This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: batchelorw Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.roper/1915.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: William Roper and William Loving of Sumner County and Maury County, TN The close connection between William Roper of Sumner County, TN, who appears to be William Roper of Caswell, NC, who married Keziah Yates, and William Loving of Sumner County, TN, may help identify the William Roper who is seen in the 1820 Maury County, TN census. Henry Loving was one of the first to settle in the newly created County of Sumner, TN, which was carved out of Davidson County in 1786. An excerpt from an article titled "A History of Sumner county - Ceded to Tennessee" by Jay Guy Cisco, which can found on the Internet, states the following: "The first settlers in the county located claims, or preempted lands, and as soon as possible thereafter they entered them. In almost every instance the first entries were made by land warrants received for services in the Revolutionary War. In 1786, Isaac Bledsoe, Robert Desha, Jordon Gibson, Henry Loving, William Morrison, John Morgan, John Sawyer, Robert Steele, and Jacob Zeigler each entered 640 acres, all on or near Bledsoe's Creek...." Henry Loving can be seen in the 1786 Sumner County Tax Rolls as owning 540 acres. A pedigree compiled by Robert H. Stone titled in part "Record of the Family of Stephen Stone and wife Mary Ann Denny...", which can be found on the Internet, states that Henry Loving had four known children, some of whom married into the Stone family. The children attributed to Henry Loving are: Betty, Walter, Mary, and William. "Dolly Stone who married Walter LOVING, lic. obt. April 23, 1806 Sumner County. She died about 1839. Children: Henry H. Loving, John P. Loving, Evaline Loving." "William Nicholas Stone (1788-1855) married Elizabeth (Betsey) LOVING, lic. obt. February 24, 1808 Sumner County." "Stephen Stone Jr who married Polly LOVING, lic. obt. December 24, 1803 Sumner County." Robert H. Stone also lists the following Sumner County Deeds, which have additional information on those relationships: "Stephen Stone Sr and wife Keziah A. Stone to Deed son Wm. Nicholas and wife Elizabeth (Betty) Stone. 3/13/1811 B 6 p83" "Stephen Stone Jr and wife Polly and Brother Wm Nicholas Stone and wife Elizabeth (Betty) and her brother Walter LOVING to Deed... 6/4/1813 B 6 p291" "Stephen Stone Jr to Deed Walter LOVING 2/25/1817 B 8 p58" The only child of Henry Loving who is missing from the records of the Stone family is William Loving. However, William Loving, along with 163 other residents, signed a 1799 Sumner County Petition, which can be found on the Internet in the US GenWeb Project Archives: "Petitioners of Sumner County, TN dated 30 September 1799 to the House of Representatives 30 September 1799: The Honourable the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee The Petition of a number of inhabitants of the upper end of Sumner County Eastwardly of Rocky Creek Respectively sheweth that from the great extent of said county we humbly conceive it ought to be divided into two separate and distinct counties we having advertised agreeable to law respecting the division of counties. We your petitioners beg leave to state your honourable body some of the hardships we labored under in our present situation, many of us having to attend courts and general assembly & other publick meetings at the distance of sixty and seventy miles which makes our local situation disagreeable from these reasons and many others........ could assign to your ...we beg leave to recommend to your honourable body to divide the said county of Sumner as follows: begining at a portion on the line which divides the State of Kentucky from this State which is a due south course will strike the head of the main fork of Rocky Creek and down the same to its confluence with the Cumberland River thence a South Southeast course to the INDIAN BOUNDARY and all that part of the said county lying Eastward from the above described line is the part we wish it in Justice think ought to be formed into a Separate county and we your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray. 1799 SUMNER COUNTY, TN by Wanda Gant [some names illegible & not included] [as always, check the original record for accuracy]... William Loving..." plus 163 signatures. I have previously mentioned the following records: "Maury Co., TN Cancery Court Records 1810-1890, V. I: p. 178: Joseph Hackney, Dec. 1824. Hackney guardian of David Loving, Malinda Loving, Henry Loving... Deed of Conveyance: William Roper to William Loving 10 Sep 1817, 48 acres, on east fork of Big Tombigby Creek- mistake in boundaries." "Maury Co. Court Minutes: Will of William Loving, Sr. 3 Feb 1826. Wit: William X Roper Settlement with William Rutledge, adm. of John Edleman, decd, 22 Feb 1826 ... T. Roper" "In deed book records, Vol 1, Book V, page 602, Wayne Co TN. is recorded a power of attorney by Henry Loving, granting power of attorney to Tennessee Roper. Recorded 1-6-1839. The record says that Henry empowers Roper to attempt recovery for Henry of his rightful share of the estate of William Loving Sr. Henry attested to the power of attorney in Wayne County, TN. on 10-29-1839. On 11-1-1839, David Loving attested in Wayne Co. that his brother Henry was 21 yrs old on 10-25-1839. A witness to Henry's attachment was G. G. Grimes referred to later in the Document as Green Grimes." With the additional information on the Loving family in Sumner County, these Maury and Wayne County records now have more significance. The William Loving who died in Maury County would be the son of Henry Roper of Sumner County. William Loving named a child Henry in honor of his own father, just as Walter Loving and Dolly Stone named a son Henry H. Loving. William Loving must have been a good friend of William Roper, probably having met his family in Sumner County, buying property from William Roper in Maury County, and then asking William Roper to be the witness to his will. To top it off, Tennessee Roper, probable son of William Roper, who has moved to Wayne County, TN, represented the child Henry in recovering his inheritance from his father William. 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