Michelle, Thank you so much for all of this! Don't know if Rev Hill at age 60 produced any children but in my own branch, my Jacob Dodson kept right on having children into his 70's and there is proof. He married for the 2nd time to a much younger woman. From memory, I believe he was around age 74 when the last child was born. Alley wchs@prodigy.net ---------- > From: Robert Ule <RobertUle@aol.com> > To: NEVILLE-L@rootsweb.com; DODSON-L@rootsweb.com; HANKS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Remember Mary Neville Dodson/Jackman? > Date: Tuesday, January 27, 1998 3:24 PM > > Ren, Jim, anyone else interested in our question "to Whom did Mary Neville > give her hand in marriage?" from last fall, > > At Glenn Gohr's suggestion, I phoned Bill Randolph, the Dodson/Hanks genealogy > marvel in his 70's. I asked about Mary Neville and her mate, and he told me > hands down it was Thomas Dodson Jr. > > (Mary and Thomas Second Fork Dodson's daughter was Aggatha who married Moses > Hanks) > > Rattling off dates and names faster than I could scribble "William and Mary > Quarterly", he told me the infamous 1790 deposition in Hardy County was in > reference to land Thomas "Second Fork" Dodson had purchased in Fauquier County > from the Lord Fairfax estates. (I've just gotten to that part in the Virginia > history I'm reading. Lord Fairfax owned some 5.5 MILLION acres of land in > VA--gift from a king!) > > Bill believed (this was off the top of his head), that Thomas SF was involved > in a land dispute with Reverend DeButts (an Anglican minister) over some > boundaries. He said "Second Fork" had a lot of land (Bill thought it was 1200 > acres in this transaction) and gave it away to various kids before he left for > Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties in about 1767. > > He told me he knew some of this from Frank D. Fuller's notes on Elias Dodson's > manuscript. I've not seen any of this, but he assumed I had. He thought they > were in the TN State Library and Archives. He, of course, recommended we > check the originals on the deposition which he thought would be in Hardy > County records. I wonder why I didn't think of that. > > Among other things he told me in a delightful 30 minute conversation, was that > Sr. and Jr. didn't necessarily mean the two men were related to each other. > Sometimes the designation was made just to differentiate between an older and > younger man of the same name in the neighborhood, whether they were related or > not. > > Bill said the Dodsons were originally in the Hamilton Parish in Fauquier > County but then someone (Cornwall?) went up north and got a Baptist Preacher. > You'll remember they founded Broad Run Baptist Church there near Warrenton. > > In regard to Second Fork going to Pittsylvania county "under censure", Bill > said that usually meant getting drunk, cursing or working on the sabbath. > > For those of you who have Hills in your Hanks line, he broke the news he > doesn't really think Rev. Thomas Hanks' wife Sarah was really a Hill. (Her > alleged father, Rev. Thomas Hill, would have been nearly 60 at her birth) and > maybe not even a Hamlin (the believed name of her mother). Then again . . . > maybe change of life? After my latest problem with the Lewis line, I'm > beginning to wonder if I'm related to ANYONE I think I'm related to (are you > still out there, Dad?!). > > Michelle Ule > Robertule@aol.com > Ukiah, CA