Rex, perhaps you can help me a bit. I am hoping someday to locate the will of Joseph Bates of Overton County, TN. He was in Overton County by 1809, as noted below. Judge Goodpasture wrote his will and later defended it in the TN supreme court. Joseph Bates died in Overton County, TN, living in Bates Cove/2 miles east of Livingston, on April 2, 1849. I don't know when his will was contested or by whom. I don't know if you've ever done research of supreme court records or not, but perhaps you know how I might find a copy of the will. A brief biography of Joseph Bates is provided below. Best regards, Jerry Brooks The Life of Joseph Bates Joseph Bates married Mary King Gentry January 8, 1798 in Washington County, Virginia at the age of 20. They moved to Cumberland County, Kentucky shortly after their marriage. He was among the earliest settlers in Overton County, Tennessee, and it is known that he was in Overton County, Tennessee when the county was formed in 1806 because he was a trustee of Pleasant Forest Academy there, which was the third school established by the Acts of 1806. (From History of Overton County, Tennessee by Robert and Mary Eldridge, 1976) Valuable insight into the life of Joseph Bates is provided in the book, LIFE OF JEFFERSON DILLARD GOODPASTURE, written by his sons and published 1897 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Page 46-47;53-43): "JOSEPH BATES - Among the first business entrusted to Judge Goodpasture after he came to the bar, was his employment to write the will of Joseph Bates (1777-1849), who lived in Bates' Cove, near Monroe, on the Livingston road. He was a man of strong intellect, of fair education and well posted on current events. In religion he was a Cumberland Presbyterian, and in politics a Democrat. He was a prosperous man of good, sound judgment; proud of Bates' Cove, on which he built one of the first, if not the very first, brick house in the county. He owned many negroes, whom he treated well, but made profitable. He was the father of the late Rev. Thos. F. Bates, and a cousin of Mrs. Harvey M. Watterson, the mother of Henry Watterson (Editor of the Louisville Courier Journal), and of Rev. Joseph H. Bates, who married a sister of Judge Goodpasture. Mr. Bates died in April, 1849, while Judge Goodpasture was at Lebanon, and he was called home to prove the will, which he had witnessed as well as written. Afterwards the will was contested and he defended it through all the courts, and at last had the pleasure of seeing it sustained in the Supreme Court."