Today, let’s review all the evidence found so far pertaining to Thomas and Elizabeth (Woodson) Williams and their children. There is definitely some new information about the family that can be documented!
After the hours I’ve spent piecing together and sharing the family of Anderson Woodson, it will be easy to understand all the players in the Thomas Williams probate.
First, let’s back up to Thomas’s life before he died. Checking my favorite resource – Personal Property Tax Lists – Thomas is found in Bedford County, Virginia for a number of years.
I’ve estimated his birth year as c1777 and he first appears in the tax lists in 1798, which would make him 21 years old. Thomas never has much property. He began with 2 white tithables and two horses, but in most years, including 1817 through 1820, there is one male tithable and 1 horse.
Thomas is gone from the tax lists in 1821, which narrows his date of death to between 24 March 1820 and early 1821.
He married Elizabeth Woodson on 15 December 1805 in Campbell County, Virginia so it’s likely their first child was born in late 1806 or early 1807.
Interestingly, Thomas’s estate doesn’t appear in the tax list nor does widowed Elizabeth ever appear on the lists. What happened to Elizabeth and her children?
An 1823 lawsuit, with reference to a July 1822 bond, filed by Roger Williams against John E. Woodson, administrator of Thomas Williams, deceased, shed some light on the family.
Thomas Williams departed this life leaving four small children [and one born a few months after his death] possessed of very little property. The friends of Thomas Williams and the friends of his widow, who is a sister of this defendant, determined to take charge of his (?) children. This defendant took charge of one of them, his father took charge of two of them and the complainant took charge of one of them —It was well known to all the parties at the time of this arrangement that the estate of Thomas Williams was not sufficient to cloath and educate the children – and it was therefore agreed by the father of the defendant.
From this lawsuit, we learn that Thomas Williams was not well off financially and that his four children were split up with one to Roger Williams’s care, two to Anderson Woodson’s care and one to John E. Woodson’s care. Elizabeth was pregnant when Thomas died and my guess would be that she returned home to live with her father or brother. With her eldest son being, say, 15 years old, I would theorize that he is the one who lived with grandfather Roger Williams, the two youngest sons with grandfather Anderson Woodson and the second born son with uncle John E. Woodson. My reasoning is simply the amount of care each child would need and the fact that Elizabeth was soon to give birth to another child.
If I am correct in my theory that Woodson Williams removed to Green County, Kentucky, then he was probably the oldest son and perhaps being separated from his mother and siblings didn’t have a particularly close relationship with them after his father died. However, this is a theory ONLY and one which I think I will be discarding. I’d love to claim a Williams son in 1850 or later, but I don’t think this Woodson is one of them.
Evidence points to Elizabeth and at least four of her children living with her brother, John, after the death of her father, Anderson, in 1826.
Thomas’s estate administration shows a document dated 22 November 1831 in which William W. Williams had a bond value of $10.00 and Samuel B. Williams had one valued at $9.69 so William and Samuel were living in November 1831.
By this time, Roger Williams was getting up in years and he wrote his will on 6 July 1835. It was proved about six weeks later on 24 August 1835.
In it, Roger named many of his family members, including son Thomas, deceased, and left Thomas’s portion of his estate to his five sons, all of whom he named – William W., Thomas, John, Samuel B. and Woodson – but whether or not in birth order is unknown. It’s interesting that his grandson Thomas died almost five years before his grandfather. Either Roger Williams was senile when he died or Elizabeth and her children didn’t keep Roger up-to-date on the family’s well being.
Because of the information in the tax lists and census data, I’ve come to the conclusion that Roger Williams probably ALMOST named his grandsons in birth order.
What new facts have been uncovered about the five sons?
Roger Williams’s 1835 will helped a bit by giving middle initials to William and Samuel and we know Thomas had already died. I had wondered if Roger switched the birth order for William W. and Woodson or named the fours boys who didn’t live with him and then named Woodson last who perhaps did live with him.
I’ve revised my thinking here, too, and now believe the five boys were almost named in birth order. That’s because (1) the 1830 census for John E. Woodson includes a female who matches Elizabeth’s age AND there are 3 males 20-29 and 1 male 15-19. That would account for four of Elizabeth’s sons. The youngest male is too old to be Woodson, who has never been found in any record other than his grandfather’s will. It appears that Woodson died before the 1830 census.
Further, based on the female under 5 and the midwife’s bill mentioned in Thomas’s estate, I have to wonder if his unknown wife died giving birth and the young female is his daughter.
HOWEVER, and this is my thinking for changing John and Samuel’s birth order, Thomas was married and both William and Samuel have bonds mentioned in his estate administration. If Samuel was a teenager in 1830, then John had to be the third son born between 1806-1810. Why was he mentioned with a bond, but a teen sibling was?
The birth order of the children isn’t for certain, but based on Thomas’s estate papers, I think, for now, that Samuel was older than John and, with no child about 10 years old at home in 1830, I believe Woodson died young.
Roger was in his 80’s when he wrote his will and I’ve found no evidence that he had much contact with these grandchildren, aside from caring for one of them at least until 1823. He easily could have inverted the birth order of two of the middle children.
Children of Thomas and Elizabeth (Woodson) Williams:
- William W., born c1806, probably Bedford County, Virginia; died after 1831, when he is mentioned in his brother’s estate administration
- Thomas, born c1808, probably Bedford County, Virginia; died after the 1830 census (7 August) but before 14 September 1830, Campbell County, Virginia based on a court entry re: the estate of Thomas Williams. Thomas appears in the 1830 Campbell County personal property tax list taken in the spring. Two entries indicate that Thomas Williams was a young married man. First, his estate paid $2.00 cash to Nancy Glass for midwife services and $12.70 was paid to George W. Jones, “guardian the decedents bond.” Who he married and what became of his wife and child is unknown.
- Samuel B., born c1812, probably Bedford County, Virginia; died after 1833, when he is last found on the Campbell County personal property tax rolls.
- John, born c1810, probably Bedford County, Virginia; presumably died after 1835 when he is named in his grandfather’s will; no further record.
- Woodson, born c1820, probably Bedford County, Virginia; perhaps died young because there is no child in his age range at home in 1830. His maternal grandfather died in 1826 and his paternal grandfather has no small children at home. No further record.
In addition to the death of Thomas Williams, c1820 and Thomas Jr.’s death in late 1830 or early 1831, a second shift in the family’s life happened after 1833 when all traces of this blended family – John E. Woodson and Elizabeth (Woodson) Williams and children – disappear completely from Campbell County, Virginia.
Anderson Woodson and his many children didn’t have long life spans. It is possible that both John and his sister, Elizabeth Williams died by the time of the 1840 census. Thomas Williams Jr. was dead by early 1831 and there is no child in the home in 1830 who is about 10 years old, so Woodson seems also to have died.
There are no probate entries for John or Samuel B. or William W. Williams to be found in Campbell County, Virginia. I believe they moved out of the area and perhaps left Virginia for a new start. At this point, their names are so common and I have no exact years of birth or marriage records for any of them, that it isn’t possible to jump ahead even to 1840, never mind 1850.
I’ve made some progress, but, by all accounts, this family didn’t have an easy life.
If you are descended from a John, Samuel B. or William W. Williams who has ties to Virginia and especially to Campbell County, Virginia, please leave a comment.