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As I am currently up against a brick wall with tracing our Ancestor James Wilson Sr. any further back (as documented here in this blog), I have decided to start a new series of blog posts documenting my research from the beginning of my genealogical journey through my male Wilson lineage.  This beginning is the end of the line, roughly, at least from my viewpoint.  Although there are many other Y-chromosome lines that derive from James Wilson Sr., the line associated with James Allison Wilson of Kansas (who as you will shortly see plays a large role in my research) has dwindled to a single thread, completely dependent on my only son to continue.  My only male Wilson 1st cousin has no biological children and my grandfather, son of James Allison Wilson, was an only child.

My name, James Allison Wilson Jr., was derived from my father, who in turn was named after his grandfather, the aforementioned James Allison Wilson who was born in 1864 in Kansas, where he lived his entire life, dying in Toronto, Kansas in 1933.  My Allison middle name was the source of much consternation on my part due to it being perceived as a girl’s name by my less than mature classmates in elementary and junior high school.  I was partly responsible for compounding my own misery by thinking it was a good idea to announce that I was actually James Allison Wilson the III – which resulted in a nickname from one of the other clever boys:  Jeeves Alleycat Wilbutt the Turd.  Fortunately, he was much smaller than me so that when he decided to escalate his combination of bullying and teasing to a physical level, he received the worst of the deal and to this day is more than polite to me!

I supposed I should be grateful to my parents in this regard since my two grandfathers were named Marion Alfred and Percy Dwight, either of which would have probably caused even more embarrassment to me during those tender years.  But as I grew older, understanding the origins of my middle name became more important to me.  My father had no idea how his grandfather came to be tagged with this moniker, and he had gotten little information about the name or the family from his fairly tight-lipped parents.  Our best guess was that it was a surname that had arisen somewhere in the family line.

My dad had attempted a few times to document the family tree farther back, especially after my mother died in 2012, but he never had really identified the parentage of James Allison the 1^st.  I still don’t recall what prompted me to type “James Allison Wilson & Kansas” into my Google search bar one day, nor why I expected to get a meaningful answer.  Nonetheless, one of the first search results (and the only accurate one) came up like this (which I have copied verbatim):

JAMES WILSON, farmer, P. O. Ottumwa, was born in Kentucky, in 1829, and at four years of age his parents moved to Illinois, and lived there about thirty years, and came to Kansas in 1859, and located in California Township, Coffey County, and has lived there since, excepting one year that he lived in Iowa, and has been engaged in farming and chair and wheelwrighting. Mr. Wilson was married in Vigo County, Ind., in 1849, to Miss Nancy C. Wurton, who was born in Indiana. They have nine children — Thomas J., John A., James A., Joanna, Mary M. J., Sarah T. E., Nancy J., Harriet A. and Anna.

So, right there, from William G. Cutler’s History of the State of Kansas, first published in 1883, was my very own great-grandfather (James A. in the list of children) as well as his father and mother and siblings!  We already knew that Wilson family came from Kentucky and Virginia before that (through one of the few tidbits my grandfather had shared) but this was truly earth-shattering information.

Of course, one of the many links I received in my search results led me to the website Ancestry.com.   Although my dad wasn’t initially convinced that this was his family, he soon turned over his Ancestry tree to me and let me have at it.

And thus began my now 5+ year journey through the annals of family history (and that of many states and counties), which at times preoccupies much of my time and at others is left hanging as I pursue other interests.  However, there is still nothing like the thrill I experience when I find another obscure fact or relative connection, or can document and track a family migration that was heretofore unknown to any documented tree.

Oh yes, the reference to Nancy C. Wurton in the quote above is incorrect – her maiden name was actually Newton.

With this critical information, I could now forge ahead in looking at census and other records on Ancestry.com.  I quickly learned that census lists in 1850 and beyond contained names and ages of all members of the household, not just that of the head of household as in 1840 and prior censuses.  This becomes very helpful in verifying the correct household when you know the names of spouses and children, or even just an estimate of the ages of the children (since often nicknames or odd spellings are used). I could also use Ancestry to look up James’ and Nancy’s marriage record, which was fortunately readily available, especially since I already knew the county they were married in.  It was initially puzzling that they were married in Indiana since the biography stated the family first moved to Illinois and lived there before James came to Kansas.  But looking at a map, it was easy to see why that was – Vigo County was right next to the Illinois border, so I guessed that James living across the border in Illinois might have met Nancy at some church or other function, or perhaps their families were otherwise acquainted living such a short distance from each other.

The marriage record also established Nancy’s true last name – it was clearly Newton in both the original handwritten record as well as various transcriptions.

This was also verified by a quick census record search for Newton in this part of Indiana – interestingly, the first record to come up for 1850 was actually in Edgar County, Illinois, directly across the border from Vigo County, Indiana.  There I found Thomas Newton, wife Margaret and 3 children under 21 living right next door to James and Nancy Wilson and their 2-year old daughter Joanna.  Other good pieces of information from this census record were the birthplaces of Thomas Newton (Kentucky), Margaret Newton (Green County, Kentucky) and Nancy Newton Wilson (Hendricks County, Indiana).  This became useful in identifying the right Thomas Newton in earlier Indiana censuses as there are no other household names listed.  Also of note was young Joanna’s birthplace of Edgar County, Illinois, so apparently James and Nancy (and presumably Thomas and Margaret Newton) moved there soon after their marriage if they weren’t already there.

It was about at this point in my research that my father gave me two very important albums – one was an old photo album that my grandmother Wilson made, which included several very old tintypes as well as names.  The other was an “autograph” album that belonged to James Allison, which was apparently a result of a practice of the late 1800’s to have friends and relatives write and sign a little note when they came visiting.  Much valuable information would be gleaned about this later as I delved into James Allison’s (then known as Allie) life and family.  Back to the photo album – one page had three envelopes with tintypes, in order from top left marked: “Mr. and Mrs. James Wilson taken 1875”, below it one marked “their son – James Wilson father of James Allison” and next to that “James Allison Wilson 1875 – age 9 father of Marion Alfred”.   While that seemed to be quite useful information in that it indicated that James Allison’s grandfather was also named James, something didn’t seem right.

The picture on the left is supposedly the grandparents, and on the right that of Allie’s father.  On the back of each is marked in pencil “Mr. and Mrs. Jim Wilson taken 1875” and “Jim Wilson?”.  Assuming Allie’s father James was born in 1829, his parents would likely have been born probably around 1810 at the latest, thus making them 65-70 (it actually turns out they were about 5 years older than that).  Somehow the people in the photo didn’t look quite that old to me.  The man identified as Allie’s father did look to be about 45, however, or perhaps a bit older.    Plus, if all these pictures had been taken about the same time, it seems likely there were taken in the same place; but there are no census records of a James Wilson in Coffey County, KS in the 1870’s or 80’s that could have been Allie’s grandparents.  Despite later discovering that Allie’s grandfather was named Thomas, and not James, the actual people in the photo and the date remain somewhat of a mystery.  The markings on the back may not be correct since we don’t who made them and when – the handwriting could very well be that of my grandmother in which case she might have just copied the same incorrect names.

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More to come in future posts as I trace back to more generations…

Recently I was matched to two other men at Familytreedna.com at the Y-67 level of the Y-chromosome tests (67 indicating the number of STR’s, or markers, on the chromosome tested – it is one of the larger tests, with 12, 25, 37, 67 and 111 markers being the levels for this test).  Our results were a genetic distance of 3 apart at this level, meaning that there are three differences in our measured markers, which is a relatively close match (no pun intended).  By comparison, one of my a known 3rd cousins is a genetic distance of 0 at Y-67, and another person that is a 6th or 7th cousin is a distance of 5 from me.  So this new match should roughly be in this range.  One of them also matched me at Y-111 at a distance of 4.

It turns out these men are of the same family, 2nd cousins I believe, and they trace their male line back to John Culpeper Wilson in Henry County, Virginia in the mid-to-late 1700’s.

There are a number of John Wilsons in Henry County during this period, one of them being the brother of one of our James Wilson ancestors who inherited some of his father Thomas’ land in his 1816 will, after our direct ancestor had moved to Kentucky around 1805.  Since John Culpeper Wilson moved to Ohio in the early 1800’s he could not be the same John Wilson, son of Thomas Sr., who remained in Henry County.  John Culpeper is actually called by that name in two of the tax years – once as “John Culpeper Wilson” (1791) and another as “John Wilson (Culpepper)” (1793).  It wasn’t unusual for the tax collectors to add descriptors to listed taxpayers with common names – the descriptors were often geographical locations where the person lived: e.g. Home Creek, Leatherwood (Creek), Horse Pasture Creek, etc.  Other times they were “Big(g)” or “Little”, or “Jr” and “Sr”, and “son of James (or Thomas, or Moses)”.  Now, it seems that many trees assume that John Culpeper Wilson must have been born in Culpeper County, Virginia.  But, at least based on my records of Wilsons, no other added descriptors seem to be based on the origin of the taxpayer – indeed, it would seem to be rare that the tax collector would even be aware of where specifically a particular person had been born, especially when they are  in their 40’s or 50’s.  Also, since John is very likely to be related to the clan of Wilsons from which I am descended (based on his promixity to them in the tax lists as well as the DNA record), it would be likely that others of them were also from Culpeper.  But no other Wilson, even those with common names like James, Thomas or Moses that were shared with other taxpayers, had the “Culpeper” designation.

The first thing then to check is whether there was a Culpeper Creek (or area) in Henry County at that time where John might have lived.  But I am unable to find any mention of a Culpeper Creek or River or Branch, or any geographical feature by that name in Henry County, either in current records or historical records (the latter primarily being records of land deeds, whose descriptions were typically based around waterways).

Another possibility would be that Culpeper was John’s middle name.  Although I haven’t found any other instances where the added descriptor seemed to be a middle name, I have only transcribed tax records for Wilsons, so it could very well be more common for other names.  Assuming that was the case, then it could be that Culpeper was the maiden name of his mother or another close ancestor.  The surname was fairly common in certain parts of Virginia (ironically, though, not in Culpeper County).  From a Culpeper family history website: “The Culpeppers who established a permanent family presence in Virginia did so in Lower Norfolk County in the far southeastern corner of the state, and it is from them that most living American Culpeppers descend. ”

Given that, I spent some time looking into Wilsons in Norfolk County.  I did find some interesting possibilities, which will be discussed in another post.  But I wasn’t able to find any marriages between Culpepers and Wilsons (which doesn’t mean there weren’t any, however).

Regardless, John Culpeper must be related to us through the Henry County Wilson Clan.  Based on his reported birth year in Ancestry trees (1760), it is most likely he is a grandson of James Sr.  As mentioned above, our Thomas (son of James Sr) already has a known son John, so he would have to be a son of one of Thomas’ brothers.  based on James Sr.’s will, the only known brother was Moses.  While in the tax records of the 1780’s it is virtually impossible to disambiguate the several John Wilsons that appear (plus the records are quite incomplete), the picture becomes a bit clearer in the 1790’s.  The number of John Wilsons dwindles down to 2 (and only 1 in some years’ records, likely due to omissions), and there is a fairly standard pattern of one of them reporting no horses (those and cattle being the only property that was usually taxed), and the other reporting 1 or 3 depending on the year.  The latter was identified as John Culpeper in 1793, so it seems reasonable to assume the John with horses in other years was John C also.  In 1795 he was recorded as John Wilson (Leatherwood);  Leatherwood was a tributary to the Smith River at about the point James Sr originally had land, and was a waterway where I believe his grandson James (our ancestor) also bought land.  That, as well as the fact John was regularly intertwined with the rest of our Wilson clan in various years’ records makes it a virtual certainty that he was a close relative.  My best guess is that he was the son of either Moses (son of James Sr.) or Daniel (father unknown, but possibly James Sr.) based on his position in some of the tax years.

Unfortunately, however, none of this really adds to our knowledge of James Sr.!

James’ other known daughter, Martha, was named Bailey in his will. Assuming she was also living in Henry County at the time of James’ death, there were a number of Baileys around that time. The most promising is a Thomas Bailey who had a survey of 226 acres beside Smith Rivers on 16 Apr 1768. That was virtually the same time that James, Thomas & Moses Wilson (the latter two James’ sons) had surveys done, James’ being also on Smith River. Thomas was also in the 1778, 1779, 1780 and 1782 tax lists. I haven’t been able to find any other family trees that list a Thomas Bailey who would have lived in Henry County and would have been about the right age. My current hypothesis, as reflected in the ancestry.com tree, is that Thomas is Martha’s husband.

Other Bailey’s in Henry County about this time are Carr (1778, 1779), William (1779, 1780, 1782) and James (1779, 1782). None of them except Carr have any land records, only tax records. Carr is an interesting case since there are many Carr Baileys in Virginia and related pioneer states in the late 1770’s and early 1800’s. They are all almost certainly descended from John Bailey, Jr. and Elizabeth Carr.  The Carr Bailey in Henry County was in the tax lists of 1778 and 1779 and bought land in 1779 on the south side of the Smith River.  James Sr. also had land on the Smith River, as did his son Thomas (both sides).  There is a curious entry for another sale from Carr Bailey and Mary Turner in November of 1779 (only 1 month after Carr purchased it in October of that year) for 2400 pounds.  This land had been granted by patent to David Haley in 1755, and bought by Mary’s father John in 1757.  It isn’t clear when or why the land was owned by William and Jeremiah Cox when Carr bought it.  But, there are three odd things about this listing:

1) Mary Turner is listed as one of the sellers – since it is an abstract, it is possible she was only listed as relinquishing her right of dower (inheritance), since that was required in those days.  Women couldn’t hold land in their own name unless they were unmarried or widowed, but they did have to consent to having their husbands transfer land since the wife was entitled to all or part on her husband’s death.  But, Mary is listed with the surname of Turner which would be unusual if she were married to Carr.  It does seem that she married Carr at some point since many trees have them married and moving to Kentucky.

2) There is only 1 month between the purchase by Carr and the later sale.

3) Based on the abstracted text, the 40 acres of land was bought for 50 pounds in October 1779 and sold for 2400 in November 1779.  That would be a huge profit for a 1 month holding!  It’s possible that there is a transcription error, since 600 pounds per acre is an exorbitant rate in those times.  Or perhaps there was something else going on with this transaction, such as a way of paying a debt or passing on an inheritance.  In any event, it is fortunate for Carr and Mary that there were no capital gains taxes in those days!

There is one other interesting deed involving a Martha Bailey – on 17 October 1783, Martha bought 100 acres on the Buck Branch of Snow Creek.  A little Googling revealed it is now called the Finney Branch and is now located in Franklin County, which was formed from Henry and Bedford in 1785.  I have identified two possible Martha Baileys in Henry County at that time – one would be the daughter of James, and the other is the former Martha “Patsy” Brashears, daughter of Ann Wilson Brashears (and thus the niece of the other Martha Bailey), who married Joseph Bailey (relationship to other Baileys still unknown).  As I mentioned before, women usually only bought land in their own names if they were single (unmarried, divorced or widowed).  I have tracked Martha Brashears Bailey into Floyd County up until 1850, and her husband Joseph Bailey up through the 1820 census, so she was not a widows in 1783.  It seems much more likely that this is James Sr.’s daughter, and that her husband (Thomas, I believe) had passed away by this time.  There was a James Bailey in the Henry County tax lists in 1779 and 1782, and then in the Franklin County lists in 1786.  So it is a very good possibility that James was Martha’s son, and that he inherited the land from her or already owned land near hers.  I haven’t done very much research into this since it doesn’t really help me understand more about James Sr.

While there is no solid linkage between James’ daughter Martha and the Baileys of Westmoreland, especially since I can find no record of a Thomas Bailey in that county, the nearness of Carr who almost certainly was of that clan provides a  nice piece of circumstantial evidence that Martha married into that family.  But it could have been in Westmoreland County or another area (such as Prince William or Fauquier) where the Baileys migrated.

At this point, I only have two real clues as to James Sr.’s location prior to Halifax/Pittsylvania/Henry County (same location, but with changes in county formations and borders): the histories of his two daughters’ husbands’ families, Brashears and Bailey. I have discussed the Brashears in a previous post, and despite a fairly good documentation of that family’s journey through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, it didn’t really help pinpoint where James might have come from. Thus, the next candidate is the Baileys.

There is both good news and bad news here. The Bailey name was quite widespread throughout colonial Virginia, and even if I limit my search to the Northern Neck area where I believe James came from, there is still quite a large clan to deal with. And, as you might suspect, they all have common first names such as James, John, Joseph, William, etc., not to mention Carr, which as it turns out will be become important.

The various Carr Baileys  are likely descended from John Bailey, Jr., who married Elizabeth Carr around 1726 and died in 1776, both in Westmoreland County. Somewhat strangely, however, none of his sons (as mentioned in his will, and he specifically said he had 3 sons) were named Carr, so that name must have come from his grandchildren. The sons mentioned in his will were John, James and Stephen. It’s possible that the John Bailey who died in 1776 was not the husband of Elizabeth Carr, but instead another Elizabeth. Some trees show Elizabeth Carr as having married a John Bailey that died in 1735/6.  But in any case, the numerous Carr Baileys almost certainly are descendants of Elizabeth Carr Bailey.

There is a Carr Bailey receiving a land grant in Fauquier County (one of our candidate counties for James) in 1772, as well as Carr Jr, William and James in Prince William County at various time in the 1780’s and beyond.  This time period was well beyond when James Wilson Sr. was found in Halifax County, but it does indicate that at some time in the mid-1700’s the Bailey clan moved northward from Westmoreland, as perhaps James did.

But I can find no record of a Bailey marrying a Wilson, much less our relative Martha Wilson.   And, based on names found in Henry County, I think Martha married a Thomas Bailey, and I cannot find a mention of a Thomas Bailey in the Westmoreland records.  That doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t from there or environs, but it gives me no clues to work with on James’ background.

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.

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.