Aaron-4 & Charlotte Wisheart Simpson
John Simpson-1; Richard-2; George-3; Aaron-4; Enoch-5
GEORGE SIMPSON-3 petitioned for a license to build a mill on Wolf Run in May, 1771. His brother, Moses-3, built one on Sandy Run in August, 1772. [Fairfax County, VA, A History.] Moses-3 apparently died without children, and left his estate to his nephews. GEORGE-3 lived long enough to see the Revolution almost over. He died in Fairfax about 1782. At least two of his sons, AARON-4 and Moses-4, fought in the Revolution, so we can know that his sympathies were with the rebels.
The year after GEORGE-4’s death, AARON SIMPSON-4 and CHARLOTTE WISHEART were married on May 25, 1783. They remained in Fairfax County and started raising a family. Sometime about 1797, they decided to move to North Carolina, where their cousins had already been living since 1751. The two must have been fairly comfortable, he having inherited a reasonable estate from his father and uncle, and she having inherited slaves and cash from her deceased father, HENRY WISHEART. They were not so wealthy that they led a life of ease, we may be sure, but were certainly better off than most of the yeoman class. CHARLOTTE had slave women to help her with the many tasks of child rearing and housework, and AARON had help in the fields with the crops. Only a very rich man could afford an overseer, so AARON probably worked in the fields beside his hands.
Many Virginia lands were becoming worn out and the price of tobacco had cheapened due to the large number of slaves available to produce bumper crops. Even slave owners, such as AARON, were having trouble making a living in Virginia. [Fairfax County, Virginia---1649-1800. pg., 30.] The additional task of finding farms and plantations for his sons as they matured necessitated finding better and cheaper lands.
The 1790 United States Census for Fairfax is lost, but is somewhat replaced by the 1787 tax list for Fairfax County. AARON-4 had no military-age young men in his household, but had seven slaves, two horses, and ten head of cattle. AARON-4 was also listed as paying the poll tax for a man named Lawrence King. We have no idea who this Lawrence King was, unless he was either a poor relation, an overseer for the slaves, or a school master for the children. We know that at least some of AARON’s children were basically literate. There were no public schools available to the planters at this time, so all education of their children must be either by sending the children away to boarding school, or to teaching them at home. Some planters employed school masters or tutors for their children. Others did not educate their children at all in reading and writing.
Aaron Simpson-4 During the Revolution
John Simpson-1; Richard-2; George-3; Aaron-4; Enoch-5
According to his pension, AARON SIMPSON-4 enlisted in the Revolutionary forces in the fall of 1776, and served until December, 1777, as a private in Captain Thomas Pollard’s Company. Earlier and later tax records in Fairfax listed the majority of the SIMPSONs living in the district of “Captain Thomas Pollard.” We assume that this was the same Thomas Pollard also mentioned in HENRY WISHEART’s will. HENRY WISHEART was a neighbor of the SIMPSONs, and AARON-4 would later marry his daughter, CHARLOTTE. Two of AARON’s brothers would marry CHARLOTTE’s two sisters.
Thomas Pollard and his brother, William, were brothers of Jane Pollard Dandridge, the widow of the very wealthy spendthrift, Nathaniel West-Dandridge. They were the children of Joseph Pollard, Clerk of Goochland County. After Dandridge’s death, Jane was contemplating marriage to Thomas Underwood, and executed a deed of trust to Thomas and William Pollard to hold lands in trust, and relinquished her dower interest in Thomas Underwood’s estate. She left the lands she held in fee simple to her sisters, Frances Rogers, Elizabeth Meriwether, Millie Pendleton, Sarah Pendleton, and Anne Taylor, and her niece, Elizabeth Johnson. [Virginia Migrations: Hanover County, Virginia, pg. 90.]
An article, “The Pollard Family” taken from Genealogies of Virginia Families, Volume IV, Broderbund Software, Inc. Family Tree Maker, March 3, 1998, states “in an account taken from the Bible now in the family, recorded in the handwriting of the late venerable Judge Pendleton, who at his death,….October 26, 1803, in his eighty-third year…” [Pg. 130.] “Thomas Pollard, born September 30th, 1741, is nearly 73. He rode on horseback from Kentucky, a year or two ago, and means to return shortly.”
AARON-4 was also a volunteer under the command of Colonel Peter Waggoner. He had been stationed in Colchester and Alexandria and marched to Mt. Vernon, Georgetown, Maryland, Fredericktown, Little York, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His commanding officers were Colonels Rumly, Colpin, and Major James Ren. He was also, at one point, under the command of General George Washington, himself.
AARON-4 was discharged in the vicinity of Philadelphia and during the time he served, he was discharged home several times and then called back.
Serving with AARON was Moses Simpson, and several of his cousins. CHARLOTTE applied for a widow’s pension and this Moses, living then in 1832 in Guilford County, North Carolina, wrote an affidavit for the claim detailing their services together and separately. Moses said he served “seven marches” with AARON-4. One source says that this Moses Simpson was “the son of a Moses and Margaret Simpson from Anne Arundell County, Maryland, who didn’t come to Guilford County, North Carolina, until about 1800,” but the author thinks that the Revolutionary pension application does not substantiate this theory. The author believes that this Moses was a cousin of AARON’s. More specifically, Erick Montgomery thinks that this Moses is the Moses-son-of-William Simpson, who was the son of Thomas Simpson, Carpenter. Baxter, a son of Thomas Simpson, lived in Fairfax as well. We can eliminate several of the men named Moses Simpson as this man. We know he was not Moses-3-brother-of-GEORGE-3, or Moses-5-son-of-AARON-4, so it is likely he was a cousin, because another affidavit with AARON-4’s pension by Thomas Garrott, dated May, 1843, states that Thomas had known Moses Simpson, of Guilford County, North Carolina, formerly of Fairfax, for over 43 years. Thomas Garrott, born about 1775 in Fairfax, had married Susan Simpson, daughter of William Simpson of Fairfax, and moved to Caswell County, North Carolina, about 1800. Apparently, this Moses, and Thomas Garrott, had come to Caswell from Fairfax about the same time AARON did. Thomas Garrott, according to Erick Montgomery, married Susan, daughter of William and Jane Wisheart Simpson.
Moses’ affidavit reads in part:
January 1843, personally appeared before me, Francis L. Simpson [his son] a Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Guilford and State aforesaid [North Carolina] Moses Simpson, a resident of Guilford County, and maid [sic] oath in due form of law that he was well acquainted with Aaron Simpson from his youth until his death and that he entered in the army with him in the service of the United States in the fall of the year 1776 the precise time not recalled and as a volunteer and served personally with him seven campaigns in Capt. Thomas Pollard’s company under Col. Pete Waggoner first campaign marched from home to Colechester, Virginia stationed there and time of May not recalled. Second Campaign from thence to Alexandra Virginia now the district of Columbia, stationed there time not remembered. Third campaign from thence to Colechester Virginia there stationed time not recalled, fourth campaign from thence to Alexandria stationed there time not remembered fifth campaign from thence to Mount Vernon the residence of General George Washington there stationed time not remembered sixth campaign from thence to Alexandria Virginia at which time and place two British Men of War lay anchored in the river Potomac at the town of Alexandria and by the name of Roebuck name of the other not recalled; seventh campaign from thence for the city of Philadelphia and ther joined the continental army at head quarters under the command of General George Washington there stationed for three months then and there discharged in the month of December 1777.
The first governor of North Carolina was Richard Caswell, who was a resident of Orange County from about 1746 onward. He was a leader prior to the Revolution and was decidedly against the regulators in North Carolina prior to the actual revolution. He was a general officer in North Carolina in the Revolution itself and was a very popular officer. He was a general at the defeat at Camden with General Gates. Caswell County was named for him. AARON and several of his brothers would move to Caswell County.
AARON and CHARLOTTE SIMPSON were both still living on their plantation in Caswell County in the 1820s, when their son, ENOCH, and his wife, ELIZABETH CARTER SIMPSON, decided to move to Tennessee. ELIZABETH’s parents and most of her siblings, along with several of ENOCH’s brothers, migrated about this same time.
The families were obviously comfortable and reasonably well off. What prompted this move is unknown, but most likely they were looking for better land for their plantations. They probably felt that there was greater opportunity in the unsettled lands in the west. Tennessee was no longer a wilderness, and the Indians were subdued.
Tobacco, corn, and other crops, were very soil destructive and it may be that all the good land available in North Carolina was already taken. Several families had banded together for the trip and they may have joined others going that way as well. Just the family members of this group, along with their slaves, wagons, children, and livestock would have made quite a large group. About the only members of the nuclear families who didn’t go were Frances Carter-6, and his wife, Elizabeth. After Francis Carter’s death, however, Elizabeth and their daughters loaded up and moved to Tennessee to live with JOSEPH-5 and ANN.
By 1820, the danger of Indian raids was past in Tennessee and the trails well worn through the mountains by previous travelers. Wagons could now navigate through the rough roads across the Cumberland and the trip did not have to be made entirely by walking or riding horseback. Not that this trip was an easy one, but the worst of the dangers were past.
JOSEPH CARTER-5 had lived in Caswell County for more than 30 years and was a little over 50 years old when they moved. ENOCH SIMPSON had been born and raised in Caswell, so he was leaving the only home he had ever known. The families were leaving a place that had been “home” for quite some time. They were leaving behind some family members that they would never see again. It must have been a bittersweet time as they made their way toward Tennessee, knowing that they were forever leaving behind parents, siblings, and friends.
Francis Carter, of Stokes County, North Carolina, as attorney in fact for JOSEPH CARTER of Sumner county, Tennessee [sells] to John Boswell of Caswell County for $550, 165.9 acres and 6 acres on Stony Creek, adjacent Thomas Williamston. Witness Thomas Williamston, W. J. Nash, December 6, 1824.
In January, 1826, JOSEPH again gave his son, Francis, power of attorney to sell 219 acres on Stoney Creek, adjacent James Haden and Esquire Williamson, John Williamson, Widow Leach, and John Boswell. This sale apparently took place in November 1823, but was not recorded until 1826. This made a total of about 388 acres of land sold by JOSEPH about the time of the move.
The families first went to Giles County, Tennessee, about 1818 and then to Sumner County a few years later. Some few of them, including Roger Simpson, stayed in Giles County. ENOCH SIMPSON bought some land in Giles County in 1821. He purchased land from John N. Smith, and paid $425 for land near John Nelson, James Calwell, and Henry Kerr. [Book E., page 93.] He was listed as “of Giles County.” They didn’t stay long in Giles County, however.
Upon reaching Sumner County about 1825, the group started settling in. The families matured, with the addition of new spouses and new households, and constructed farms in their new area. Though Sumner County is “rural,” even today, it was not a wilderness when they arrived but a thriving community. This author is not totally sure of the exact location of JOSEPH and ANN’s plantation, but Erick Montgomery says that it was “somewhere up past Bransford,” and it was probably near several of their children. They had a large group of slaves, including several old slaves no longer able to work. Their son, Joseph W. Carter, and his wife, Elizabeth, lived in District 13 in 1838 and were listed on the Scholastic Census that year. It is possible that JOSEPH and ANN lived near them.
The fly-leaf from AARON SIMPSON’s family Bible, with the dates of birth of the children, was sent with his pension application to Washington. It even had the times of the births recorded. Joseph testified in a deposition that he had possession of the Bible and the entries were in AARON’s handwriting. However, there are two distinct handwritings in the book, so someone else, besides AARON, also recorded some entries.
In addition to the births of the family’s children, between the years 1828 and 1831, the births of six slaves were also recorded on the family Bible leaf. Since earlier births of slave children were not recorded, it makes us wonder if these six were “special,” and maybe the offspring of one of the sons of the family. The spacing of the births of the slave children seems to indicate that the births must have been from at least two mothers. The time between the December 7th birth of Siles and the April, 1831, birth of Jane is too short an interval to have been from one mother. AARON died December of 1832, so the birth in April of 1831 is the last one he could have written.
“One Negro girl named Ursula was born the 2nd day of January 1828,
one Negro boy child named Denny was born the 16th of April 1829.
The handwriting changes. The first two entries for the slaves’ births was in a finer hand than the rest of the Bible entries. The middle two, however, appear to be consistent with the rest of the Bible’s entries, i.e., in AARON’s handwriting. The last two entries for the slaves’ births, however, is consistent with the finer hand that recorded the first two slaves’ births. No mention is made of the names of the mothers or fathers of these children
One Negro boy named Siles [Siler?] born December 7, 1830
One Negro [Negro] gharel [girl?] named Jane was born the 11th April 1831.
[Consistent with the handwriting of AARON]
One negro girl named Fanney born March 21 [31?] 1833,
One negro girl named Polly was born March 25th, 1837.”
[Consistent with the handwriting of the first two recorded slave births.]
The children of Aaron Simpson-4 & Charlotte Wisheart Simpson
John Simpson-1; Richard-2; George-3; Aaron-4
Bible records taken from Revolutionary Pension of Aaron
Moses Simpson-5, born March 17, 1784, died November 18, 1818, Boone County, Kentucky.
Kitty [Katherine] Simpson-5 born April 27, 1786, died before 1826, in North Carolina.
Roger Simpson-5, born November 2, 1788, died August 31, 1870, Giles County, Tennessee. Married Peggy Williamson December 27, 1808, with Oliver Simpson, Bondsman, and Alexander Murphy, Witness.
Hayden [Hatin] Simpson-5, born September 10, 1790, died 1838, Boone County, Kentucky.
Penelope [Peney] Simpson-5, born August 28, 1793, died April 15, 1860, Sumner County, Tennessee.
Priscilla [Prasilla] Simpson-5, born August, 1795 [may have been born in North Carolina.]
ENOCH [Eanoch] SIMPSON-5, born November 1, 1797 [may have been born in North Carolina.]
Susannah Simpson-5, born July 18, 1799, probably in North Carolina, died October 2, 1805, North Carolina.
Baley Simpson-5, born October, 1801, in North Carolina, died June 18, 1803 in North Carolina.
Nancy Simpson-5, born July 28, 1803, North Carolina, possibly died 1836, North Carolina. Nancy married James Boswell December 11, 1823, and possibly moved to Tennessee. Erick Montgomery says he thinks she died in North Carolina in 1836.
Joseph Simpson-5, born April 7, 1805, North Carolina, died June 1, 1855, Orange County, North Carolina. Joseph married Susan Byrd Anderson in 1843 and inherited the “home plantation” and remained in Caswell County. He was one of the few, if not the only one, of the children of AARON-4 and CHARLOTTE who remained in North Carolina.
AARON and CHARLOTTE SIMPSON moved into North Carolina sometime in the last part of the 1790s. AARON may have moved from Fairfax to Orange County, North Carolina, into a part that became Caswell when the two counties were split apart, or he may have moved into Orange County near the county line, and then moved again. Most researchers tend to think that since his land was on the county line area that he was in one area and did not actually move, but his “address changed.” He was not found on the 1800 Fairfax census, so probably he had moved by then. He settled in an area called “Country Line Creek.” This creek is frequently seen as “County Line Creek” but this is an error in transcription. A deed in 1811, which documented a sale by AARON “of Caswell County” to Nathan Williams, for lands located in Caswell and Orange Counties on the west side of Stony Creek [Caswell County Deed Book B, pg. 112 & 226.] would indicate that his early lands straddled the county line.
AARON’s mother, SUSANNAH WHEELER SIMPSON, died sometime after 1787, probably in the Fairfax area. [Maybe as late as 1820!] In 1787, she was listed on the tax rolls in Fairfax as owning three slaves over 16 years old, and two under age 16, three horses, and 13-head of cattle. All her sons, and many of her grandsons, owned from two to eight slaves per household. From reading her husband’s will, and the fact that his estate was not fully settled until after 1820, it leads one to conclude that SUSANNAH may not have died until nearly 1820. If this date is correct for her death, she would have been nearly 100 years old!
AARON-4 bought 197 acres of land in Orange/Caswell, North Carolina, very near the county line in November of 1797. The land was located on the banks of Stoney Creek in the northern part of the state. [These are probably the lands sold in 1811]. He paid 215 pounds, 2 shillings and 7 pence for the land. In 1800, he added another 120 acres of land for $150, and another 24 ¾ acres for $46. Though we do not know the relative value of the money, we know the exact figures he paid.
AARON’s brothers, James Simpson-4 and William Simpson-4, from Fairfax also bought land along this creek in the winter of 1797 or 1798 from their cousin, Colonel Richard Simpson-4, of Caswell/Orange, and from Nathaniel Dickerson. Colonel Simpson’s father, Captain Richard Simpson-3, was a brother of GEORGE-3 SIMPSON’s, and had come there about 1751, almost 50 years before AARON and his brothers arrived. The area was no longer completely a wilderness, but had been inhabited for over 50 years when AARON and the others arrived. The courts and county seat were already well established. Even though the separations had been long, the family connections probably assisted the Simpsons when they arrived in the new area.
Captain Richard Simpson-3, GEORGE’s brother, left Fairfax and received a large land grant from the Earl of Granville and purchased additional land in Orange County. On Stoney Creek, where he became a planter, he built a huge log house with at least two, and maybe three, stories. Supposedly, the first story had no windows or doors, but was entered by a ladder that could be withdrawn at night, and had a cat-walk around the second floor where he could walk around and over-see his laborers and keep an eye out for Indians. [“Captain Richard Simpson,” Caswell County Heritage, article by Vance E. Swift, #643.]
The 1800 North Carolina Census lists AARON-4 living in Orange County. It states that he has two males under age 10; one male in each of the other categories of 10-16, 16-26, and 26-45 years old. There were three girls below age 10, one each in the previously mentioned age categories. He also owned nine slaves. From available deed records, it appears likely he did actually live in Orange, and then move the few miles into Caswell.
Richard Simpson, Jr., AARON’s cousin, was shown on the same census with a large house full of people. He had, besides himself, eight males, and four females, along with six slaves.
In addition to the many upstanding and prominent members of the Simpson families of Caswell County, there was one member known as “Devil Dick [Richard]” Simpson. He drank to excess and was an embarrassment to his family. We don’t know which one of the men named Richard Simpson that he was, but he may have been Colonel Richard, himself. In any case, “Devil Dick” was tired of hearing his relatives encourage him to give up the bottle and go to church, so one day when he was well into his cups, he mounted his horse and rode it into the church shouting “Well, you wanted me to come to church, and here I am!” Supposedly, he moved to Kentucky and got out of the family’s hair. Colonel Dick [Richard] Simpson is also supposed to have moved to Kentucky. Kentucky, at that time, was called Kentucky County, Virginia. [Caswell County Heritage.]
After living in Caswell County, North Carolina, for 30 or more years, AARON died December 11, 1832, leaving a will dated December 6, 1832, which left CHARLOTTE all his estate until her death, then it was to be sold, except the land, and divided between the children. By that time, most of the children had large families of their own, and some of them had moved to other areas. ENOCH SIMPSON and the CARTER family of his wife had long-since departed for Tennessee.
AARON SIMPSON’s son, Moses Simpson-5, was deceased by the time his father died, but Moses left children, including a son, John- Simpson-, who were included in AARON’s estate for one-ninth part. Moses’ wife was Delphey Florence, whom he married October 22, 1804, in Caswell, North Carolina.
Kitty Simpson-5 married John Boswell, October 5, 1805. Theda Womack reports that Kitty and her husband moved to Tennessee with several other family members in the 1820s. She died in 1826 in Giles County, Tennessee. ENOCH had also lived in Giles County for a while about this time, before he and his wife, and her CARTER relatives, moved to Sumner County about 1825.
Roger Simpson-5 married Margaret Williamson on December 23, 1808. He and his family lived in Giles County, Tennessee, where he moved about 1819. He died in Giles County, Tennessee, August 31, 1870.
Hayden Simpson-5 married Mary Ann Marshall [“Polly”] in Fayette County, Kentucky. She was his first cousin, the daughter of Robert and Mary Ann Simpson-5 Marshall. Hayden-5 died in 1838 in Boone County, Kentucky, according to data submitted by Erick Montgomery.
Penelope Simpson-5 married Azariah Graves, son of Thomas and Hannah Simmons Graves, and they moved to Henderson County, Tennessee. There were several men in Caswell named Azariah Graves, including Thomas Graves’ brother, Azariah; and a third was Azariah Graves, son of Azariah. They were all descended from a John Herndon Graves and his wife, Hannah. With the families usually numbering from six to ten children each, it did not take long before the proliferation of family-heirloom names became a problem for genealogists. Penelope died in Henderson County, Tennessee, July 18, 1856. She had moved there in 1838.
In his will, AARON SIMPSON also left $100 to his “niece,” Surbina Graves-6. At the time his will was written, this was the term used to denote a grandchild [female] and not the offspring of a sibling. She was Penelope’s child.
CHARLOTTE WISHEART SIMPSON survived her husband by several years. The pension application for her was still being actively pursued in November of 1843. She would have been quite an elderly woman at this time. We can estimate her birth at around 1760 to 1765, so she was nearly 80 years old when the pension applications were made.
Priscilla Simpson-5 married Francis L. Simpson December 16, 1815, in North Carolina. He was the son of Moses Simpson, of Guilford County, who wrote the affidavit for CHARLOTTE’s pension application. He was the Moses who had fought with AARON during the Revolution. Moses was from Fairfax County and had been raised with or near AARON. We do know this Moses was not AARON’s brother, but may have been a cousin. Priscilla died April 15, 1865, in High Rock, Rockingham County, North Carolina, and is buried in the Simpson Cemetery, Guilford County, North Carolina.
ENOCH SIMPSON-5 married ELIZABETH CARTER, the daughter of JOSEPH CARTER and his wife, ANN MALLORY CARTER, on December 29, 1818. Probably within the year, the families departed for Tennessee.
The author’s thanks go to Erick Montgomery for his research giving many of the death dates and places for this sibling group. Erick is the “resident expert” on the Simpson line.
The executors of the estate of AARON were his son, Joseph, and son-in-law, Francis L. Simpson.