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The LikelyIdentityof Josiah's Wife, Elizabeth
I initiallyreceived information indicating that Josiah's wife was Elizabeth Bunn.The source and evaluation of this suggestion is listed in the first section below, entitled "Background StudyRegarding the "Elizabeth Bunn" theory".
More recently, Larry Horn of Fayetteville, Arkansas, has done extensive research and analysis and provided information which strongly suggests 1) that the wife of Josiah was NOT Elizabeth Bunn, and 2) that Josiah's wife may well have been an Elizabeth Hunter, daughter of Thomas Hunter and Priscilla Smith of Nash County, NC.
I completelyand enthusiasticallysupport Larry Horn's hypotheses, discussed below in elaborate detail.
Background StudyRegarding the "Elizabeth Bunn" theory
According to the Ray Horn book Josiah was guardian to Howell Horn, son of Josiah's uncle, Joel (d 1793) from 1793 to 1798, indicating that Josiah was probably married before 1793.
A number of family researchers who have studied this family have stated that Josiah's wife was Elizabeth Bunn, born September 18, 1765 in North Carolina.While I have not found any primary documentation of the source of either her surname or date of birth, I have no substantial reason to doubt the validity of her reported indentification.The most complete documentation of the Bunn family of North Carolina that I have encountered is in World Family Tree CD 19, Ċ, prepared and contributed by Deborah C. Harbuck of Georgia.An apparently expanded listing of this family tree is available on the Rootsweb World Connect project under the GEDCOM name, "mrsharbuck".
Along with others, Harbuck lists, as the wife of Josiah Horn, Elizabeth Bunn, daughter of David Bunn(1720-1784) and Mary Joyner(1720-1830).According to information sent to me by Jim Doyle and also Mary Sue Siler, a listing of abstracts of Nash County Wills, p 27, lists the following:
DAVID BUNN, SR. p. 28.Nov 27, 1784 - Feb Ct. 1785Sons: David, Redmund, Benjamin.Daus: Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth, Rachel, Seletor, Creasy?.Ex: Benjamin Bunn Sr., Josiah Bunn*, John Bunn.[ *In the extensive documentation of the members of this Bunn extended family by Harbuck, no Josiah Bunn is listed.I considered the possibility that the name of Josiah Horn may have been incorrectly transcribed as Josiah Bunn, in the abstracting of the will of David Bunn Sr.However, on 1/4/99, I have examined a photocopy of the original will of David Bunn, Sr, obtained from the NC Archives, and the name "Josiah Bunn" clearly appears, both as a witness to the Will itself and as a witness to the recording of the will].A typescript of this orginal will of David Bunn, Sr may be found in his Notes. [ Josiah Bunn is also identified as a witness to a 1785 Edgecomb deed: "1061-(300) ( John Barnes of Edge Co to Joel Horn, Wilson Curl & Hardy Harris of Edge & Nash counties.540 acres as by grant to John Barnes 9 Oct 1783, a few miles from Tar River on the south side, joining Brigers (formerly Lewis Curl's), Philip Thomas, James Ricks, Horns Creek, Redmun Bunn, William Brigers.Wit: Redmun Bunn, Josiah Bunn.Nov Ct 1785.Edw Hall CC.)]
In the original of the Will of David Bunn, all of the daughters are referred to by given name only, and no surnames or married name is indicated, and no sons-in-law or grandchildren are named.
However, and of great interest, Sue Siler reported to me the following, found in Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash Co NC, 1781-1897, by Joseph Watson (TN State Library, F262.w2/W33:
Bk. p 34. . p 33.Division of the estate of David Bunn, deceased, agreeable to an order of May Court 1786.An equal part of the money was given to each of the following children:Ann Curl, Sarah Curl, Elizabeth Curl, Rachel Ricks, Selector Bunn, David Bunn, and Leuvency Bunn.No date of registration.[Deed Book 14].
This information from the estate records of the David Bunn who died 1784, in which three daughters of David Bunn had the last name of "Curl",was unusual and certainly of interest.Possible explanation for the three "Curl girls" included the possibility that three daughters had married the Curl brothers or cousins.
[RGH, 1//99:I have received copies of numerous David Bunn estate settlement records from NC Archives.Preliminary look confirms above.See the Notes to David Bunn (1720 - 1784) for extensive evaluation of his will and estate records.)In summary, in the David Bunn Will all the daughters are named by first name only, and married names are not given.However, in the Estate Settlement Papers Ann, Sarah, and Elizabeth are all designated as Curl's.Major purchases at the Estate Sale are made by Lewis, Willis, and Joseph Curl, clearly nominating them as sons-in-law of the deceased.Harbuck's WFT 19/266 names Ann Bunn + Lewis Curl and Sarah Bunn+ Willis Curl, but associates Elizabeth only with Josiah Horn, and not with Joseph Curl.On the other hand Carolyn Young([email protected]) of Ashland, OR cites a source, as yet unnamed,stating that Elizabeth was married to Joseph Curl, as the Estate Papers suggest.Young also names the parents of these three Curl young men as Wilson Curle and Mourning Armistead, citing work by Clarence Curl, while acknowledging considerable uncertainty about the complete validity of the sourcing.
The four sons of Josiah Horn, are generally listed similarly in sources I have seen.James, born 1787, Henry, born 1793, Cordell, born 1800, and Josiah, born 1806.All of these four sons of Josiah of Blooming Grove community are found listed with their families in the Tennessee censuses of the first half of the 1800's, and their offspring are generally well documented.
Examination of the data on the family of Josiah Horn raises the question that his first son, James, might have been the product of an earlier marriage, either of his wife Elizabeth, e. g., to a Curl, as suggested above, or, conceivably, by a prior marriage of Josiah, which is not documented.It is of interest that the date of birth of James is generally given as 1787, in the same sources which estimate the date of the marriage of Josiah Horn and Elizabeth as 1790-1792.(Suggestion that Josiah also had an "undocumented" daughter named "Winifred" is discussed below, and the possibility of another son, Thomas, surfaced only recently, also discussed below.)
As noted above, in the 1790 NC census, Halifax district, the Josiah Horn family was enumerated as consisting one adult WM (Josiah), one WM <16, three WF, and five slaves.Perhaps the young WM is the son James.The three WF might include Josiah's wife and perhaps the child, Winifred.
Careful examination of original documents, if possible, need to be made to determine if Elizabeth Bunn was actually and correctly listed as Elizabeth Curl in the Nash County records of 1786.
In the recorded Deeds of Nash County, NC, it is clear that Josiah Horn was acquainted with and substantially involved with the Bunn families of that area.Many members of the Bunn and Curl families are named as witnesses and principals in transactions involving various Horn's, including Josiah, recorded during the 1790's.Thus it is reasonable to expect that Elizabeth Bunn was well known to Josiah Horn during the period in which he was seeking a wife.
Recent (Feb 1999) perusal of Montgomery county Records at the TN State Library has provided evidence that some Bunn's as well as Curl's had joined the migration to Montgomery County during the years that Josiah and his wife Elizabeth relocated there from NC.Burwell Bunn on 23April 1792 purchased, for 80 pounds, 640 acres on Sinking Creek, a branch of the west fork of the Red River on the west side, in then Tennessee County, and sold it to Lemuel Sugg in November, 1803 for 1500 dollars, then Montgomery County (See Notes to Burwell Bunn).Also on 23 April 1792, Joel Bunn purchased for 80 pounds a 640-acre tract of land in Tennessee County, on the north side of Cumberland River and on the North fork of Sycamore Creek (See Notes to Joel Bunn.)
On 21 December, 1804, William Curl, [son of Wilson Curl (spouse of Mourning Horn, Josiah's Aunt)], now of Stewart County, TN, sold 144 acres, a tract lying on the west side of Blooming Grove (creek) on Pain's Branch, running north on William Weathersby's line.Josiah Horn lived on Blooming Grove Creek, also adjoining Wm Weathersby, from 1800 until his death.On the same date on which Josiah Horn purchased from Robert Prince his 230 acres on Blooming Grove Creek, ie, 16 January, 1800, Prince also sold to "Edward More" a 150 acre tract "on the waters of Blooming Grove Creek".HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS:Sarah Curl, daughter of Wilson Curl and Mourning Horn, see above, married an Edward Moore, and it appears that after Wilson Curl's death in about 1802, the widow Mourning Horn moved south to Maury County Tn with her dtr Sarah and Edward Moore, then southward later to Tuscaloosa AL.
(See Notes to Wilson Curl, for elaboration.)
It may be of interest to note that in June 1805 William Curl is recorded as a buyer at the estate sale of Thomas Tire, Will Book A, p 268.Five pages later, p 273, Josiah Horn posts a guardian bond as Guardian of Mary Tire, heir of Thomas Tire, deceased.I beieve the Tire family is also called Tyree, and that two of the Tire/Tyree young ladies, married two of Josiah grandsons several years later.
Thus the Bunn's and the Curl's and the Horn's maintained some proximity in Tennessee as they had done in NC, but clear definition of the origins and background of Josiah's wife, Elizabeth, is still lacking.
[The interested reader may wish to correlate the events in the life of Josiah at this time, with the events in the life of his father, Colonel William, now married to his fourth wife, Sarah Norfleet Hilliard Horn, and the father of two young sons, born 1793 to 1795.These events in the Colonel's life are summarized in the Notes, and elsewhere.]
End of background study on Elizabeth Bunn as Possible wife of Josiah Horn
.......Robert G. Horn, November, 1998 & February, 1999
********************
His evidence supporting the conclusion that Josiah's wife was Elizabeth Hunter follows thereafter, in Part 2 below.
WHO WAS JOSIAH HORN'S WIFE?
Part 1
by Larry Horn
My title should perhaps be rephrased thus:How Many Wives Had Josiah Horn, and Who Were They?For if the prevailing accepted view is correct--that the wife of Josiah Horn was Elizabeth Bunn, who was formerly married to Joseph Curl--then clearly Josiah Horn himself had a former wife.On the l790 federal census for Nash County NC Josiah Horn is listed as a head of household with three white females in his home, one of them no doubt his wife.And in l790 Elizabeth Bunn was still married to Joseph Curl (they had been married, as will be shown, since at least l786), and Joseph Curl did not die until l798.It is possible that by that date Josiah Horn had become widowed also and that he and Elizabeth Bunn Curl then married.
However, continued research into the records of Nash County NC for the period concernedhas led me to question seriously whether Josiah Horn andElizabeth Bunn Curl were in fact ever married. And if this is the case, it is likely that Josiah Horn ever had only one wife.I take this position somewhat timorously, knowing that family researchers more experienced than I have concluded/assumed that Elizabeth Bunn was the wife of Josiah Horn.But it is not without significancethat, according to Dr. Bob Horn, when he has asked any of these researchers for a source for this conclusion/assumption, no one has been able to provide such.This conclusion/assumptionhas been perhaps deduced from the readily observable fact, based on deeds and records of property transactions, that in Nash County NC in the l780s and l790s Josiah Horn and Bunns and Curls lived in close proximity to one another, knew one another,and intermingled a great deal.But I have come seriously to doubt that any intermingling included a marriage between Josiah Horn and Elizabeth Bunn Curl.
Making use of legal documents of Nash County NC for the period in question, my essay will seekfirst to substantiate my doubt that Elizabeth Bunn was ever the wife of Josiah Horn.Then, using additional Nash County documents as well as other material, it will offer what I think is very credible circumstantial evidence, and perhaps more than circumstantial, pointing to the real identity of the wife of Josiah Horn.
One can find numerous assertions on internet genealogy sites that the wife of Josiah Horn was Elizabeth Bunn, daughter of David Bunn, Sr. and Mary Joyner (the same assertion made by the researchers referred to above whom Dr. Bob Horn, to no avail, queried regarding their source).And certainly they had a daughter named Elizabeth.The will of David Bunn, Sr.--written November 27, l784 and probated Feb. 1785--lists these children:David, Redmund, Benjamin, Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth, Rachel, Seleter, and Creasy.(Abstracts of Will Book I, Nash County, NC l778-1868 by Joseph W. Watson)
More valuable to the present undertaking is information contained in a record of the "Division of the estate of David Bunn, deceased" in 1786 in which the married names of his daughters are given:Ann Curl, Sarah Curl, Elizabeth Curl, Rachel Ricks.(Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash County, NC l781-l897 by Joseph W. Watson)
What this record clearly demonstrates is that, while there may be no evidence that she ever married Josiah Horn, Elizabeth Bunn did marry into the Curl family, and that she had married a Curl by 1786.Taking note of this fact on his Horn family web site, Dr. Bob Horn writes that "Major purchases at the Estate Sale [of David Bunn] are made by Lewis, Willis, and Joseph Curl, clearly nominating them as sons-in-law of the deceased."He goes ahead to state that Deborah Harbuck in the Bunn family information she provides on World Family Tree CD19, Ċ "names Ann Bunn + Lewis Curl and Sarah Bunn + Willis Curl, but associates Elizabeth only with Josiah Horn, and not with Joseph Curl."This is rather odd, given that records clearly demonstrate that the name of Joseph Curl's wife was Elizabeth and that this wife clearly had Bunn associations/connections. These facts (which I will get to presently) taken in conjunction with the estate sale records referring to a daughter of David Bunn as "Elizabeth Curl" seem indisputably to indicate that Elizabeth Bunn was the wife of Joseph Curl.
Abundant property transaction records testify to the presence of Joseph Curl in the Stony Creek and Kirby's Creek areas of Nash County, NC in the 1790s.But by l798 Joseph Curl was dead.This entry appears in Joseph W. Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County, NC l777-1859:"Petition of Elizabeth Curl for a year's support.She was the widow of Joseph Curl, decd.Nov. 13, l798."
One might conclude that the widowed Elizabeth (Bunn) Curl soon married Josiah Horn, perhaps also recently widowed, and accompanied him on his move from Nash County NC to Montgomery County TN--where he was by early l800 as property transactions and a county tax roll show.Such a conclusion would, however, be erroneous, as will be shown.There is also the consideration that if Elizabeth Bunn Curl married Josiah Horn and went with him to Tennessee, what happened to any children she had had by Joseph Curl?Or were they childless?The following records help answer these questions as well as show that Elizabeth Curl, widow of Joseph Curl, was surnamed Bunn, a conclusion that seems unassailable, and that she never went to Tennessee but remained until her death in Nash County NC.
This very significant entry appears in Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County, NC l777-l859:"CURL, JOSEPH inventory taken by Benjamin Bunn and David Bunn, admrs., Dec. 18, l798 included nine negroes.Allotment made to widow, Elizabeth Curl, and family.Another inventory taken
March 14, l799 included 100 apple trees.Sale held Dec. 20, l798, with Elizabeth Curl principal buyer.Aug. Term, l799."The significance is the names of those men who took inventory of the estate of Joseph Curl as administrators.Benjamin Bunn and David Bunn were sons of David Bunn, Sr.; see reference to the latter's will above, which also names the daughters of David Bunn, Sr., including an Elizabeth.Records of the estate sale of David Bunn, Sr. state the married name of Elizabeth, sister of Benjamin Bunn and David Bunn, to be Curl.Putting all this pertinent information together leads to the inescapable conclusion that the maiden name of the wife of Joseph Curl, deceased, was Elizabeth Bunn.Benjamin Bunn and David Bunn were administering the estate of their brother-in-law.
Then very significantly, and answering the question whether Elizabeth Bunn Curl and Joseph Curl had children, occur these entries in the same work referred to above:
"CURL, MARY (POLLY), orphan of Joseph Curl.Bond l799, returns l801-02-03-04-06-07-10-11-12-13 by Redmun Bunn, gdn.Paid Elizabeth Curl for board and 'schooling.'"
"CURL, MOURNING, orphan of Joseph Curl.Bond l799, returns l801-02-03-04-06-07-10-11-12-13 by Redmun Bunn, gdn.Paid Elizabeth Curl for board and 'schooling.'"
"CURL, NANCY (ANN), orphan of Joseph Curl.Bond l799, returns l801-02-03-04-06-07 by
Redmun Bunn, gdn.Paid Elizabeth Curl for board and 'schooling.'"
"CURL, NORFLEET, orphan of Joseph Curl.Bond l799, returns l801-02-03-04 by Redmun Bunn, gdn.Paid Elizabeth Carl for board and 'schooling.'"
More evidence that the surname of Elizabeth Curl, widow of Joseph Curl, was Bunn is the name of the man who was her orphaned children's legal guardian:Redmun Bunn.Redmun Bunn was another brother of Elizabeth Bunn (see above the will of David Bunn, Sr.).
So Elizabeth Bunn Curl and Joseph Curl did indeed have children.What became of these children if she married Josiah Bunn and accompanied him to Montgomery County, TN?They appear nowhere in the picture of the family life of Josiah Horn in Montgomery County, TN after his removal there.Did they then remain in North Carolina with their guardian while their mother removed to Tennessee?The records cited just above indicate that for all the years for which returns were made to the court by their guardian, the Joseph Curl orphans resided with their mother, to whom payment for their board and schooling was made, in Nash County, NC.
Other records support this conclusion.Elizabeth Curl is a household head in Nash County, NC in l800, according to Elizabeth Petty Bartley's Index to the l800 Census of North Carolina.In January of l800, Josiah Horn was already in Montomery County, TN purchasing land along Blooming Grove Creek.
(See Montgomery County Deeds for l796-1800, p. 394, in the TN State Library Archives.)And his name
appears on the l800 Tax Lists of Montgomery County Tennessee in the "Capt. David Brigham's Co." section of those lists (http://www.tngenweb.org/montgomery/taxlistl800.html).
Further and strongly supporting the contention that Elizabeth Bunn Curl, widow of Joseph Curl, never left Nash County, NC--and thus could not be a wife of Josiah Horn--are the following very important entries in Watson's Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash County, NC l781-l897 (all from Deed Book 14).
Elizabeth Bunn Curl was clearly in Nash County in late l800:"Allotment of dower to the widow of JOSEPH CURL, deceased, by jury, Nov. 18, l800, a tract of 136 acres on Stony Creek."
And she was also there with her orphans in l803:"Division of the negroes of JOSEPH CURL, deceased, by commissioners, Dec. 29, l803, among the widow and orphans so as to give the widow her share."
She was there as well in l807, when another such division was made:"Division of the negroes of JOSEPH CURL, deceased, by commissioners meeting at the house of Elizabeth Curl,Dec. 28, l807.The heirs were Norphlet Curl, Nancy Curl, Polley Curl, and Mourning Curl."
Another estate division was made in l809:"Division of the lands of JOSEPH CURL, deceased, May Court l809, Aug. 14, l809, among the four heirs, to wit:Polly Curl, Mourning Curl, Norphlet Curl, and Nancy Daniel.
Then there is this entry:"Division of the estate of JOSEPH CURL, deceased, among the widow and other heirs of the deceased, no date.The widow, Norphlet Curl, Nancy Curl, Polly Curl, and Mourning Curl each received 92 pds. 1 sh. 3 ½ p."While this transaction is not dated, it would appear to be earlier than the immediately preceding one which is dated May l809 because here the daughter Nancy is referred to by her maiden name whereas in the preceding one she is designated by her married name, Daniel.
And according to Nash County Deed Book 5-353 Elizabeth Curl was in Nash County NC in l812.That record tells us that"Elizabeth Curl of Nash. Co." deeded "to her son Norflet Curl, Aug. 3, l812, for love and affection two negroes by name, to take effect after her death."
That death did not occur until l821.And at that date Elizabeth Bunn Curl was still in Nash County NC.Her will is indexed thus in North Carolina Wills:A Testator Index, l665-l900, vol. 1, A-J by Thornton W. Mitchell.And more detail about this will is given in The Wills of Nash County, NC, vol 1,
l777-l848 abstracted by Dr. Stephen E. Bradley, Jr.Thisdetail helps to identify the Elizabeth Curl of this will.The will was dated Dec. l9, l820 and proved in August Court l821.In her will, ElizabethCurl leaves to her daughter "Mourning Curl . . . all my property."The will names as its executor Alfred Bunn; and Willie Bunn is one of its witnesses.The name of the daughter (see earlier sections enumerating the children of Elizabeth Curl) clearly identifies the Elizabeth Curl of this will as the woman who has been largely the sujbect of this study thus far, the wife of Joseph Curl.And the names Alfred Bunn and Willie Bunn help strongly to support a central point of this study, that Elizabeth Curl's maiden name was Bunn.The l785 will of David Bunn, Sr. establishes that a brother of his daughter Elizabeth was named Redmun.And the will of Redumn Bunn (l822/l826) identifies Alfred Bunn and Willie Bunn as his nephews. (Abstracts of of Will Book I Nash County NC l778-1868 by Joseph W. Watson)Alfred Bunn and Willie Bunn would thus also be nephews of Elizabeth Curl..
The fate of the children of Elizabeth Bunn Curl may be of some interest.Available evidence suggests that they like their mother remained in North Carolina.Certainly this statement holds true for Nancy Curl and her sister Mary (Polly) Curl.These Curl sistersmarried Daniel brothers.The l809 estate division of Joseph Curl, see above, refers to Nancy, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Curl, as Nancy Daniel.An entry in Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-1859 by Joseph W. Watson identifies her husband as Jephthah Daniel, who died in l824.And "Allotment of Dower to Nancy Daniel, widow of Jephthah Daniel, deceased" was made "by jury, Nov. Term l824," assigning her the right to "a tract of 30 acres which was the house tract; also, the Curl tract of 82 acres on Kirby's Creek." (Watson's Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash County NC l781-l897) And at a Nash County Court of Equity l845 "Petition for the sale of land for division" was made by the "children of Mary Daniel, 'lately' deceased and David Daniel, decd.They were tenants in common of a tract of land given to said Mary Daniel by her father, Joseph Curl, and of a tract of land given to said David Daniel by his father, David Daniel." (Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-1859.)The l824/25 will of David Daniel, Sr. verifies that Jephthah Daniel and David Daniel were indeed brothers.(Bradley's The Wills of Nash County NC, vol. 1, l777-l848.)
As for Mourning Curl, the other daughter of Elizabeth and Joseph Curl, the only record I have been able so far to locate, besides her mother's will, regarding her later life is the statement in Williams' and Griffin's Early Marriages of Nash County NC that on Nov. 19, l822 Mourning Curle married Jeremiah Bunn; and he no doubt was some kind of the cousin of the bride, deriving from the family of Mourning Curl's mother.His parents appear to have been Burrell Bunn and Charity Horn; she, interestingly, was a cousin of Josiah Horn.
Norfleet Curl, son of Elizabeth Bunn Curl and Joseph Curl , was in Nash County, NC at least until l820.He is listed as a household head on the l810 federal census for Nash County, NC.And on Sept. 23, l811 "Norfleet Curl of Nash Co." sold "to Jephthah Daniel of same . . . a tract of 89 acres on the south side of Kirby's Creek adjoining David Daniel and said Jepthah Daniel. (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC Books 1-6 l778-1813)[At this date Norfleet Curl was the brother-in-law of Jepthah Daniel.The David Daniel referred to is probably David Daniel, Sr.In time, Norfleet Curl would also become the brother-in-law of David Daniel, Jr.(See above)]Norfleet Curl is also listed as a household head in Nash County, NC on the l820 federal census, but he is not listed on the l830 census for NC, having presuambly died during the l820s.
The overwhelming and inescapable conclusion emerging from the foregoing citation of evidence, it seems to me,is that Elizabeth Bunn, while she was indeed wife to Joseph Curl, was never married to Josiah Horn.She did not marry him and accompany him on his move from Nash County NC to Montgomery County TN.She never remarried at all but remained the widow Curl until her death in Nash County in l821.So, whoever the wife of Josiah Horn was, Elizabeth Bunn seems clearly not to be a candidate for that distinction.
End of Part I
WHO WAS JOSIAH HORN'S WIFE?
Part 2
By Larry Horn
If--as is argued with an amassing of supporting evidence in Part I of Who Was Josiah Horn's Wife?--Elizabeth Bunn Curl was not the wife of Josiah Horn (1766 NC-1845 Montgomery Co., TN), where does one start looking for a more likely candidate for that role?And does one know anything at the outset to aid in such a search?
Well, one knows that her name was Elizabeth, if tombstone inscriptions are to be trusted, and her birth and death dates."Elizabeth" lies beside Josiah Horn in Blooming Grove Cemetery in Montgomery Co., TN, and her stone tells us that she was born Sept. 18, 1765 and died July 1, l840.
How then to begin the search for the surname of the elusive Elizabeth?Possibly the best and most viable procedure would be to look again at what has for some time been an "alternative" theory regarding her identity, one opposed to the generally accepted view that she was Elizabeth Bunn Curl.
The candidate this theory posits as the wife of Josiah Horn is Elizabeth surnamed Hunter.In a l982 letter to me Elizabeth Simon (now deceased) of Grants Pass, OR speculated that the name of Elizabeth, wife of Josiah, might be Hunter.Mrs. Simon was a granddaughter of Thomas Hunter Horn, brother to my great-grandfather Josiah Martin Horn, and they were grandsons of Josiah Horn and Elizabeth.She said that the Hunter in her grandfather's name referred to a Hunter family and that he was named "for someone."Mrs. Simon thought that the Hunters came from Virginia and said--with reference to the fact that her grandfather and my great-grandfather were brothers--that they would be Josiah Martin Horn's "ancestors too."
The most remarkable and detailed version of the theory positing Hunter as the surname of Elizabeth, wife of Josiah Horn, is that provided by Helen Polly.Ms. Polly is a gg-granddaughter of Winifred Horn, who she says was the daughter of Josiah Horn and Elizabeth Hunter of Montgomery Co., TN.Ms. Hunter cites in support of her claim a book by Richard Gentry entitled The Gentry Family in America, l676 to l909.Winifred Horn married Obadiah Tindall cl816; the Tindalls were a connection of the Gentry family.According to Ms. Polly, the information about Winifred Horn in this bookwas supplied to the author by Lucy Gentry Tindall, wife of a grandson of Winifred Horn.Citing his source,
Richard Gentry writes that Winifred Horn "lived 12 miles east of Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tenn.Her father , Josiah Horn, was a Baptist preacher and her mother was Elizabeth Hunter, whose family was from South Carolina." (In this, Gentry's source is mistaken; the Hunters in question , as I will show, were from North Carolina.)This source does go on, correctly, to tell Gentry that the father of Elizabeth Hunter was a "Colonel Hunter" who "served in the Revolutionary War as a colonel of a regiment." Around l820-1824Obadiah Tindall and Winifred Horn Tindall, Ms. Polly says, migrated from Montgomery Co., TN to Howard Co., MO, where Obadiah died in l828 amd Winifred cl845.
Certainly, the information that this book gives about Josiah Horn correctly identifies him; he was a Baptist preacher, as well as landholder, in Montgomery Co., TN during the time in question.Did he have any daughters, and was Elizabeth Hunter their mother (as well as the mother of his sons)?
Almost everyone who has researched, or claimed to research, the family of Josiah Horn and wife Elizabeth credits them with having only sons, four of them:James, Henry, Cordell, Josiah.The extraordinary gaps between the ages of these sons no one, as far as I know, has commented on; and yetthey should raise at least an eyebrow, given the rates and frequency of reproduction within familes at this time in history.In addition, there are some "facts" that challenge this assumption regarding the off-spring produced by Josiah and Elizabeth.
- 1) In the l790 federal census for Nash Co., NC (where Josiah was then residing) in the household headed by Josiah Horn there are enumerated, besides the household head and a son, three white females.One of them no doubt is the wife of Josiah, but the other two are likely daughters that no one has known the identity of, and one could well be Ms. Polly's Winifred.
- 2) The l820 federal census for Montgomery Co., TN gives this information about the household
- headed by Josiah Horn (the l800 and l810 censuses for Tennessee are lost):the household includes three white males (including the head of household) and four white females, the oldest being clearly Josiah's wife.The age categories of the other three females are given thus: 1, age 10-16; 1, 16-26; 1, 26-45.Who are they?Still other daughters?In l820, Josiah's wife Elizabeth would be 55 and could well have borne children into her 40s, so it is conceivable that she was the mother of even the youngest of these three unaccounted-for females.Also in l820,two of Josiah's recognized sons, James and Henry,were already married and in their own homes.The two yet at home in l820 are presumably his other two known sons, Cordell and Josiah.But in the l790s decade, Josiah may have fathered a son or sons who had already left the paternal nest by the time of the l820 census. Certainly,what the l790 and l820 census figures should remind us of is that the assumptions that have been made to date about the composition of the family of Josiah Horn and his wife Elizabeth are probably erroneous--not for what they have included, but for the reason that they have not been inclusive enough.Josiah and Elizabeth Horn very well might have had sons besides the acknowledged four.And it seems very clearthat they had daughters.And one of them very well could have been Ms. Polly's Winifred.In fact, that is likely.
- 2) The l820 federal census for Montgomery Co., TN gives this information about the household
Now, assuming (and it is well nigh impossible any longer not to assume) that Josiah Horn and his wife Elizabeth had daughers as well as sons and that one of these daughters was named Winifred, was the mother of these sons and daughters surnamed Hunter as Ms. Polly and her source aver and as some family traditions theorize?
To find a Hunter family that very likely was allied to the Horns via marriage, one has only to go to Edgecombe County and Nash counties NC and the very vicinity in Nash where Josiah Horn was residing up to the time of his move from NC to Montgomery Co., TN cl800--not to South Carolina as Ms. Polly's source states.
In l790 (as the federal census for that year informs us), Josiah Horn was in Nash County, NC,
a household head, married,and had been for a while.For that census enumerates for him and his wife a son and two daughters, so they well could have been married six years.Numerous legal records show that a Thomas Hunter family was in Nash County from the time of its formation (l777), and before that in Edgecombe, parent county of Nash, just as were the Horns, living very near and interacting with them, and considerable evidence suggests strongly that Elizabeth Horn, wife of Josiah, was a Hunter and that she came out of this Thomas Hunter family.
What follows is an effort, using those records,to suggest this possibility to be probability as strongly as possible.
Nash County, NC was formed out of Edgecombe County, NC in l777.Edgecombe Co. records reveal that there was a Thomas Hunter in Edgecombe prior to l777 and living in an area, like Josiah's Horns,that would be annexed to form the new county of Nash.
The wife of this Thomas Hunter was Priscilla Smith.(In appendix B I will give further information about their background and ancestry.)According to my "reconstruction" (evidence in support of which will follow as appropriate) they had at least six children: the two oldest appear to have been Drew and Elizabeth; then there are Thomas, Cordal, and Mary. A sixth child, a girl, indicated by the l790 census for Nash Co. NC, has not been identified and accounted for and may have died young.
The earliest known date showing Thomas Hunter to be in Edgecombe County, NC isOct. 5, l771.On that date he purchased from Joseph Strickland "a tract of 200 acres on the north bank of Stoney Creek at the mouth of Lasseter's Branch"(Abstracts of Early Deeds of Edgecombe County, NC l772-l778 by Joseph W. Watson).As stated earlier, this tract of 200 acres purchased by Thomas Hunter would after l777 be located in Nash County.
Acording to the court minutes for Feb. l772 Thomas Hunter "opened & cleared a Road near his plantation" which was "hereafter [to be] deemed a Public Road," and court minutes for May l772 note "the Petition of Thomas Hunter for a Mill" (Edgecombe County NC Court Minutes l763-l774, Book II by Weynette Parks Haun) .This petition was apparently granted, for on Nov. 23, l772 Thomas Hunter bought from Joseph Strickling "a parcel of one acre on the south side of Stoney Creek adjoining said Thomas Hunter's mill" (same source as above).
Numerous Edgecombe and Nash records show Thomas Hunter to have remained in this area till the time of his death, engaging in many land transactions in which he was a principal buying and selling, as well as witnessing transactions involving other principals and also being frequently mentioned in transactions involving others when their land is said to adjoin his.
For example, Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Edgecome County NC 1772-1778 shows that on March 11, l774 Thomas Hunter bought"a tract of 96 acres adjoining. . . said Hunter."
And "Thomas Hunter of Edgecombe Co." on March 20, l776, purchased from George Wallace "a tract of ll6 acres on Stony Creek adjoining said Thomas Hunter"(Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-1813 by Thomas W. Watson).
On Nov. 10, l779 Thomas Hunter received a Gov. Caswell grant from the State of North Carolina of "700 acres on the north side of Stony Creek adjoining" the property of several other landholders "and his own line" (same source as above).
On March 30, l780 Thomas Hunter of Nash County received from the state of North Carolina a grant of 640 acres on Maple Creek (same source as above). Maple Creek is very near Stony Creek, which bordered the Hunter homeplace; both flow into the Tar River.
On Jan. 1, l782 Thomas Hunter of Nash County purchased from William Batchelor "200 acres on the north side of Stony Creek'' (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-l813).
On June 18, l784 Israel West sold to Thomas Hunter of Nash County "a tract of 150 acres on the north side of Stony Creek at Laseter's Branch" (same source as above).
During these years, as many records show, while acquiring property Thomas Hunter was also now and then selling parcels of land.The result, according to John Bennett Boddie (Historical Southern Families, vol 7), was that Thomas Hunter of Nash County owned in the Stony Creek vicinity "about a 1000 a. at the time of his death.This land was four miles west of the present city of Rocky Mount and is still known as Hunter's Hill."
As it is a postulate of this study that the Horn and Hunter families became allied by way of marriage (that of Josiah Horn to Elizabeth, daughter of the afore-referenced Thomas Hunter), it is gratifying to be able to show that the Horn and Hunter families were living in close proximity to each other at a very early date and that the families ofJosiah and Elizabethwere not only neighbors but apparently close associates and, in the case of their parents,professional colleagues.The names of their parents William Horn and Thomas Hunter especially appear frequently linked.
For example, on Nov. l9, l772 Thomas Hunter and William Horn were witnesses to a land purchase by one Jesse Hunt of Edgecombe Co. (Abstracts of Early Deeds of Edgecombe County NC- l772-l778 by Joseph W. Watson).
At the Feb. l773 meeting of the Edgecombe County county court, "Jacob Dickinson, Thomas Hunter & William Horn are appointed divide [sic] & settle the Estate of Jno. Watkins deceased"(Edgecombe County NC Court Minutes 1763-1774, Book II by Weynette Parks Haun).Of interest here, in addition to the coupling again of the names of William Horn and Thomas Hunter, is the name Jacob Dickinson.His was a family related to the Horns; he and William Horn were brothers-in-law, having married Thomas sisters.And a record such as this one suggests indeed a close association of these families with the Hunters.
On March 11, l774 Thomas Hunter purchased from John Moore, Jr. "a tract of 96 acres adjoining Elijah Revel, David Strickland, and said Hunter" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Edgecombe County NC l772-l778).A witness to this transaction was Micajah Thomas.This Micajah Thomas was a cousin to Mary Thomas, who was at this date the wife of William Horn (and mother of Josiah Horn).This being a family closely related to the Horns again is suggestive of a close social relationship between these families and the Hunters.
On May 3, l777 this same John Moore, Jr. (presumably) purchased"a 256 acre plantation near Stony Creek on the north side."What is interesting about this transaction record is the more specific locating of the purchased property; it is said to adjoin "Henry Horn [father of William Horn, grandfather of Josiah Horn], Strickland, Thomas Hunter, and Elijah Revel" (same source as above).Records such as this are very important in that they show the Horn and Hunter families to have lived very near one another, to have been neighbors.
On Jan. 21, l779 one Elisha Moore purchased acreage "on the north side of Stoney Creek adjoining Elijah Revel, Henry Horn, and Thomas Hunter" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC Books 1-6, l778-l813).This item serves to make the same point as the immediately preceding one.However, this observation might be added as relevant:according to the usual estimates, Mary Thomas Horn, Josiah Horn's mother, would have been dead by this date; and Josiah therefore was probablyliving with his grandfather Henry Horn.The relationship between the two of them was clearly very close; one has only to look at the will of Henry for substantiation of this claim.So, if there is merit to this observation, it would provide additional (circumstantial) evidence that Josiah and Elizabeth Hunter indeed lived near each other andknew each other early on and into their teen years.
On Jan. 1, l782 Thomas Hunter of Nash County purchased from William Batchelor "200 acres on the north side of Stony Creek . . . it being part of a tract said Batchelor bought of Wm. Horn" (same source as above):another transaction showing the physical proximity of the Horns and Hunters to each other over a spread of years.
On Jan. 3, l782 Thomas Hunter witnessed a selling of property on the part of "Jacob Dickenson, and wife, Mourning Dickenson" (same source as above).Here is another record showing the interactions of these families:Jacob Dickinson has been identified earlier; he and his wife Mourning were Josiah Horn's aunt and uncle.
On Jan. 4, l782 "William Horn of Bertie Co." sold "to Nicholas Skinner of Nash Co.. . . 37 acres on Stony Creek adjoining Thomas Hunter and Nicholas Skinner" (same source as above).By this date William Horn had remarried, after the death of Josiah's mother Mary Thomas, and removed to Bertie Co. So he is selling (a part of) his property in Nash Co., property that was neighbor to Thomas Hunter's property.What is equally of interest regarding this transaction is that a witness to it was:JOSIAH HORN.It is, as has been stated, most probable that with his father's remarriage and removal to Bertie Co. Josiah remained in Nash Co., living with his grandfather Henry Horn and, as had been the case for years, near the Hunter family.At this date, Josiah would have been going on sixteen.
On Nov. 24, l783 Nicholas Skinner sold two tracts of land to Wilson Curl.One involved "200 acres on the north side of Tar River."The second involved "250 acres on both sides of Stony Creek adjoining Thomas Hunter, Micajah Thomas and Ross' patent line."Micajah Thomas's connection to the Horns has been earlier explained.Among the witnesses to both these transactions were those neighbors of long standing "H. Horn, Thomas Hunter"(same source as above).
I mentioned earlier that in addition to being neighbors and frequently associated in legal trans actions, Thomas Hunter and William Horn were also professional colleagues as statesmen of some stature, due perhaps to thefact that both Hunters and Horns were prominent landowners as well as to their patriotic fervor.In August l775 Thomas Hunter was one of the delegates from Edgecombe County to the Provincial Congress of North Carolina held at Hillsboro (Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the American Revolution with an appendix containing a collection of miscellaneous records).In April, l776 he was appointed 2nd major of the militia brigade of Edgecombe County (Historical Sketches of North Carolina by John Hill Wheeler).Then, according to Boddie (Historical Southern Families, vol. 7), "when Nash Co. was formed from western Edgecombe Hunter was placed in charge of the militia brigade of the new county and given the rank of colonel."As "a colonel of the militia," Thomas Hunter "was the highest ranking officer from Nash Co. in the Rev. War," Boddie states.Also, according to Boddie, when in l778 Nash County sent its first representatives to the state legislature, these includedThomas Hunter to the House of Commons.Then in l779, "at a General Assembly begun and held at Smithfieldon the Third Day of May,"Thomas Hunter and William Horn were recognized as the elected members from Nash County of the State of North Carolina House of Commons(Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the American Revolution with an appendix containing a collection of miscellaneous records).
Thomas Hunter died intestate (according to Boddie; and certainly no will has been found) probably in l785.Inventory of the estate of Thomas Hunter of Nash County was returned on May 4, l785 by "Micajah Thomas, admr."Micajah Thomas's functioning as administrator of the estate of Thomas Hunter illustrates again the close alliance of Horn and Horn-related families with the Hunter family.Micajah Thomas was a cousin of Josiah Horn's mother.The Thomas Hunter estate was still being administered in the later l780s and into the l790s at which times Priscilla Hunter had become the admrx (Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-l859 by Joseph W. Watson). Indeed, the estate was still being "settled" for many years to come.The inventory returned by Micajah Thomas included "fourteen negroes," a detail which according to the conventional standards of the time reveals, along with his land holdings and involvement in public life, something of the affluence and prominence of Thomas Hunter in Nash County.
Priscilla Hunter's dower rights as a widow were allotted in l789:"Allotment of dower to the widow of Thomas Hunter, deceased, by jury, Feb. Term 1789, March 22, l789, two tracts of land containing 323 acres" (Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash County NC 1781-1897 by Joseph W. Watson).(While no explicit records have been found to show this process, it seems clear that as they came of age Thomas Hunter's children became heirs to portions of his property.Evidence of this will emerge subsequently pointing to the reception of their property on the parts of his sons Drew and Thomas.And after her death, the remaining property that had been dowered to Priscilla would be divided between her sons [see below]).
And Priscilla apparently remained on and worked the Stony Creek property of Thomas Hunter for the remainder of her life.On Aug. l796, e.g., she petitioned "to build a water grist mill across Lassiter's Branch," and in Nov. l810 she petitioned "to build a water grist mill across Stony Creek"
(Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-l859).
If Thomas Hunter had left a will, identifying all his children would be a simple affair.Indeed, he no doubt would have identified daughter Elizabeth, who will be a chief subject of the remainder ofthis study, by her married name.For if she was the wife of Josiah Horn, as is being argued, they in l790 (Nash County federal census) were the parents of three children and could thus well have been married by l785, the year of her father's death; she inMay, l785, wouldhave been almost 20, Josiah almost 19.Some other children of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter are identified by guardian petitions; and their names are important as part of the networkof circumstantial evidence pointing toward Elizabeth Hunter's being the wife of Josiah Horn.
These entries occur in Joseph W. Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-1859:
1."Hunter, Cordal, orphan of Thomas Hunter.Bond l793, returns l794-l801 by Howell Ellin, gdn."
2."Hunter, Mary (Polly), orphan of Thomas Hunter.Bond l793, return l794 by Howell Ellin, gdn.Return l794 by Priscilla Hunter, gdn."
3."Hunter, Thomas, orphan of Thomas Hunter.Bond l792, return by Benjamin Bunn, Jr., gdn.
Paid Priscilla Hunter for board."
(Remarks on the subsequent life of Thomas Hunter, son of Thomas and Priscilla, occur later in this discourse as part of the discussion of Elizabeth Hunter).Cordal Hunter, son of Thomas and Priscilla, lived his life in Nash County.He married Martha Daniel, daughter of David Daniel, Sr. (the Daniels were neighbors of the Hunters on Stoney Creek), and they had several children.Cordal Hunter died in l836; he made his will, being in "infirm health,"Jan. 19, 1836 and it was probated Feb. l836.For more on Mary, daughter of Thomas and Priscilla, see immediately below.
Another child, a son, Drew Hunter, was apparently older than these three "orphan" children of Thomas Hunter.In the legal records of Nash County the name Drew Hunter is often used interchangeably with Drewry (occasionally also spelled Drury) Hunter.(Drewry/Drury must have been a kind of nickname, for as the appendix B will show Drew was a family name of the Hunters-Smiths.)By the time of his father's death, or notlong after thatdeath, it would seem, Drew Hunter had ceased being a minor:"Petition for the division of the land of Thomas Hunter, decd., in order to set apart the share of Drury Hunter from that of the minor orphans of the deceased" (same source as above).No date is given for this petition, but it clearly would be earlier than the bond dates given above re those "minor orphans."Supporting this contention is the 1790federal census for Nash County, which reports Drew Hunter as a head of his own household with, besides a wife, a son already.The l800 Nash County census reveals he and his wife have two sons and two daughters; another daughter is counted in the l810 census.
Drew is listed on the l820 census as a head of household in Nash, and he is still in Nash County at the time of thel830 census.
That this Drew/Drury Hunter was the son of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter is well documented.
For example, upon the death of Priscilla, the estate "inventory" was by "Drew Hunter, admr., Dec. 10, l822" (Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-l859 by Joseph W. Watson).
And the settlement of the estate of Thomas Hunter continued apparently throughout Priscilla's life and beyond, as this entry in Watson's Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash County NC l781-l897 shows:"Division of the lands of Thomas Hunter, deceased, by commissioners, Nov. Term l824, Dec. 7, 1824, among those entitled by law.Lotallotted to Cordal Hunter contained 113 acres; Lotallotted to Drew Hunter contained 89 1/2 acres; Lotallotted to Thomas Hunter contained 88 acres.This land was on Stony Creek at the bridge, on Hunters Hill and the Tarborough Road adjoining Revel and Laseters Branch."(Final settlement of the estate of Thomas Hunter at this late date occurred only after Priscilla's death.)
Mary (Polly) Hunter, daughter of Thomas and Priscilla, is not included in this final estate land settlement.She was still alive in l824, though.Mary, it seems clear, married Lodrick Ellin (sometimes spelled Ellen; and sometimes the name is rendered F.Ellin--or F.Ellen, standing apparently for Fluellin/ellen), the son of her first legal guardian Howell Ellin (see above).The l805 will of Howell F.Ellin names one son, Lodrick F.Ellin, who is also designated the will's executor. (The Wills of Nash County NC, vol 1, l777-1848 abstracted by Dr. Stephen e. Bradley, Jr.)
Then on Feb. 3, l809 "Priscilla Hunter, Drew Hunter, Cordal Hunter, and Lodrick Ellen, all of Nash Co., bought from Joel Battle "for 200 pds. one negro man" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-1813).This purchase, since all these people are involved, was probably in the name of the Thomas Hunter estate; his son Thomas is not named here probably because at this date--as I will later show--he had been long in Tennessee.Lodrick Ellen is named, representing no doubt the interests of his wife Mary, daughter of Priscilla and the deceased Thomas.
Further evidence of this Hunter/Ellen union:1) The Lodrick Ellen (Ellin) estate inventory and sale was administered on Oct. 9, l823 by "Mrs. Mary F.Ellen, admrx" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-1859).2) Dower was allotted to "Mary Fluellin, widow of Lod. Fluellen, deceased, by jury, Nov. Term 1824" (Watson's Estate Records in the Deed Books of Nash County NC l781-l897).Good evidence that this Mary F.Ellen or Fluellin was clearly a Hunter by birth is
this record in Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-1859:"Ellen (Flewellen), Cordal N., orphan of Lodrick F.Ellen. Bond l834, returns l835-36-37-38-39-40 by John Ricks, gdn."This child was clearly named for his mother's brother CordalHunter.Also helping pinpoint the identity of Mary wife of Lodrick F.Ellen is the fact that after her death in l842 inventory of her estate wasreturned by Isaac B. Hunter (same source as above). Isaac B. Hunter was the nephew of Mary (Polly) Hunter F.Ellen,the son of Cordal Hunter, her brother.(See the 1836 will of Cordal Hunter in Bradley's The Wills of Nash County NC, vol 1, l777-1848)
Did Thomas and Priscilla Hunter have other children?The l790 federal census for Nash County shows for the household of Priscilla Hunter, besides herself, two males under the age of l6 and two white females. (In l790 a daughter, Elizabeth Hunter, so this study argues,was married to Josiah Horn and enumerated in his household.)One of these two white females is undoubtedly Mary.The other is probably a daughter who died young or otherwise remains unidentified.This l790 census shows that Drew/Drury is already is his own household with a child and wife.So the two males in Priscilla's household in l790 would presumably be sons Thomas and Cordal.(The possibility that there was yet another son, named Archibald, is the subject of appendix A.)
That Thomas and Priscilla Hunters had these children--Drew, Thomas, Mary, Cordal--is beyond dispute.Did they also have a daughter named Elizabeth who married Josiah Horn?
That no Elizabeth Hunter is named among that listing of "minor" orphans of Thomas Hunter cited earlier cannot be taken to indicate that there was no such child.Neither is Drew Hunter mentioned there.All that is indicated is that, if a daughter, she was like Drew not a minor at the time of the death of Thomas Hunter; indeed she quite feasibly was the oldest child of Thomas and Priscilla and was alreadymarried and in her own household at the time ofThomas's death.Equally, that Elizabeth is not mentioned in the l824 allotment as one of "those entitled by law"to a share of the remaining land of Thomas Hunter does not in itself disqualify her from having been a daughter of said Thomas.For neither is his daughter Mary (Polly) included in this final l824 land distribution to heirs of Thomas Hunter , and Mary was very much alive and on the scene at the time, living in Nash County in fact until her death in 1842.
The family background and connections of Josiah Horn have been well documented, as have been also the facts that he was born and grew up in an area that was first in Edgecombe County NC and later, after l777, in Nash County NC; that he was married and in his own household with children in l790; that by l800 he had migrated from Nash County to Montgomery County TN; that he lived there till his death in l845; and that he lies in Blooming Grove Cemetery in that county beside a wife named Elizabeth.That her surname was Hunter and that she was the daughter of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter is a central premise of this essay.
The foregoing sections of this essay assuredly demonstrate that the time was right, the place was right for an alliance between the Hunter and Horn families to have occurred.Both families were prominent in Nash County, clearly often closely associated, and they were neighbors, living near each other in the Stony Creek area.And the ages of the principals forging this alliance were right.What then more likely than that within this context of social and professional intimacy and physical proximity two young people of marriageable age would have looked to each other?If, as the l790 census shows, they in that year were parents of three children, and as in l790 Josiah was 24 and Elizabeth 25, then they probably had married when they were l9 and 20, at latest, and probably would have married around l785.(For the ages of Josiah and Elizabeth I am citing their grave markers in Blooming Grove Cemetery in Montgomery County, TN.)
It is the contention of this essay that such an alliance is more than likely, but most of the evidence yet available to support it probably would be deemed circumstantial in a court of law.Still, the evidence, I believe, is such that even the most chronically doubting Thomas would have to give credence to the strong likelihood that Elizabeth wife of Josiah Horn of Nash NC and then Montgomery TN was surnamed Hunter, and that her parents were the afore-discussed Thomas and Priscilla Hunter.
IMPORTANT DATA:There was, in Nash County, during the time in question an Elizabeth Hunter with ties to Thomas and Priscilla.Two records (so far) support this claim.On Feb. 1, l782 Joseph Curl purchased a 150 acre plantation . . . on the north side of Compass Creek" in Nash County.Witnesses to this transaction were "Thomas Hunter, Priscilla Hunter, and Elizabeth Hunter" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-1813).And on Feb. 25, l782 "Thomas Hunter of Nash Co." sold "233 acres on the north side of Stony Creek, it being part of a 700 acre tract granted by Gov. Caswell on Nov. 10, l779."A witness to this transaction was "Elizabeth Hunter" (same source).In l782 Elizbeth would have been l7.
No Elizabeth Hunter is mentioned elsewhere during these years in any Nash County documents that I have so far seen and examined, nor is she listed on the l790 census, so it would seem that she was not in that year an independent adult with her own household.Indeed, according to this census, there were in l790 only two Hunters households in Nash County, that of Priscilla Hunter (Thomas was dead by l790) and that of Drew Hunter (their son).According to the l800 census, there were only three Hunter households in Nash County, that of Priscilla, that of Drew, and that of Archibald Hunter (he is the subject of appendix B--and his wife's name was Mary!)And my research indicates that during the l770s and l780s when Elizabeth was growing up there was only one Hunter household in Nash County, that of Thomas and then after his death Priscilla.So it is certainly reasonable to assume/conclude that the Elizabeth Hunter whose name was linked in l782 with transactionsinvolving also Thomas and Priscilla Hunter was their daughter.
Strong circumstantial corroboration of a Hunter-Horn alliance via marriage involves Thomas Hunter son of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter and brother of Elizabeth.
Thomas Hunter, son of Thomas and Priscilla, lived in Nash County as an adult until the late l790s.For instance, on Aug. 8, l796 Priscilla Hunter petitioned "to build a water grist mill across Lassiter's Branch, on her own land on the one side and on that of her son, Thomas Hunter, on the other side" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Records of Nash County NC l777-l859).Incidentally, here is evidence that as they came of legal age Thomas Hunter's children had been recognized as heirs and received some of the extensive land holdings left by their father.Living near both Priscilla and her son Thomas in that year 1796 would have beenJosiah Horn and his wife Elizabeth Hunter,on an acreage belonging to Josiah's grandfather Henry Horn, which the latter would bequeath to Josiah in his will of l797.(Josiah had throughout the l790s acquired other properties in the immediate Nash County vicinity as well.)In that 1797 will, Henry Horn bequeathed "to my grandson Josiah Horn all my wright in the Lands on the North side of Tarriver and above Kirby's creek whereon he now lives."Henry Hornowned a large acreage on Stony Creek north of the Tar River, neighboring the Hunters as has been shown.Cutting through a portion of it, it would seem, was a minor stream, Kirby's Creek, and it was the portion of Horn land near that stream that he left to Josiah.Knowing each other all their lives, continuing to live near each other as adults, their relationship strengthened by their having become brothers-in-law, Josiah Horn and Thomas Hunter--it is very likely--became extremely close, as their subsequent actions demonstrate.
By l798 Thomas Hunter, son of Priscilla (and Thomas) had migrated to Montgomery County, TN.For he is listed on the l798 tax list for Montgomery County (Early Tennessee Tax Lists by Byron and Barbara Sistler).And there really can be no question that this is the Thomas Hunter formerly of Nash County, NC, as the following record shows.For on September 23, l807 "Thomas Hunter of Montgomery Co., Tennessee" sold "to Benjamin Whitfield of Nash Co...a tract of 150 acres on the north side of Stony Creek near the mouth of Laseter's Branch adjoining David Strickland's former line ...which land fell to him by the death of his father" (Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-1813 by Joseph W. Watson).The descriptive details identifying this property are clear evidence that the father of Thomas Hunter of Montgomery County, TN was the Thomas Hunter of Nash County, NC who died in l785 and who has been the subject of much of this discourse.
Josiah Horn of Nash County NC is not listed on that l798 Montgomery County Tax List.
He is, however, listed on the Montgomery County TN tax list for l800.And, according to information found on Dr. Bob Horn's Horn family web site, on Jan. 10, 1800 Josiah Horn purchased "230 acres. . . Montgomery County Tennessee . . . on the waters of the Blooming Grove Creek" (source cited:TN State Library/Archives, Montgomery County Deeds, l796-l800, p394 [Microfilm] ).
Why did Josiah Horn move his family from Nash County NC to Montgomery County TN?
Various answers to this question are possible.One could be that it was the encouraging reports sent back to him from Tennessee by his brother-in-law Thomas Hunter.Or it could be that he and his brother-in-law had decided together to remove with their families to Tennessee and that Thomas Hunter had gone on before, perhaps because Josiah needed more time to dispose of his Nash County properties.Certainly, it would seem that this disposal was underway by late l797.On Dec. 30, l797 "Josiah Horn of Nash Co." sold to John Watkins "for 800 silver dollars a tract of l50 acres on Tar River and Kirby's Creek" (Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-1813), presumably the acreage left to Josiah in his grandfather's will cited above.
Other "circumstantial" evidence helps solidify the premise that Josiah's wife Elizabeth was surnamed Hunter--which has been the central effort of this study up to this point.That evidence might be conveniently listed thus:
1.One of the pieces of evidence that Ms. Polly (see the opening paragraphs of this study) thought helped document her claim that her gg-grandmother Winifred Horn was a daughter of Josiah and his wife Elizabeth helps as well to identify Elizabeth as a Hunter.That evidence was that Winifred named one of her sons Cordell, after a brother.And Josiah and Elizabeth Horn indeed had a son named Cordell.
He no doubt was named after his mother's brother back in Nash NC.For this study has more than adequately shown that a son of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter--argued in this study to be Elizabeth's parents--had a son named Cordal.(This name is variously spelled, as records show, Cordal, Cordell, Cordial.And outside the Horn and Hunter families it is not all that common a given name!)The son of Josiah and Elizabeth is listed on records as in fact Cordell H.--and it would be indeed rewarding to discover what that H stands for; it would not be surprising to learn that it stands for Hunter, that his full name was Cordell Hunter Horn.
2.Ms. Polly might also have pointed out, as she does not, that quite possibly another son of
Winifred's, James H., might also have been named for her brother(s).Josiah and Elizabeth had a son named James.It would conceivably in this instance as well be of great interest to know what the H stands for.For Josiah and Elizabeth had also a son named Henry.It is also of course possible that the H. stands for Hunter or Horn.No one I have been in contact with has been able to shed light on this mystery.
3.According to Dr. Bob Horn, co-ordinator of the Horn family web site, as a result of information he has been receiving from a Horn descendant in Washington state,Barry Ousley, it is becoming a distinct possibility that in addition to the four generally acknowledged sons, Josiah and Elizabeth had at least one other son--named Thomas.And, of course, if that is true, it would seem only logical to assume that that son was named for Elizabeth's father, Thomas Hunter, the subject of much of this study.
This Thomas Horn apparently migrated from Tennessee to Missouri but exactly when is not known.Mr. Ousley quotes information about Thomas Horn from biographical data included in The History of Southeast Missouri, which asserts that he "was born in Virginia but moved to Tennessee, and in l830 settled in St. Genevieve County, Mo."(If he was the son of Josiah and Elizabeth, he was not born in Virginia; and in fact the l850 federal census notes that he was born in North Carolina, which is evidence contributing to the establishing of his parentage.)Other evidence that there was a Thomas Horn in Tennessee, in Montgomery County in fact, and with some sort of relationship to Josiah Horn is provided by Dr. Bob Horn who notes in comments on his Horn family web site:"On Christmas Day, l813, Josiah Horn . . . is recorded as executor of the will of a John Fletcher.Witnessing the will were a James Horn and a Thomas Horn."
The most telling data Mr. Ousley supplies about Thomas Horn comes from information his father copied from a Horn family Bible in the possession of a Mr. Orville Horn of Farmington, MO.That data indicates that Thomas Horn would have been married and a parent by l820.However, I have not been able to locate him on Tennessee census records of that year.And if he was already in Missouri by l820, Missouri census records for l820 unfortunately are lost.1850 Missouri census records help with this problem.They assert that Thomas's son William, whose age in l850 is given as 36, was born in Tennessee, giving him a birth year of cl814.These records assert that Thomas's son Dudley, whose age in l850 is given as 32, was born in Missouri.Later corroborate this information, which wouldgive him a birth year of cl8l8 and indicate, if the records' information is correct, that Thomas Horn was in Missouri by l820; but if so, where will probably remain a mystery since, as said, the l820 Missouri census records are lost..Certain it is,however, that he was in Missouri in l830, livng according to the census for that year,in St. Genevieve County.He is listed on the l840 census for that county also; in the l850 census he is listed in St. Francois County.By l850 a sliver of St. Genevieve where Thomas Horn lived had been annexed into St. Francois.
That Thomas Horn of St. Genevieve and St. Francois counties is the Thomas Horn of the Bible records cited by Mr. Ousley becomes clear when the information in these records is compared with the aforementioned census records:the children enumerated in the Bible records for Thomas Horn jive with the census records' attribution of off-spring to him and the age categories they belong to.
The compelling evidence of these Bible records resides in two facts seemingly beyond coincidence.A) These records quoted by Mr. Ousley give the birth and death dates for Thomas Horn and his wife (said to be Elizabeth Hunt but elsewhere also referred to as Nancy) and list for this couple their children with their birth dates.Next comes a listing of the off-spring of one of Thomas's sons, Josiah, and his wife, indicating probably that the person in possession of the Bible descended through this line.NEXTcomes a listing of birth and death dates for JOSIAH HORN AND ELIZABETH HORN.These dates demonstrate beyond equivocation that it is Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery County, TN who are referred to.Why are their names and dates included in this Bible in conjunction with those listings just enumerated? Clearly the inplication is that they are the PARENTS OF THOMAS HORN of St. Genevieve/St. Francois counties,grandparents of Thomas's son Josiah about whose family the Bible records also give vital data.!!
B) Among the fourteenchildren listed in the aforementioned Bible records for Thomas Horn and his wife are these sons:Josiah, Cordal, Henry, James.Apparently like his sister Winifred, Thomas Horn inclined to name sons after his father and his brothers, the sons of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery Co., TN.(And in the case of Cordal, he kept the original spelling, that of Cordal Hunter of Nash NC, not a variant spelling of this name.)On this matter of naming their sons for their brothers,it is of interest to note that Winifred also had a son named Thomas.So Winifred Horn Tindall, it would appear,named sons not only after her father Josiah and brothers Cordell and Josiah (and maybe, re James H., James and Henry) but also after a brother Thomas.And if in naming sons aftertheir father and brothers, Winifred and Thomas demonstrate to posterity that their own parents were Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery Co., TN, they are also demonstrating--in the case of that distinctly Hunter name Cordal/Cordell--that their mother's maiden name was Hunter.Indeed, it is most reasonable to assumethat both Winifred and Thomas were acquainted with their family's history and knew themselves that the original Cordal was their mother's brother.
Perhaps minor circumstantial evidence linking Thomas Horn of Missouri to the Horns of
Montgomery Co. TN is the name of another of his sons:Newton (according to the aforementioned Bible records).Judson Horn also had a son named Newton; Judson was the son of James Horn of Montgomery Co., TN, son of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn.
The only problem that I see with concluding with total confidence that Thomas Horn of St. Genevieve/St. Francois was a son of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery Co., TN is this:the l790 census for Nash County NC lists just one male (besides the head of household) in the household of Josiah Horn.It has been assumed that that would be his son James, supposedly born in l787.But the Bible records provided by Mr. Ousler give a birth date of March l7, l788 for Thomas Horn.So if both birth years are correct, it would seem that the l790 census fails to take note of one of Josiah's son, or that despite all the other evidence Thomas was not a son of Josiah and Elizabeth.However, dates even in Bible records may be off a year or so or more, depending on who recorded them and when.In any case,the l850 census for St. Francois Co., MO Thomas Horn gives his age as 60.This would indicate a birth yearcl790 or '91.
In a l978 letter, giving valuable Horn family information, Ruth Hays of Montgomery County, TN writing to Estelle Horn remarks that in l8l8 Josiah Horn of Montgomery Co., TN represented an association of Baptist churches at a meeting of Baptists in Missouri.She does not specify the locale of this meeting but speculates aboutwhat compelled him to go there as "That was no easy trip to make because there were no steamboats operating on the Cumberland at that time. . ." and says "I have wondered why he was willing to go.Did he perhaps have relatives in Missouri that he wanted to visit?"Intriguing question.Perhaps he had a son named Thomas there whom he wanted to visit, and a new grandson.
4.Among the acknowledged sons of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery County, TN is Henry Horn, who married Mary Morris in Montgomery County.They had a large family, sons all but two.
A.One of these sons was named Thomas Hunter Horn.(He was the grandfather of the Mrs. Simon--see this study's opening paragraphs--who believed that the Hunters were a family allied with the Horns and speculated that Josiah's wife Elizabeth might have been a Hunter.)In the light of all that has preceded in this study, it would seem again logical to conclude that this son Thomas Hunter Horn was named for his father Henry Horn's grandfather, the father of Henry's mother Elizabeth.(It is possible too that he was named for her brother Thomas Hunter, who was living in Montgomery County also--or perhaps the naming of this son was a gesture toward both Henry's uncle and his deceased grandfather.)
B.Henry Horn, son of Josiah and Elizabeth, and his wife Mary also named one of their
sons Cordial N.And again, they seem clearly to have been naming a child for a member of Henry's mother's Hunter family, in this case Elizabeth's brother Cordal of Nash County, NC.(The name Cordal, Cordell, Cordial is sometimes accompanied by the initial N., which probably stands for Norfleet.)Of course, it could be argued that this child could have been named for Henry's brother Cordell (seeabove), who was himself no doubt named for Cordal Hunter.
5.The aforementioned Cordell H. Horn (seeabove), son of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn, in the naming of at least one of his children appears to have, like his brother Henry, paid homage to his mother Elizabeth's family.For the name of one of his daughters is Priscilla, the name of his grandmother,wife of the Thomas Hunter of Nash County who died in l785, mother of Elizabeth Hunter Horn.And, interestingly, the perpetuation within this Horn family of a particularly distinctive Hunter-connected name continued with Nathan Ross Horn, son of Cordell H., naming a son after the latter (this son of Nathan's usually is seen referred to as Cordie H. Horn).
That distnctive Hunter name Cordal/Cordell/Cordial has on occasion taken a feminine form among Horns, still helping tie these families together.For example, a granddaughter of Thomas Horn
of Missouri was named Cordelia.And a granddaughter of Thomas Hunter Horn was named Cordia.
(And, incidentally, this Horn line was much given to perpetuation of Hunter as a given name for males; no wonder that a granddaughter of Thomas Hunter Horn could well believe Hunter to be the name of a family allied, in the past, to Horns!)
6.Winifred Horn, daughter of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery County, TN: is there within the Hunter family a precedent for her name?As a matter of fact there is.First, it should be noted that Elizabeth Hunter Horn's brother, Thomas Hunter, who also migrated from Nash NC to Montgomery TN, had also a daughter named Winifred(Tennessee DAR records).His Winifred (born 1833) was considerably younger than Winifred Horn (who married in l816), but she may have been named for her older Horn cousin.Equally possible, both may have been named for a cousin of their mother.Reuben Hunter, the brother of Thomas Hunter of Nash NC (father of Thomas Hunter and Elizabeth Hunter Horn of Montgomery TN), married Sarah Speight.Reuben and Sarahnamed one of their daughters Winifred (named no doubt for Sarah's sister Winifred Speight).Winifred Hunter was about the same age as her cousin Elizabeth Hunter, and they may well have been close friends, leading to Elizabeth's naming a daughter after this cousin.No doubt these early families, such as those of the brothers Thomas and Reuben, kept in touch when all were still in North Carolina and no doubt visited back and forth; after all, the distance between Northampton County NC and later Wake NC (where the Reuben Hunters lived)and Edgecombe/then/Nash NC was not/is not all that great.
Thomas Hunter of Montgomery Co. TN had also a daughter named Priscilla, clearly, it would seem, named for his mother Priscilla Hunter of Nash Co., NC, wife of Thomas Hunter (Tennessee DAR records).
7.It should, I think, be reiterated, in support of the premise that Elizabeth wife of Joisah Horn of Nash Co. NC and later Montgomery Co. TN was surnamed Hunter, that one of the earliest traditions (based on the Gentry book; see this study's opening paragraphs) is that the father of Josiah's wife was a Revolutionary War colonel named Thomas Hunter.That tradition seemingly errs only in locating him in South Carolina.For this study has with sources documented that the Thomas Hunter of Nash County NC whom this study alleges to be the father of Elizabeth Horn was a Revolutionary colonel.Indeed, the Gentry book should be much valued for its information and the clues it contains pointing the way
toward identification of the wife of Josiah Horn.Its date (l909) makes it not too far removed in time from the Horn/Hunter principals (Josiah and Elizabeth) that it gives information about.And that information is provided by a family member only two generations removed from its source:Winifred Horn herself, no doubt.Moreover, as this study has shown, all available documentary evidence seems to verify that information--except in the one erroneous geographical detail.
8.In genealogy matters, family traditions have their value, even if they are not always scientifically verifiable.Some, it would seem,are a collective family memory that often will be found to containsome detail which, placed in conjunction with other verifiable information,appears circumstantially if not legally and strictly to verify and clarify the tradition.Such is, I think, the case with some Horn family information left by Virginia Lee Horn Doyle, my aunt.She was a granddaughter of Josiah Martin Horn, who was a grandson of Josiah and Elizabeth Horn of Montgomery Co., TN.
Writing her memories when quite elderly, she stated of Josiah Martin Horn that "He had 4 brothers.Henry, Thomas, Drew all located in Arkansas; Robert in New Orleans."Well, her information and/or her memory is a little deficient:Josiah Horn had more than four brothers.It is true, though, that migrating to Arkansas in l848 with Josiah Martin Horn from Montgomery Co. TN were his brothers Thomas (Thomas Hunter Horn) and Henry;and a brother named Robert did migrate to Louisiana.(In a letter to a relative giving some family history she also states correctly that Robert was a doctor.)In all that, her memory of the tradition she is reporting does not fail her.
However, there is no evidence that a brother named Drew or named otherwise with D. as an initial also migrated to Arkansas.I have checked the l850 census records for Arkansas, and no person thus referred to is listed as head of his own household, nor is such a person living in the household headed by the afore-mentioned brothers who did migrate to Arkansas before l850.In addition, according to Bureau of Land Management records, no person thus named received land patents in Arkansas at the time in question (or any other time), while the patents accorded to Josiah Martin, Thomas Hunter, and Henry S. Horn are abundantly recorded.So if this other brother whom my aunt refers to as Drew came to Arkansas also, his stay was apparently brief and he had returned to Tennessee by census time in l850.Still, the significant detail in that remembered information penned by my aunt is the name of that alleged brother of her grandfather--Drew.(And in the same letter referred to above in which she reiterates that information found in her memoir she refers to this brother as Drury and says he died young.) No listing of the large cast of siblings of Josiah Martin Horn reveals there to have been one named Drew or Drury.So, does this mean that my aunt's "memory" of a brother named Drew is simply mistaken, just as her memory perhaps/probably was playing her false when she states he migrated to Arkansas also?Why would she have been "remembering" that there was a brother with that PARTICULAR name?I can only submit that she was remembering what she had heard talked about in the family regarding a brother so named.
It is of course possible that Josiah and Elizabeth had a son named Drew who did die as a young adult and is not for some reason included in the usual listing of their off-spring, and it could equally be that she is mistaken about his early death.But if one of Josiah Martin Horn's brothers was named Drew and he is one of those included in the usual listing of saidoff-spring of Josiah and Elizabeth,that brother could only be William D. Horn; only one other brother's name has that initial and it is known what it stands for:Cornelious David.I have not yet been able to find out what that D. in Williams's name stands for.But it well could stand for Drew. And if within my aunt's family, there was not a brother of her grandfather referred to by him and others of his family as Drew (sometimes Drury), where on earth would my aunt have come up with that name?For her knowledge about Horns she had recourse to no written records such as genealogists can make use of today, she had recourse only to an oral family tradition.And what is significant about that name?
Precisely this:a son of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter of Nash Co., NC was named Drew (as this study has copiously shown).This Drewwas then, as this study maintains, brother to Elizabeth Hunter, wife of Josiah Horn. It has also been shown that this Drew was sometimes referred to as Drury/Drewry.So if there was a brother (William D.?) of Josiah Martin Horn who was called Drewand Drury in the family, it would seem that we have another case of Henry Horn (son of Elizabeth Hunter Horn, father of Josiah Martin AND"Drew") naming a child for a maternal uncle and thereby proclaiming loudly to posterity that his mother was a Hunter.She must have induced in her sons and daughter(s) a great affection for and loyalty to those Hunter relatives most of whom they probably had never seen, not only because some of them were long dead but because also of the great geographical distance, considering the time, separating them from those living.
I incidentally consider this "memory" of my aunt, circumstantial evidence though it is and reflecting an oral family tradition though itdoes, to be nonetheless among the strongest evidence for concluding that Josiah Horn's wife was Elizabeth Hunter of Nash Co. NC.
CONCLUSION
Part I of this study "Who Was Josiah Horn's Wife?" has demonstrated, I believe, with substantialdocumentation that Elizabeth Bunn Curl, frequently named as his wife, could not possibly have been the wife of Josiah Horn.
In Part II, I have put forward the theory that his wife was Elizabeth surnamed Hunter.This theory does not originate with me; it has for a long while existed while beingessentially ignored in the larger context of research into Horn family history.(An exception is Dr. Bob Horn's Horn family website, where the possibility of a Horn-Hunter connection is acknowledged in the context of Dr. Horn's recital of his correspondence with Helen Polly and his recognizing of implicationsraised by her claims about such a connection.)I decided to examine this theory once it became clear to me that the candidacy of Elizabeth Bunn Curl as wife of Josiah Horn was simply not viable.To identify the Elizabeth who lies buried beside Josiah in Blooming Grove Cemetery in Montgomery Co., TN, one had to begin somewhere.And in examining the theory that she was Elizabeth Hunter, I have become a convert to that theory.And I believe that I have amassed and presented a solid and substantial body of legal and documentary evidence along with deductions and inferences based on this evidence(as well as, sometimes, the undeniable if not scientifically verifiable weight of family traditions) to support that theory.There may be, I hope there are, documents yet to be discovered that will in no uncertain terms link the names Josiah Horn and Elizabeth Hunter.But until, if ever, they surface, on the basis of what is now knowable and available and which I have assembled, I do believe that an unbiased perusal of this study must conclude that it is more than highly likely that Josiah Horn's wife was Elizabeth Hunter, a girl he grew up next door to in Nash County NC.
And for those of us who are descended from Josiah Horn and his wife Elizabeth it is surely high time that the identity of this ancestress be recognized and that she be allowed her "re-birth" into her rightful place in our history.For going by the tendency of her off-spring to name their off-spring for each other and for their mother's family, she must have been a revered figure, a woman of worth for whom her children had great affection.And of course, if the premise of this study is correct, as I think it is, a large gap of ignorance must remain in our understanding of our Horn history until we have familiarized ourselves with the history of her family, the Hunter family.(For more on this matter, see appendix B.)
Appendix A
In the body of this study I have presented evidence that Thomas Hunter of Nash County NC and his wife Priscilla were parents of six children.But there may have been a seventh, a son Archibald.The name of an Archibald Hunter begins appearing on legal transactions in Nash County as early as l790.And he appears to have close connections to the Thomas Hunter family.Archibald Hunter married Mary Arrington.They were married as early as May l795, for in his will of that date Arthur Arrington, Mary's father, names among his legatees his daughters, including "Polly Hunter."And Archibald Hunter appears as a head of household in Nash County on the l800 federal census; a male child is also a part of this household.Archibald died in l807; in his will dated Dec. 21, l805, he names only one legatee:"I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Mary Hunter all my estate both real and personal to her and her heirs forever . . ."(Nash County NC Wills Book I, l776-l872).That he does not name his own child as an heir is highly unusual, so perhaps that young male listed in the l800 census was dead by l805; the phrasing "to her and her heirs" might also possibly suggest that the male child listed in the l800 census is Mary's child and not Archibald's.However, in the Dec. l804 will of her mother, while "Mary Hunter" is designated a daughter along with other daughters and several sons, only two grandchildren are mentioned, both are girls, and they both appear to be children of a sister of Mary's.The same is true of the will of Mary Hunter's father, just mentioned above(Abstracts of Will Book I, Nash County NC, l778-1868 by Joseph W. Watson).It is also true, of course, that not always did grandparents in their wills enumerate, and make bequests to, all their grandchildren.
If Archibald Hunter was a son of Thomas and Priscilla Hunter , there is then a good reason why he would not be included in the allotment of acres in l824 to the sons of Thomas (see above) that was a part of the final estate settlement; he died in l807.But there are other problems.He is not listed (see above) as one of the orphans of Thomas Hunter.And if like Drew he was older than the legal orphans I have found no records showing, as in the case of Drew, any petition requesting that his share of the land of Thomas Hunter be set apart from that of the "minor orphans."This is not, of course, to say that such did not occur nor that no such record exists.
Additionally, if like Drew he was an older son, he is not apparently in l790 a head of his own household, for he is not listed as such on the federal census of that year for Nash County.And in that census, only two males, both under sixteen, are listed as part of the household of Priscilla Hunter, sons Thomas and Cordal presumably.Then, as stated above, on the l800 census for Nash County, Archibald Hunterdoes appear as a household head.
So there are some problems with trying to "make" Archibald a son of Thomas and Priscilla.
Where was he dwelling at census time in l790?And yet records do show a close connection of Archibald to the Thomas Hunter name and family.The most revealing of these is dated Sept. 9, l795, on which date Archibald Hunter of Nash County sold to Elijah Revel "a tract of l81 acres on the north side of Stony Creek adjoining Laseter's Branch, the road, and Strickland's old line"(Watson's Abstracts of Early Deeds of Nash County NC, Books 1-6, l778-l813).It sounds from this description that he is selling a part of what had been Thomas Hunter's property on Stony Creek--property perhaps that had come to him as a son? property that--as Drew requested for his share--had been separated out from that of the minor orphans of Thomas Hunter?The earliest description of Thomas Hunter's property locates it on Stony Creek at Laseter's Branch; it is often described in legal documents in terms of adjacent landowners, and Strickland is a name frequently recurring in this contest (and so is that of Revel; it would seem that this old neighbor was buying a portion of the deceased Thomas Hunter's property).And in the l824 allotment cited above, this property is clearly described as in relation to Laseter's Branch and a "road":"The land was on Stony Creek at the bridge, on Hunters Hill and the Tarborough Road adjoining Revel and Laseters Branch."What's more, a witness to the selling by Archibald Hunter of this "tract of 181 acres" was Drew Hunter!
Then, just a couple of weeks later, on Sept. 30, l795, Archibald Hunter purchased property in the very same area, buying a "256 acre plantation on the north side of Stony Creek adjoining Elijah Revel, Henry Horn, and Thomas Hunter" (same source as above). [The Thomas Hunter referred to here could be husband of Priscilla or their son Thomas who by this date had probably come into his majority and become legal recipient of some of his deceased father's land.]
So the question of who Archibald Hunter was remains tantalizing but at present not satifactorily resolvable..
Appendix B
Elizabeth Hunter's Ancestry
This appendix will constitute a summary of a study I hope to embark upon shortly, which will amass documentation of the points and assertions made here.
It is widely acknowleged that the progenitor of the Hunter family is William Hunter who settled in Nansemond Co. VA.The earliest record pertaining to him dates from 1695.Of course, with the re-surveying of the dividing line between VA and NC in l729, his lands then fell into NC.
William Hunter had four sons and two daughters:Nicholas, Robert, Isaac, William, Alice, Sarah**.
The line of descent we are concerned with is through his son Nicholas--thus William1, Nicholas2.The wife of Nicholas2 was Rebecca, perhaps surnamed Hardy.He died in l749.They had a very large family, the eldest of which was, probably, the son Isaac3.
Isaac3 is associated with Northampton Co., NC.His wife may have been Rosanah unknown.
He too produced numerous off-spring, including Thomas4.
Thomas4 is the Thomas Hunter of Nash Co., NC who has figured largely in this study, where he is maintained to be the father of Elizabeth Hunter5, wife of Josiah Horn.
Thomas4 Hunter was born in what would become Northampton NC, lived there till an adult, moved to Halifax NC, then to Edgecombe NC.His holdings in Edgecombe were in that portion that became Nash Co. in l777.He remained in Nash.
Wife of Thomas4 Hunter was Priscilla Smith.
Nicholas Smith of Isle of Wight VA died in Edgecombe Co. NC (that portion that would in l758 become Halifax)in l745.His wife was Mary Drew. A son of Nicholas1 was Drew2 Smith.
The wife of Drew2 Smith was Elizabeth unknown.They had four daughters, including Priscilla3.Priscilla3 Smith became the wife of Thomas4 Hunter, the parents of Elizabeth5 Hunter Horn.
Readers of ths study will at this point recognize the ancestry of the Hunter "given" name Drew.
(I hope in time to be able to push the Smith and Drew ancestry a bit farther back, but this is what I have right now.)
**Sarah Hunter, sister of Nicholas2 Hunter and thus great aunt of Elizabeth5 Hunter, might be of some interest to students of Horn history.She married William Battle.One of their children was Elisha Battle, who married Elizabeth Sumner.Two of the children of Elisha and Elizabeth were Sarah Battle and William Battle. The second husband of Sarah Battle was Henry Horn, Jr.The wife of William Battle was Charity Horn.Henry Horn, Jr. and Charity Horn were brother and sister to William Horn, who was father of Josiah Horn, husband of Elizabeth Hunter.It is pleasant to speculate that perhaps those Nash County neighbors and fellow patriots and politicians and in-laws Thomas Hunter and William Horn (fathers of Elizabeth and Josiah) were aware of this particular shared family history and that the awarenesscontributed to a bonding of their own families.
End of the Larry Horn essay of May, 2002.
Page 59 of 85
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