John Byrum, Bastardy Bond

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2025

In a previous post, I explored the bastardy bond imposed on John Byrum's mother-in-law, Tabitha Barnes in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, in 1836. John Byrum and Treacy Barnes had been married for about four years when that action was taken.

However, it turns out that John Byrum was no saint. In 1832, he was taken to court in a bastardy bond case:

John Byrum appeared on 26 February 1833, where he was ordered to pay Betsey Webb $15 for her lying in expenses and $10 a year for the next six years. In 1833, $15 was equal to about $564 in 2025, and $10 was equal to about $375. 

Treacy Barnes and John Byrum had been married for a little over a year. It's impossible to say exactly when Betsey Webb's child was born since no age is provided. At this point, I have not been able to pinpoint the name or gender of that child.

There was more than one Elizabeth Webb in Edgecombe County at this time; however, a strong candidate is Elizabeth Webb, the widow of Willie Webb.

On 23 February 1835, Elizabeth Webb was in court to secure her bond as guardian to her children: Wealthy, Delphi, Reddick, and Eli Webb. James Barnes Jr. and John Byrum were her securities. Elizabeth Webb's child with John Byrum is not named in the bond because that child was not an heir of Willie Webb's. 

Tabitha Barnes, Mother of Treacy

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2025

My husband's ancestor, Ralph Henderson Byrum, was the son of John Byrum and Lucretia or Treacy Barnes, who were living in Madison County, Tennessee by 1850. With them was an older woman named Tabitha Barnes, who was assumed to be Treacy's mother. Not much was ever found about Treacy even though researchers knew that the Byrums had come from Edgecombe County, North Carolina, since John Byrum and Treacy Barnes married in Edgecombe County, North Carolina on 17 January 1832. Enter the full-text search on Family Search to change all that.

On the 1850 census, John Byrum was 40 and born in North Carolina, and wife Treacy was 35 and born in North Carolina. Their children were eight children Justice - 18, born NC; Henry - 16,  born NC; Rhea - 14, born NC; Rufus - 11, born NC; Micajah - 9, born TN; Winneford - 7, born TN; John R. T. - 3, born TN; William F - 0, born, TN. In addition, there was Tabitha Barns - 58, born NC; and Amanda Barns - 14, born NC. 

The census reveals that the Byrums moved from North Carolina to Tennessee sometime between 1839 and 1841. That's a narrow window. Tabitha Barns is old enough to be Treacy's mother. Amanda Barns is old enough to be either Tabitha's daughter or granddaughter. Tabitha's husband has been a mystery. Additionally, a firm connection between Tabitha and Treacy has not been established.

Less than an hour with the full-text search answered most of these questions. 

This account record from Edgecombe County neatly ties together John Byrum, Treacy, and Tabitha Barnes:

Teresa Barnes, now Teresa Byrum, orphan of Jesse Barnes dec's, with Tabitha Barnes as her guardian. John Byrum signed this document, which was recorded in February 1832 - just a month after the marriage of Treacy and John. 

Earlier records in Edgecombe County reveal that Tabitha was the relict of Jesse Barnes. Her share of his estate was one-third and Teresa's was two-thirds. Those documents also reveal that he died in January of 1817. My takeaway is that he probably did not have any other children since no one else seemed to be entitled to a share of his estate.

On 23 August 1839, Tabitha Barnes, John Byrum, and Tracy Byrum joined together to sell the land that Tabitha and Tracy had inherited from Jesse Barnes. This would have been around the time that they were all preparing to move to Tennessee. My conclusion is that Tracy Byrum was the daughter of Jesse and Tabitha Barnes.

So who was Amanda Barnes? That's where it gets really interesting. Amanda Barnes is clearly not the daughter of Jesse Barnes. Jesse died in 1817 while Amanda was born in 1836. There is no indication that Tabitha remarried to another Barnes. Amanda cannot be the daughter of Tracy (Barnes) Byrum since she was born four years after Tracy and John Byrum married - that would make her a Byrum not a Barnes.

The full-text search cleared up this matter, too. In 1836, Tabitha Barnes was named in a bastardy bond action in the Edgecombe County Court Minutes:

Transcript: Ordered that George W. Luster pay until Court Fifteen Dollars & Ten Dollars annually for the next succeeding six years commencing from this Term for support of a Bastard Child begotten on the Body of Tabitha Barnes. 

This record corresponds to the birth date of Amanda Barnes - about 1836. At that time, Tabitha Barnes would have been about 44 years old - not too old to have another child.

There were a surprisingly large number of illegitimate children born in early Edgecombe County.  I am not sure that bearing an illegitimate resulted in a large amount of social stigma. There were several cases of young couples suing the father of the wife's illegitimate child for support - a child that she was either pregnant with or had born before or after her marriage to another man. Obviously, having an illegitimate child did not make a woman an undesirable marriage partner. 

At this time, I am still searching for Tabitha Barne's parents. There is a surprisingly large number of Tabithas living in early Edgecombe County, so I can't narrow much down that way. 

Tracy (Barnes) Byrum's formal name Lucretia might help me find a connection. There were several Jesse Barnes in Edgecombe County, and I don't have them sorted out yet. 

Hello, 2025

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2025

Happy New Year! 

I did a lot of research last year, but only managed thirteen blog posts. Five of those posts were about James S. Piper. I still need to finish that series of posts. I've brought him to the brink of the Civil War when his story really starts to heat up, so I need to get back to that project. 

There were 63,414 page views this year, bringing the total to 268,456. However, there were a lot of bots trolling the internet last year, so that number is probably not reflective of human readers.

The three most popular posts were as follows:

1. The Dendys and the Fatal Accident. This post explores the idea that my great-great-grandparents were in a horrific accident that killed one of their daughters. Because she was born and died between census years, her name is unknown. I believe this is the event that prompted the Dendys move from Wood County, Texas to Bowie County, Texas.

2. Capt. James S. Piper, 1846. This is the first post in the James S. Piper series. Yes, I'm feeling guilty for not getting all of the posts in the series written and posted. 

3. John Deloss Brown, Candidate for Sheriff. Through newspaper articles, I have been able to flesh out many of the details of John D. Brown's life.

While popular, these are not the posts that represented breakthroughs in my research. Those posts are as follows:

1. Solomon Nevill Sr's Last Years. My research turned up information that proved Solomon Nevill Sr. had a wife after Barbara Walton and that a divorce occurred between Solomon and Barbara. Solomon spent his last years with his second wife and then with his son E.W. Nevill. He died in Gibson County, Tennessee, not Montgomery County, Tennessee. There were a lot of surprises and family drama in this information.

2. Lodowick and Nathaniel Thompson - Greenville Co., Virginia. This post is a bit skimpy, but it links Lodowick Thompson to another adult Thompson, who may be a family member. 

3. Spencer P. Lewis, son of John and Susan Lewis. I don't get a lot of credit for this "discovery." I was able to confirm my hunch that Spencer P. Lewis of Anderson County, Texas was the son of John D. Lewis. Another researcher's contributions to Family Search provided proof of Spencer's birthdate, birthplace, and parentage. This is a key piece of information in the quest to identify John D. Lewis's own origins and information about his wife or wives. 

Spencer P. Lewis, son of John and Susan Lewis

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2024

Preface: If you are researching John D. Lewis of Jackson County, Alabama and McNairy County, Tennessee, read this post through to the end. It contains references to the best documentation that we have so far as to who the mother of John D. Lewis's elder children was. 

My quest to identify and group together all of the children of John Lewis has many goals: to establish all of the locations where John Lewis lived and thereby to "discover" additional records, to uncover the mother(s) of his children, and to identify his own parents. It's been a long journey, and it's not over yet.

John D. Lewis's son Spencer P. Lewis has provided more obstacles than you would think a person with such a distinct name might produce. More than one Spencer P. Lewis can be located in the records. The problem has been establishing whether it's the same Spencer P. Lewis or multiple Spencer P. Lewises. To sort them out, I have been looking for any documented connections to other Lewis family members. I have ruled out the Lewis man who married Martha McWhorter in Knox County, Kentucky in 1811. He turned out to be Stephen Lewis and not Spencer Polk Lewis. 

Spencer P. Lewis is named in his father John Lewis's will dated 14 January 1840 and originally filed in McNairy County, Tennessee. Additional copies were filed in various courthouses. The copy in Tishomingo County, Mississippi survives. In 1844, Joel D. Lewis filed a request in Tishomingo County, Mississippi to sell land owned by John D. Lewis's estate. The heirs are named, with the notation that Spencer "D." Lewis was in Arkansas. The question is whether Spencer was actually in Arkansas or did Joel have good reason to believe that's where he was?

In sifting through what appears to be multiple Spencer P. Lewises, I finally narrowed my focus to Spencer P. Lewis of Anderson County, Texas. According to the 1870 census, he was born c. 1813 in Tennessee. That places him in the right timeframe to be John D. Lewis's son and in a state where John D. Lewis is believed to have lived prior to his residence in Alabama. 

Spencer P. Lewis of Anderson County, Texas married Malissa Jane Watkins, widow of James E. Watkins in Anderson County, Texas on 2 June 1861. Malissa Jane Osborne married James E. Watkins in Coosa County, Alabama on 10 February 1850.  Her parentage is unknown. James E. Watkins was the son of Jonathan Watkins and Agnes Daniel. The children of James E. and Malissa J. (Osborne) Watkins were Anges Watkins, Fatly Watkins, Georgie H. Watkins, and James K. Polk Watkins. 

Spencer P. and Malissa (Osborne) Lewis had three children: Emma Susan Lewis, John Breckenridge Lewis, and Forest Lewis. They can be found together on the 1870 Anderson County, Texas census. Spencer P. Lewis appeared on the Anderson County tax rolls from 1862 through 1870. He was also on the 1871 voter roll for Anderson County. Then he disappeared from Anderson County. Malissa Lewis was still in Anderson County on the 1880 census, where she was listed as a widow.

No will or probate references for Spencer P. Lewis appear in Anderson County between 1871 and 1880. However, there is a probate record for Spencer P. Lewis in Collin County, Texas, dated 1874. This Spencer P. Lewis had very little property: a horse, a saddle, a rifle, a six-shooter, and a knife make up the bulk of his possessions. However, he died indebted to several individuals in the community - his landlord, the doctor, and the coffin maker, among others. Significantly missing from this probate is any reference to Malissa and her Lewis children. Does this indicate that there is no connection? I don't think so. An 1887 land deed from Emma (Lewis) Costlow to her mother Malissa J. Lewis stated that the land was part of the estate of James E. Watkins that had been conveyed by his administrator to Spencer P. Lewis and from Spencer P. Lewis to Emma Lewis. I believe that any property of significance that Spencer had was disposed of before his death although it is a mystery why it was conveyed to Emma instead of to one of her older half-siblings who would have been children of James E. Watkins'. My suspicion is that Spencer P. Lewis and wife Malissa had separated before his death - whether it was mutual or whether he abandoned her is unknown. 

There is one significant reference to a family member in Spencer's probate packet - a sister living in Hunt County, Texas. 

 

The estate administrator B.S. King charged the estate $5 for spending "1 1/2 days going to Hunt County & Back for decs'd Sister at his request."  That sister would have been Jane (Lewis) Wardlow who was the only Lewis sister still living and who was also living in Hunt County, Texas at the time of Spencer P. Lewis's death in 1874. 

On Family Search, an additional wife has been attached to Spencer P. Lewis. She was Nancy Hickman, the widow of William Hickman. Her maiden name was Loftin. Spencer P. Lewis and Nancy Hickman married in Montgomery County, Alabama on 14 January 1837. It is plausible that Spencer P. Lewis, son of John D. Lewis had at least one other marriage before he married Malissa J. (Osborne) Watkins in Texas. 

In 1838, Spencer P. Lewis sold land in Coosa County, Alabama, and his wife Nancy Lewis signed a release of her dower rights. They were still living in Coosa County on the 1840 census. By the early 1840s, Spencer P. Lewis was administrating William Hickman's estate from Montgomery County, Alabama. On 23 June 1846, the Orphans Court of Montgomery County, Alabama replaced Spencer P. Lewis as administrator because he was no longer in the jurisdiction of the court. They probably moved to McNairy County, Tennessee, where they were residing when they sold land in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, on 1 September 1846. The Tishomingo County property needs to be researched, but it is more than likely property that had been owned by his father John D. Lewis, who died in McNairy County, Tennessee in 1842. His estate was sold there at an auction that seems to have occurred over a two-day period. It may be that Spencer P. Lewis purchased the land at that sale, or he may have received it previously as a deed of gift. This deed record indicates that at this time Spencer P. Lewis of McNairy County, Tennessee, had a wife named Nancy. My conclusion is that the Spencer P. Lewis who married Nancy (Loftin) Hickman is also John D. Lewis's son and that he had at least two wives. 

Spencer P. Lewis and Nancy Loftin had three children: Henry Carmen Lewis, Anna E. Lewis, and Florence Lincoln Lewis.

Spencer and Nancy seem to have divorced, or perhaps he abandoned her. She was still alive and living with her daughter Florence Lincoln (Lewis) Stiefer in Smith County, Texas in 1860. Generally speaking, divorce records are difficult to locate. They were filed in the area where the divorcing spouse lived. If that divorce originated in McNairy County, Tennessee, which sustained a heavy loss of records, it may not be possible to find it. There may, however, be a newspaper notice somewhere. 

Finally, a Bible record for Spencer P. Lewis has been attached to him on Family Search through the generosity of researcher Nancy Kampe. You will find this image in the "memories" for Spencer P. Lewis. The Bible belonged to Spencer and Nancy (Loftin) Lewis's daughter Florence Lincoln (Lewis) Stiefer. All of the entries are in the handwriting of the same person, who I think was Florence, so the older entries were made well after the fact and should be regarded as secondary, but that does not negate their importance. The first entry on  the page is for Spencer P. Lewis: "Spencer P. Lewis son of John & Susan Lewis born in Lincoln Co. Tenn Jany 1st 1813." Be still my heart - that's a wealth of information. This is the only documentation that indicates John Lewis had a wife named Susan that I have seen. It places them in Lincoln Co., Tennessee by 1813. This, of course, does not establish that Susan was a Daniel or that she was the mother of all the elder Lewis children. It also does not establish that Spencer's middle name was Polk. 

Then there are entries for the children of Spencer and Nancy: Henry Carmon Lewis son of S.P. and Nancy Lewi born in Weteumpee Ala May13th 1838. Then the births of Anna E. Lewis and Florence Lincoln Lewis are listed. There is not a separate entry that provides more information about wife Nancy. There are two more births of importance: Emma Lewis daughter of J. Lewis born 8 Aug 1863 and John Lewis son of Spencer and J. Lewis born 17 July 1869. These are references to the children that John Lewis had with Malissa Jane Osborne, which means that Florence was aware of her father's subsequent marriage to Malissa and the family that he had with her. There is also the possibility that she was acquainted with her younger half-siblings. 

And what of the idea that Spencer P. Lewis was living in Arkansas in 1844? Did Spencer have any connection to Arkansas at all? Possibly. In 1850, Spencer P. Lewis was granted bounty land in Crittenden County, Arkansas for services rendered during the Florida War. He was a corporal in Captain Campbell's First Regiment of Alabama Volunteers. On 10 May 1836, the Mobile Daily Commercial Register and Patriot printed a list of the killed and wounded among the Alabama Volunteers. S.P. Lewis of Capt Campbell's Company was "badly wounded" at the Battle of Clonoto Lassa [published in the Alabama Genealogical Quarterly, Spring-Summer 1981]. In 1852, Spencer P. Lewis of Memphis, Tennessee sold his bounty land in Arkansas. It is unknown if he ever lived in Crittenden County although his two brothers, Wiley and Daniel A. Lewis did. 

If you are not using Family Search because anyone can add to the shared family tree, you are missing out on a wealth of information. 

Martha McWhorter Married a Lewis, 1811

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2024

In the early 2000s, I was working from an undocumented list of Lewis siblings that I found on a Family Tree Maker site. They were supposedly the children of  John and Susan Lewis. That list included an older son named Spencer Polk Lewis, aka Polk Lewis, who was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, and who married Martha McWhorter in Knox County, Kentucky on 11 May 1811. If Spencer P. Lewis was old enough to marry in 1811, then he'd need to be at least 21 and born by 1790. I was never able to locate a Spencer P. Lewis or an S.P. Lewis of that age on the 1850 census. 

Searching for this marriage record for Spencer P. Lewis in Knox County, Kentucky failed to turn up the record. However, Martha McWhorter did get married in Knox County, Kentucky in 1811, but she did not marry Spencer P. Lewis. She married Stephen Lewis!!

While this record proves that Spencer P. Lewis did not marry Martha McWhorter, it is not disappointing because it opens the possibility that Spencer P. Lewis was perhaps a younger man with a different middle name and a different wife or wives, and that he might turn up in later records. And he did! That will be the next post. 

Rutherford Porter Cawthon Receives Mail

     ©  Kathy Duncan, 2024

In July 1850, Rutherford Porter Cawthon had a letter waiting for him at the post office in Jefferson, Texas.

This list of letters does not look like much, but it tells me a few things. First, he knew one or two people who were writing letters to him. Where was that person? Back in Tennessee where he was from? Had something happened, and they were trying to reach him? Second, sometimes his surname was spelled Cauthon. Third, the entry for Parter Cauthon tells me that he also went by his middle name - Porter. Fourth, he may have been living near Jefferson at the time of the 1850 census, which is a year in which I cannot find him on the census. 

Lodowick and Nathaniel Thompson - Greensville Co., Virginia

    ©  Kathy Duncan, 2024

I took a little brain break while chasing the Nevill and Patterson families, which was in itself a brain break from compiling James Piper's documents. Oops.

What I found indicates that documents continue to be added to the full text search feature on Family Search because the information that I found for Lodowick Thompson was not there the last time I searched, which was not that long ago.

On 24 May 1793, Lodowick was in court in Greensville County, Virginia, seeking payment from Nathaniel Thompson for three trips that Lodowick made for Nathaniel to represent him in court in his suit against Betty Atherton:

No relationship between Lodowick and Nathaniel is stated, but this seems like the sort of thing that would happen between family members. One person promises to pay a relative to perform a service for him. Then promises to pay him later - and later gets postponed and postponed until they finally end up in court. What is important here, is that Nathaniel Thompson is the first Thompson who I can link to Lodowick for any reason - after searching for decades.

A cursory look at Nathaniel Thompson reveals that he was administering the estates of his father James Thompson and his brother James Thompson Jr. at the same time. Enter Solomon Thompson, who also took Nathaniel to court for payment of services rendered. At one point Nathaniel and Solomon were joint defendants in a lawsuit. No relationship between Nathaniel and Solomon has bubbled to the surface. Sterling Thompson also factors into the Greensville County records. In adjacent records, there are members of the Rives family mentioned. These families seem to have been in the area since it was Brunswick County. Since Lodowick Thompson named two of his sons Solomon and Sterling/Starling, this all seems promising.

Lodowick Thompson married Delilah Womack in Greensville County, Virginia on 18 March 1793. His appearance in court two months later, on 24 May 1793, to collect payment from Nathaniel suggests a  young man in need of funds to support his new and growing family. 

Lodowick and Delilah Thompson had a son named Harris within the first year of their marriage. Delilah's father Thomas Womack left a legacy to Harris Thompson in his will which was written in early 1794 and which suggests that Delilah may have died in childbirth. 

A widower with a tiny infant would have been highly motivated to remarry. With so many members of the Rives family in the area it is possible that Priscilla Rives was a near neighbor. Priscilla is a name that is repeated frequently in the Rives family. It's also possible that there was another wife between Delilah and Priscilla. 

I'll be brainbreaking with the Thompsons off and on for a while.