William Tapscott of Berkeley Co WV/Daviess Co KY

Nathan Marks, who has been of great help in unraveling the history of William Tapscott of Berkeley County West Virginia and Daviess County Kentucky (son of Capt. Henry Tapscott), recently asked how this investigation was coming along. Here is what I have written in the 2nd edition of the book Henry the Immigrant (still unpublished). Figures and endnotes have been removed, but I will be glad to provide these to anyone who asks. The material is thoroughly documented.

In 1820 a William Tapscott appears in the Daviess County, Kentucky, census, in a household with one male 10 and under, two males 45 and older (one apparently William), five females under 10, one female 26 to 45, and ten slaves. In the Daviess County census for 1830, a Nancy Tapscott is found as the head of a household with one male of age 20 to 30, two females 10 to 15, three females 15 to 20, one female, presumably Nancy, 40 to 50, and seven slaves. William, Nancy’s husband, had died. An abstract of William’s will helps provide names for the boy and the five girls shown in the two censuses: Henry, Nancy, Fanny (“Frances G.” in the 1850 census), Deland (believed to be an inaccurate transcription of Alcinda), Sally (Sarah), and Juliet. We see nothing more about Henry, the oldest child, but the marriages of the five girls are found in Daviess County records.

For many years we asked whether William of Daviess County, married to a Nancy (middle name “Ann” according to a marriage record for her daughter Frances), could be William son of Capt. Henry? William of Daviess’s birth year before 1755 from the 1820 census certainly fit. Moreover, 1850 and 1860 Daviess County census records showed the birthplace of daughter Frances G. Sharp (her married name) as Virginia, and death records for two of her children (Joseph Weaver Slaughter and Medora A. Phelon) show daughter Ann G. Tapscott’s birthplace also as Virginia, indicating that William of Daviess and his wife were from Virginia. One problem, however, was that William of Daviess had several children, yet no heirs appear for William Tapscott son of Capt. Henry in the 1845 division of Martin Tapscott’s estate. This, however, can be explained, as we will see.

The two Tapscotts are at last known to be one and the same. A series of letters to and from James Madison, retired U.S. president, provides the proof.

In Daviess County, stands an historical marker, which reads

James Madison, 4th U.S. president, and wife, Dolly, owned 2,000 acres along Panther Creek, now Daviess County. Land held by them until sold in smaller acreages, 1832-1834. Madison was member of Continental Congress, 1780-83, 86-88 and of Federal Constitutional Convention, 1787. Member of the first Congresses, 1787-1797. Secretary of State, 1801-1809. President of United States, 1809-1817.

The marker is a little misleading. The land was “sold in smaller acreages.” but only in two lots, of a thousand acres each, to William Tapscott and Benjamin Bell of Berkeley County, Virginia.

In 1780 and 1781, when James Madison was still a young man seeking his future calling, his father, James Madison Sr., and James’s brothers Ambrose and William purchased over sixteen thousand acres in Daviess County near the mouth of Panther Creek, which empties into the Green River between what are now Henderson and Owensboro (then “Yellow Cliffs”). The family continued to invest until, jointly with others, they filed claims on nearly forty thousand acres. Long-running litigation voided the original survey and the family lost it all. Later, while he was still in Congress, James Jr. and his brother Ambrose tried investing in Daviess Co once more, purchasing 7,000 acres including 2000 acres on Panther Creek. In a 1794 memorandum to Madison, his Kentucky relative Hubbard Taylor described the two 1000-acre tracts as lying

… 4 Miles from Green River, about 20 Miles from the Mouth, & about 6 Miles from the Ohio, the Land is of a good quality lies level, & the extream part from the Creek is inclinable to be sandy, it is well adapted to raising Corn, Flax Cotten, Indigo, and the Lands on the Cre[e]k will make good Meadow.

When Ambrose Madison died in 1793, his portion of the Panther Creek land went to his daughter, James’s niece, Nelly Conway Madison.

Following his retirement from the presidency, James Madison returned to the family plantation, Montpelier, to become a gentleman farmer like his close friends Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe (presidents who preceded and followed him), and like them suffered severe financial straits. Not only had price for wheat dropped sharply with the arrival of peace in Europe, Montpelier could not achieve the productivity of the new lands wrested from the Indians. Unlike Jefferson and Monroe, however, Madison was able to stave off bankruptcy. Nevertheless, he had to sell off land including his two thousand acres along Panther Creek.

In 1810, living in Berkeley County, where William Tapscott resided, was Benjamin Bell, who served as a trustee for the village of Smithfield (where he was selling off town lots under the direction of the Virginia General Assembly) from at least 1804 to 1815 and owned village land. Although located in Jefferson County, Smithfield is less than a mile from the Berkeley County line. William Tapscott, whose name appears near that of Benjamin in the 1810 census and is seen among the names in old account and ledger books for Smithfield, was living in the same area though, like Bell, he was in Berkeley rather than Jefferson County. Many documents refer to William Tapscott and Benjamin Bell of Jefferson County, Virginia, though they were probably residents of Berkeley County, although living near the county line.

In hopes of avoiding confusion with another town with the same name, Smithfield was renamed “Middleway” when the post office was established in 1806, but residents continued using the old name for years afterwards. To add to the confusion, the portion of Jefferson County in which Smithfield is located was until 1801 part of Berkeley County. And to complete the confusion, both Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, originally part of Virginia, became part of West Virginia during the Civil War.

William’s wife, Catherine, probably died sometime between 1810, when she seems to appear in the Berkeley County census, and 1820, when William is seen in the Daviess County census. Sometime during this time, William married his third wife, Nancy Ann, whose given name is unknown.

Between 1 May 1810, when Benjamin and his wife Margaret sold Jefferson County land, and 21 July 1812, when Benjamin sold additional land without a wife as co-seller, as required by law, Margaret apparently died. By 1 march 1817, when a deed of sale gives Benjamin’s wife as Frances, he had remarried.

Frances, the widow of Levi Taylor, is believed to have had the given name “Graham” though the proof is a little convoluted. That two of Nancy and William’s daughters also had a (middle?) name “Graham” (see below) indicates a possible relationship. (A third daughter, Alcinda, is said also have had the name “Graham” though no proof is provided.) It was first thought that Nancy and Frances had been sisters, but it is more likely that Nancy was married to a Graham before she married William and that the name “Graham” was the children’s surname before taking the name “Tapscott.” In May 1818 William Tapscott was a witness to a sale of land by Benjamin Bell to help settle the estate of Levi Taylor. (Another witness was Christopher F. Baylor, though what relationship, if any, he may have had to William’s second wife is unknown.)

However, they got together, the recently remarried widowers William and Benjamin, decided to buy James Madison’s Panther Creek Land and start a new life in Kentucky, a state attracting many Virginia adventurers. On 1 December 1817, Benjamin proposed buying the land in a letter to Madison, who replied that same month:

Sir                                                                                                                                                   Montpelier

Decr. 22, 1817

I have but just recd. your letter of the 1st. inst. My niece is disposed to part with the land in question; and I shall acquiesce in the sale on the terms to which you refer. It remains with you therefore to come down & close the bargain. Accept my respects                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             James Madison

On 10 April 1818, William Tapscott and Benjamin Bell purchased 2000 acres from James Madison and his niece Nelly Conway Madison Willis for $6000 with $2000 to be paid up front and $4000 to follow in two annual installments. The down payment was made and William and Benjamin headed for Daviess County. In preparation for the trip, Benjamin Bell, on 1 April 1818, signed an Article of Agreement, with William Tapscott as witness, for William P. Craighill to use and care for the land inherited by his wife from Levi Taylor for transfer someday to Levi’s orphans (for whom Benjamin was guardian). In an action that definitively connects William of Berkeley and William of Daviess, William left $1000 with his former brother-in-law Richard Baylor to make the first of his two annual payments to Madison.

William’s second payment was the last that Madison would receive for his 2000 acres. Benjamin, who appears, with William, in the 1820 Daviess County census made no payment other than his original. William Tapscott still owed $1000; Bell, $2000. Madison began dunning Bell and Tapscott, without success. In 1825 Madison wrote Kentuckian and his relative Hubbard Taylor “From Bell I have heard nothing; and from Tapscott nothing but apologies & promises which have lost their value.” The following year he wrote Hubbard “As a consequence I make another appeal to Tapscott & thro’ him to Bell, and beg the favor of you after [sealing] perusal to seal & to forward it, by mail.” Madison continued, noting his economic difficulty, “I have myself been particularly unfortunate, having made but one favorable crop of Tobo. & Wheat since my reestablishment on my farm.” Madison finally hired attorney John H. Lee to bring legal action. A letter from Lee dated 4 April 1827 gives the financial shape of Madison’s debtors.

It is believed here that Bell owes money to the amt of 6 or 7000 $ exclusive of your demand against him, he has in possession 15 Negroes; and some personal property; this information I derive from Mrs Tapscott; Tapscotts Estates has in possession 18 Negroes; and small Tracts of Land on Cumberland River some personal Estate; and owe but little money.

That Lee talks of Tapscott’s estate and is dealing with Mrs. Tapscott, shows that William had died, apparently in 1826 (when James Madison directly wrote him) or early 1827. He had made his will three years earlier, on 27 December 1823.

Madison wrote several letters directly to Mrs. Ann Tapscott, and finally settled with the widows (Bell had also died) allowing them to keep some of the land, but permitting him to sell the rest. Much bitterness ensued, however, with attorney Lee stating that “This proposition only excited the anger of Mrs Tapscott, & after having recd more abuse than I ever heard poured forth from a Female tongue, I succeeded in prevailing with the Ladies to go with me to Town and consult their Attorney.”

Nancy Ann is known to have been living around 23 April 1831, when attorney John H. Lee wrote Madison describing an interview with “Mrs Tapscott” concerning the disputed land. She is not shown as living after that date. Except for one free black woman, 80-year old Virginia-born “Patsey Tabscott,” found in the 1860 census, Tapscotts are not seen again in Daviess County censuses until 1900.