Category: Paternal Family Lines

Parent for all Paternal Family lines

Thomas Ayers in North Carolina

April 1, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

Thomas Ayers, Nathaniels’ oldest son was born in Baltimore County, MD in 1734. Growing up, he and his brothers worked alongside their farmer father and eventually moved with him to Pittsylvania County, VA about 1755. However, Thomas initially ventured even further south into Surry County, North Carolina for a time before returning to Pittsylvania County. There, like his father, Thomas also became a landholder, obtaining a land grant of 400 acres on Double Creek in 1758 and another 200 acres on Wolf’s Hill Creek in 1763.

Thomas married first Ellender (or Eleanor), last name unknown, and later Barbary (Barbara) Murphy. He had four sons, Nathaniel, Elihu, Thomas Jr, and Joseph, along with three daughters, Elizabeth, Jane and Phoebe. In 1780, Thomas sent his son Elihu back down to Surry County to buy land, which he did, but then got caught up in the Revolutionary War (more in the next post). He did not return home until he had served his tour, believing his father would not move on account of the Tories (British sympathizers) raging in that country so violently. After receiving a letter from his father, Elihu returned home in 1780, and his father perhaps erroneously thinking the fighting had ended, immediately moved to the new land.

When Thomas moved to Surry County, his brother Moses also moved there with his family. In the very first U.S. census in 1790, we find a total of six Ayers households located near each other: Thomas Ayers along with two sons, Nathaniel and Elihu; and Moses Ayers along with two sons John and Samuel.

Of special note is that a tract of land belonging to Moses and Thomas Ayers on the Yadkin River was used to establish the town of Rockford, the original Surry County, NC, seat.

It seems that Thomas Ayers was always on the move. In 1791 he again moved, this time to Patrick County, Virginia which was a newly formed county just across the VA border from Surry County. There he purchased 100 acres on Johnson’s Creek. He died in Patrick County in November 1814. The inventory of his estate included household furniture, side saddle, cotton, wheel, tomahawk, corn, sheep, cattle, horse, loom, books and hay for a total of $185.80.

Surrey County — **Surry County, NC where Thomas Ayers settled ……for awhile**

Thomas Ayers in North Carolina

April 1, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Of special note is that a tract of land belonging to Moses and Thomas Ayers on the Yadkin River was used to establish the town of Rockford, the original Surry County, NC, seat.

It seems that Thomas Ayers was always on the move. In 1791 he again moved, this time to Patrick County, Virginia which was a newly formed county just across the VA border from Surry County. There he purchased 100 acres on Johnson’s Creek. He died in Patrick County in November 1814. The inventory of his estate included household furniture, side-saddle, cotton, wheel, tomahawk, corn, sheep, cattle, horse, loom, books and hay for a total of $185.80.

Nathaniel Ayers Migrates to Virginia

March 31, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

In 1746 Nathaniel Ayers began selling his land in Baltimore County, Maryland. By about 1755, he and his wife, Rhoda, and family had migrated to Halifax County in southern Virginia (near Danville today), on the border of North Carolina. Why did they leave what appeared to be a prosperous livelihood in MD? Why did they undertake such an arduous journey which took them over 300 miles to the south? The answers are not known for sure, but it is believed that religion was a primary factor along with a desire for more land, and perhaps opposition to slavery.

After 1735, as the supply of land grew short in colonies farther north, numerous farmers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and northern Virginia began packing their possessions and making the long journey to the Southern Piedmont in the Virginia colony.

In addition, it seems that Nathaniel converted to the Quaker religion in Maryland, perhaps when he married Rhoda. The Quakers were one of the first groups to oppose slavery, which was heavily employed by most tobacco farmers. In the 1750s, there was a large Quaker migration to the frontier areas of Virginia and North Carolina, and Nathaniel’s family probably joined in with others from Pennsylvania and Maryland moving southward. The proceedings of the Quaker South River Monthly Meeting (held near what is today Lynchburg, VA) show that Nathaniel Ayers was accepted into membership in 1758. This Quaker Meeting covered many of the southern VA counties including Halifax County.

Also, in 1758, Nathaniel purchased 116 acres of land on Little Double Creek. In 1767, the western part of Halifax County where Nathaniel and his family lived became Pittsylvania County, and not long after that he was granted 200 acres on branches of the Dan River. Before he died, he also acquired another 600 acres of adjoining land. In 1760, Nathaniel and several of his neighbors are credited with “laying a road”.

Nathaniel Ayers died in early 1777, and his will was probated at the courthouse in Chatham, in Pittsylvania County. His oldest living sons, Thomas and Moses were the executors. Mentioned in the will were his wife Rhoda and 5 surviving children.

Pitts County — **Nathaniel Ayers in Pittsylvania County, VA**

The map above shows the general Piedmont area where Nathaniel settled. I have been to this area on a research trip in 2006. Pittsylvania County and the surrounding counties in both VA and NC contain beautiful gently rolling farmland as far as the eye can see. One can certainly understand why northern colonists migrated to this area.

Nathaniel Ayers of Maryland

March 29, 2011 Dennis 1 comment

John Ayers of New Jersey died in 1732. He left no will but did record the births of his nine children, including a son named Nathaniel born in 1700. Unfortunately, no other records are available to help define Nathaniel’s life in NJ.

Instead, in 1723, a young man by the name of Nathaniel Ayers appears in Maryland where he is named in Baltimore County court records. He is about the right age to have been the Nathaniel born in NJ, but is he in fact the same person? The DNA test results previously mentioned indicate this is highly probable. Although Nathaniel is listed as an immigrant in one reference book, I believe it was because he came to Maryland by sailing ship from NJ. He probably sailed up the Chesapeake Bay into the Patapsco River and disembarked at Elk Ridge Landing. At that time, the Maryland colony had about 70 thousand residents, but Baltimore City would not be founded at the mouth of the Patapsco until 1729.

By about 1729, Nathaniel Ayers is married to Rhoda, last name unknown, and by 1733 they have three children, Ruth, John and Thomas who are registered in St. Paul’s Parish, one of 30 such territorial units established in colonial Maryland associated with the Anglican (later Episcopal) Church.

In the new colony of Maryland, all land was originally owned by Lord Baltimore and only at his discretion or his representatives could it be assigned to any tenant. Between 1663 and 1683, every adventurer who could claim to have brought five persons to settle in Maryland became entitled to a grant of 2000 acres. After 1683, however, land patents (titles) were issued only against payment of money or tobacco. At first the rate charged was 200 lbs. of tobacco for every 100 acres granted, but that rate increased with time.

Three separate documentary processes were required to authenticate new grants of land: (1) warrants, which were instructions to lay out a specified number of acres for a named person, (2) certificates of survey, which stated the exact location and boundaries of the new tract, and (3) patents, or essentially titles of ownership.

It appears that Nathaniel was actually in Baltimore County several years before he initiated the process for obtaining land. Perhaps he didn’t have enough money when he first arrived. Then between 1727 and 1745, Nathaniel obtained 4 separate grants of land on the north side of the Patapsco River in Baltimore County, and he is listed as a farmer and a carpenter in the records. Since tobacco was the primary medium of exchange, it appears Nathaniel was farming successfully on his early land acquisitions and using his extra tobacco to add to his land holdings. It is not known if he employed the use of slaves or not.

In those days, it was customary to name tracts of land after the owner or with whimsical names. Nathaniel’s purchases, two of which are shown in the map below, were called:

Ayers Lott – 100 acres – 1727 Ayers Desire – 28 acres – 1734
Bucks Range – 45 acres – 1745 Nathaniel’s Hope – 15 acres – 1745

Balt Co Nathanial Ayres' Land — **Nathaniel Ayers’ Land in Baltimore County**

As can be seen, the land purchases of Nathaniel in Baltimore County were all near the Patapsco River not far from where the Ellicott brothers would later establish the new town of Ellicott Mills in 1772.

My father, Ira Ayers, knew nothing about his ancestors beyond his grandfather. It is an ironic twist that in 1950 he purchased land only 4 miles upriver from where Nathaniel, his 6th great grandfather, purchased and farmed land 200 years earlier!!

Our Ayers Lineage

March 28, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As it became clear that the Northern Ayers Line connects to the Southern Ayers Line, it also became possible to string together our entire Ayers lineage in North America. To do this, I used a timeline chart to show the life spans of each ancestor over the last four centuries. In the chart shown below, you can see the New England and New Jersey ancestors in Green on the left side, and then the Southern Ayers ancestors in blue on the right side.

**Ayers Lineage Timeline — Click to get a larger view**

The Southern Line starts with Nathaniel Ayers and I’ll be discussing him in my next post. Note that I’m still showing a dotted line between John Ayers of New Jersey and Nathaniel Ayers to indicate there are no actual records to tie them together, only DNA test results. The numbers next to each name indicate the generation back from myself shown at the very bottom.

To give a better perspective of time across the four centuries, I’ve added notations on the chart indicating when some major events or wars occurred. From now on as I talk about each ancestor in the Southern line, you might want to refer back this chart to get a feel for the time period in which each lived.

DNA Solves the Mystery

March 26, 2011 Dennis 1 comment

As I mentioned back in my first post about our ancient ancestors from Europe, in 2009 I had a Y-Chromosome DNA test done to determine my genetic profile. The main purpose for this test was to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem about our Ayers lineage in North America. This mystery had become a brick wall in genealogy terms.

Our ancestors in New England and New Jersey whom I have already discussed, I call “The Northern Ayers Line”. The ancestors that I will be discussing in future posts are who I call “The Southern Ayers Line”. The Migration Map below clearly shows the geographic separation of the two lines. Although I, and other researchers as I later found out, strongly believed that the two lines were related due to circumstantial evidence, no official connection could be made due to the lack of actual records.

Migration Map Partial — **Incomplete Migration Map**

Getting serious about solving the mystery, in the Fall of 2009, I joined a group of other Ayers folks around the country who also had DNA test results to compare. As it turns out, most of the others had results that showed they belonged to haplogroups other than R1b. This means those “Ayers” came from entirely different bloodlines, perhaps originating in Scotland, Germany or elsewhere. However, there were a few other R1b’s like myself, and as time went on still more testers joined the group raising hope of a successful outcome.

Recall that Y-Chromosome genetic markers are passed from father to son down the line. Without getting into the boring details, the basic approach is to compare Y-Chromosome markers with someone else to see how many matches you have. This allows you then to determine about how many generations back you had what’s called a Most Recent Common Ancestor or MRCA. Then by comparing lineage charts you can typically pinpoint and name the MRCA.

After about a year, enough other R1b folks had joined our group so that we could definitively trace many relationships. Finally by the Fall of 2010, several other testers and I were actually able to trace our MRCA all the way back to John AYRE, who came over from England. This means that paper trail or not, my bloodline and thus our Southern Ayers line does in fact flow from the Northern Ayers line. By using DNA to solve the mystery, I had jumped over my brick wall! See the now complete Migration Map below.

Note that the early migrations had to have been by ship since before about 1725, there were essentially no overland trails to be safely followed.

Mayflower Connection?

March 24, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Rightfully or not, many people like to claim they have an ancestral connection to one of the families that came aboard the Mayflower. Well, we AYERS that descend from John AYRE in New Jersey may have a rightful claim, but there is controversy about the true identity of a key individual. I’ll explain.

First some background is needed. George SOULE was a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and one of the original 102 Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower to Plymouth, Massachusetts Colony in 1620. SOULE was among the one half of the population that survived the first winter in Plymouth and was present at the time of the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621. About 1626 he married Mary BECKET. Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth was born in 1645. Unfortunately, Elizabeth had some scandalous troubles in her early life.

On 3 March 1663 Elizabeth SOULE, daughter of Mayflower passenger George Soule, and Nathaniel CHURCH, grandson of Mayflower passenger Richard WARREN, to whom she was engaged to be married, were each fined 5 pounds for fornication by the Puritan community. By late 1663, Nathaniel still had not fulfilled his promise of marriage, and on 5 October 1663 Elizabeth sued Nathaniel CHURCH for breach of promise, with betrayal, for 200 Pounds but only recovered 10 Pounds. On 2 July 1667, Elizabeth was in court again “for committing fornication for the second time,” and this time she was sentenced to suffer corporal punishment by being whipped at the post. No male partner was named in this action. If no male partner was named, she was therefore not caught in the act, as the first charge proves that the court had no problem fining and punishing both parties. Most likely, a growing belly in her unmarried state was the evidence of fornication this second time.

By March 1668, Elizabeth SOULE has married a man named Francis WALKER based on the recorded land transaction “George SOULE to daughter Elizabeth WALKER, wife of Francis.” Speculation is that George SOULE gave land to Francis WALKER as payment for marrying his daughter. This would also seem to reinforce the notion that Elizabeth had been expecting a child. Sometime after their marriage, Francis and Elizabeth moved to Woodbridge, New Jersey, like many others from Newbury, Massachusetts, and appear to have lived quietly there for the remainder of their lives.

Now getting to the controversy. As mentioned once before, there is a lack of records that far back in time in northern New Jersey. As a result there is much uncertainty of exactly how many children Francis WALKER and Elizabeth SOULE had including their names and dates of birth. However, it is a known fact that a woman named Mary WALKER married John AYERS, in Woodbridge about 1688, and it is from this union that our AYERS line of descendancy is based. Some researchers strongly believe that Mary was a daughter born to Elizabeth probably around 1668, while others just as strongly believe that there is not enough evidence to support that conclusion. The venerable Mayflower Society itself has wavered over the matter, but it currently is not convinced that Mary WALKER was Elizabeth’s daughter and thus not a Mayflower descendant from George SOULE.

So, do we descendants of John AYERS of New Jersey have a Mayflower connection? We may never know unless new evidence is found that convinces all parties that Mary WALKER was herself a true descendant.

AYERS of New Jersey

March 21, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

The youngest son of John AYRE, the immigrant, was Obadiah, born about 1635. In 1659 Obadiah married Hannah PIKE, the daughter of John Pike who had also come over from England on the same ship as John AYRE. “Obadiah and his brothers Robert and Thomas received from their father land and they were to maintain the fences and pay all rates on this land. He also received two oxe and two cow.” However, land in the area was rocky and farming must have been difficult.

In 1664, the English claimed the area settled by the Dutch further south. As they pushed out the Dutch they renamed New Amsterdam as New York, and New Netherlands as New Jersey. The English governor of the New Jersey colony began attracting people to the area by offering land and guaranteeing religious freedom. In return for the land, the settlers were supposed to pay a yearly tax called a quitrent.

As a result, about 1667, a number of persons from Newbury, Massachusetts sailed southward and settled Woodbridge, Middlesex County, in northeast New Jersey. John Pike was one of the leaders, and Obadiah AYER and his family joined his father-in-law as one of the migrating group. Obadiah received several parcels of land for a total of 171 acres. Woodbridge was so called in honor of the Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newbury, Massachusetts. It is presumed that this distinction was conferred upon him by his friends and admirers, who came from New England.

**Basking Ridge Church with original Oak Tree**

Obadiah and Hannah had a large family with about half born in Massachusetts and half born in New Jersey. Their oldest son, John, born about 1662, married Mary WALKER about 1689 in Woodbridge. The area prospered and attracted many others who occupied the land so completely that many of the young generations sought other locations. So, in 1710, John and his family moved to Basking Ridge, NJ in Somerset County about 20 miles to the northwest of Woodbridge, where he was one of the founders of the First Presbyterian church and a principal donor of the land for church use.

John AYERS and Mary also had a large family. However, records of their deaths and marriages, etc., simply don’t exist. No doubt this is due to courthouse fires and other mishaps over the centuries. Some of their offspring went off to seek opportunity in other colonies, but most remained in the Basking Ridge, NJ area. Many of the original AYERS of New Jersey are buried in the cemetery at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church.

Mary (Ayer) Parker Accused As a Witch

March 17, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

One of John AYER, the immigrant’s daughters was named Mary. She married Nathan Parker about 1652, and they moved from Haverhill to Andover where Nathan died in 1685. As a widow she was unfortunate to be involved with one of the greatest tragedies in early New England – The Salem Witchcraft Trials. [Note that Haverhill, Andover and Salem are all within about 10 miles of each other.]

There are many good accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials on the internet. I think the one below is the best summary of what happened to Mary and all the chaos surrounding the event. It is Taken from Womenhistory.blogspot.com Mary Ayer Parker.

The Year: 1692

From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts ended.

The Accusation

Mary Ayer, daughter to John and Hannah Ayer, married Nathanial Parker. She was 55 years old and a widow in 1692. Mary was accused of witchcraft, but refused to confess during the witchcraft trials saying, “I know nothing of it, there is another woman of the same name in Andover.” She was referring to her sister-in-law, Mary Parker, the aged and senile widow of Joseph Parker, who had a documented history of mental instability. Essex County Court records from the period show that both Joseph’s wife and his son Thomas were perceived to be mentally ill. And at the time, insanity was sometimes associated with other deviant behavior, including witchcraft.

In fact, there were not one but three other Mary Parkers in Andover. The reputation of “Mary Parker” was further tarnished by the lengthy criminal history of a fourth Mary Parker from Salem Town. Throughout the 1670s, that Mary appeared in Essex County Court a number of times for fornication offenses, child support charges, and extended indenture for having a child out-of-wedlock. She was a scandalous figure and undoubtedly contributed greatly to negative associations with the name Mary Parker.

A disreputable name could have been enough to kill the wrong woman, in a society where the literate were the minority, and the spoken word was the most damaging. Gossip, passed from household to household and from town to town was the most prevalent source of information. The damaged reputation of one woman could be confused with another as tales of “Goody so-and-so” filtered through the community.

William Barker Jr., who testified against Mary Ayer Parker, may have been confused as well. In his own confession, William accused a Goody Parker, but he didn’t specify which Goody Parker he meant. There was a good possibility that Barker heard gossip about one Goody Parker or the other, and the magistrates of the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Mary Ayer Parker without making sure they had the right woman. [Note: Goody seems to have been a common name used for older women…perhaps widows.]

The Trial

Generally, the process of the trials consisted of citizens making complaints against individuals who were then brought before magistrates for preliminary hearings. When the magistrates felt that there was sufficient evidence for a trial, the accused was jailed pending a hearing before a grand jury. And if those juries handed up a “true bill” (signifying evidence of misbehavior), a formal trial by jury could follow.

The formal trial followed 17th-century English precedents, in which the accused were not represented by lawyers but could question accusers and witnesses. Most, however, were not emotionally or intellectually equipped to defend themselves against a hanging court and hysterical witnesses – more than forty persons confessed to being witches. The historical irony is that only those who did not confess to being witches were actually tried and convicted.

Mary Ayer Parker was convicted on little evidence, and even that seems tainted and misconstrued. The Salem trials did her no justice, and her treatment was indicative of the chaos and ineffectiveness that had overtaken the Salem trials by the fall of 1692.In less than one month, she was arrested, examined, found guilty, and executed. Historians have paid little attention to her case, one in which it is nevertheless possible to discern where confusion and conspiracy could have arisen, leading to her untimely death.

The Execution

On September 17, 1692, Mary Ayer Parker was tried and condemned to death. On September 22, 1692, she and Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, and Samuel Wardwell were hanged on Gallows Hill.