Hannah Johnson--Priscilla Adeline Vestal's Mother--Paternal Lines

Hannah Johnson’s Paternal Lines: Buckners, Coxes, Mustains, Fergusons, Haleys, Wiermans, and LeMasters

Buckners

John Buckner (1630-1695) 9xggf Immigrant Ancestor from England

John Buckner’s origins are under dispute, but it is known that he came from England to the Virginia Colony in the 1640s. Phillip Buckner came at the same time and is assumed to be a brother of John. John was married at the time, and tradition has named his wife as Deborah Ferrers, the although that has been recently debunked as have several theories of his parentage. At this time his wife’s name is not found in records. The earliest mention of John in Virginia is when he witnessed a mortgage in 1646. He is also on record witnessing a contract between our William Smoot and a customer in 1659. The first mention of his acquiring land was for 1000 acres in Gloucester County in 1664. Over his lifetime, John added to his land to include land which later became Fredericksburg, Virginia, laid out by a grandson, Robert Buckner, in 1721.

John signed a petition for redress of grievances against in Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676.  He was an early vestryman of Petsworth Parish, and in fact is listed first among vestrymen given in the earliest vestry record after Bacon’s Rebellion. John’s interest in political matters grew during the 1670s. He was a member of the House of Burgesses for the Virginia Colony from 1632-1692, and a clerk in Gloucester County for a number of years.  One thing John is known for is bringing the first printing press to the Virginia Colonies in 1682. He employed a printer, William Nuthead, to print the Acts of the Assembly. He was reproved by then Governor Culpeper for printing without the King’s license. He had to post bond that he would not print further until permission was granted. In 1683 King Charles II ordered that no printing press be used in the colony. John’s land in Gloucester, occupied at least as early as 1663, was later acquired by William Jones who named the “plantation” Marlfield. John had four sons

Here is a quote by Caroline Shultz:

John Buckner was an early immigrant to the Virginia colony, probably sometime in the late 1640s or early 1650s. He amassed a massive fortune as a planter and real estate investor, with over 10,000 acres of land grants, patents, and purchases, and had numerous descendants. Later in his life, he became active in county and colonial government, and was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses for many years.

Gloucester County, Virginia; Buckners’ Farm was north of Gloucester

What was Bacon’s Rebellion?

Bacon’s Rebellion was mostly about a perceived lack of support from Governor Berkley to help with Indian attacks brought on by the settlers moving outside boundaries agreed in treaties. Times were difficult with tobacco prices down, taxes up, and a new requirement that only property owners should vote. Nathaniel Bacon, a distant relative of Berkeley, raised an armed group which included many unemployed former indentured servants; they temporarily removed Berkeley from office, but the Rebellion ended once Bacon died of dysentery in 1676.

Richard Buckner (1661-1733) 8xggf

Richard Buckner was the oldest of John Buckner’s sons, and was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, in 1661. He owned a great deal of land, with one of the earlier tracts being called the “Golden Vale” in Rappahanock County. The county names in this area changed several times during Richard’s life, but most of his dealings were done in Essex County which was made from Rappahanock County. Ancestry.com alone has Virginia deed and will documents from the early 1700s with Richard mentioned in at least forty of them—witnessing or involved in deed matters, witnessing documents and wills. This is likely due to his being the County clerk in 1703 and 1712 at least. He was also Clerk of the House of Burgesses in 1714. He married Elizabeth Cooke [more below on Cookes] of Gloucester County in 1706.  They had five children, and many of them were prominent in the affairs of Virginia. Richard’s will was proved in Caroline County in 1733.

John Buckner (1712-1778) 7xggf We have 40 DNA matches where John Buckner and Sarah Buckner are the common ancestors between the matches’ trees and our trees.

John was born in Essex County, likely before it became Caroline County. He married Sarah Buckner, likely a cousin of some degree, born to Thomas Buckner and Sarah Morgan. The two of them are recorded in two land records, Sarah giving up her dower rights on a sale of land in Essex County. There are also records of their living in Princess Anne County, in southeastern Virginia, and in neighboring Currituck, North Carolina. The Buckner fellow who posted a lot of pages of corrections to the old Crozier genealogy thinks that John’s will was settled in Caroline County. The Buckner DNA project at FTDNA lends credibility to John and his place in the scheme of a large number of Buckner families. His wife Sarah passed a few years later, most likely in Caroline County, VA.

William Buckner (1738-1822) 6xggf We have 12 DNA matches where William Buckner and Anna Mustain are the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees

William’s birthplace is not given specifically in records, but always given as Virginia, and his participation in the Revolutionary War was registered in Caroline County, Virginia, in 1777. There are other Virginia records for William Buckner in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. There is a record showing William Buckner as an aide-de-camp for Generals and their Staffs, Volunteer Militia, from Kentucky. With many Buckners having the first name William, and few specifics given in most military record indices, it is not certain what role William played. One record said Sea Service.

William married Anna Mustain from Pittsylvania County in 1758 [more on Mustains below]. By 1800 they had moved to Green County, Kentucky, and were living there for the 1810 and 1820 censuses. In his pension application in 1818, It was stated that he lived in Green County, Kentucky. There are also some land records that lend credence to this. In the 1820 Census his residence is more specific, in Summersville, Green County, Kentucky, a town near the center of Kentucky which was incorporated in 1817. The 1791 will of Thomas Mustain in Pittsylvania County identifies his daughter as Anna Mustain Buckner. There is an 1816 deed which split William’s parcel of land into three parts, one sold to Jesse Bridges, one sold to son James Buckner, and the other to Littleberry Cox (possibly related to his daughter-in-law, a Cox). William’s estate was administered in Green County, Kentucky in 1822 with son-in-law Jesse Bridges to do the inventory. William and Anna had thirteen children.

Presley Buckner (1769-1838) 5xggf We have 3 DNA matches in our group where the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees are Presley Buckner and Nancy Cox.

Presley Buckner’s birthplace is not certain, though Washington County NC has been suggested, in the year 1769. This might have been while William Buckner and his family were in route to Kentucky, if they had begun the move before the Revolutionary War. He married Nancy Cox in 1789 in Sullivan County, Tennessee. There are records of his residence and taxation in Tennessee during the late 1790s, but his residence in 1800 is given as Morgan County, Indiana, where he apparently resided until his death. It is believed he settled there in 1820 according to a book about Morgan County pioneers. The county history says that many residents were Quakers or others opposed to slavery. There is a record for his service in the War of 1812, and a record showing his participation in the Chicamauga campaign in 1788.

Interestingly, Presley and two brothers, Haley Buckner and William Buckner, signed the petition to North Carolina asking to withdraw the western counties into the separate state of Franklin.

What is the State of Franklin?

We all know that the Revolutionary War was about the original thirteen colonies. It ended in 1783 with a separate government under the Articles of Confederation. What our history teachers did not get around to spending much time on was the western settlements out on the frontier. It was never assumed that all those territories would become part of the United States. The territory depicted above almost became a fourteenth state, Franklin. The Revolution left the colonies with a lot of debt. In 1784 North Carolina voted to give Congress some 29 million acres of land located between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. NC gave the Continental Congress two years to take full responsibility for the area. People in western NC feared being left to their own defenses against the Indians and worried that Congress might even sell the territory to France or Spain. NC gave up its scheme to sell the land and took it back.

But rather than choosing to be a part of NC, the residents of four of the counties NC was going to cede to the Continental Congress, the residents petitioned NC to become a new fourteenth state, Franklin. Even George Washington had said that the folks out there on the western boundaries were a distinct people with cultural and political differences from the eastern colonies.

In December,1784, Franklin declared independence as a state in the Confederation (Union), naming John Sevier as governor. It should be pointed out that with poor communication, this happened without the knowledge that NC was going to take them back. Franklin’s constitution was a little vague on boundaries. Franklin’s attempt at independence as a state was the first hint that the Articles of Confederation might not be able to keep the new nation solid.

Under the Articles of Confederation, it took 2/3 of all the states to approve a new state. Franklin got seven states’ agreement, but not the 2/3 vote needed. Unable to agree with NC over some issues, Franklin began operating as a separate, unrecognized independent republic. They set up courts, annexed counties, collected taxes, and negotiated treaties with the Indians. Franklin accepted all federal and foreign currencies. They gave citizens a two-year tax reprieve which left them unable to provide any services or protection. NC offered again to take them back, and while voters rejected the idea, several influential citizens supported NC’s offer. Lots of Indian trouble followed. By 1787, the Franklin legislature was close to the breaking point.

As the Indian attacks grew, Sevier had his own problems with NC when they captured all his property and slaves for back taxes in NC. Sevier arranged for a loan from Spain which would put Franklin under Spanish rule. NC captured Sevier. Eventually everyone signed oaths of allegiance to NC, so by 1789 Franklin was again part of NC.

This Franklin matter influenced the writing of our US Constitution so that now no state, including Texas, can break its territory into another state without permission of state legislatures and the Congress. Though there was some wording in the Annexation of Texas agreement, once we came into the Union, we would have to meet with the standards set out in the United States Constitution. So much for hoping for a donut-hole state around Austin…

Nancy Buckner (1791-1876) 4xggm We have one DNA match for George Johnson and Nancy Buckner, parents of Hannah Johnson Vestal, grandparents of Priscilla Adeline Vestal, CE South’s grandmother

Nancy Buckner was born in Hawkins County, Tennessee in 1791. She married George Johnson at a young age in 1805. They appear in Knox County, Tennessee, just slightly west of Hawkins County in the 1840 and 1850 censuses and in Union County, Tennessee, just north of Knox County. In the 1860 census it gives their post office as Maynardville in Union County. Nancy died in Union County in 1876. Maynardville, according to Wikipedia, “is situated near the center of Raccoon Valley in the Appalachian Mountains.” One can imagine the life of farmers in this mountainous area.

Now I want to quickly cover some other lines tied to the  Buckners: Cookes, Mustains, Haleys, Coxes, Wiermans, Fergusons, and LeMasters.

The Cookes: This line starts with our 10xggf John Cooke, an English Immigrant, and goes on down through Modecai Cooke and Han Mordecai Cook of Gloucester County where their land was called Mordecai’s Mount. Han Mordecai Cooke’s daughter Elizabeth Cooke married Richard Buckner, the second in our line of Buckners.

The Mustains: This line begins with an Irish Immigrant, Thomas Mustain I. He likely was in Ireland trying to consolidate the English Protestants. Thomas came to Halifax County, Virginia, around 1678. The Mustains moved westward to The Danville area where there were three Mustain 1700s homes were still standing and occupied in 1966, when the Danville Register reported on a booklet about Eighteenth Century Structures in Pittsylvania County. All three were built on land granted to Thomas Mustain II(1713-1791) 7xggf. He married Mary Haley in 1740, and their daughter Anna Mustain, our 6xggm, married William Buckner, father of Presley Buckner. We have twelve DNA matches for William Buckner and Anna Mustain.

The Haleys: This line starts with an English Immigrant, John Haley (1650-1701)10xggf from York, England. He came to York County Virginia where he died in 1701. His son Edward Haley Sr.( 1675-1752) 9xggf was born in York County but came to Orange County, VA where he died in 1752. Edward John Haley Jr. (1698-1728)8xggf was born in King and Queen County, VA and died in Orange County. His daughter Mary Haley (1722-1791) 7xggf spent her life in Pittsyvania County, VA. She married Thomas Mustain in 1740 and their daughter Anna married William Buckner. We have 20 DNA matches for Thomas Mustain II and Mary Haley.

The Coxes: This line begins with William Cox, an English Immigrant (1658-1742) 9xggf, a Quaker who came from England to Chester County, Pennsylvania around 1685. His son was William Cox,(1692-1767)8xggf who like many Quakers moved from the Delaware/Pennsylvania area to Cane Creek Meeting in Orange County North Carolina. His Quaker son Samuel Cox (1723-1796)7xggf married Hannah Wierman. Their son John Jacob Cox (1740-1775) 6xggf married Mary Margaret Ferguson and had Nancy Cox, the wife of Presley Buckner. We have twelve DNA matches for Samuel Cox and Hannah Wierman and three for John Jacob Cox and Mary Ferguson.

The Wiermans: This line begins with Wiliam Wierman (1700-1766)8xggf. According to family tradition William came from Germany and then perhaps from Ireland to Pennsylvania as a Quaker.  He is known to have been at the Huntington Meeting in York County, Pennsylvania as a Quaker, as were his children. Hannah Wierman (1727-1770)7xggf married another Quaker, Samuel Cox, which was the first marriage at that Meeting.  As stated above, we have twelve DNA matches with Samuel and Hannah.

The Fergusons: This line begins with Scottish Immigrant Robert Ferguson (1641-1681)9xggf who settled in York County, Virginia, until his death. His son John Ferguson (1670-1731)8xggf also lived his life in York County, Virginia. His son William Ferguson (1724-1793) 7xggf married Elizabeth “Betty” LeMaster in 1764. Their daughter Mary Margaret Ferguson was married to John Jacob Cox. As stated above, we have three DNA matches for John Jacob Cox and Mary Margaret Ferguson.

The LeMasters: This line begins with a French Hugenot (Protestant) Immigrant Indentured Servant, Abraham LeMaster (1637-1722) 9xggf. He came from the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel to Maryland in 1660. He worked off his indenture in late 1668 and was a carpenter near Port Tobacco, Maryland. He was able to buy the two hundred acres on which he worked and pass it to his children. His son Abraham LeMaster II (1690-1770) 8xggf remained in Maryland, and he and his wife had a daughter Elizabeth “Betty” LeMaster (1730-1788) 7xggm who married William Ferguson. We have two DNA matches for Elizabeth Better LeMaster.

Resources

Ancestry.com resources for this section include Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors, Vol.I, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Some Prominent Virginia Families, Vol. 1-4, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol.II, Virginia Military Records Caroline County, AGBI, War of 1812 Service Records, 1812-1815, Family Data Collections -Marriages, U.S. and International Marriage Records,1560-1900.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Buckner-54 An online tree managed by Caroline Shultz with a great deal of documented information and material addressing misinformation in many of the genealogies about John Buckner.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015004875616;view=1up;seq=31 online version of The Vestry Book of Petsworth parish, Gloucester County, Virginia, 1677-1793.

https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_h0obAAAAYAAJ/page/n56 Online version of The Buckners of Virginia and the Allied Families of Strother and Ashby by William Buckner and William Crozier,ed., 1907.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Buckner-75 Online tree with information about John Buckner, son of Richard.

http://www.aventfamily.org/TNG/getperson.php?personID=I0996&tree=avefam Online tree with information on John Buckner.

http://buckbd.com/genea/buckner.html Pages about the Buckner families; corrections and suggested corrections to the Crozier book.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Buckner-801 Tree with information about Presley Buckner.

http://tngenweb.org/hawkins/cox-jacob-will/ Jacob Cox will.

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-failed-state-of-franklin-4159303 Information about Franklin.

http://genealogytrails.com/ind/morgan/pioneers1.html#pioneer Lists Presley