Tag: Burke Co. North Carolina

Alexander Mackey Brooks (1808-1899): Information about His Second Wife Aletha Sorrells

William D. LindseyLeave a comment
Mary Jane Moffatt Harriman’s 4 September 1896 affiedavit in Brazos County, Texas, District Court case #2809, 15 March 1895-15 October 1897, Mary J. Harriman et al. vs. D.C. Giddings et al., as transcribed by George W. Glass in “Aletha Sorrels Hope Freel Patterson Pierce Brooks”

Or, Subtitled: “She was born in Georgia and her father moved with her to Mississippi”

What I’m sharing with you about the second wife of Alexander Mackey Brooks (1808-1899), Aletha Sorrells (Hope, Freel, Patterson, Pierce) is for the most part not my own research. I’m borrowing shamelessly from George W. Glass, the genealogist who, as I told you in a previous posting, compiled a number of dossiers full of genealogical notes, transcripts and copies of documents, and other material relating to the history of Aletha Sorrells. I cited some of Glass’s collections extensively in my last two postings about Alexander M. Brooks — in particular, his “Hope Family Notes [and] Notes on Aletha Sorrels Hope,” “Aletha Sorrels Hope Freel Patterson Pierce Brooks,” and “Miscellaneous Notes on the James Hope Family.”

Pages: 1 2

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Susanna Brooks and Husband Ezekiel Harlan (2)

William D. Lindsey7 Comments
Pennsylvania Gazette (20 September 1753), p. 3, col. 2

Or, Subtitled: “Wears a cap or wig, black velvet jacket and breeches, and ruffled ſhirts, but may change his apparel”

My previous posting tells you that Susanna Brooks and her husband Ezekiel Harlan have led me on a merry chase as I’ve tried to figure out even the most basic facts about them on the basis of limited evidence, including which particular Ezekiel Harlan Susanna married, when she was born, when and where the couple met, and when and where they died. I’ve become fairly confident that the Ezekiel Harlan whom Susanna married was an Ezekiel Harlan who was born in 1769-1770, and was the son of Ezekiel Harlan (born 1732-6) who was son of Ezekiel Harlan (1707-1754) and wife Hannah Oborn of Chester County, Pennsylvania. To add to the confusion created by the plethora of Ezekiels in this line, the Ezekiel Harlan born in 1769-1770 had a son Ezekiel, too, who was likely born around 1787-8, and who appears in records of Hardin County, Kentucky, along with his father.

Pages: 1 2

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Mary Hollingsworth (1770/5 – 1830/1840) and Husband Benjamin J. Wofford

William D. Lindsey13 Comments
William Tatum Wofford, grandson of Mary Hollingsworth and Benjamin J. Wofford, from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographic Division

Or, Subtitled: Further Connections of the Hollingsworth and Wofford Families in Burke County, North Carolina, and Franklin County, Georgia

As noted previously, Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks’s daughter Mary appears to have been born between 1770 and 1775. Sadie Greening Sparks assigns 1773 as her year of birth.[1] A tombstone marking the grave of her husband Benjamin J. Wofford in Bartow County, Georgia, which was apparently placed there some years following his death, gives his year of birth as 1767.[2] Sadie Greening Sparks indicates that there’s a marriage bond in Randolph County, North Carolina, showing Mary’s intent to marry Daniel Brown, but the couple did not marry and Mary’s sister Hannah married Daniel Brown instead.[3] Mary Hollingsworth and Benjamin J. Wofford had married by 1790, it seems, since he appears on the 1790 federal census in Burke County, North Carolina, next to Jacob Hollingsworth, with a male over 16 in his household and one female.[4] Both Jacob and Benjamin are near Benjamin J. Wofford’s father William Wofford on this census.

Pages: 1 2

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Samuel Hollingsworth (1768/1770 – 1802) and Wife Mary Garner

William D. Lindsey2 Comments

8 August 1802 letters of administration to Mary Hollingsworth and Jacob Hollingsworth for estate of Samuel Hollingsworth, Franklin County, Georgia, Court of Ordinary Minutes Bk. 1801-1804, p. 24

Or, Subtitled: A Family with Quaker Roots in the Middle Colonies Continues Heading West

As I’ve noted previously, Samuel Hollingsworth appears to have been born about 1768-1770, probably in Guilford County, North Carolina, and he died before 8 August 1802 in Franklin County, Georgia. He was, I think, either the second or third child of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks. According to Sadie Greening Sparks, a marriage bond in Randolph County, North Carolina, shows that Samuel married Mary Garner there in 1788.[1] I have searched for this bond but have not found it — though I do not doubt Sparks’s word about it; she did meticulous research, documenting sources carefully. The 1768-1770 birthdate for Samuel is based on his 1788 marriage to Mary Garner.[2]

Pages: 1 2

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Hannah Hollingsworth (1769-1841) and Husband Daniel Brown

William D. Lindsey1 Comment

Captain John Seawell Brown (1814-1893) from his Find a Grave memorial page, Pleasant Gardens cemetery, Burke County, North Carolina; created by Richard Brown, photo uploaded by rkl

Or, Subtitled: “A Rich Jeffersonian History … Self-Sustaining Farmers of Multiple Children”

As my last posting states, I have not done exhaustive research on the family of Jacob Hollingsworth (1742-1822) and Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – after 15 May 1815). That posting also ends by telling you that, in subsequent postings, I’ll share the bits and pieces of information I have about the children of Jacob and Mary Brooks Hollingsworth. Since I have not researched the descendants of Jacob and Mary in any systematic way, it might be best to regard what I’m going to share about them in a series of postings as a guide to further research rather than a comprehensive account of these families and records about them.

Pages: 1 2

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Husband Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822)

William D. Lindsey5 Comments
Fort Hollingsworth, photograph (June 2015) by Wikimedia user Gwringle, at the Fort Hollingsworth-White House page at Wikimedia Commons

Or, Subtitled: Migration of Families with Quaker Roots from Pennsylvania through North Carolina into Northwest Georgia by 1790

Chester County, Pennsylvania, Beginnings of Jacob Hollingsworth

Alpheus H. Harlan, History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family, and Particularly of the Descendants of George and Michael Harlan, Who Settled in Chester County, Pa., 1687 (Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1914), p. 33

As has been noted previously, Jacob Hollingsworth, who married Mary Brooks about 1767-8, was the son of Samuel Hollingsworth and Barbara Shewin of Chester County, Pennsylvania. In his history of the Harlan family long connected to the Hollingsworths, Alpheus Harlan indicates that Jacob was born about 1740 or 1742.[1] According to J. Adger Stewart in his classic study of descendants of Valentine Hollingsworth, the immigrant ancestor, the first son of Samuel and Barbara Shewin Hollingsworth, also named Samuel, was born about 1740.[2] Stewart evidently bases this estimated birthdate on the fact that Samuel and Barbara married in 1738. He does not suggest a birthdate for Jacob, but implies that Jacob was born about 1742. As Alpheus Harlan notes, Samuel Hollingsworth was a farmer of Birmingham township in Chester County, and died there in November 1751.[3] This suggests that Jacob Hollingsworth was born in Birmingham township in Chester County.

Pages: 1 2