This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Channell, Mathews, Montgomery, Hathaway, Hughes
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/wUI.2ACIB/173
Message Board Post:
I am posting this information for the benefit of the Channell Message Board readers who
might be interested in some research on Thomas Channell and Elizabeth Montgomery, long
attributed as being the parents of the Three Brothers Channell: Jeremiah, Joseph and
John.
Unless otherwise noted, all references come from the Orginial Order Book of Isle of Wight
County for the years 1759/63. The Original Order Book was filmed by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints and is listed as:
County Court Order Books, 1746 - 1866; film #'s 032033 thru 032041. (1) The original
film viewed here was #032033 which lists the years as 1759-1768. I found this to not be
correct, as the film ended with the completion of Court entries for the year 1763. My
understanding is that several of the original order books are lost, perhaps this is the
reason for the erroneous listing? LDS research personnel could offer no other information
on the missing order books. I am working with the Isle of Wight Circuit Court Clerk's
Office to determine what records are available at this time for the period I am
speaking of.
BACKGROUND:
Many Channell family genealogists show Thomas Channell and Elizabeth Montgomery as the
parents of the boys Jeremiah, Joseph and John Channell. Commonly, the genealogies state
that the parents died in South Carolina and that the boys came to Virginia after their
death. Unfortunately, no dates of any significance that could be researched were ever
mentioned, leading to a more or less dead end. In September of 2004 while doing some
research on Arthur Channell of Isle of Wight, I came across a
reference on a marriage for a Thomas Channell and Elizabeth Montgomery, date of 1763. (2)
At that point, a copy of the order book entry was obtained from the Circuit Court
Clerk's Office, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Working from that document, we are
able to find the following information concerning Thomas Channell and Elizabeth
Montgomery:
RESEARCH:
In Chancery
Elizabeth Montgomery by John Streeter
her guardian
against
John Fullgham & Mary his wife
The Plft Elizabeth hath since the last continuance intermarried with Thomas Channell, who
is ordered to be made a Plft in this cause and on the Motion of of the said Plfts by their
attorney, a Commission Debene else issue is awarded them to take the Deposition of
Elizabeth Whitfield, and the said cause is ordered to be continued till the next court.
(3)
The date of this entry is the first Thursday of May, 1763. Now we have proof that Thomas
Channell did marry a Elizabeth Montgomery, apparently sometime in 1763. Can we learn
anything of Elizabeth and what she was in court about? Who are her parents? We know from
this entry that Elizabeth is a minor, as evidenced that her guardian John Streeter is
taking up her cause. The fact that Streeter is involved means
Elizabeth was under the age of 21 years. How much younger, we do not know at the time of
this entry, but do have some clues and partial answers that are provided by working
backwards in the order book entries. Thomas, by marrying Elizabeth is now made a part of
the cause.
Court session of February, 1763:
The defendant having not filed their answers to the Bill of Complaint, further time is
granted them to file the same. (4)
Now we know that between the first Thursday of February, 1763 and the first Thursday of
May, 1763, Thomas Channell and Elizabeth Montgomery were married. We still do not know
why Elizabeth is suing John Fullgham and his wife Mary, so we continue working back in the
order books. Now that we know the approx. date of marriage, what can we learn of Thomas
and or Elizabeth?
At a Court held for the County of Isle of Wight on Thursday the first day of January,
1761:
.. Elizabeth Montgomery, orphan of Robert Montgomery came into court and chose for her
guardian John Fullgham, who there upon gave Bond as the law devises. (5) We know that if
Elizabeth came into court, apparently on her own, and chose her own guardian, then she
would be approx. 14 to 17 years of age at the death of her father. What can we learn of
Robert Montgomery? Not much ...
MONTGOMERY, Robert: Appraised by Tristram Norsworthy, Jr., Tristram Norsworthy, Sr.,
Henry King. Signed John Fullgham. Ordered March 5, 1761. Recorded May 7, 1761. (6)
Now we see some of the puzzle pieces falling into place. Robert dies prior to 1 Jan 1761,
when Elizabeth appeared before the court and appointed John Fullgham as her guardian.
Robert also appears to have died intestate, because I have found no evidence of a will
being entered upon the Order Books, just that the estate was appraised between March and
May of 1761. Fullgham appears to know Montgomery, could there be a connection? Mr. Dan
Fulgham of Conroe, Tx. provides the following family information on our John Fulgham:
John Fulgham was the son of John Fulgham and Mary Purcell. He was born in the Isle of
Wight County, Virginia, in about 1746. He married Mary Montgomery, who was born about
1745, in the Isle of Wight County, Virginia. They moved first to North Carolina, probably
in or near Wayne County. They later moved to the Craven District, now Fairfield County,
South Carolina. John furnished supplies to the Continental
Army during the Revolutionary War. The children of John and Mary were:
1.) Micajah, born Feb. 10, 1767, Isle of Wight Co., VA.***
2.) Henry, born November 20, 1772, married Patience Sherard.
3.) Jesse, born about 1775, in Lancaster County, South Carolina.
4.) John, born about 1770, in the Isle of Wight Co., Virginia.
5.) Hardy, born about 1778, in Lancaster County, South Carolina.
John Fulgham died in Montgomery County, Georgia, in about 1801.
Now we have some interesting possibilites as to the relationship between Fullgham and the
Montgomery family. The dates provided here are a bit troubling, and clearly they are
circumstantial. The big question here: is Mary the sister of Elizabeth?
Circumstantially, she appears to be, but the truth appears:
..FULGHAM, JOHN AND MRS. MARY MONTGOMERY, relict of Robert Montgomery, 1761... (7)
Mrs. Montgomery, as was quite common in those days, wasted no time, apparently, in
remarrying. This would appear to be why Elizabeth came to court and asked for John
Fulgham to be her guardian. What then, happened that landed Fulgham and his wife Mary,
Elizabeth's mother, in Chancery Court? Unfortunately, without access to the 1768
Order Books, we might never know the answer.
At court on the 6th day of August, 1762:
..this day came as well the Plft by John Cohoon his attorney, as the Defts by Miles Cary
their attorney and pray to me till the next court to consider the said Plfts. Bill of
Complaint and to them is granted. (8)
In reviewing the order book, I never could find an entry for the Bill of Complaint that is
spoken of here, nor did I find any evidence of any commission entering the deposition of
Elizabeth Whitfield. This does not mean that it did not happen or get recorded, as I have
stated earlier the 1768 order book is missing from the microfilm.
While there further references to the cause in the remaining order book entries, they all
continue the cause to the next court case, until the final entry for this cause on
December 2, 1673 which states simply that the said cause is ordered continued until the
next court. (9)
As I have stated, I was unable to view film of the next order book, which covered the
period up to 1768. I did, however, find something that might explain what was going on:
6 Jun 1767 ... division of the Negroes in the bill between Thomas Channell and John
Fullgham. Rec. 5 Sep 1767. (10)
Although I can not state so with absolute certainly, I do believe we have an idea of what
was taking place. From reading the order books, it was very clear that Isle of Wight lived
and breathed tobacco at this point in time. The tobacco was the currency of the day; it
was used to pay taxes, it was used to pay for goods and services. Isle of Wight county
used it as payment for personal and property taxes and to pay the county bills.
Everything revolved around receipts and payments in pounds of tobacco. It was so
important that
page after page of court order entries dealt with claims brought against men for failing
to pay debts owed, for their farming of tobacco. Tobacco farming was labor intensive; it
required much manpower to get it planted and harvested. Against this back drop, it
appears that Robert Mongtomery, John Fullgham and Thomas Channell were all tobacco
farmers. The 1767 entry mentioned above shows a division of the Negroes between Channell
and Fullgham, and we know from earlier entries in the record that there was some type of
Bill of Complaint entered somewhere in the court against John Fullgham and his wife Mary,
now known to be the mother of Elizabeth. Fullgham's name does not appear in the other
recorded instance of the Robert Montgomery's estate -- by the time of that entry
Elizabeth had filed her action against him in Chancery Court. My best guess is that the
Bill of Complaint was about the estate of her father, perhaps
Fullgham and her mother denied Elizabeth her fair portion of the estate? That portion may
have contained perhaps land and the mentioned Negroes that were divided by Fullgham and
Channell. According to Mr. Dan Fulgham, John Fullgham and wife Mary move on to first
North Carolina, then South Carolina and then Georgia, where Fullgham dies in 1801.
Knowing the family legends about the brothers Channell, could it be that Thomas and
Elizabeth patched up things with the Fullghams and perhaps made the move with them?
It's clear that Channell is still in Isle of Wight in mid-1767, so we have a time
frame to start looking for them in the Carolina's.
I still am not a believer that Thomas and Elizabeth are the parents of the boys. Clearly,
Elizabeth is not the mother of Jeremiah and Joseph, the marriage date and the boys
estimated birth dates rule that out. That would point to a second marriage for Thomas, of
which to this point, no evidence has been found to support that suggestion. If Elizabeth
is anything, she is a step-mother to Jeremiah and Joseph, and the mother of John, thought
to be born in 1767. Which leads to interesting speculation about the period between 1763
and the time of John's birth -- could it be that unknown children were born during
that time frame?
I encourage anyone with thoughts, ideas, suggestions or further research to contact me.
Regards,
Micheal Mathews
Channell Board Administrator
Notes:
The Court consistently met on the first Thursday of every month, sometimes, depending on
case load, continuing to the next day. Those dates are consistently entered on the entries
recording the start of a new court session.
The film I viewed was of the original order book. The film itself was in excellent
condition, however, the book at the time of filming was in fair to poor condition
throughout, with many pages quite readable and many pages that were faded, torn and
difficult to read. It is more than possible that the information we are looking for was
contained in entire sections of the book that could not be read due to fading, staining,
etc. As with everything, I encourage anyone with further interest to view the film for
themselves to make
appropriate judgements as to what the entries describe.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) State of Virginia, County Court of Isle of Wight "County court order books,
1746-1866" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949)
Film #032033. Hereafter referred to as: #032033
(2) Chapman, Blance Adams "Marriages of Isle of Wight County, Virginia
1628-1800" (1976. Reprint. Genealogical Printing Co., Baltimore, MD) Pg. 9
(3) State of Virginia, County Court of Isle of Wight "Original Order Books, Isle of
Wight County 1759 - 1763" (Circuit Court Clerk's Office, Isle of Wight, Virginia)
Pg. 431
(4) #032033, Pg. 405
(5) #032033, Pg. 207
(6) Chapman, Blanche Adams "Wills and Administrations of Isle of Wight County,
Virginia, 1647-1800" (2003. Reprint. Genealogical Printing Co., Inc. Baltimore, MD)
Pp. 200, 214
(7) Chapman, Blance Adams "Marriages of Isle of Wight County, Virginia
1628-1800" (1976. Reprint. Genealogical Printing Co., Baltimore, MD) Pg. 18.
Original record contained in: State of Virginia, County Court of Isle of Wight. Will
Book 7 p. 76. Original Order Book 1764-68 p. 183.
(8) #032033, Pg. 342
(9) #032033, Pg. 533
(10) Hopkins, William Lindsey "Isle of Wight County, Virginia Deeds. 1750-1782"
(1995. Iberian Publishing Company. Athens, Georgia.) FHL, Salt Lake City, Utah. Call No.
US/CAN 975.544 R2h v.3