RE: WILLIAM CROSTHWAIT WHO MARRIED ANN SHELTON There has recently been some interchange of questions and answers on William and Ann on this list. It was asked whether this William could have been son of Isaac Crosthwait who married Elizabeth Rippetoe. Georgia Crosthwait, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for early Crosthwaite/Crosswhite genealogy, was concerned that there was no documentation as to where this William fit into Crosthwaite genealogy. Nevertheless, she gave us her best guess that the William who married Ann (and whose will is preserved in Albemarle County, Virginia), with the information she had then, must have been the son of the William Crosthwait who married Milley and lived in Culpepper County, Virginia. It is clear from court records that this Culpepper County William was son of the William Crosthwait who came down to Spotsylvania County, Virginia from Pennsylvania. This Pennsylvania William was father of Timothy, William, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elizabeth, and Sarah, a family very well documented in Orange County, Virginia. The William of Culpepper County, Virginia was indeed the son of the Pennsylvania William and is proven by court documents to be brother of Timothy, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elizabeth and Sarah. However, the sons of this William of Culpepper County and his wife Milley have now been traced beyond any doubt using court and census records. William, the son of William and Milley proves to be the William who sold the land inherited from his father in Culpepper County and settled in Stokes County, North Carolina. His brother Jacob with his widowed mother Milley settled in Newberry District, North Carolina. The Milley Crosthwait who was member of the "traveling church" of the Billy Bush colony proves not to have been this Milley, but rather the Milley who was daughter of Abraham Crosthwait. This all means that it is impossible for the William Crosthwait of Albemarle County, Virginia (who married Ann) to have been son of William and Milley. However, in the 1740's there was a separate Crosthwait family in ALBEMARLE PARISH of Sussex and Surrey Counties. The origin of this family at this time is totally unknown. We have no evidence that this family was closely related to the Orange County Crosthwaits. For an Orange County Crosthwait to settle in Sussex or Surrey Counties would be contrary to the normal pattern of settlement in Virginia. Albemarle PARISH is in the eastern coastal plain of Virginia nearer to Williamsburg. Settlement of Albemarle COUNTY which is in the Piedmont came from two sources: 1) people moving west from the coastal plain which included Albemarle PARISH, and 2) people moving south from Orange County. The Sheltons moved west into Albemarle County from the coastal plain. If William married Ann before they came to Albemarle County, then he was probably one of the Crosthwaits of Sussex and Surrey Counties. We can prove that the William who married Ann can not be son of three of the five brothers of Orange County. 1) Timothy of Orange died childless; 2) William of Orange (who settled in Culpepper County and married Milley) had a son William who settled in Stokes County, North Carolina; 3) Isaac of Orange (who settled in Albemarle County and married Elizabeth) had a son William who settled in Kentucky and had 14 children. This line has been extremely well researched by Vida Vance whose 227 page manuscript is in the Mormon genealogical library in Salt Lake City. If the William of Albemarle who married Ann was descended from any of the Orange County brothers, rather than coming west from Albemarle PARISH into Albemarle COUNTY, then he would have to have been son of either Abraham or Jacob. We have presented evidence in Crosthwaite Chronicle No. 6 that JOHN William Crosthwait of Wilkes County, North Carolina was likely the son of Abraham. The William of Albemarle who married Ann is proven by court documents to have been JAMES William Crosthwait. Administration papers of the estates of James William and John William prove that they were different people. This would leave only Jacob as a possible father if William of Albemarle come south from the Orange County Crosthwaits. If this William of Albemarle was son of Jacob, then the possibility exists that he not only married a Shelton but also had a Shelton for his mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother, etc. He is known to have had a brother named Shelton Crosthwait, incorrectly interpreted by some to have been his son. This might have required Jacob to have had a first wife with surname Shelton and to have left his children of the first family with Shelton grandparents. The one fact that would support such a theory is that Jacob's son Aaron seems not to have been a son of Jacob's wife Mary Brockman. This Aaron had a grandson named Shelton Crosthwait, suggesting that Jacob might have been married to a Shelton before marrying Mary Brockman. It is also possible, however that Jacob's grandmother or great-grandmother was a Shelton, which could account for his descendant having been named Shelton Crosthwait. There have been at least seven different Shelton Crosthwaits, some with no obvious relationship to the others. The Crosthwaits in the Albemarle PARISH records are women who happened to be godparents for children born in this parish, suggesting that they were already of age in the 1740's and therefore could not possibly be children of Jacob. One of these women could, however be mother of the William Crosthwait who married Ann Shelton. There is some evidence that the Crosthwait-Shelton connection goes back to England, in which case both the Orange County Crosthwaits and Albemarle PARISH Crosthwaits might trace back to a common Shelton ancestry in England. We have records of a marriage in England of a "Wilyam Crosthwait" to a Skelton wife. Georgia thought that Scelton and Shelton were the same name. We are currently researching this. Frank S. Crosswhite and Carol D. Crosswhite Publishers of Crosthwaite Chronicle