LIES AND 100 ACRES

WHY LIE? WHY?

It is Only 100 Acres!

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde

Why would a genealogist lie?  I was deeply disappointed after being confronted with lies about something so unimportant as 100 acres of land!  A genealogist's credibility and reputation is at stake.  

 A lesson to remember is that the first draft of history very often is a lie, and it's not an accidental lie, it's intentional. Partisans understand that history is among other things, a tool and they can use it to accumulate power. So they lie about something to suit their ends, they keep lying about it and before long, their lies are recorded as truth. They're on Wikipedia, and your kids believe them. 

Herewith, the circumstances about the 100 acres: William Lea of Mattaponi, possibly of King and Queen County, NC left 25 acres or (35 acres per the abstract) to a man named James Lea of Caswell County, NC who hired an attorney to obtain the 25 or 35 acres.   All we know of this William Lea is that he owned the 100 acres described in Book B, Page 36, Caswell County Records, State of North Carolina (Lea, William, Caswell County Historical Association.) 

Because James Lea of Caswell County, NC applied to obtain 25 acres of this property it gave rise to the mystery of what happened to the other 75 acres.  Were the 100 acres divided into four parts of 25 acres each?  Or was 25 acres all that was left of the 100 acres?  

There are folks who claim there are deed records for the 100 acres.  There are NO deed records for any portion of the 100 acres.  None. Not one. NO, there are no deeds in the estate settlement of James Sargent, nor are there deed records in the Deeds of Caswell County, or in the book, Heritage of Caswell County. Nor are there deed records to show a widow of James Lea, Jr. sold his 25 acres.  NO, NOT ONE.  

Now comes the following article by Betty Fitzgerald, who did her research very recently, claiming in the Caswell blog that she found the disposition of the 25 acres that went to James Lea of Caswell County, in the estate of his son's (James Lea, Jr.) widow, Elizabeth of Giles County, TN.  Now mind you, this was recent research in the past five years and total fabrication.  

James Lea who died in Giles County before 1830, when widow Elizabeth sold the inherited 25 acres on Mattaponi Creek in King and Queen County:

This appears to be a complete fabrication.  A search of the index to deeds of Giles County from 1810 to 1895 did not reveal any sales or purchases by Elizabeth Lea or Lee.  James Lee was noted with one deed of sale only, in Book B, page 5.  On April 14, 1812, James Lee (also spelled Lea in the same deed) of Caswell County, North Carolina appointed John Yancy of Giles County as his agent to sell sixty acres in Wilson County on Jenings Fork of Round Lick Creek, to any person who may think proper to purchase it.[1]  The sixty acres was part of a 640 acre claim, but the exact manner by which James came into possession of it does not show.  James also authorized John Yancy to obtain a duplicate warrant for the remaining 580 acres of the claim.

A check of the Wilson County abstracts of deeds reveals that James Lea of Caswell County, North Carolina sold sixty acres on Round Lick Creek to Isaiah Coe on August 26, 1814.[2]

Various sources online quote this claim that Elizabeth Lea, widow of James Lea, sold twenty-five acres on Mattaponi Creek in King and Queen County, the deed recorded in Giles County.  The only source reference that could be found was the very vague “Court Documents”.  Court records of Giles County are not abstracted into print as early as 1830, so a page by page search of the microfilmed originals ensued.  It turns out that a gap in the originals from 1829 to 1833 exists.  Another filming of county court records has a gap between 1825 to 1833.  Scrolling page by page did not reveal any such entry, but with those gaps, searching the year 1830 was not possible. [cf: Research will be conducted in Giles County, TN March 2012]

Searches for a corresponding deed or court entry in King and Queen County were thwarted by the loss of records there.  No deeds have survived before 1864.  Court minute books begin in 1858, and chancery orders in 1831.  Validating or negating such a sale of twenty-five acres is conveniently impossible, unless further clarification can be unearthed.

It appears clear that James Lea returned to Caswell County by 1812, and that Elizabeth was not his widow.  It is also clear that she did not sell land in Virginia.  A James Lee paid taxes in Wilson County in 1804, but why was the Power of Attorney for the sale of that land recorded in Giles County?  Was it simply because John Yancy resided there?   

A very recent posting in RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project tells that John Graves Yancy (1764-1818) was born in Orange County, North Carolina, and died in Giles County, Tennessee.  He married Elizabeth Lightfoot Moore in Caswell County, North Carolina on February 24, 1789, and they moved from Caswell County to Giles County around 1810.[3]  James must have known him in Caswell County, or even been related to him.  

Printed abstracts of other Giles County records do not mention James Lea or Lee.  Elizabeth Lea appears in the 1830 census there.  It appears that she was the female head of household age forty to fifty with young adult children.  A female age eighty to ninety also lived in the home, too old to be the mother of the young adult children.[4]

The 1820 census shows Elizabeth Lee in Giles County, with a female in each of the five columns.  She may be the one in the 26-45 age group.  An Edward Lee is listed three names above her, age sixteen to twenty-six.[5]  The 1820 census is the earliest federal census available for that part of Tennessee.  The printed census index does not show any James Leas, but a few James Lees resided in Davidson, Overton, Smith and Stewart Counties.  Of the Lees in Giles County, there was Elizabeth and Edward, also a Daniel and a William, all with the Lee spelling.[6]

As a substitute for the missing 1810 census, a reconstructed census has been created from other types of records, spanning 1809 to 1811.  In those years, a James Lea appeared in court minutes in Anderson County, and another James Lea received a military commission in Hawkins County.  A James Lee paid taxes in Davidson County in 1811, and in Sumner County in 1810, by an agent.  The only mention of a Lea or Lee in Giles County was John Lee, who served as a juror, as per court records there.[7]  It may be that James Lea of Jefferson County had already returned to North Carolina by 1810, or he just didn’t appear in any county records around that time.  

Printed abstracts of Giles County court minutes reveal that Elizabeth Lee was the widow of John Lee, most likely the same John Lee who served as a juror there in 1810.  In the March 1815 session of court, Elizabeth Lee and William Lee were granted Letters of Administration on the estate of John Lee, deceased.  ‘Alizabeth’ Lee, widow of John Lee, was allotted a “sufficient portion of stock & provisions as will maintain her & her children if any for one year from date of her husband’s decease.”  John Yancy was noted in the records as guardian for some Graves children, but no association between him and the Lee family there could be detected.[8]

The 1810 census of North Carolina shows three James Leas in Caswell County, and two in Person County.  Interestingly, one of the carried the middle name of ‘Yancy’, but was only sixteen to twenty-six years old.  Determining which one of these, if any, might have been the same who lived in eastern Tennessee would be very difficult, if he had indeed returned by then.

In summary, it seems clear that James Lea of Greene, Jefferson and Hawkins Counties is all the same person.  He obtained many large parcels of land in those counties, and apparently in Wilson County, as well.  He was an active member of the community in Greene and Jefferson Counties, but sold off most of his land and returned to Caswell County by 1812 or [cf: Note: Amite County, Mississippi]  What he did not dispose of before he returned to North Carolina, he appointed John Yancy of Giles County as his agent to sell land in Wilson County.  No sale of twenty-five acres of inherited land in on Mattaponi Creek in King and Queen County by Elizabeth Lea could be found.  No evidence that James Lea ever resided in Giles County can be found.

 

For Rev. Cynthia Forde,

Raquel Lindaas, AG®

Heritage Consulting

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[1] Document 20: Deeds, Giles County, Tennessee, Book B, p. 5. FHL Film #0968853

[2] Document 21: Thomas E. Partlow, Wilson County, Tennessee Deed Books C-M, 1793-1829 (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1984). FHL Call #976.854 R2pt

[3] Document 22: “Caswell County Family Tree”, RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project, Entry #59769, 20 Jan 2012.

[4] Document 23: Ancestry.com, U. S. Federal Census 1830, Giles County, Tennessee, p. 197.

[5] Document 24: Ancestry.com, U. S. Federal Census 1820, Pulaski, Giles County, Tennessee, p. 8.

[6] Document 25: Elizabeth Petty Bentley, Index to the 1820 Census of Tennessee (Baltimore: Clearfield Co., 2001). FHL Call #976.8 X22b

[7] Document 26: Charles A. Sherrill, The Reconstructed 1810 Census of Tennessee (Mt. Juliet, TN: privately published, 2001). FHL Call #976.8 X2s

[8] Document 27: Carol Wells, Abstracts of Giles County, Tennssee: County Court Minutes, 1813-1816 and Circuit Court Minutes, 1810-1816 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1995). FHL Call #976.861 P28wc

William Lea and Francis Major

 William Lea and Francis Major 

The Jamestowne Society wrote a letter to me in 2006 stating that they were not accepting any more members based on William Leigh b. 1654 in New Kent County, VA.  In addition, a three-year YDNA project of the Leas of Caswell County on Family Tree DNA proves that the Leas of Caswell County do not match Leigh's at all. 

In reference to the name change of Leigh to Lea and Lee - I read the diaries of Wilhelmina  Lea  (all of them!) who with others stated "Some histories of the Leas have said that the descendants of the wealthy William Leigh that came to Caswell County, NC changed their name to Lea or Lee on a "lark" ... on a "whim" "because they wanted to put distance between themselves and the wealth of VA"  etc. and it was highly doubtful that this was the case.   Ben Rose came to this conclusion as well.      

Reviewing trees on Ancestry, I have not ever seen documentation that George Major had a daughter named Frances although he did have a son named Frances - see this research report below.  Nor have I seen any proof of a marriage of a Frances Major to William Lea.  All things are possible - but there simply is not any credible documentation.  

As for the possibility that James lea of Country Line Creek's parents were William and Frances Lea, who sold land in Spotsylvania County in 1752, there are some problems with that.  According to information recorded in the Rose Family Bible, Capt. William Lea was the William who had a wife named Frances.  Their daughter, Eunice, married Alexander Rose.  Capt. William and Frances were documented in North Carolina as attending the baptism of Alexander Rose and Eunice Lea’s son, Duncan, in 1777.  William is believed to have been born about 1715, according to Ben Rose.  His son-in-law, Alexander Rose, was born about 1738.  According to the historical chronology of Ann Herndon, believed to be the wife of James Lea of Country Line Creek, she is believed to have been born about 1715.  Her husband, James, is believed to have been born sometime between 1706 to 1713.  This would mean that William Lea, who married Frances, must have been born about 1680 to 1690.  He could not be the same William who died in 1804, in Person County, North Carolina.  It is possible that there were two Williams who married a woman named Frances, from the Spotsylvania County area.

A study of the Major family of Virginia should be made, to see if any connections between them and William Lea can be detected.  So far, no documentation has been presented that William Lea married a Frances Major.  The source of this information is unknown.  This could have been an assumption made by a Lea researcher, in order to explain the unusual given name, Major.  But that given name, while somewhat unique, is not uncommon.  The online 1790 census of North Carolina shows thirty-two men in the state with ‘Major’ as their given name.  Those with an additional given name, such as “Major John Smith”, were not included in the count, since that combination suggests a military title.

A statewide index to Virginia wills shows several entries for the Major surname, but none in Spotsylvania or King and Queen Counties.  The tragic loss of records in King and Queen County in 1865 destroyed the deeds, wills, estate, court, and marriage records.  

Online sources for research on the Major family give three different names for the father of Frances, who married William Lea, John, George, and William.  These names were searched in the records of Virginia, for whatever evidence may have survived the ravages of time.  From Virginia Colonial Records, a three-volume set of abstracted early records of the colony, it is revealed that the Major family lived in the area before 1650.  Volume II contains the petition of George Major from 1707, by which he asked the court for a grant of three hundred and seventy-six acres of land in Essex County.  This land had been granted to John Major of King & Queen County in 1701, but he had let it lapse.  John Major appeared at the court hearing and consented to let the land go to George Major, their relationship not stated.  Seven years later, George had still not received the patent to this land.  John Major had since died, and George desired to let the patent pass to William Major, son of John Major.  Another entry shows that George Major had been granted two hundred and fifty acres on the north side of the York River in 1683.  This land was located in the area that would become King & Queen County upon its creation in 1691.  Transcriptions of the Spotsylvania County court orders pertaining to the Lea family, already discussed in this report, are contained in this volume.  William Lea received a grant of one hundred acres in King & Queen County on December 16, 1714.

Many early and obscure records of Virginia have been compiled into historical and genealogical quarterly publications.  From The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, an abstract of the 1693 will of Edward Porteous mentions George Major, Sr. as the recipient of money from the estate.  The footnote tells that Edward Porteous lived in Gloucester County in 1681, although the will was filed in England.

  This shows that there were two George Majors, Sr. and Jr.  Another issue of this quarterly includes 1704 quit rent rolls of King & Queen County, which lists Francis Major and John Major.

  

The Calendar of Virginia State Papers shows that in 1714, George Major petitioned for land in King & Queen County that had lapsed from John Morgan.

  This puts George in King & Queen County around the time that Frances is believed to have married William Lea.  Another interesting find from the William and Mary College Quarterly comes from a biographical sketch of the Collier family of New Kent and King & Queen Counties.  John Collier appears to have married the daughter of Francis Ironmonger and his wife, Elizabeth.  A lawsuit came into the General Court in 1722, between “John Collier, an infant by John Collier, his father, and Richard, James, Samuel, George and Francis Major, by George Major, their father, and William Barnett and Eliza, his wife, late Elizabeth Ironmonger, executrix of  Francis Ironmonger.”

  It is not exactly clear who is siding with whom, but it is clear that George Major had sons named Richard, James, Samuel, George, and Francis, adults in 1722.  If George was the father of Frances, who married William Lea, it does not make sense that he would also have a daughter named Frances.

From compiled family histories in the library collection, the Metts Ancestors in America was located.  Considerable attention is focused on James Lea of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and Caswell County, North Carolina.  His parents are given as William Lea and FrancesMajor, and his birth occurred about 1707 in St. Stephen’s Parish, King & Queen County.  Some documentation is offered for some of the information, but not for the names of James’ parents.  A pedigree of James Lea is included in this source, showing several generations on the major and Mason families.  Frances is believed to be the daughter of William Major.  The baptismal date of Frances Major is given as November 19, 1699, presumably in St. Peter’s Parish.

  Another family history entitled The Majors and Their Marriages, by James Branch Cabell, does not mention Frances.

Records of St. Peter’s Parish of New Kent County are available in printed, abstracted form.  The transcribed baptismal records do indeed show a Frances Major, daughter of William Major, baptized on November 19, 1699.  William had two other children baptized in that parish: John, on May 17, 1702, and Thomas, on November 28, 1703.

  This may have been the girl who would later marry William Lea, but if her birth occurred shortly before her baptism, she could not have been the mother of James Lea, born about 1707.  Sometimes a family had their children baptized later, not as infants.  In those cases, several children from the same family would be baptized on the same day.  The dates shown for the three children of William are spaced at two and a half and one and a half years apart, suggesting that these baptisms occurred close to the time of the children's births.

Raquel Lindaas, AG®

Heritage Consulting

2008 Research from Heritage Consulting