Could everyone add my brother Warren to their distribution list, he is also
very interested in receiving this information.
rosie(a)harborside.com
Thank you, Bob Cavitt - Oregon
----- Original Message -----
From: John K. Bryan <jkbtwo(a)juno.com>
To: <CAVITT-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 1999 7:07 PM
Subject: Ann's Elizabeth Cavitt Taylor; Linda's Polly Cavitt Taylor
Ann and Linda:
Perhaps the following will be helpful since you both indicate that you
know little about the ancestry of the Cavitt girls who married Taylors.
Did you know, incidentally, that a third sister, Janie, married one John
K. Taylor?
My knowledge of the several Cavitt lines is limited. The only branches
I've researched are those associated with an Armstrong family about which
I'm writing a book. An appendix in the book will deal with the siblings
and ancestry of a Mary Cavitt who married into the family ca1797. Mary
Cavitt Taylor (1799-1879), Jane Cavitt Taylor (b1802) and Elizabeth
Cavitt Taylor (b1806) were second cousins of that Mary Cavitt Armstrong.
I've made no special effort to seek proof of the vital statistics and
other activities of Cavitts who are peripheral to the scope of my book,
and that includes the families of your Cavitt sisters. But incidental
to learning about Mary Armstrong's ancestry I've accumulated some
information about your Cavitt line which may be of interest.
It is alleged in Ellen Burnett Cavitt's book, "Some Tracings of
Cavett/Cavitt Family History," that a Moses Cavitt (born 1684) and seven
sons were the original immigrants whose lines of descendants continue to
confuse and confound Cavitt genealogists. Eldest son Alexander (born
1705) is said to have come to America from Scotland at age 20, Brothers
John and Sheridan are said to have arrived in 1736 and joined Alex in
western Pennsylvania. The father, Moses, is said to have moved from
Scotland to Ulster County, Ireland, in 1738 and to have come to America
in 1750 with his three youngest sons, Michael, Moses and Patric, and
married son, Richard. All settled initially near the older sons in what
was then Paxtang Township, Lancaster County, PA. From purported birth
dates one might conclude that the elder Moses had two wives, the second
being the mother of the three youngest boys.
Mrs. Cavitt did not give us her source(s) of information and I have yet
to find hard evidence corroborating the foregoing. I would be more
inclined to accept her account of the clan's "traditional" American
beginnings were it not for the fact that there are so many other things
in her book which I know to be wildly inaccurate.
The tradition of a Richard Cavitt coming to America from Ireland is
buttressed by the publication, "Notes nd Queries Historical and
Genealogical," by William Egle. While Mrs Cavitt tells us that a Richard
Cavitt and his family accompanied his father and three teen-aged
half-brothers to Pennsylvania from Ulster County in 1750, Egle says that
a Richard Cavitt married a Catherine Whitley around 1730, was a founding
member in 1732 of the Paxtang Presbyterians Church, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, received a land patent in Paxtang Township of Lancaster
County in 1737 and as late as 1754 was still listed as a member of the
church he helped organize. Egle does not identify Richard's parents.
I am personally unfamiliar with "Notes and Queries...." but Connie
Street, a Cavitt researcher, tells me that Egle is a standard reference
for genealogists hunting for Pennsylvania people. It was published in
multiple volumes and appears to be a collection of articles originally
written for individual publication in a periodical. Alas, Egle's work
also suffers from a lack of information sources.
I believe that Egel and E B Cavitt are referring to the same Richard
Cavitt and that Richard and Catherine Whitley Cavitt were
great-grandparents of your Elizabeth and Polly Cavitt Taylor.
Egle's list of children differs from that of Mrs. Cavitt by his inclusion
of a daughter who married a Col, McEwan and the exclusion of a son, John.
Unproved allegations from other sources indicate the following order of
birth: John (1736-1764). Moses (1742-1802), Mary, wife of Andrew Clark,
(1744-before 1798), Alexander (1745-1793), Michael Whitley (1747-1821),
Richard (1749-1819), George (1750-before 1798). A daughter who married
McEwan could well have been born between John and Moses, but of the above
data, only the vital statistics of Moses, Alex, Michael W. and Richard
have been proved by various kinds of secondary and circumstantial
evidence.
Your descent is through Moses Cavitt and wife, Agnes, grandparents of
Elizabeth, Polly and Janie. An entry in "Lutheran Baptisms & Marriages,
NE Pennsylvania, the records of John Cooper Stovever, Evangelical
Lutheran, 1730-1779," states that Stovever officiated at the 16,
February, 1764 marriage of a Moses Cavitt and an Agnes Meetch. These may
be they.
Moses and his brothers apparently moved from western Pennsylvania to
southwestern Virginia in the late 1760's. Over the years they gravitated
southwesterly and at the onset of the American Revolution all were
probably living in what was then Sullivan County, NC. It later became
Tennessee's easternmost county.
The story of Moses' participation in the Revolutionary War is told by his
eldest son, Richard (father of your Elizabeth and Polly), in a deposition
which accompanied his 1834 application for a Federal pension for his own
military service. I found a copy of the deposition in Madison County,
Alabama, Court records but a copy my be obtained from Washington.
Besides being primary source evidence that Richard Cavitt of Madison
County was a son of Moses, the deposition offers the facts that: Richard
was born in 1765 in Botetourt County, Virginia; his family moved to
Sullivan County, NC, some time before the Revolution; his father was a
Captain under Colonel Isaac Shelby at the Battle of King's Mountain and
was later promoted to Major; after the Cherokee were put down in the 1794
Nickojack Campaign, Richard moved to Roane County, TN, and lived there 16
years before moving to Madison County, AL
In all probability, Moses' three brothers also served in local militia
units during the war. They ventured into Middle Tennessee shortly
thereafter, Michael Whitley and Richard appearing on the Sumner County
Tax Roll in 1787. In 1791, Richard was appointed a Sumner County Justice
by Territorial Governor Blount. Alexander obtained a NC State lands in
Davidson County but returned to Knox County and bought a 640-acre tract a
few miles west of the village of Knoxville.
Alexander and his entire family were massacred by Indians there in 1793.
There being no other heirs, brothers Moses, Richard and Michael Whitley
made an agreement in September, 1798, as to the division of Alexander's
real estate. It was recorded 10 December, 1798 in Knox County, TN,
Court. Under its terms, Moses took possession of Alexander's Knox County
land while Michael Whitley and Richard divided tracts owned by Alexander
in Davidson County, TN.
Another document of interest is a copy of the proceeding Cavitt cs
Hutchings in Tennessee Superior Court, Hamilton District, 1807. Briefly,
Alexander Cavitt did not register the deed for the 640-acres he bought in
Knox County and when his family was killed and his house burned by
Indians in 1793, the deed was destroyed. Some time after Moses moved his
family to Alexander's former station, Hutchings - from whom Alexander had
bought the property - denied the sale and instituted an ejectment action.
In the trial the jury found that a sale had taken place and that Moses
had taken legal possession of Alexander's former property. Moses died in
1802 and Hutchings two years later, whereupon Hutchings heirs again
disputed the title to the land being occupied by Moses' heirs. The
document I have does not give the outcome of the 1807 proceeding but I
know from other sources that the land on which the celebrated massacre
occurred remained in Cavitt hands.
This document is important because it reiterates the relationship of
brothers Moses, Michael Whitley, Richard and Alexander, establishes that
Agnes was Moses' widow and that their living children as of 1807 included
Richard, John, Rebecca (Mrs. John Hollaway), Susanna (Mrs. William
Shoemaker(, Moses and Thomas of Roane and Knox County.
Richard (1765-1844), eldest son of Moses and Agnes Cavitt married Rutha
Millsap (1766-1843) in 1782. The information about their 11 children,
including your Elizabeth and Polly, is substantially correct as it
appears in E B Cavitt's "Some Tracings......"
I hope this helps.
Jack Bryan
.
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