Dear Kathy:
The source of the confusion which you share with many other Cavitt
researchers is most probably a flawed Cavitt gene which caused generation
after generation to sprinkle the surnames Moses, Alexander, Richard or
Michael among each succeeding crop of male babies. Or perhaps their
appalling lack of originality stemmed simply from hide-bound
traditionalism. Or perhaps these were the only boys names they could
spell. Or could it be that this was simply a way of saving money on
monogrammed shirts?
Whatever the cause, your Cavitt tree is suffering from "generational
dislocation." You've got some Moseses and Richards mixed.
Unproved tradition has it that seven Cavitt brothers came at various
times in the fore part of the 18th century into Pennsylvania from Ireland
and that their father, Moses (b1684) joined them in America as an old
man. The brothers are said to have been named Alexander, Sheridan,
John, Richard, Michael, Moses and Patric. The brother named Richard
married one Elizabeth Whitley. This couple is said to have lived in
western Pennsylvania where one or both may have died before the family
moved in the 1760's to southwestern Virginia. Richard and Elizabeth
Whitley Cavitt's children included John (1736-1764); Moses (1742-1802);
Mary (1744- ?) who married Andrew Clark; Alexander (1745-1793); Michael
Whitley (1747-1821); Richard (1749-1819); George (1750- ?).
By 1775, brothers Moses, Alexander, Michael Whitley and Richard were all
married and had moved their families into what was then Sullivan County,
NC (later, Sullivan County, TN). Moses married Agnes Meetch 16 February,
1764, Alexander's wife's name is unknown, Michael Whitley's wife was
named Katherine (surname unknown) and Richard's wife may have been called
Catherine or Margaret (surname unknown).
Moses and Agnes Meetch Cavitt had about nine children including,
Richard (1765-1844), who married Rutha Millsap (1766-1843); John who
married Mary Graham; Susanna (1768-1860) who married 1) William
Shoemaker and 2) John Moses; Rebecca, who married John Holloway; Moses;
Thomas; and possibly three more daughters. Moses died in Knox County,
TN.
Alexander, his wife and all their children were among the 14 people
killed in the infamous Cavitt Springs Station massacre which took place
in September, 1793, near Knoxville. His brothers Moses, Michael Whitley
and Richard fell heir to his estate.
Michael Whitley and Katherine Cavitt had at least seven children,
including: George; Elizabeth who married a Wiett; Alexander; Martha;
Thomas; Mary, who married 1) a Smart in 1810, 2) a Chapman; Claibourne,
who married Nancy Cornelius in 1828. Michael Whitley died in Sumner
County, TN, where he had lived since before 1787.
Richard had at least ten children: Joseph (1776-1833); Mary
(1777-1857), who married William Lapsley Armstrong; Richard, who died
unmarried in 1808; John; Elizabeth, who married Richard Jones; Sarah,
who married Thomas Maxwell in 1811; Margaret (1792- ?), who married
Abram Young in 1808; Moses (1794-1853), who married 1) Elizabeth Tinnin
in 1812 and 2) a Susan ? in 1840; Andrew (1796-1836), who married Ann
Cavitt (1801)-1882) in 1821; James. Although Richard brought his
family to Sumner County, TN, before 1787 and lived there through 1818, he
disinherited his children and died the following year at the Madison
County, AL, home of a nephew and namesake (eldest son of Moses and
Agnes).
Does this clarify or further confuse?
Jack Bryan