Sothoron & Related Families - 247 (Notes Pages)
For privacy reasons, Date of Birth and Date of Marriage for persons believed to still be living are not shown.
Mary [Female]
See husband's Notes.
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Overton George [Male] b. BEF 1745 - d. ABT 1805 Spotsylvania Co., VA
George Overton, head of family of 7 whites, listed by Benja. Grymes for Orange Co., VA in 1782. Is preceded on the list by Obediah Overton. (ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/orange/miscellaneous/1782oran.txt - Heads of Families)
** From Jones(1)*
George2 Overton (John1) was born probably before 1745 (calculated upon a 1767 or earlier birth year for his son Willis3 who had a married son of his own by 1788). George Overton apparently died in Spotsylvania County about 1805, the year his estate is first mentioned in both the land rolls and personal-property tax lists. His only documentable wife, Mary [-?-], lived at least until 7 April 1795.(17)
George's known adulthood spanned from 1777 to 1804. In that earlier year, he appears amid residents of Orange County who petitioned the state legislature to have the county divided.(18) He paid personal-property taxes in Orange from 1782 to 1789 and land taxes in Spotsylvania, on 175 acres, from 1785 through 1790. How he received that land is not apparent from Spotsylvania deeds or land-tax books. His return to Spotsylvania from Orange can be dated at 1790-91 via the personal-tax lists of Spotsylvania, where he was assessed between 1790 and 1804. The date of this move coincides with the parental donation of 150 acres.
Extant records of Spotsylvania do not permit a precise reconstruction of the economic life of this Virginia farmer. The receipt of his father's 150 acres brought his holdings to 325. On 7 April 1795, he and his wife Mary sold two parcels of their accumulated holdings-70 acres, more or less, to Benjamin Massey and about 57 acres to Thomas Moore(19)-leaving roughly 200 acres that should still have been in their possession. However, the 1805 land-tax roll credits his estate with only 100 acres.
In the wake of George's death, his land passed inexplicably (perhaps by right of a daughter's marriage) into the hands of Willis3 Overton, son of George's apparent brother Obediah2. Tax rolls after 1805 assess this Willis for the tract; but, again, no timely conveyance is on file. On 2 May 1842 there was very tardily recorded a deed of sale that had been drafted 6 May 1829. By the terms of this document, 54 acres from the estate of George Overton were sold for $20 to "Willis Overton, Sr." by a group of individuals who can reasonably be identified as heirs of George-i.e., Willis Overton, Jr.; John Overton; William Cammock; and William P. H. R. Davidson, attorney for Westburry Overton and George Overton. The deed also specifies that this land was part of a larger tract already occupied by Willis, Sr.(20)
Footnotes from original
- 17. Spotsylvania Co. Deed Book 0:474. George later may have had a wife Elizabeth; one Elizabeth Overton paid personal-property taxes in Spotsylvania Co. in 1805, the year George Overton's estate was listed. If not his wife, she may be the Elizabeth Overton (otherwise not accounted for) who with John Overton was paid for travel from Spotsylvania Co. to testify in an Orange Co. court in 1794; see Orange Co. Orders and Minutes, 3:269.
- 18. Thomas, Patriots of the Upcountry, 116.
- 19. Spotsylvania Co. Deed Book 0:56, 474.
- 20. Ibid., KK:64.
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Overton William Howerton [Male] b. BEF 1750 - d. AFT 8 OCT 1801
** From Jones(1)*
William2 Howerton/Overton (probably John1), whose birth is placed before 1750 because his son Beverly was born no later than 1771. William's only known wife was Bathsheba [-?-], seemingly the Bathsheba Perry named on 23 October 1784 in a baptismal entry at Saint James Northam Parish, Goochland County, as the mother of a son by "Will: Howarton."69 This supposition is reinforced by the fact that William, on 1 July 1800, executed a deed of trust in favor of his wife and children, to be held by John3 Overton (George2).70 Such trust deeds were frequently executed by men whose marriages could not be formalized for one reason or another and whose dependents, therefore, would not be their legal heirs.
William's residence in Spotsylvania can be documented almost continually from 1783 until 1801. As William Howerton or Overton, he was assessed a tithe and personal-property taxes in Spotsylvania County between 1783 and 1800, with an unexplained hiatus in the years 1788 and 1789. His only land purchase on record is that of 23 October 1786, at which time he paid a token �5 for 100 acres deeded to him by his proposed father John Howerton.71 On 6 January 1801 he (but not Bathsheba) sold for �12 a tract of 60 acres to Beverly Overton, whom he called "my son:''72 The acquisition of that land cannot be traced in Spotsylvania's deed records, and no entry for it is found on the county's tax rolls. By the last document on record for him, dated 8 October 1801, he and Bathsheba sold the 100-acre tract he had purchased in 1786.73 Witnesses to this deed were Beverly and John Overton.
Footnotes from original:
- 69. W. MacJones, transcriber and ed., The Douglas Register (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977), 218.
- 70. Spotsylvania Co. Deed Book P:227.
- 71. Ibid., L:281.
- 72. Ibid., P:403.
- 73. Ibid., 434.
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Overton [Female]
Inferred from father's will (see his Notes) by identifying a granddaughter by the name of Frances Car (sic).
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Mary [Female] d. AFT 7 APR 1795
-Mary Overton
- 07 Apr 1795
- Spotsylvania Co., VA
- Property: 70 acres in Berkeley Par., Spots. Co.
- Notes: This land record was originally published in "Virginia County Records - Spotsylvania County, 1721-1800, Volume I" edited by William Armstrong Crozier.
- Remarks: April 7, 1795. George Overton and Mary, his wife, of Spots. Co. to Benjamin Massey of same co. 20 curr. 70 a. in Berkeley Par., Spots. Co., etc., etc. No witnesses. April 7, 1795.
- Description: Grantor's Wife
- Book: O
(Ancestry.com* - Virginia Land, Marriage & Probate Records)
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Overton Willis [Male] b. BET 1766 AND 1767 - d. AFT 1859
Nancy Bradly & Willis Overton were married in Orange Co., VA on 1 Sep 1788. (Ancestry.com* - Virginia Marriages to 1800)
** From Jones(1)*
Willis3 Overton, Jr., born 1766-67 [to George Overton & presumably wife Mary]; married 1 September 1788, Nancy Bradly;21 last on record in Haywood County, Tennessee, in 1859.22
Two contemporary Willis Overtons coexisted intermittently in this four-county area of Virginia. The 1798-99 personal-tax rolls of Spotsylvania include them both; one is called the son of "Ob.," and the other the son of George. The Orange County land-tax lists also show two Willis Overtons, 1823-25; Willis, Sr., who paid taxes on 169 acres, and Willis, Jr., who was taxed on 107 acres.
Distinguishing between these two men requires a cross-generational study of county-level land records, with careful scrutiny of the legal descriptions of specific parcels. The 169-acre tract taxed to Willis, Sr., was purchased by Obediah Overton on 22 September 1800, deeded to his son Dudley Overton on 29 July 1800,23 and then bequeathed by Dudley to his brother Willis Overton in 1810.24 Therefore, Willis, Sr., was the son of Obediah; and Willis, Jr., would fall to George.
Both Willis Overtons also married, creating records that are still extant. Again, it is the land records that permit a distinction between the two men. When Willis, Sr. sold the 169-acre tractin 1825, he did so jointly with his wife Susanna-proving that it was Obediah's son Willis who married Susannah Tureman in Culpeper.25 Therefore it was Willis, Jr., son of George, who wed Nancy Bradly in Orange in 1788.
Willis Overton [Jr.], often with his wife Nancy, executed a number of land transactions in Orange County for many years past 1811.26 As Willis, "son of George," he paid personal-property taxes in Spotsylvania during 1798-99 and 1802. As Willis Overton, Jr., he paid them in Orange County, beginning in 1805. Prior to 1847, he moved to Haywood County, Tennessee, and was still alive there in 1859.27 His children included a Mary who married William Humble in Orange County on 9 June 1808.28
Footnotes from the original:
- 22. Orange Co. Deed Book 46:453.
- 23. Ibid., 22:108.
- 24. Spotsylvania Co. Will Book H:67. 25, Orange Co. Deed Book 31:265; Culpeper Co. Marriage Register 1:71.
- 26. Orange Co. Deed Books, 25:158, 339, 341; 31:264, 407; 33:61,173; 34:276,410-11; 35:304; 37:130; 38:324; 40:389; 46:433.
- 27. Orange Co. Deed Book 40:389; 46:433. Willis could have moved to Tennessee as early as 1836, when he sold 178 acres in Orange and also gave his power of attorney to his brother-in-law, Richard Richards, to convey his land; see Orange Co. Deed Books, 36:230 and 37:130.
- 28. Orange Co. Marriage Register 1, 1757-1867:73. Perhaps Willis Overton's granddaughter Mary Huddle, to whom he gave 71.5 acres in 1859, was a daughter of this couple; see Orange Co. Deed Book 46:433.
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Bradly Nancy [Female] d. AFT 1859
See husband Willis' Notes.
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Overton Mary [Female]
See father's Notes.
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Humble William [Male]
See Notes of father-in-law Willis Overton.
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Overton John [Male] b. BET 1769 AND 1774 - d. AFT 1821
** From Jones(1)*
John Overton, Jr., born about 1769-74 [to George Overton & presumably wife Mary]; married Martha Carleton in Orange County on 7 February 1797 (Orange Co., VA Marriage Register, 1, 17571867:42); died after 1821. At his first appearance in the Spotsylvania tax rolls, 1790, he is designated John Howerton, Jr.-his grandfather John, Sr., being still alive. On the Spotsylvania personal list for 1796 (after the death of the elder John), he is called "John Overton, son of George;" and in 1797 his name is rendered as John Howerton, son of George. He last paid personal-property taxes in Spotsylvania in 1805 and paid them in Orange County between 1809 and 1821.
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Carleton Martha [Female]
See husband John Overton's Notes.
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Overton Joshua [Male] b. BET 1777 AND 1779
** From Jones(1)*
[possibly] Joshua Overton, born 1777-79 [to John Overton & presumably wife Mary]; married Frances Palmer in Orange County on 15 January 1798, with Willis Overton, Jr. [son of George] as bondsman.30 Joshua first emerges on the personal-tax roster of Madison County in 1794, a year afterit was cut from Culpeper; the only other mention of him that has been found in Culpeper, Madison, Orange, or Spotsylvania is found on the personal-property list for Orange, 1803.
Joshua's parentage is not cited in any document, but the fact that George's son served as his bondsman suggests that Joshua may have been George's offspring as well. He also may have been the father of the apparent minors Westburry and George Overton who (through their attorney) joined other hens of George in the sale of George's land to Willis, Sr., in 1829.31 The younger George, in turn, appears to be the George Overton who married his cousin Mildred4 (Willis3, Obediah2) Overton and moved to Hardeman County, Tennessee, prior to 1848.32
Footnotes from the original:
- 30. Orange Co. Marriage Register 1, 1757-1867:45
- 31. Spotsylvania Co. Deed Book KK:64.
- 32. In 1834, George and Milky sold 169 acres on Meadow Branch in Orange Co.; see Orange Co. Deed Book 35:200. Perhaps they left Virginia at that time. This is the 169-acre tract purchased by Obediah in 1800, given by him to his son Dudley in 1801, bequeathed by Dudley to his brother Willis [Sr.] in 1811, and sold by Willis to George in 1825. In 1848, George and Mildred of Hardeman Co., Tenn., sold their interest in the estate of Mildred's father to their brother-in-law, Richard Richards, Jr.; see Spotsylvania Co. Deed Book MM:518.
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Palmer Frances [Female]
See husband Joshua's Notes.
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Overton Fany [Female]
** From Jones(1)*
[possibly] Fany Overton [dau. of John Overton & presumably wife Mary]; married 21 July 1803, Benjamin Massey, to whom George and his wife sold 70 acres in 1795 (Spotsylvania Co. Deed Book 0:56; Spotsylvania Co. Marriage Register, 1795-1853:13).
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Massey Benjamin [Male]
See wife Fany's Notes.
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Overton [Female]
[probably] a daughter [born to George Overton & presumably wife Mary] who married William Cammock, one of the 1829 parties who sold to Willis, Sr., a parcel of land from George Overton's estate. (Jones(1)* - Spotsylvania Co., VA Deed Book KK:64)
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Cammock William [Male]
See wife's Notes.
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Overton Ellen [Female] b. 1768
Ellen Overton, dau of Willis Overton & presumably Frances, b. 1768. (Jones(1)* - Overton Family Bible, in "Genealogical Records Committee of the D.C. D.A.R." {bound typescript; Library of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution; Washington, D.C.}, 49. The Overton record, transcribed by Mary Therese Hill, does not show Ellen's parents but does indicate that she was a sister of Sidney Overton Hancock, whose parentage is otherwise proved herein.)
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Overton Bartlett [Male] b. ABT 1770
** From Jones(1)*
[probably] Bartlett Overton, born about 1770 [to Obediah Overton & presumably Frances]; emerged as a Culpeper tithable in 1791; married Catherine Gains, 10 April 1794, in newly cutaway Madison County.50 Bartlett is attributed to Obediah's family for two reasons: first, his residential pattern in Culpeper and Madison parallels only that of Obediah (appearing on the personal-tax rolls of Culpeper in 1791 and of Madison, 1793-96); and second, Obediah served as bondsman for his marriage. He may have been the Bartlett Overton of compatible age who was enumerated in the 1810 census of Fayette County, Kentucky.51
Footnotes from original:
- 50. Madison Co. Marriage Register 1:245.
- 51. 1810 Federal Census. Fayette Co., Ky., 44.
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Gains Catherine [Female]See husband Bartlett's Notes.
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