Tag: Chesney Estes

Who Were the Parents of Lyddal Bacon Estes of Tishomingo Co., MS?

A post on this website in June 2016 (see it here) dealt with three men named Lyddal Bacon Estes or Lyddal Estes who have been the subject of considerable “same name confusion.” One of the three was the Lyddal Bacon Estes (hereafter, “LBE”) who married “Nancy” Ann Allen Winn in Lunenburg County, VA in 1814, and then moved to Madison County, AL (probably), McNairy County, TN, and Tishomingo County, MS, where he died.

At the end of the post about the three Lyddals, I promised to address the question of LBE’s parents, who are unproved. Better late than never, I hope.

First, let’s dispose of the erroneous theories. Some trees on Ancestry.com identify LBE’s parents as Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes, a “same name confusion” issue: Ben and Frances were the parents of Dr. L. B. Estes of Maury Co., TN — not LBE of Tishomingo. Other trees on Ancestry identify LBE’s father as Chesley Estes, another son of Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes. However, Chesley never married; he lived with his parents most of his life. There are also researchers who identify Lyddal Estes of Troup County, GA as LBE’s father, a theory that is disproved by the locations/migration patterns of the two men.

It’s usually not difficult to disprove incorrect theories. It’s not as easy to formulate a good one and marshal convincing evidence. Moreover, the uncertainty about LBE’s parents is understandable, since there appears to be no conclusive proof that I have found. Any theory about his parents must consequently be deemed speculative. My own theory relies largely on the process of elimination, which is a tough sell, proof-wise.

Let’s begin this quest for LBE’s parents with some undisputed facts about him that are relevant to the issue.

Place of birth: LBE was born in Virginia, according to five of his children who survived to participate in the 1880 or 1900 census. Each of those censuses reported the birth state of each person’s parents.[1]

Date of birth: 1790 – 1794. The 1830 and 1840 censuses establish that LBE was born during 1790 – 1800.[2] He first appeared on the Lunenburg personal property tax lists in 1815, at which time free males were taxable beginning at age twenty-one. That suggests that he was born in 1793-94, assuming that he was listed when he first reached taxable age. However, close examination of the tax lists reveals almost routine failure to report young adult males in a timely fashion. In any event, LBE was undoubtedly at least age twenty-one by 1815, the year after he married. Thus, the tax list and the census records establish that LBE was born in 1790 or after, but not later than 1794 (or he would not have been taxable in 1815).

Date and place of marriage: LBE was identified as a resident of Lunenburg in 1814 when he and Nancy Winn were married there that year.

Other: LBE never owned any land in Lunenburg. Since he was a Lunenburg resident in 1814, he must have been living in another’s household prior to his marriage — almost certainly with his family of origin (if still living).

On those facts, the best bet in genealogy is that LBE belongs to the line of Robert Estes Sr., a son of the immigrant Abraham Estes and his wife Barbara MNU. Robert Sr. was the only one of Abraham’s sons who migrated to Lunenburg and stayed there until he died.[3] All of the Estes men who lived in Lunenburg during the last quarter of the eighteenth century can be identified as Robert Sr.’s descendants with considerable confidence. Given LBE’s unusual name, it is also reasonable to presume that he belongs somewhere in the line of Frances Bacon (niece of Lyddal Bacon) and her husband Benjamin Estes, a son of Robert Sr. In light of LBE’s date of birth, he would probably have been Frances and Benjamin’s grandson; that couple’s children were born beginning in 1758.[4]

But that’s getting ahead of the story. The obvious first place to look for LBE’s parents was in Lunenburg probate records. However, I found none that shed any light on the issue. The Lunenburg deed, court and tax records were similarly unproductive.

Census records were the last alternative, although some assumptions are necessary since the census prior to 1850 names only the head of household. Specifically, I assumed (or hoped?) that LBE’s father was still alive and living in Lunenburg in 1810, and that LBE was residing in his household. With those assumptions, it might be possible to identify LBE’s family of origin by spotting him in a household in the 1810 census. (There is no extant Lunenburg census for 1800.)

There were seven Estes men enumerated as heads of households in the 1810 Lunenburg census:

  1. Abraham Estes, over 45, thus born by 1765, a proved son of Robert Estes Jr. and a grandson of Robert Estes Sr.
  2. Benjamin Estes, over 45, with a second male over 45 in his household. Benjamin is a proved son of Robert Estes Sr.; Chesley, the second male, is Benjamin’s son, born in 1762.[5]
  3. Elisha Estes, age 26 < 45, thus born between 1765 and 1784. He moved to Maury County, TN and then appeared in Giles County, created from Maury. The 1850 and 1860 censuses indicate he was born 1784-1785.[6] The identity of his parents is not proved, so far as I know. He is almost certainly the Elisha Estes who was bondsman for the 1814 marriage of LBE and Nancy, and is likely (IMO) LBE’s elder brother.
  4. John Estes, over age 45. John was a proved son of Robert Sr.’s son Elisha (not the same man as the Elisha named immediately above).[7]
  5. Thomas Estes, over age 45. Thomas is a son of either Robert Sr.’s son Elisha or Robert Sr.’s son George. Both Elisha and George had sons named Thomas. I have not found conclusive evidence one way or the other which one is the man who was still in Lunenburg in 1810.
  6. Matthew Estes, over 45, a proved son of Robert Estes Jr.
  7. Samuel Estes, over 45, a proved son of Robert Estes Jr.

LBE, born during 1790 through 1794, would have been enumerated in the 16 < 26 age bracket in the 1810 census. There are only two people in the above list, both of whom were grandsons of Robert Estes Sr., whose household included a male in that age category: John (son of Elisha) and Samuel (son of Robert Jr.). Samuel can be eliminated as a reasonable candidate to be LBE’s father because he left Lunenburg shortly after the 1810 census, and was therefore no longer in Lunenburg when LBE married Nancy there in 1814.[8] Samuel moved to Madison County, Tennessee, and his children are well established by a lawsuit concerning his estate.[9] They do not include a son named Lyddal Bacon Estes.

If, in fact, LBE was (as assumed) living in his father’s household in Lunenburg in 1810, that leaves John Estes, son of Elisha, as the only Estes head of household who is a reasonable candidate to be LBE’s father. John is the last man standing, so to speak.

John Estes, son of Elisha Estes and grandson of Robert Estes Sr.

So what do we know about John Estes? Although the Lunenburg records establish that John spent his entire adult life there, they don’t reveal much about him. He evidently died sometime between 1840 and 1850, when he disappeared from the census. I have found no record of a will or estate administration for him.

The Lunenburg deed records and land tax lists establish that John never owned any land there. He appeared in the deed records only once, when he mortgaged some property in 1822. The pledged property included five feather beds, suggesting a reasonably large family.[10] He was not terribly poor, because he did not apply for a Revolutionary War pension until 1833, after the law was changed to remove the requirement that an applicant had to prove he was destitute in order to qualify.

John’s pension application indicates that he was born February 7, 1756 in Louisa County, Virginia. He served two tours, having been drafted in September 1777 and again on January 1781, both times from Lunenburg.[11] His war record included no major battles, and his most colorful military memory was of a colonel who rode in front of the troops waving his hat when he discharged them from service. John continued to live in Lunenburg after the War. His pension affidavit was attested on 11 February 1833, which confirms along with the details of his testimony that he is the John Estes who was enumerated in Lunenburg in each census from 1810 through 1840.[12]

John was married at least twice and perhaps three times: (1) Mary Estes (bond dated 23 Jan 1778), (2) perhaps Elizabeth Pamplin (9 March 1804), and (3) maybe Patsy Locke (16 Oct 1806), all Lunenburg marriage bonds. Some researchers identify John Harrod Estes, a son of Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes, as the man who married both Elizabeth Pamplin and Patsy Locke. They might well be correct. However, John Harrod Estes typically used his middle initial, while the marriage bonds for both Elizabeth and Patsy just identify the groom as John Estes, with no middle initial.[13]

It is impossible to say for certain that the groom in both the marriage to Elizabeth and to Patsy was John, son of Elisha. However, Elisha’s son John was surely one of them, because his household in 1820 included six children born between 1810 and 1820.[14] Those six were not likely the children of the Mary Estes who married John in 1778, who would have been past childbearing age by then (and, if I am right about her identity, died in 1799).

Taken together, the census records for 1810 and 1820 suggest that John may have had thirteen children and/or stepchildren, possibly more, since some children born to his 1778 marriage to Mary would most likely have left his household before the 1810 census (including, in my opinion, a son Elisha). In short, it is quite possible and at least reasonably likely – although still speculative – that John Estes, a proved son of Elisha and grandson of Robert Sr., was LBE’s father.[15]

Question: who was the Mary Estes who married John in 1778?

Answer: his first cousin Mary Estes, who was identified by Charles Estes in Estes Genealogies as a daughter of Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes. She was the only Mary Estes who was “available” to be John’s bride in 1778. The other young women named Mary Estes (also granddaughters of Robert Estes Sr.) either married someone else, moved away, or were not available to marry John because of close kinship. The process of elimination – the only way to reach that conclusion – is a bit tedious and fairly lengthy, so I will put it in a footnote with a bit of information on the sons of Robert Estes Sr.[16]

The bottom line is that, among the Lunenburg Estes families, only Benjamin Estes and his wife Frances Bacon had an unmarried daughter named Mary who resided in Lunenburg and was “available” to marry John Estes. According to Estes Genealogies, Mary was born in 1761 and died in 1799. In 1778, she was of marriageable age – seventeen – and her family lived on Couch’s Creek on a tract immediately adjacent to Elisha Estes and his son John.[17] Mary had undoubtedly known John, her first cousin, all her life. She was still alive when LBE was born in 1790-94. Finally, Mary had a brother named Lyddal Bacon Estes (namely, Doctor L. B. Estes of Maury Co., TN) and a prominent great-uncle named Lyddal Bacon. It would not be the least bit surprising for Mary to name a son Lyddal Bacon Estes.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I would like to close by emphasizing again that my conclusion – that LBE was a son of John Estes and his cousin Mary Estes – must be deemed ***speculative***. Unfortunately, with no probate records for John, no known family Bible, no gift deeds identifying a parent-child relationship, and no tax lists identifying taxable males in John’s household by name, there appears to be no conclusive proof of the identities of his children. However, anyone who traces his or her Estes ancestry to a brick wall in Lunenburg should consider taking a hard look at John and Mary or a later wife! I would be happy to trade information with anyone who is interested in that possibility.

[1] 1880 census, Brown Co., TX, listing for Benjamin Estes, b. VA, both parents b. VA; 1880 census, McLennan Co., TX, listing for Lydal P. [sic] Estes, b. TN, both parents b. VA; 1880 census, Little River Co., AR, listing for H. D. B. Derryberry and wife Lucresa Derryberry, b. TN, both parents b. VA; 1880 census, Dorsey Co., AR, listing for Robert Bearden with mother-in-law Mary Rankin, b. AL, both parents b. VA; 1900 census, McLennan Co., TX, listing for Martha Swain, b. MS, both parents b. VA.

[2] 1830 census, McNairy Co., TN, p. 119, listing for Lyddal B. Estes, age 30 < 40; 1840 census, Tishomingo Co., MS, p. 231, L. B. Estes, age 40 < 50.

[3] Elisha Estes Sr., brother of Robert Sr., lived in Lunenburg briefly prior to 1772 along with his son William and William’s child Lyddal Estes, later of Troup Co., GA.

[4] Estes Genealogies gives precise dates of birth for the ten children of Benjamin and Frances Estes.

[5] Chesley was listed by name in the 1810 Lunenburg personal property tax list, but not as a head of household in the census. He owned no land, so he was undoubtedly living with family. His father Benjamin’s household is the only Estes census profile with two males in the over-45 age category.

[6] 1850 census, Giles Co., TN, p. 348, listing for Elisha Estes, age 65, b. VA; 1860 census, Giles Co., TN, p. 22, Elisha Estes, 76, b. VA.

[7] For information about Robert Estes Sr.’s son Elisha and his family, see Robin Rankin Willis, Estes Trails, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, June 2005, p. 11 – 16, “Using the Tax Lists to Correct Longstanding Published Errors: Elisha Estes of Lunenburg County, Virginia.”

[8] Samuel and his wife Rebecca sold their 213.25-acre Lunenburg tract in August 1810, the last year Samuel was taxed on that acreage. Lunenburg Deed Book 22: 97, deed of 8 Aug 1810 from Samuel Estes and wife Rebecca of Lunenburg conveying 213.25-acre tract. Samuel was taxed on 213.25 acres in 1806, 1807, 1809 and 1810.

[9] See Joy Herron, Estes Trails, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, June 2006, p. 5-7, “Samuel Estes Family,” and Robin Rankin Willis, Estes Trails, Vol. XXIV, No. 3, Sept 2006, p. 11- 21, “The Estes Family of Lunenburg, Virginia and Samuel Estes Sr. of Madison County, Tennessee.”

[10] June Banks Evans, abstract of Lunenburg Deed Book 25: 440, deed of trust.

[11] John Frederick Dorman, Virginia Revolutionary Pension Applications, Vol. 34 (Washington, D.C.: 1980) at 52.

[12] Lunenburg Co. census listings for John Estes in 1810 (p. 642, 21101-20010), 1820 (p. 165, 220001-4101), 1830 (p. 9, 0012100001-00121001), and 1840 (p. 281, 00002000001-10000001, with John listed as a Revolutionary War veteran, age 84).

[13] See, e.g., Maury Co., TN, Will Book A-1: 220, debtors of the estate of Dr. Lyddal B. Estes included John H. Estes; 1830 census, Maury Co., p. 47, listing for John H. Easters.

[14] 1820 census, Lunenburg Co., VA, p. 165, listing for John Estes, 220001-4101.

[15] Elisha’s son John was the only John Estes of marriageable age in Lunenburg in 1778. Further, the bondsman at the marriage of John Estes and Mary Estes in 1778 was John White, the husband of Elisha’s daughter Francis Estes White. FHL Film 30,804, Charlotte Co., VA Order Book 16: 175, lawsuit naming Elisha’s heirs.

[16] The six sons of Robert Estes Sr. who survived him were Robert Jr., Elisha, George, Bartlett, Zachariah, and Benjamin. (1) Robert Estes Jr., whose 1784 will named his children, had no daughter Mary. June Banks Evans, abstract of Lunenburg Will Book 3: 387, will of Robert Estes Jr., naming sons Abraham, Benjamin, Matthew, Bartlett and Samuel and daughters Sarah, Elizabeth and Martha Estes. (2) Elisha Estes, the father of John, had a daughter named Mary, but she married a man named Anthony Hundley – and she was obviously not a candidate to marry her brother John in any event. Charlotte Co., VA Court Order Book 16: 175, lawsuit naming Elisha’s heirs. (3) George Estes, who died about 1777, had a daughter Mary who had married either James Moore or William Thompson by 1791. See 10 Jun 1791 account of the orphans of George Estes, Lunenburg Will Book 4: 8b, listing payments to George Estes, James Moore & wife Nancy, Wm. Dixon & wife Francis, Thomas Estes, Bartlett Estes, Wm. Rudder & wife Milly, Wm. Thompson & wife Mary. Another record identifies Mr. Moore’s wife as Mary. In any event, George’s daughter Mary did not marry John Estes in 1778. (4) Bartlett Estes most likely had no children. He died intestate in 1796, the Lunenburg probate records do not identify a wife or heirs, and his estate inventory strongly suggests he was a bachelor. Bartlett was unmarried when his father Robert Estes Sr. wrote his 1775 will. Robert Sr. attempted to structure his will so that the sons and son-in-law whom he deemed irresponsible would have no control over their inheritance. Instead, Robert Sr.’s will purported to devise property to their wives. Bartlett clearly had no spouse who could fill that role, because Robert Sr. provided instead that Bartlett must give security “for the return [of his inheritance] to estate in case he does not entirely refrain from drunkenness and gaming.” Lunenburg Will Book 2: 417. Bartlett doesn’t sound like an attractive marriage prospect. See also July 1796 inventory of Bartlett’s estate, Lunenburg Will Book 4: 136b. (5) Zachariah or Zachary Estes made his last appearance in the Lunenburg tax lists in 1769 and moved away well before John and Mary Estes married. (6) Benjamin Estes and his wife Frances Bacon had, according to Estes Genealogies, a daughter Mary Estes, born January 22, 1761 and died October 12, 1799.

[17] Landon C. Bell, Cumberland Parish, Lunenburg County, Virginia 1746 – 1816, Vestry Book, 1746 – 1816 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1994, originally published in Richmond, VA, 1930), vestry book entry of 15 April 1784, the boundary line between Benjamin Estes and Elisha Estes was processioned. See also FHL Film 32,393, deed of 14 May 1778 from Robert and Elisha Estes of Lunenburg, executors of the estate of Robert Estes Sr., to Benjamin Estes, 92 acres on Couches Creek; FHL Film 32,393, Lunenburg Deed Book 13: 92, 93, deeds conveying 170 acres on Couches Cr. from the estate of Robert Estes Sr. to Nicholas Hobson and then to Elisha Estes.

Same Name Confusion: Sorting Out Three Men Named Lyddal Bacon Estes/Lyddal Estes

by Robin Rankin Willis

There is a great deal of bad information about your ancestors and mine on the internet. I have talked to two of my favorite family history researchers about this issue. We share an undesirable character trait: we take offense when people publish absolute crap about our ancestors. I don’t need my cousin Dr. Diane Rankin, a psychiatrist, to tell me that this is a silly thing to get het up about. What difference can it possibly make that some people publish bad information on genealogy websites?

I don’t know. None. All I know is that it incites me to publish articles to correct erroneous information. This is one of those posts.

The stuff one can find on the web about Lyddal Bacon Estes provides a great example of bad information. In this case, the errors are understandable because a number of men shared that name or a close variation, three of whom were alive at the same time. Throw in some incomplete research, and you’ve got the makings of a really funky family tree. I will resist the temptation to provide examples, including a couple of my own errors (blush). Instead, here is an updated version of an article I wrote that was originally published in June 2010 in Estes Trails, Vol. XXVIII, No. 2.

I doubt that this post will change anyone’s mind who seriously believes that Dr. Lyddal Bacon Estes of Maury County, TN married “Nancy” Ann Allen Winn in Lunenburg County, VA (he did not) when he was still married to Sally Alston Hunter in Maury, or that Dr. LBE and Sally were the parents of Mary F. Estes Rankin (they were not). I can only hope that someone who is struggling with an ancestor who traces his or her Estes line back to that unusual name will find some help in this article.

Here’s how I stumbled onto these confusing Estes men. Early in my family history research, I learned that Mary F. Estes Rankin, the wife of my ancestor Samuel Rankin, was a daughter of Lyddal Bacon Estes of Tishomingo County, Mississippi (hereafter, “LBE”). I was absolutely delighted to learn this. Having dealt with ancestors who recycled the same men’s given names ad nauseam – John, William, Thomas, Richard and Samuel – finding the parents of a man who had two unusual surnames for given and middle names looked like a potential research cakewalk.

I was dead wrong. There was nothing easy about identifying LBE’s parents. I immediately found myself entangled in a genealogical hazard called “same name confusion,” because there were three men alive in the early 1800s who shared the name Lyddal Estes or Lyddal Bacon Estes. Thus, my first task in finding LBE’s parents was to sort out these three men: (1) Doctor Lyddal Bacon Estes, who died in Maury County, Tennessee in 1814; (2) Lyddal Estes, who died in Troup County, Georgia in 1850; and (3) my ancestor LBE, who died in Tishomingo County, Mississippi in 1845. It soon became clear that these men have frequently been conflated by family history researchers. Let’s start untangling the confusion with a look at Doctor Estes, who is relatively (but not entirely) uncontroversial.

Dr. Lyddal Bacon Estes (1775 – 1814) of Lunenburg Co., VA, North Carolina, and Maury Co., TN.

Estes Trails has had several articles over the years mentioning Doctor Lyddal Bacon Estes (hereafter, “Doc Estes”). He is the man who married Sarah (“Sally”) Alston Hunter in Warren County, North Carolina in 1805.[1] He is identified in Charles Estes’s 1894 compiled history Estes Genealogies as a son of Benjamin Estes and his wife Frances Bacon Estes of Lunenburg County, Virginia.[2] So far as I can tell from my own research, that is 100% correct. Doc Estes was undoubtedly born and raised in Lunenburg, since Benjamin and Frances lived there from at least 1758 until 1811, when Benjamin last appeared on the Lunenburg tax lists.[3]

There is very little trace of Doc Estes in the Lunenburg records, except that he appeared on the personal property tax lists from 1798 through 1802 in the same district as his father Benjamin.[4] It is certain that the Lyddal Estes on those lists was not LBE of Tishomingo, who wasn’t born until the early 1790s (see discussion below). Further, this Lunenburg tithable was not the Lyddal Estes who died in Troup County, GA, because that man was already in the Carolinas by 1790 (also discussed below). In short, the man on the Lunenburg tax lists was Doc Estes, son of Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes.

In 1805, Doc Estes appeared in Warren County, North Carolina long enough to marry Sally Hunter. He was in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee by 1807.[5] He was appointed Columbia postmaster the same year. In 1809, he was a justice of the Maury County court. He owned three lots in the town of Columbia, two of which he mortgaged in 1813.[6] He died there in 1814 owing fairly substantial debts, although a host of people owed him money, as well. A list of the debts due his estate contains more than 150 names, including his brothers Chesley Estes and John H. Estes, first cousin and brother-in-law Bartlett Estes, and brothers-in-law John and Josiah Alderson.[7] The obituary for Doc Estes published in the Nov. 15, 1814 issue of The Tennessee State Gazette of Nashville says simply that “Estes, Dr. L. B. of Columbia, departed this life Sunday last on ‘the day he completed his 39th year of his age.’ Husband … father … public officer.”[8]

Doc Estes has not escaped the “same name confusion” problem. Several family trees posted on the web confuse him with LBE of Tishomingo County by asserting that Doc Estes also married “Nancy” Ann Allen Winn of Lunenburg in March 1814. However, Doc Estes was still married to Sarah Hunter, his wife since 1805, when he died in November 1814. She appeared in the Maury County records as Sarah or Sally Estes and was clearly identified as his widow in November 1814, when she was appointed administrator of his estate). She appeared in the Maury County as Doc Estes’s administrator in a lawsuit in March 1815.[9] A different LBE married Nancy A. Winn in Lunenburg in March 1814, during the time when Doc Estes was still married to Sarah. It follows that Doc Estes of Maury County was not Nancy A. Winn’s husband.[10]

Doc Estes and Sarah’s children, all identified in Estes Genealogies, were (1) Edwin Chesley Estes (1806 – 1886), (2) Alston Bacon Estes (1808 – 1888), (3) Ludwell Hunter Estes (1810 – 1887), (4) William Isaac Addison Estes (1812-1893), and (5) Martha Louise or Louisa Estes (1814 – 1878). After Doc Estes died, Sarah married Buford Turner, also of Maury County, and had several more children.[11]

Lyddal Estes (1763 – 1850) of Amelia and Henry Co., VA, Stokes Co., NC, Chester Co., SC and Troup County, GA (1763 – 1850).

An “Editor’s Note” in the September 2001 issue of Estes Trails briefly mentioned the second Lyddal Estes, a man who died in 1850 in Troup County, Georgia. This Lyddal’s application to the state of Virginia for a Revolutionary War pension (reproduced in a 1984 issue of Estes Trails) provides information about him.[12] He was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1763 and enlisted in Henry County, Virginia in 1780, about age seventeen. After the war, he lived in Henry County, in North and South Carolina, and in Troup County, Georgia. He applied for a pension from Troup County in 1843. According to the Editor’s Note in Estes Trails, Lyddal married Martha Thomason on 7 April 1789 in Henry County, Virginia.[13]

Census and other records flesh out the information in Lyddal’s pension application, which was rejected for failure to serve the requisite six months. He was enumerated as “Lyddle Estes” in the 1790 census for Stokes County, North Carolina.[14] He was taxed as a free white poll owning no land in the Stokes County tax lists for 1791, 1792 and 1796, in the same district as his father-in-law John Thomason.[15] Since Lyddal was the only Estes included in either the tax lists or the 1790 census for Stokes County, he apparently migrated initially with his Thomason in-laws rather than with his family of origin. The 1826 Stokes County will of John Thomason named his daughter Patsy (a nickname for Martha) “Easty,” per the abstractor.[16]

Lyddal was not listed in either North or South Carolina as a head of household in 1800. He may have been living in the household of his father, William Estes, in Chester County, South Carolina.[17] By 1810, Lyddal was definitely in Chester County, where he was listed in the census adjacent his mother Elizabeth.[18] The Chester County will of William Estes Sr., dated August 11, 1807, names Lyddal as one of his sons.[19] Lyddal was still in Chester County in 1820. He is probably the man listed in the 1830 Chester County census as “L. Estes,” born in the 1760s.[20]

Lyddal’s pension application says that he moved to Troup County, Georgia about 1838. He was enumerated there in the 1840 census.[21] His widow Martha, age eighty and born in Virginia, was listed as a head of household in the 1850 Troup County census.[22] I have not found any probate records identifying their heirs, although information at my library for Troup County is limited. Perhaps records are available online. The census records suggest seven children, probably including daughters named Elizabeth and Mary.[23]

Some researchers believe that LBE of Tishomingo was a son of Lyddal Estes of Troup County. That is unlikely, and probably impossible. Lyddal Estes was living in Stokes County, North Carolina by the 1790 census and was there through at least 1796. LBE of Tishomingo, on the other hand, was unquestionably born in Virginia during 1790-94 (see discussion below). Moreover, Lyddal was in Chester County, South Carolina by no later than 1810 and was still there twenty years later. The other LBE, however, was a resident of Lunenburg, Virginia when he married there in 1814.

Lyddal Bacon Estes (“LBE”) (b. 1790-94, d. 1845) of Lunenburg, VA, Madison Co., ALA?, McNairy Co., TN and Tishomingo Co., MS

Estes Trails has provided considerable information about LBE’s family. He is the man who married Ann Allen Winn (nicknamed “Nancy,” the name she was known by) in Lunenburg in 1814. The marriage bond – which gave their names as “Lyddal B. Estes” and “Nancy A. Winn” – described him as “of Lunenburg.”[24] The evidence establishes that the LBE who lived in Tishomingo County, Mississippi was the same man as the LBE who married Nancy A. Winn in Lunenburg. LBE appeared as “Lyddal B. Estes” in the Tishomingo probate records in 1845, and his widow is identified as “Nancy A. Estes.”[25] The names of their children, which include some distinctive Winn family names, and the family cluster with which LBE and Nancy migrated (including some Winn families), help confirm that they are the same couple who married in Lunenburg in 1814.[26]

After marrying Nancy, LBE appeared on the Lunenburg personal property tax lists in 1815 and 1816 as “Lidwell B. Estes,” one of many variants of the spelling of his given name. Their first son, Benjamin Henderson Estes, was born in Virginia in 1815.[27] After 1816, LBE and Nancy disappeared from the Lunenburg records. They probably moved initially to Madison County, Alabama, along with Nancy’s mother Lucretia Andrews Winn and Nancy’s siblings.[28] I have not found LBE or Nancy in the Madison County records, although three of their children were most likely born in Alabama.[29]

By at least 1826, LBE and Nancy had arrived in McNairy County, Tennessee, because LBE obtained two McNairy land grants in January 1826 and their son LBE (Jr.) was born in Tennessee in September of that year.[30] LBE and his family were enumerated in the 1830 McNairy County census near Gideon B. Winn, one of Nancy’s brothers.[31] LBE began appearing in the records in Tishomingo County in 1836, the year the county was created.[32] He died there in 1845, and Nancy died some time after 1860, when she last appeared in the census.[33]

There is at least one Tishomingo record which expressly gives LBE’s middle name as Bacon.[34] Interestingly, he was a hog farmer: his estate inventory listed over 300 head of hogs.[35] My husband Gary, who is occasionally irreverent about our ancestors (among other things), has dubbed LBE “Little Sizzler.” For my part, I admire the fact that the man managed to survive and prosper in a business that, unlike cotton and tobacco growing, did not usually involve owning enslaved persons. His estate inventory includes none.

He did own several tracts in the northeastern corner of Tishomingo (now Alcorn) County totaling 800 acres.[36] The land remained in the estate until Nancy and Benjamin petitioned the court in 1854 for permission to sell it to distribute the proceeds to the heirs.[37] LBE (Jr.) bought the entire acreage for $4,392 on twelve months credit.[38] He then resold parts of it to family members, including his sister Martha Estes Swain, his brother Benjamin Henderson Estes, his mother Nancy and brother Allen W. Estes, and Riley Myers, a relative of Nancy’s youngest sister Alsadora Winn Looney.[39] My husband and I visited the area in late 2006. Nancy and LBE are probably buried somewhere on their acreage, although the landowner wasn’t aware of any cemetery on the property. Their tombstones, if any, have undoubtedly long since disappeared.

LBE and Nancy’s children, most of whom are conclusively proved by Tishomingo deeds, were (1) Benjamin Henderson Estes (1815 – 1897), (2) Mary F. (Frances?) Estes Rankin (abt 1818 – 1891), (3) Martha Ann Estes Swain (1819 – 1905), (4) Lucretia Estes Derryberry (abt. 1822 – after 1888), (5) John B. Estes (abt. 1823 – ??), (6) Lyddal Bacon Estes (Jr.) (1826 – 1903), (7) Alsadora Estes Byers (abt. 1829 – ??), (8) William P. Estes (abt. 1830 – ??), and (9) Allen W. Estes (1832 -1864, Battle of Ezra’s Church).[40]

And that’s that, except for one piece of unfinished business … who were LBE’s parents? That’s up next.

See you on down the road.

Robin

* * * * * * * * * * * *

[1] Frances T. Ingmire, Warren County North Carolina Marriage Records 1780-1867 (Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Co. reprint, 1993).

[2] Charles Estes, Estes Genealogies 1097 – 1893 (Salem, MA: Eben Putnam, 1894), reprint available from Higginson Book Company, Salem, MA. Charles incorrectly stated that Benjamin Estes and Frances Bacon were married in Maury Co., TN, which is not possible since they were married by at least 1758 (see following note), before the state of Tennessee was created.

[3] Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes were married before October 1758, when her father John Bacon named them both in his will, see Lunenburg Will Book 1: 258. Benjamin appeared regularly on the Lunenburg land and personal property tax lists through 1811. He and Frances sold their Lunenburg tract in 1810, Lunenburg Deed Book 22: 134. They reportedly moved to Maury Co., TN, where some of their children lived, including Doc Estes. I found no mention of them in the Maury records.

[4] Clayton Library Film Nos. 180, 181, 238 and 239, microfilm of Lunenburg County, Virginia Land Tax Records and Personal Property Tax Records for various years beginning in 1782.

[5] D. P. Robbins, Century Review of Maury County, Tennessee, 1805-1905 (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press 1980).

[6] Virginia Wood Alexander, Maury Co., Tennessee Deed Abstracts Books D, E, and F (Columbia, TN: 1972), abstracts of Deed Book C: 10, 13 and Deed Book E: 229.

[7] Jill Knight Garrett & Marise Parrish Lightfoot, Maury County, Tennessee Will Books A, B, C-1, D and E, 1807-1832 (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1984), abstract of Will Book A-1: 220, list of debts due the estate of L. B. Estes. Bartlett Estes was a son of George Estes, a brother of Doc’s father Benjamin Estes. Bartlett married Susannah Estes, a sister of Doc Estes. Sarah Estes, another sister, married John S. Alderson in Lunenburg, bond dated 15 Jan 1801. Doc Estes’s sister Alla or Alley (probably Alsadora) Estes married Josiah Alderson, also in Lunenburg, bond of 12 Jul 1803. Emma R. Matheny and Helen K. Yates, Marriages of Lunenburg County Virginia 1746-1853 (Richmond: Clearfield Company, 1967). Charles Estes’s book Estes Genealogies incorrectly identified Sarah Estes Alderson’s husband as Mr. Turner, see note 11.

[8] Marise P. Lightfoot and Evelyn B. Shackleford, They Passed This Way, Maury County, Tennessee Death Records, Volume II (Mt. Pleasant, TN: 1970).

[9] Garrett & Lightfoot, abstract of Will Book B: 84; Katharine Curtice, Records of Maury County, Tennessee, Minute Book, Volume A 1810 – 1815 (Houston: Ann Poage Chapter of the DAR, 1991), abstract of Minute Book A: 225, 266.

[10] Matheny and Yates, Marriages of Lunenburg County.

[11] Estes Genealogies states that the Sarah Estes who married a Turner was Sarah, daughter of Benjamin and Frances Bacon Estes. However, Maury Co. records prove that Buford Turner married Doc Estes’s widow Sarah Alston Hunter Estes rather than Doc Estes’s sister Sarah. Maury Co. Minute Book A: 24, lawsuit styled William Bradshaw v. Wade v. Admrs of L. B. Estes, dec’d, Buford Turner admr in wright [sic] of his wife Sara A. Turner in estate of Lydville B. Estes, dec’d. See also Estes Trails, Vol. XIX No. 3, Sept. 2001 at p. 3.

[12] John Frederick Dorman, Virginia Revolutionary Pension Applications, Volume Thirty-Four (Washington, D.C.: 1980).

[13] The marriage bond abstract for Henry County available at my library does not include any record for Lyddal Estes and Martha Thomason. Virginia Anderton Dodd, Henry County, Virginia, Marriage Bonds, 1778 – 1849 (Baltimore: Clearfield Company reprint, 1989; originally published Richmond: 1953). There is nonetheless no doubt that Lyddal’s wife was Martha Thomason, which is established by her father’s Stokes Co., NC will.

[14] 1790 census, Stokes Co., Salisbury Dist., NC, p. 552, listing for Lyddle Estes, 1 male > 16 and 2 females.

[15] Iris Moseley Harvey, Stokes County, North Carolina Tax List 1791 (Raleigh: 1998). Ms. Moseley has also abstracted the tax lists for 1792 through 1797. She abstracts Lyddal Estes’s name as “Suddle Eastus” (1791), “Suddle Eustus” (1792), and “Lydwell Estees” (1796).

[16] Mrs. W. O. Absher, Stokes County, North Carolina Wills Volumes I- IV 1790 – 1864 (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, Inc., 1985), abstract of Stokes Co., NC Will Book 3: 162.

[17] 1800 census, Chester Co., SC, p. 77, listing for William Estes, 30111-32211.

[18] 1810 census, Chester Co., SC, p. 292, listing for Lydal Estes, 11001-30210.

[19] Brent H. Holcomb, Chester County, South Carolina Will Abstracts 1787-1838 [1776-1838] (Columbia, SC: 2006), abstract of the will of William Estes Sr. of Chester District naming wife Elizabeth, sons Liddal, Silvanus, William (Jr.) and John, and daughters Polly Carter, Peggy Gather, Betsy Lockart and Sally Walker; grandson William Clement. Will dated 11 August 1807.

[20] 1820 census, Chester Co., SC, p. 110, Lyddal Estes, 000101-11101; 1830 census, Chester Co., SC, p. 293, L. Estes, 010000001-111201001.

[21] 1840 census, Troup Co., GA, p. 362, listing for Lyddel Esters.

[22] 1850 census, Troup Co, GA, p. 102, household of Martha Easters, 80, b. VA.

[23] Martha’s household in the 1850 census (see prior note) included Mary Sanders, 23, and Elizabeth Hoyl, 20, both b. SC, with two children, M. K. Sanders and Martha E. Hoyl.

[24] Matheny and Yates, Marriages of Lunenburg County.

[25] FHL Film 895,897, Tishomingo Co., MS Probate Record C: 391, administrators’ bond dated 3 Mar 1845, Benjamin H. Estes and Nancy A. Estes, administrators of Lyddal B. Estes, dec’d, securities Samuel Rankin and H. B. Derryberry.

[26] LBE and Nancy had a daughter named Lucretia (for Nancy’s mother, Lucretia Andrews Winn), a son named Allen (Nancy Winn’s middle name), and a daughter Alsadora (the name of Nancy’s youngest sister). Nancy’s sister Alsadora Winn Looney and brother Richard B. Winn also resided in Tishomingo, and Nancy’s brother Gideon B. Winn lived near LBE and Nancy in McNairy Co., TN in 1830.

[27] E.g., 1850 census, Tishomingo Co., MS, p. 42, listing for B. H. Estes, b. VA; Robinson Cemetery, McLennan Co., TX, tombstone of “B. H. Estes, Dec. 12, 1815 – Jan. 6, 1897.” Central Texas Genealogical Society, Inc., McLennan County, Texas Cemetery Records, Volume II (Waco, TX: 1973).

[28] Mary Chandler, who wrote an Estes Trails article about LBE and Nancy’s family, states that their marriage was also recorded in Madison County, AL with the same date as the Lunenburg marriage. Estes Trails, Vol. XIX, No. 3 (Sept. 2001), “More on Lyddal Bacon Estes,” p. 6. I haven’t found that record and need to look again!

[29] Although the census records are inconsistent, LBE and Nancy’s son John B. Estes, and their daughters Mary F. Estes Rankin and Martha Ann Estes Swain, were probably born in Alabama. See, e.g., 1870 census, Jefferson Co., AR, p. 575, Mary F. Rankin, b. AL; 1860 census, Nacodoches Co., TX, p. 122, John B. Estes, b. AL; 1850 census, Tishomingo Co., MS, p. 40, Martha Swain, b. AL. Other census records give their states of birth as TN or MS. What is now Alabama was originally part of the Mississippi Territory, which is one possible source of confusion.

[30] http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ (BLM land grants); 1860 census, Tishomingo Co., MS, p. 87, listing for Lyddal Estes, b. TN; McLennan County, Texas Cemetery Records, Volume II, tombstone of L. B. Estes giving birth date of Sept. 20, 1826, Fletcher Cemetery.

[31] 1830 census, McNairy Co., TN, p. 119, line 12 (Lyddal B. Estes) and line 15 (Jiddeon B. Winn). Nancy Allen Winn’s siblings are identified in the Lunenburg Guardian Accounts, FHL Film 895,897 at p. 136, account dated 1 Jan 1808 filed by the guardian of Nancy Allen, Elizabeth, Sally Washington, Susanna Moor, Banister, Richard Bland, Gideon Booker and Alsodora Abraham, orphans of Benjamin Winn; eight children.

[32] Fan A. Cockran, History of Old Tishomingo County, Mississippi Territory (Oklahoma City: Barnhart Letter Shop,1969), Lyddal B. Estes was surety for the Tishomingo tax collector in May 1836.

[33] FHL Film 895,897, Tishomingo Co., MS Probate Record C: 391, 3 Mar 1845 bond of Benjamin H. Estes and Nancy A. Estes, administrators of the estate of Lyddal B. Estes; 1860 census, Tishomingo Co., MS, p. 87, listing for Nancy A. Estes, 71, b. VA.

[34] Original of Tishomingo Probate Book K: 4, viewed by the author at the Chancery Courthouse in Corinth, annual account of the estate of Lyddal Bacon Estes, dec’d, by B. H. Estes and Nancy Estes, Aug 1846.

[35] FHL Film 895,897, Tishomingo Probate Vol. C: 428, inventory of L. B. Estes, 27 March 1845.

[36] FHL Film 895,898, Tishomingo DB R: 15, 30 May 1854 deed from B. H. Estes and Nancy Estes, administrators of L. B. Estes, identifying LBE’s tracts by section, township and range.

[37] Original of Tishomingo Probate Book M: 484 viewed by the author at Corinth, MS, 14 Mar 1854 order for sale of land refers to the Administrators’ petition and finds sale is needed to divide the estate among the heirs.

[38] FHL Film 895,878, Tishomingo Deed Book R: 15.

[39] FHL Film 895,878, Tishomingo Deed Book R: 18, 19; FHL Film 895,881, Deed Book U: 155, 531.

[40] Robin Rankin Willis, Estes Trails, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, March 2006, p. 5-7, “More About the Family of Lyddal Bacon Estes and Nancy A. Winn.”