From Revolution to the Mayflower: My Surprising Family Tree Journey

Every family tree has its surprises. Mine began with a Revolutionary War patriot.

While researching my fifth great-grandfather, Ezra Leonard, I discovered enough documentation to consider applying to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). As I worked backward through the Leonard family, I turned my attention to Ezra's mother, Anna Leonard, my fourth great-grandmother.

One question immediately caught my attention: Anna Leonard had married Levi Leonard. Were they cousins? After tracing both families, I discovered they were not related at all.  That mystery seemed solved, and I moved on to other branches of my family tree.

Nearly fifteen years later, however, I came across an old note suggesting that Anna Leonard might descend from a Mayflower passenger. The claim sounded almost too good to be true. Like many family stories, I assumed it would eventually fall apart under careful research.

Instead, every generation led to another well-documented connection. To my astonishment, Anna's ancestry reached all the way back to James Chilton, one of the passengers aboard the Mayflower in 1620.

Name	Birth Year	Death Year
James Chilton	1556	1620
Isabella Chilton	1587	1665
Sarah Chandler	1622	1675
John Leonard	1645	1699
Moses Leonard	1680	1775
Andrew Leonard	1719	1807
Anna Leonard	1778	1864
Levi Allen Leonard	1798	1860
Milo Washington Leonard	1842	1907
Davis Samuel "Dade" Leonard	1873	1944
Trentie Alice Leonard	1900	1985
Paul Jones Sutton	1925	2010
Paula R. Sutton

 

Discovering a Revolutionary War patriot in my family was exciting. Discovering that another branch reached back to one of the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic more than 150 years earlier was something I never expected.

James Chilton: From England to the New World

James Chilton was born about 1556 and spent much of his life in Canterbury, England, where he worked as a tailor. Around 1600 he moved his family to Sandwich, Kent. Religious conflict soon changed the course of his family's history.

His wife was excommunicated from the Church of England after participating in the private burial of Andrew Sharpe's child, an act that reflected the growing tension between religious dissenters and church authorities.

Seeking the freedom to worship according to their own beliefs, James and his family joined the English Separatists and moved to Leiden, Holland. Although Dutch society offered greater religious tolerance, life there was not easy. Employment opportunities were limited for immigrants, and many English families worried that their children would gradually lose their language and identity.

The Leiden records preserve one remarkable glimpse into James's life. On the evening of April 28, 1619, sixty-three-year-old James and his daughter, Ingle, were attacked by a group of about twenty boys who mistakenly believed they belonged to the Remonstrant movement. Stones were thrown, and James was struck so hard that he fell to the ground. Within a year, James would make the most important journey of his life.

A Voyage That Changed History

In 1620, the Separatists decided to leave Holland and establish a colony in the New World.

Two ships were intended to make the crossing: the Speedwell and the Mayflower. Repeated leaks forced the Speedwell to turn back, and its passengers crowded aboard the already full Mayflower before departing England in September 1620. Of the 102 passengers, James Chilton was the oldest at sixty-four years of age.

The Mayflower was never designed to carry families across an ocean. Originally built as a cargo ship for transporting wine and lumber, it measured only about 100 feet long. More than 100 passengers, along with 30 to 40 crew members, spent sixty-six days packed into a dark, cramped deck with less than five feet of headroom.

It was a miserable voyage.

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, painting by William Halsall

 

Food consisted mainly of hardtack (crackers), dried meat, and beer. Powerful Atlantic storms battered the ship, cracking one of its main support beams. Only a large iron screw carried aboard for construction work allowed the crew to brace the damaged timber and continue the voyage.

When worsening weather made reaching their intended destination near present-day New York impossible, the colonists instead anchored at Cape Cod. Because they had landed outside the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, the adult men drafted what became known as the Mayflower Compact, agreeing to govern themselves under laws they would create together while remaining loyal to the English king.

 

By Jean Leon Gerome Ferris - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs 

A Heavy Price

The passengers arrived in November 1620 exhausted, hungry, and unprepared for a New England winter.  James Chilton never saw the colony flourish.  He died shortly after arriving while the ship remained anchored in Provincetown Harbor. His wife followed soon afterward, leaving their thirteen-year-old daughter, Mary, an orphan. Before the first winter ended, nearly half of the Mayflower passengers had perished. Yet the family line continued.

James's daughter Isabella Chilton, my ninth great-grandmother, had remained behind in Leiden after marrying Roger Chandler in 1615. They did not immigrate to Plymouth until 1632, where Roger became a freeman the following year.

Their daughter Sarah Chandler, my eighth great-grandmother, married Solomon Leonard, linking the Mayflower line to the Leonard family that would eventually produce my Revolutionary War patriot.

John Leonard became a respected citizen of Bridgewater, serving in several town offices. An interesting twist in the records led to years of confusion among genealogists. Because land inherited from the Chandler family passed through John, one published genealogy mistakenly identified his wife as Sarah Chandler—impossible, since she was old enough to have been his mother. Careful examination of the records shows that John's wife was another Sarah whose maiden name remains unknown.

 

Moses Leonard served as an ensign in the colonial militia, operated an inn, and became a respected gentleman in Worcester County. His life spanned the years leading up to the American Revolution, although he died in December 1775 before learning the outcome of the conflict that had just begun.

 

Andrew Leonard began life as a husbandman, eventually becoming a yeoman. His family worshipped at the Oakham Congregational Church, where the minister's son later remembered their humble home: "built by the side of a ledge of rocks; short logs were used for seats." It is one of the few surviving descriptions that allows us to picture how my ancestors actually lived.

With Anna Leonard, two completely unrelated Leonard families became one. One line traced back to English settlers who would fight for American independence during the Revolution. The other reached back another century and a half to James Chilton, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower seeking the freedom to worship according to his conscience.

I began this research hoping to document a Revolutionary War patriot. Instead, I found a story stretching from colonial Massachusetts to the Pilgrims of Plymouth—a reminder that family history often rewards those willing to follow unexpected clues.

As Plymouth Governor William Bradford later wrote of the Pilgrims:

"Their desires were set on the ways of God, and to enjoy His ordinances."

The Search for a Patriot

Every family historian has one ancestor who refuses to be found. For me, that ancestor was Levi Allen Leonard. Connecting him to his parents took years of searching through faded records, scattered deeds, and family traditions. What I didn't expect was that the trail would eventually lead to a Revolutionary War patriot named Ezra Leonard.

 

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, my sister challenged me to revisit the Leonard line. After my unsuccessful DAR application through our McDonough ancestors, she wondered if the answer had been sitting in our family tree all along. The Leonards, as I like to joke, have been in America "since dirt." Maybe this was the line that could finally connect us to a Revolutionary War patriot.

 

The challenge of connecting Levi Allen Leonard to his parents stems largely from a single decision he made as a young man—to leave Massachusetts and begin a new life in the South. The paper trail grows remarkably thin after his departure. Only one known birth record identifies a child named Levi Allen Leonard, born on September 28, 1798, in Oakham, Worcester County, Massachusetts, to Levi Leonard and Anna Leonard (despite sharing a surname, there is no evidence that the couple was closely related). Additional support comes from Memorial: Genealogical, Historical, and Biographical, of Solomon Leonard, 1637, of Duxbury and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and Some of His Descendants, written by Manning Leonard and published posthumously in 1896. In listing the children of Levi and Anna, the author notes simply that "Levi Allen, b. Sept. 28, 1798, went to Alabama in 1819." That brief statement may be the most important clue linking the young man born in Oakham to the pioneer who later appeared in Alabama records. Some researchers have suggested that Levi worked as a surveyor, but by 1824 he had already risen to the rank of captain in Alabama's 3rd Division, 14th Brigade, 21st Regiment. The following year, on June 15, 1825, he married Mary Ann Horne in Bibb County, Alabama. Together they raised seven children, and all evidence suggests that Levi never returned to his Massachusetts birthplace.

 

To better understand Levi Allen Leonard's origins, I turned my attention to his father, Levi Leonard, who was born on July 27, 1776, in Massachusetts. Family accounts seemed straightforward enough. His grandson, Ezra A. Leonard, the son of Rev. Silas Leonard, described him as a surveyor and teacher. Yet the records told a more complicated story. The 1850 census listed Levi's occupation as a "turner," with his industry recorded as "miscellaneous wood products." An 1840 Berkshire County deed added another layer to the puzzle, documenting the sale of "...a certain Turning Factory laying in said Adams below Richmond and Holly Cotton Factory..." to his sons, Ezra and Alvin. The deed was witnessed by another son, Milo H. Leonard. These discoveries made me question whether I was following the correct Levi Leonard. To resolve my doubts, I returned to the records of Worcester County, where most of his children had been born. There I found earlier evidence supporting the family tradition that he had indeed worked as a surveyor. One particularly exciting find was a map titled Plan of Florida, Massachusetts, created by Levi Leonard in 1830 and preserved in the Digital Commonwealth Massachusetts Collection. The map provides tangible proof of his surveying work and, perhaps most remarkably, may preserve an example of Levi's own handwriting. The town of Florida, which he surveyed, is located in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

 

The Town of Florida lies on the Hoosac Mountain and is from 1000 to 1300 feet high Scant Room for a road between the river and Mountain except 2 or 3 places for small farms and estimated to be three quarters woodland the Town is plotted on a Scale of one Hundred Rods to an inch by 

Levi Leonard Surveyed in Nov 1830

Zadock King Agent for Said Town

Levi's father, Ezra Leonard, was born on July 7, 1750, in Raynham, Bristol County, Massachusetts, to Josiah Leonard and Hannah Campbell. Located about 32 miles south of Boston, Raynham was one of many New England communities whose residents would soon find themselves caught up in the struggle for American independence. Ezra was more than just another name in a genealogy chart. He was a yeoman farmer, an independent landowner, a husband, a father, and a member of the local militia. In colonial New England, yeomen formed the backbone of many communities, enjoying a respected social standing and the right to participate in local government and civic affairs. After a long life, Ezra died intestate in Oakham, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on October 3, 1830.

One year later, a seemingly routine land deed provided a major breakthrough in my research. At first glance, it appeared to be little more than an ordinary property transaction settling Ezra's estate. As I carefully read through the document, however, I realized it contained something far more valuable—a list of his heirs. There among the names was Levi Leonard, my fourth great-grandfather. With a single document, the connection between generations became much clearer, providing crucial evidence that helped link my Alabama Leonard family back to their Massachusetts roots.

Leonard, Ezra et al

to

James C. Fairbank

 

Know all men by these presents that we Ezra Leonard of Gloucester in the County of Essex Clerk and Daniel Cutler in right of my wife, and Olive Cutler wife of said Daniel in my own right both of Grafton in the Worcester, and Elizabeth Leonard of Oakham in said County of Worcester widow and Elizabeth Leonard 2^d of said Oakham spinster, and Levi Leonard of Savoy in the County of Berkshire Yeoman in consideration of two hundred and fifty dollars paid us by James C. Fairbank of Oakham aforesaid yeoman the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge do hereby grant all and quit claim unto the said James C. Fairbank his heirs and assigns, all our right, title claim and demand, in and unto all the real estate whereof Ezra Leonard late of Oakham deceased, died seized of situate in Oakham aforesaid consisting of three adjacent lots, bounded as follows to wit one lot of eighty two rods with a dwelling house thereon, bounded southerly by the Rutland & Brookfield County road easterly by a town road, northerly and westerly by land of James C. Fairbank - Also one other lot of land containing sixteen acres and one hundred and seventeen rods with a barn standing thereon, bounded easterly by said town road, southerly by land of Fabian Tomlinson, westerly by land of Eli Burt,northerly by land of said Burt in part and partly by land of Parley Packard and partly by said County road - Also one other piece of land containing ten acres and thirty three rods bounded northerly by land of William Waer, easterly by land of Daniel Rawson southerly and westerly by said town road - To have and to hold the same to the said James C Fairbank his heirs and assigns, to his and their use and behoof forever. And we do covenant to warrant and defend said granted and quitclaimed premises, to the said James C. Fairbank his heirs and assigns forever against the lawful claims and demands of all persons claiming by or under us. In witness whereof we the said Ezra Leonard have hereunto set our hands and seals this ninth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and set our hands and seals this ninth day of July in the year of our and thirty one 

Signed sealed and delivered in presence of us           }                 Ezra Leonard

James Allen, William Ware                                                           Daniel Cutler

William Ingraham, Eliza Ingraham,                                             Olive Cutler

Berkshire SS October 17, 1831.  Then the above       }                Elizabeth Leonard

named Levi Leonard acknowledged the                                       Elizabeth Leonard 2^d

above instrument to be his free act and deed.            }                Levi Leonard

 

Before me William Ingraham, Just of Peace

Worcester ss . October 11^th, 1831, Personally appeared Ezra Leonard, Daniel Cutler,Olive Cutler, Elizabeth Leonard and Elizabeth Leonard 2^d and and acknowledged the foregoing instrument by them subscribed to be their free act and deed. 

Before me          James Allen Jus. Peace. 

Recd Aug . 21 1832 at 6^h30^m PM Ent^d & Es^d By Art^s Ward, Reg^r

 

One of the most exciting discoveries was Elizabeth's Revolutionary War widow's pension application dated July 8, 1837.  We learn that she married Ezra on April 24, 1775, and that he often employed a substitute for his duties while serving in Captain John King’s company from Raynham.  The narrative allows us to hear her voice nearly sixty years after the Revolution. At eighty-three years old, she recalled hearing cannon fire while her husband answered alarms along the Rhode Island coast. It is a rare and vivid glimpse into the anxieties faced by families during the war.

 

Caleb Packard appeared before the court on her behalf and mentioned that Elizabeth was living in his home and brought an “ancient family bible” with her.  He provided a copy of a page written in her handwriting of the following:

 

"Ezra Leonard married with Elizabeth Campbell. April 2, 1773. He aged 23 & she 19. 

Ezra Leonard Junr. was born Sept. 17, 1774 

Levi Leonard was born July 27, 1776 

Katherine Leonard was born March 20, 1778 

Elizabeth Leonard born November 7, 1780 

Olive Leonard born May 3, 1784 

Katherine Leonard died October 4th, 1828, being in 50 years old. 

Ezra Leonard her father died October the 3, 1830"

 

Seth Dean, an 80 year old from Raynham in Bristol county sent a statement, “…that I was acquainted with Ezra Leonard of Raynham before the Revolutionary War.  That in the Spring of 1775, I enlisted and served as a soldier in Capt. John King’s company in Col. Walkers Regiment eight months at Roxbury in the vicinity of Boston and Ezra Leonard of Raynham served as a soldier in the same company with me all of that time being eight months.  He was married to Elizabeth Campbell of Middleborough before the service aforesaid and they continued to reside at Raynham until the close of the Revolutionary War and then moved to Oakham in this state as I have been informed.  I have lately heard of his death and that his widow is now in full life and resides in Oakham aforesaid.”

 

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, I find myself thinking about Ezra and Elizabeth Leonard. Their lives bridged the birth of a nation and the opening of the American frontier. Levi carried the family south to Alabama, where future generations—including my own—would take root. What began as a search for a DAR connection became something more meaningful: the rediscovery of a family's journey through American history.  I close this story with John Hancock’s quote:

 

“Resistance to tyranny become the Christian and social duty of each individual.”

 

Note: I would like to thank my distant cousin Ola Humphries (a 4^th cousin who descends from Levi and Mary’s son, Jessie Milton Leonard).  I discovered her family tree on Ancestry.com in 2011 and it helped piece together The Leonard ancestry.

 

The Pension Mess of Margaret McDaniel aka McDonough

 It all started in 2019, when I published a story titled “John McDonald/McDaniel Revolutionary War Soldier”.  I had hopes of becoming a DAR member and honoring my paternal line through this ancestor.  The application did not fly, and DAR has coded my Patriot red so future applicants will know there is a problem.  I was irritated but was given a year to find proof of his service. It just wasn’t meant to be, and I want to show my readers why I let this mess be until recently.  I want to thank researcher/genealogist, Rebecca Whitman Koford, for sharing her expertise on the problems with these old pension files, the importance of reading every page, and understanding the assigned file number. 

 I remember using Google to see what I could find on this ancestor after things went awry.  The first was a transcription by Will Graves of Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters who made the following observation after he transcribed “Pension application of John McDaniel (McDonald) R6681”.  This was his note, [Facts in file: John McDaniel (alias John McDonald) married Margaret Watkins in 1778 in Botetourt County, Virginia; in another document the date of their marriage is given as November 1, 1786; John McDaniel is said to have died April 27, 1833 [but that cannot be right if the date of his declaration is correct and it appears to be correct]; Margaret died August 7, 1849; in 1857, their children are said to be Mary Louderback, 70; John, dec'd, 68; Daniel, dec'd, 66; Avery, dec'd, 64; Thomas, dec'd, 62; Edward, dec'd, 60; Margaret Wolf, 58; Elizabeth Coffee, 56; Catharine Taylor, dec'd, 54; Nancy, dec'd, 52; and James McDaniel, 50.”

Table 1 File No. R.6681

Patriot  Name	File No.	State Served	Application County	Patriot’s Date of Death	Date of Application	Agent/ Lawyer Name
McDaniel, John or McDonald, Margaret	R6681	North Carolina	Rhea, Co &   Hancock Co., Tennessee (reopened by James McDaniel son/admin. of Margaret’s estate)	27 Apr 1833* (John) 7 Aug 1849 (Margaret)	3 Apr 1835   6 Jul 1857	Robert Cooley JP   Nicholas Baldwin, Shff. Thomas Lumpkin, Esq.

*More to read on this death date for this file number.

 

Now Margaret’s testimony is not included in File R.6681. Her application is found under R.6690 that I discovered later. Let’s begin with her words revealed on March 17^th, 1834, when the widow Margaret McDonough appeared before Lewis Mitchell, Acting Justice for Hawkins County, Tennessee in hopes of getting money owed to her husband John for his Revolutionary War service.  Are these the same patriot? Let’s see:

Table 2 File No. R.6690

Patriot  Name	File No.	State  Served	Application County	Patriot’s Date of Death	Date of Application	Agent/ Lawyer Name
McDonough or McDaniel or McDonald, John	R6690	Virginia	Hawkins Co., Tennessee Filed by the widow Margaret McDonough	14 Apr 1833	1834 Mar 17	Lewis Mitchell John Mitchell

 

Danger, danger Will Robinson! Besides the different file numbers, state of service, county of application, and date of application, did you notice that I didn’t enter John of Rhea County’s death date?  Hmmm…that can’t be right unless he was resurrected in Rhea County after dying in Hawkins County in 1833.

Then came the talk of two families from other researchers on Ancestry.com which I highly doubt given the vigor it would have taken John McDaniel to travel between Hawkins County and Rhea County, Tennessee in the early 1800s.  He was getting a bit long in the tooth (he was about 90 in 1830 according to the Hawkins County census) to make that trip which was dangerous at the time.  Think about it…driving from Rogersville (Hawkins) to Washington (Rhea), Tennessee in this day and time would be about 2 ½ hours. The common mode of travel in the 1830s would be stagecoach (aside from river travel or horseback) and that stagecoach ride would have taken almost three days.

 

Finally, a few other statements made in File R.6690 from the widow Margaret, "I was married to my husband John McDonough the spring after peace was made 1783 in Frederick County in the State of Virginia in which county he was living when he first went in to the service of the United States”.  Margaret also explains why she does not understand the spelling of the name that may appear on the military records, “I am unlearned and so was my husband that I cannot tell how his name was spelt”.   Look at the signature above.  That is John McDaniel’s signature of Rhea County who was literate. Aside from applying for a Revolutionary War pension in April 1835, he also wrote his will on June 13^th, 1835, that was probated in Meigs Co., TN on September 8^th, 1840.  This is an abstract of the Will:

 

McDaniel, John
Will Written: 13 June 1835; Probate: 8 September 1840; page 34
Children: Patsey, Samuel
Relatives: Thomas F. Taylor, grandson
Elizabeth B. Taylor, grand daughter
Sally E. Cox, grand daughter
Racheal B. Box, grand daughter
Elizabeth A. Cox, grand daughter
John Cox, grandson
Nelly McDaniel, grand daughter
Mentions: Old plantation below the mouth of Goodfield Creek where John Hampton now lives
Place where Taylor Inman now lives, for the use of his grandchildren
Place where Zackariah Cross now lives above the Goodfield Creek to grandchildren
Executors: Joseph McCorkle; Samuel McDaniel
Witnesses: Joseph McCorkle; James H. Briges 

 Interesting that there is no mention of a wife named Margaret, a son named James nor any aforementioned names in paragraph #2.

 

These are my thoughts; Margaret’s son James was handling her estate and had the pension case reopened at some point but probably around 1857.  This involved a new group of people as John Mitchell, who helped his mother, had passed away. Nicholas Baldwin was the high sheriff for Hancock County, Tennessee who was assisting James.  Had James McDaniel moved from Hawkins to Hancock County?  Probably not as Hancock County was created in 1844 when it was created from parts of Hawkins and Claiborne Counties. James was also represented by a lawyer named Thomas Lumpkin.  Who is Thomas Lumpkin?

 

A biography was found on mosiacnc.org:

 

“Thomas Lumpkin was born in Virginia in about 1808. A former clerk in the U.S. Pension Office for seven years, in 1849 he opened his own private legal firm and served as an attorney for many people that were pursuing pensions and other legal claims against the U.S. Government. He died in about July 1863.”  I also found the following ad that was published in many newspapers:

Source: Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express, Tue., Jan 15, 1850, p. 4, Newspapers.com.

Thomas Lumpkin also circulated letters to various sheriffs in 1855 offering his services to help secure bounty land for “…the soldier, his widow, child or children….”  The fee breakdown: $5 for 40 acres, $7 for 80 acres, $10 for 160 acres and recommends the Sheriff “…charge whatever fee you deem proper….”  (Source: Library of Congress, Lumpkin, Thomas. Washington City, D. C. January 12th, . To the Sheriff of the County of Sir: Allow me to call your and the public attention to my circular herewith enclosed. The proposition now before Congress to give one hundred and sixty acres of land to e. Washington, 1855.). Hmmm…

 

So, Margaret clearly stated that she married John in Spring 1783 in Frederick County, Virginia but when File R.6681 was reopened the marriage certificate submitted took place in Botetourt County, Virginia in 1778. Reading through Margaret’s court appearance in Hawkins County on March 17^th, 1834, she stated that she was 67 years old making her birth year about 1767. That would make her 11 years old in 1778!   Now I wonder if her maiden name was really Watkins?  The statements she made in R.6690 never revealed her maiden name.

 

Now my mind is reeling! Had the previous application of Margaret been lost and then reopened under the wrong man? Was the woman who appeared in Hawkins the mother of James in Hancock County? I believe it is since James McDaniel was enumerated next to Peter Wolf (his sister Margaret’s husband) in 1840 and he also has an elderly woman between the age of 70-80 in his household. 

The result was James McDaniel's efforts made it all the way to the House of Representatives on April 13, 1860 and then I couldn't find anything else so I contacted History Hub (historyhub.history.gov) and received a response, "...on Feb. 17, 1860 a petition was submitted and referred to the House Committee on Revolutionary Pensions; on April 13, 1860 H.R. 642 was reported out of committee to the Whole House accompanied by a report; and on March 2, 1861 the papers of the children of John McDaniel, among others, were withdrawn from the files of the House for reference to the Commissioner of Pensions. 

 

Given that the papers were referred to the Commissioner of Pensions, I would not expect to find record of the McDaniel family among the records of Congress. According to the Federal Records Guide, the records of the Commissioner of Pensions are part of RG 15 -- Records of the Veterans Administration. 

If you'd like to find the report accompanying H.R. 642 mentioned in the Journal (it's numbered H.Rpt. 36-424), I recommend finding access to ProQuest Congressional, a subscription database with the full text of the U.S. Serial Set -- which has the published reports and documents of congressional committees. ProQuest is usually available through local academic and law libraries. It's also available through computers at National Archives research locations.

 

The Center for Legislative Archive, a unit within the National Archives, holds the official records of congressional committees and the records of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives as a whole. I did a quick check in the petitions referred to the House Committee on Revolutionary Pensions in the 36th Congress, as they're arranged alphabetically by claimant, but unsurprisingly (per reference above) I did not see anything.

 

If you have further questions, you are welcome to email the Center for Legislative Archives directly at legislative.archives@nara.gov...."

Did someone intentionally try to deceive the pension office?  I doubt that we will ever find the answer to this, but I like the following quote as I think of how many times explanations were provided regarding John’s name:

 

The Hon. Nyrum Reynolds, of Wyoming county, one of the American barristers of a former generation, was one day accused in court of bad penmanship and worse spelling. "Gent'l'men of the jury," said he "the learned counsel on the other side finds fault with my writin' and spellin', as though the merits of the case depended upon such matters! I'm agin luggin' in any sich outside affairs, but I will say that a man must be a great fool who can't spell a word more than one way."

 

Source: 1855 December 8, The Latter-Day Saints Millennial Star, Vol.17, No. 49, Page 784, F. D. Richards, Islington.

 

Bailey Sutton's Connection

Many years ago, the journey into my Sutton ancestry research began. I learned of the connection between my third great-grandfather, Thomas Sutton, and a man living in the same area (Claiborne County, Tennessee) named Bailey Sutton. It was assumed these men were brothers who descended from John Sutton and Nancy Coleman (I've also seen Mary Coleman), but the documentation was lacking. In 2008, I learned that Family Tree DNA offered Y-DNA testing and after much grumpiness, my father swabbed his cheek and mailed off the kit. I was so excited as I had visions of matches to many Suttons with documented family trees but when the results came in, I was shocked. Not one match to another Sutton and a mention by another researcher in the Sutton Group Surname Project that perhaps there had been a NPE (non-paternity event) in my dad’s line. Groan! My quest for the elusive Suttons continued. One thing I did learn was the Sutton Project did not have a large number of Sutton males who had tested. Note to self and others – don’t assume that all men with the same last name descend from the same ancestor and share the same haplogroup, etc.. 

A few years later, while reading Roberta Estes’ DNAeXplained blog, I learned that a man named Smith Sutton lived in Lee County, Virginia in 1806 and was a member of the Thompson Settlement Church.  Thomas had also been a member of that church.  Lee County shares a border with Claiborne County, Tennessee and that find was worth further investigation. I began scouring the internet for more information on Smith and stumbled on some old messages about him posted by Greg Clark. We exchanged information and he provided me with some old Lee County, Virginia court documents. We recruited one of his male Sutton cousins for Y-DNA testing. Greg and his cousin descend from Zacheus Sutton who has been proven to be the son of Smith Sutton through Lee County, Virginia court documents dated February 28, 1815, "...John Mark one of the constables of this county having made return that he had executed the said attachment in the hands of James Gilbert and summoned him as a garnishee this day came as well one the plaintiff by their attorney as the said garnishee in his proper person to ho being sworn declared that he was indebted to the said Smith Sutton some time past in the sum of one hundred dollars and that at the request of the said Smith Sutton he executed his note for the said sum of one hundred dollars to Zachariah Sutton, son of the said Smith Sutton payable in good trade on the first day of January next...."   Zacheus and his wife, Susannah Applegate, left Lee County, Virginia in 1820 and settled in Scott County, Indiana. The DNA results arrived, and his cousin was a close match to my dad. Progress! Greg and I began to look for a male Sutton descendant of Bailey to participate in the Y-DNA testing to prove that Thomas, Zacheus, and Bailey were most likely brothers and the sons of Smith Sutton and Mary unknown. Finally, that day arrived (after several years of waiting) when his fourth great-grandson, through John Sutton and Sarah Pridemore, agreed to test. The results are in, and he is closely related to my dad and Greg’s cousin at 37 markers. 

Now I want to share with our new match what is known about Bailey’s connection to Smith and Thomas through the paper trail. The first record that connects Bailey to another Sutton is found in Lee County, Virginia’s 1813 Personal Property Tax List. The older man is Smith Sutton who is first recorded in Caswell County, North Carolina. We estimate that he was born about 1767 so he is old enough to be his father or uncle.

On March 30, 1815, in Lee County, Virginia a lawsuit was on the docket naming Joab Matlock, Smith Sutton, and Bailey Sutton as defendants and the plaintiff was Dennis Burnes.  The lawsuit appears to have been dismissed since Mr. Burnes was not a resident of the state.  

Bailey purchased 50 acres of land in Claiborne County, Tennessee on March 26, 1827.  This was very interesting to me since the assignee was Drury Lawson (Thomas’s father-in-law) and the chain carriers were Diadamma Sutton and James Dooley.  This discovery was a few months ago as I perused the Claiborne County, Tennessee land deeds on Familysearch.org.  It not only shows a connection to Thomas, but also introduces another Sutton, Diadamma!  Who is she?  Could she be a first wife as it is known from later records that Bailey’s wife was Sarah (she is believed to be Sarah Worley or Sarah Petitt).  Perhaps Diadamma is a sister?  Sworn chain carriers had to be of legal age (males had to be 21 years of age) so I assume she was at least 21 years old.  Also, who is James Dooley?  Further investigation or documents revealed he lived in Claiborne County for several years. His first land entry was recorded in 1815.  James Dooley continued to live near Thomas and Bailey until the 1850 census where he was enumerated as an 88 years old White male born in Virginia.  It is assumed he died before 1860 since he is not found on that census.  That is all to be discovered on the chain carriers.

Back to Bailey.  He is enumerated in Lee County, Virginia in the 1830 and 1840 census records and on the personal property tax there in 1831-1834, 1836, and 1837.  He was appointed as the Mulberry Road overseer from the Crocket Works to the Powell River in Claiborne County in 1834.  Two hundred acres was purchased by him in 1845 in Claiborne County from William Roark.  Bailey was enumerated in Subdivision 7, Claiborne County in 1850 along with his wife, Sally, and 10 children (he is believed to have had 14 children).  We also learn from this census that he was born in North Carolina (Thomas and Zacheus were also born in North Carolina) around 1795, his occupation is farmer, and his real estate property is valued at $400.00.  Bailey and the family aren’t found on the 1860 census, but he is taxed on 160 acres in Claiborne County in 1862.

 

In 1868, Bailey purchased a tract of land (196 acres) in Laurel County, Kentucky on the Laurel River for $125 from Jarvis and Francis Jackson.  Bailey and the family are enumerated in Laurel County in 1870. His household consists of his wife, Sally, and daughters Mary Jane (unmarried) and Mahala and her husband James Sulfridge and their five children.  Bailey’s real estate is valued at $100, and his occupation was wheelwright.  The 1880 Laurel County census would be the final enumeration for Bailey and Sally who are living in the household of his daughter Mahala Sulfridge and family.  

 

Sarah passed away in May 1886 and her obituary was published on May 7, 1886, in The Mountain Echo, London Kentucky, “Died on last Tuesday evening at the residence of H.C. Sutton, of general debilities, Mrs. Sarah Sutton, wife of Uncle Bailey Sutton. Mrs. Sutton was between 80 and 85 years of age and leaves quite a number of children and grandchildren to mourn her death.”  Soon after his wife passed away, Bailey sold his Laurel County land on October 18, 1886, to his son and daughter-in-law, Harvey C. Sutton and Mary Sutton (Justice), for $300.

Bailey’s obituary was published in The Mountain Echo on May 10, 1889, as follows “The funeral sermon of Uncle Bailey Sutton will be preached at Slate Hill Church on the first Sunday in June by Elders Ewell and Cheek.  Everybody is invited to attend.”  Both were buried in Breastworks Hill Cemetery, which is also known as Cemetery Hill in Laurel County, Kentucky.

It is amazing to think that we now have three descendants of Smith Sutton connected from the states of Oklahoma, Indiana, and Tennessee. Thomas' grandson, Noah Sutton, left Tennessee around 1890 for Fannin County, Texas and his Y-DNA representative was my father who lived near Oklahoma City. Zacheus' Y-DNA descendant lived in Jackson County, Indiana.   Bailey's Y-DNA descendant still lives near where I began researching records in Claiborne County, Tennessee. 

 

If at first you don’t succeed, search, search again. That is why we call it re-search.

--Mary Harrell-Sesniak, Genealogy Humor