My 3rd great grandfather is the Samuel James whose second wife was Peninah Dean and died in the Bushy Fork of Johns Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky in 1836. I recently spent time in North Carolina trying to find some factual data to sort out how many wives he had and where he was born. I think to figure out the facts we have to first figure out the fiction.
Several stories have been published and are widely circulated in genealogy publications and on the internet which have greatly confused this issue. The two issues I would like to address are: 1. Was Samuel’s first wife Elizabeth Cornell, and 2. Is he the Samuel James from Bucks County, Pennsylvania the descendant of John James who moved to Rowan County, North Carolina probably in the mid 1770’s?
The most prevalent version of this Samuel James history comes from the History of Floyd County, Kentucky 1800 – 1992 pages 260 – 261, The James Family, By Frederick James
“The branches of an 11 generation tree in America still grow and continues to flourish in Floyd County, Kentucky.
The seed was planted in 1711 when John and Elizabeth James and family arrived from the parish of Riddellyn, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, to Bucks County, PA. They settled in what was then Montgomery Twp. (now Montgomery County), Philadelphia County, PA.
The James family remained there until Samuel James born 1767, four generations later, in 1785, one year after the Revolutionary War, started the migration west. At 18 years old and with a new bride, he left for North Carolina.
Samuel remained there in the Yadkin Valley for 25 years. He then moved on to the sweet waters of John’s Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky in 1810. He came there as builder and always tried to make it a better place in which to live.
Samuel was commissioned to lay out the first road from the mouth of Brushy Creek to the Ball Alley curve in Prestonsburg. Samuel had three wives and 15 children.
I. Married 1785 to Elizabeth Cornell. They had three children: Elizabeth, born 1795, married James Justice March 24, 1822; John, born 1798, married Mille Vaughan Jan. 16, 1817; Isaac, born 1799, married Margaret Giddens Aug. 10, 1820.”
While in North Carolina I ran across the following biography
Source: The Heritage of Rowan County, North Carolina – Volume I, 1991
Published by the Genealogical Society of Rowan County, Inc. in cooperation with Delmar Printing, Page 391-392
“JAMES: PENNSYLVANIA TO ROWAN – 536
John James and Elizabeth his wife, were born in Wales. They came to America and settled in New Britain and Montgomery Townships, Bucks County, Pennsylvania where John died; his will was dated January 13, 1747 and proved May 8, 1749. They were members of the Baptist Church. John and Elizabeth had seven children: Thomas, Josiah, William, Isaac, Sarah, Rebecca, and Mary. The boys were all born in Wales.
Thomas James, son of John and Elizabeth married Jane who died between 1753 and 1755. They had a family of five children: Thomas, Jr. born ca 1722 and died ca 1783, married Letitia; James, born ca 1725 married Elizabeth Easton on September 25, 1762; John called “Little John,” died ca 1779, married first Magdalena Keshler on August 13, 1762 and second Edith Eaton on June 14, 1766; Samuel born ca 1730 married Ann Keshler on April 8, 1765; and Elizabeth born 1725, married Benjamin Butler on February 2, 1748.
James James, son of Thomas and Jane, and his wife Elizabeth Eaton had no children. They removed to Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina by November 7, 1786. James left a will dated Jan 24, 1793 which was probated in 1798; his heirs were his wife and various nieces and nephews.
John “Little John” James, son of Thomas and Jane, by his first wife had a son James, and by his second wife had three children: Catherine and Benjamin all removed to Rowan County. Catherine married a Mr. Williams. James James and Catherine Williams inherited land from their uncle James James whose will was probated in 1798.
One additional descendant of the immigrant John James removed to Rowan County, North Carolina and he was Samuel James, born 1760 and died 1848. Samuel was the son of Isaac James and Sarah Thomas; Isaac James was the son of William and Mary James who married ca 1718; William was a son of the immigrant John.
Samuel James married Elizabeth Cornell and they had seven sons. One son surely was Cornell James who married Nancy Brickhouse December 29, 1812 in Rowan County.
Sources: An Account of the James Family of New Britain by Edward Matthews, 1876; Abstracts of Wills and Estate Records of Rowan County, N.C. 1753-1805 by Jo White Linn; Marriages of Rowan County, N.C. by Brent Holcomb; Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1790.—Cathy Gowdy
and
JAMES JAMES – 537
James James was born in 1725 in Pennsylvania. He was the son of Thomas James who was of the same area. Thomas was a land owner, active member of the Protestant Church and a substantial citizen. The record shows that James James bought 180 acres from his father in 1755, and seven years later he married Elizabeth Eaton in Philadelphia on September 25, 1762.
Elizabeth was a sister of the Reverend Peter Eaton, also of Pennsylvania, who had come to Rowan County prior to 1777, where he served as a pastor of area churches.
Peter Eaton encouraged his brother-in-law, James James, to move to North Carolina and James is shown by a deed to be a citizen of Salisbury by November 7, 1786. James James and his wife had no children, but they brought with them children of his brother John James, who was born in 1728 and had married Edith Eaton, the sister of Elizabeth, in Philadelphia on June 17, 1766.
Children of John James who came to Rowan County were James James, Benjamin James and Catherine, who married Benjamin Williams. Margaret James, their sister, married Morgan James. All of these were substantial land owners, and from them have come many descendants.
Another kinsman who came from the same area of Pennsylvania to Rowan County was Samuel James, who was born in 1760 and was the son of Isaac James and Elizabeth Thomas James. Samuel James married Elizabeth Cornell. They had seven sons.
James James owned a plantation according to his will of 1793. He bequeathed one half of his land to his wife, Elizabeth, and the remainder to his nieces and nephews. He died on September 4, 1798.”
Sources: Census records, legal records, research material of Mrs. Margaret Lutes and other historical material from the Rowan County Public Library. —Nell James Elmore
Transcribed by Lucy DeYoung Nov. 6, 2004. (Bold and italics added by transcriber)
It is also confirmed in the History of Bucks County, PA Volume I, pages 61 and 62 that Samuel James son of Isaac James, and grandson of William James, and great grandson of John James married Elizabeth Cornell.
I think what happened is that the Samuel James researchers who did the research for Frederick James knew that Samuel James had known John Dean in North Carolina and John Dean was from the part of Rowan County that became Surry County; and they put two and two together from the above information and got something other than four which has led to a lot of misinformation about the Samuel James who died in Floyd County, Kentucky.
The facts:
I. From the 1810, 1820 and 1830 census records if can be deduced that my Samuel James who I will call “Samuel I” was born between 1770 and 1780 not born in 1760 as was the Samuel James who descended from John James of Bucks County, PA and married Elizabeth Cornell who I will call “Samuel James II”.
II. From Court documents and the census I know that Samuel James I died in 1836 in Floyd County, Kentucky. Samuel James II died in 1848.
III. Samuel James I had 16 children – 6 boys and 10 girls. Samuel James II had 7 sons by Elizabeth Cornell. If Elizabeth Cornell was Samuel I’s first wife then he would have had to have 7 sons before he married Sarah Charles around 1798 which doesn’t make sense especially in light of the fact he was born between 1770 and 1780.
IV. The 1880 census is the first census that asks where a person’s parents were born. Samuel’s living children (I can find) state the following states for their father:
Abner – Massachusetts
Sarah James McCoy – blank
Malinda James Roop – Pennsylvania (the only child who is still alive in 1900 changes it to “New England” in the 1900 census)
Tamsey James Russell – Pennsylvania
David (born 1827) – Massachusetts
Mahala James Priest – North Carolina
Samuel Jr. – North Carolina
Abner was the only son living whose Mother was Sarah Charles and he states Massachusetts. Malinda who states Pennsylvania in 1880 changes it to New England in 1900. Mahala and Samuel Jr. really didn’t know their father and were raised by Abner who was born in North Carolina.
I feel the above facts prove that 1. Samuel James I did not marry Elizabeth Cornell and 2. Samuel James I was not a descendant of John James born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I believe Samuel James I had two wives: Sarah Charles and Peninah Dean and was born in Massachusetts, not Pennsylvania.