|
John (1) Kelly was born 04/02/1765
in MD, and died 12/13/1816 in Huntsville, Surry Co., NC. He married Anne (Nancy) Davis Abt. 1782 in Maryland, daughter of
William Davis and Nancy Luckett. She was born 1765, and died 1832 in Rowan Co., NC.
We don’t know much about John Kelly’s past. History records say he was born in 1765
in Maryland. It would be logical to assume that he was a child of one of the early settlers in Maryland.
What was life like 1650 to 1700?
Harsh and austere would be good adjectives to
describe how things were during this time. In the beginning the Province or Colony of Maryland in America was established
and governed by the Calverts who were Roman Catholics. Colonial Maryland had a reputation for religious freedom in its
early years, and even today Maryland is known as "The Free State.” A majority of the immigrants who ventured
their lives in the tobacco colony were young and single, and they married late. Nearly three-quarters of them arrived,
as indentured servants, and neither men nor women servants were free to marry until their terms were completed.
Because male immigrants outnumbered
females by as much as three to one, many men remained single. Over one-quarter of the men who left estates in southern Maryland
from 1650 to 1700, died unmarried. Not only did the immigrants marry late, they also died very young. A man who
came to Maryland in his early twenties could expect to live only about twenty more years. By age forty-five this man
and many of his companions would be dead.
The life cycle of growing up, marrying, procreating, and dying was compressed within a short span of years in 17th century
Maryland. Most marriages were of brief duration. One-half of the unions contracted in one Maryland County in the
second half of the century were broken within seven years by the death of at least one of the partners. As a result,
families were small; most couples had only two or three children.
Babies were born in the home, usually with the help of a mid-wife. The husband
was customarily at hand. Infants were breast-fed, and if some reason the mother could not nurse, a neighbor with milk
to spare was hired to help nourish the baby. The line between infancy and childhood was crossed at age three.
A child was likely to be weaned sometime at the beginning of the second year, and a new baby might be expected by the end
of it. One or both of these events apparently signified the transition from the-status of infant to that of "little
adult." A child's chances of surviving to maturity also improved about the third birthday.
The
education that children received was supposed to suit their station, and might be practical or academic or both. Apprenticeship
was a common method of educating children in many places but it was mainly a means for teaching trades, including planting,
to orphans. It was the widows who insured that their orphaned sons were cared for and taught how to earn a living through
apprenticeship and that orphaned daughters were provided for by binding them out to learn housekeeping.
This tradition of binding out children to apprenticeships continued well into the nineteenth century.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was Parliament's first serious attempt to assert governmental authority
over the colonies.
The Maryland Gazette was forced to stop printing their paper for a time.
|
| Click on the picture or go to http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/5912/pdf/p5912002.pdf |
Notes for Kelly, John:
John Kelly's name first appears in public records
when he witnessd a deed from Henry Speer to John Thomas Longino on July 7, 1795 (Surry Co., NC, Deed Bk. F, p. 260).
John was appointed postmaster at Huntsville on
Dec. 31, 1806, a post he held until his death. Thomas D. Kelly, who was appointed Feb. 14, 1817, succeeded John Kelly.
John Kelly also ran the tavern and stagecoach stop
at the intersection of the Mulberry Fields Road and High Street (later the home of some of the Clingman family, see Deed Book
X, p. 253, Yadkin County, NC). See page
78, in Lewis Brumfield (ed.), HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE
OF YADKIN COUNTY, NORTH
CAROLINA publication for the Yadkin County Historical
Society, by Winston Printing Co., Winston-Salem, NC, 1987.
Tombstone of John Kelly in Kelly Cemetery, Forsyth
Co., NC, just across the bridge on the Lewisville-Huntsville Road. One other stone is readable, that of Thomas S. Kelly, John
Kelly’s grandson. There are a number of graves with no markers as well.
|
| HERE LIES THE BODY OF JOHN KELLY. HE WAS BORN APR 14, 1765 AND DIED DECEMBER 13, 1816 |
After John Kelly's death in 1818, his widow, Nancy
Anne Davis Kelly, petitioned the court of Rowan County for a License to operate a Tavern. She later married Lamb Taylor, formerly
of Currituck County, second. She left a will, dated April 14, 1831, probated in August 1832, recorded in Rowan County, NC,
Book H, p. 555.
In her will, she bequeathed to son Alexander D.
Kelly the one-half of my tract of land near Huntsville, laid off so as to "include the house in which he now lives".... She
left son Thomas D. Kelly one feather bed, two sheets, and one counterpane, one blanket and two pillows. She left all her wearing
apparel to sons Thomas, William, John, Samuel, Leonard, and Alexander "to be equally divided among them for the use of their
children."
Children of John Kelly(Gen 1) and Nancy Anne Davis are:
-
John(Gen 2) Davis Kelly, Jr., born Abt. 1783
in MD ?; died Bet. 1832 - 1833 in Surry Co., NC or Davie Co., NC.
In 1832, Alexander D. Kelly was living at Huntsville
and was given the house in which he lived and 1/2 of the property, according to the will of his mother, Nancy Davis Kelly
Taylor.
On Sep. 4, 1827, Alexander was a bondsman for the
marriage of John Dixon and Elizabeth Hill (see Surry County, NC, marriage register). No further information.
A deed of trust is recorded in the Stokes County
records from Alexander D. Kelly to Clingman and Jarratt (Book U, p. 203). Clingman and Jarratt operated the Red Store at Huntsville.
Jarratt was also a slave trader.
Estate papers of Luckett D. Kelly in N. C. Archives,
Raleigh, NC. They mention Thomas D. Kelly, Nancy Kelly, and Samuel D. Kelly, presumed to be brothers and sister (per Bill
and Barbara Kelley).
-
Leonard(Gen 2) Davis Kelly, born Abt. 1800 in
Surry Co., NC; died Abt. 1839 in Huntsville, Surry Co., NC.
-
Samuel(Gen 2) Davis Kelly, born Abt. 1803 in
Surry Co., NC; died 1875 in Hinds Co., MS. He married (1)Amelia E. Masten 09/26/1838 in Wilkes
Co., NC; born 05/14/1817 in Wilkes Co., NC; died 06/30/1840. He married (2) Parthenia M. Wells Aft. 1840; died 1876 in Hinds
Co., MS.
|
