Trip

Traveling through Kentucky and North Carolina researching Tapscotts. Spent two days at the Kentucky Dept for Libraries and Archives. Great place and I may have to go back for a week. They have every record from every county on microfilm, but almost nothing on the internet. Spent two days in Daviess county KY, where William Tapscott, son of Capt. Henry, lived. Mary Frances and I are now in Glasgow KY, our location for the next three full days for exploring Barren, Green, and Casey counties (and a little of Allen). My GGG grandfather, William the Preacher, spent his later life in Green. Henry, his son, my GG grandfather, spent his childhood in Green and married there, then moved to Barren for a few years around 1830, before going on to Indiana and then Illinois. Three of William's sons (William Stewart, George Rice, and Richard) moved to Casey County from Green. Richard later went to Marion County KY. I'll let you know what I find on this trip when I have a chance to digest it and look at my notes.

Henry C. Tapscott and Robert C. Tapscott

I have posted this also on Ancestry.com to see who reads what.

It is often stated that Robert C. Tapscott, son of Edney and Sarah (Windsor) Tapscott had the middle name "Conway," a name that he used in Caswell County, NC, but not after moving to Missouri. One often cited record (Property for Methodist Episcopal Church, 28 Aug. 1828, Caswell County, North Carolina, Deed Book Y, pp. 61-61) which names a "Conway Tapscott" as a grantee. But this was certainly not Robert C. Tapscott, who would have been at most 14 years old in 1828 (1850, 1860, 1870 Missouri censuses) and could not have been a grantee. Moreover Robert C. had no known Conways in his line. On the other hand, Henry C. Tapscott, son of Henry and Nancy Tapscott and first cousin of Robert (through his mother, Nancy) was 28 years old in 1828 and had a paternal grandmother who was a Conway. I believe that Henry C. was probably the "Conway" in the 1828 transaction (along with his close relatives, brother James and uncle John). I know of no evidence for Robert having the middle name "Conway". I am requesting comments on or arguments against this.

Second Edition

I am now working furiously on the second edition, which I am expanding to include the fourth generation (in America) for all Tapscott descendants. Of course a large number, with interesting stories, go even farther towards the present than that.

I run into a big problem with William the Preacher, born 24 Jan 1764 in Cumberland County, Virginia, died about Mar 1837 in Green County, Kentucky, son of Edney Tapscott. In spite of the fact that I am his direct descendant (GGG grandson) and have extensive information about his military service and even his own personal life, I know next to nothing about his family. A major problem is that Buckingham County court records were destroyed by a fire in 1869, and it was there that William is believed to have started married life. Only one plat book survived, although some lost wills and deeds were rerecorded later. William is said to have married Winifred Cobb and to have had five children: Henry, William Stewart, George Rice, Richard, and Winifred; however, no original or even contemporary secondary sources have been reported. We know a lot about the four boys, but nothing that says their father was William. No original record has been found that gives either his wife’s family or given name. In fact, in his Revolutionary War pension application which contains a brief biography, William says not one word about his family. But his four supposed sons do appear in numerous documents at the same times and in the same locations as does William. For convenience I am taking the name of William’s wife as “Winifred Cobb,” though given the middle names of two of the “sons,” a family name of “Rice” or “Stewart” seems also likely. “Cobb” (or “Cobbs”), “Rice,” and “Stewart” are all relatively common Virginia names.

Where in the world did the name Winifred Cobb come from! Does anyone have a reliable source (not someone's unsourced family tree!)?

The death of Jacob Tapscott

In a previous blog I mentioned that I had been corresponding with Ben Ames, a descendant of Jacob Tapscott, my great great uncle, and Ben's great great grandfather.

"Jake" Tapscott lived for a while in or near Hutsonville, Crawford County Illinois, immediately south of Clark County. Another member of the community was Judge Steers, John W. Steers a wealthy farmer and an important man in the community. In 1868, the house of Judge Steers was robbed and evidence pointed to a disreputable group of relatives and hangers-on headed by Old Jim Lane. The "gang" was arrested but several posted bond and were released. The local community called on a group of regulators, some say a "posse," others "vigilantes," to rid the county of these suspected miscreants. On 8 Aug 1868 the "posse" walked into Jim Lane's house, where a gunfight ensued. Jacob Tapscott, a "posse" member, was hit by a bullet (some say fired by Old Jim Lane) and died instantly. He was only 32 (or so). His widow, Mary Lockard moved to nearby Terre Haute to find work to support her four children.

Young Jim Lane was also killed in the gunfight and his father, seriously wounded. The posse panicked realizing that they had no warrant and left with Jake Tapscott's body. For some time afterward Old Jim Lane, who recovered from his wounds, sought justice to avenge his son's death from what he considered to be mob action, but to no avail. Lawyers, worried about their standing in Crawford County, refused to take the case. A couple of years later, a lone horseman rode into Annapolis, a small settlement near the scene of the gunfight, dismounted, and walked among the few buildings. After a short time, Old Jim Lane (for that is who it was) remounted and rode away, never to be seen again. Although the Lane family had likely committed the robbery of Judge Steers, the action taken by the enforcers was unjustified and for Jacob Tapscott, it was disastrous.

Illinois was surprisingly rough back then. Jacob Tapscott had a brother Samuel, a scalawag and an accused murderer. But more on him later.

Jacob Tapscott

I had a nice email from Ben Ames calling my attention to a yDNA match I had to his uncle on Family Tree DNA. With the information Ben gave me I was able to fit his line into the Tapscott family tree (see the tree "Descendants of Henry Tapscott the Immigrant" on Ancestry.com). Ben is descended from Jacob Tapscott, one of the Clark County Illinois Tapscotts. I am descended from Jacob's brother William Tapscott. We are both of the Edney line.

Fauquier County Tapscotts and DNA Testing

Today I received an email from a descendant of Cordelia Tapscott asking if she could get involved in DNA testing to show a connection with the Tapscotts possibly through testing with a male relative (e.g., a cousin). I wrote the following (slightly modified):

Thanks a lot for the offer. Unfortunately it appears to be almost (but not quite) impossible to use DNA to show relation between descendants of Ezekiel Tapscott, whose son James E. Tapscott was involved (somehow or other) in founding the Fauquier County Tapscotts, and descendants of Cordelia. The problem is that no matter how the descendancy occurred, any connection between you and a Tapscott involves a line with both males and females. A male descendant (a male Tapscott cousin for example) has the same problem. At some point there is a male/female break in the line so that it is neither paternal nor maternal and neither mtDNA nor yDNA testing can be used.  For the Fauquier County Tapscotts, there will always be a break (if our genealogical research is correct).

The only possibility to show your connection with Tapscotts would be with autosomal DNA and the results will not be easy to interpret since there will be many false negatives (due to large relationship distances) and many false or at least unimportant positives. Nevertheless, matches from autosomal tests could show something. For example, you and I are probably connected and could match with autosomal testing (which I have already had done through Ancestry.com). If we did match, it would be strong evidence that you are descended from Tapscotts. If we do not match (which is likely due to the distant relationship) nothing is proven. You may, therefore, wish to have Ancestry.com testing (which is only autosomal) done, though it is a gamble.

The mtDNA test, which you have had done, can be used to follow your maternal line, but this will not get to the Tapscotts, though it might be possible to get back to Elizabeth Percifull, wife of James E. Tapscott. One possibility would be to find living descendants of Elizabeth's sisters through female lines. It is quite likely that such descendants exist, but tracing and finding them would be exceedingly difficult. But a positive match between you and them would be very, very exciting.

I wish I could be more optimistic about proving a Tapscott connection for the Fauquier County Tapscotts using DNA.

Tapscott Brothers of Liverpool

Robert J. Tapscott, of the James Tapscott line from Henry the Immigrant, sent me a photo of an advertisement for the William Tapscott and James Tapscott (The Tapscott Brothers) line of ships carrying emigrants from Liverpool to, primarily, New York. William ran the company from the UK and James (along with some of William's children, I believe) ran the company from New York. I and many others have long had an interest in the Tapscott Brothers of Liverpool, who originally came from Minhead in Somerset, England, in the West Country where Henry the Immigrant is believed to have originated. Indeed, when I visited Michael’s Parish Church in Minehead in 2002, I saw a number of monuments in the church cemetery bearing Tapscott names. Little did I know that these were relatives of the Tapscott Brothers of the Liverpool shipping company.

It would be great to find living Tapscotts descended from the Tapscott brothers to confirm (or deny) a connection with Henry the Immigrant using DNA testing. Any help would be appreciated, and thanks a lot to Robert J. Tapscott for arousing my interest in this area once again.