Sarah Whitlock was, if I have the children of Thomas Whitlock and Hannah Phillips ordered correctly, the couple’s fourth child. Sarah’s my 4th-great-grandmother. I’ve shared all that I know about her life in a number of previous postings. As this previous posting states, Sarah’s name is recorded in a family bible that belonged to her and her husband Thomas Brooks, and which passed from them to their oldest son Charles Brooks.[1] This bible is discussed in another previous posting.
The next child of Thomas Whitlock (abt. 1745 – 1830) and wife Hannah Phillips, their third child if I have their children in correct order, was a son Charles Whitlock. A number of previous postings contain biographical information about Charles. As I state in a previous posting, in my view, Thomas and his siblings were likely raised by their older brother Charles after the Whitlock parents, James Whitlock and Agnes Christmas, died, James in 1749 in Louisa County, Virginia, and Agnes between 1750 and 1757, probably also in Louisa.
I don’t have documentary proof of my deduction that, as the oldest of James and Agnes’s children, Thomas’s brother Charles brought his younger siblings to Albemarle County, where he lived from 1760 or a bit earlier up to around 1780, when he moved to Surry County, North Carolina. But such information as I have suggests to me that this is what happened. As the posting linked above states, in my view Thomas Whitlock named his only son Charles after the older brother who raised him.
This posting is a continuation of a previous one discussing Thomas Whitlock’s final years in Cumberland County, Kentucky. That posting ended with a transcription of the will Thomas made on 22 January 1824 in Cumberland, County, which was proved in Cumberland County at May court 1830. As my final comments in the posting I’ve just linked state, in my view, Thomas likely died in 1830, perhaps in May or shortly before May. In what follows, I’ll discuss Thomas Whitlock’s estate documents, which include an estate inventory and appraisal, an account of the sale of his estate, and a final settlement.
Or, Subtitled: Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative
Sometimes our searches for genealogical records yield negative results. That is, we search for material we hope or even expect to find in vital records, land records, court records, etc., and find that no such material is there. Part of the process of genealogical research is noting the lack of records for which we’ve done careful searches.
Or, Subtitled: Tracking Parrish v. Guthery in Bedford County, Virginia, Court Minutes
I recently reported here that I had found a record for Hannah Phillips Whitlock, wife of Thomas Whitlock (abt. 1745 -1830) in Bedford County, Virginia, court minutes in July 1769. Minutes of Bedford County’s court of common pleas for 26 July 1769 state that Hannah was paid for three days’ attendance at court to testify on behalf of Lucy Parrish in her lawsuit against Henry Guthery/Guthrie.
Or, Subtitled: When the name you ignore in a document turns out to be the key to the problem you’re trying to solve
In my penultimate posting, I told you that, having recounted Thomas Whitlock’s (abt. 1745 – 1830) story up to the point that he and wife Hannah Phillips Whitlock sold their land in Wythe County, Virginia, and moved to Kentucky in 1805, I’d proceed with a chronicle of their life in Cumberland County, Kentucky. Before I do that, however, I’d like to share some important information I’ve now unearthed about Jonathan Jennings.
Or, Subtitled: Eureka!
Here’s an interesting find that allows me to determine more accurately when Thomas Whitlock (abt. 1745 – 1830) married his wife Hannah Phillips, and when they arrived in Bedford County, Virginia, as they made their way towards Montgomery (later Wythe) County, where they had settled by March 1776.
Or, Subtitled: Road Orders, Estate Appraisals, and Dams Interfering with Fishing for Catfish
I’m now picking up the story of Thomas Whitlock’s life in 1790, when Wythe County was formed from Montgomery, where Thomas was living from before March 1776. If you click the “previous post” link beneath this posting, that will take you to the posting that precedes this one, and if you want to read the entire series of postings I’ve now written about Thomas Whitlock, simply click “previous posting” at the bottom of each new posting you open in the series.
Or, Subtitled: In which I share information strongly supporting the conclusion that the Thomas Whitlock of the 7th Virginia Regiment is, indeed, this Thomas — see discussion of Capt. Robert Sayers below.
In this posting, I’m continuing my chronicle of the life of Thomas Whitlock (abt. 1745 – 1830) in Montgomery County, Virginia, insofar as I’ve found documents there for him. Previous postings have tracked him from the time he appears in Montgomery County in March 1776 witnessing a deed of Jonathan Jennings to Charles Lynch (and here and here). The last link I’ve just provided points to a posting that ends with a discussion of Thomas’s appearance on a 6 April 1781 list of men serving in Jeremiah Pearce/Pierce’s battalion in Montgomery County.
Or, Subtitled: What a Close Reading of an Historical Document Might Reveal
In this posting, I’ll begin my documentation of the life of Thomas Whitlock (abt. 1745 – May 1830) after he arrived in Montgomery County, Virginia, by 1776: in previous postings, I’ve discussed his probable date of birth, and the sparse documentation I have for him prior to his appearance in Montgomery County records (and here). I noted that, after his appearance in the estate settlement of his father James Whitlock in Louisa County, Virginia, in November 1757,[1] the first solid record I have for Thomas — other than a July 1769 Bedford County, Virginia, court record and the statement of the bible of his daughter Sarah Whitlock and her husband Thomas Brooks that Sarah was born in Bedford on 9 June 1774 — is a 1 March 1776 deed in Montgomery County to which he was a witness.[2]
Begats and Bequeathals 