Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Mary Rice (1776/1778 – abt. 1825) and Husband Joshua Wilson (1769 – 1823)

Postlethwaite’s inn in 1837, from Frank C. Dunn, “Postlethwait’s Tavern,” The Louisville and Nashville Employes’ [sic] Magazine 18, 11 (November 1942), p. 19

Or, Subtitled: “At the head of the table, laid out with great neatness, plenty and variety, sat our well-dressed hostess, who did the honors with ease and propriety

This is the first of a two-part series that will document the life of George Rice and Elizabeth Brooks’s daughter Mary Rice and her husband Joshua Wilson. This posting focuses on the couple’s years in Virginia and then in Bardstown and Lexington, Kentucky. The next posting will focus on the final period of their lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and Corydon, Indiana. Several of the children of George and Elizabeth Brooks Rice shared an interest in inn- and tavern-keeping. As we saw in a previous posting, soon after they arrived in Kentucky from Virginia, Mary Rice Wilson’s sister Ruth and husband Micajah Roach purchased an inn in Bardstown from Joshua and Mary Wilson. And in a later posting, we’ll see that Mary and Ruth’s brother George also had a tavern in Winchester, Virginia. I call these establishments inns-cum-taverns because they were akin to the public houses of the British Isles in which locals could eat and drink, and also in which travelers could find lodging.

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Thomas Hollingsworth (1777 – 1836) and Wife Amelia Terrell

Southern Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia), 31 May 1836, p. 3, col. 5

Or, Subtitled: “He was proverbial for his honesty and integrity.”

Thomas Hollingsworth was the sixth child of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, and was possibly named for Mary’s brother Thomas Brooks (bef. 1747 – 1805) (and see here and here). We’ve seen previously that his tombstone in Fairview Presbyterian cemetery in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia, states that he died 16 May 1836 in his 59th year: this places his birth in 1777.[1] He was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, and died in Lawrenceville, the county seat of Gwinnett, to which he and wife Amelia moved their family in 1825 from Franklin County, Georgia.

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

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.