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.
