Martha Newman’s Family before Mecklenburg: Orange County and Essex County, Virginia

Martha Newman’s family moved from Orange County, Virginia to Mecklenburg County, Virginia in the early 1800’s. Martha’s family appear to have moved back and forth between Mecklenburg and Orange from the time her parents Abner Newman and Dorothy Steagall married in 1792 (Brunswick VA), to the War of 1812 where Abner was an Ensign in the Mecklenburg militia. Martha’s brother William ended up in Campbell County, Kentucky by 1819 and was a surveyor there. Martha’s sister Nancy married her cousin George and remained in Orange County, Virginia. Martha’s sisters Emma, Varinda and Nancy married Walker brothers and moved to the South Hill or Forksville area soon after their marriages, by Gee Road. Martha’s oldest sister Elizabeth first married Samuel McKinney, and secondly William Harwell. Elizabeth and Martha lived within a few properties of each other in the Bracey area, near where Hall Road and Nelly Jones Rd meet.

Martha Newman and her father Abner Newman were born in Orange County, Virginia. Martha’s grandfather, William Newman, was born in Essex County, Virginia, and settled in Orange before the Revolutionary War.

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I found this Bible transcription record (pictured below) regarding the family of James B. Jones and his wife Martha Newman, on the Library of Virginia website. This is from the book “Family Records, Mecklenburg County, Virginia”, edited by Susan Bracey Sheppard and Carol Bracey Corker. My ancestors who are mentioned in this Bible record are James B. Jones, his wife Martha, their daughter Sarah E. Jones, and Sarah’s son Nonny, (their nickname for Alginon Gray). It took me several years after finding this bible transcription record to discover Martha Jones’s maiden name.

I found that family trees and genealogies online give two different surnames for the wife of James B. Jones: the surname Reid, and the surname Newman. Unfortunately, some descendants of James B. Jones and Martha Newman incorrectly reported her surname as ‘Reid’ to Dr. William M. Pritchett, who then published that in his book “Civil War soldiers from Brunswick County, Virginia”. In August of 2004, I went to the Nannie Gray Kidd family reunion. I asked everyone there if they knew Martha’s maiden name. Agnes Hudson told me she knew that Martha’s maiden name was Newman, and that the Newman surname was the middle name for several of Agnes’s Jones family ancestors.

A few years after the reunion, I found the death record for Martha Newman. The transcription of the death record on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch stated that Martha was the daughter of Abner and Delilah Newman. When my friend looked at the original death record (below), she found Martha Newman’s mother was not actually Delilah, but rather “Dottie”, a nickname for Dorothy. Her father Thomas Steagall’s will and chancery case list her as Dorothy. It looks to both my friend and I, that they didn’t cross the two “T’s” in Dottie’s name, hence causing some confusion.

Next, I went to look for a marriage record for Abner Newman and found that Abner Newman married Dorothy Steagall in Brunswick County, Virginia on May 8, 1792. I looked for any Steagalls in Brunswick County, Virginia and discovered (from chancery cases) that Thomas Steagall and Elizabeth were Dorothy’s parents. Thomas Steagall wrote a will in Brunswick County, Virginia June 18, 1819 which lists all of Dorothy and Abner’s children. I believe that Dorothy died before her father wrote his will. There is a lengthy chancery case in Brunswick County, Virginia because of problems with Thomas Steagall’s will. In that court case of 1836 it states that Dorothy died, but in her father’s will in 1819 it does not explicitly state that Dorothy had died. In the 1819 will, she did not inherit any of the estate, but all her children did. This is often how wills were written when an adult child (with children) died before their parent’s will was written. This chancery case of 1836 states that Martha the daughter of Abner Newman was the wife of James Jones. All of Martha’s sisters are also listed in this case with their married names and the names of their husbands.

A descendant of Varinda Newman contacted me because she recognized the information in my family tree on Ancestry.com, and told me more about Emma, Varinda and Parthenia Newman’s husbands. Together, we theorized that the three Walker men who married these three Newman sisters, were brothers. We have since proven that Edward, David and Freeman Walker were indeed brothers from order books, wills and chancery cases.

I wondered if the birthplace on Martha Newman’s death record listed as Orange County, Virginia was a mistake, because I had not been able to find that she had any other connection to Orange County. About five years ago, a descendant of Martha’s older (and only) brother William Newman told me he had heard that Abner Newman’s father was William Newman, and that this William Newman had a will in Orange County, Virginia. He gave me the will book and page number. A few days later I drove to the Orange County courthouse to get a copy of this will. Abner’s father was indeed listed as William Newman and his will (written in 1837) stated that his son, Abner, had already died. William Newman’s will listed all of Abner’s children. Martha Newman and her siblings were mentioned in both of their grandfather’s wills, William Newman and Thomas Steagall.

The image below is from a chancery case about William Newman’s estate in Orange County, Virginia. It was a receipt paper for the heirs living in Mecklenburg, Virginia. These signatures showed that they had received the first part of their inheritance. These signatures are of the heirs of Abner Newman for his portion of his father William Newman’s estate.