Re: Elizabeth Turner ~ Captain William Utley

From your post:
"Tradition says that John Utley, son of William the first, was a Captain. My mother was the granddaughter of Young Utley, youngest son of John Utley, who, Mrs. Norris insisted was born in 1788, and my mother always told me that John Utley was always called Captain Jack. My mother was a grown young lady when her grandfather, Young Utley, died in 1849; she spent much time in his home. He lived at the west end of the dam of the mill now known as the Mills' mill. For many years Young Utley owned and operated that mill and it is very probable that Captain Jack built the mill but we have never found the records. My mother, too, remembered another son of old Captain Jack who was known as Little Jack Utley. He lived at the head, west side of the Mills' mill pond. Little Jack Utley was the ancestor of John C. Utley, the late Miss Nannie Utley, Phil Utley...."

I recognize this. It comes from the writings of Rev. Charles H. Utley as published in Descendants of William Utley and Elizabeth Turner of Wake Co., North Carolina by Joan Brink. You will find a discussion of his statement and related records at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fcharper/chrisww.htmlhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fcharper/chrisww.html

The records and early maps given on this page prove several things:
The cemetery that Rev Utley was looking for was not at Mill's Mill Pond - it was at what's now called Sunset Lake. Mill's Mill wasn't built until some time between 1870 and 1887, long after John Utley and Young Utley had died. Rev Utley could not find the graves because he was looking for them at the wrong mill pond.
Some time between 1789 and 1799, John Utley bought the mill and some of the adjoining land from Pleasants Woodward who had inherited the mill and homeplace tract from his father Christopher Woodward. It's mentioned in Christopher's will. (Pleasants did not sell all of the homeplace tract to John Utley. He retained part of his land which was later sold to Jesse Osborn in 1820. The deed to John Utley has been lost, but the sale can still be proven by other existing records you'll find on this page.)
The mill was built some time prior to 1781 when it was mentioned by Hardy Sanders in a Revolutionary record. http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr15-0565http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr15-0565
The cemetery is still at Sunset Lake, but the old tombstones and markers were removed during WW II.

John Utley was referred to as Capt because he was the captain of a military district in the county, as were Pleasants Woodward, Hardy Sanders, and numerous others.

If you're interested in following the records of Young Utley, you'll want to take the link from the Christopher Woodward page above to his son Richard Woodward. Young Utley's first wife was Mary "Polly" Woodward, daughter of Richard Woodward. They were divorced, but not because of "no issue" as you will frequently see. Mary was pregnant when they married. Young believed he was the father. When the child was born, it was mulatto, and that was the reason for the divorce. In the records of Robertson Co, TN you will find free mulattos and blacks with the name Utley. Mary's mulatto child must have used the name Utley.