Re: Mary, Wife of James Landrum, Essex Co. Virginia

Thanks.So....it appears that you are saying that William Brown was married to:

a) Unknown (and she was the mother of Mrs. Mary (Brown) Landrum).

b) Elizabeth Allen (married by 1689; she was the step-mother of Mrs. Mary (Brown) Landrum).

c) Mary Unknown...and PROBABLY not a Miss Allen, despite that "implied" marriage record (this Mary Unknown apparently married William Brown around 1693, IF that record at the Essex courthouse has ANY validity whatsoever).

Note: I found one record at the Library of VA where William Brown's wife in 1696 was clearly shown as "Mary."

Is the above the way that it looks to you, or did I misunderstand you on any of these issues?

Below is a 1729 Spotsylvania Co., VA record that included a John (not James after all) and Mary Landrum:

Remarks: John x Landrum of Spts. Co. to Robert Thomas of St. Mary's Par., Caroline Co. 12,000 lbs. tob., 595 a. of land in Spts. Co.-part of pat. granted Larkin Chew June 4, 1722. Rec. Octr. 7, 1729. Mary, wife of John Landrum, acknowledged her dower in the above
Description: Witness
Book_Date: A

Do you know how/if this John Landrum was related to the James Landrum who had married Mary Brown (was this John Landrum their son)?Note the "connection" to Caroline Co., VA, as well as the "connection" to Larkin Chew.


Here is a record on the William Brown who was a witness in Spotsylvania Co., VA in 1728:

Name: William Brown
Date: 7 May 1728
Location: Spotsylvania Co., VA
Property: 278 a. in St. Geo. Par., Spts. Co.
Notes: This land record was originally published in "Virginia County Records - Spotsylvania County, 1721-1800, Volume I" edited by William Armstrong Crozier.
Remarks: Leonard Holms of St. Mary's Par., Caroline Co., to John Quarles of Overwharton Par., Stafford Co. 40 curr., 278 a. formerly granted to Leonard Homs by pat. Octr. 31, 1726, in St. Geo. Par., Spts. Co. Rec. June 4, 1728. Elizabeth Holms of St. Mary's Parl,
Description: Witness
Book_Date: A

Again, note the "connection" to the same area of Caroline Co., VA.Also, A Roger Quarles in the above "John Quarles family" lived in Caroline Co., VA by at least the 1730s....see more on Roger Quarles, below.

Abraham Brown and his close relative Daniel Brown "II" (of DNA "Group 10"....both grandsons of the Francis Brown "I" who died in Essex in 1691/1692) each left Essex Co., VA and obtained land in Spotsylvania Co., VA in the early-1720s.Daniel Brown "II" obtained his land there from Larkin Chew.Daniel "II" remained in the part of Spotsylvania that became Orange Co., VA (and later Culpeper Co., VA, where Daniel "II" died around 1747), but Abraham Brown (married to Mary Tribble) moved to Caroline Co., VA, where he died by 1735 (with a William Brown chosen to help appraise Abraham's estate).

The above (apparently) William Brown was also on two juries in Caroline Co., VA in 1736, and a John Brown was the defendant or plaintive on one of those two juries.As such, it is unlikely that William Brown was closely related to John Brown.It seems very likely that this John Brown was the known son with that name of Abraham Brown (so yet another/second reason to suspect that this William Brown was not related to Abraham Brown).Whether this William Brown was DEFINITELY the same William Brown who had been a witness in 1728 in Spotsylvania Co., VA, however, is certainly not known with certainty (but I would hate to have to bet against it). Roger Quarles was on the same two above-referenced juries as William Brown, and as shown above, a William Brown had been the witness when Leonard Holms of Caroline Co., VA sold some land that Leonard owned in Spotsylvania Co., VA to Roger Quarles' relative (apparently father or brother, as I recall) John Quarles.

There was a Charles Brown in Essex who was married to a Susannah Unknown, and Charles' sons included a William Brown and an Edward Brown.Perhaps that William Brown was older than the William Brown who married Elizabeth Allen (and the other two wives).Sometimes "the Younger" simply was used to differentiate between two men with the same name, irrespective of any kinship between the two men.The above Charles Brown was dead by the mid-1720s.Then there was a later Charles Brown (married to an Elizabeth Unknown) in Essex who left his Will there in 1747.I suspect that this second/younger Charles Brown was a son of the above Edward Brown, or conversely, a son of Edward's brother William Brown.The sons of this second/younger Charles Brown were William, Daniel, Berriman and Merriday Brown (Merriday was on the 1783 Essex Co., VA tax list, but the other four Brown men on that 1783 tax list were out of the unrelated DNA "Group 10"....also, there was a later/younger Edward Brown in Merriday's line).Per a recent DNA test on a living male Brown descendant of Berriman Brown (Berriman married a Miss Noel and moved to KY), this family was/is NOT related to DNA "Group 10."At this point, I doubt that EITHER of these two families were related to the William Brown who married Elizabeth Allen....but a DNA test should tell us (if a living male Brown donor from this family can ever be found).

Note: There was also a man named Buckingham Brown in Essex Co., VA.DNA testing shows that he was NOT related to the above Charles Brown/Berriman Brown, etc., nor was he related to "my" DNA "Group 10." There was also another William Brown in Middlesex, and then Essex Co., VA (where he died), who married Alice Eaton.There is little to suggest that he was related to ANY of the above Brown families....but no proof.As I recall, this William and Alice (Eaton) Brown had a daughter but no sons.He was supposedly a son of a Henry and Elizabeth Brown of Middlesex Co., VA, and his brothers were supposedly Gaffield Brown, James Brown (married Catherine Wood/Woods and had sons named Samuel and James "Junior") and Henry Brown, Junior.

Comments?