Just this morning I discovered not one but two distant cousins that connect to me through the BARRETT family. One is my 5th Cousin, 2 times removed and her daughter, my 6th Cousin, 1 time removed. My 6th Great Grandparents Johnathan A BARRETT and Elizabeth Betsy HENDERSON. I descend through their son Johnathan David BARRETT & wife Margaret GILPIN, their daughter Mary Polly BARRETT married my 4th Great Grandfather Ezekiel EADES, at this point in time I am uncertain who Ezekiel`s parents were, I am sure that I will get those names eventually though. My matches descend through Johnathan BARRETT and Elizabeth HENDERSON`s Daughter Jerusha Eliza BARRETT who married John KELLER.
It appears as thought Grandfather Johnathan A BARRETT may have been married twice. There is a story shared on Ancestry by one with the username: SesterHamby that states the following:
"According to one story, Jonathan Barret (Baroth) was a native of Wales.Another story says, without any definite proof, that he was born in Virginia.
Jonathan married and had two daughters, Bathsheba and perhaps Elizabeth. They
were Quakers as evidenced by their biblical names. Some records say that his
wife was a German or Jarman (which is Welsh). She died in Virginia. Jonathan
moved into North Carolina as an early pioneer in what was Wilkes County, but is
now Alexander County. He sent for his daughters after he had established a
home there.
Bishop Spangenburg's Journal in 1752 mentions Jonathan as a pioneer who lived
in Wittenberg Township. A mountain which is partly in Wittenberg and partly in
Ellendale, North Carolina is named Barrett's Mountain. He opened up a road
leading from a point on the mountain and along the crest of the bank of the
North Canyon of the Catawba River to the Little River. He entered a large
tract of land lying in Wittenberg, bounded by the Catawba River on the south,
Middle Little River on the west and Mountain or Mill Creek on the north.
Jonathan's daughter of the first marriage, Bathsheba, married Samuel Oxford in
1765. Bathsheba's and Samuel's first child was born in 1766. Jonathan lived
on the mountain which still bears his name and Samuel Oxford lived at the foot
of the mountain on the Catawba River at Oxford Ford. So Samuel must have
climbed the mountain to go a' courtin' Bathsheba Barrett. The mountain is not
a high mountain, more like a hill. There is a lake called Oxford Lake nearby
and the Duke Power Company has a power plant on the Catawba River called the
Oxford Dam.
After Jonathan came to North Carolina, he married, according to the papers of
Virginia Alice Meek and a Keller family record in the Genealogy Division of the
Indiana State Library, Elizabeth Henderson from the New England States. By her
he had several childred: Jonathan, Jr. and another son, Gerusha, and several
other daughters. Gerusha was born March 4, 1761 and on her eighteenth
birthday married John Keller. Jonathan Keller, Jr. was a sailor in the
Revolutionary War. He was born in 1757.
Jonathan Barrett, Sr. was a member of the Granville County, NC, Colonial
Militia in 1755.
A history of Alexander County says, "In 1788 the General Assembly passed an act
to encourage the building of iron works in the state of North Caroline. Any
person fulfilling the conditions could obtain land and be exempt from taxes for
10 years. So an Andrew Baird obtained 18,000 acres, beginning in Lower Little
River to Samuel Oxford's line, etc., etc., thence north around the end of
Barrett's Mountain to the beginning". Apparently Andrew Baird sold tracts of
land to several persons, among whom were Martin and Christine Keller.
In Frederick County, Virginia there was a family of Quaker Barretts.
A will of Benjamin Barrett, August 5, 1777 showed the following:
Wife was Elenor; sons: Thomas, Benjamin, Richard and Jonathan. Sons John and
David were infants. Duaghters: Phoebe and Lydia. Benjamin was the son of Arthur Barrett."
(c) 9 Sept, 2011 Ancestry User: SesterHamby
According to the above information it appears that grandfather Johnathan BARRETT may have been married twice. There are two possible wives showing up in prelimenary research: Elizabeth Betsy HENDERSON and Jarmin "Jar-Fly" HAGLER. Further research is warranted by this researcher in order to ascertain if both of these women were indeed his wife. I will update this post with my findings.
Johnathan's Parents, my 7th Great Grandparents were Johnathan BARRET and Sarah STEVENS.
A Compilation that may be of interest to other researchers who have connection to this BARRETT family line is: Genealogy of some of the Descendants of Thomas BARRETT of Braintree, Massachusetts This is a book that Google has archived in the Open Library. I have yet to read through it but did want to share it here for others who are interested in researching our BARRETT line.
