The Difficulty of Establishing a Birthdate for Ruth Brooks

The uncertainty is about where Ruth fits in the order of Thomas and Margaret’s children. As we’ll see in a moment, documentation of Ruth’s birthdate is hazy, contributing to the problem of figuring out where she fits among the children of this family. Various indicators suggest to me that she was born after her siblings Sarah (born 1771, married John Lahue), James (born 1772), Margaret (born 1772, married Joseph Day), and Thomas (born 1775). 

Her father’s will tells us that at some point before Thomas Brooks made his will in November 1804, Ruth Brooks had married a Greenwood. Documents I’ll discuss in a moment tell us that Ruth’s husband was William Greenwood, son of William and Lucretia Greenwood of Charlotte County, Virginia. (Note that both William and his father John Greenwood married wives named Lucretia; in some records, William’s wife Lucretia is called Lucy, as we’ll see later). Due to what I’ve concluded is incorrect information in various histories of William and Ruth Brooks Greenwood, it has long been stated that William Greenwood and Ruth Brooks married around 1803 in Petersburg, Virginia. As I’ll indicate in what follows, I think William and Ruth were married by about 1798, when I first find William on the tax list in Botetourt County, Virginia, or 1799, when William bought land in that county. As a previous posting states, I’m inclined to think that Ruth’s sister Margaret married husband Joseph Day in Botetourt around 1790, and I think it’s very likely Ruth married William Greenwood in Botetourt or Wythe County, where her parents were living when she married.

If I’m correct in thinking that Ruth Brooks and William Greenwood married about 1798-9, then note that Ruth would likely have been born by 1780 or not long after 1780 — or perhaps earlier than 1780. The only two documents I’ve found providing any specific information about Ruth’s birthdate are the 1820 and 1830 federal censuses. In 1820, the family of William Greenwood appears on the federal census in Cabell County, Virginia (now West Virginia), with a white female in the household who is obviously Ruth and whose age range is 45+.^[2] If this census gives accurate information about Ruth’s age, then she would have been born prior to 1775.

However, the 1830 federal census, on which the family of William Greenwood is enumerated in Sangamon County, Illinois, shows William’s household with a white female (again, this has to be Ruth) aged 40-49.^[3] This age range would yield a birthdate of 1780-1789 for Ruth. As we’ll see later, William and Ruth Greenwood’s first child, a daughter Elizabeth, was born in 1804, and the date of marriage many researchers have estimated for William Greenwood and Ruth Brooks — 1803 — is based on Elizabeth’s birthdate. If Ruth was born in 1789 and married in 1803, she’d have been 14 years old when she married, an age not outside the realm of possibility but also not very likely. So I think we can rule out the upper end of the 1780-1789 birth range for Ruth.

If my marriage date for Ruth and William, 1798-9, is correct, then Ruth would certainly not have been born in 1789 or near 1789. The 1780 date of birth would fit that date of marriage better. But what to make of the testimony of the 1820 census that Ruth was born prior by 1775? I’m inclined to think she was born after her brother Thomas, whose birthdate is recorded in a family bible as 28 October 1775 — unless Ruth and Thomas were twins, a real possibility in the Brooks family, where there’s a long and well-documented pattern of twin births. As I’ve suggested previously, I think it’s possible that Thomas and Ruth’s brother James and sister Margaret were twins. The family of Margaret Brooks and Joseph Day had two sets of twins.

Birth Information for William Greenwood

I’ve noted that there are a number of published accounts of William Greenwood and Ruth Brooks and their family. None of these accounts gives a date of birth for Ruth, but all of them state that William Greenwood was born about 1772 near Petersburg, Virginia.^[4] The footnote I’ve just provided identifies three classic sources that each report the same information about William Greenwood; all state that he was born about 1772 near Petersburg, Virginia. The first of these three classic accounts, John Carroll Power’s 1876 History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois is, I suspect, the source for the other two classic works footnoted below, the 1881 History of Sangamon County, Illinois, and Frederick Greenwood’s 1914 Greenwood Genealogies. The other source I footnote in n. 4, Lincoln County, Kentucky, Historical Society’s 2003 compilation of family histories from that county, is clearly relying on these three classic sources.  

If John Carroll Power’s History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois, is the Ur-source for information about this family including when and where William Greenwood was born, then the question is, Where did Power obtain his information? Unfortunately, he cites no source. But a big clue is embedded in the four pages of information Power provides about the Greenwood family: The biography of one family member, William and Ruth’s grandson James Mickleborough Greenwood (1836-1914), son of Edmund Greenwood (1814-1913) and Jennettie Foster, is much more extensive than any other of the biographies in these Greenwood pages.

James M. Greenwood was a distinguished educator who was superintendent of education in Kansas City from 1874-1913, as well as a published author and a lecturer regarding educational topics in wide demand in his heyday. James was largely an autodidact though he completed public school education, received an honorary doctor of law degree from University of Missouri, and finished most of a four-year course of study at a Methodist seminary in Canton, Missouri.^[5] Since the biography of James M. Greenwood in Power’s book is so extensive and contains personal anecdotes about him that almost certainly were provided by James himself, I think it’s very likely that this grandson of William Greenwood and Ruth Brooks provided the biographical information about William published by Power, including the “about 1772” birthdate and the birthplace of “near Petersburg,” Virginia.

William Greenwood appears on the 1850 federal census in Sangamon County, Illinois, with his second wife Martha and their children Emily, James, and Frances.^[6] William’s age is given here as 70 and his birthplace as Kentucky. Both the age and birthplace are clearly incorrect. Solid evidence I’ll cite later shows William coming of age by 1790, and shows William’s parents William and Lucretia Greenwood in Charlotte County, Virginia, in 1780. They moved to Kentucky after selling their homeplace there in December 1793. 

The 1850 census shows William and wife Martha living two households from his daughter Mary Greenwood and her husband David E. Gibson. Following Ruth’s death on 6 July 1837 in Sangamon County, William remarried to Martha Brunk on 13 February 1842.^[7] If you’ve read my postings about Ruth Brooks Greenwood’s sister Margaret and husband Joseph Day, the Brunk name may be familiar: Margaret and Joseph’s son Jesse Brooks Day married a widow Martha Ann Wheeler in Grayson County, Kentucky, on 22 March 1858, whose surname was Brunk.

Another valuable piece of information that helps us estimate when William Greenwood was likely born, and which helps to confirm the “about 1772” birthdate, is found in the Revolutionary pension file of William’s older brother Bartlett/Bartlee Greenwood. Bartlee Greenwood’s Revolutionary pension file contains a transcript of the register of a bible belonging to Bartlee and his wife Nancy Sublett that Nancy submitted to Lincoln County, Kentucky, court on 22 January 1839 as proof for the pension application. Nancy’s affidavit states that the bible was so worn out and defaced that its the bible register could barely be read, but one of her sons had transcribed it.^[8] It states that Bartlee Greenwood was born 18 July 1764.

None of the documents in the pension file states where Bartlee Greenwood was born, but Bartlee’s 6 December 1830 pension affidavit in Lincoln County in this file says that his father (William Greenwood Sr.) was living in Charlotte County, Virginia, when Bartlee enlisted in Hillsborough, North Carolina, in 1777. Bartlee, too, was residing in Charlotte County, Virginia, at the time. The affidavit also states that after having been sent to Petersburg to guard wagons, Bartlee returned to his father’s farm in Charlotte County in 1781 or 1782. The pension file contains an application Nancy made for bounty land on 13 April 1855 which says that she and Bartlee Greenwood married in Charlotte County on 13 October 1785 after Bartlee received bond for the marriage in Campbell County on 11 October 1785. A copy of the marriage bond is in the pension file.

These documents place the family of William Greenwood Sr., father of Bartlee and William Greenwood Jr., in Charlotte County by 1777, and various published accounts of the family of Bartlett/Bartlee Greenwood and Nancy Sublett state that Bartlee’s birth on 18 July 1764 occurred in Charlotte County.^[9] The well-established 1764 birthdate for William Greenwood’s brother Bartlee makes the 1772 birthdate reported for William in published histories plausible. And if Bartlee was, in fact, born in Charlotte County in 1764 — and I think this is very likely — then it seems also very likely that his brother William was born in the same place, not in or near Petersburg, which is over 80 miles east of Charlotte courthouse. 

The Tangle of Confusion in Many Accounts of William Greenwood’s Father William Greenwood Sr.

If you think you’re confused so far — When were Ruth Brooks and William Greenwood born? Where did they marry? — have a look at numerous online family trees and genealogical reports which state correctly that William Greenwood’s father William Greenwood Sr. was born 28 September 1740 in Christ Church parish, Middlesex County, Virginia, son of John Greenwood and Lucretia McTyre or Mactyre, but which then turn this Virginia-born man into a William Greenwood of Massachusetts who ended up in Nova Scotia, dying testate there with a will that names none of the known children of William Greenwood Sr. of Charlotte County, Virginia, a man whom records place very certainly in Charlotte County from at least the 1770s up to 1793, when he and wife Lucretia sold their property there and went to Kentucky.

Not only that, these bizarre accounts of the life of the man born in Middlesex County, Virginia, who moved with his parents to Charlotte County, Virginia — William’s father John and Lucretia are also in Charlotte County records — slap a middle name into his name that he certainly never had. He becomes William Clyde Greenwood in one online family tree or at one genealogical site after another.

Why people want to give entirely fictitious middle names to folks in the past who did not have middle names, creating a tangle of confusion for those of us searching for these folks, is beyond me to understand. When no records ever show these folks having the given name slapped into their names by ill-informed researchers…. In a period when families of British background only rarely gave children middle names, when only families of this cultural background from the very top echelons of society named children with middle names….

And why people would take a man they claim was born in Virginia in 1740, who is documented in Virginia records up to 1793, and turn him into a Massachusetts man who ended up in Nova Scotia with a will naming a set of children who are not the children they list for him in their own family tree: This is beyond me to fathom. Moral of this mini-rant: Ignore much of what you’ll find online about William Greenwood Sr. and his family. Look at actual documents and real historical records, instead.

As an aside, if you want to find documented information about the man many researchers are conflating with the William Greenwood born in Christ Church parish, Middlesex County, Virginia, on 28 September 1740, consult the well-researched and well-documented biography of that other William Greenwood in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.^[10] This source tells us that the other William Greenwood (no indications anywhere he had a middle name Clyde!) who is being confused with William, father of William Greenwood who married Ruth Brooks, was a mariner and farmer born in Virginia about 1750, who married 1) Grace Smith of Chatham, Massachusetts, and 2) Deborah (Bootman) Barry. As a young man, he ran away from an unhappy home in Virginia to Massachusetts, and settled in Nova Scotia following the Revolution, dying there in 1824.

Trustworthy Documented Information about William Greenwood Sr.

Without providing an exhaustive account of the history of the Greenwood family to which our William Greenwood belongs, which I have not researched in detail but sufficiently to sort out the lineage of the William Greenwood who married Ruth Brooks, permit me to offer some solid documentation about William Greenwood, father of the William Greenwood who married Ruth Brooks. William Greenwood Sr. was born 28 September 1740 in Christ Church parish, Middlesex County, Virginia, where he was baptized on 10 October 1740. His parents were John and Lucretia (Mactyre) Greenwood. We know these facts because they are recorded in the register of Christ Church parish.^[11]

From the same parish register, we also know that John Greenwood and Lucretia Mactyre married in Christ Church parish on 25 October 1734.^[12] The parish register tells us that Lucretia, daughter of Hugh Mactyre and Catherine George, was born 17 June 1717 in the same parish.^[13]

And we can document more: John and Lucretia moved their family to Charlotte County, Virginia, where John died by 4 October 1779, leaving estate documents identifying his widow as Lucretia, with a chancery court case file documenting a lawsuit by Lucretia to obtain her dower portion of John’s estate, in which we find a document naming John and Lucretia’s children, including their son William. I’ll discuss this documentation in a moment.

But before we leave Middlesex County, Virginia, I want to note that Margaret Beaumont/Beamon, mother of Ruth Brooks, was born in the very same parish in which William Greenwood, father of William Greenwood (who married Ruth Brooks), was born and married Margaret was born in Christ Church parish on 30 November 1747, daughter of John and Jane Beaumont/Beamon.^[14] And Ruth’s parents Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon married in Christ Church parish on 29 January 1771.^[15] William Greenwood and Ruth Brooks had shared ties to Christ Church parish in Middlesex County, Virginia, going back to the generation of their parents.

Back to records documenting the life of William Greenwood Sr. of Middlesex and Charlotte Counties, Virginia: On 4 October 1779, an inventory of the estate of John Greenwood, father of William Greenwood Sr., was filed in Charlotte County, Virginia, by Joshua Morris, John Lacklen, and Dudley Barksdale.^[16] An estate account filed 5 November 1781 provides a tally of income and expenditures from the estate from October 1779 to November 1781.^[17] The estate account includes an account of the sale of John’s personal estate in 1779 — no further date is specified — with buyers including his widow Lucretia and her sons William and John, along with a Lucy Greenwood who is, I think, William’s wife, who sometimes appears in records as Lucy and not Lucretia. The November 1781 estate account was filed by Thomas Greenwood, son of William Sr. and wife Lucretia. 

At some point prior to 8 October 1779, the widow Lucretia Greenwood filed suit against her children to have her dower portion of her deceased husband’s estate allotted to her.^[18] The case file contains Lucretia’s undated (but obviously dating around October 1779) bill of complaint, a document of great value since it names the children of John and Lucretia Mactyre Greenwood. Their names are given as Thomas (born 13 February 1735), William (born 28 September 1740), Robert (born 21 May 1743), John (born 6 August 1747), Hugh, and Josiah Greenwood, Henry Crittington and wife Judith, John Garrett and wife Hannah, Lucy Greenwood, and Catherine Tull. Also in the file is a court summons to the heirs dated 8 October 1779. The file shows that Lucretia was allotted her dower portion on 22 November. 

The dates of birth I’ve just cited for several of John and Lucretia’s children are given in the Christ Church register. I don’t find birth or baptism dates in the Christ Church register for the other children named in this chancery court file. The Christ Church register shows that John and Lucretia also had a son Lodowick born 25 June 1745 and a daughter Frances born 3 June 1754 who apparently predeceased their parents.

Frances’s birth record in June 1754 allows us to deduce that the family left Middlesex County after that date. The family may still have been in Middlesex on 4 October 1758, in fact, since the parish vestry minutes on that date show John Greenwood paid for patrol duties on that date. John and Lucretia’s daughter Lucy was placed under guardianship of her brother William when their father died, a piece of information we can glean from county court records, which show William accounting for his guardianship up to 4 September 1786, when he reported to the county court that Lucy had married William Hughs and William Greenwood was discharged from guardianship.^[19] William Hughs and Lucy Greenwood married 2 June 1783 in Charlotte County.

I have not found deed records in Charlotte County showing John Greenwood buying or selling property there. His widow Lucretia’s chancery court complaint bill states that her “late Husband was in his life time ∫eized and po∫se∫sed considerable Real & personal Estate consisting of Lands[,] Slaves[,] Stocks of different kinds & other Estate.”

Again, note that the documents in this chancery court case file underscore that the John Greenwood who died in Charlotte County by early October had a wife Lucretia — that is, he’s the man of this name who married Lucretia Mactyre in Christ Church parish, Middlesex County, on 25 October 1734, with their son William being born there on 28 September 1740. These and other documents I’m citing tell us that at some point after 3 June 1754, John and Lucretia Mactyre Greenwood moved their family south. The parent county of Charlotte is Lunenburg; Charlotte was formed from Lunenburg in 1765. I have made a cursory examination of Lunenburg records without finding this Greenwood family in them, but more research might be done regarding this. 

It’s also possible that the Greenwoods went first to Bedford County then on to Charlotte. In an application for membership submitted to the Sons of the American Revolution (West Virginia branch) on 14 March 1927, Thomas Edward Cofer, a descendant of John and Lucretia Mactyre Greenwood’s daughter Hannah, states that Hannah was born 4 June 1759 in Bedford County, Virginia.^[20] Cofer entered SAR on the line of John Garrett, Hannah Greenwood’s husband. Unfortunately, the application gives no source for the information provided about Hannah Greenwood’s date and place of birth. I do not find any listings for this John Greenwood in Bedford County land records. Bedford was formed from Lunenburg in 1754.

Documenting William Greenwood Sr. in Charlotte County, Virginia, Records

William Greenwood Sr., father of the William Greenwood Jr. who married Ruth Brooks, is on Charlotte County tax lists consistently from 1782, when the tax lists in Charlotte begin, through 1793, when he and wife Lucretia sold their homeplace in Charlotte County to move to Kentucky.^[21] In 1782, he and brother John are in the same unlabeled tax district as are Edward and John Day and Henry Cottingdon. As we’ll see in a moment, when William and Lucretia Greenwood sold their land in Charlotte County in 1793, they sold some of it to Henry Cottingdon and some to Edward Day (1760-1837), whose wife Ursula Sublett was a sister of Nancy Sublett, who married William and Lucretia’s son Bartlee Greenwood. I have not found a connection between these Day men and the Day family into which Margaret Brooks, Ruth’s sister, married.

Starting in 1784, the Charlotte tax list shows William Greenwood taxed for a number of years with enslaved persons belonging to him: in 1784, they are named as Will, Eady, and Henry, and in 1786, as Edy, Jenny, Harvey, and Fanney, one of whom (not named) is aged over 16. By 1787, the tax list stops naming enslaved persons and states only that William Greenwood held four enslaved persons, one of whom was over 16 and three of whom were under 16. Charlotte County court order books indicate that on 4 May 1782, William had been exempted from paying taxes on an enslaved person named Dillon.^[22]

In 1788, William Greenwood is taxed for an enslaved person over 16 and another enslaved person over 12. His son Bartlett/Bartlee, now aged 24 and married, first appears on the Charlotte tax list in this year. The 1789 and 1790 tax lists show William and Bartlett listed next to each other. On both tax lists, William now has only one enslaved person listed in his ownership.

The 1790 tax list also contains one other valuable piece of information. It states for the first time that William Greenwood is taxed for two white tithables. This indicates to us that William’s son William has now come of age and was probably born in or not long before 1774. It also tells us that William Jr. was still living with his parents in 1790. By 1791, this second tithable is no longer in William Greenwood’s household, a possible indication that his son William may have launched his adult life — but I do not find the second William on the Charlotte tax list at this point. The older William Greenwood continues on the Charlotte tax list in 1792-1793, and then drops from the tax list in 1794, with his son Bartlett remaining on the tax list up to 1795, when he, too, drops from the Charlotte tax list and apparently moved to Botetourt County, Virginia, a point I’ll discuss in a moment. 

The 1793 tax list once again shows William Greenwood with two white tithables, an indication, I think, that William’s son William is still unmarried and living with his parents. In 1794, when it appears to me that William Greenwood Sr. and wife Lucretia moved to Kentucky, a William Greenwood who is, it seems clear, their son, is on the Charlotte County tax list with only 1 white tithable and no property listed as taxable. By 1795, when Bartlett Greenwood last appears on the tax list in Charlotte, both William Greenwoods have dropped from the list.

William Greenwood Sr.’s disappearance from the Charlotte County tax list in 1794 and his and wife Lucretia’s sale of their land in 1793 suggests to us that the couple moved to Kentucky in 1794. On 4 December 1793, William Greenwood sold to Edward Day, both of Charlotte County, for £55 pounds 223 acres on Turnip Creek.^[23] William and wife Creasia Greenwood both signed the deed, with witnesses John McCraw, Samuel Pattillo, and Robert Cark. William received payment from Day on the same day and signed receipt with these witnesses, and on 2 June 1794 at court, John McCraw proved the deed, with Robert Cark then proving it on 7 September 1795 and William Hughs making oath on 6 February 1797 that he saw William Greenwood sign the deed.

As I’ve noted, Edward Day married Ursula Sublett, sister to Nancy Sublett who married William and Lucretia’s son Bartlett/Bartlee Greenwood. The deed notes that the land William Greenwood was selling Edward Day adjoined land owned by Abraham Sublett, a brother of Ursula and Nancy; these Sublett siblings were children of William Sublett and Susannah Allen. Note that the fact that Lucretia Greenwood signed this deed as Creasia tells us that her name, which sometimes appears as Lucy, was Lucretia. I have not found a record of her maiden name.

On 18 December 1793, William Greenwood Sr. sold to Henry Cottingdon, both of Charlotte County, for £1000 and a bed 150 acres on the eastern waters of Turnip Creek.^[24] William signed with his wife, now signing as Lucy Greenwood, with witnesses William T. Smith, John Cardweel, and Stephen McCraw. At Charlotte court on 6 January 1794, Smith and Cardweel proved the deed and it was recorded. This is the final record I find for William Greenwood in Charlotte County. It’s clear to me that with this deed, William and wife Lucretia were selling their homeplace and intending to move away. Note another important clue in this deed: The use of the tag “senior” here implies a William Jr. is of age.

I have not followed William and wife Lucretia after this land sale. Lincoln County Historical Society’s Lincoln County, Kentucky, states that they moved to Lincoln County, Kentucky, at a date prior to 1803, when William is on the tax list in Lincoln County.^[25] This source also says that William Greenwood left a will in Lincoln County probated 9 June 1823. But I do not find a will for William Greenwood in Lincoln County, and have not been able to verify this piece of information.

---

^[1] Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 308-9.

^[2] 1820 federal census, Cabell County, Virginia, Barboursville, p. 84.

^[3] 1830 federal census, Sangamon County, Illinois, p. 293.

^[4] John Carroll Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, Illinois: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), pp. 335-8; History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, etc. (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), pp. 837-8; Frederick Greenwood, Greenwood Genealogies, 1154-1914: The Ancestry and Descendants of Thomas Greenwood, of Newton, Massachusetts; Nathaniel and Samuel Greenwood, of Boston, Massachusetts; John Greenwood, of Virginia, and Many Later Arrivals in America, also the Early History of the Greenwoods in England, and the Arms They Used (New York: Lyon, 1914), pp. 468-475; and Lincoln County Historical Society, Lincoln County, Kentucky (Paducah: Turner, 2002), p. 198.

^[5] In addition to the biographical information in Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois, pp. 336-7, see Carrie Westlake Whitney, Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People 1808-1908 (Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1908), pp. 238-243; the biography of James, “Personal and Professional Papers of James Mickleborough Greenwood (1874–1914), Ms Collection G14),” at the website of Truman State University’s Pickler Memorial Library, which holds James’s papers in a special collection; and “James M. Greenwood Papers Finding Aid” at the website of the Kansas City Public Library, which also holds papers of James M. Greenwood. Greenwood, Greenwood Genealogies, 1154-1914, includes a photo of James (p. 475), and the Kansas City Public Library has an oil portrait of him a copy of which appears on a page of that library’s website entitled “Portrait of James M. Greenwood,” which states, “The original Kansas City Public Library building was constructed under Greenwood’s direction and he was committed to making its services available to the public for the rest of his life. He served on the Kansas City Public School board as a superintendent for nearly four decades. Through his progressive programs and vision, Greenwood became highly regarded in educational spheres.”

^[6] 1850 federal census, Sangamon County, Illinois, p. 176B (dwelling/family 706; 5 October). 

^[7] Sangamon County, Illinois, Marriage Bk. 2, p. 103. Ruth Brooks Greenwood and William Greenwood’s dates of death are stated in Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois, p. 338, and Greenwood, Greenwood Genealogies, 1154-1914, p. 470. History of Sangamon County, Illinois, p. 837, transposes Ruth and William’s dates of death.

^[8] NARA, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, RG 15, Bartlee (and Nancy) Greenwood, Revolutionary pension application W-3013, available digitally at Fold3. See C. Leon Harris’s transcript of Nancy’s January 1839 affidavit and of the bible register, “Pension Application of Bartlee Greenwood W3013 Nancy Greenwood VA” at the Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters website. 

^[9] See, e.g., Lincoln County Historical Society, Lincoln County, Kentucky (Paducah: Turner, 2002), p. 198. Cameron Allen, The Sublett (Soblet) Family of Manakintown, King William Parish, Virginia (Detroit: Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, 1985), p. 44, notes Bartlee’s birthdate, the fact that his marriage was returned to Charlotte County court on 13 October 1785 by Reverend John Weatherford, husband of Nancy Sublett’s sister Martha, 0and the statement made by Bartlee in his pension affidavit in Lincoln County, Kentucky, on 6 December 1830 that after completing his Revolutionary service, he returned to his father’s farm in Charlotte County in 1781 or 1782. The pension file contains a typewritten letter sent by A.D. Hiller of NARA on 30 January 1934 to Mrs. M.K. Malloy of Charleston, West Virginia, noting that Bartlee was residing in Charlotte County in 1777 when he enlisted at Hillsborough, North Carolina, and that his father was living in that county at the time Bartlee was in service. 

^[10] Marion Robertson, “Greenwood, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6 (Toronto and Québec City: University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1987), online at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography website.

^[11] See National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, The Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex County, Va., from 1653 to 1812 (Richmond: W.E. Jones, 1897), p. 151, transcribing the original parish register.

^[12] Ibid., p. 168. 

^[13] Ibid., p. 97.

^[14] Ibid., p. 286.

^[15] Ibid., p. 199. 

^[16] Charlotte County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 214-5.

^[17] Ibid., pp. 285-6. 5 Charlotte County, Virginia, Court Order Bk. 5, p. 24, also states that Thomas Greenwood presented his account of John Greenwood’s estate to court on 5 November 1781.

^[18] Charlotte County, Virginia, Chancery Case 1780-002, Lucretia Greenwood vs. John Greenwood Heirs.

^[19] William gave the court accounts of his guardianship of his sister Lucy on 6 August 1781, 5 August 1782, 5  August 1783, 2 August 1784, and 1 August 1785: see Charlotte County, Virginia, Court Order Bk. 5, pp. 18, 42, 112 197; and Order Bk. 6, p. 108. Order Bk. 7, p. 21, states that Lucy had married William Hughs and William was discharged from his guardianship of her.

^[20] National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, #44011 (Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1970); digitized in Ancestry’s database U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970.

^[21] In my discussion of William Greenwood’s listings on the Charlotte County tax lists, I’m citing Charlotte County, Virginia, Personal Property Tax Lists, 1782-1849, digitized at FamilySearch.

^[22] Charlotte County, Virginia, Court Order Bk. 5, p. 39.

^[23] Charlotte County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 7, pp. 246-7.

^[24] Ibid., pp. 68-9.

^[25] Lincoln County Historical Society, Lincoln County, Kentucky, p. 198, citing James Franklin Sutherland, Early Kentucky Householders, 1787-1811 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1986), p. 85.