In what follows, I’ll tell you what more I know about Charles and Mary Davies Whitlock’s daughter Agnes, her husband John Grayson, and their family. I’ll follow this posting with one about Agnes’s sister Hannah, her husband James Calfee, and their family.
1. Agnes Whitlock, daughter of Charles Whitlock and Mary Davies, was born about 1793 in Wythe County, Virginia. My single source for this year of birth is the 1850 federal census, in which Agnes appears as the wife of John Grayson in his household in the 68th district of Wythe County.[3] The census lists Agnes as 57 years old and born in Virginia. Her husband John Grayson is 63 years old and also born in Virginia.
The only other federal census on which Agnes appears — and then not by name — is the 1840 census, in which John Grayson’s household in Wythe County has a female, the oldest one in the household, aged 40-49.[4] This female is obviously Agnes, so the census confirms that she was born between 1791-1800. In 1860, as we’ll see below, John Grayson is enumerated on the federal census in Wythe County with only himself in his household. By 1870, as we’ll also see, Agnes seems to have died, since she is not listed with John in the household of their son Franklin Grayson.
As the previous posting states, Charles Whitlock and Mary Davies married in Wythe County at some point prior to 29 January 1793, so if Agnes was born in 1793, as the 1850 census indicates, she was born in the first year of the couple’s marriage. Possibly Agnes was named for Charles’s grandmother Agnes Christmas Whitlock. Because the May 1798 guardianship record cited above, which names their great-uncle William Davies as the guardian of Agnes and her sister Hannah, calls Agnes by the name Nancy, some family trees have mistakenly concluded that her name was Nancy Agnes or Agnes Nancy Whitlock. But Nancy was a nickname for Agnes, the name given to Agnes in other records including the 1850 census entry discussed above.
I have not found a marriage record for John Grayson and Agnes Whitlock. A descendant of this family, Barbara Jones Kelly of Pennington Gap, Virginia, who did excellent research on the family that was published (in the form of a letter) in the Grayson Genealogy Newsletter, states that the couple married in 1813.[5] This is a reasonable supposition, since John and Agnes’s first child, their son Franklin, was born 11 December 1814. But I have yet to locate a marriage record. The marriage record of John and Agnes’s son Andrew Jackson Grayson, who was born 28 August 1831 in Wythe County and married Rosalie Virginia Johnson there on 20 May 1857, states that his parents were John and Anes Grayson.[6]
According to Barbara Jones Kelly, John Grayson was born in 1787 in Montgomery County, Virginia, son of William Grayson and Rachel Cooley.[7] She states that John and his brother Ambrose inherited from their father William Grayson adjoining plantations in a part of Wythe County, Virginia, that became Bland County in 1861. William Grayson’s Montgomery County will dated 15 June 1801 states that he was bequeathing to sons Ambrose and John a plantation called Patrick’s Place (for Ambrose) on Walker’s Creek, with an adjoining plantation that he had bought on Walker’s Creek for John.[8]
According to Barbara Kelly, John Grayson served during the War of 1812 as a captain in the 75th Regiment 19th Brigade, Third Division, Virginia Militia. I have not located this service record. Kelly says that after John and Agnes married in 1813, they built a large brick house in what was then Wythe County on the plantation John had inherited, calling it Green Meadows and completing construction in 1820. Kelly says that Agnes died in Wythe County in 1858; note that the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses I’ve cited previously confirm that Agnes died between 1850-1860. According to Kelly, Ambrose and John and their wives are buried in a family cemetery in what’s now Bland County on what was Ambrose’s plantation. Kelly appears to indicate that the graves of Ambrose and John, and their wives were marked in 1983. If this is the case, note that the Find a Grave page for the Grayson County cemetery has a listing for Ambroses’s grave but not the grave of his wife Elizabeth Wysor Grayson or the graves of John and Agnes Whitlock Grayson. According to Barbara Kelly, the Green Meadows house built by John and Agnes in 1820 was still standing in 1983 and was under renovation then.
In the prints and photographs section of its special collections department, the Library of Virginia has a drawing of Green Meadows done in 1936 by Edward A. Darby in connection with the WPA Federal Art Project. This drawing (above) is online at the Library of Virginia’s special collections site. I am grateful to a valuable reader of this blog, John Blythe of Huntersville, North Carolina, for pointing me to this drawing.
As I’ve noted above, in 1840, John Grayson’s family is enumerated on the federal census in Wythe County, Virginia.[9] The household has one male 50-59, two males 20-29, 2 males 5-9, one female 40-49, two females 15-19, one female 10-14, and eight enslaved persons.
As also stated previously, John Grayson appears on the 1850 federal census in Wythe County, aged 63 and born in Virginia.[10] John is listed as a farmer with real estate valued at $5,000. Also noted above: his wife Agnes is 57 and born in Virginia. The household also includes their are children Andrew J. 19, and John P., 15, as well as Jane Calfee, 26, the daughter of Agnes’s sister Hannah and her husband James Madison Calfee.
John Grayson also appears on the 1850 slave schedule in Wythe County owning the following enslaved persons: one female aged 68, one male aged 37, one male aged 36, one female aged 33, one female aged 26, one male aged 12, one female aged 11, one male aged 11, one female aged 8, one male aged 8, one female aged 6, one female aged 4, one female aged 2, and one male aged 2.[11] The census lists all of the enslaved persons as black except for the male aged 8 and the female aged 26, who are mulatto.
In 1860, John appears again in Wythe County on the federal census, as noted previously.[12] The census lists only John in his household, stating that he is 73 years old, a farmer born in Virginia with, $9,000 real worth and $11,050 personal worth. By 1860, all of John and Agnes’s children who had survived to that year had married.
John Grayson also appears on both the agricultural census and the slave schedule in Wythe County in 1860. The agricultural schedule shows him with 400 acres of improved land and 200 acres of unimproved land valued at $10,000.[13] John’s farm has tools and implements valued at $170; ten horses; ten milch cows; twenty other cattle; twenty-two sheep; and twenty-three swine, with the livestock valued at $1,000. It produced 91 bushels of wheat, 800 bushels of corn, 140 bushels of oats, and 242 pounds wool during the census year.
1860 federal slave schedule shows John Grayson holding the following enslaved persons in Wythe County: one male aged 50 (mulatto); one male aged 45; one female aged 41; one female aged 39 (mulatto); one male aged 23; one female aged 21; one male aged 21 (mulatto); one male aged 20; one male aged 18; one female aged 16 (mulatto); one male aged 16 (mulatto); one female aged 14 (mulatto); one female aged 12; 1 male aged 12; three males aged 9; and one male aged two.[14]
The final federal census on which John Grayson appears is the 1870 census, in which he is listed in the household of his son Franklin Grayson at Bland courthouse in Bland County, Virginia.[15] John is aged 83 and his occupation is listed as “at home.”
John died in Bland County before 2 March 1874, when his will was probated.[16] (See the digital image of the will at the top of this posting.) On the same day, John’s son Franklin gave bond for execution of his father’s will with James M. Stover and Harman Newberry in the amount of $16,800, and was appointed executor.[17]
John made the will in Bland County on 28 April 1866. The will states that John had given Franklin the land John owned in Smyth County, Virginia, on which Franklin formerly owned and personal property, all worth $3,700. John’s other heirs are named as Cynthia, wife of Randolph Grayson; Julian, wife of Jonathan Bane; Jane, the deceased wife of William Bane; and A.J. Grayson. Franklin was to have as well John’s horses, wagons, carts, harnesses, farming utensils and blacksmithing tools, household furniture, beds and beddings, and kitchen ware.
John states that he had given his daughter Cynthia Grayson $1,500 in cash and cash bonds, and was willing to her five shares of stock in the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. Franklin was also to pay Cynthia $2,500 two years after John’s death. John’s daughter Julian Bane was willed $1,500 and an enslaved boy, and Franklin was to pay Julian $3,300 four years after John’s death. John had given his daughter Jane Bane of Giles County $1,300, and in addition he willed to her heirs his stock in the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, together with his house and lot in Mechanicsburg, Giles County, and Franklin was to pay her heirs $2,100 six years after John’s death. John had given to his son Andrew J. Grayson $5,000 or upwards in money and cash bonds arising from the sale of lands, horses, and cattle, along with five young horses worth $400 and pork valued at $190, and Franklin was to pay Andrew $500 seven years after John’s death. The will makes John’s son Franklin and son-in-law William Bane executors, and was witnessed by A.A. Ashworth, J.F. Locke, and Josiah Bruce, with A.A. Ashworth and John F. Locke proving it in Bland court on 2 March 1874.
An odd feature of this will: How can John have willed his daughter Julian an enslaved boy in April 1866, when slavery had been abolished throughout the U.S. on 8 February 1865 by the ratification of the 13th amendment to the Constitution?
There’s obviously much more research that might be done about John Grayson and his family — e.g., research in the land records of Montgomery, Wythe, and Bland Counties, Virginia. John’s will also indicated he had holdings in Giles County, Virginia, and had had land in Smyth County, Virginia, that he had deeded to his son Franklin. What I’ve shared above should be regarded as merely an outline, with more research to be done to fill in the picture inside the outline.
The children of John Grayson and Agnes Whitlock were as follows:
a. Franklin Grayson was born 11 December 1814 in Wythe County and died 3 November 1899 in Smyth County. On 5 May 1840 in Smyth County, Virginia, he married Nancy Louisa Tate, daughter of Charles and Mary Tate. She was born 14 April 1819 in Smyth County, and died 4 December 1885 at Rich Valley in Smyth County. Franklin and Nancy Louisa are buried in Rich Valley Presbyterian cemetery at Saltville in Smyth County. At his Spared and Shared blog site, a collector of antique letters whose name is given as Griff shares digital images and a transcription of a letter Nancy Louisa’s brother James Monroe Tate of Spencerburg, Missouri, sent to Franklin Grayson of Bradford in Smyth County on 31 December 1841. Griff’s notes accompanying his transcript of the letter state that Franklin was the son of John Grayson (1787-1874) and Agnes Whitlock (1793-1858).
b. Cynthia Grayson was born 19 November 1816 in Wythe County and 17 February 1902 in Bland County. On 25 April 1837 in Wythe County, she married her first cousin Randolph Grayson, son of Ambrose Grayson and Elizabeth Wysor. Randolph was born 12 January 1808 in Wythe County and died 29 December 1880 in Bland County. Cynthia and Randolph are buried in the Grayson family cemetery at Bland in Bland County. The Find a Grave memorial page for Cynthia states that she had the middle name Whitlock, though I have not seen this middle name in documents pertaining to her.[18]
c. William Grayson was born 25 January 1818 in Wythe County and died 2 October 1840 in the same county.
d. Julia Ann Grayson was born 15 December 1821 in Wythe County 29 September 1873 in Callaway County, Missouri. On 13 January 1842 in Wythe County, she married Johnston Bane, son of John Bane and Sarah Chapman. Johnston was born 18 April 1815 in Giles County, Virginia, and died 21 May 1882 in Callaway County, Missouri. Julia Ann and Johnston are buried in Augusta cemetery in Callaway County, Missouri.
e. Jane Grayson was born 12 December 1824 in Wythe County and died 16 March 1865 in Giles County.[19] On 15 June 1845 in Wythe County, she married William David Bane, son of James Bane and Mary Ann Henderson. He was born 17 December 1814 in Giles County and died 11 October 1901 at White Gate in Giles County. Jane and William are buried in First Bane cemetery in Giles County, Virginia.
f. Andrew Jackson Grayson was born 28 August 1831 in Wythe County and died 5 May 1910 at Seddon in Bland County. On 20 May 1856 in Wythe County, he married Rosalie Virginia Johnson, daughter of Lafayette F. Johnson and Harriet Elvira Moorman. She was born 9 February 1838 at Mount Safety in Campbell County, Virginia, and died 25 March 1911 in Bland County. Andrew and Rosalie are buried in the Andrew J. Grayson family cemetery near their home at Seddon (now Bland), Bland County. Andrew Jackson Grayson represented Bland County in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1874-5, a point noted in his obituary in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.[20]
g. John Pierce Grayson was born 14 November 1834 in Wythe County and died 5 September 1859 in Wythe County.
For an addendum to this posting, please see this subsequent posting.
[1] Augusta County, Virginia, Chancery Court case, Whitlock vs. Whitlock, box 10, file 38 (1803-4), available digitally via Library of Virginia’s Virginia Memory chancery records collection.
[2] Wythe County, Virginia, Court Order Bk. 1796-8, p. 184.
[3] 1850 federal census, Wythe County, Virginia, 68th District, p. 340 (dwelling/family 1627, 5 October).
[4] 1840 federal census, Wythe County, Virginia, p. 86.
[5] Grayson Genealogy Newsletter 5,3 (1984), pp. 110-7, reproduces a letter by Barbara Jones Kelly of Pennington Gap, Virginia, to Dr. R.R. Grayson of St. Charles, Illinois, 4 June 1983, sharing her research on the Grayson family of Montgomery, Wythe, and Bland Counties, Virginia. Barbara Jones Kelly was a descendant of this Grayson family and did excellent research on it. Dr. Grayson was editor of the newsletter. See also Ginger L. Christmas-Beattie, Eight Generations After Thomas Cross Christmas, 1690-1769, of Hanover County, Virginia (Forest Grove, Oregon: Ancestral Tracks, 1999), p. 26, which has the same date of marriage.
[6] Wythe County, Virginia, Marriage Register Bk. 1856, p. 196.
[7] Kelly, Grayson Genealogy Newsletter 5,3 (1984), pp. 112-3.
[8] Montgomery County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 116-7. See also Louis Alexander Burgess, Virginia Soldiers of 1776, vol. 1 (Richmond: Richmond Press, 1927), pp. 497-8, with an abstract of the will supplied by Mrs. P.D. Stewart of Richmond from the original. The will of Rachel Cooley Grayson is also abstracted here. The will spells “Patrick’s Place” as “Partrick’s Place.” In Early Adventurers on the Western Waters, vol. 1 (Orange, Virginia: Green Publishers, 1980), Mary B. Kegley presents a well-documented sketch of the Grayson family of Montgomery, Wythe, and Bland County, Virginia, tracing its descent from John Grayson and wife Barbara (Burdine), who came to the New River country from Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1766 (pp. 348-350). Kegley notes that John Grayson and his wife, whom Kegley calls Nancy, settled side by side with his brother Ambrose on Walker’s Creek in what was later Bland County, on land willed to both by their father William Grayson.
[9] See supra, n. 4.
[10] See supra, n. 3.
[11] 1850 federal slave schedule, Wythe County, Virginia, district 68 (unpaginated, 21 September).
[12] 1860 federal census, Wythe County, Virginia, district 68, p. 858 (dwelling 1032/family 912, 6 July).
[13] 1860 federal agricultural census, Wythe County, Virginia, district 68, p. 754.
[14] 1860 federal slave schedule, Wythe County, Virginia, district 68 (unpaginated, 2 July).
[15] 1870 federal census, Bland County, Virginia, Bland courthouse, p. 416 (dwelling/family 131, 26 July).
[16] Bland County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 361-2.
[17] Bland County, Virginia, Bond Bk. 1861-1890, p. 334.
[18] See Find a Grave memorial page for Cynthia Whitlock Grayson, Grayson family cemetery, Bland, Bland County, Virginia, created by James E. Snyder, maintained by Find a Grave. Note that this page erroneously has Cynthia dying in 1912 in Wythe County, when she died in 1902 in Bland County.
[19] Jane’s death record states that she died of measles and gives her parents as John and Nancy Graham: see Giles County, Virginia, Register of Deaths 1865, p. 54.
[20] “Captain A.J. Grayson,” Richmond Times-Dispatch (8 May 1919), p. 2, col. 5. See also “Father-in-Law of Attorney General Williams Dies in Bland County,” Newport News Daily Press (8 May 1910) p. 1, col. 4; “Gallant Soldier and Worthy Citizen Gone at Ripe Age,” Tazewelll Republican (12 May 1910), p. 2, col. 5; and “Capt. A.J. Grayson Dead,” Clinch Valley News and Richlands Press(13 May 1910), p. 2, col. 4.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 
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