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Stokes: DNA, Tilley, Hill, estate July 20, 2020 The 1836 Estate of Edmund
Tilley of Stokes Co, NC Two weeks ago I didn’t know I was a
descendant of Edmund Tilley. Four
years ago I didn’t even know I was a descendant of his granddaughter Letitia
Hill Wood. But thanks to DNA results,
I was able to fill in these gaps in my family tree. I write a lot about DNA, but I don’t
want to be misleading. It’s not a
situation where you take a DNA test and all of a sudden you have a list of
all your ancestors. That would be
nice, but it’s not that easy. If you
think of it as a jigsaw puzzle, taking a DNA test is like dumping the pieces
onto the table. It’s only the first
step. Putting the puzzle together takes
time and patience, but eventually the image will start to appear. It takes a lot of research to fully
understand the events from long ago, and it’s only through sharing and
comparing results – DNA and otherwise – that we’re able to solve these mysteries. We’re each able to contribute different
pieces of the puzzle. I’ve recently been studying my list of
DNA cousins, and I’ve noticed that I have clusters of matches who have Stokes
County ancestors in the early 1800s.
More specifically, several of them descend from the Tilley, Wood,
Lawson, and Collins families. Four
years ago I found out that I had a 4X-great grandmother named Letitia Hill
who was born in 1825 in Stokes Co, and she married Adam Wood there in 1843. One of the clues about my Letitia Hill Wood
is that she had a nephew Howard Johnson Hill who was born about 1862. That means Howard’s father was likely
Letitia’s brother. Howard was living
with Letitia in the 1880 Grayson Co, VA, census. If I could find out who Howard’s father
and grandfather were, then I’d be able to fill out my family tree one more
generation. I found a tree online that
showed Howard’s father as Phillip Hill who died in 1862. Phillip was the son of Frederick Hill and
Elizabeth Tilley; and he was the grandson of Edmund Tilley. If Phillip and Letitia were brother and
sister, then Edmund Tilley is my newfound ancestor. But I don’t want to base this new
branch of my tree on only one undocumented family tree I found online. I need at least a little proof. DNA provides some initial evidence because
I have more than a few groups of DNA matches who also descend from Edmund
Tilley of Stokes Co. I also noticed
that Frederick Hill and Elizabeth Tilley – the suggested parents of my
Letitita Hill – had two other daughters who each named a daughter
Letitia. That is, if my theory is
correct, the girls were named after their aunt Letitia who was my ancestor. I also looked at all the other Hill
households living near Letitia and her husband. After a process of elimination, only
Frederick Hill was a possibility to be her father. Of course, another possibility is that her
father lived farther away or that he had died years earlier. Still, the man who I presumed to be her
father was still a candidate. While these
clues aren’t definitive proof, when taken as a whole, the circumstantial
evidence is enough for me to add these new names to my family tree until I
can prove the theory wrong. And that’s
where Edmund Tilley comes in. Edmund Tilley was born in 1740, maybe
in the eastern part of Virginia. He
moved to the Stokes Co area, and lived near the NC/VA border until his death
in 1835. He was in his 90s, and he was
feeble and unable to tend to his daily affairs on his own. He had lived a long life, and he left seven
children to mourn his death. The estate file for Edmund Tilley shows
that his children disagreed about the details of his Last Will and Testament. Edmund’s son David was appointed the executor,
and he began fullfilling those duties within a month of his father’s
death. However, when the will was
produced in court in March 1836, all of the other children filed a caviat
claiming that the will was fraudulent and that David secretly had his father
sign it even though he “had become so weak and impaired in understanding that
he was incapable of transcribing the most ordinary concerns of life”. Here is the text of the will dated
10/7/1829. In the name of God Amen. I, Edmund Tilly Senr of the County of Stokes,
being mindful of my mortality but believing in a resurrection to eternal
life, do this seventh day of October in the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred
and Twenty nine make and publish this my last will and testament in manner
following. First, I bequeath my body after my decease to its natural Earth to
be decently intered. Secondly, I give and bequeath to my son David Tilly my Negro Martin to
him and his assigns forever. Thirdly, I give and bequeath unto my son David Tilly my Negro girl
Melinda and her increase by paying Two hundred and fifty dollars in three
years after my decease. Fourth, I will that my negro woman Becky and my Negro boy Jim be
sold after my decease and the money equally divided among my children. Fifth, I will that all of my lands be sold and the money equally
divided among my children. Sixth, I will that all my household property be sold and equally
divided among all my children and I do hereby constitute David Tilly and
Matthew R. Moore executors of this my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and
seal the day and year first above written, signed, sealed, published, and
declared by the said Edmund Tilly Senr as his last will and testament in our
presence who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other
have subscribed our names as witnesses thereto. Unfortunately, Edmund Tilley owned
slaves and their disposition was handled like any other property that he owned
at the time of his death. Son David
received his slave Martin, and this is the only instance where David received
more than any of his six siblings.
While David was also to receive slave Melinda, he would need to pay
$250 back to the estate. Everything
else – two more slaves, land, and household property – would be sold, and the
money would be divided equally among all the children. This is a list of the household
property sold on January 26, 1836. I still don’t know why the other six
were so unhappy with the instructions in the will, but they were. Among the documents is a lengthy claim that
David had secretly manipulated their father and that he had previously denied
the existence of a will when his sister Elizabeth had asked him about it. They wrote, “that all this was done secretly and clandestinely
from your petitioners to prevent them from contesting the validity of the
same. That the said paper writing, a
copy of which is hereto attached as a part of the petition, purport to have
been executed in 1829 long before the defendant [David] denied the existence
of such a paper. That the same is witnessed
by one of the daughters of the defendant [Phebe] and gives the greater part
of the estate to the defendant, not withstanding the supposed testator had
six other children. Yes, it’s difficult to read. It seems that the biggest complaint
from the other siblings is that they weren’t told about the existence of a
will. It does seem like David intentionally
kept it a secret. He denied knowing
there was a will to his brother Edmund Jr and to his sister Elizabeth. And David’s own daughter Phebe served as
one of the two witnesses at the age of just 18. Maybe there was a reason for his
behavior. Maybe dad Edmund Sr knew
that all the children would just argue over his estate, so he told his
trusted son David to keep it quiet. In the end, the case went to three
courts in both Stokes and Rockingham counties. The Superior Court ruled in 1837 that the will
should be recorded and accepted as written.
By 1842 the estate had been settled with each of the seven children
getting about the same amount with the exception of David who received one of
the slaves. The only discrepancies in
the amount each child received was due to court costs and other outstanding
bills. The estate file is available online,
and it consists of 35 pages. I transcribed
it, and it’s available here. It’s
also available on the Records
page. Along with the drama
surrounding the case, the file provides genealogy information that might not
be available elsewhere. It lists Edmund’s
children, provides his death date, and gives a description of his
health. It gives a small amount of
information about where they lived and who some of the children married. If you’re lucky enough to find an estate
file for an ancestor, it can be a helpful source of information. Comments? jason@webjmd.com |