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) (2)

John Clark Bayless, photo uploaded by John Blakemore Sellers to “Rev John Clark Bayless” Find a Grave memorial page, Bayless cemetery, Carter County, Kentucky, created by Marcella Mauk and maintained by Remembrance of Days Past

The previous posting ended its chronicle of Joshua Wilson and Mary Rice’s lives on 13 January 1812 as they relinquished to John Postlethwaite the inn they had leased from him in Lexington, Kentucky, and had managed for eight years. The posting states that at this point, the Wilsons moved from Lexington to Louisville, Kentucky. Robert C. Jobson thinks that they had actually moved to Louisville by 1811, prior to the 13 January 1812 relinquishment of their lease on Postlethwaite’s inn.[1] In his 1983 Filson Club History Quarterly article chronicling the life of Joshua and Mary’s grandson John Clark Bayless, Jobson says that Joshua Wilson first appeared on the scene in Louisville in 1811 as a “wealthy entrepreneur.”[2] According to Jobson, the Wilsons’ soon-to-be son-in-law Abijah Bayless arrived in Louisville the same year when he began a dry-goods mercantile business there.

Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Ruth Rice (1769 – 1852) and Husband Micajah Roach (1761 – 1805)

Tennessee Gazette (8 June 1803), p. 2, col. 3

Or, Subtitled: At the “ſign of the Indian Queen” in Bairdſtown, Micajah Roach is “determined to exert himſelf to accommodate travelers in the beſt manner the country will afford, excellent ſtables, clover lotts, &c

When I promised in my last posting a follow-up piece about the children of George Rice and Elizabeth Brooks, I thought I’d have that article done in no time at all — and that the task would be simple. I thought wrong.

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Wills of George and Elizabeth Rice

Will of George Rice, Woodford County, Kentucky, Will Bk. A, pp. 72-4

Or, Subtitled:I give and devise all my estate in Lands lying on the Western Waters to my six Children

George Rice died testate in Woodford County, Kentucky, with a will dated 4 August 1792 and proved at October court 1792 in Woodford County.[1] The will reads as follows:

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Documenting George’s Life, 1763-1792

14 December 1801 grant of Thomas Jefferson to Richard C. Anderson and Mayo Carrington, 2,000 acres from 4,000 acres granted to George Rice in Ohio for three years’ service as a captain of the Virginia line on 17 June 1783, from Raab Collection, Ardmore, Pennsylvania

Or, Subtitled: A Revolutionary Officer Who Rubbed Shoulders with Washington and Jefferson

My last posting in this series about Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and husband George Rice ended with a brief discussion of the first record I’ve found in Frederick County, Virginia, showing George as an adult living a life independent of his father. This record is a Northern Neck grant of 300 acres in Frederick County that he received on 7 March 1763.[1] As I noted in the posting linked at the start of this paragraph, the grant shows that the land (which George Washington surveyed) lay along the line of the land of George’s father Patrick Rice. The posting linked above has a digital image of the land grant.

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792)

Will of Elizabeth Brooks Rice, 18 February 1816, Frederick County, Virginia, Will Bk. 9, pp. 535-6

Or, Subtitled: “Your Orator Further Sheweth” — Valuable Inheritances and Predictable Litigation

With this posting, I’m climbing back up the Brooks family tree and starting to track lines stemming from another daughter of Mary Brooks, the earliest Brooks ancestor I’ve been able to prove. As I’ve indicated previously, Mary died testate in Frederick County, Virginia, with a will dated 9 July 1786.[1] In her will, Mary named children Mary (Hollingsworth), Elizabeth (Rice), Thomas, Sarah (Asdril [i.e., Ashdale]), Susanna (Haynes), and James. As the posting I’ve just linked says, I have not been able to discover the name of Mary’s husband, or her maiden surname, or where this family lived before I first catch sight of them in Frederick County, Virginia, records in March 1767.

Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia): What I Know (and Don’t) about the Earliest Generation of This Brooks Family

Transcript of will of Mary Brooks, 9 July 1786, Frederick County, Virginia, Will Bk. 5, p. 158

Or, Subtitled: “Of English Descent” or “a Native of Ireland” — Take Your Pick

As I stated at the end of my penultimate posting, after having shared with you the information I have about Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747- 1805), I now want to focus on Thomas’s mother Mary Brooks, who died testate in Frederick County, Virginia, with a will dated 9 July 1786.[1] Mary’s will was proven in Frederick County court on 4 April 1787, so she died at some point between those two dates. This will is just about the sum total of what I know of this Brooks family in the generation prior to Thomas Brooks. 

Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747-1805): Frederick County, Virginia, Beginnings

Will of Mary Brooks, 9 July 1786, Frederick County, Virginia, Will Bk. 5, p. 158

Or, Subtitled: “I will and bequeath to my beloved son Thomas Brooks, whom I likewise constitute make and ordain my whole and sole Executor”

I’ve now finished telling you what I know of Thomas Brooks (1775-1838), who moved with his parents from Frederick County, Virginia, where he was born in 1775, to Wythe County, Virginia, in 1793, and from there to Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1798. As I’ve also shown you, at the very end of his and his wife Sarah’s lives, the couple moved their family from Kentucky to Morgan County, Alabama, in November 1836, and in 1837, Sarah died at the home of their daughter Jane Brooks Lindsey in Lawrence County, Alabama, with Thomas dying under Jane’s care in 1838.