I have no plans to close the site at this time. SW

Kevin P. Riley

I regret to inform everyone that the co-founding father of this blog, Kevin P. Riley, died on 6 May 2017. SW

The "Mystery" of Jacob Akers Wife

   If you look up the wedding bond for Jacob Akers in Orange Co. NC, you will see something like this in whatever index you are using:

  Leeroy Akers   +   Rebecca Nealey     29 Oct. 180-    Bond:  Samuel Faucett

   If you further research the subject online, you will even see that some folks have gone as far as giving Rebecca "Neeley's" parents--which is an interesting accomplishment, seeing as how Rebecca's last name is incorrect in her wedding bond!

   Thanks, again, to cousin Rob Riley for digging out the original bond in the Orange Co Courthouse!
                                                               

    So there really was no transcription error.  John Taylor just made a total mess of the bond!  Complicating matters was the fact that there really was a group of Neeleys living nearby.

   The first real clue as to just how much of a mistake was made comes as we follow Leroy's move to TN.  In the 1840 census for Hickman Co. TN, we can see him right next to Thomas McNeeley (age 20-30) and the obvious widow, Mary McNeeley (age 60-70).  That's pretty suspicious.  What's a man married to a "Neeley" doing right next to two "McNeeleys?"
  The comedy of spelling errors doesn't get any better in 1850.  Still in Hickman, Leroy and Rebecca Akers are indexed in Ancestry with the surname "Aerois."  But, clearly it's them, and both are showing as having been born in VA.  Leroy's age gives us a birth year of 1786....
    By 1860, Rebecca has died, Leroy can be found in Humphreys Co. TN living with R. A. Singleton.  Leroy's birth place and year remain stable: VA in 1786.

   Luckily, there's a 15 year old post still remaining online that can put us out of our misery.  R.A. Singleton is Robert Singleton--son-in-law of Leroy Akers....

  The source is a compendium of Tennessee Civil War veterans who were questioned.  The first set of questions was sent to veterans in 1914 and 1915.   16,00 forms had been returned by 1922.  One of them was from the son of Robert Singleton-i.e. the grandson of Leroy Akers.

   For those wanting to read all the information on the posting, the link is here.

   As for the immediate concerns: here is the relevant information provided by grandson, James Leroy Singleton: to the questions:
8. Maiden name in full of your mother:...... she was the daughter of .....
(full name) and his wife ..... (full name) who lived at .....

Frances Stadley Akers; Leroy Akers; Rebecca Akers; Sugar Creek
Humphreys Co Tenn....


 My maternal grandfather was born in N.C. in about 1783 and
married Rebecca McNelly in 1806. Moved to White Co. Tenn in about
1832 and moved to Hickman Co 1836.

  We can forgive James Singleton for messing up his grandfather's birth state.  He certainly knew that Leroy came from NC and lived there at a young age. (We have to take Leroy's two statements that he was born in VA as gospel).  Transcription problems aside, we can see that Rebecca's surname has a "Mc" in front of it.  We can also get an idea of Leroy's journey west from Orange Co. NC from the further details.....

Given her birth year stated in the 1850 census, Rebecca would appear to be the sister of the James McNeeley who married Mary Yates in Caswell about the same time as Leroy and Rebeca married.  Most records show that Mary McNeeley died in Hickman Co. TN in 1846.  She looks pretty much assured to be the Mary McNeeley living right by Leroy Akers in the 1840 census....

Hopefully, this will resolve the error of Rebecca's surname in the wedding bond.

I'll leave the rest for Akers-McNeeley-Yates genealogists to work out and start to move back into the Ward line from here....
                                                                                      <Kevin>
                                   

Jacob Huggins and Mary Akers' Wedding Bond--and a brief note on Leroy Akers

Thanks to cousin Rob Riley for pulling the original wedding bond for Jacob Huggins Sr and Mary Akers (Orange, NC--1793).

You can see how the clerk, A B Bruce, made his loop at the start of the letter 'u' a bit too big and the name around Jacob's mark looks like "Haggans."  And that's how it ended up becoming indexed that way.  However, the first line clearly shows his surname to be Huggins. So there is no doubt.

The key thing here is that the marriage year is 1793.  Jacob Jr can be found in both the 1850 and 1860 census--and he seems not to have caught the nasty Ward habit of radically misstating ages.  In both instances, his reported age gives the birth year of 1794.  And, unless someone has a family Bible hidden away somewhere, this is pretty much all the evidence we are likely to ever get.  All in all, it's safe to conclude that Jacob Jr was the son of Jacob Sr and Mary Akers Huggins.

Whether Mary was a widow--or just had Leroy Akers (and likely others, according to the census) as a bastard child--is impossible to say given what we currently know.  But, because we can conclude that Jacob Jr was Mary's son, we can also reasonably say that he was the half-brother of Leroy Akers.

One can also infer that Jacob Sr was really taken with Leroy.  As you saw in a previous post, Jacob sold one of his two tracts to Leroy in 1807.  But even more indicative is the small notation on one of  the issuing deeds of Jacob's two land grants:

This is from Orange Co NC  Bk 12, p. 277 (1798).

Reports vary on Leroy's exact birth year (and I'll get into that another time when dealing with Leroy's 'mistaken' wife), but it ranges from 1783-1786.  So, we can say that Leroy was anywhere from 12-15 years old when this grant/deed was finally formally issued. 

Clerks were required to note who was given the official copy of the grant/deed.  Jacob, himself, collected his first grant--and it clearly reads at the bottom; "Deliv'd Jacob Huggins."
If you click on the one above, you will see written along the bottom left-hand side: "Deliv'd Leroy Akors."
That's a lot of trust to put in a young teenage boy....
                                                                          <Kevin>

The Wards Caswell Co Church

Courtney has asked about the Wards' Church that I mentioned in one post...

There are a couple of things here that will certainly be of interest to Huggins descendants:

Lynches Creek Primitive Baptist Church was just North of the Orange Co line.  Today all that's left is a just a small gathering of gravestones, surrounded by a fence.  Many of the stones are now being engulfed by the woods.

  According to the church records, the very first Ward to become a member of the Lynches Creek was Susannah Ward, who joined by baptism in July, 1813.
   While about a dozen Wards eventually became members here--including Sutton's son, James and the latter's wife, Rebecca Oakley Ward--the ones of most interest here would be John and Linnea Ward and their daughter, Cassander.

    This particular John Ward married Linney (Melinda) Compton in 1809.  (Sutton Ward placed the bond.)  But this was not the John who was Sutton's son--that one died at the very same time as Sutton in Feb, 1816.
   To be honest, nobody has yet figured out just who the parents of this John were.

    But we do know this about him:  he was the only related John Ward alive in the area at the time of the wedding of Susannah Ward and Jacob Douglas Huggins.  So it was clearly this John Ward who placed the bond for that wedding in Oct, 1817. 
   Also, there is at least one estate file in Orange Co where you can see this John and Jacob Huggins Jr jointly indebt to the deceased's estate.  These two guys were very close even before Susannah married Jacob--to the point of borrowing money together.

    So, you can see that both Susannah and the bondsman of her wedding to Jacob Huggins Jr were both members of the Caswell church.  And it was this fact that led me to state that this was likely the reason the wedding took place in Caswell....

The Akers--where next?

This is where Cluster Theory comes in (you can read about that in an early post).

We know that Leeroy Akers was born in VA....as was his wife, Rebecca Nealey.

So these entries from the old Augusta books sticks out right away:

Processioners' Returns) - 1765: Wm. Bryans and Jas. Neely report as follows, viz: For James Bryan (on Roanoke), for Wm. Bryan, Jr., for David Bryan (Geo. McAfee present), for Rees Bowin, for Hugh Mills, for David Cloyd (Tinker's Creek), for David Robinson, for Wm. Graham, for Wm. Graham (on Bufallo Creek), Benj. Paulson present; for Wm. Graham, Henry Holston present; for Peter Evans; for Thos. Tosh, Danl. McNeal present; for Jno. McAdoo, Jas. Mellin present; for David Dutton, Wm. Elam present; for Israel Christian, for Joseph Snodgrass, for Joseph Robinson, for John Neilly for Baptist Armstrong, present Thomas Acres; for Wm. Carvin, for Wm. Terry, for Thomas Ackers, for James Neilly (on Carson's Creek).


29th January, 1750-51. William Alexander's appraisement, by Thomas Tosh, Wm. Akers, James Neeley.

While I'm not sure I have the time to keep digging right now.  This is surely where I'd look.

Besides...the old census records show a cluster of Akers/Acres in Franklin Co Va (as well as Montgomery Co for that matter).  Franklin is just north of the NC border and not all that far from the Huggins....

Happy hunting!
                       

So what about Mary Acres Huggins?

I'm going to start with the 1810 census here.  It doesn't matter which of the double-count entries you wish to look at--the one next to the Wards (which we know is where Jacob lived), or the one showing him by the young Leeroy Acres.  In both cases Jacob shows to be over 45 and so does his wife.

We know that Jacob made out his will on 7 Oct 1809, but clearly he lived on for a time as the will wasn't proven until Nov 1813.  Hence we still see him alive (if not so well) in the 1810 census.  And we also know that his wife, Mary, was alive since he leaves half of his estate to her.

The main thing here, though, is that the census tells us that Mary was over 45 years old and thus, born before 1765.
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Moving backwards to the 1800 census, we find the following entry for Jacob Huggins:

1 male   45+  (born before 1755) Obviously Jacob
2 males  10-16 (born 1784-1790)
1 male under 10 (born 1791-1800) Quite likely Jacob Douglas Huggins Jr

1 female 45+  (born before 1755)
1 female 16-26 (born 1774-1784)

And this is why I decided to start with the 1810 census.  I wanted to rule out any chance that Jacob was 'robbing the cradle'--that is to say, the female showing 16-26 was clearly not Mary Acres Huggins.  She's way too young.  The 1810 census showed us Mary had to be born before 1765. Now the 1800 census helps narrow that down a bit more.  Here we see that Mary had to be born prior to 1755.

As we have seen, Leroy Akers was born in 1786. (So we can figure he was one of the two males showing born between 1784-1790).
Mary is at least 31 years older than him.
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  Here's what Leeroy is showing us:  Since he's at least 31 years younger than Mary,  we have 3 options (remember, the only people named in Jacob's will are Mary and son, Jacob Jr).

1)  Mary was single when she married Jacob and Leeroy is her younger brother.  Not highly likely at all given the age discrepancy.
2)  Mary was single and had several bastard children over the years, Leeroy being one of them.   The other two are living with them--or, at least one of them could be someone 'bound' to Jacob.  Certainly possible. But how probable is it?
3)  Mary was a widow who had several children while living in VA.  Sometime between 1786 or so and 1793, her husband died.  She somehow ended up meeting and marrying Jacob Huggins.  This is by far the most likely scenario.
   If nothing else, all of this tells us where to begin to look for Mary.

The will of Jacob Huggins certainly seems to strongly infer that Jacob Jr was the son of he and Mary.  But it never actually says that from what I can see.  This means there is a small 'window'--if you will--where it's possible (but not very likely) that Jacob Jr was born to a previous wife of Jacob's.  Although it's not likely, the best thing Huggins researchers can do is to gather every bit of census information--and any other documents/data--that help show Jacob Douglas Huggins' exact birth year.  That will certainly help 'nail things down.'

  For now, the working model is this:  Jacob Huggins Sr, marries the widow from VA, Mary Akers.  She brings several children with her.  She and Jacob then have Jacob Jr together.  The likely reason the two don't have anymore children is because Mary enters menopause.  Recall: she had to be born prior to 1755.  This means that by the time she and Jacob married in 1793, she had to be 38-39 years old--at a minimum.
  So, everything is starting to 'fit' together and we have a working model. But that's all it is--a model. It's looking like Mary Acres was a widow who brought some children with her into her marriage with Jacob Huggins Sr.  One of these clearly looks to be Leeroy Akers. 
  And this would mean that the deed I mentioned would be Jacob Huggins Sr selling to his stepson--Leeroy Akers.  It would also mean that Leeroy was the step-brother of Jacob Douglas Huggins.
   But where do we go next?
   We'll deal with that in the following post....