Or, Subtitled: When Eastern North Carolina Moves to Georgia — Featherbeds and Land Grants

In my next series of articles about the family of Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762), who came as a young indentured servant from Ireland to Richmond County, Virginia, in 1718 and died in Granville County, North Carolina, in 1762, I’m going to tell you what I know of his children. This first article in the series focuses on Dennis’ daughter Catherine and her husband Roger Thornton.

Some Prefatory Notes

To sum up what I’ve already told you I know (or think) about Catherine:

• As I’ve stated in previous postings (and here), I suspect Catherine may have been Dennis Lindsey’s oldest child. I’m supposing this because I think she was likely close in age to her husband Roger Thornton, whose birth on 14 June 1725 in North Farnham parish, Richmond County, Virginia, we know about from the birth and christening registry of that parish.
• Catherine is named in her father’s will (but without her married name) and is bequeathed five shillings sterling. This relatively small bequest suggests to me she and Roger Thornton were well-established by 1762, and did not require as much from her father’s estate as her siblings did.

I haven’t found any record of when Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey married, nor do I have precise information about the dates of birth of their children. In her book about this family entitled Gachets and Thorntons: Look to the Rocks from Which They Were Hewn, Rochelle T. Farris supposes that Roger and Catherine’s children were born from about 1760 to 1766, but she offers no documentation of that supposition.[1] In my view, further research needs to be done to establish the probable dates of birth of the children named in Roger Thornton’s 6 December 1796 will in Hancock County, Georgia.[2]

Roger and Catherine were definitely married by 3 August 1762, since Dennis Lindsey’s will names Roger Thornton as his son-in-law. The first deed I find in which Catherine is named as Roger’s wife is their sale of land on Sandy Creek in Bute County to Matthew Duke on 30 January 1765 (see further information about this deed below). If Catherine is the Catherine Thornton who testified in 1760 in the trial of William and Susanna Rains in Granville County, and I think she is (though it must be noted that Roger’s brother Henry also had a wife Catherine), then Roger and Catherine were definitely married by 1760.

Roger and his son William appear in Bute County court minutes on 11 May 1775 when William was ordered, with Roger as his security, to pay for the upkeep of a “base-born” child born to Sarah Duke. Though males can father children from about the age of 11 or 12 upwards, most bastardy cases in this time and place seem to involve men aged around 20 or somewhat younger. This record suggests to me that William may have been born by the mid-1750s.

Roger Thornton arrived in Granville County before 25 April 1748, when he had a survey for 200 acres on Sandy Creek with Dennis Lindsey and Thomas Beckham as chain carriers.[3] Roger would have been 23 years old at this point. The fact that he moved from Richmond County, Virginia, where Dennis Lindsey had been indentured in 1718, to Granville County, North Carolina, at that age, and settled beside Dennis Lindsey, marrying Dennis’ daughter, makes me suspect that there was some kind of connection between Dennis Lindsey and Roger’s family in Richmond County, which led to Roger’s decision to move to North Carolina. I also suspect, but have no solid proof for this supposition, that Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey married around 1750.

Documenting Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey’s Lives: Helpful Published Sources

A source for helpful information about Roger Thornton and his wife Catherine Lindsey is John Bennett Boddie’s essay “Thornton of Richmond County, Virginia” in his series entitled Historical Southern Families.[4] Boddie’s article in its entirety focuses on several Thornton families in Richmond County that are thought to be interrelated.[5] A section of the article focuses on the family of Henry Thornton and Anne Williams, Roger Thornton’s grandparents.[6] This expanded view of Roger Thornton’s family network is useful in placing the numerous Thornton men living in Granville-Bute Counties, North Carolina, at the same time. At least two of Roger Thornton’s brothers — Henry (1709-aft. 1785) and John (1718-Dec. 1787) — also moved to this part of North Carolina.

A section of Boddie’s essay focuses specifically on Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey and their family.[7] I recommend Boddie’s work as a foundation to understanding this family, even as I also encourage those researching the family to check Boddie’s claims against the documents he cites, and to do further research in first-hand historical material documenting the life of this family. To wit.: Boddie erroneously states that Roger Thornton married Catherine, daughter of William Linsey, who died in Granville County in 1761-1762 with a will, preserved but unrecorded, naming a daughter Catherine.[8] He also notes that a Sarah Rush who died in Franklin County, North Carolina, in 1791 names a Catherine Thornton as her sister, and he thinks Sarah is another daughter of William Linsey.[9]

It’s hard to understand how Boddie could have read Dennis Lindsey’s will naming Catherine as his daughter and Roger Thornton as a son-in-law — and not naming a daughter Sarah — and have reached these erroneous conclusions. So, though his work is generally well-researched and I recommend it, I also encourage you to take it with a grain of salt — as with any published genealogical account — and do first-hand research for yourself. (The Sarah Rush who had a sister Catherine Thornton was Sarah Bledsoe Rush, daughter of Abraham Bledsoe; her sister Catherine married Roger Thornton’s brother Henry.)

While I’m telling you about research that is helpful in understanding the background of the Thornton family into which Catherine Lindsey married, I’d also like to recommend the very valuable work of a Thornton researcher who made important breakthrough discoveries about the connections between the several Thornton families found in Richmond County, Virginia, in the early 1700s. Several postings back, I told you that DNA studies are showing us that these early Virginia Thornton families are closely related, with a common ancestor likely to be found a century back from their arrival in Virginia. My posting pointed you to a very informative discussion of this DNA finding about the Virginia Thornton families at the Thornton DNA project at FTDNA.

Robert M. Thornton worked intensively on this topic until his death several years ago, and produced an important document entitled “Searching for the Common Ancestors of Henry and William Thornton.” I have not been able to obtain a copy of this document, though Robert Thornton has generously summarized its contents in a number of postings to Thornton family threads online — see, e.g., here and here. At her Lovett DNA website, Linda Lovett Young also provides a helpful summary of Robert M. Thornton’s findings, as well as a descendancy chart based on Robert Thornton’s research which includes Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey. Finally, see also Diana Jean Muir’s just-published book Thornton Family History of Greene County, Virginia, which, as she notes, was actually written by Robert M. Thornton and incorporates his Thornton research.[10] The book does not focus on the branch of the Virginia Thornton families from which Roger Thornton descends, but provides very useful information about Robert M. Thornton’s research.

Documenting Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey’s Lives: The Actual Documents

John Bennett Boddie and numerous other published sources state that the birth-christening register of North Farnham parish in Richmond County, Virginia, shows Roger Thornton born to Roger and Isabel Thornton on 14 June 1725.[11]But there’s a problem here: in its series of articles entitled “Marriages, Births and Deaths in Richmond County,” which transcribes entries in the North Farnham parish register, William and Mary Quarterly reports that the parish register shows that the Roger Thornton born on that date in North Farnham parish was son of Robert and Mary Thornton, not of Roger and Isabel Thornton.[12]

I’m actually pretty confident, for a variety of reasons I won’t belabor now, that the Roger Thornton born in June 1725 in North Farnham parish was indeed the son of Roger and Isabel Thornton. But I did want to flag this problem; first-hand research in the North Farnham parish register needs to be done to sort this matter out, and I have yet to do it.

I don’t have further information about Roger Thornton’s life in Virginia before he moved to North Carolina in or before early 1748. Since he was 23 at the time of that move, he would not have generated a wealth of records in Virginia. Boddie thinks that Roger’s brother Henry, who was born in North Farnham parish on 15 November 1709, preceded him to North Carolina, having moved to Granville County sometime after 1738, when he is last found in Orange County, Virginia, records.

By 15 March 1783, when Abraham Bledsoe made his will in Granville County, Henry had married Abraham’s daughter Catherine.[13] As Boddie notes, Abraham Bledsoe also came to Granville County from Orange County, Virginia. I think it’s likely that Henry Thornton married Catherine Bledsoe before his move to North Carolina, and that he moved to Granville County with the Bledsoes. Henry and Roger’s brother John Thornton, who was born in North Farnham parish 25 June 1718, seems to have moved to Granville County in the same period in which his brothers moved there.

The following are the documents I have for Roger and Catherine Thornton in Granville and Bute Counties, North Carolina:

• 25 April 1748: Roger Thornton had a survey for 200 acres in Granville County on both sides of Sandy Creek, with Dennis Lindsey and Thomas Beckham as chain carriers. The 200 acres were granted 25 March 1749.[14] I suspect that Thomas Beckham is from the family that gave its name to Becham’s branch of Sandy Creek, a tag that has appeared frequently as we’ve looked at land records for Dennis Lindsey in Granville County.
• 25 March 1749: Roger Thornton’s brother Henry also had a grant for 200 acres in Granville County, joining the land of David Phillips.[15] As I’ve noted in previous postings, I suspect David Phillips is closely related to the Robert Phillips whom one of Dennis Lindsey’s daughters married. I also think David may be a member of a Phillips family related to Roger Thornton’s family in Richmond County, Virginia — more on that point when I discuss Robert Phillips and his wife (Margaret, in my view) in a subsequent posting.
• 2 December 1750: Roger Thornton deeded to Henry Thornton 600 acres in Granville County on the south side of Sandy Creek beginning at Waters’ Branch.[16] Roger signed by mark with no witnesses, and the deed was recorded 3 December 1751 [sic]. (I don’t think that 1750 was a double year. If it wasn’t, was there confusion about the calendar as the shift to the new calendar took place?)
• 8 October 1754: Roger Thornton appears on the muster roll of Capt. Sugan Jones’ company of Col. William Eaton’s militia in Granville County (see this previous posting for a discussion of this document). Roger’s brothers Henry and John are also on this muster list, as is his (future?) father-in-law Dennis Lindsey.
• 1755: Roger Thornton is on the Granville County tax list with one white poll, on the same page as Henry Thornton (and William and Sarah Bledsoe).[17]
• 1760: If the Catherine Thornton who testified in the trial of William and Susanna Rains in Granville County was Roger’s wife and not his sister-in-law Catherine Bledsoe Thornton — and I think this was, in fact, Catherine Lindsey Thornton — then Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey were married by that year.
• 11 March 1760: Roger Thornton had a Granville grant for 467 acres on both sides of Sandy Creek on Fussell’s and Thornton’s lines, with Will Hurst and Thos. Jones witnessing the survey.[18]
• 24 July 1760: Roger Thornton sold Dennis Lindsey 200 acres on Waters’ branch, south side of Sandy Creek.[19]For a discussion of this document, see this preceding posting.
• 4 August 1763: Roger Thornton sold Thomas Dickson 100 acres on the south side of Sandy Creek at Becham’s branch. The deed has Roger signing, though he normally signs by mark, with Absalom Wells and Aaron Fussell witnessing. It was recorded at court in August 1763.[20]
• 30 January 1765: Roger and Catherine Thornton sold to Matthew Duke 200 acres in Bute County, North Carolina, on both sides of Sandy Creek at Becham’s branch, adjoining land formerly belonging to Martin, Ward, Lindsey, and Peoples. Roger and Catherine both signed by mark, with George Lamkins and Mary Thornton witnessing. The deed was recorded at Bute court in January 1765.[21] Bute was formed from Granville in 1764, so this is land formerly in Granville County, and adjoins the 200 acres Roger sold on 24 July 1760 to Dennis Lindsey. Martin is John Martin, and Peoples is Nathaniel Peoples.
• 15 November 1769: Roger Thornton was on a list of men ordered by Bute county court to lay off a road turning from the Shocco road at or near Tabb Clanton’s path and then running the most convenient way to Nathaniel Peebles’ mill and on to cross Tar River near Clapton’s ford.[22]
• 1770 (the deed has no more specific date): Matthew Duty sold to Roger Thornton, both of Bute County, 10 acres on Sandy Creek. Duty Signed by mark, with witnesses Mary (mark) Thornton and Thomas Wright. The deed was recorded in May 1770 at Bute Court.[23]
• 15 November 1771: Roger Thornton was on a list ordered by Bute County court to view and lay out a road turning from the old court house road near Philemon Hawkins, then running by Young McLemore’s and into the road by Kedar Best near Weavers Creek.[24]
• 12 February 1772: Roger Thornton was a juror in Bute County.[25]
• May 1772: Roger Thornton was ordered by Bute court to engage in road upkeep.[26]
• 11 May 1775: William and Roger Thornton were ordered by Bute county court to pay ￡ 4 to Samuel and Sarah Duke for the upkeep of Sarah’s base-born child.[27]
• 16 May 1776: William Thornton was brought into Bute court with his former security Roger Thornton and the court ordered that William and Roger pay Sally Duke the ￡4 stipulated for yearly upkeep of Sally’s child. William entered into a recognizance with Roger in the sum of ￡5 to be void on condition that William make his appear at next May court and not depart from the area without leave of court.[28] Again, this court records suggests to me that William was of age by this time, and was probably born by the mid-1750s.
• 15 September 1778: Roger Thornton entered 200 acres in Bute County on the waters of Weavers Creek.[29]
• 28 December 1778: Unity and Matthew Goodwin of Granville County sold to Roger Thornton of Bute County 200 acres on Anderson’s swamp in Bute, adjoining Eaton and Drury Kimball. Both Goodwins signed by mark with William Thornton (also signing by mark) and Philemon Beckham as witnesses. The deed was recorded at Granville court February 1779.[30]
• 9 August 1779: Roger Thornton of Granville County sold to Jesse Jenkins of Warren County land (the acres are not specified) on Waters’ Branch in Warren County. Roger signed by mark with Thomas Jenkins and Archelaeus Williams witnessing. The deed was recorded 2 April 1780.[31]
• 20 September 1779: the state of North Carolina deeded to Roger Thornton 53 acres in Bute County on Weavers Creek.[32]
• November 1780: Roger Thornton was paid ￡1 pound 10 shillings by Hillsborough office (Revolutionary War accounts) as reimbursement for services or goods rendered to the army.[33]
• 5 December 1781: Bartholomew and Agnes Kimball sold Roger Thornton 100 acres to Roger Thornton in Granville County on an unspecified branch (I think the branch is Weaver’s). Bartholomew signed with Agnes signing by mark and witnesses Frederick Weaver and Solomon Thornton. The deed was recorded at August 1783 court in Granville.[34]
• 29 July 1782: Roger and Catherine Thornton deeded James Stark 100 acres joining Philip Hawkins in Granville County. The deed states that Roger was of Granville County. Roger and Catherine both signed by mark with witnesses Isham Harrison and William Cooper. The deed was recorded May 1783.[35]
• 7 March 1783: Roger Thornton sold to William Fleming 100 acre in Granville County, with the deed stating that Roger was of Granville County. He signed the deed (no mark), with witnesses Rhodam Bole and James Godfrey. It was recorded November 1784.[36]
• 24 March 1784: Roger and Catherine Thornton deeded to James Stark 300 acres on Anderson’s swamp in Granville County. Both signed by mark, with witnesses James Godfrey and James Wiggins. The deed was recorded November 1784.[37]

The Final Period in Georgia

I have done only desultory research in Georgia records to track Roger Thornton and his family there. Much more research needs to be done. According to Boddie, Roger and Catherine Thornton moved to Wilkes County, Georgia, by 1785, where he is taxed in Wilkes in that year and witnessed a deed in 1787.[38] Roger’s brother Henry Thornton had preceded him in the move to Wilkes County. Boddie thinks that Roger moved not long after 1787 to Greene County, where his land fell into Hancock when that county was created from Greene and Washington Counties in 1793.

On 7 August 1790, Roger Thornton had a warrant from the state of Georgia for survey of 317 acres in Greene County.[39] The grant was made on 25 November 1793.[40] On the same day, Roger had another grant for 390 acres in Greene County.[41]

Roger Thornton made his will in Hancock County, Georgia, on 6 December 1796.[42] (See the two photographs at the head of this posting.) The will bequeaths to Roger’s grandson Isom Thornton a featherbed and furniture, with the will’s executors to decide which of these Isom will receive. It bequeaths to son William “a certain tract of land” on Rocky Branch on which William was living. Roger’s home plantation is to go to wife Catherine, with its enslaved persons, livestock, and tools, and after her death, the property is to be divided equally between all of their sons and daughters with grandson Isom having an equal share of the movable property. Roger’s son John receives the tract of land on which he is now living. Roger bequeaths to son Lindsey Thornton a 40-acre piece of land. The will makes wife Catherine, son Henry, and Zorabel Williamson executors, and is signed by mark and witnessed by Zorabel Williamson, Nathaniel Waller, and Catherine Whatley (mark). The latter two proved the will in county court on 3 September 1797.

The will is followed in Hancock County will book A with an inventory compiled 8 September 1797.[43] The inventory lists enslaved people held by Roger at the time of his death: an unnamed woman, Moses, Moses’ (?) son Tiller (?), Arthur, Ben, and Ransom. A sale document follows, showing an estate sale held 4 November 1803 with Henry Thornton and Zorabel Williamson presiding.[44] The list of enslaved people in the sale account includes names not found in the inventory; it shows the following enslaved people sold: Temp, Moses, Amy, Arthur, Kesiah, Ben, and Ransom.

The fact that the estate sale was held in 1803, when Roger died in 1797, suggests to me that Catherine had died between 6 December 1796 (probably after Roger’s death in 1797, in fact) and 4 November 1803, and the plantation’s tools, livestock, and enslaved people, which had been bequeathed to her until her death, were being sold in 1803 for that reason. The sale account mentions no land among items sold, nor does it provide names of buyers.

I have done next to no research regarding the children of Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey. As we’ve seen, the will names sons William, Henry, John, and Lindsey, and implies that a son who was father of Isom Thornton had predeceased Roger. It also states that after Catherine’s death, Roger’s property was to be divided among his sons, daughters, and Isom, but it names no daughters. I think there’s a good chance Roger had a daughter who married Zorabel Williamson.

Rochel Farris also concludes  that a son who was father of Isom had predeceased Roger.[45] Her research indicates that Isom went by the spelling Isham, and that he paid taxes in Hancock County in 1805, 1806, and 1817, and then in Hancock and Walton Counties in 1821. He had 2 draws in the 1806 Ocmulgee Land Lottery, and is on the 1820 census in Hancock. Farris thinks that Isham Thornton married Betsey Templin on 22 September 1815. It’s not clear to me where that marriage occurred or what source Farris citing.[46]

Of the sons named in Roger Thornton’s will, it seems to me very likely that William is the oldest. Whether he was older than the brother who predeceased him, I can’t say. As we’ve seen, he shows up in Bute County, North Carolina, court records in 1765-6 charged with the obligation to maintain a child he had fathered with Sarah Duke, and those records suggest to me he may have been born by the mid-1750s.

Rochelle Farris places William’s birth about 1760, though she does not offer information about how she arrives at that birthdate.[47] A William Thornton who could be son of Roger and Catherine — though I have not proven this or sought yet to do so — had a number of Georgia land grants in Wilkes and Washington Counties, Georgia, in the latter part of the 1780s and early 1790s. I find the following grants to William Thornton: 25 April 1786, a tract of 287 acres and another of 532 acres in Wilkes;[48] 21 December 1787, 287 ½ acres in Wilkes;[49] and 4 June 1791, 11 acres in Wilkes.[50]

According to Farris, William Thornton had a wife Fanny. She indicates that he was a buyer at a sale of a Scurlock in Hancock County in 1795, was a Hancock juror in 1796-8, and in 1802, he and wife Fanny sold two pieces of land (in Hancock?). He drew two draws in the Ocumlgee land lottery in 1806 and continued on Hancock juries in 1806-9. Farris thinks that William died in Hancock or Harris County, Georgia, after 1838.

Farris places Henry Thornton’s birth around 1762.[51] She finds Henry with two draws in the 1806 Ocmulgee land lottery, paying taxes on Buffalo Creek (in what county?) in 1807, and selling land on Buffalo Creek in 1809.

Farris thinks that Roger and Catherine’s son Henry is the Henry A. Thornton whose estate was settled in Baldwin County, Georgia, in October-November 1823. This Henry A. Thornton married Anne Bignell in Richmond County on 7 October 1823 and had children Thomas, Patsey, Michael O., and Betsey Thornton. In my view, the Henry A. Thornton dying in Baldwin County by October 1823 is very likely a different man than Roger and Catherine Lindsey Thornton’s son Henry Thornton.

Farris proposes 1764 as a birthdate for Roger and Catherine’s son Lindsey Thornton (again, and as with all the birthdates she establishes for their children, with no substantiating information).[52] She notes that he was taxed in 1793 in Greene County in Capt. Tully Choice’s district and appears in Hancock and Jones County records from 1796-1813 with a wife Jane. According to Farris, on 28 September 1804, Lindsey Thornton and wife Jane sold land in Hancock granted to Absalom Eiland, with 40 acres granted to Roger Thornton. This would seem to be the piece of land bequeathed to Lindsey in his father Roger’s will. In 1813 he sold land on the Oconee in Hancock County, while residing in Jones County.

Linda Jenkins has proposed in postings to the Thornton and Hancock and Jones County, Georgia (and here) discussion boards at Rootsweb that Lindsey Thornton married Jane, daughter of James Boswell, who died in Hancock County before 12 March 1808, when his estate was appraised there. Linda Jenkins has transcribed the estate documents and uploaded them to the USGenweb site for Hancock County. They show Lindsey Thornton as an appraiser of the estate and a chief buyer when the estate was sold.[53]

Farris thinks that Roger and Catherine’s son John was born about 1766, and married about 1790 a wife whose name has not been found.[54] He was a justice of the peace in Hancock County in 1795 and, in 1802, sold land left to him by his father’s will adjoining the land of his brother Lindsey Thornton.[55]

This is the sum of what I know about Roger Thornton and Catherine Lindsey and their family up to the present. As I say above, I think much more research might be done about the family after it reached Georgia and about Roger and Catherine’s children.

[1] Rochelle T. Farris, Gachets and Thorntons: Look to the Rocks from Which They Were Hewn (Montgomery: Paragon, 1979).

[2] Hancock County, Georgia, Will Bk. A, pp. 225-232.

[3] Granville County, North Carolina, Patent Bk. 14, p. 78, grant 45: see this previous posting on this document.

[4] John Bennett Boddie, Historical Southern Families, vol. 12 (Redwood City, CA: Pacific Coast Publishers, 1968; repr. Baltimore: Geneal. Publ. Co., 1995).

[5] The entire article runs in ibid. from pp. 1-89.

[6] Ibid., pp. 68-76.

[7] Ibid., pp. 70-1.

[8] Ibid., p. 70.

[9] Ibid., pp. 70-1.

[10] Diana Jean Muir (and Robert Murray Thornton, comp.), Thornton Family History of Greene County, Virginia (Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press, 2019).

[11] Boddie, Historical Southern Families, vol. 12, p. 70.

[12] “Marriages, Births and Deaths in Richmond County,” William and Mary Quarterly 13,3 (Jan. 1905), p. 190.

[13] Boddie, Historical Southern Families, vol. 12, pp. 69-70.

[14] Granville County, North Carolina, Patent Bk. 14, p. 78, grant 45. See supra, n. 3, providing a link to my previous discussion of this document.

[15] Ibid., p. 78, grant 57.

[16] Granville County, Deed Bk. B, pp. 11-2.

[17] I have researched the original Granville County tax lists at the North Carolina Archives; this note is from that research.

[18] Granville County, North Carolina, Grant Book 14, p. 76, #15; Granville County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. G, p. 29. The pages of this deed book before p. 71 appear to be missing from the microfilmed copy of the LDS library digitized at the Family Search site.

[19] Granville County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. C, pp. 694-5.

[20] Granville County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. F, p. 323.

[21] Warren County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. A, p. 130 — for Bute County.

[22] See Bute County, North Carolina, Court Minutes for this date.

[23] Warren County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. 3, pp. 47-8 — for Bute County.

[24] See Bute County, North Carolina, Court Minutes for 15 November 1771.

[25] See ibid., 12 February 1772.

[26] See ibid., May 1772.

[27] See ibid., 11 May 1775.

[28] See ibid., 16 May 1776.

[29] Bute County, North Carolina, Land Entries Bk. B, p. 745, #212.

[30] Granville County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. M, p. 133. In a 1 November 2008 email to me, researcher Guy Baker  tells me that this land is now in Franklin County.

[31] Warren County, North Carolina, Deed Bk.7, p. 241.

[32] Ibid., pp. 248-9.

[33] North Carolina Revolutionary War Accounts, Bk. C, p. 82.

[34] Granville County, North Carolina, Deed Bk. O, pp. 252-3.

[35] Ibid., p. 239.

[36] Ibid., pp. 335-6.

[37] Ibid., p. 342.

[38] Boddie, Historical Southern Families, vol. 12, p. 71.

[39] The original warrant is on file in the Georgia Headrights and Bounty Documents collection at the Georgia Archives: see US/Canada microfilm of the LDS library in Salt Lake City, #5362637, digitized at the FamilySearch website.

[40] Georgia Register of Grants, Bk. BBBB, p. 387.

[41] Ibid., p. 388.

[42] Hancock County, Georgia, Will Bk. A, pp. 225-232.

[43] Ibid., pp. 227-8.

[44] Ibid., pp. 226-231.

[45] Farris, Gachets and Thorntons, p. 2.

[46] Note that, according to Roger Thornton in a 4 September 2005 posting to the Thornton discussion thread at Rootsweb, it was possibly a Lindsey Thornton who married Betsey Tamplin in Jones County on 22 September 1815.

[47] Farris, Gachets and Thorntons, p. 2.

[48] Georgia Register of Grants, Bk. III, p. 777-8.

[49] ibid., Bk. PPP, p. 42.

[50] Ibid., Bk. UUU, p. 555

[51] Farris, Gachets and Thorntons, p. 2.

[52] Ibid.

[53] See also William R. Emanuel’s Then & Change Genealogy site.

[54] Ibid.

[55] In a 1938 manuscript entitled “Thornton Family,” Edythe Rucker Whitley transcribes (p. 21) a reference to Roger Thornton’s family in Hearst’s Sunday American (Atlanta) on 21 September 1930 (p. 21). This says that Roger Thornton married Catherine Lindsey in Granville County, North Carolina, and had grants in Greene County, Georgia, in 1784, dying in Hancock County in 1797. The article further states that Roger and Catherine had sons John and James, with John having sons Jonathan, James, Noble, and Abel. Whitley’s manuscript has no publication information and is available to read online in a digitized version at the FamilySearch website.