Or, Subtitled: More new material added to a previous posting
Here is another addition I’ve made to a previous postings on this blog, after my visit to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City gave me access in the past two week to documents previously locked to me as I worked at my home computer on these previous postings (I discussed this matter in my previous posting):
Or, Subtitled: Distinguished Careers in Public Service, Law Firms and Oil Wells, with a Mysterious Disappearance After the Law Comes Knocking at the Door
As we saw in the previous posting, in his 1 May 1841 Benton County, Alabama, will,[1] Benjamin Hollingsworth states that he and wife Joicy Jones Hollingsworth had had the following children: Stephen, Wyly B. (whose name appears as Wiley in other documents), Asenath (Allen), Mary Ann (Kelly), Hannah Belzora, Benjamin, Benton, and Orlando. The will notes that Wiley had predeceased his father.
Or, Subtitled: Long Trek of a Family from Franklin County, Georgia, to Tennessee, Alabama, and, Finally, Texas
At some point not very long after his 29 July 1831 sale of land with son-in-law Alexander E. Patton in Franklin County, Tennessee (with the deed being recorded 2 June 1834), Benjamin Hollingsworth moved to Benton (now Calhoun) County, Alabama — perhaps around 1835, Sadie Sparks thinks.[1] Benjamin was in Benton County by 6 June 1836 when citizens of Jacksonville in that county presented a resolution to Alabama Governor Clement Clay, noting that at the meeting at which the resolution was passed, a committee of six persons had been appointed to draft the “sense of the meeting.”[2] This committee included Col. Benj. Hollingsworth. Digital images of the first and last pages of this resolution are above, with Benjamin’s signature on the last page.
Or, Subtitled: “Honoured Sir — If your Dignity will permit me to make a statement to you in regard to our frontier county“
In a previous posting, I summarized the salient facts about the life of Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth, Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks’s last child — literally, the Benjamin of their declining years. As we see in the posting I’ve just linked, Benjamin was born after 1784 in Randolph County, North Carolina, and died 18 August 1844 in Benton County, Alabama.[1] We can conclude, more specifically, that Benjamin was likely born in or after 1785, since he does not appear with other males of his family on the tax list in Franklin County, Georgia in 1801, which indicates that he was not yet 16 or became 16 in 1801 after the tax list was compiled.[2] As Sadie Greening Sparks also notes, he does not appear as a drawer in the 1805 Georgia land lottery, and this means he was under 21 in 1805, therefore born after 1784.[3] Because Benjamin witnessed a deed of Joseph Dunnigan to Abner Dunnigan in Franklin County, Georgia, on 20 August 1803, a legal act that required him to be 18 years old at the time (though I’ve seen instances of minors witnessing deeds, too), I suspect he was born in 1785: see below for more about this deed.
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]
As we saw in the previous posting, the will that Jacob Hollingsworth made in Franklin County, Georgia, on 15 May 1815 names his children, noting that his son Samuel and daughter Sarah (Garner) had both predeceased him.[1]Before I start telling you what I know about Jacob’s children, a proviso: I haven’t done exhaustive research on them. What I’m sharing now are bits and pieces I’ve gathered through desultory research. Some researchers have done much more work than I have on some of these children — e.g., Sadie Greenings Spark on Samuel, James, and Benjamin[2] — and I’ll point you to that research as I discuss the children of Jacob Hollingsworth and wife Mary Brooks, who were as follows:
Begats and Bequeathals 