Another Gauntlet

The email I cited earlier had a second paragraph (some deletions):

“I do not accept the appropriation that … Henry, son of Edney , was a son of  Edney's wife, Judith. There is no one named Judith in Henry's family nor anyone bearing her family name of Purcell. That he distanced himself from the other children of Judith is also very telling. He very quickly disposed of the land his father left him and moved to NC.”

I love it when someone throws down a gauntlet. It brings back my days as a research professor. From the 2nd Edition of Henry the Immigrant:

“Sometime before 8 April 1735 he [Edney] wedded his first wife Judith Purcell, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Woodward) Purcell. Some say that Edney had an earlier marriage, which produced most or all of his children, a claim based on the absence of the names “Judith” and “Thomas” among Edney’s offspring. But in view of a total lack of other evidence, the assertion is weak and unconvincing.”

My statement that the “assertion is weak and unconvincing” is itself weak and unconvincing. Sorry to bore you readers, but you deserve something more. Here is a summary of the evidence presented in my book. See Henry the Immigrant for details and sources.

On 11 Jul 1734, Edney sued his mother and her second husband Benjamin George for a portion of the estate of Henry, his father. Henry's gift of deed stated that Edney would receive his share when he turned 21. Edney probably instituted this “friendly” suit shortly after he turned 21, and was, therefore, likely born a little before 11 Jul 1713. This seems quite reasonable since Edney was the oldest and his parents were married between 15 Mar 1709 and 16 May 1711. He and Judith Purcell were married by 8 Apr 1735 because the Lancaster County will of Judith Purcell’s grandmother Elizabeth, signed on that date states “I do appoint my Grandaughter Judith and her husband Edney Tapscott Executors of this my Last Will & Testament.” On Apr 1735, Edney was around age 22, somewhat young since most Colonial Virginia men first married around age 25 or 26 (a reliable statistical number). In fact, Edney was sufficiently young, 22 or younger when he married Judith, that it is highly unlikely that he had a previous wife.

How long were Judith and Edney married? There is no way to tell for certain. Certainly they were no longer married when Edney took Mary, the widow of William Waugh Jr., as his second wife around 15 Feb 1762 (bond). That was 27 years or more after his first marriage, and more than sufficient time to have the seven children that we know Edney had, presumably with Judith. Even had Judith died well before Edney married Mary Waugh, there was more than sufficient time.

Judith and Edney’s first child was Henry, who would become known to us as “Henry of Caswell.” In the 1800 census, he was aged 45 or older, corresponding to a birth year of 1742 or earlier. When he married Winifred Hill around 1763 (based on a chancery court record) he would have been aged 21 or older. As we have pointed out, Virginia men tended to marry around 25 or 26, making it likely that Henry was born around 1737 or 1738, the birth year one might expect for a marriage of Edney and Judith in 1735 or earlier. No matter how one juggles the numbers, Henry of Caswell was almost certainly a child of Judith.

So far everything holds together. There are no conflicts, no negative evidence, nothing that needs to be resolved. But we still have to look at the names of descendants.

For the second generation of Edney's descendants, counting Judith Purcell and Edney as the first, no one is named “Thomas” or “Judith.” One must go to the third generation, where we find Judith Clayton, daughter of Edney’s daughter Elizabeth and Judith George, daughter of Edney’s daughter Susannah. Thus we have two granddaughters of (presumably) Judith Purcell and Edney who are named “Judith.” Many (including the writer of the above memo) would say that this provides good evidence that Elizabeth and Susannah Tapscott were daughters of Judith Purcell. I'm not convinced that this evidence is all that good though I do believe that Elizabeth and Susannah were daughters of Judith. And these two “Judiths” are all we have, even going through six generations (admittedly some of the lists of descendants are incomplete).

But we do have a slug of descendants named “Thomas” when we go through six generations (admittedly a little far). There are a whopping eleven for Henry of Caswell (two 4^th generation, five 5^th generation, and four 6^th generation). For Ezekiel there is one with a middle name "Thomas," 6^th generation. Are any of these named for Thomas Purcell? For 4th generation and beyond, as all these are, I doubt it. The relationship distances appear to be too great.

But, the thing to realize is that people didn’t always name children after ancestors. Indeed, the brother of Edney, Capt. Henry Tapscott, first married Margaret Stott and had a huge number of descendants by this first marriage, 254 by my count through the 6^th generation, but there are only five named “Margaret” (and these do not appear until the 4^th generation and 5^th generation) and nobody is named “Stott”. What is particularly striking is that Margaret’s father was named “John,” an exceedingly common name, but out of all of the descendants of Capt. Henry and Margaret, only one John is found before the 5^th generation. There are no “Margarets” at all among the 61 identified descendants of William, the last child of Margaret and Capt. Henry. Does this mean that William was not a child of Margaret and Capt. Henry? Certainly not. The will of John Stott shows William to be a child of Margaret. I'll say it again. People did not always name descendants after ancestors, as is demonstrated here.

One final note. I and other descendants of Edney Tapscott have autosomal DNA matches with a number of people descended from Purcells of the Isle of Wright County, Virginia. This is where Thomas Purcell appears to have originated. At this point it is far too early to draw any conclusions, and perhaps we will never be able to do so.

All evidence strongly indicates that Edney had but one marriage producing children, and that was with Judith Purcell.