Descendants of Adam Jones

 by John Norvill Jones

Generation No. 1

1.  ADAM³ JONES  (JOHN², JOHN¹)¹ was born Bef. 1743 in Hanover/ New Kent County, VA ?², and died Bef. Dec 1791 in Franklin County, NC³.  He married SUSANNAH JONES⁴ in Bute County,, daughter of BENJAMIN JONES and JOHANNAH PERRY.  She was born Aft. 1750 in Granville County, NC, and died in Franklin County, NC.

Notes for ADAM JONES:

Adam Jones' service of more than three years qualified his principal heir, son William Jones, for a Revolutionary War bounty land grant from the state of Virginia (Adam Jones Card #5, Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants, Digital Collections, Library of Virginia).  Affadavits in support of the petition, filed in 1804, in his behalf were made by:  Benjamin Jones, his brother then living in Wake County, NC; Dudley Ballard;  Amos Bridges; James Young of Franklin County, NC, probably the nephew of David Young the deceased husband of Ann Young Paschall, and Susanna Jones, Adam Jones' widow.  In her affadavit, his widow explained that her husband's military discharge was, by accident, torn up by one of their young children.  Amos Bridges stated that, after  Adam Jones returned home from the war, Jones showed him his discharge and said that it was all he ever got out of the war.  Dudley Ballard said that he was present when Adam Jones enlisted in the 2nd Virginia Regiment and knew that Jones had served for more than three years.

Dudley Ballard, of Franklin County, was related to the several Ballards who lived in the Hawtree Creek area of Warren County, where Adam Jones lived before the war.  After the revolution, Dudley Ballard returned to Warren County where he was on the Hawtree tax list for 1785 ((1785 Tax List, Warren County, NC, Twitty's and Hawtree Dist.) but moved sometime afterward to Franklin County.  He, too, received a Virginia Bounty Land Grant of 100 acres in Ohio for his service but the supporting affadavit on file in the Library of Virginia states that his service was in the"14th Virginia Regiment", not the 2nd Regiment. 

Amos Bridges was a neighbor to Ann Young Paschall in Franklin County after the war. He was a witness, on December 17, 1791, to a deed from Charles Darnall to Jeremiah Perry (Franklin Co., NC DB-7, p. 130).  The 1820 tax list for Franklin County shows Amos "Bridgers" with 323 1/4 acres of land valued at $3 an acre.

On January 25, 1805, Governor John Page signed a certificate entitling Adam Jones' representative to "..the proportion of land allowed a private of the Continental Line for three years service."  Adam's son, William Jones, on December 4, 1805, received  warrant #5092 for 100 acres in  Ohio ("Revolutionary War Records, Vol. I Virginia", Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, p. 457; Virginia Revolutionary War Land Warrants, Book 2, p. 520).  It appears that William Jones sold the warrant to a land speculator, a common occurence.  Vast numbers of the Virginia Revolutionary War land warrants were sold by the original warrant holders to speculators who had surveys made and then sold the land to settlers or to other speculators.  In September 1809, warrant 5092 was used by Henry Massie, a large land speculator, to obtain a survey of  land in Huntington Township in Ross County, Ohio.  Henry Massie with his brother Nathaniel eventually owned a large portion of Ross County and helped bring about the settlement of the Chillecothe region of Ohio.

Notes for SUSANNAH JONES:

It appears that Susannah Jones married her cousin, Adam Jones, the son of John Jones, her father's brother.  She named a son Benjamin, for her father and two other sons, William and Samuel, with the  names of two other brothers.  Some time after Adam Jones joined the 2nd Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line, Susannah Jones moved from Warren County to the southern part of then Bute, now Franklin, County, to join two of her sisters, Jane Darnall and Ann Young Paschall and brothers Thomas and Adam Jones who settled there in 1777. 

Susanna Jones' husband, Adam, died sometime before December 1791.  In that month, the Franklin County, North Carolina court apprenticed her sons William, Drury and Benjamin Jones to William Truelove who was to teach them to read and write and learn the coopers trade(Franklin Co., NC Court Minutes, Vol. 1, p. 176).  Benjamin was a son by William Truelove.  Adam Jones was father of William and Drury. 

An alleged will by William Truelove, stated that he was the father of four children by Susannah Jones, Samuel, Lucy, Stacey and Benjamin Jones  (Franklin County, NC, Loose Estate Papers, Vol. II, abs. by Stephen E. Bradley, Jr., p. 95).  That will, made on January 9, 1818, leaves to "my friend Susanah Jones all the balance of my property in land, negroes, stock, household and kitchen furniture during her life or widowhood" and names Lucy, Benjamin and Samuel Jones and Priscila Stacey as his children by Susannah. (For additional details see the notes for William Truelove.)

Children of ADAM JONES and SUSANNAH JONES are:

                    i.    WILLIAM D.⁴ JONES, b. Bef. 1791⁵; m. ELIZABETH MCLEROY ?, Feb 25, 1811, Franklin County, NC.

Notes for WILLIAM D. JONES:

William Jones, son of Adam and Susannah Jones, as the legal representative of his father, received a grant from Virginia of 100 acres in Ohio as a result of his father's three years service as a private during the Revolutionary War ("Revolutionary War Records, Vol. I, Virginia" by Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, p. 457).  Warrant #5092 was issued to William Jones on December 4, 1805 (Virginia Revolutionary War Land Warrants, Book 2, p. 520). 

                   ii.    DRURY JONES, b. Bef. 1791, NC⁵; d. Abt. Mar 1847, Franklin County, NC; m. NONE.

Notes for DRURY JONES:

There was an older Drury/Drewry Jones in Bute/Franklin County whose age was given as thirty six on a list, dated September 3, 1778, of men from Bute County who volunteered for service in the Continental Line.  In view of his age, he is probably the Drury Jones who later developed mental troubles.  In the 1790 census for Franklin County, this Drury Jones had a household of four males less than 16, five females, three other free persons and nine slaves.  The Franklin County court minutes for 1824 (month uncertain) state: "It appearing to the Court that Drury Jones of this County from his present state of mind is incapable of managing his estate.  It is ordered that a Sheriff summon a jury to inquire into the state of mind of --(incomplete)."  This Drury Jones died in 1806.

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Drury Jones' name is sometimes spelled "Drewry" in the Franklin County, North Carolina records.  I have used Drury because it seems to be the way it is most commonly spelled in those records.

Drury Jones, son of Adam and Susannah Jones, did not marry. "Drur Jones" is on the 1820 tax list for Franklin County, NC, in Captain Mays District, taxed on 84 1/2 acres valued at $2.50 per acre for a total of $211.25 plus poll taxes on himself and one slave.  Several other Jones's are living nearby.  On July 8, 1823, Drury Jones was a buyer at the sale of the estate of William Truelove, father of his half-siblings.

"Drewry" Jones' will was written on January 15, 1847 and probated in the March 1847 term of the Franklin County Court.  In it he left these bequests:

1.  To Julius Sidney and Algelun Joiner, sons of William H. Joiner - $500 each to be paid to William H. Joiner as their guardian.  Later in the will he appointed William H. Joiner guardian to these two boys;

2.  To Martha Ramsey - $600;

3.  To Sarahan Baker daughter of Kemp Baker - $200;

4.  To William Jones son of Benjamin - $200;

5.  To Luiza Allen wife of Samuel Allen - $200;

6.  To Elizabeth Allen wife of Charles Allen - $200;

7.  To the seven children of Julius Timberlake deceased - $200 each;

8.  To Lucy and Matilda Stacy - $200 each;

9.  To Emily Freeman wife of Joseph Freeman - $200;

10. To Sarah Read - $200;

11. To Susan Shaw - $200;

12. To Joseph Stacy - $200;

13. To the heirs of Samuel Jones - $600;

14.  To Prisciller(a) Baker wife of Kemp Baker - $200;

The residue of his property was to be divided among the above legatees.  Drury Jones appointed  Samuel Harris, "my friend", as executor.  The will was signed as "Drewry" Jones by his mark and witnessed by Robert Timberlake, William W. Green and Perry (x) Barham (Franklin Co., NC,  WB-M, p. 126).

There was considerable controversy over the provision in Drury Jones' will that left $600 to the "heirs of Samuel Jones."  After a challenge by other legatees, the North Carolina Supreme Court held in June 1851 that Samuel Jones was still alive (living in Mississippi) when Drury Jones died in 1847 and, therefore, his children were not legally "heirs".  They were, therefore, ineligible to be legatees.  This provision of Drury Jones' will was declared void.

Endnotes

1.  Bute Co., NC 1771 List of Taxables of John Hawkins, PC 123.9, NC Archives.

2.  Bute Co., NC DB-A, p. 13.

3.  Franklin County, NC Court Minutes , Vol. II, abstracted by Stephen E. Bradley, Jr., p. 55.

4.  Affadavit of Susanna Jones, Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants, Digital Collection, Library of VA.

5.  Franklin County, NC Court Minutes , Vol. II, abstracted by Stephen E. Bradley, Jr., p. 55.

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