Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Susanna Brooks Haynes and James Brooks

Copy of will of James Brooks filed in Peter Peters and Wife vs. Admrs. of James Brooks, Frederick County, Virginia, Chancery Court 1831-007

Or, Subtitled: Old and week in body but of sound and perfect mind and memory

In a long series of postings of which this is the final one, I’ve been following the children named in the 9 July 1786 will of Mary Brooks of Frederick County, Virginia (and see also here), and have tracked the descendants of those children for a generation or two.[1] As we’ve seen, Mary’s will names the following children:

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Sarah Brooks (1750/1755 – 1810/1820) and Husband Ashdale (2)

Tombstone of Luke Woodward, Find a Grave memorial page for Luke Woodward, Woodward family cemetery, Rectortown, Fauquier County, Virginia, created by Hope, with tombstone photos by Hope

Or, Subtitled: Northern Virginia Family Making Tracks to West Virginia and Ohio

This posting continues the discussion of the children of Sarah Brooks Ashdale (1750/1755 — 1810/1820) that I began in the previous posting with information about Sarah’s son James, who was, I believe, the older of her two sons and possibly her oldest child:

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Sarah Brooks (1750/1755 – 1810/1820) and Husband Ashdale (1)

Will of James Brooks, 16 August 1824, Frederick County, Virginia, Will Bk. 12, pp. 120-1

Or, Subtitled: A Litany of Perhaps and Supposes: How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Ashdales? How Do You Hold a Moonbeam in Your Hand?

This posting on the Brooks line I now want to discuss will, I’m afraid, be full of words like “perhaps,” “suppose,” “seems likely” — qualifiers signaling how sparse the information I’ve been able to find about this family line is, so that the best I can do with it is to make educated conjectures on the basis of such limited evidence as appears to be available.