BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS

In what follows, I’m not sharing all the information I have on each of George Birdwell’s children, but providing a brief outline of salient data about each of those children, including when and where he/she was born and died, and marriage information. This “final” Birdwell posting will probably turn into one or more postings, given the number of children (fourteen in all) George Birdwell had.

By George’s First Wife, Whose Name Is Unknown

As a previous posting has noted, the will that George Birdwell made in Bedford County, Virginia, on 14 September 1781 names his children by both of his wives, stating about his first set of children,[1]

I give & Bequeath to my Son Robert & my two Daughters Sarah and Ann which I had by a former Wife Twenty Shillings each.

1. Robert Birdwell is thought to have been George’s first child by his unknown first wife. As a previous posting notes, Robert was of age by 1771 when he appeared on a jury in Botetourt County, Virginia.[2] Robert Birdwell’s first child, a son William, was born in 1765 or 1766, so it’s likely that Robert Birdwell was born by or prior to around 1745.[3] In 1745, George Birdwell was living in Orange County, Virginia, probably already on the land he would acquire on the James River in November 1751 in Botetourt County. Botetourt was formed from Augusta County in 1770, and Augusta was formed from Orange County in 1738, but early Augusta records were kept for some years in Orange.

As far as I can discover, no one has found a marriage record for Robert Birdwell. Judging from the birth year of his first child William, it seems he likely married between 1760-5, almost certainly in Augusta (later Botetourt) County, Virginia, where his father was living at that time. When Robert died in Giles County, Tennessee, in 1815, court records indicate that his wife was named Jane. Some researchers have claimed that Robert’s wife was named Ellen Sanford.[4] I have never seen documentation supporting this claim.

In notes compiled by Robert Arnold Weeks of Miami, Florida, in 1987, which were sent to me by Regina Roper of Gainesville, Florida, in 1996, it’s stated that the research that Edythe Rucker Whitley did on the Birdwell family in the 1950s suggested that Robert Birdwell’s wife was Jane McDonald, and that Jane may have been a second wife. As a previous posting notes, I have seen but do not have a copy of the manuscript Whitley produced during the 1950s for members of the Birdwell family in Texas, and I doubt Whitley’s conclusion that George Birdwell was a descendant of a Bridwell family in Stafford County, Virginia.

A 14 June 1791 Botetourt County, Virginia, deed states that Robert Birdwell was an heir of the estate of William Robinson of that county, through Robert’s marriage to Jane Robinson, who appears to have been William Robinson’s daughter.[5] The deed states that Robinson had died and left land on Looney’s Creek of James River, which his heirs sold to Thomas Rowland and Patrick Lockhart on 14 June 1791. Robert Birdwell and wife Jane signed the deed along with Robinson’s other heirs.[6] As we’ve seen previously, Robert’s father George Birdwell lived on a bend in the James River close to where Looney’s Creek joins the James.

Since records pertaining to Robert Birdwell’s estate when he died in Giles County, Tennessee, in 1815 indicate that he had a wife Jane, I’m inclined to think that at least from June 1791 up to his death in 1815, he was married to Jane Robinson. Whether he had any wife prior to Jane, I can’t say. Jane Robinson is the only documented wife of Robert Birdwell I’ve found.

Robert Birdwell appears in records in Augusta and Botetourt County, Virginia, through the 1770s. According to Jane Lefevre Teal, when George Birdwell made his will in Bedford County, Virginia, on 14 September 1781, his son Robert was with him in Bedford County.[7] I’m not certain what documents lead Teal to conclude that Robert was with his father George at the time the will was made. As we’ve seen previously, when the will was probated in Bedford County on 26 November 1781, George’s son George Jr. appealed for probate and George Jr.’s half-brother Robert Birdwell gave bond with him — so George and Robert were in Bedford County at that point for the probate.[8]

The 22 December 1784 Montgomery County, Virginia, will of Abraham Brown shows that when Brown made his will, Robert Birdwell was living on the upper part of Brown’s plantation on the New River in Montgomery County.[9] This is stated in the will, which gives Robert’s surname as Burdwell; Abraham left this tract to his son Cornelius. Robert Burdwell and a William Robinson who was likely the father of Robert’s wife Jane witnessed the will.

By 1789, Robert Birdwell had joined his father George in Sullivan County, North Carolina (later Tennessee). Robert appears to have remained there until the final years of his life, when he sold his land in Sullivan County in January 1812 and moved to Giles County, Tennessee, where his son John was living. Robert Birdwell died in Giles County before 3 September 1815, when administration of his estate was given to Jane and John Birdwell, Jane presumably being Robert’s wife of that name.

2. Sarah Birdwell was George Birdwell’s second child, if George names his three children by his first wife by order of birth in his will — and since he names his second set of children by order of birth, this reinforces the conclusion that the first three are also named by order of birth. Given that Sarah’s older brother Robert appears to have been born by or prior to 1745, it seems reasonable to think that Sarah may have been born in the time frame 1745-1750. I just haven’t seen a document that allows us to pinpoint her date of birth, and I’ve found very little information about her.

The only fairly clear record that has been found to document Sarah Birdwell’s life of which I’m aware is a 24 April 1764 Augusta County, Virginia, court order showing her on that day charged with and convicted of receiving stolen goods, and being sentenced to be lashed thirty times on her bare back at the county’s public whipping post (see the digital image at the head of the posting).[10] Nothing in this record explicitly states that this Sarah Birdwell was George Birdwell’s daughter, but since George’s family appears to have been the only Birdwell family living in Augusta County at this time and we know from George’s will that he had a daughter Sarah born after his son Robert, it seems very likely this record pertains to the Sarah named as a daughter in George Birdwell’s will.

If Sarah was born close to or just after 1745, she would have been a young woman of less than twenty years in 1764 — possibly a teen. The valuable commentary about this document by Aggie Birdwell of Lubbock, Texas, whose husband Joseph Murrell Birdwell was a descendant of Robert Birdwell, is worth citing here in full:[11]

It is shown in some researchers papers that Sarah and Ann were born after 1750. We have no knowledge of their birthdates. They COULD have been born after 1750. Robert is mentioned in the court records of Botetourt Co., Virginia as serving on Jury Duty and doing road work, I’ve found nothing on Ann but do have a court record for Sarah BURDwell. I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS IS OUR SARAH BIRDWELL or not!!! This Sarah BURDwell is found in Augusta Co., Virginia, Book 8, p 491, 24 April 1764.

Aggie Birdwell then transcribes the complete court record from Augusta County Order Book 8, noting that it was difficult for her to read. Here’s my own transcript, which includes some words Aggie Birdwell was unable to read:

At a cald Court held at Augusta Court House April the Twenty fourth one Thousand Seven Hundred and sixty four for the Examination of Sarah Birdwell who stands Committed to the Gaol of this County Charged with the Feloniously receiving sundry stolen Goods the property of William Bowyer and Thomas Bowyer.

Present: John Christian Archibald Alexander John Poage and Felix Gilbert

Gentlemen Justices

The above Named Sarah Birdwell being brought to the barr denied the fact wherewith he [sic] stands Charged whereupon Marai Gardner was sworn and Examined as a Witne⌠s and the Prisoner heard in her defence on Consideration of which the Court are of Opinion that she is Guilty of the Facts wherwith she stands Charged but the Goods being of small Value and the said Sarah Consenting to receive Corporal Punishment Itis ordered that she receive at the Public Whipingpost of this County Thirty Lashes on her bare back well Laid on and It is said to the sherif that execusion thereof be done Immediately.

Then the court did rise

John Christian

Aggie Birdwell continues,

I typed it as I thought it was meant, but anyone is welcomed to read and retype this…the meaning is the same…Sarah Birdwell received thirty lashes…this Sarah is unknown, George Birdwell did have a daughter Sarah, but we cannot prove this was his Sarah.

IS THIS SARAH BURDWELL our George’s daughter? She could be…in all my years of research, since 1962, the only BURDwells I found in Augusta and Botetourt Counties, Virginia were George’s family. How old was this Sarah? If she was George’s daughter… did the family watch this…30 lashes…we[ll] laid on… what did she take…the stolen goods? All this is lost to us, but I can’t help but think about it.

For reasons I stated previously, I’m strongly inclined to conclude that the Sarah Birdwell of this record is likely George Birdwell’s daughter Sarah. I’ve found no other clear information about Sarah. Her father’s 14 September 1781 will indicates that she was still living at that time.

A number of researchers have concluded that Sarah married a John Cottrell found in Bedford County, Virginia, records from the early 1760s until the latter part of the 1780s, when he moved to Sullivan County, North Carolina (later Tennessee), where George Birdwell moved in 1779 or 1780 before dying in Bedford County in 1781.[12] Before showing up in Bedford County records, John appears to have been in Albemarle, Amherst, and Augusta County, Virginia. As a previous posting notes, John Cottrell gave bond in the amount of £50,000 with Robert Birdwell in Bedford County, Virginia, on 26 November 1781 for George Birdwell Jr.’s executorship of George Birdwell Sr.’s will.

John Cottrell’s wife appears as Sarah when Sarah Cottrell relinquished her dower rights in Bedford County on 25 May 1782 as John sold 368 acres of land there to John Ward.[13] John Cottrell appears to have been living into the late 1790s and up to around 1800 on Kendrick Creek in Sullivan County, Tennessee, where George Birdwell’s sons George Jr. and James had land. If, as seems likely (though note that a record of this marriage has not been found), John Cottrell married George Birdwell’s daughter Sarah, and if she lived after September 1781 when her father named her in his will, it seems probable that she and John Cottrell both died in Sullivan County, Tennessee, after John Cottrell moved there about 1786.

3. Ann Birdwell was the third and apparently last child by George Birdwell’s first wife whom he names in his will. Birdwell researchers have conventionally assigned her a birthdate of about 1753, though I’ve never seen any document corroborating that birthdate. Indeed, I have yet to see a document other than her father’s will providing information about Ann. The 1753 date of birth is likely based on the deduction that she was born after her sister Sarah. If I’m correct in thinking that Sarah was likely born in the time frame 1745-1750, Ann may have been born soon after 1750. George Birdwell’s first child by his second wife Mary, his son George Jr., was born 18 October 1760, so it seems that at some point after 1750, following Ann’s birth, his first wife died and he remarried by or before about 1758. George was living in Augusta (later Botetourt) County, Virginia, during this time frame, so it’s highly likely that Ann was born there, that his first wife died there, and he married his second wife there.

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[1] Bedford County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 408-9. The linked posting has a digital image of George Birdwell’s original will from in the loose-papers probate files of Bedford County, Virginia, noting that the image is from Odessa Morrow Isbell, Isbell Country: Genealogy of an Isbell Family (Gainesville, Texas: Gainesville Printing, 2000), p. 223.

[2] Robert Birdwell’s 1771 jury record in Botetourt County is referenced Jane LeFevre Teal’s “Birdwell Questions–The Big Ones,” an unpublished 1991 article of which I have a copy sent to me in August 1997 by Aggie Birdwell of Lubbock, Texas. See also Aggie Birdwell and Jane LeFevre Teal, “Introduction,” at A.J. Lambert’s Denny-Loftis Genealogy website.

[3] On 11 April 1823, the Alabama Republican of Huntsville reported that William Birdwell, aged 57, had escaped from jail in Lawrence County, stating, “William Birdwell, recently convicted of murder in Lawrence county, aged 57, 5 feet 7 inches high, square built, and fleshy; has short grey hair, has five feet of chain attached to one ancle [sic], rather a florid countenance.” See Find a Grave memorial page of William Birdwell, burial details unknown, created by Ray Isbell.

[4] See e.g. the Find a Grave memorial page of Robert Birdwell, created by Carolyn Murray Daniels, which also has Robert as the son of a nonexistent Isaac George Birdwell. Robert Birdwell’s father’s name appears as plain George in every document I’ve ever found for him.

[5] Botetourt County, Virginia, Deed Bk. 4, pp. 269-270.

[6] See also “Birdwell Family” in The Fincastle [Virginia] Herald (10 July 1997), p. 3-B, which says that Robert Birdwell bought 244 acres from George Rowland on the west side of the James River in 1775. In 1782, he sold the land to Robert Harris. This article states that Robert married Jane, heir to William Robinson, whose sister married Thomas Hutchison.

[7] See Jane Lefevre Teal’s unpublished 1991 article entitled “Birdwell Questions–The Big Ones.” I have a copy of this article sent to me in August 1997 by Aggie Birdwell of Lubbock, Texas. See also Aggie Birdwell and Jane LeFevre Teal, “Introduction,” at A.J. Lambert’s Denny-Loftis Genealogy website.

[8] Bedford County, Virginia, Court Order Bk. 6, p. 332.

[9] Montgomery County, Virginia, Will Bk. B, pp. 78-9. See also Mary B. Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters, vol. 2 (Orange, Virginia: Green, 1982), pp. 253-7; “Birdwell Family” in The Fincastle [Virginia] Herald; and notes of Aggie Birdwell of Lubbock, Texas, which she shared with me in 1997. Agnes Marie (Aggie) Ellis was the wife of Joseph Murrell Birdwell, a descendant of George Birdwell’s son Robert.

[10] Augusta County, Virginia, Court Order Bk. 8, p. 491.

[11] Aggie Birdwell and Jane LeFevre Teal, “Introduction,” at A.J. Lambert’s Denny-Loftis Genealogy website: see supra, n. 7. This article is part of a series of articles published by J. Weldon Birdwell in a now-defunct publication entitled Birdtracks, which gathered research and articles compiled by Birdwell researchers. This publication was previously hosted by a Rootsweb site whose material is no longer available online.

[12] See “Cottrell, John,” at My Family Tree at Rootsweb.

[13] Bedford County, Virginia, Deed Bk. E, p. 375.