My Genealogy Home Page:Information about William Woods
William Woods (b. Abt. 1695, d. Abt. 1785)
Notes for William Woods:
William migrated to America in 1724 and lived near Frederick, Maryland and moved to Orange County, North Carolina on the Hycotis River - now Caswell County - about 1745. He was ordained Ruling Elder of the Little River Presbyterian Church when it was organized in 1760. He is buried in the Little River Churchyard. There is some confusion as to who his parents were. Apparently, they were not John Woods and Elizabeth Worsop.
Subj: Lost in the Woods Again
Date: 5/24/02 10:34:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: [email protected]
To: Undisclosed-Recipient
File: blank2.gif (145 bytes) DL Time (28800 bps): Sent from the Internet (Details)
Hi,
I was just playing around in gen.com and went to the archives for a message board on Elizabeth Worsop.In there I found something very interesting.The following are messages that I copied from this discussion regarding John Woods and Elizabeth Worsop.While I had heard John was married once before Elizabeth I never thought ..... well, I'll let you read the messages.It gets pretty interesting.Each message is seprated by a line.I hope you can see that in your email program.
After reading this I would love to hear what you think.
Hope you enjoy reading the following.... talk to ya soon, Nancy
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I ran across this message on a FTM board. I thought it may be of some interest since it may impact some genealogies that stem from Michael's line. The following is a verbatim transcript and I am forwarding it for discussion without comment and there is no need to contact me. The original site is: http://www.familytreemaker.com/plweb-cgi/fastweb?getdoc+view1+ftonews+77080+6++%28%20%28%20Michael%20%29%20NEAR%2F2%20%28%20Woods%20%29%20%29
Subject: Major Error in Michael Woods Trees
I just started using the World Family Tree CD's, vol.'s 1-5 and noticed the same error repeated in several Woods family trees. The error is the listing of Michael Woods 684-1762, the son of John Woods and Elizabeth _Worsop_ of Northern Ireland. In the 1970's and 80's several researchers examined Irish records. One of the best descriptions of one such effort is in "Woods-Wallace Cousin Clues" by Ruth Lamar Petracek. Elizabeth Worsop was married to _a_ John Wood (no
"s") and was his second wife, but not the ancestor of the Borden Grant, Virginia Woods. Elizabeth Worsop is proven to have had _NO_ children. (Public Records office, Belfast, Ireland, T 559, Vol. 42, p. 148)
A Sir John Woods of Dunshaughlin castle was married to a cousin of his, named Elizabeth _Woods_ and had several children. Michael, his sister Elizabeth (married to a Wallace, believed to be named Peter), and several brothers were among them. The descendants of Michael Woods' uncle, Thomas, still live at
Milverton Hall, Skerries in Ireland, just north of Dublin,--not northern Ireland better known as Ulster. Dunshaughlin castle is in ruins, but still has gardens that are a
popular tourist stop.
Sir John Woods of Dunshaughlin Castle was the son or grandson grandson of Sir John Woods from Yorkshire, married to Isabel Bruce who came into Ireland
with Cromwell. All the _Protestant_ Woods of Ireland ultimately descend from this man, according to an article citing Landed Gentry, England by Burke (Of
Burke's Peerage publications.) page 2267. No edition year is given.
Sir John Woods, who married his cousin Elizabeth (same surname) had a brother named Thomas who married Margaret O'Hara of Kildare. It is his descendants
who first lived at Winter Lodge and then at Milverton Hall, Skerries. According to a researcher from New Mexico, Woods descendants still lived at Milverton Hall
in the early 1980's.
Elizabeth Woods was a daughter of Thomas Woods of Dunshaughlin and Elizabeth Parsons of the infamous Parsons of Birr Castle. (Birr Castle still stands, by the
way.) They were married in County Meath in 1661.
We're still looking for more records of Sir John and his wife Elizabeth both surnamed Woods. We have reason to believe they were married in 1689.
One of the Woods researchers was the late St. Clair County, Missouri historian, John Mills. He once found the graves of both Michael Woods (Sr.) and his wife,
Mary Catherine Campbell near the first site of the Forks of the James Meeting House, somewhere near Glasgow, Virginia. That site has now been lost. Graves
were moved to accommodate either a freeway or highway junction, leaving only these two behind--and unmaintained.
We are still trying to find them again. On the monument that may still exist with these graves, according to the late Mr. Mills, is an inscription noting that Mary was
the first white woman in the Valley (Shenandoah) murdered by Indians in 1742. It is believed this was the same incident in which her son-in-law John McDowell
sold liquor to the Iroquois party on its way to attack Cherokee for a Cherokee hunting excursion that went too far north. Yes, it was Iroquois, not Shawnee.
There are several contemporary accounts of the military aspect of all this, with a mention of a few white settlers (unnamed) having been killed before McDowell
was ordered to go after them. Some accounts, among the Preston papers (Capt. Preston of the late colonial militia and early Revolution) can be found in the
Lyman Draper collection in the Library of Congress and at the University of Wisconsin.
Michael Woods removed himself from his original home to live with a son, in Goochland. We have not identified what year this was, but it logically was probably
after the murder of his wife. At this time, he may have made a pre-death settlement upon several of his older children. It is a fact, that only six of his reputed
children are mentioned in his will dated, November 24, 1761 (he died soon after writing it.).
The children not mentioned in Michael Woods Sr.'s will do _not_ have sons named Michael, but named _Samuel_. There are some records suggesting that
Michael had either a brother or son named Samuel who lived in Augusta County. A record of Smith's store in Staunton shows it being frequented by _Samuel
Woods_ in 1734--3 years before Michael Woods signs for his grant from the Earl of Gooch, and 4 years before his own name appears in the store records. It is
possible that Samuel was an older brother of the non-mentioned children, and became their guardian in the wake of their mother's death and father's grief and
departure. However, we don't know for sure what the situation was.
Bear in mind, however, that we do not have firm proof that Martha Woods' parents were Michael Woods Sr. and Mary Campbell. She is one of the Woods
excluded from Michael's will. The others are: Richard, Magdalena, Michael Jr. (Jr. did not necessarily mean son of another by the same name) and Andrew.
It is important to verify information provided by someone else--to identify the "primary sources"--that is contemporary records to stated events. Even the venerable
George Selden Wallace book about the Woods-Wallaces has a few, although not many, errors.
Also, Mary Catherine Campbell has been identified by several researchers examining the records of Mary's day as Mary Catherine Campbell, 3rd daughter of Sir
James Campbell, baronet of Auchinbreck the 2nd son of Sir Duncan Campbell of Cawdor and Harriet of Balcarres (a daughter of the Earl of
Balcarres--Lindsays). Sir James' married 3 times: first to Lady Jean McLeod, second to his cousin, Lady Susan Campbell of Cawdor, whose father was Sir
Archibald Campbell, and third to Lady Margaret Campbell of the Carradale Campbells. Most, if not all the children of the second wife emigrated to Virginia.
These include James, Gilbert and Alexander Campbell. Gilbert, married to Prudence Osran is an ancestor of the Hays/Hayes family of Virginia and Kentucky. The
information about the ancestry of Mary Campbell is in older editions of "Burke's Peerage."
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The key word here is "Woods".
In Irish documents that you have just copied for us, it says "John Wood", then later on in this, the name is switched to "Woods". The name we are talking about is "Woods" not "Wood". Wood was the surveyor from Orange Co.,VA. Michael Woods was the settler and pioneer and an ancestor of mine.
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From the Hibernian Research Company, Ltd., Windsor House, 27 Windsor Road Rathmines, Dublin 6, Ireland: (copy sent to this researcher from another Woods researcher in the early 1980's...)
"John Wood of Rossmead made his will 9 March, 1723 and the will was proved 24 April, 1730. A photocopy is attached which makes it quite clear that his wife Elizabeth Worsop was alive in 1723 and that they had no issue. It is inconceivable that a man who had four sons would have left the bulk of his estate to his sister's child, John Widman, on condition that he change his name to Woods. All the sources point to his (John Woods of Rossmead) being childless. There is no doubt that he married Elizabeth Worsop, daughter of Sir Thomas Worsop after 1690..."
The John Wood/Anne Bedlow marriage took place in St. Michan's Dublin on 12 June, 1687." (genforum poster's notes: PLEASE NOTE THIS IS _AFTER_ THE HIGHLY PROBABLE BIRTH YEARS OF MICHAEL WOODS AND AT LEAST ONE OR MORE OF HIS SIBLINGS. Michael Woods had children, according to their own family Bible records beginning in _1705_. British law and church tradition dictated males married at adult age--not less than 23 years and 6 mos. This means the latest, the absolute latest Michael could have been born was 1682--five years before the Bedlow marriage.--C.F.B.)
Moreover, according to Hibernian Research: "The only evidence that this (the John Woods who married Anne Bedlow) is the John Wood of Rossmead comes from Genealogical Office MS. 254 (Betham's sketch pedigree that he compiled from Prerogative Wills). The entry 'M. Anne Bedlow' is in a different handwriting and ink to the rest of the pedigree (someone added it later...) and may not be Betham's writing."
Finally, the Bible records written by Michael Woods' own children and grandchildren about the birthplace of Michael's proved-by-his- 1761-will children all list Dunshaughlin Castle--not Rossmead--as the birthplace for Michael's children for whom we have their family Bible records already transcribed. Heck some of these records have been available since before WWII!
It makes Woods family historians/genealogists look ridiculous in the eyes of professionals in several nations to have members of this family keep conjecturing about John Woods of Rossmead being Michael Woods father after so many years, now of having the real facts widely available. I sincerely hope this is the last I see of this. I'm quite sure there are a number of Irish research and genealogical companies who while happy to take our money to needlessly go over and over exactly the same fields for so many disbelievers, are getting tired of all of this as well. It must be pretty boring for them all at this point to the point.
Forget John Woods of Rossmead as a possible father for Michael Woods (Sr.) of Albemarle Co., VA.-- How many researchers have to prove it wasn't him and how many times in this century before Woods researchers understand and _accept_ this?
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I am on your side.
Kelle's theory is completely untenable. If the will of John Wood who died 1734 predates that of his wife Elizabeth Worsop whose will is dated to 1741 (as is obvious from the dates) and either or both of them "died without issue", then obviously the marriage was childless. Kelle's suggestion that Michael was ACTUALLY the son by the first marriage, but thought of his stepmother as his actual mother, is equally untrue.
My reason for saying this is that the document of her death clearly states "sine prole". This is the Latin for "without a child" and gives rise to the genealogical practice of writing "d.s.P" after the name of a person dying without issue. A lot of people who should know better--like the famous old genealogist of Va and Maryland, John Boddie--think "d.s.p" stands for "died a single person". Not so. You can be married and die "d.s.p." [Of course, you can do the opposite, and die single WITH children if you have an illegitimate.] The legal phrase "sine prole" is related to the word "proletariat"--the snobbish patricians of ancient Rome considered the plebians so poor and shiftless that they had nothing of value to offer the State but their sons as soldiers and daughters as breeders of future soldiers, hence their only property was their "prole".
Obviously, both the Ann Bedlow and Elizabeth Worsop marriages were childless, hence the husband could have willed his property to a sister's children. Equally obvious, as Cecilia writes, the childlessness of the wives and their tenure as John's consorts during the time period of Michael's birth rules them out as possible mothers. Kelle suggests John had another wife---how? Elizabeth Worsop outlived him.
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Good report. I am new at this computer stuff, but am looking for a Woods myself. Not John. It's good to know that there are those like you out there that does such an extensive research.
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Children of William Woods are:
- +John Woods, b. date unknown, d. date unknown.
- William Woods, b. date unknown, d. date unknown.
- Samuel Woods, b. date unknown, d. date unknown.
- Mary Woods, b. date unknown, d. date unknown.
- Elizabeth Woods, b. date unknown, d. date unknown.