Charles Witt

(c1715? – c1781)

Charles Witt’s father is not entirely clear. He could have been a son of either John Witt II or of John Witt III. The evidence slightly favors his being a son of John Witt III, and I’ve treated that evidence in a separate document.

Several 20^th century Witt researchers proposed that Charles Witt was a son of the William Witt, who died in 1754 in Goochland County. This assertion was first published in the Manakin Huguenot Society’s initial Yearbook in 1924, and repeated in numerous subsequent publications.[1] William Witt’s will names only two sons, John and Benjamin.[2] But the Huguenot Society’s correspondents concluded there were five additional sons based on subsequent relationships between the two sons named in the will and other Witts. Further investigation shows that all five of those “sons” were actually grandsons: two being sons of Benjamin Witt and the other three being sons of John Witt.

With regard to Charles Witt, only evidence offered in support of the assertion that he was a son of William Witt was Charles Witt’s witness to a deed by Benjamin Witt in Prince Edward County in 1756. It was assumed that this Charles Witt was a brother of Benjamin Witt, and that he was the same Charles Witt whose will was probated in Halifax County in 1781. Neither of these assumptions is true. There were, in fact, two persons named Charles Witt. The Charles Witt who witnessed the 1756 deed was actually a son of Benjamin Witt, and he appears frequently in Prince Edward County and later in Buckingham County during a period when “our” Charles Witt was elsewhere.

Our Charles Witt was considerably older, old enough to purchase land in 1739. Since he appears not to have had children until the mid or late 1740s, we assume a birth year about 1715. That means he could have been either a younger son of John Witt II or an older son of John Witt III.

The first evidence of our Charles Witt is a 1739 court record of a deed from Thomas Joplin to Charles Witt in Henrico County just east of the land bought by the brothers John and William Witt in 1715. Although the deed itself is not extant, we can identify the land through Thomas Joplin, the grantor. The land was part of 343 acres on both sides of Deep Run which was patented in 1735 by Henry Holman[3] and then sold to brothers-in-law Thomas Joplin and Holman Freeman a few months later on 17 December 1735.[4] This land was described as being on both sides of Deep Run “nigh Tuckahoe Creek”, and is easily plotted on maps of the area. It was only a mile or so west of the Henrico-Goochland county line. (I might also note that both Joplin and Freeman lived near John Witt II on Tuckahoe Creek at the time, and John Witt would five years later witness a sale there to Holman Freeman.) Thomas Joplin and Holman Freeman had been left the land by the will of George Freeman, which split the land between them on either side of Deep Run, Thomas Joplin receiving the land on the west side.[5] This is undoubtedly the land Thomas Joplin sold to Charles Witt in 1739, who then disposed of the land nine years later. On 14 October 1748 Charles Witt of Goochland County sold 160 acres on the upper side of Deep Run in Henrico County to David Staples.[6] This was, from its description, the upper portion of Freeman’s patent and therefore the same land purchased in 1739.

The location of this land can be determined quite precisely, since we have three different descriptions of it. When Goochland County was formed from Henrico in early 1728, the dividing line between the two counties was Tuckahoe Creek as far as Chumley’s branch. Charles Witt’s land was just on the Henrico side of that line. (And I can’t help but note that Holman’s patent bordered two sons of the same William Randolph who had claimed the importation of John Witt nearly two generations earlier.)

Among the few remaining tithables lists of Goochland County is a short 1746 list of tithables on Tuckahoe Creek. On that list are an unknown Witt and David Witt listed together – a tear in the paper obscures the first name. This is likely to have been Charles Witt. These two Witt tithables are probably living on the Tuckahoe land purchased in 1715. Since Charles Witt was “of Goochland” in 1748 when he sold his land across the line in Henrico, it seems likely that the obscured name was his, living on that land and working his own land a few miles away. (The only other candidate to be living in this area is John Witt II, but he had been “levy-free” in 1742 and thus, if he were still alive, may not have been included on the 1746 tithables list.) Neither of these Witts appears among the 1748 tithables, but it appears the existing tithables for that year are missing for the Tuckahoe Creek area.

Whether this Charles Witt is “ours” or not is not absolutely certain, but it seems highly likely. There is no further record of a Charles Witt in Henrico or Goochland, and we know our Charles Witt was in Lunenburg County shortly thereafter. However, it casts some doubt on the theory of his marriage to Thomas Harbour’s daughter. We know that our Charles Witt was married by 1745 or so, but never seems to have lived within 40 miles of Thomas Harbour until several years later. Of course, he may have known Thomas Harbour by his association with his uncle William Witt.

About the time Charles Witt sold the land in Henrico County, he joined a modest migration of several Goochland families to Lunenburg County, about 125 miles southwest. Although this area had been attracting settlers for several years, it was still wild country – one of Charles Witt’s neighbors was captured and held by the Shawnee in 1758.[7] A survey for John Steward of 400 acres on 18 October 1746 was assigned to Charles Witt according to the entry record book.[8] He did not patent the land, apparently preferring a nearby parcel surveyed for himself on April 1750[9], of 300 acres in Lunenburg County on the Irwin River (now called the Smith River), for which he recorded a patent on 10 September 1755.[10] He does not appear on the tithables lists for Lunenburg County, which are thought to be complete for 1748, 1749, 1750, and 1751, so he may have still been in Goochland in those years.[11] The land surveyed in 1750 adjoined one of the eight patents in the area by his presumed father-in-law, Thomas Harbour, which was surveyed the following day and which referred to “Charles White’s line”.[12] Charles Witt’s land adjoined this land of Thomas Harbour’s on its western side, and was located in what is now Patrick County. Thomas Harbour gave that adjoining patent to his son Elisha Harbour in 1763[13], after Charles Witt had evidently moved away. The location of this land was at the intersection of Flat Creek (now Jacks Creeks) and the Irwin River in what is now Patrick County.[14] However, another of Thomas Harbour’s patents in 1753 was for 140 acres on Blackberry Creek several miles east[15], which he gifted in 1763 to John Witt and William Witt (thought to be the sons of David Witt).[16] In 1768, a survey for John Witt describes this land as being on a branch of Blackberry Creek, “which comes in by Char. Witt’s house, adjoining his (John Witt’s) own lines”.[17] [This is quite confusing. For one thing, Charles Witt had been in Halifax County for several years by 1768. For another, the location of this house was many miles east of his 1755 patent. It is possible that this survey was misread or that the name was mis-entered.]

In 1752 Halifax County was formed and the 1755 grant fell into the new county. Charles Witt does not appear in its records until 1758. In that year he was reimbursed for provisions to the militia, receiving a little less than three pounds.[18] Charles Witt moved nearly 75 miles east shortly thereafter. On 11 June 1760, Charles Witt leased 400 acres for 16 years from Catherine Astin for 10 pounds.[19] The land had been purchased from Sherwood Walton, a Halifax justice, by her late husband Jacob Astin, and was apparently located somewhere on Mirey Creek or on its south fork near where it runs into the Dan River at South Boston. A 1766 road order assigns “Charles Witt’s tithables”, Talmon and Abner Harbour, Sherwood Walton, and several neighbors on Mirey Creek to clear the road leading from Roberts Ferry to the courthouse. This road ran just east of Mirey Creek due north to the courthouse, and is now (roughly) US 501. The “tithables” plural implies that Charles Witt had one or more sons who had reached the age of 16.

Seven years later, on 19 March 1767, there are two deeds that appear to be a trade of land. Charles Witt sold the 300 acres he was granted in 1755, “known by name of Stewards Level”, to the same Sherwood Walton.[20] Thomas Spencer, Samuel Davis, and Elijah Witt were witnesses. On the same date, and for the same price, Charles Witt bought 200 acres in the neighborhood of his leased land from Sherwood Walton.[21] This land was part of a much larger patent to Walton on the south fork of Mirey Creek, less than a mile north of the Dan River and just west of the town of South Boston and Robert’s Ferry. Sherwood Walton sold another part of the same tract to Samuel Davis the same day. These two tracts bordered Wilson, Richard Sullins, and James McDaniel. Samuel Davis and Thomas Spencer witnessed the deed to Charles Witt. Thomas Spencer, Elijah Witt (presumably his brother) and “Lamina” Witt witnessed the deed to Davis. Shortly thereafter, Talmon Harbour would also buy part of the Sherwood Walton patent.

Charles Witt appears on the list of voters for the election of Burgesses in 1765 in Halifax County.[22] He was evidently charged for one tithable too many in 1769, as both the vestry book[23] and court records[24] for that year note that he was relieved of exactly the right amount for one tithable “wrongly paid”. Since his son Joseph was clearly over 16 by 1769, this must either refer to a son who was not yet 16, to Charles himself, or to a son over 21 who should have been separately taxed.

Charles Witt may have been crippled in some way. Although he lived within a brisk walk of the courthouse for twenty years, he never once appears in the court records as a juror, witness, or in any other capacity. The only other mention of him in the Antrim Parish book, dated 15 October 1766, called him “Charles Witt a pensioner.”[25] This means he was receiving a stipend from the parish, typically indicating old age, poverty, or some infirmity that rendered him unable to fend for himself. [I might note that pensioners commonly were landowners. At least one other pensioner on the same list was a landowner, that being no bar to receiving alms. Further, his estate fifteen years later amounted to very little, despite having grown sons to help increase it over the last ten years.]

Another road order in April of 1770 appoints Micajah Watkins surveyor of the road from Roberts Ferry road to Birch’s Creek and assigns the tithables of Talmon Harbour, Sarah Harbour, Samuel Davis, Elijah Witt, Josiah Sullins, and Richard Sullins to clear the road.[26] In January 1772, a similar order appoints Talmon Harbour surveyor and assigns the tithables of Josiah Sullins, Charles Witt, Joel Harbour and others to clear the road from Robert’s Ferry Road to Birch’s Creek.[27] Birch’s Creek was the next major creek to the west of Mirey Creek, so this is probably the road that ran between the courthouse road and Birch’s Creek, running parallel to the south branch of Mirey Creek and the Dan River. [The appearance of Elijah Witt in the first order may refer to Charles Witt’s brother rather than his son.]

The road running from Robert’s Ferry Road to Birch’s Creek may have been called either Millers Road or Talman Harbour’s Wagon Road. On 14 November 1770 Charles Witt sold 10 acres of the land he bought from Sherwood Walton, “on both sides of Millers Road”, to Philip Malone.[28] When Philip Malone sold the parcel a year later, he described it as “located by the County Main Road, joining William Cunningham & Co. and Samuel Davis.”[29] Between these two deeds, Samuel Davis sold his own land adjoining Charles Witt to William Cunningham & Co. He described it as bordering Charles Witt and “Talmon Harbour’s Wagon Road.”[30] [William Cunningham & Co. were a large Glascow-based mercantile business with stores in many Virginia counties.]

Charles Witt does not again appear in Halifax County’s records until his will was proved. The will was dated 30 January 1771 and proved ten years later on 23 June 1781.[31] It was not actually recorded until 15 August when Joseph Witt, the sole executor, was granted a certificate of probate.[32] The will left one shilling each to three children: Lavenia Sullins, Mary Jonaken, and Elijah Witt. His unmarried daughters Charity Witt, Nelly Witt, Lyddie Witt, Rhoda Witt, and Susanna Witt were each bequeathed one cow or two pounds current money “after the death or marriage of my said wife.” His son Caleb Witt was bequeathed a horse and fifteen pounds to be delivered “when he comes of age.” His wife Lamina Witt was to have “during her natural life or widowhood the land and plantation whereon I now dwell with all my stock of every kind also my household furniture of every kind whatsoever.” His son Joseph Witt was to have “after the death or marriage of my said wife the above said land and plantation with all my stock of every kind and also all the household furniture provided he my said son Joseph pays off the legacies before bequeathed…provided my son Joseph should die without a male heir lawfully begotten, then my desire is that my son Caleb should enjoy the said land and plantation above forever.” The will also states “my will and desire is that my son Joseph Witt shall oblige to take care of his mother during her life or widowhood also the small children to keep them together with her while they come to age or able to do for themselves.” Joseph Witt and wife Lamina Witt were named executors. The will was signed with his “C” mark and witnessed by James LeGrand, Micajah Watkins, and Robert Rakestraw.

An odd item is that the will also ordered the executors to “sell all the land I hold on the south side of the Main Road between that and Dan River, and the money be applied towards paying my son Caleb’s legacy off.” It is not clear what land he was referring to, and there is no record of a separate sale after his death. He is most likely referring to some portion of his remaining 190 acres that lay below the road. The land he was leasing at the time does not appear to be below the road, and the lease would have run out by 1777, long before Caleb came of age. I also doubt that the sale of the lease would have brought much money, since the original price was only 10 pounds. At any rate, Joseph Witt sold the remaining 190 acres after his father’s death.

The inventory and appraisal was taken on 11 September 1782 and filed on 19 September.[33] The inventory was taken by neighbors James LeGrand, Daniel Hutchinson, and James Johnson, and amounted to 125 pounds. Most of the value was from 12 cattle, 4 horses, 37 hogs, 9 sheep, and furniture. Although Charles Witt couldn’t sign his name, the inventory includes eight books. Joseph Witt may have disbursed the five cows and one horse, as directed by the will. He is listed in the 1782 tax list with 11 cows and 4 horses.

Charles Witt’s wife Lamina apparently did not survive him. There is no evidence she was alive in 1781, as Joseph Witt was the sole executor when the will was proved and again a month later when the inventory was recorded. Whether or not she was the mother of all the children is also unknown. There is a strong belief among Witt researchers that Lamina (or Lavinia) was the daughter of Thomas Harbour, but there is virtually no compelling evidence for this assertion. [See separate page.]

I find it interesting that, as best we know, only one of the children named a son “Charles”.

1.     Joseph Witt (c1748? – c1819) See separate page.

2.     Elijah Witt (c1749? – 1805/6) It’s not clear which references in Halifax County records apply to the son and which to the uncle, both of whom were named Elijah. Lucy Ball, an early researcher who probably was the source for Mrs. Norton and Burgess, gave his birth year as 1755, but the Halifax records suggest he was probably several years older than that.[34] She also gave his wife’s name as “Miss Hutchinson”, who I suspect may have been a daughter of neighbor Daniel Hutchinson.[35] [Elijah clearly married while still in Halifax, as he had a child by 1775.] From the above records, he was probably a tithable by 1770 if not before. It may be him who, with several neighbors of Charles Witt, was assigned to a road crew on 9 April 1770.[36] It was presumably him who was sued successfully in 1772 for nearly three pounds[37], and who bought a horse in 1773[38]. He and Joseph Witt witnessed a neighbor’s deed in 1775.[39] There is no indication in his father’s will that he was not of age in 1771, but the Elijah Witt appearing in Halifax in the early 1770s may be his uncle Elijah. He seems to have left Halifax County about the time his father died, joining Thomas Jarnigan in Washington County, Tennessee by 1781. A pension application speaks of a militia “Captain Elijah Witt” in February 1781[40] and a militia pay voucher for Elijah Witt exists in Washington County in 1783.[41] Elijah filed a land claim the same day as his brother Joseph, on 22 October 1783, for 200 acres on Long Creek in Greene County that apparently adjoined claims filed by Thomas Jarnigan the same week[42]. Elijah added a claim for another 200 acres on Long Creek on 17 May 1784, the same day as his brother Caleb.[43] Both grants were southeast of what is now Morristown in the part of Greene County that became Jefferson County in 1792, and which is now Hamblen County. He was on a jury at the first court held in Jefferson County, and was appointed a militia captain there in 1792. He and his sons Noah and Joseph are on the 1800 tax list for Jefferson County. He died intestate sometime between July 1805, when he appeared in court, and April 1806, when his administrators were named. He had married a widow named Sarah Bottom in Jefferson County on 26 December 1797, and Sarah and son Noah Witt were his administrators. Family tradition is that he was killed when thrown from a horse. His children are provided by several sources that don’t all agree, but all are evidently based on Mrs. Ball’s research in the 1920s. [44] [45] [46] Mrs. Ball’s list of the children does not match the probate and other records of Jefferson county. Thanks to the research of Gerald Witt, it is clear that Elijah Witt’s land was divided twelve ways and the deeds for these portions identify the children. These records indicate that the children were: Elizabeth (c1775), Noah (1776), Joseph (c1777), John (1780), Ann (c1784), Eli (1785), Mary (c1787), Harmon (1788), Lavinia “Viney” (?), Daniel (1790), Elijah (c1790s), and Piety (c1799?).

3.     Caleb Witt (2 September 1762 – 20 January 1827) Other than his father’s will, Caleb does not appear in any Halifax County record. Caleb apparently followed Thomas Jarnigan into Green County, Tennessee before 1783. He filed a claim for 200 acres on Long Creek the same day as his brother Joseph, on 22 October 1783[47]. The land included his own improvement and was quite near both Thomas Jarnigan and his brother Elijah Witt, just southeast of the present town of Morristown. According to his widow’s pension application, Caleb volunteered for service in Halifax County at the age of sixteen and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. She declared they were married on 2 September 1784 and that Caleb Witt died on 20 January 1827. (The pension was not granted owing to lack of confirmation of his service.) The wife was Miriam Horner, the daughter of William Horner and Elizabeth Allred.[48] They settled in the part of Green County which became Jefferson County, and eventually Hamblen County. Caleb was a minister several churches, notably the Bent Creek Baptist Church, where he is buried. His modern-day gravestone erected by the DAR in Bent Creek Cemetery gives his date of birth as 2 September 1762. A book on Baptist preachers contains a brief synopsis of his career.[49] This source also mentions four of his siblings: Joseph, Elijah, Patsy, and Lydia – suggesting that both Patsy (Mary Jarnigan?) and Lydia Mayes were in Tennessee as well. Descendants claim he lived and died in Witt’s Foundry, Tennessee. This is very doubtful, as Caleb appears to have lived on his original grant on Long Creek and I can find no record that Witt’s Foundry, which is a few miles away, existed prior to his death. He is well documented in a variety of publications, and the family record accompanying his widow’s pension application lists the children as follows: William Witt (26 July 1785), Enoch (5 December 1787), Elizabeth Witt (19 April 1790), James (19 February 1794), Charles Horner Witt (5 June 1797), Pleasant Alred Witt (18 February 1800), Samuel Thares Witt (4 June 1804), Merrill Witt (19 April 1807), Doctor D. [Chester Deadrick] Witt (14 April 1809), Lamina Witt (6 October 1811), and Coleman Murray Witt (26 February 1814).[50]

4.     Lavinia Witt (c1748? – c1775) Called “Lavinia Sullens” in her father’s will, she was at that time the widow of Josiah Sullins. Richard Sullins owned adjoining land when Charles Witt moved to Mirey Creek, and sold land there to his son Josiah Sullens in 1767, probably about the time Lavinia and Josiah married. Josiah Sullens’ will in Halifax County is dated 31 January 1773 and was proved on 19 August 1773.[51] In it, he leaves his property to his wife Lavinia and “my three suns Zaccariah, Jesse, and Joseph.” His brother John Sullins, sold the Mirey Creek land in 1785 as executor of the estate.[52] The money was to be divided among the three sons, Lavinia Sullins apparently having died by then. John Sullens, by then living in Rutherford County, North Carolina, had taken the three sons into his household. Nathan Sullins, brother of Josiah Sullins, also moved to Jefferson County, Tennessee where he and his children lived close to Joseph Witt.

5.     Sarah Witt (c1750? - ?) She was “Sarah Kirby” in her father’s will. An interesting complication is that Samuel Davis, who lived on land adjoining Charles Witt, also had a daughter named Sarah Kirby, whom he named in his will in 1772 just a year after Charles Witt’s will. (Samuel Davis had lived adjoining Thomas Harbour in Goochland, and had migrated to Lunenburg County, then purchased the adjoining land the same day as Charles Witt in 1767.) There were several Kirbys in Halifax County whom I have not attempted to sort out. There are six Kirbys in the poll list of 1765, for example. Among them is a Richard Kirby whose will was proved on 21 Feb 1782 naming his wife Sarah and three minor sons: Joseph, Richard, and William. Richard Kirby bequeathed a feather bed to his wife Sarah, "it being the said bed left her by her grandfather." If his wife was Sarah Witt, the grandfather would have been either Thomas Harbour or John Witt. [The Witt’s End website claims Henry Baker Kirby, brother of Richard Kirby, as Sarah Witt’s husband. That seems unlikely, for there is a marriage record for Henry Baker Kirby and Mary Anderson in 1767 and they appear in Quaker records for the South River Monthly Meeting.]

6.     Mary Witt (4 April 1753 – 6 August 1829) There is little doubt that “Mary Jonaken” was the wife of Thomas B. Jarnigan (1746-1802), whom she married around 1767. Thomas Jarnigan, whose name is seldom spelled that way until the late 1700s, was probably a son of John Jarnigan and Mary Bynum of Pittsylvania County and a grandson of Thomas B. Jarnigan (see my Bynum book[53]). Interestingly enough, Thomas Harbour sold John Jarnigan land on the Irwin (Smith) River in 1777. Thomas Jarnigan was a revolutionary veteran, serving in a North Carolina militia company in Tennessee from 1779 through 1783 under John Sevier.[54] He was evidently the first of this family to move to east Tennessee, claiming land on Cedar Creek in Washington County on 9 December 1778, described as the land “said Johnnekin now lives on.” In 1783, he began acquiring considerable land on and near Long Creek in present Hamblen County, where he and Mary lived until their deaths. Their homesite was called “Mount Harmony”, several miles south of Morristown. There is a family graveyard there with many legible stones. Thomas and Mary had eleven children, all recorded in their family Bible which was among the possessions in Mary’s inventory of 14 December 1829: Noah, Lavinia, Chesley, Martha, Anna, Rhoda, Jeremiah, Patsey, Benjamin, Preston Bynum, and Pleasant There exists an exhaustive study of this family in Tennessee with much detail on their descendants.[55]

7.     Charity Witt (c1755? – by1820) She was unmarried when her father wrote his will in 1771. She is thought to have married about 1773 to neighbor named Duncan Carmichael (1755-1834), who witnessed Josiah Sullin’s will in early 1773. By the time Charles Witt died, they were living on the Virginia-North Carolina line in neighboring Caswell County, North Carolina, on a grant filed by Duncan Carmichael in 1777 and issued in 1778. Duncan Carmichael appeared on a tax list in Caswell County in 1777 and again in 1784. Charity was certainly dead when Duncan Carmichael, a Revolutionary veteran, filed for a revolutionary pension in 1820 from Stokes County, stating he was then living with his widowed daughter Mary Ingram.[56] Duncan Carmichael himself died intestate in Stokes County in 1834. Records of his estate name the children, who included John, William, Sarah, Lemina, Lemuel, Mary, Barzilla, Solomon, and Richard. His son John’s marriage bond supposedly lists his parents as Duncan and Charity.

8.     Nelly Witt She was unmarried when her father wrote his will in 1771. There is no further record of her.

9.     Lydia Witt (c1756? – aft1822) She was unmarried when her father wrote his will in 1771. While we lack proof, she was probably the Lydia Maze who was married to William Maze (Mays), a neighbor, and also went to Jefferson County, Tennessee sometime after 1789. A William Maze had lived on Flat Creek near Charles Witt, and left a will in 1748 leaving that land to his son William Maze.[57] A grandson named William Mays left a will in Halifax County in 1794. Apparently the fourth in the series, William Maze “Jr.” had bought part of the land on Mirey Creek in Halifax County where Sherwood Walton lived in 1777, with Joseph Witt a witness.[58] This was probably Lydia’s husband. He is probably the same William Maze listed adjacent to Joseph Witt in the 1782 Halifax tax list. Sometime after 1785 they moved into Pittsylvania County, and in 1789 William Maze sold his land on Miry Creek and moved to the same vicinity as Caleb and Elijah Witt. In fact, William Maze was guardian of two of Elijah Witt’s children in 1807. William Maze’s will was dated 15 March 1818 and proved 14 June 1819 in Jefferson County.[59] It named his wife Lydia, sons William, James, Gardner, John, and Caleb, and daughters Mary Patsy, Milly, Sally, Rhoda, and Lydia. It also named his four grandsons, the sons of his daughter Milly Maze and Noah Witt (the son of Elijah Witt). Lydia Witt Maze was still alive when she appears in the 1822 tax list of Jefferson County with her sons James and John.

10.  Rhoda Witt (c1750? - ?) She was unmarried when her father wrote his will in early 1771. Some descendants believe that she married Thomas Stamps shortly thereafter. This is unproven, and begs the question of why and how she married a man who lived nearly 75 miles west of her parents. It seems clear that Thomas Stamps married a Witt; one of his sons was named Moses Witt Stamps, whose biography states that his mother was a Witt.[60] However, I’m unaware of any record that proves her name was Rhoda, much less that she was a daughter of Charles Witt. We know that Moses Witt Stamps was born in 1771 or 1772, meaning that if his mother was Rhoda Witt she would have had to marry very shortly after her father’s 1771 will to a man who lived considerably west of Halifax County.

I am unable to find any evidence that Thomas Stamps’ wife was named Rhoda, or that she was a daughter of Charles Witt. Thomas Stamps, who was born 21 October 1750 in Fauquier County, is listed as a tithable in the Pittsylvania County household of his father, Timothy Stamps, in 1767. His father was evidently living on land in present-day Patrick County which he had begun acquiring by deed and patent in 1764. Thomas Stamps is listed by himself on the 1782 tax list of the part of Henry County that later became Patrick County. He is not in the 1787 census, and by 1788 he appears on the tax list of Green County, Georgia. He apparently died in Coweta County. For what it’s worth, a history of the Stamps family of Coweta gives Moses Witt Stamps’ mother’s name as “unknown Witt”. However, see Susannah Witt below for an interesting connection.

11.  Susannah Witt She was unmarried when her father wrote his will in 1771. She is thought to have been the same Susannah Witt who married James Bates by bond of 31 March 1788, recorded in both Halifax and Pittsylvania counties. (One of their sons was James Witt Bates, who also lived in Coweta County, Georgia.) One wonders where Susanna lived between the time the sons left Halifax and the time she married, perhaps with a married sister.