Month: December 2017

The first record I have found of James in Halifax County was in July of 1766:

Halifax County, Virginia Court Orders, 1764-1766 (Plea Book No. 5, Part 1), Pub. by TLC Genealogy; p. 118:
July Court 1766
Robert Chandler is appointed Surveyor of the Road from Marrowbone Cr to Smiths River, and it is ordered that he, with Elisha Harbour and his male laboring tithables, Elijah Harbour, Francis Kingston, Jessee Langston, Richard Whitt, Preston Kendrick, [Blank first name] Cockram, Edward Cockram, John Gillaspie, William Edwards, Thomas Edwards, Thomas Edwards Jr., [Blank first name] Mays, James Edwards, William Rice, James Elkins, William Sams, John Sams, James Bolling, George Daniel, Charles Burns, John Bolling, John Ray[Rea], Merry Webb, Martin Webb, James Wilson, and William Dagg, do forthwith clear and keep sd Road in repair.

I believe this to be our James Wilson since this is the same area he later had surveyed (Smith River) and some of the men listed contained in other documents where James appears (such as a deed with witnesses and/or adjacent land) and thus know to be his neighbors (e.g. Webbs, Bolling).

Note: This portion of Halifax County became Pittsylvania County in 1767, and then Henry County in 1776.  James could have lived in the same location yet be located in three different counties in the space of 10 years.

The Halifax County poll lists (which were effectively the House of Burgess election results) did not include James up through July of 1765.  Unfortunately, there is a gap in my source from that date until December, 1768, at which point James would no longer be living in Halifax County (due to the formation of Pittsylvania).  There were two or more Thomas Wilsons in these lists, however, but I think it is unlikely that any of them would be James’ son as I know there were Thomas Wilsons in the eastern part of Halifax (not in James’ neighborhood), and there continue to be possibly the same Thomas’ in later years’ poll lists when the Smith River area where James lived was no longer in Halifax.  Plus, there was no mention of James other son Moses in the pre-1766 Halifax poll lists either (although it is possible that he was not of age yet).

James possibly moving to Halifax sometime after July 1765, is consistent with the theory that he moved from Prince William County, since a James Wilson with 4 tithables (himself, 2 sons and son-in-law?) were in PW in 1765 and did not own any land at that time.

James next appears in the first Pittsylvania tax list in 1767 with his son Moses.  Thomas also appears in this list.

Later surveys of land were made for Thomas on April of 1768 and  James, Thomas and Moses in February of 1768.

I don’t know any of these gentlemen actually lived on the land prior to the survey, nor how they acquired the land.  The survey was part of the deeding process, but it initial acquisition of the land could through various means.  There are no deed transfers that I can find for these parcels (except for possibly later transfers).

 

I first followed up on Fairfax County because of the Brashears family connection, the marriage of Martha Jinkins to a Wilson, and the existence of powers-of-attorney from a James Wilson Sr. and Jr.    Although the last one didn’t pan out (see post on Fairfax), the first two might still hold in Prince William County.  Prince William (PW) was the mother county for Fairfax, which was formed in 1742 from the northeastern part of PW (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~george/countyformations/virginiaformationmaps.html is a very useful site, BTW).  I have already found some very promising records from PW, towit:

Rent Rolls of 1752, 1753, 1754 and 1758 contain a James Wilson (or Willson) with 100 acres.  The latter was specifically located in Hamilton Parish.  However, there was no record of any Wilsons in the 1760, 61/2, 67, 73, 77, 82, 83, 84 tax lists.  Since these records were based on property ownership, it is impossible to determine anything about residence for these records.

But in 1765, there was a James Wilson with 4 tithables, but no property listed.  In general, tithables were free white males and slaves over the age of 16.  James Sr. listed two sons in his will, so assuming this was our James that would account for 3.  The fourth (in this scenario) could be an unfound James Jr., or another unknown son (e.g. Daniel, who I will address in another post), or perhaps a son-in-law such as Philip Brashears.

I am remiss in not posting my findings about the earliest our James Sr. would have resided in Halifax County, but for our purposes in this post let’s say it is July 1766.  Thus, a tax record of approximately the right number of tithables in the 1765  in PW County would be consistent with our James.

There are a number of entries in the deed book index for Wilsons in the mid-1700’s, and I’m awaiting the microfilm for those that are available from the Library of Virginia on Inter Library Loan.  I’ll update this post with any interesting findings in a few weeks.

Update Jan. 22, 2018:

I have viewed various microfilms from the Library of Virginia with records of James and Thomas Wilson.  Nothing that helps prove or disprove our James being in PWC prior to Halifax County was found.  There was a mortgage for Thomas Wilson in February, 1739 – depending on James’ actual birthdate, this could possibly be his son.  There were also several court case records involving a James Wilson there in the 1750’s and 1760’s, but from the records I can’t tell what they were about nor can I discern anything that would be helpful to my research.  There was, however, a Jas. Wilson mentioned in a court record of August, 1766.  This record is just a couple of lines mostly containing names  of defendants in the case and a statement (as best I can transcribe it): “and their award to be the judgment”.  Another line just below this one says “Jas. Wilson & co. vs Sam…”.  Bear in mind that a James Wilson, Sr. and Jr. as well as a John Wilson were mentioned in several Powers of Attorney both here and in neighboring Fairfax County.  These Wilsons, who lived in Kilkarney, Ireland,  appeared to be owners or part-owners of a store in Dumfries, and their POA’s were granted to a Cumberland Wilson and a Thomas Montgomerie, among others, for their affairs in this area.  So it is not inconceivable that one or more of these court cases involved them, especially the one involving “Jas. Wilson & co.”.  Thus the existence of a case in August, 1766 in Prince William, which is later than I believe our James was spotted in Halifax, doesn’t preclude the James in the tax records in the original post from being our James.

Another Update 6/25/18:

In reviewing my data again, I noticed that Hamilton Parish, where James paid taxes in the 1750’s, was (mostly) broken off into Fauquier County when it was formed from Prince William in 1759.  So I’ve been looking at Fauquier records in the early 1760’s to see if James (re)appears there.  Most of the family search.org deed and tax records are only viewable at a Family History Center, and I have not been able to get to my local center yet.  However, I did purchase an e-book called Fauquier Families that claims to have summarized tax lists, deed books, wills, etc. There was only one entry of interest dated 1761 for a James Wilson of Prince William County, selling/deeding 100 acres  to Rodham Tullos that was part of a 1725 grant to William Gleek(s).  This matches with the 100 acres reported in the various PW rent rolls in the 1750’s.  It also means that the part of Hamilton Parish that James lived in stayed in PW County after the formation of Fauquier, so further searches in Fauquier are likely fruitless.  Unfortunately for our purposes, though, this entry also mentions James’ wife Judith, which doesn’t match our James’ wife Martha.  Now, it is entirely possible that Martha wasn’t his first wife and was possibly younger – after all, she did outlive him by about 18 years.   But then again, in his will of 1777 he mentions a daughter Martha Bailey (i.e. married) who was most likely named after her mother.  It is possible that he married a Martha in the early 1760’s (after the date of this deed) and their daughter might have been married by 1777, but it doesn’t match our James’ profile as  well as I would like.

I also haven’t mentioned that I found an indenture (i.e. deed) wherein a James Wilson in PW County bought 506 acres from Charles Brent in 1749.  This is either a different James Wilson, or he sold this land prior to the 1751 tax roll where he only claimed 100 acres (likely the same acreage he sold in 1761).  PW records are notoriously incomplete due to have been burned or stolen during the Civil War so it isn’t surprising I can’t find any matching transactions.  But all this is neither here nor there in helping us determine whether this is our James or not.

I had hopes that Fairfax County, VA might be the “origin” of James, Sr. before moving to what was then Halifax County (to become Pittsylvania County, and then Henry County).  Starting with the connection to the Brashears who lived in Fairfax (see the post about James’ wife Martha), there were a couple of deeds granted to a Thomas Wilson, and powers of attorney from a James Wilson Sr. and Jr. in 1773.  My thinking was that if James had moved from Fairfax in the mid-1760’s he might have granted a power-of-attorney to a friend back in Fairfax to deal with unsettled issuess, such as disposing of land.  However, after receiving microfilm records from the Library of Virginia, I found that the James Wilson Sr. and Jr, as well as a Robert Wilson alias Montgomery were actually residents of Ireland that granted a POA to Adam Stuart to deal with legal issues surrounding a store they owned in Fairfax (perhaps as previous residents).

A note from cousin Shannon (a descendant of  Larkin Wilson, g-g-grandson of James Sr.) reminded me that I should continue to look at North Carolina as a possible previous residence of James Sr. and his family.  The Brashears clan (which one of James’ daughters married into) moved there in the mid-1740’s and became quite established there and in nearby Guilford County.  Since we don’t have a date for the marriage of Ann Wilson and Philip Brashears, it is possible that the Wilsons and Brashears met after the latter moved to NC, instead of before in Virginia.  I had previously found records of Robert Samuel Brashear (possibly the brother or cousin of the aforementioned Philip) in Orange County, NC, which is quite near the border south of Henry County, VA.  Philip’s father Robert Cager Brashears was listed as well in an early Orange County census in 1755.  There are also records of a James Willson mentioned in the Register of Deeds in 1763 (see below), probably as a witness on the same page with Robert Samuel Brashear.  Thomas Bailey is also shown on this page, and I believe a Thomas Bailey married James’ daughter Martha (although all we know for sure that he was a Bailey).  But these are the only solid clues we have to James Sr. being in Orange County, NC.

There are more records of a Thomas Willson, as well as a William Wilson with brother James and John. The latter two were witnesses to William’s will in 1780, so it isn’t possible that one of them is James Sr.  However, they could be sons or other relatives (even possibly James Sr.’s grandson, who might have traveled the relatively short distance to Orange County).  Some Ancestry.com trees have this James as being born in Orange County in 1755 and dying there in 1825.  One of the court records  of Thomas Willson is intriguing since it names him guardian of an orphan names Joice Goodrum, age 9 years, in 1765.  Thomas son of James Sr. supposedly married Mary Gooding (or Goodwin, according to some trees), but I can find no documentation of this.  But the name Goodrum might be close enough.  Unfortunately, I can find no further records for Joice Goodrum anywhere, much less NC or VA, nor can I find any real information on his deceased father Thomas Goodrum.  This must therefore remain an open possibility.

A Thomas Wilson was in the 1755 Census, but no James, and Thomas (and Philip Wilson) received land grants there in 1761.

Below are the records in the Orange County Register of Deeds 1752-1768 referencing Thomas or James Wil(l)son (note that the dates are of court proceedings to prove, or acknowledge, deed each quarter – thus, the deed could have been granted up to 3 months previously):

Feb. 8, 1763:  James Willson witness to deed from Placker Saylor to Philip Hartzon (Thomas Bailey also deeded land on this page)

Feb 13, 1761: James Wilson witness to deed from William Lacy to Plice Paler

Feb. 14, 1764: Thomas Willson, Sr. deeds 250 acres to James Willson

Nov. 13, 1764: Hosea Tapley deeds 195 acres to Thomas Willson, Jr.

Aug. 11, 1767: James Wilson witness to deed from Robert Watson to John Brackman

Jul. 26, 1768: Thomas Willson deeds 195 acres to John Willson

Now we know that James Sr. was in Halifax County as early as July, 1766.  The James that witnessed a deed in the summer of 1767 therefore could not have been our James.  Also, the Thomas Willson, Jr. that was deeded land of the fall of 1764 could not have been the grandson of James (son of Thomas, Sr.) since he could not have been of age (21) at that time.  Thus, it seems highly unlikely that Thomas, Sr. was our Thomas, Sr. son of James Sr.  and that the James Willson that was granted a deed from him in 1763/4 was our Thomas’ father.  It is also worth noting that if these gentlemen were our Wilson clan that moved to Halifax County before 1766, you might expect them to have sold any land that they might have acquired in Orange County before moving.

I conclude from all of this that these Wilsons are most likely not our ancestors in question.