Month: November 2017

Although the “Wilson Book” doesn’t have a maiden name for James Sr.’s wife Martha, most trees and websites note her as being a Cowarding (or Cording).  But all we can say for sure is that his wife at the time of his death was named Martha — who, incidentally, outlived James by quite a few years, dying in 1795 or 6.

I did find a record of a James Wilson who married a Martha Cowarding in Kent County, MD – John Cowarding’s will of 1752 mentioned his daughter Martha Wilson wife of James Wilson.  Birth records for the same county also show a Martha being born to John and Ann Cowarding in 1728 as well as a James Wilson born to John and Elizabeth Wilson in 1726 (the 2^nd James born to them, the first in 1724 who must have died as an infant).  They would then be about the same age, and thus it is likely that this is the James that married Martha Cowarding.  Given that James Sr.’s son Thomas was probably born around 1735, this James and Martha seem to be too young to be our ancestors.

So, who is our Martha?  One clue is that James daughter Ann (mentioned in his will) married Philip Brashears.  Fortunately, there is quite an extensive and well-documented history for the Brashears clan.  Philip’s father, Robert Cager Brashears, lived in the Fairfax county area of Virginia in the mid-1740’s, then moved on to North Carolina (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=95259140&ref=acom).  There is no evidence that the oldest son Philip accompanied the family to N.C., so it is a reasonable assumption he was married or engaged to Ann Wilson at the time his father left and stayed with the Wilson family (he did eventually move to Henry County along with them).  So, Fairfax County seems to be a reasonable place to look for our James before he ended up in Halifax County (which then became Pittsylvania County, and then Henry County).  I did find a will for Ezekiel Jinkins in Fairfax County in 1749/1750 mentioning a daughter Martha Wilson, and sons Ezekiel, William and John.  What’s more, there are several Jinkins/Jenkins later in Henry County, including a William Jinkins who bought a plot of land on Turkey Creek (the same creek where Thomas, grandson of James Sr., owned land), and a John Jinkins that witnessed the deed.  It is common to find extended families moving together to the frontier so it is quite possible these could be the same Jinkins clan that Martha came from.  This is a very promising possibility but more research is needed, including examining deeds and powers of attorney involving a couple of James Wilsons in Fairfax County.

A commonly found birthdate for James Sr. is 16 Oct 1703, which is quoted in many trees and references.  Given his death date of 1777, and the supposed ages of his children, this seems to be a reasonable timeframe to assume for his birth.  There was a James Wilson born to James and Mary Wilson on 16 Oct 1703 in North Farnham Parish, Virginia.  However, after reviewing and analyzing many wills from Richmond County, I am convinced he died in 1746 leaving no heirs.  There was another clan of Wilsons with several James in that County also, but the last of them seems to have died in 1744, and his father married in 1712 so he would not be the right age, nor are any of the other James in that group.  This other clan lived in Lunenberg Parish, which was formed from North Farnham Parish in 1732.  The only will I can find in North Farnham Parish for a James Wilson was in 1745/6 — it mentions his cousins Moses, John, Sarah Ann and Mary Wilson (who could be his nieces and nephews in the terminology of the time), and his brother  John.   A son John was also born to the same James and Mary Wilson in 1710.  Thus, I conclude that the 16 Oct 1703 birthdate which is widely quoted in most trees and references most likely incorrect for our James and belongs to this other James Wilson.

Many trees also show James as being born in Augusta, Virginia (as well as his supposed father, Robert).  These claims range from highly improbable to impossible, as Augusta County was not even formed until 1738, and the first known settlers arrived only in the 1720’s.  There was a James Wilson (and likely brothers) that acquired land in Augusta County in 1754 (in Beverly Manor), but he died there in 1768 (see https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:James_Wilson_%28200%29#Records_of_James_Wilson_in_Augusta_County.2C_VA for details) so this is not our James.

I did find another birth record for a James Wilson born in Kent County, MD in 1726 (whom I believe married Martha Cowarding, but that is in another post), but he would be too young to be our James.

If there are any other possible birth records that others are aware of, I would be glad to research them further.

The starting (and often ending) point of many Wilson genealogies is the “Wilson Book”, compiled by the family of William Surber Wilson of Kentucky after his death in 1981.  He collected almost 50 years of research about the Wilsons of Kentucky and Virginia going back to James Wilson, Sr.  There is a surprising amount of information for the pre-Internet era he was working in – that’s probably why it took him so long! Although we can lay our hands on the sources of much of his tree, some of it appears to be based on family stories he was privy to.  Some of what he didn’t document seems to be of as much interest as what he didn’t, given all his research.  For instance, he doesn’t claim to know the maiden name of James’ wife Martha, nor his birthplace, nor his parental connections.  There are many trees that attempt to connect James Sr. with other James Wilsons in Virginia based on readily available records with his name and matching timeframe only, so it seems reasonable to assume Surber might have had access to the same documentation and dismissed it (as I will be doing in subsequent posts).  It’s also interesting that one of the mistakes I can find concerning my direct line was a reasonable conclusion given the available records, involving a connection which took me considerable work and research to unearth.  To wit, the son James of Thomas, son of James Sr. is identified as marrying Martha Hix in 1789, with no subsequent descendants listed.  While this James was the most likely candidate to be my ancestor, who was one of the first to migrate to Kentucky, it was puzzling why Surber didn’t make the connection.  In fact, it took studying and comparing many years of tax records in both Virginia and Kentucky, looking at Thomas’ will, and finding the deed showing the sale of the land that James of KY inherited from Thomas to show that our James was *not* the James that married Martha Hix (indeed our James married a Delilah) and was undocumented by Surber.  But once again, that is another story that isn’t really pertinent to the unknown details surrounding James Sr.