S.W. Barbee, “Old Lawrence Reminiscent,” Moulton Advertiser (5 January 1909), p. 1, col. 3-4, transcribed by George A. O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama (1500 Trinity Road, Huntsville, Alabama 35802-2779; Oreilly0103@gmail.com). pp. 203-4
Or, Subtitled: More Affrays! —“His bellicose disposition led him into many a brawl with others, one of which cost him very dearly, since by it he lost an eye”
This posting is a continuation of two previous postings (here and here) discussing the children of James Brooks (1772-1835) and Nancy Isbell of Wayne County, Kentucky, Warren County, Tennessee, and Lawrence County, Alabama. The previous postings have discussed their children Godfrey Isbell Brooks, Thomas R. Brooks, Hannah Isbell Brooks, Margaret C. Brooks, and James Irwin Brooks. The next child of James Brooks and Nancy Isbell was:
State of Alabama v. James I. Brooks and John B. Smith, Lawrence County, Alabama, loose-papers court files box 22, folder 54, circuit court case 49
Or, Subtitled: Yet More Affrays! Public Fighting “to the Terror of the People; and Against the Peace and Dignity of the State of Alabama”
In the previous posting, I began providing information about the children of James Brooks (1772-1835) and Nancy Isbell. That posting discussed James and Nancy’s first two children, sons Godfrey Isbell Brooks and Thomas R. Brooks. As I noted in the linked posting, the family bible owned by James and Nancy’s son James Irwin Brooks gives the named and birthdates of all of James and Nancy’s children, and is my source for this information. After sons Godfrey and Thomas, James and Nancy had the following children:
The names and birthdates of the children of James Brooks and Nancy Isbell are recorded in the family bible that passed to their son James Irwin Brooks (or, as I have suggested previously, it’s possible the bible actually belonged to James Irwin Brooks and he transcribed the information found in his parents’ bible into his own bible). Information about this bible is found in the two postings I’ve just linked and also here. Digital images of the transcript of the bible register published by Memory Aldridge Lester after she saw the original bible in June 1951 at the house of its owner, Nettie Raymond Brooks Young of Moulton, Alabama, are in the first posting linked above.
Inventory of estate of James Brooks, Lawrence County, Alabama, Orphans Court Minutes, Bk. D, pp. 162-3
Or, Subtitled: 17 Hedd Hogs, 1 Gray Horse, 1 Looking Glass, 1 Large Bible, etc.
In my last posting, I shared with you the information I have about the life of James Brooks, son of Thomas and Margaret Brooks of Frederick and Wythe Counties, Virginia, from his birth in Frederick County in 1772 to the death of his wife Nancy Isbell Brooks at Oakville in Lawrence County, Alabama, on 9 October 1835. I told you that James moved with his parents and siblings from Frederick to Wythe County, Virginia, in 1792, after James had come of age in Frederick County in 1789.
Wayne County, Kentucky, Marriage Bonds 1801-1813, p. 66
Or, Subtitled: From Virginia to Alabama by Way of Kentucky and Tennessee
We’ve met the second child of Thomas and Margaret Brooks, their son James Brooks, in previous postings. As we’ve seen, James’s year of birth, 1772, is recorded in the register of a bible belonging to James and his wife Nancy Isbell. A transcript of this bible register was published in November 1952 by Memory Aldridge Lester in the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, with a note that the bible belonged at that time to Nettie Raymond Brooks Young of Moulton, Alabama, and Lester had transcribed the bible at Mrs. Young’s house in June 1951.[1] Lester published the same transcript again in 1974 in a book entitled Old Southern Bible Records.[2] The posting linked above provides digital images of both transcripts.
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.
Wayne County, Tennessee, Old Deed Bk. A, pp. 308-310
Or, Subtitled: “In Consideration of the Natural Love and Affection I Have and Bear to My Daughter Sally“
Stop the Presses! New Information Correcting My Last Posting
In my first posting about Frances Rebecca Lindsey and husband Samuel Hiram Kellogg, I stated that I have long been puzzled by the question of how Samuel and Frances met, when he had roots in Wayne County, Tennessee, and hers were in Lawrence County, Alabama. I wrote that I have repeatedly tried to answer this question without finding a satisfactory explanation.
Begats and Bequeathals 