John Bowen Owned Thomas Barber's Land

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

Often newspapers come through when county records have burned.

In searching for more information on Thomas Barber's second wife Elizabeth, who as a widow married John Bowen, I came across this newspaper notice of a sale of property from John Bowen's estate by Richard Bowen. Richard's relationship to John Bowen is unknown to me at this point, but I would guess that he is one of John Bowen's sons.

What is of most interest to me is the first notice that details the sale of Lot NO. 164, 17th District of originally Lee, now Sumter county; belonging to the Estate of John Bowen."

Lot no. 164, 17th District of Lee County, Georgia was the very lot that Thomas Barber drew in the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery. This confirms my hunch that it was the area of Lee County that later became Sumter County, Georgia.

More importantly, I now have a clue to locating more records concerning this land. There are only a couple of ways that this property went from Thomas Barber to John Bowen and that would have been through a sale. Either John Bowen purchased it directly from Thomas Barber or at his estate sale. I don't think John Bowen would have owned it as a result of his marriage to Elizabeth Barber because each of Thomas Barber's children would have had a share in it at his death. That would have involved a total of eight shares if you count Elizabeth's share as the widow. 

This also tells me that John Bowen was a near neighbor of the Barber's in Lee County. 

What I can hope for now is that some reference to this land deed was recorded in Sumter County at a later date.