This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Willis, Stapleton Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/XeB.2ACE/3079.1.2.1.3.1 Message Board Post: I think like most things in early Hawkins County, TN, it is circumstance. We have an 1814 deed in which John Wallen of Claiborne County sold property to William Stapleton located on Copper Ridge on the north side of Clinch Mountain. We have the 1819 deed in which Larkin Willis gave his stepdaugher Sally Stapleton, daughter of his new wife Elizabeth formerly Stapleton, the land where William Stapleton formerly lived. We know that James Stapleton lived on or near Copper Ridge. And, we know that Andrew, Isaac and James named their oldest sons William. So, it is a reasoned leap of faith to presume that James Stapleton was the son of William Stapleton. But, there is a competing genealogy that argues their father was Isaac Stapleton Sr.