It is intriguing that James’ will refers to him as James Wilson Sr. Most people might assume that there was thus a James Jr., but the only sons mentioned in the will were Thomas and Moses. As a result, it appears a number of people have assumed his (presumably) older son was actually James Thomas Wilson, Jr. However, Thomas never appeared in any deed or tax list under that name. Also, in his own will in 1816 he refers to himself as Thomas Wilson Sr. (and in fact he did have a son named Thomas). Another thing to note is that in many older tax lists and censuses, the use of Jr. and Sr. didn’t necessarily denote a strict father/son relationship. In many cases, it just distinguished between older and younger men in the same list. James grandson James (son of Thomas) was of age by 1779 when he appeared in the tax lists, so it is possible that he was considered to be the Jr. in 1777. Yet another alternative is that there really was a son James Jr. that had either died before 1777 or was otherwise not included in the will. So to sum up, the possibilities are:
- Thomas was actually James Thomas. This is belied by the fact he never went by James in any other records, and referred to himself as Thomas Sr. in his own will.
- James Jr. was James Sr.’s grandson, who might have been of age in 1777.
- James Sr. did have a son James Jr. who was not listed in the will for some reason, such as death or being estranged.