Alabama Tapscotts

Mary Frances and I are on the road doing family history research in the Wabash Valley area. By my definition, which changes haphazardly, this area includes Crawford, Clark, Edgar, and Vermilion counties in Illinois and Vigo and Vermillion counties in Indiana. (Note: Vermilion and Vermillion, "l" or "ll" depending on whether Illinois or Indiana.) I define the region to not only include the Wabash River, but Tapscott locales.

While traveling I was pleased to receive an email from a Tapscott, who lives not here, but back home in New Mexico. She told me that she was a granddaughter of Walter Albion Tapscott of Alabama and asked whether I knew of that family. I replied “of course” they were the “Alabama Tapscotts” Even though I knew little, almost nothing, about Walter—the locale, Alabama, and name, “Albion,” gives it away. Let me say a little about the Alabama Tapscotts. Forgive the deletion of sources.

Capt. Henry Tapscott, the most prosperous of Henry the Immigrant’s three sons, had an amazing sixteen children by two wives. The oldest and wealthiest of these was James Sr., who also had two wives, with five children by each. His two oldest boys were Robert Henry Tapscott and Albion T. Tapscott—note the name “Albion.”

Albion’s name is given as “Albin” in some documents; however, he always signed “Albion.” Robert Henry and Albion T., said to have been born around 1780, could have been twins since their father’s Rockridge County Virginia real estate holdings were divided equally between them; however, very limited data indicates that Albion was possibly a little younger than Robert.

Robert Tapscott married Jane Taylor on 10 April 1810, and his brother Albion married Margaret Epley on 9 July 1812, both marriages occurring in Rockbridge County, where the brothers may have been living on the property inherited from their father.

Eventually Robert and his brother Albion developed an urge for greener pastures. On 24 March 1815 Robert and Jane sold their share of her father’s land to Jane’s brother Archibald for $140, leaving the brothers free to seek their fortune elsewhere. The Tapscott brothers and their families first moved to Franklin County, Tennessee, and then to Morgan County, Alabama. There, Robert served as a representative to the state legislature in 1824 and 1825, dying on 2 May 1826 at the young age of 46. His wife, Jane, had died even younger, in November 1822.1382

Albion, who first appears in the Morgan County census of 1830 and may not have arrived in Alabama until after his brother’s death, was a justice of the peace and probably a farmer. He outlived his brother by 24 years, dying in 1850. The descendants of the two brothers’ eighteen known children (Robert and Jane: Sarah, James Warner, Mary Jane, Elizabeth, Archibald Taylor, John T., and Eliza; Albion and Margaret: James Wilkinson, Mary I., George Washington, Robert, Caroline, John T., William, Monroe, Eliza, Albion Jr., and Pinkney) helped populate Morgan County forming what I refer to as the “Alabama Tapscotts,” several of whom carried on the appellation “Albion” (or “Albin” or “Alban”).

Walter Albion Tapscott was a son of Wiley W., a grandson of Albion Jr. and a great grandson of Albion T, one of the Tapscott brothers who migrated from Virginia to Alabama. Thus, the Tapscott who contacted me is a sixth great grandchild of Henry the Immigrant, as am I. She and I are seventh cousins though we come from separate branches, Capt. Henry for her and Edney for me.

Bettina Pearson Higdon Burns wrote a very good book about the Alabama Tapscotts: Tapscott, Ancestors and Descendants of Robert Henry Tapscott, Alabama State Representative 1824, The Gregath Company, Cullman, Alabama, 1987. While not error-free, as no history is, it does a great job with Robert Henry and Albion T. and their progenies. Bettina, who passed away in 2008, did very well considering the limited research technologies available at the time she wrote the book.