Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: John Jehu and Rachel Brooks

Will of Thomas Brooks, Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 308-9

Or, Subtitled: “Upon James Brooks throwing in two hundred dollars, Robert Brooks one hundred and twenty dollars, Jesse Brooks one hundred dollars”

I’m now drawing to a close my lengthy series about the children of Thomas Brooks and wife Margaret Beaumont/Beamon of Frederick and Wythe Counties, Virginia. This series began with an examination of Thomas and Margaret’s years in Frederick County, where they settled after they married in 1771 and where Thomas had been living prior to 1771. The narrative then moved on to a discussion of their life together in Wythe County, where they relocated in 1792 and where Thomas died testate before 12 February 1805. His estate records suggest that Margaret may have died in Wythe County after 1808, or that she left Wythe County after 1808 to move to Kentucky with some of her children and died there.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Rebecca Brooks (1786-1860/1870) and Husband Jacob Walters

Hardin County, Kentucky, Original Marriage Bonds and Consent Notes, 1807, available digitally at FamilySearch

Or, Subtitled:You can’t tell much about the birth of a baby, except that you were there(Peggy LaRue Walters on Abraham Lincoln’s birth, at which she assisted)

Rebecca Brooks, daughter of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon, was born in 1786 in Frederick County, Virginia. Rebecca was enumerated twice on the 1850 federal census, once in the household of her son Jacob Warren Walters in McCracken County, Kentucky, and once in the household of her son-in-law Barrett Pace in Barren County, with both census entries stating that she was 64 years old and born in Virginia.[1] The 1860 census, in which Rebecca appears in the household of her son-in-law David Foster Pace at Elizabethtown in Hardin County, Kentucky, gives Rebecca’s age as 74 and place of birth as Virginia.[2] Barrett and David Foster Pace were brothers, sons of Joseph Pace and Martha Foster, who married sisters Margaret and Grace Walters, daughters of Jacob Walters and Rebecca Brooks.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Jesse Brooks (1783/1786 – 1860)

Kentucky State Archives, Kentucky Birth, Marriage and Death Records (1852-1910), microfilm #994063, available digitally at Ancestry in the database Kentucky, U.S., Death Records, 1852-1965 (Edmonson County Deaths 1859-1860)

Or, Subtitled: “Sir, this is to let you no that you may let robert humprey hav mareg lisons”

Jesse Brooks, son of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon, was born in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1783-1786. His death listing in the 1860 death register of Edmonson County, Kentucky, shows him dying in that county on 30 January 1860, aged 75.[1] A digital image of the death listing is above. This document states that Jesse’s parents were Thomas and Margaret Brooks and that he was born in Virginia. 

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Sarah Brooks (1771 – 1857) and Husband John Lahue

Death record of Sarah Brooks Lahue in Kentucky State Historical Society and State Archives, Grayson County, Kentucky, Registry of Deaths 1857, in Kentucky Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1852-1910digitized at the Family Search site

Or, Subtitled: Post-Revolutionary Exodus of Wythe County, Virginia, Families to Grayson County, Kentucky

As my last posting tells you, having completed a lengthy series of posts about the children named in the 9 July 1786 will of Mary Brooks of Frederick County, Virginia, I’m now going to begin a series focusing on the children of Mary’s son Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805), who is my ancestor. Thomas died testate in Wythe County, Virginia, with a will dated 4 November 1804, which was probated 12 February 1805.[1] That will names his wife Margaret and the following children:

Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747-1805): Wythe County, Virginia Years, 1793-1805

Will of Thomas Brooks, 4 November 1804, Wythe County, Virginia, Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 308-9

Or, Subtitled: Fertile New Land, Lead Mines, Shot Towers and Forges, and Movement from the Middle Colonies into the Valley of Virginia

With my first posting about Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747-1805), I shared my information about Thomas’s life in Frederick County, Virginia, up to 1792, when he moved his family to Wythe County, Virginia. My account begins with a March 1767 deed of Patrick Rice to his son John, which Thomas witnessed, the first certain record I have of him in Frederick County. Since, as my posting indicates, I have not found information about Thomas’s father, I haven’t been able to track this family line sufficiently to say with any certainty where Thomas Brooks was born — a point to which I’ll return when I discuss in more detail the information I have about Thomas’s mother Mary, who made her will in Frederick County on 9 July 1786, with the will being probated on 4 April 1787.