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from the
Ancestry Daily News
Michael John Neill – 3/20/2002
The Reality of Sarah's Reality
The 1760 Orange County, Virginia, will of Sarah
Turbervile has probably generated more discussion in 2002 than it ever did
when it was probated in 1761. For the past two weeks, I've discussed in this
column various aspects of Sarah's will and what those items could mean. I
have also tried to stress the importance of working with assumptions and
remembering that assumptions have been made.
When one researches across state lines and centuries, laws and customs
change. Our research procedure must change as well. One of Sarah's many
descendants was Nancy Rampley, who died owning property in Illinois in 1923.
My assumptions and research procedure for Nancy's estate and the transfer of
her property is significantly different than it should be for the estate of
her ancestor Sarah who wrote her will in 1760 Virginia.
The truth of the matter is that Sarah likely did not own any real property
in her name. Any real estate she might have brought to any of her marriages
would have automatically transferred to her husband, either at her marriage
or at the time of the inheritance if the inheritance took place after
Sarah's marriage. The end result is that the husband could then transfer the
property as he chose, either by deed or by will. If her husband still owned
the property at his death then, generally speaking during that time period
(Virginia 1760s), the oldest son of Sarah's husband would have inherited
two-thirds of the property and would not necessarily been specifically
mentioned in the will. This system of inheritance is called primogeniture.
Sarah would have had the use and income of the remaining one-third of the
property during her lifetime. Sarah's will would only have disposed of
personal property and not real estate (as it did).
Sarah's husbands could have sold any inherited property as well, even if it
was obtained via Sarah's family. Sarah would have been required to
relinquish her dower interest in any property owned by her husband and
"approve the sale" by acknowledging her relinquishment of dower rights to
the property. This relinquishment should be recorded along with the deed.
Sarah's right of dower applies to all the property owned by the husband, not
just any that might have been obtained via his marriage to Sarah. Sarah
would have had a "dower right" to the real estate owned by her husband,
regardless of how he obtained it. The "dower right" was intended to protect
the widow from being left penniless by her husband's children upon her
husband's demise. How well this worked in practice frequently is another
matter entirely. And how many wives actually stopped a land sale by refusing
to relinquish their dower is something we'll probably never know either. I
doubt if the number is very high and some may reasonably consider the
release a token gesture.
Consequently land records are still going to be a significant part of the
research on Sarah's family, as are will or probate records for each of her
husbands. While I hopefully don't descend from each of Sarah's husbands
(although it would make for an interesting story), research will have to be
conducted on all of her spouses (not just my direct ancestor) in order to
sort out as much of the situation as possible. This broad type of searching
will be necessary in order to track property ownership as completely as
possible. If Sarah did inherit property, any one of her husbands could have
sold the property. The deed does not have to clearly state how the husband
obtained the property.
However, some land records will give a brief history of the property being
transferred, potentially listing previous owners and neighbors.
Relationships will occasionally be mentioned in these records, but such
specifics should not be expected as they were not required. Establishing the
chain of ownership is not a simple, five-minute process and the researcher
should not expect to quickly and easily analyze the series of documents that
may be uncovered in this case. Property sold by one of Sarah's husbands
could have been obtained through an inheritance from the husband's family,
an inheritance through Sarah's family, or by direct purchase by the husband.
It will take research into other records to potentially determine how the
husband obtained the property. Even then, how the husband obtained property
may be left open to varying interpretations. Research in Virginia during
this time period is not simply "point-and-click" genealogy.
Additionally, because the oldest son automatically inherited two- thirds of
the father's property there will be no deed from Sarah's husbands to his
oldest son showing the transfer. One will have to search for potential land
records when these sons potentially sold property on the hope that the land
description provides some details on the previous owners of the property and
that the land was obtained through an inheritance and not a purchase from
outside the family. Primogeniture was abolished in Virginia on 1 January
1786. Had any son who heired property from Sarah's husband died before that
date, two-thirds of Sarah's son's property would have automatically passed
to his oldest son in the same fashion--potentially without any document to
"prove" the transfer. I may have to actually track down when a grandchild
transfers property, hoping that the deed's description of the property
provides information regarding previous owners. This may not be for decades
(or even longer) after Sarah's death.
Witness Benjamin Hawkins?
One of the witnesses to the will of Sarah Turbervile is Benjamin Hawkins,
Junr. This Benjamin Hawkins is likely related to Sarah's own daughter Sarah
Hawkins. Witnesses were not supposed to be potential heirs of the estate,
however. In this case, Sarah Hawkins' inheritance from her mother consisted
of the mother's clothes and a book of sermons by William Beveridge. Sarah
Hawkins' husband would have "control" over any property she heired during
their marriage. However, a book of sermons might not have been high on his
list of priorities. And hopefully the use of women's clothing was low on his
priority list also. So there is the potential that the inheritance his wife
received from her mother might not have been considered material enough to
cause concern.
The Benjamin Hawkins, Junr. could easily have been a grandchild of Sarah
Turbervile. My working hypothesis is that Sarah is at least sixty at her
death. Even if she had been as young as her fifties, Sarah could easily have
had grandchildren in their mid-twenties, easily old enough to qualify as a
witness to a legal document.
However, I'm going to work on the assumption that the witness is not the
husband of Sarah Hawkins, but perhaps is somehow related to her. Remember
witnesses solely witnessed a person sign or make their mark on the document.
That and nothing more. I won't ignore the names of the witnesses on this
document. I'll keep them and pay attention to those who witness other
documents located on Sarah's family. It may be that the witnesses had been
friends of the family for a long time. If Sarah's family had not lived their
whole life in Orange County, perhaps Sarah's family had known some of the
witnesses in areas where they had lived before moving to Orange County.
Later columns will return to Sarah, her husbands, and her children. For now,
we'll leave her in Orange County, Virginia, where her final resting place is
unknown.
Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical
Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and
is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Michael is the Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board
of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars
and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and
contributes to several genealogical publications, including Ancestry
and Genealogical Computing. You can e-mail him at:
mailto:mneill@asc.csc.cc.il.us
or visit his Web site at: www.rootdig.com/,
but he regrets that he is unable to assist with personal research.
Copyright 2002, MyFamily.com
Used by the author on his website with permission |