her thirds
.                                  During her life.
.                         Item   I lend to my Son, Robert Goad, the use of the upper part of my Land as it is mark'd of to him, and that part, that is laid of for my wifes
.                                  thirds, after her death.  I also lend him the use of as long as he lives, and at his Death the property to vest in his Son, Thomas Goad, and
.                                  his heirs for ever.
.                         Item   My Will and Desire is, that my Son John Goad, do receive all my Just dues, and pay of all my Just Debts, out of my personal Estate, if
.                                  My Dues Should not be Soficient.
.                         Item   I constitute and appoint, my Son, John Goad, Executor of this my last Will and Testament, given under my hand and Seal, this Seventh
.                                  Day of July 1771.
.                         Interlined before signed                                                                                                                  his
.                         (the use of)                                                                                                           JOHN GOAD              Imprimus Seal
.                         In the presence of Edward Wade,                                                                                                  hand and
.                         Geo. Phillips, Peter Bennet

on the rest of the information in Michael Nestor's VERY helpful timeline I would comment that The main thing that Michael Nester  forgot or ignored in the timeline are the dates of  the formation of the counties.  Lunenburg was not created out of Brunswick until 1746 and Pittsylvania County was not created out of Halifax until 1766.  But it is clear that these Goads were all living down in the area of what is now Bedford and Pittsylvania Counties as early as our Morrisons and etc.



Two more thoughts that I might think about another day:  First that we could probably figure out which John Goad it is living next door to Patrick Morrison by marriage dates.  I don't have the intermarriages between the Goad family and the Morrison family in my head.  Need to work with my h2 Morrison group on that.  and second is a crazy random idea:

I pulled out my Richmond County book on marriages and relationships….I wish that I had a will book instead so that I could have looked at a transcription of the will of 1737 for which John Goad was administrator or executor…can’t remember which…but Catherine Williams Goad (wife of Abraham Goad in Richmond County) who was the mother and grandmother of all of this brood of Goads married 2nd (after death of her Goad husband) William Smith.  Funny coincidence, huh?  There are lots of Smiths!  So may or may not be of interest.

Salmons in Stafford County, Virginia

A Salmons/Sammons researcher contacted me today.  He kindly sent me his family line.  I didn't get very far in reading how his family comes down from John Salmons of Cumberland County before I started thinking about the research that says John married Eleanor in Stafford County.  I have never proved nor disproved this John Salmons to be our ancestor.  I want to look at that today.

Here is what I have in my data base: [the 305 source says Valentine Papers (Pleasants), Vol 2, 983, info from Ruth Nassar, (rsn 263) Rec. DB 4 p. 548 Cumberland... I am not for sure exactly what the source means...need to look.  And the source 53 says Ruth Sammons Nassar's book]

Charles Rice says that he has a copy of the will of John Salmons, SR. listing his wife as Eleanor and listing his sons.  This will is from Cumberland County, VA.  There is a record of the marriage of John Salmons and Eleanor McCarty also. He says that he does not have a copy of the record of marriage.  He received the information from Garroll Sammons.

And here is the rest of what I have in my data base:

John Salmon, according to Ruth Salmons Nassar, moved up the James River to settle on acreage on Snowquarter Branch which he acquired from Benjamin Dumars about 1753, a part of which he sold to John Pleasants April 26, 1745At the time of acquisition the land lay within the bounds of Goochland County, however in  1748 as the area became more populated it was decided that a new county should be created and another log court house built so the courthouse would be more accessible to settlers.  Thus Cumberland County was created.

Garroll Salmons says: “ We first pick up our line in Cumberland County, Virginia.  There on a small farm on the WIllis River south of Cartersville we find a poor man who apparently was having trouble paying his bills  He was John Salmons, Sr. of Southam Parish.  In 1761 we find John very sick and weak of a terminal illness.  He wrote his will naming his wife Eleanor and his four sons John, Lewis, Ezekia, and Rowland.  He died within the year.  He must have been in his forites for his sons were not grown and still needed to finish their schooling.  John Salmons, Jr. was the oldest following by Lewis, Ezekiah and Rowland in that order.  At this time I believe that Rowland was 1-5 years of age, Lewis was about 10, and John Jr. was 12-16 years of age.  This is just a guess.  It surely must have been a trying time for Eleanor with four sons and no one knows the number of daughters.  It is not known the problems that Eleanor had after John’s death, but sometime after that, between 1761 and 1770, the family moved to an area in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.  This area later became Henry County in 1777.”  [note:  I know now that we can narrow down the date of the move more as I found John Jr. in “There is an entry in the vestry record dated February 1768 which records a levy laid on the membership to pay John Salmon for serving as reader for the parish for six months, for which he was paid 50 pounds of tobacco.  In the same entry, 33 pounds of tobacco was paid to George Rowland to recompensate for expenditures (Maude Carter Clement: History of Pittsylvania County)]

Will of John Salmon, Sr.  Will Book 1, page 219 [Cumberland County?]  [I found this in the folder labelled documents among Ruth Sammons Nassar’s information]

In ye name of God Amen the 29 January 1761 I John Salmon Sen’r. of Cumberland and Southam Parish being very sick and Weak in Body but of perfect and sound memory Thanks be given unto God therefore calling to mind the mortalltiy of my Body and knowing it is appointed for all men once to die do make and ordain this my last will and Testament that is to say Principally and first of all I give and recommend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God that gave it and my Body I recommend to the Earth from whence it came to be buried in a decent manner Christian Burial at the discretion of my Executors nothing doubting but at the General resurrection I shall received the same again by the mighty power of God and Touching such worldly Estate wherewith it hath been Pleased God to bless me with in this life I give demise and dispose of the same in the following manner  First of all I bequeath and desire for all my Debts as I owe in right of conscience to any Body to be fully paid and satisfied by my Executors hereafter named also I give bequeath all my Household goods and stock of horses Cattle and Hoggs to my wife Elioner Salmons during Widowhood not to be interrupted and if my Wife should die my eldest son John Salmons should servive I give and bequeath it into his care to be equally divided amongst my four sons John Salmons Lewis Salmons Ezkiah Salmons and Rowland Salmons after charges being paid for my three youngest Sons Schooling and maintainance and I bequeath and desire for my three youngest sons Lewis Ezekiah and Rowland to be under their eldest Brothers care and Jurisdiction until they come of age and years of discression to take care of themselves and further I appoint my Wife Elinor Salmons and John Salmons my eldest son my whole and soly Executors whereunto I hae set my Hand Seal this 29 day of January 1761.   John Salmons Sr. L.S.

Witnesses were John Newton and John Salmons, Jr. 

At a court held for Cumberland County 22nd June 1761.  This last will and testament of John Salmons dec’d. was proved by John Newton and John Salmons the Witnesses thereto and by the Court ofdered to be recorded and on the motion of John Salmons the Executor therein named who made oath according to Law Certificate is granted him for obtaining a Probat thereof in due Form giving Security whereupon he with John Newton his Security entered into and Acknowledged their Bond with Condition according to Law and Liberty is reserved to Elenor Salmons the Executrix therein named to join in Probat.  Test Thompson Swann Clk Ct

This paragraph is then repeated for Eleanor.  The document is signed Betty R. Walton, Deputy Clerk Circuit Court, Cumberland County, Virginia  [so this is answer….this was obtained from Cumberland Court]

I have other blog posts that deal with information at a later date for this family.  You can find them by using the search term Salmons or Sammons in the search box.  Today, I am thinking about the marriage of John Salmons and Eleanor McCarthy in Stafford County, Virginia 10 April 1748.  Does this date make sense for this couple?  Absolutely!  If indeed John Salmons, Jr. is about 10 years old in 1761, he would have been born c. 1751 which is close to the date of the marriage.  Who was the McCarthy family in Stafford County?  What do I know about Stafford County?  Stafford County was a very old county in Virginia:

When was Stafford County, VA Created?
Stafford County was established on 1664 from Westmoreland County.

Early on the western boundaries were fuzzy.  It seems to have been mostly the land along the Potomac and Rappahannock River.  There were not yet families on the frontier that far west.  It would have been families who settled along the river banks....at least that is my guess.

By 1720 families were beginning to move up the rivers of Virginia into what was the frontier at that time.  Families who moved up the Rappahanock settled in the Fredericksburg area and in what is now Orange and Culpeper.  You can tell this by the counties that were beginning to form in these areas as they received enough families that there was a request for local government.

By 1776 Stafford was still long and skinny.....as it had been during the year (1750) in which John Salmons and Eleanor McCarty married.  I have not yet found that marriage record for myself.  

So it turns out that I have the book:



The back cover says:  Four political jurisdictions are included in this volume:  Spotsylvania County, Stafford County, Orange County, and the independent city of Fredericksburg.  The marriages, recorded here in a master alphabetical listing, were extracted from minister's returns, marriage bonds, some newspaper notices, and in the case of Stafford County, marriages implied from early land deeds, family Bible records and cemetery records as well as the marriages recorded in Overwharton and St. Paul's parishes...  The book includes an index to brides.

So for right now, I remain unconvinced of this marriage in Stafford County.

There has been some rumor that Eleanor might have been a Rowland since the Salmons family and the Rowland family may have moved together from Cumberland County to what is now Henry County.  Also the youngest son is named Rowland.....and we who research the Sammons/Salmons name know that that name was passed down for generations.  One researcher who was a buddy to Ruth Nassar said that there were so many Rowland Salmons' in the hollers of Kentucky that they had to go by nicknames.

I am not convinced of the fact that Eleanor was a Rowland either at this time.  Hopefully either I will find proof one way or the other or someone will send that proof my way.

Richard Moore and family in Berks County, PA

March 2018, I drove to Boston for Rudy's birthday.  Crazy trip.  I drove up in storm Riley and drove back in a second storm that followed Riley.  But the storms actually made the trip more fun.  One of the fun things that happened is that I spent an unexpected day in the Berks County Historical Society's library.  It is a gem!  And the librarian who helped me was excellent!  Wonderful day!  Both of us agreed at the end of the day that I had probably found all that I would be able to find in their library about my Richard Moore and family.  I also bought a few books in the gift shop.

[I need to add an extra note into this blog post and don't know best place to do it....so here it goes....My Moore buddies are some of my favorite genealogy buddies because each and everyone of them have such special genealogy gifts.  Two of them helped with editing suggestions after reading this post.  Pat asked me to clarify just exactly who was being discussed in this post.  It is my 7-gr-grandfather, Richard Moore who is the son of John and Jane Cureton Moore.  I believe him to be 3rd generation on these shores.  There is no indication that the first generations (James and Rose Moore) were Quaker.  However, James and Jane Cureton, who were second generation Moore family were Quaker and Richard and his family, who were third generation, were also Quaker}

The Schuykill River flows through the middle of Berks County and is of interest to my research as it separates the townships of Robeson and Exeter.  Robeson is on the southwest while Exeter is on the North East.  Oley is just north of Exeter.  The book above has large maps of each of these townships.  The maps are too late to show my ancestor's points of reference, but they are excellent for showing geographical details.  And the Friends Meeting house in Robeson is shown on the Robeson map and the Exeter Township map shows the Friend's District and the location of the Exeter Friend's Meeting House.

The library had a plat map that showed the original Warrants for Berks County.  The librarian showed me how to access this on the Pennsylvania archives website:

http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-522WarranteeTwpMaps/r017-Map2594-Berks-RobesonWeb.pdf

It is possible to zoom in and view the land on which many of Richard Moore's buddies lived.  Moses Embry 1737, John Scarlet 1737.  But Richard Moore is not on the map for Robeson Township.  So the question is:  Did he own land?  Is he in another township?  Did he buy land instead of receiving a warrant and thus would be found in the deed book instead of on the Warrant map.

"The third settlement of Friends was in Robeson township, on the west side of the Schuylkill River about the year 1740. Moses Embree, Owen Humphray, John Scarlet, Sr., John Scarlet, Jr., Thomas Thomas, Robert Long, Peter Marsh, Richard Moor, Evan Thomas, David Cadwallader, David Jenkins, John Wells, David Morris and Ephraim Jackson were the earliest Friends in this territory. “

While researching this time period for the Moore family, the librarian in the Berks County Historical Society library explained that in 1682 Penn formed Philadelphia County.  The East side of what is now Berks County which is the land on the east side of the Schuykill River was in Philadelphia County.  The land that is now in Berks County on the west side of the Schuykill River was in Chester County.  In 1729 Lancaster County was formed out of Chester.  So from 1729 until 1752 the land to the west of the Schuykill River was in Lancaster County.  I found many of Richard Moore’s buddies land on a plat map while I was there as they were given the original grants for their lands.  But Richard did not show up.  It is possible that he was a blacksmith and didn’t own land.  But it is also possible that I have not looked everywhere for his deed if he bought the land from someone who had originally obtained land from Penn or Penn’s land agent. 

[Ok, second note.  Joseph pointed out that while James (first generation on these shore) was a blacksmith as was his son John, there is no indication that Richard had followed that trade.  In fact, Joseph reminded me:   Also, remember that the only record found thus far of Richard's trade was his purchase of the 30 acres in Philadelphia Co., when he was named as a "mason." ]

The other significant information that I received from this trip was that I am now quite convinced that these Quaker families moved south to North Carolina because of the Indian problems in the area.  The Lenni Lenape Indians had lived in the area that became Robeson Township.  They were part of the Delaware Nation.  Lenni Lenape means original people.  A book that I looked at told about the Walking Purchase.  This transaction is explained in Chapter 3 of the book:

https://archive.org/details/storyofberkscoun00wagn_0

Prodded on by the French the Indians began taking their revenge on the settlers during the French and Indian War.  The atrocities took place between 1754 and 1763.  Most of the depredations did not occur any further south than Schuykill Couty.  But in all 150 inhabitants were killed and 30 captured in Berks County.

The Moore family stayed in Berks Co PA at Exeter MM until 1755.  The certificates from Exeter were received by Cane Creek MM in Orange Co NC on 6-4, 1757, for Richard Moore, his wife Sarah (Jenkins?), their son John and their daughter Prudence. 

 I find it impossible to rule out that the peace loving, non-violent Quaker families decided that it was time to move to safer land.

I also copied some pages from the History of Robeson Township compiled and edited by Shirley Shirey and Paul F. Seidel.  These pages are in my cubby for Moore in my office.  There is more information about the founding of the Quaker Meeting houses in those pages.

A man by the name of John E. Eschelman was well known as a local Quaker authority and as a regional Historian.  His valuable manuscript book, The Quakers of Berks, is available on line as well:

http://www.readingfriendsmeeting.org/our_history.html

And finally while I was at the Berks County Library, I looked at a typewritten volume that was compiled from the original by John E. Eschelman.  It is the births, deaths and meeting records of the Exeter; Maidencreek; Pottstown; Reading; Robeson; and Tulpehocken Meetings, Berks County, PA.  I have not looked to see if this is available at Family Search nor on Ancestry.  It is possible that it is.  On page 232 both Joseph Moore and Richard Moore's families are listed.  I have also filed these pages in the cubby for Moore in my office.  As I read the pages tonight I interpret what I am reading in the following ways:

Joseph Mooney died in Wrightsboro Ga 10-2-1774  he married Mary Moore daughter of Richard and Sarah in 1747 in Robeson.  John Moore married a Perkins female while Abigail Moore married a Thomas in 1764.  I think it likely that Mr. Eschelman annotated the records with research of his own on latter happenings of each of the families.

I also bought the book:  "Rememb'ring our Time and Work is the Lords" The Experiences of Quakers on the Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania Frontier by Karen Guenther.  It is also in the cubby in the office labeled Moore.  This is the book that talks about Richard Moore's financial problems.

I already owned a book called Oley Valley Heritage The Colonial Years: 1700-1775 by Philip E. Pendleton that I bought many years ago.  I wish I could remember what I was visiting when I visited.  However, I think that at the time I believed that my Webb family line was the Webb family intermarried with the Boone family.  I have never proved that fact nor have I disproved that fact.   This book is on the shelf in the office.