Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tapscott surname project
I have been made the Group Administrator for the Tapscott project on Family Tree DNA at http://www.familytreedna.com/default.aspx. As soon as the project is officially listed on the site, I will be contacting potential participants and making announcements.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
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 Here is what I have written in the 2nd edition of the book Henry the Immigrant (still unpublished).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.
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.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Tapscott DNA Project
I have sent a proposal to FamilyTreeDNA to establish a Tapscott DNA Project with the following objectives and goals:
Most U.S. Tapscotts originated from two individuals, who may have been related and who are believed to have come from the Exmoor region of England. Henry arrived in Virginia in 1700; William arrived in New Jersey about 1691. The Virginia Tapscotts had slaves, some of whose descendants took the name "Tapscott," some of whom are believed to be descendants of white Tapscotts. Despite extensive research the origin of a very few white Tapscotts has never been determined. We want to answer the following questions. 1. Are the New Jersey and Virginia Tapscotts related? 2. Are one or both groups related to present-day Exmoor-area Tapscotts? 3. Can the ancestry of some mixed-race Tapscotts be identified? 4. Can the U.S. Tapscotts of untraceable origin be shown to descend from Henry or William? 5. What is relationship of U.S. Tapscotts with those in Australia and Canada? 6. Can we confirm the researched genealogy for Virginia Tapscotts (there are believed to be three major branches from Henry)?
If approved, I will be looking for participants and eventually a co-administrator. I would appreciate feedback, suggestions, etc.
Friday, February 1, 2013
DNA
Today I ordered a yDNA 37-marker test kit from FamilyTreeDNA. The cost is $169 and is upgradable to a 67-marker test for an additional charge at any time. Since I believe my connection to Henry the Immigrant is fairly well established comparison of my results with other results should be able to answer some questions concerning the relationship to the Virginia Tapscotts of Robert Francis Tapscott, George Thomas Tapscott Sr (believed son of Thomas Cobbs Tapscott), the New Jersey/Ohio Tapscotts, the Tapscotts of Somerset England, etc. I'll keep you posted. And I am looking for other male Tapscotts who wish to get involved.
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