SURNAME SATURDAY: LEE (LEA) Clan of Virginia and England

Copyright 2015, The Hopelessly Hooked Genealogist (B. Harrison)

Today is Surname Saturday in GeneaBloggers time zone, one of the daily writing prompts for those of us who write genealogy blogs. I began this article for my blog in 2011 and just discovered that I had left it in draft mode and never posted it. So, here it is, better late than never. 

One of the surnames in my ancestral tree is LEE (also spelled LEA and LEIGH). These are ancestors on the paternal side of my tree from Virginia. One source on the Lee family of Virginia is this book: Genealogical History of the Lee Family of Virginia and Maryland, From 1300 to 1866. 

I descend from the Lee of Virginia and England line through my paternal grandmother Susannah "Susan" Allen Harrison, wife of John P Harrison. Her paternal great-great-grandmother was Nancy Lee Tucker, wife of William Wofford Tucker, a Captain in the Revolutionary War from Virginia. The following is from info I posted on the Find A Grave Memorial that I created for Nancy Lee Tucker, reference memorial # 67820200 . 
Nancy Lee Tucker, wife of Revolutionary War Lieutenant William Wofford Tucker. Daughter of Ambrose Lee and Frances Penn Lee(Tucker) of Amherst County, Virginia. Mother of 14 children including Dandrige Tucker and Susannah Tucker Hudgens.

Nancy Lee Tucker's mother Frances Penn Lee married 2nd husband Drury Tucker, who was the father of Nancy's husband William Wofford Tucker. Thus, her mother was also her step-mother-in-law. 

A headstone and confirmed burial location for William Wofford Tucker and his wife Nancy Lee Tucker have not been located. Tucker Homestead Cemetery is a historic family graveyard on private property in Liberty near Clemenstville in Casey County, KY which contains headstones of their son Dandridge Tucker, grandson Dabney Tucker, and other kin. This is likely the burial location of William Wofford Tucker and his wife, who may rest in the family plots in now unmarked graves. 

I have found some famous, not so famous, and infamous LEE ancestors in this extended clan of Lees in my lineage. The Lee clan of Virgina included some colorful characters, political leaders, and military heroes. Some of them were considered "rich, powerful, and influential".  Those individuals will make interesting subjects for future biographical blog posts to flesh out their life stories in my tree, some of which has already been well documented by historians. *(I've already blogged about a couple of them previously). 

Lee Family Crest , Source: Wikimedia Commons

The LEE surname in my tree has origins in England and Ireland.  The English spellings of Lea and Leigh mean "meadow" or "forest clearing". In Ireland, the name was used as an occupational description meaning "poet". The Lee family of Shropshire, England were the forebears of the notable colonial American family of Lee.

Some of my direct line Lee ancestors include my 4x great-grandmother Nancy Lee (1762 VA - 1829 KY) who married William Wofford Tucker; her father Ambrose Lee (1733 VA - 1764 VA) who married Frances "Frankey" Penn; his father William Lee (1710 VA - 1770 VA) who married Elizabeth Rachel Ambrose; his father William Lea ( abt 1684 VA - 1760 VA) who married Ann Taylor; his father Colonel William Lee (1654 VA - 1703 VA) who married Mary Green; his father William Lea (1623 VA - 1663 VA) who married Catherine Ironmonger; and his father William Leigh (1588 England - 1653 VA) who married Mary Dawkes. 

According to the Internet Surname Database at http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Lee:  "This famous name recorded as Lee, Lees, Lea, Leas, Lease and Leese is of Olde English origin. It is usually locational and derives from any of the places named with the pre 7th Century element "leah". This translates as "an open place" in a forest or wood, but may describe a water meadow, the word having different meanings in different parts of the country. Examples of the place names include Lee in Buckinghamshire and Hampshire, and also Lea in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Wiltshire. The name may also be topographical, for someone who lived at a clearing or pasture, as in the surname 'Atlee'.  The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ailric de la Leie, which was dated circa 1148, in the "Charters of Northamptonshire", during the reign of King Stephen, known as "Count of Blois", 1135 - 1154. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation In England 

Surname Saturday: THORNTON- Margaret "Peggy" Kitchen Thornton Coppedge

Copyright 2013, The Hopelessly Hooked Genealogist (B. Harrison)

Margaret Kitchen Thornton Coppedge, 1805- 1886

Burial  1886 Dillon Cemetery, Maries Co, Missouri Headstone Inscription: "Margaret, wife of Geo. H. Coppedge - died Oct 8, 1886, aged 81 yrs. Adieu my companion, adieu, How sadly I bid thee farewell". - Info provided by Jean Beckham in 1993. Find A Grave Memorial# 54005698

Margaret "Peggy" Kitchen Thornton was the daughter of Thomas Thornton III and Nancy Kitchen. She was my 2x-great-grandmother on the paternal side of my tree, though my father's grandmother's line. She was born about 1805 in Louden County,Virginia, and died 8 October 1886 in Maries County, Missouri.  The Thornton lineage has been traced back to Richmond, Virginia in the late 1600's and to Yorkshire, England in the early 1600's. There is still documentation work to be done to complete and verify the lineage of this direct line of Thorntons. 

Margaret was married to George Helm Coppedge. Their daughter, Mary Jane Coppedge married John Milton Harrison- these were my paternal great-grandparents. 

Margaret's direct-line paternal ancestry includes the surnames of Thornton, Peyton, Randolph, and Ryland; her maternal ancestry includes Kitchen, Harrison, Butler, Grayson, Wiggington, and Crume. Margaret's parents were Thomas Thornton III (1781- 1848) and Nancy Kitchen (1780- 1815). 

The reference book entitled "Coppage-Coppedge Family 1542-1955", on pg 81- indicates that Margaret was the "daughter of Thomas Thornton III by his 1st wife, a Miss Kitchen, sister to the 2nd wife of Thomas Thornton II".   If accurate, this means that her mother was the sister of  Elizabeth Kitchen, 2nd (or 3rd) wife of her grandfather, and that her father had married the sister of his own father's 2nd wife. 

Margaret's maternal grandparents are believed to be William H Kitchen and Nancy Anne Harrison. Nancy Anne Harrison was a descendant of Burr Harrison III, immigrant ancestor from London, England who went to Virginia about 1664 as an early settler and member of House of Burgess. He  died in Stafford, Virginia in 1706. 

Surname Saturday: CATLETT

               Copyright 2012, The Hopelessly Hooked Genealogist (B. Harrison)

One of the surnames in my tree that I will be focusing on researching further in the coming year is CATLETT.

Mary Jane Catlett (1738-1812) was one of my 4x-great-grandmothers. She married Moses Aaron Coppedge (1735-1801), on 26 July 1764 in Fauquier County, Virginia. Around 1780, they went to live in Kentucky, traveling in a party led by Daniel Boone (according to the book written by Arthur Max Coppage and John E. Manahan:  “Coppage-Coppedge Chronicle, 1542-1975, (pg 262).   Mary Jane Catlett Coppedge died in Washington County (now Marion County), Kentucky in 1812.  Although she has a memorial page on the Find A Grave website (Find A Grave Memorial# 73125083), her exact burial location is unknown.  She MAY be buried at Old Liberty Cemetery near Bradfordsville, Marion County, Kentucky.  An alternate burial  location could be the Coppage Cemetery on private property in Marion County, Kentucky.

Mary Jane Catlett was the daughter of John Catlett (circa 1705- 1788) and Mary Ann Grayson (circa 1705-1790), my 5x-great-grandparents. John Catlett’s Will, proved 23 March 1778 in Faquier County, Virginia, left to his “loving daughter Jane Coppage, my roan mare and colt, with my Saddle and Bridle, and my black walnut folding  table”  from his estate.  John Catlett had married Mary Ann Grayson on 20 October 1726 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

Below is a page from the book entitled "A history of Two Virginia Families Transplanted From County Kent, England. Thomas Baytop, Tenterden, 1638, and John Catlett, Sittingbourne, 1622." By Dr. and Mrs. William Carter Stubbs. Published 1918 in New Orleans, La .

The following research was posted by Bev Loomis to her public family tree Byrd/Alsbury/Sonnichsen/Hallum and Related Families on Ancestry.com, and is based on information she transcribed from the Will of John Catlett of Virginia, descendant of the Colonel John Catlett of Sittingbourne, Kent, England who immigrated to Virginia:

“In his will John Catlett refers to his plantation, 3,000 pounds of crop tobacco, a “Flock of cattle,” horses, a weaving loom, and walnut furniture, so we can surmise that he was a moderately successful tobacco farmer.  He wills to daughter Elizabeth “two white boys until they arrive at the age of 21 years, which boys were purchased for me with their father and mother.”  These were probably indentured servants who had been purchased for a fixed period of time.  No slaves were named in the will, although the labor-intensive crop of tobacco required many workers.”

“John Catlett’s children (their birth years are approximate), as named in his 1778 will, were:

1.                   William Catlett, born about 1739

2.                   Alexander Catlett (of Catlettsburg), about 1748-1823, married Susannah Beall

3.                   John Catlett (of Georgia)

4.                   Elizabeth Catlett, born about 1733, married David Marrow

5.                   Mary Ann Catlett, born about 1737, married John Hogan

6.                   Jane (Mary Jane) Catlett, about 1738-1815, married Moses Coppedge/Coppage

7.                   Barsheba Catlett, born about 1744, married Senate Young

8.                   Frances Catlett, about 1754-1818, married George Priest 

9.                   Isabell Catlett, born about 1757, married Mr. Summers”

It is believed that the parents of this John Catlett are John William Catlett (circa 1690- 1770) and Joan Lettico (circa 1695- 1748), of Frederick County, Virginia. (Further research pending to verify the lineage it is on my Genealogy To-Do List for 2012).  As is often the case with our ancestors, there were multiple “John Catlett”s and “William Catlett”s in Virginia in this time period.

 The progenitor and immigrant ancestor to America of this particular Catlett line is Colonel John Catlett (circa 1622- 1680) of Sittingbourne, Kent, England who immigrated to Rappahannock, Virginia about 1650.  Colonel Catlett married Elizabeth Underwood Slaughter, widow of Colonel Francis Slaughter, in January 1656 in Rappahannock, Virginia. He may also have had one other wife, a Mary Lucas, though as yet in my research no marriage record has been found of that union.

There is an interesting historical marker in Virginia, which indicates that in 1670 Colonel John Catlett accompanied the 3rd Expedition of John Lederer's company to explore the Blue Ridge Mountains region and view the Shenandoah Valley  of Virginia and the Carolinas. The records of Colonel Catlett seem to trail off there, indicating that he may have perished during this expedition or shortly thereafter. This is part of my research plan, “to be continued”.