Orin,
It's great to hear from you! I am most interested in the Zachariah Wells of Sullivan
County, TN. Have any of his descendants submitted DNA tests? One contributor at
familytreedna.com claims that he was the son of Jacob Wells of Loudoun County, Virginia,
and "I think" the grandson of a Henry Wells of Philadelphia. Sigh! My memory
isn't what it used to be.
John John B. Wells IIIwellsga(a)bellsouth.net
On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 7:10 PM, Orin Wells <orinwells(a)wells.org> wrote:
John,
I believe you are correct that these are two different Zachariah Wells.
The odd bit is that I think they are both from the same family W003). I
need to review that and I am not certain down which line the Sullivan
Co. Zachiariah is descended.
On 5/15/2017 3:39 PM, John Wells wrote:
I think there can be little doubt that the Zachariah Wells who
appeared in the Fincastle County, VA tax list in 1772 is the same man who later received
land in Wilkes County, North Carolina. According to North Carolina Land Grant Book 59,
page 244, Grant #636, the land for Zachariah Wells was entered on 4 December 1779. It was
surveyed on 24 March 1783 and was described as adjacent to land of Micajah Pennington.
The next land grant (#637) was entered for Enoch Osborne and it also bordered the land of
Micajah Pennington. It was surveyed on 28 March 1783 with Zachariah Wells acting as chain
bearer. Enoch Osborn(e) was the captain of a company of Montgomery County, VA Militia
during the Revolutionary War with muster rolls dated 1777, 1781, 1783 and 1785. Abraham
Sturgill, Francis Sturgill, James Sturgill, Ephraim Pennington, Joshua Pennington, Richard
Pennington and Robert Pennington were members of his company. A note in "New River
Notes" states that "some of Osborn's Company actually lived on the North
Carolina side of 36 degrees 30 minutes", but lived closer to Osborn's Fort that
North Carolina muster places.
Now to the toughest part. I have found NO evidence that Zachariah Wells ever served in
the Revolutionary War. Many genealogists have mistakenly claimed that the Zachariah Wells
of Sullivan County, Tennessee, was the same man as the Lee County, VA Zachariah. The facts
do not bear this out. The Sullivan County veteran served in a unit from Loudoun County,
Virginia, while at the same time the Zachariah Wells of Lee County was already living in
western Virginia and North Carolina. Secondly, the Sullivan County veteran was living in
Whitley County, KY, and in Tennessee while the Zachariah Wells of Lee County was living in
Virginia. Thirdly, the death dates of the two men do not match. They were different men.
Comments?
More to come ...
John B. Wells IIIwellsga(a)bellsouth.net
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Orin Wells
253-630-5296
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