Oh, Henry!

Henry Clay, Son of Henry Clay, against Henry Clay

Henry Clay I was born about 1672 probably in Virginia. He died in 1760 in Chesterfield County, Virginia leaving 240 acres of land to his grandson Henry. The confusion was that Henry I had several grandsons named Henry, so no one knew which Henry he was talking about.

In his 1749 will, Henry wrote, “I give & bequeath unto my grandson Henry Clay two hundred & forty acres of land adjoining to James Hill to him and to his heirs and assigns forever.”

Henry had sons, Henry II and Charles who both named sons Henry. A Chancery suit was brought by Henry III, son of Henry II, claiming that as the oldest grandson named Henry, his grandfather, of course, was leaving him the land. Charles believed it was to his son, Henry, the land had been left.

 

While I do not know the result of the court case, I can say that the Chancery file spells out most of the family connections and is what every genealogist dreams of – family connections!

Henry I married a woman named Mary and most trees have her maiden name listed as Mitchell. Henry’s (I) 1749 will named his children and heirs as William (m. Martha Lewis), Henry (m. Lucy Green), Amey Williamson (m. William Green (brother of Lucy Green, Henry’s wife) and Benjamin Williamson), Martha Bass (m. William Bass), John, Charles (m. Martha Green (sister of Lucy, Henry’s wife), and Mary.

Supposedly, three of Henry’s (I) children married three children of Thomas Green who was supposedly born about 1665 probably in Virginia and died about 1733 supposedly in Cumberland County although that county was not formed until 1749 from Goochland. I cannot find the will of Thomas Green, if anyone has any documented proof of Thomas, please reach out.  

Thomas Green supposedly had children Abraham (m. probably Elizabeth Cowels), William (m. Amey Clay), unnamed daughter (m. Cowels), Elizabeth (m. Leonard Cheatham), Martha (m. Charles Clay), Thomas Jr, Patty (m. Hardin), Rebecca (m. Jones), Marston

My focus is on the line of William Green and his wife, Amey Clay.

William Green was born about 1705 in Virginia and died about 1744 in Amelia County, Virginia. He married Amey Clay, daughter of Henry Clay I who died 1760 in Chesterfield, Virginia and left his grandsons, also named Henry, wondering which one he left land to.

Children born to William and Amey Clay Green were Amey (m. Edward Moseley), Henry Filmer, Thomas, Martha (m. William Williamson), William Jr (m. Sarah MNU), John (m. Mildred Davis).

William Green died in 1744, and Amey remarried to Benjamin Williamson whom I know little about.

William Green Jr was born about 1735 probably in Amelia County, Virginia to William Green and Amey Clay. He died 1818 in Richmond County, North Carolina where his estate file can be found. He married Sarah, many trees show her maiden name as Stone, but I cannot find any proof of that.

Children born to William Green Jr and Sarah were David Sr (m. Ann Jones & Elizabeth MNU), Frances (m. Hill), Robert (m. Mary Chappell), Mastin, James (m. Nancy Yancey), Joel (m. Mary Davis), John (m. Wincey Flinn), William III, Sarah (m. John Flinn).

David Green Sr was born in Lunenburg, Virginia in 1760 to William Green and Sarah (Stone?). He is the brother of James Green who married Nancy Yancey in 1792 in Mecklenburg, Virginia. Nancy is the daughter of Richard Yancey Jr who was the brother of Robert Yancey Sr who married Philadelphia Jones who is the grandmother of Lewis and Robert Griffin who were bound out with John Morris in 1795 in Mecklenburg, Virginia.

David Green’s Revolutionary War pension file tells us quite a bit about his life. He filed for his pension while a resident of Limestone County, Alabama on 21 Nov 1832. He was age 74 years. He entered the service of the United States while a resident of Mecklenburg County, Virginia on 1 Jun 1780, being drafted. He served again in 1781, while a resident of Lunenburg County, Virginia. He states he was born 25 Dec 1760 in Lunenburg County, Virginia and had a record of his age that was kept by his father who had died twenty years previous (about 1812). 

After the Revolution (after 1781) he moved to Bedford County, Virginia where he lived for three years and then moved to Montgomery County, North Carolina (after 1784) where he lived forty years (after 1825) and then moved to Limestone County, Alabama where he had lived for about three years (1829) and still resided at the time of the pension claim. He knew of no person in Alabama who could confirm his service but had written to Robert Green in North Carolina and if he was still living, he would send an affidavit to the Department proving his service.

David remained in Limestone County, Alabama until the death of his two sons. He moved back to Montgomery County, North Carolina to the home of another son and his brothers before 6 Nov 1837 when, as a resident of Montgomery County, North Carolina, he applied to have his pension transferred from Alabama to North Carolina.

Research timeline of David Green

1760 born Lunenburg, Virginia

1780 drafted into service Mecklenburg, Virginia

1781 drafted into service Lunenburg, Virginia

1785 marriage to Ann Jones in Bedford, Virginia

1790 tax records for Bedford, Virginia

1791 bondsman for marriage of Sarah Green and John Flynn, Mecklenburg, Virginia

1800 Census Montgomery, North Carolina

1810 Census Capt. Harris, Montgomery, North Carolina

1830 Census East of Pee Dee and Yadkin River, Montgomery, North Carolina

1832 Moved to Limestone, Alabama (where two sons died)

1837 Moved back to Montgomery, North Carolina

1840 Census West Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina

1842 Wrote will in Stanly, North Carolina

1843 Will probate & estate in Stanly, North Carolina

David Green’s 1842 will list heirs as Jones Green, called “my oldest son,” and the heirs of Jones Green, the heirs of David Green, the heirs of Bolin Green, and the heirs of Mastin Green, indicating that all his sons except Jones were deceased. We know from David’s pension file that two of his sons died in Limestone County, Alabama as David stated he had lived there “until the death of two of his sons” sometime between 1832 and 1837. Unfortunately, he did not name the sons that died and I can find no record of them in Limestone County, Alabama.

The 1800 and 1810 Census’ for Montgomery County, North Carolina shows David having four sons. His will also names his four sons. Census data shows their approximate dates of birth and that all of them were living around Montgomery County, North Carolina in 1830 with Jones living in Stanly County (neighboring Montgomery) in 1840.

Jones Green remained in the Montgomery County area early in life but moved to Stanly County by 1840. He married a woman named Elizabeth and they had several children according to the 1850 Census. Jones’s occupation is listed as a Saddler in 1850, 1860, and 1870, the last Census I can find him on. Jones lists his birth as about 1785 in Virginia. Jones also administered the estate of his father, David Sr, in 1842, Stanly County.

This data eliminates Jones Green as being one of the sons that died in Limestone County, Alabama in the mid-1830s. That leaves David Jr, Mastin, and Bolin.

David Green Jr. also remained in Montgomery County, North Carolina. According to the many descendant trees of his daughter Nancy Green Hicks, he married his first cousin Elizabeth Green, the daughter of Joel Green who was a brother to David Green Sr (the father of David Green Jr). David Jr died before 1842 (the date of David Sr's estate file) and in 1850 his wife is found on the Census without him. Nancy Green Hicks died in 1917, her death certificate naming her parents as Dave and Lizzie Green.

Bollen (Bolin) Green, son of David Green Sr, was living in Montgomery County, North Carolina in 1830 and is found on the same Census page as John Jacky Morris, my third great grandfather, just a few doors away.

Based on DNA matches for my Uncle Don, I bet John Jacky and Amelia Morris knew Bollen Green and his family personally from Mecklenburg County, Virginia.

Bollen left Montgomery County around 1830. Most family trees show him living in Fayette County, Tennessee in 1840 but according to his father, David’s Revolutionary War pension file, two sons died in Limestone County, Alabama in the mid-1830s. I believe one of these sons was Bollen.

The Bollen Green in Tennessee may be from an earlier generation of this same Green family. 

Mastin Green can be found on the 1830 Census for Montgomery County, North Carolina living beside his father, David Green Sr. I believe Mastin may have been the other son that died in Limestone County, Alabama in the mid-1830s.

Note of caution:

All the information I can find on this Green family seems to be taken from the Chapman files where many connections to the family of Maj. Henry Filmer are made but not sourced (proven). William Green absolutely married Amey Clay, the daughter of Henry Clay. Abraham Green was most likely William's brother as was Thomas Green who became guardian to William and Amey's children (proven by court (Order) and Chancery records in Amelia, VA). More research is required to prove the parents of William Green (m. Amey Clay). 

Update 17 Feb 2026:

The source for information on Henry Filmer comes from Peter Walne, '"Henry Filmer of Mulberry Island, Gentleman:" A Collection of Letters from Virginia, 1653-1671,' The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Oct. 1960), 408-428 at 411-412, 424-425. The original letters are preserved at the County Record Office in Kent, England.  

The collection of letters are available on JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/4246692 

From strands of DNA – part 2

 From strands of DNA - part 1

I ended the last post with the connection I found between John Bailey Callicutt, from Prince Edward County, Virginia, who migrated to and settled on the Little River in Montgomery County, North Carolina before 1798 and the Sizemore family of Mecklenburg County, Virginia. John Bailey Callicutt’s daughter, Elizabeth married George Sizemore, the brother of Daniel Sizemore who found himself in a Mecklenburg, Virginia court in 1807 with John Morris for owing a debt to Speed Wilson & Co.

John Sizemore (the father of Daniel and George Sizemore) married Mary Gregory whose father, Richard Gregory married a woman named Mildridge. I do not know her maiden name. When Richard Gregory died, she married William Vaughan whose son, John Vaughan had married Amelia Jones, none other than the sister of Philadelphia Jones Griffin Yancey, the grandmother of Lewis and Robert Griffin found in the 1795 court order to be bound out alongside John Morris.

Through Uncle Don’s DNA matches I have learned that either John Jacky Morris and/or his wife Amelia are somehow related to the families of Mecklenburg County, Virginia with the surnames Vowel, Hendrick, Gregory, Vaughan, Sizemore, Griffin, Jones, Yancey, Stone, and Winn. I have now added Callicutt to my research list. I have been able to link these families together through intermarriage with one another in Virginia and learned that some of them migrated to Montgomery and surrounding counties, North Carolina.

Considering the number of DNA matches Uncle Don has with descendants of these families I am cautiously hopeful that my 3rd great grandfather John Jacky Morris is the same boy who was bound out to Mourning Winn in 1795 Mecklenburg, Virginia along with the Griffin children.

Down the rabbit hole: make it make sense

I am not one to chase family legends, rather, I tend for the opposite approach. I look for holes in the story, conflicts, discrepancies, the things that don’t make sense. And there is a lot that does not make sense with my Morris family legend. 

The legend says that John Jacky Morris was born in Clarksville, Virginia and came to Montgomery County, North Carolina in 1805. It seems simple enough until you start building a timeline only to discover that John Jacky Morris was born in and left a place before it ever existed. That is quite a remarkable achievement!  

Clarksville did not exist until 1818, and John Jacky was born in 1785. According to the official history of the place, before 1818, the area was known as Royster’s Ferry. The name shifted to Clarksville in 1818 when Clark Royster established the town and named it after himself. 

Before 1818, no one had ever heard of Clarksville!

1770 Collett map showing Royster’s Ferry

So, who was BORN in Clarksville, Virginia?

It was Thomas, John Jacky’s son, that was born in Clarksville, Virginia. According to John Coon Morris’s (Thomas’s son) death certificate, place of birth of father (Thomas) is Clarksville, VA. 

Uncle Don’s grandmother, Flora Dennis Morris, wife of John Coon Morris was the informant on the death certificate, and I am sure she did not pull Clarksville, Virginia out of a hat. She reported what John Coon Morris; her husband had told her. John Coon Morris was repeating what his father, Thomas, had told him. 

Thomas Morris was born about 1824, six years after the creation of the Town of Clarksville, so, if Thomas was born there, that would put John Jacky Morris and his wife, Amelia, in Virginia, not North Carolina, in 1824 when Thomas was born. 

John Jacky Morris was in the 1830 Census for Montgomery County, North Carolina and, if the death certificate listing Clarksville, Virginia is to be believed, that would mean John Jacky came to Montgomery County, North Carolina from Clarksville, Virginia between 1824, after Thomas was born, and 1830, before the Montgomery County Census was enumerated.

The screen shot below of the 1830 Census shows John Jacky Morris Sr and the pages before and after where he is found. A few things jumped out at me that tells me I need to do some more digging into records. First, a man named Bollen Green looks to be living near John Jacky Morris. Could Bollen Green possibly be part of the Green family who intermarried with the Griffin and Sizemore family in Virginia? Next, who is Moses Grissom on the page preceding John. Who does he connect to? There is a Grissom / Gresham YDNA match to Uncle Don, and I wonder if Moses Grissom might be connected to that Gresham family in Granville County, North Carolina who are a YDNA match to Uncle Don. On the last page is found William Green and I wonder if he is related to Bollen Green. Lastly, there is Joseph Callis. I am already researching the Callis family of Lunenburg, Virginia who intermarried with a Morris family there. If I find anything of interest, I will post more information at the blog.

The 1820 Census for Montgomery County was lost or destroyed and 99% of the court records were burned in courthouse fires. So, there is no real way to verify if John Jacky and his family were in Montgomery County earlier than 1830.

The 1820 Census for Mecklenburg County, Virginia does exist, but John Jacky Morris is not found in that Census as a head of household. The only Morris family listed in Mecklenburg County, Virginia in the 1820 Census is the Jesse and Jane Morris family and they lived about 60 miles east of Clarksville around Little Genito Creek near the current-day Mecklenburg-Brunswick Regional Airport very near the Brunswick County line, so, on the other end of the county. 

Shown below is Jane Morris, widow of Jesse Morris Sr and their sons Daniel and Jesse Jr. Jesse Sr died in 1807 and Jane in 1823. Neither Jesse nor Jane listed a son named John in their wills.

Ancestors of the DNA matches for Uncle Don are shown living between the Halifax County, Virginia line and the Town of Clarksville, Mecklenburg, Virginia in the areas of Aaron’s Creek and Buffalo Creek.

Searchers in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama could not find a family with John Morris as head of household with 5 other family members in 1820. So, they were either missed, they lived in another household, or the 1820 Census for wherever they lived is lost/destroyed. 
 

What the John Jacky Morris family looked like in 1820 

John Jacky b. 1785 (age 35 in 1820)
Amelia b. 1790 (age in 30 1820) 
William b. 1813 (age 7 in 1820)
George b. 1817 (age 3 in 1820)
Eliza b. 1818 (age 2 in 1820)
John Jr. b. 1819 (age 1 in 1820)

The Callicutt family

Some of the earliest records I could find on the Callicutt family (and its various spellings) are in Amelia County, Virginia, formed 1735 from Brunswick and Prince George counties. James Callicutt, the father of John Bailey Callicutt, in 1753, purchased 108 acres from James Parrott of Lunenburg, Virginia in the county of Amelia on the Reedy Branch (the area that became Prince Edward County in 1754) and in the Fork of Nottoway River. One of the witnesses to that deed was Hampton Wade whose son Horatio Wade migrated to Richmond, a county that borders Montgomery, North Carolina. Horatio’s great granddaughter, Ella Wade, married my great grandfather, John Coon Morris, the grandson of John Jacky Morris. Ella Wade died in 1895, and John Coon remarried to Flora Dennis.

Flora was the one who reported her father-in-law Thomas Morris’ birth location as Clarksville, Virginia. 

In 1756 James Callicutt of Prince Edward County sold to John Hoskins of Amelia County, the same 108 acres on the Reedy Branch of Nottoway River. 

John Bailey Callicutt had a son named William Harrison Callicutt born about 1770. I think he may be the same man mentioned in an 1816 land grant for 50 acres of land in Montgomery County entered by John Bell. The order went to the county surveyor to lay off and survey the land joining William Callicutt and Joel Hurley. The survey was completed and returned in 1817. Richard Bell and Thomas Bell, the brothers of John Bell, were chain carriers. 

I have spent several days trying to figure out who the parents of Joel Hurley were but, so far, no luck. He may be the son of Cornelius Hurley, but I cannot find any proof documents. What I do know about him is that in 1810 he lived in Hattom close to the Bell, Dennis, and Morgan families and he had an 1813 land grant showing his land on the East bank of the Uwharrie River near the mouth of the Hall (Haw) Branch joining Turner Harris. He also owned a fish trap on the Uwharrie River.  

These land grants may be an important find as John Jacky Morris lived on the “John Bell land” in 1840 and 1841. From the wording in the rental contract (found in the estate file of Henry Delamothe dated 1838) John Jacky Morris was “already living” on the “John Bell land” when this contract was signed indicating he had lived there at least the previous year and was renewing his contract for another year. If that is the case, John Jacky Morris probably rented this land from Henry Delamothe, the Frenchman who came to Montgomery County to find wealth in the gold mines, who had to acquired it after John Bell’s death. 

Of interest, John Jacky Morris was a gold miner, and I wonder if he may have worked in some capacity for Henry Deleamothe. Henry died in 1838, and John Jacky Morris renewed his rental contract with John C. Atkins, the executor of Henry Delamothe.
 
This may create another hole in my family legend because the family legend says John Jacky Morris lived near Yates Place on Dusty Level Road between Cedar Creek and Dutchman’s Creek and the John Bell land looks to have been closer to Hall Branch, current day area of Morton and River Bend Road, the area where William Callicutt and Joel Hurley had land near the Turner Harris land. 

William Morris, the oldest son and child of John Jacky Morris, owned land on Hall Branch, the same place Joel Hurley lived. But that land, or at least part of it, looks to have been sold to satisfy a debt owed in Moore County, North Carolina. I cannot find who bought that land or even how William Morris obtained it in the first place. 

William also owned two tracts of land (81 acres) on Cedar Creek and Watery Branch, which was close to Yates Place and Dusty Level Road as well as 177 acres on Island and Dutchman Creeks which was called the Spanish Oak Gap which was used for gold mining.

In 1850, John Jacky Morris made Joseph Hurley trustee over six head of cattle, eight head of hogs, one cupboard and chairs used to secure a $30 debt from Eliza Kirk. If John failed to repay the debt, Joseph Hurley was to sell as many of the items that would pay the debt. The deed was written on 1 Aug 1850 and registered on 6 Sep 1850. I do not know what the money was used for, but a guess might have been medical bills as his son, John Jr died about the same time as the loan was procured.

Why John Jacky Morris went across the river to enlist the help of Eliza Kirk is not known, but it is interesting to note that she was the daughter of George Kirk and Frances Bell whose father was Benjamin Bell, the brother of John Bell, on whose land John Jacky Morris lived. It seems that it would have been easier to enlist the help of some neighbors in the area, like the Harris or Merritt families, but for some reason he went across the river to borrow money from Eliza Kirk. This has always struck me as odd, and I wonder how John Jacky Morris might have known Eliza Kirk well enough to borrow $30 from her.

While I am not sure who Joseph Hurley is, my guess is he might be the husband of Elizabeth Callicutt, daughter of Pleasant Callicutt, the son of John Bailey Callicutt. John Jacky Morris would have had a lot of trust in Joseph Hurley to make him trustee over all that he owned. 

Pleasant Callicutt married Sarah Sanders (Saunders) who may be the daughter of William Aaron Saunders. Pleasant Callicutt was born about 1775, probably in Prince Edward County, Virginia. He lived near Callicutt Chapel Wesleyan Church on Horseshoe Bend Road in Abner, Montgomery County, North Carolina. 20 miles away from where John Jacky Morris lived on River Road. 

Pleasant died in 1843 and was buried in the Callicutt Chapel Church cemetery. His stone may be an unmarked field stone.

In 1810, Pleasant Callicutt lived one page away from the Sanders, Dennis, and Hurley families. Interestingly, John Jacky Morris’s daughter, Temperance, would marry Jacob Sanders who was a cousin of Sarah Sanders, the wife of Pleasant Callicutt.

John Bailey Callicutt died after 20 Oct 1828. A deed written on this date by John B. Callicutt of Montgomery County, North Carolina, to his daughter, Cynthia, who lived in Madison County, Tennessee and making his son, Pascal, who lived in Henderson County, Tennessee, trustee, to his interest in Gin, a slave.
 
I could not find John Bailey Callicutt on the 1830 Census, and it is assumed that he died between 20 Oct 1828 when he wrote the deed and 16 Nov 1830 when the Census was completed.