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

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.

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth (abt. 1785-1844) and Wife Joicy Jones

Letter of Benjamin Hollingsworth, Carnesville, Franklin County, Georgia, Governor David B. Mitchell, 7 December 1812, in Telamon Cuyler Collection, Series 1. Historical Manuscripts holdings at Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, box 46, folder 11

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.

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — James Hollingsworth (1777/1780 – abt. 1822) and Wife Mary Jones

Reproduction of what appears to be an oil portrait of Salina Zora Belle Hollingsworth Patton in Eddie Patton and Mary Ellen Patton Roberts, “The Pattons of Pelham and the Civil War,” The Pathfinder [Grundy County, Tennessee] 17,2 (June 2012), pp. 16-20, online at the Grundy County, Tennessee, History website

Or, Subtitled:

As we’ve seen, researchers have placed the birth of James Hollingsworth, the seventh child (and fourth son) of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, between 1777-1780 in Guilford or Randolph County, North Carolina (Randolph was created from Guilford in 1779). In their classic accounts of the Hollingsworth and Harlan families, J. Adger Stewart and Alpheus Harlan both have James born in 1777.[1] Sadie Greening Sparks thinks that he was born in 1780.[2]

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 Jacob Hollingsworth (1775 – 1848) and Wife Sarah Martin of Franklin County, Georgia, Monroe County, Alabama, and Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Amanda Melvina Hollingsworth, photo uploaded by Ancestry user Msmtmactx to her McGuir-1 family tree at Ancestry

Or, Subtitled: “My love to All inquiring friends. what you can’t read you must gess at”

Jacob Hollingsworth and Sarah Martin, who were discussed in this previous posting, had the following children:

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Jacob Hollingsworth (1775 – 1848) and Wife Sarah Martin

26 October 1806 request of Jeptha Harrington to Georgia governor for permission to pass through Creek lands, at Georgia Archives, available in digital form at the Virtual Vault of the Archives online

Or, Subtitled: From Georgia to Alabama to Louisiana — Westward Migration of a Plantation Family

As has been noted in a previous posting, though J. Adger Stewart and Alpheus Harlan both indicate, in their histories of the Hollingsworth and Harlan families respectively, that Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks’s son Jacob was born in 1773, a transcription of his tombstone record indicates that the tombstone has a birthdate of 11 August 1775 and a death date death of 16 December 1848.[1] The posting I’ve just linked discusses a transcription of the tombstones found in the Hollingsworth family cemetery at Preston, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, done by Virginia Pearce Packer in July 2008, which contains these dates of birth and death for Jacob Hollingsworth Jr.[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

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]

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822) — Sarah Hollingsworth (abt. 1770 – 10 Sept. 1808/15 May 1821) and Husband James Garner

Charles Christopher Sheats (1839-1904), from Joseph W. Danielson, “Christopher Sheats,” Encyclopedia of Alabama; photo courtesy of Reita Jones

Or, Subtitled: Difficulties of Tracing Women’s Lines, Especially When Women Die Young

About the second child of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, their daughter Sarah and her husband James Garner, I have scant information. As noted previously, Sarah was born 1770-1, probably in Guilford County, North Carolina, and predeceased her father Jacob Hollingsworth. His will, made 15 May 1815 in Franklin County, Georgia, states that Sarah had died and makes a bequest to her son Jacob Garner.[1] As has also been noted, Sarah’s son Jacob Garner married Mary Hunter, daughter of Evan Todhunter, whose son John T. Hunter moved to Lawrence County, Alabama, where his family intermarried with the Lindsey and Brooks families. I find no evidence that James and Sarah Hollingsworth Garner had more children than their son Jacob, and he and wife Mary Hunter seem to have had a single child, a daughter Mary Elizabeth, so there is not much possibility of biographical information about James and Sarah passing down multiple family lines that followed them.

Children of Mary Brooks (1745/1750 – aft. 15 May 1815) and Jacob Hollingsworth (1742 – 1822)

Tombstone of Hannah Hollingsworth Brown from her Find a Grave memorial page, Nacoochee Methodist cemetery, Sautee, White County, Georgia — see n. 3, infra

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:

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

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.