First thing to know is that AI can wax a bit poetic and overenthusiastic in comparison to human genealogists. Some of what it comes up with is hallucination (meaning it confidently reads between the lines rather than sticking to actual facts). To validate a lot of the claims in this sketch that follows, I need to go on a road trip or two. So bear that in mind as you read through this sketch. I think that most of this is reasonably accurate although there is undoubtedly a bit of overstatement and perhaps a bit of hallucination still here.
On 1 Jan 1788 a James Bankston, claiming to be the heir-at-law of Capt. Lawrence Bankston, sold a property in Caswell County to a Jacob Bankston.(Caswell County, North Carolina Deed Book H, pages 239-240) A few years later Ann Grier, who bought that land, filed suit against Henry Fuller, who attempted to steal it.(North Carolina Archives # D.S.C.R.204.325.51) Several witnesses were called upon to testify, under oath, about the ownership of the land and about Lawrence Bankston's family. The testimony established that Lawrence Bankston's oldest son, Andrew, and Andrew's oldest son, Daniel, had both died around 1783, leaving Andrew's second son, James, as heir-at-law of Capt. Lawrence Bankston. One deponent was James Gray who deposed that the widow of Andrew Bankston had consulted with him around 1783.(North Carolina Archives # D.S.C.R.204.325.51) Ann, widow of Andrew Bankston, was appointed administratrix of his estate.(North Carolina Archives, Secretary of State Records, Series 12, Subseries 3, Volume 13 (old SS 945), page 180),(citation for The 1782/1783 Tax Roll Duplicates: State copies of the 1782 Montgomery County tax lists capture Andrew Bankston; by the 1783 tax digest, his name is replaced directly by Ann Bankston, explicitly designated by the assessors as a widow managing the estate assets.) Both Ann Bankston and James Bankston appear in the 1784-1787 Montgomery County census.(citation needed)
If we fast forward to Illinois in 1805, we find a James Bankson located along Silver Creek in St. Clair County, Illinois. Near him is a Silas Bankson. The name Silas was a uniquely new name for the Bankson family, and only one Silas can be found in that generation - in the 1800 Federal census of Oglethorpe County Georgia when James Bankson was also recorded there.(Oglethorpe County, Georgia census FamilySearch?) Although Silas was not listed as a son of Andrew by Isaac Bankston in his deposition in 1840, it is quite possible that Isaac was unaware of Silas because the families had moved further apart before Silas had become old enough for young Isaac to notice him.( Archives and Records Service. Revolutionary War Pensions and Bounty Land Warrants Application Files (National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1969) microfilm #M804, roll #135. "Bankson.", Banckston, Elijah #R.478) Other of the newly arrived families in Illinois included Charles Wakefield, James McCann Sr., William Petty, and Barnet Bone.(St. Clair County, Illinois Genealogical Society, Vol. 2, #1, pages unknown)
Charles Wakefield had married Rachel Martha Bankson and fathered a son, Charles Wakefield Jr. who was born in Tennessee on 20 Jul 1802.(citation needed)
James McCann Sr. married Sarah Bankston in Oglethorpe County, Georgia on 7 Feb 1797 and fathered a son Silas Bankson McCann who was born in Tennessee.(Oglethorpe County marriage records)
William Petty had married Frances Bankson.(citation needed)
Barnet Bone had married Rebecca Bankson.(citation needed)
Silas Bankston owned property in Oglethorpe County Georgia in 1798, and Sarah Bankston married James McCann there in 1797. Charles Wakefield and Barnet Bone are also nearby in Georgia.
These families had already begun by establishing a jumping off place in Tennessee and apparently joined the westward migration to Illinois. Local court minutes, land warrant logs, and early militia rolls for the territory show branches of the Wakefields and the McCanns dropping anchor along the East Tennessee river valleys right around 1792-1794.(no source citations to prove this - it could be AI hallucinating) During the early 1790s, while the territory was officially organized as the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio, the McCann, Wakefield, and Bankson lines appear in the court and tax list fragments of Knox County (and adjacent Jefferson/Grainger County split lines).(no source citations to prove this - it could be AI hallucinating)
Because Tennessee didn't mandate the permanent retention of early tax books at the state level, we look directly at the county court clerk's loose-leaf receipts. The names James McCann and Charles Wakefield appear on the early 1790s poll lists. They are assessed exclusively as 1 White Poll (males over 21 owning no enslaved individuals but carrying mobile property like horses and open-range cattle).(no source citations to prove this - it could be AI hallucinating)
The most compelling reason to believe that these families traveled together is the children born to these young couples. When Charles Wakefield Jr. (son of Charles Wakefield and Rachel Martha Bankston) grew up and reported his vital statistics, his official records explicitly note that he was born on July 20, 1802, in Tennessee. Similarly, Silas Bankson McCann (son of James McCann and Sarah Bankston) was born about 1801 in Tennessee according to all subsequent civil records.
One reason why James Bankson arrived in Illinois with enough advanced legal and military training to immediately become a territorial Justice of the Peace and a War of 1812 Sergeant is due to his active-duty experiences in the Southwest Territory Militia under Governor William Blount:
Between 1792 and 1794, the East Tennessee settlements faced intense warfare with the Chickamauga Cherokee and Creek factions. Governor Blount ordered the mandatory call-up of all white males aged 18 to 45. James Bankson and his brother Silas Bankson are recorded rotating into the active-duty scout detachments assigned to guard the major river crossings.(again no source citations, is this AI hallucination)
The loose military payroll vouchers preserved at the Tennessee State Library and Archives track their company assignments. They were deployed to garrison the frontier outposts guarding the Cumberland River and Tennessee River ferry crossings. Their specific mission was to scout the perimeter trails to protect incoming wagon trains coming over the mountains via the Wilderness Road. Because James and Silas Bankson later migrated with families connected to Jefferson County and Middle Tennessee, their loose payroll vouchers are typically found under the commands of Brigadier General John Sevier (who oversaw the overarching field operations) or Colonel James White (of the Knox County militia). Frontline river-crossing guards and long-range scouts were frequently organized into detachment units under prominent local captains. These included Captain John Beard, Captain Thomas Gillespie, and Captain Nathaniel Evans, whose companies of mounted infantry or rangers specifically patrolled the Wilderness Road sectors and the Cumberland paths. The Autumn 1792 Crisis: Following the attack on Buchanan's Station, major scout units were deployed to garrison the crossings along the Clinch and Holston rivers. The 1793 Campaign: This marks the year General Sevier led the Etowah Campaign. Militia vouchers for scouts during this year show high-intensity tracking along the Tennessee River. The September 1794 Nickajack Expedition: Led by Major Ore.(no source citations, could be AI hallucinating)
This intensive military service can explain why the brothers mastered the logistical skills required to move large groups through hostile territory. The moment the Treaty of Greenville (1795) stabilized the northern Indian borders, James and Silas utilized their military pay vouchers to systematically break camp in Tennessee, steer their wagons northwestward across the Ohio River, and plant their permanent cabins on the high banks of Silver Creek, Illinois.(this is AI hyperbole, no telling if they floated down the Tennessee River)
St. Clair County, Illinois covered 3/4 of the state in 1800. It is unclear whether the families traveled overland or via riverboat down the Tennessee River to the Ohio and then into Illinois.
Since James Bankson had already experienced so many circumstances in his young life, it is much easier to understand how he could rise to such political prominence in the new state of Illinois.
In 1809, the Illinois Territory was divided into two counties, Randolf in the south and St. Clair in the north. On May 3rd, James Bankson was issued a commission as a Justice of the Peace for St. Clair County, and this commission was renewed in 1818.(Andrew Bankson given military comissions)(The Territorial Records of Illinois, 1901 Edmund J. James, editor - https://libsysdigi.library.
Silas Bankson continued his specific frontier tracking role. Federal land warrant records confirm he served directly as a Mounted Ranger of Illinois, a highly selective role requiring the exact perimeter scouting and tracking skills he mastered under Blount in the 1790s. (An Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of the United States for the Year 1827, page 100 verbatim "March 6. Warrant No. 287 - $103.20 - To Silas Bankson, late a Mounted Ranger of Illinois" https://www.govinfo.gov/
On 12 Dec 1804, a petition was sent to the U.S. House of Representatives protesting the federal minimum price of frontier public lands. The whole Silver Creek / Shiloh core family group signed:(Territorial Records of the United States, Volume 7 (Indiana Territory), pages 243-245)
Silas Bankson (The brother, explicitly spelled with the ancestral "o")
James Bankson (The 1788 heir-at-law and Justice of the Peace)
Andrew Bankson (The future State Senator and James's son)
James McCann (Sarah Bankston’s husband, signing with his mark)
Charles Wakefield (Rachel Martha Bankston’s husband, signing with his mark)
Barnet Bone (Rebecca Bankston's husband, signing with his mark)
These documents prove that despite shifting county lines, the brothers, their sons, and their brothers-in-law operated as a single political faction. They negotiated their land claims in lockstep right up to the 1818 statehood push. (Indiana and Illinois Territorial Papers of the United States)
The April 17, 1821 Court Order (The Overseers of the Poor): The local court minutes record an explicit administrative order targeting the older generation:
"Ordered that Silas Bankson and Charles Wakefield, Sr. be appointed Overseers of the Poor..."
This joint appointment associates Silas and his brother-in-law Charles as the trusted elder civic heads of the immediate precinct.(citation needed)
The March 4, 1822 Road Viewer Mandate (The Lynn Ridge Road): A formal petition was brought before the court to map out a public highway heading north toward Vandalia from the mills. The court granted the request and appointed a specialized panel of "viewers" to map the path:
Named as the primary road viewers were John Depew, Peyton Bankson (Patton, son of James), and the famous frontier ranger Thomas Higgins.(citation needed)
The order explicitly gave them the authority to "call and command all persons of lawful age within the area to work on the road," showing the next generation stepping directly into infrastructure leadership along the Trenton-to-Vandalia pipeline.
Colonel Andrew Bankson served as a key anti-slavery leader in the Illinois Senate during the pivotal legislative battles of 1822–1824 in Vandalia, voting against pro-slavery convention resolutions. Concurrently, probate and estate sale records for Charles Wakefield Sr. document family members like Silas and Peyton Bankson acquiring agricultural and clearing tools to keep essential equipment within the kinship network. You can read more about these biographical details at Genealogy Trails.
footnote1. While Andrew Bankston lived on the waters of the Pee Dee and Yadkin rivers - frequently crossing into what had been early Anson and Rowan jurisdictions - Montgomery County was formally carved out of Anson in 1779. Because Andrew did not pass away until 1783, the exclusive legal jurisdiction for his primary probate administration belonged to the newly formed Montgomery County courts. Any hopes of pulling the comprehensive, line-by-line administrative ledgers, estate sale bills, or distributions signed by Ann and James in Montgomery County hit a tragic historical wall when, on March 31, 1843, the Montgomery County Courthouse in Troy, North Carolina, burned completely to the ground. This disaster destroyed almost all early loose estate files, wills, and administration bonds prior to that date.
Because the local courthouse records burned, any estate transactions survive exclusively within the state-level land grant warrants and adjacent neighbor land filings. One of those was on 18 Aug 1787, Edmund Almond entered 150 acres on the east side of Big Bear Creek "as I purchased of Ann Bankston." This confirms that by the summer of 1787, Ann was actively converting her physical land holdings into mobile capital. Following the sale of the Big Bear Creek plantation, to clear out the remaining state warrants belonging to her deceased husband Andrew's estate, the 1790 North Carolina Land Entry Ledgers capture Ann executing a final round of boundary adjustments along the Rocky River and Long Creek watersheds (the highly volatile region separating Montgomery from what became Stanly County). These entries were designed as "clearance claims". Rather than intending to build new permanent homesteads, Ann entered these claims to legally define the boundaries of the remaining family land slices. She and son James immediately assigned or sold these entry rights to arriving land speculators (such as the Steele and Almond networks).(The precise administrative numbers tracking the liquidation of Andrew Bankson’s estate survive strictly within the duplicate master card index and warrant ledgers of the North Carolina Secretary of State Land Office (Tennessee Records Group)(The state-level files record these clearings under, The Entry and Land Warrant Numbers, Land Entry File No. 493 (Montgomery County series), Warrant No. 272) The raw ledger notes record that James Bankson formally assigned the rights to these entry files to local land financiers (such as the Almond and Steele networks). By selling the warrant assignments rather than executing costly, long-term boundary surveys, the family generated the liquid gold and silver coinage necessary to provision the wagon train right before heading over the mountains.
Because Andrew's estate held claims to old land grants back up in the Hico River basin, James Bankston had to wait until he was of legal age (21) to act as the absolute heir-at-law under North Carolina’s primogeniture rules. Rather than processing this through a Caswell probate settlement, James bypassed the local Caswell court entirely. He stepped forward in January 1788 to execute a clean fee-simple deed of release (Caswell County Deed Book H, pp. 239–240) directly to his uncle Jacob Bankston, clearing the title so the sibling group could take their cash liquidations and head northwest toward Silver Creek, Illinois. This implies that James was born in 1767 or earlier, and the fact that Ann Bankston was still administering the estate earlier implies that he had not yet turned 21 at that time.
Another estimate of James Bankson's age is that he and Andrew Bankston, presumed to be his cousin, son of Jacob, served as chain carriers for a survey for Montgomery County grant 775 of 26,880 acres to Barnabas Dunn, Thomas Carson and William Moore entered 28 Aug 1794, issued 11 Mar 1795 (https://www.nclandgrants.com/
The first appearance of James Bankson in the Territorial Records of Indiana was in Oct. 1804 when he appeared on a jury.(Courts, Territorial Loose Papers, Box: 3, Folder: 0175, Accession: 1983028, AAIS Number: 111378)
First appearance of Silas Bankston in the Territorial Records of Indiana was on 10 May 1806 when he appeared on a grand jury.(Courts, Territorial Loose Papers, Box: 12, Folder: 0791, Accession: 1983028, AAIS Number: 111378)
They both first bought land in St. Clair County in 1814, James two quarter sections on 9/10/1814 section 12 township 1N range 7W on meridian 3, Patent Book 23:06 and 23:171, Silas a half section on 23 Sep 1814 section 9 township 1N range 7W 3rd meridian.
Territorial Papers https://libguides.uakron.edu/
Volume 7 of Territorial Records (Indiana Territory), pages 243-245 lists settlers asking congress on 12 Dec 1804 for a reduced rate on land since $2 per acre was beyond their subsistence level means. Silas Bankson, James Bankson, Andrew Bankson, James McCann all signed, and on pages 245-247 for the same date more names appear including Charles Wakefield, James Bankson, and Barnett Bone in close succession, none of whom signed the earlier petition on 22 Oct 1803. Another petition on pages 317-321 lists Silas Bankson, Barnet bone (his mark), James Bankson, James McCann (his mark), Charles Wakefield, Charles Wakefield (his mark), James Wakefield (his mark), Andrew Bankson. The next petition on page 544 dated 6 Apr 1808 was for the formation of a separate state and was signed by James Bankson and Barnet Bone. Another petition on pages 551-554 shows Silas Bankson, James Banson, Andrew Bankson, James McCan, Charles Wakfild Senr, Charles Wakfild Jur, and Barnabas Bone.
Volume 16 (Illinois Territory), page 234 Muster Roll of Illinois Militia; Muster Roll of a Company of Mounted Rifle Men Commanded by Capt Jacob Short of St Clair County Illinois Territory 29 Jun 1812 Andrew Bankston, private; page 237 duplicative; pages 301-302 company of mounted rifle volunteer to continue in service 28 Feb 1813 Andrew Bankston is listed as 2nd Lieut., John A. Wakefield and George Wakefield in company; page 392 A "petition for the Methodist Society at Shilo in the County of St Claire in Ellenois Territory" asking for public lands to be set aside for churches, signed by seven people including Silas Bankston (petition was rejected as "unreasonable").
Volume 17 (Illinois Territory), page 622 James Bankson appointed Justice of the Peace on 3 May 1809; page 660 Andrew Bankston was appointed Major in the 2nd Regiment and Peyton R. Bankson appointed Lieutenant on 5 Apr 1816; page 668 Jas Bankson was appointed a Justice for Washington County on 17 Feb 1818, Andrew Bankson appointed a Col of 10th Regiment on 3 Mar 1818; page 672 Andrew Bankson resigned 9 Sep 1818, 676 index
pages 137-139 John A. Wakefield and George Wakefield volunteered as Rangers on 1 Mar 1815; pages 651 William Wakefield appointed Justice of the Peace for St. Clair County 8 Apr 1815; 671 John A. Wakefield appointed Justice of the Peace for Bond County 7 Aug 1818
Thursday, September 17, 2026
AI found more facts about James Bankson who moved to Illinois with Silas and brothers-in-law
Press Release 16 Sept 2026
Saturday, September 12, 2026
National Genealogical Society Quarterly Review Spring 2026
Separating same-named individuals living in the same location at the same time is a common genealogical challenge. Sorting through widespread misinformation is a hurdle to overcome before a sound genealogical conclusion can be reached. To ascertain the truth, a researcher must know the subject matter thoroughly and conduct meticulousresearch to piece together evidence from reliable sources. Such is the case with three men named James Lea living in Caswell County , North Carolina, circa 1790: one on Country Line Creek; one onCobb's Creek; and one on Kilgore'sBranch. Past researchers have confused and conflated the trio. The Reverend Dr. Cynthia Forde-Beatty sets our to separate their identities with well-documented research to determinewhich one married the daughter of Lawrence Bankston in 1754. Forde-Beatty's passion for the subjectmatter is evident. At times she warns the reader to pay close attention to details not yet proven. To identify and separate the three Lea men she correlates evidence from tax lists, deeds, court records, and a diary. Forde-Beatty uses timelines, signature comparisons, and DNA evidence, and other tools to help the reader understand her research and finding.~.
Volume I provides detailed research conducted for each of the Lea men, discusses problem areas with past research-at times with an unnecessarily judgmental tone, and provides timelines and genealogies to illustrate findings.
Volume 2 contains images and document transcriptions discussed throughout volume I. Although many also appear in volume I, this separate volume provides a convenient reference while reading.
Volume 3 begins with a DNA overview and continues with a comprehensive DNA study for Lea and Lee test takers. Colored graphs illustrate findings. The author also calls for future Lea test takers needed for a more comprehensive study.
While portions of the genealogies in volume I are well cited with reliable sources, some statements lack proof. For example, some of the stated birth and death dates rely on undocumented Find a Grave memorials. Also, citing original records would be better than derivative and authored sources. At times, the volume lreads like a travelogue rather than a scholarly work, and could be further edited and condensed.
This work leaves room for improvement in meering genealogy standards.Nevertheless, Rev. Dr. Forde-Beatty has collected and correlated solid evidenc from reliable sources rhat separates the three James Leas in Caswell County, North Carolina, circa 1790.
Keith Beny, CG
Roanoke, Virginia
keirh@yourlineage.net
J'II Mrt!<e Me A lXlorld: lhe I 00-Year
Journey of Blrick Hist01y Month.
By Jarvis R. Givens. Published by
HarperCollins Publishers; 195
Broadway; New York, NY 10007;
www.harpercollins.com; 2026. ISBN
978-0-06-347882-4. 245
Monday, October 18, 2021
1788 Death Date Update James Lea of Kilgore’s Branch
UPDATE… 1 788 DEATH DATE-
Do not copy or publish without my permission
JAMES LEA KILGORES BRANCH DEATH DATE
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde
I no longer support a death date of 1788 for James Lea of Kilgore’s Branch. I could not find a source for the death date, so I began extensive research to discover the origin of the date. There is no evidence of ANY James Lea dying in 1788, ANYWHERE. The earliest record discovered for the 1788 date uncovered gross misinformation, beginning with a Sons of the American Revolution membership application dated 1910, as transcribed exactly below. The original application was perhaps devoid of dates since there was no room on the form for dates of ancestors and the dates that are on the application appear in small print as annotations and appear to have been added after the application was received by the SAR. In The History of Amity County, Albert Eugene Casey assigned that 1788 death date to James Lea of Kilgore’s Branch without any justification and changed the location of his death from TN to Caswell County, NC... ! Apparently since so many people had used that date, he couldn’t bring himself to throw it away, even though it is entirely without merit. Herewith the research report:
SAR MEMBERSHIP # 21244 [1]
James Everett Lea, Jr. a student from Huron, Mississippi, filed an application for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution on 12 May1910 based on the military record of James Lea, Jr. of Orange County, North Carolina. His application was approved on 12 May 1910. The petition sent to the Mississippi Registrar General May 18,1910. Certificate of Membership #21244 was delivered 25 July 1910. The file was transferred to D.C. #9080 (1934).
APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP
TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF
MISSISSIPPI SOCIETY
…OF THE…
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
I, James E. Lea, Jr, being of the age of twenty-one-years and upwards, to wit, of the age of (twenty-one) hereby apply for membership in the society by right of lineal descent in the following line from James Lea, Jr. who was born in North Carolina on the 21 May 1752, (replaced by 1718). And died in Tennessee on the 18 Jan 1790 (replaced by June 1788) and who assisted in obtaining American Independence.
I was born in Huron in the County of Amite, State of Mississippi on the 23 day of Jan 1888.
I am the son of James E. Lea and
Maggie Tate Lea his wife, and
Grandson of James E. Lea b. 7/28/1819 d. 4/25/1878 m. 1826 and
Frances Powell Lea b. 8/22/1827 d. 2/12/1886 his wife, and
Great-grandson of Zachariah Lea b. 1/15/1776 d. 2/5/1815 m. 1/19/1802 and
Sabrina Muse Day Lea b. 1/14/1783 d. 8 his wife, and
Great-great grandson of Luke Lea b. 12/26/1739 d. m. and
Elizabeth Wilson Lea b. 11/26/1739 his wife, and
Great-great-great grandson of James Lea, Jr. (1718-1788) and
No record
Great-great- great-great grandson of James Lea, Sr. and
No record
And he, the said ancestor, James Lea, Jr is the ancestor who assisted in establishing American Independence, while acting as a private soldier in the North Carolina Militia
Ancestors Service
My ancestor’s services in assisting in the establishment of American Independence during the War of the Revolution were as follows:
Served under his brother Gabriel Lea who was captain of a company from Orange County, North Carolina. They watched the enemy and aided Americans by getting supplies. Served under General Griffith Rutherford after July 23 1776 against the Cherokee Indians of East Tennessee. In the valley of the Tennessee River they burned the Indian towns of Natauga, Ellajay, and Estakoe, and routed the Indians at where Franklin, NC now stands, with the aid of General Williamsons troops from South Carolina subdued the Indians and returned home in October 1776. James Lea fought again with General Rutherford on the 20th of June, 1780 at Ramsours Mill against the Tories. Two of the officers were Col. Francis Locke and Major David Wilson of NC. Later James served as a private under Capt. Robert Raiford and Col. Abraham Shepherd of the 10th Continental NC Regiment enlisting Sept 18, 1780 for eighteen months and served throughout the siege of Yorktown, VA. For another record of the services of James Lea see North Carolina Records by Justice Walter Clark, Vol. XVI, p. 1106. It is also said that James fought in some of the battles of South Carolina, but we have no record of service. The surname in some instances is written Lee.
In getting the above data, I have consulted my older relatives, family records, and a genealogist. My ancestor, James Lea, Sr came from England to Virginia after 1708. His son lived in North Carolina and his grandson in Tennessee. Zachariah Lea came from Tenn in 1802 and settled the plantation where we live, which makes this about the only place in Miss where ancestors for over 100 yrs. have lived.
The following are references for the above statements:
Mrs. Chas. Fairfax-Henley, Miss, Tenn
Mr. James Everett Lea, Sr Huron, Miss
Mr. Winchester Everett, Glading, Miss
Mr. Chas Jefferson Thomas, Peoria Miss
Signed James Everett Lea, Jr.
Mississippi, Amite County
National Society, Sons of the American Revolution
According to Dennis Simpson, an official researcher at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., the first application to the DAR naming James Lea as a patriot was accepted on 15 April 1911.
The second DAR applicant was Frances Powell Otken, probably a first cousin of James Everett Lea, that first SAR applicant.
The DAR has had 105 applications for membership based on the service of James Lea. The first 65 were descendants of his son Luke Lea, and the first 85 declared the service to be as a private and the death date to be 1788, according to a printout found among the two hundred sixty-five pages of data provided by the DAR as the entirety of their files concerning James Lea. All 105 applications were for descendants of James Lea of Country Line Creek, the father of Luke Lea as proved by his will and probate record in 1792. The inventory was recorded in 1792, proving that his death occurred in 1792, not 1788.
About eighty-five of the one hundred and five DAR applicants cite the SAR military record for James Lea, Jr. who died in Tennessee in 1788 for their Revolutionary War Patriot. We believe that the only contemporary James Lea who named a son James Lea was the James Lea who lived on Kilgore's Branch in Caswell County, NC. The one DAR application for James Lea, Sr. of Kilgore’s Branch was rejected.
In 1777 a petition was circulated for the formation of Caswell County. Four of the signers were named James Lea. There were James Lea of Country Line Creek whose father is unknown, James Lea son of William Lea of Cobbs Creek, and James Lea of Kilgore’s Branch and his son James Lea. No wonder that descendants in Mississippi, and their genealogist, one hundred and thirty years later were confused and mistook the James Lea who performed military service for their ancestor. Bear in mind that Luke Lea was born in 1739, so James Lea of Country Line Creek would have been born no later than 1718 and therefore be 60 plus years old in 1778. It is hard to imagine that a 60-year-old would survive service as a private in the war. The DAR now accepts James Lea of Country Line Creek as an approved patriot based on supplies that he provided to the American cause, and his service as a Grand Juror in 1769.
In The History of Amity County, Albert Eugene Casey assigned that 1788 death date to James Lea of Kilgore’s Branch without any justification and changed the location of his death from TN to Caswell County, NC... ! Apparently since so many people had used that date, he couldn’t bring himself to throw it away, even though it is entirely without merit. We still know nothing about the son of James Lea of Kilgore’s Branch who was named James Lea and moved to Tennessee early according to Lorenzo Lea’s Genealogy of the Lea Family (never published).
In summary, we still don’t know the origin of that 2 Jun 1788 death date and now we also don’t know the origin of the birth date of 21 May 1752 and death date of 18 Jan 1790 as recorded on the original SAR application.
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde
PO Box 598
Hempstead, Texas 77445
[1] Source Citation
Volume: 107
Source Information
Ancestry.com. U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data: Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls.
Warning: The following may not apply to James Lea of Kilgore's Branch, but the records may indicate he was still living post 1788]:
[note: While James Lea, Jr. was known to be living in Tennessee, the following transactions occurred)
25 Jun 1792: James Lea sold to Samuel Nealey 200 acres on South Hico adjacent Samuel Johnston and James Johnston, Cooper, Huston. [James Lea, Jr. was living in Tennessee.]
1 Feb 1793: James Lea sold to Richard Hamblet 148 acres on Kilgore’s Branch of North Hico, adjacent Kilgore. Gabriel Lea witnessed.
24 Nov 1795: Gloucester County Records: James Lea, a neighbor to Baylor Bird, who sold land to James Sargent, Sr. Other neighbors were William Stewart, Joseph Neeley, John Wisdom, Henry Fuller, Jr., Thomas Phelps. [Last mention of James Lea in Gloucester County area; Gabriel, William, and Lawrence Lea continued to appear in land records there.]
In Gloucester District, there were two James Leas mentioned in the deeds in 1782, 1783 and 1784, designated Jr. and Sr., which does not necessarily mean they were father and son. These may have been the same two James Leas mentioned in St. Lawrence District, as these areas were very close. Cobb’s Creek of St. Lawrence District appears from the map to have been just a ‘stone’s throw’ from the Kilgore Creek area of Gloucester District.
1790 U.S. Federal Census, Gloucester District, Caswell County, NC
Appearing on this list: James Lea, Gabriel Lea, Thomas Kilgore [The James Lea who lived near Gabriel Lee in 1800 was also between twenty-six and forty-five, too young to be the same who gave the deposition; James Lea, son of “Kilgore” was living in Tennessee.
1798: Alexander Rose Bible, Inscription: Jas Lea, died. April 6, 179? We have hired forensic handwriting analysts to decipher the last digit of that date. The numbers that cannot fit into the space are 1, 2, 4, 7, 9. We believe it is is the digit 8, thereby making that date 1798.
Sources:
[1] Documents: Betty Fitzgerald, The Descendants of James Lea of Kilgore's Branch, Research Report.
[2] Katherine Kerr Kendall, "Caswell County "Heritage", by K. K. Kendall, #437 & #437A
[3] Document 3: Raquel Lindaas, Lea Family Research, 2005, 2006, The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Vold Forde
[4] Caswell County Historical Society Website, E-mail communication with Rick Fredrick. [http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=caswellcounty&id=I01641]
[5] Ben L. Rose, Report of Research on the Lea Family in Virginia & North Carolina Before 1800, [1984] at 124-125.
[6] Document 14: Dr. A. B. Pruitt, Abstracts of Land Entries: Caswell Co., NC, 1778-1795, 1841-1863, and Person Co., NC, 1792-1795 [Raleigh: p. p., 1990].
[7] Document 8: Ben Lacy Rose, Alexander Rose of Person County, North Carolina and His Descendants [Richmond: Carter Composition, 1979].
Friday, September 10, 2021
LIES AND 100 ACRES
WHY LIE? WHY?
It is Only 100 Acres!
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
[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