Life in North Carolina Among Family
The relationships between Rebecca Poythress’ relatives and Richard Pace’s family continued into North Carolina long after Richard and Rebecca Pace. Christopher Jane was the son of Philip Jane and Elizabeth Davis and the grandson of John Jane and Elizabeth Tye. Christopher Jane had lived on the land that his grandfather, John, had owned in Prince George Co. The Janes had always lived adjacent to Richard Pace, Sr., and his family in Virginia as early as the mid to late 1660s. Christopher Jane moved to Surry Co., then Northampton Co., before the creation of Bute Co., NC.
Rebecca Pace’s children, Tabitha Moore, Amy Green, Rebecca Aycock, William Pace, Thomas Pace and Richard Pace all lived close to one another in NC. Their lands in Northampton Co. were located between the NC and VA boundary and the Roanoke river and included Stony creek, Arthur creek and Peahill creek. Richard’s brother, John and his family, lived close to one another. John died in 1726.(177)
In 1746, John Avent sold John Davis land on the north side of the Roanoke river in Northampton Co. that adjoined John Davis’ land.(178) The witnesses were William Aycock, Thomas Avent and John King. John Avent was Colonel Avent’s son.(179) John Davis was the son of Christopher Davis,(180) the brother of Elizabeth Davis who married Philip Jane.
John Moore was a witness for Christopher Jane in 1749 and 1751.(181) Jane and Moore held adjacent properties. Part of the land that belonged to Captain Moore and Christopher Jane, that adjoined John Moore and Philip Jane, was sold in 1764.(182) John Moldesby and Joseph Scouls were neighbors of John Moore and Christopher Jane.(183) Christopher Jane and Philip Jane were cousins of Rebecca Poythress.
Thomas House sold land, in 1759, to Philip Jane that was part of Richard Moore’s land.(184) William and Peter House were witnesses. Philip Jane and Peter House were witnesses to a deed of William House in 1759.(185) Thomas, William and Peter House were all relatives of Lawrence House, the husband of Sarah Pace. In 1758, William Duke, Sr., sold land on Sandy creek in Granville Co., NC, to Thomas House, Jr.(186) The land adjoined Duke’s step-son, Charles Bartholomew. Duke was married to widow, Elizabeth Bartholomew.
Thomas Pace sold land to Christopher Jane in Granville Co.,(187) in 1760.(188) Nathaniel Pace was a witness. Christopher Jane and Charles Bartholomew were cousins and both lived in Granville Co. Charles Bartholomew appeared on Robert Harris’ tax list in 1753,(189) a tax list in 1755(190) and appeared on a regimental militia muster roll in 1754, all in Granville Co.(191) In 1774, Miles Rachel, the Godson of Christopher Jane, witnessed a deed from Thomas Clifton to John Huckaby, in Bute Co., land that Christopher Jane bought from Thomas Pace in 1762.(192) Thomas Pace (1710-1764), son of Richard and Rebecca Pace, had sons, Thomas (1734-1795) and Nathaniel (1743-1798).
Charles Bartholomew lived in Granville Co. surrounded by the Green, Davis, Woodlief, House and Aycock families when his cousin, Christopher Jane, bought land from Thomas Pace in Granville Co. The Pace, Jane and Bartholomew families lived among each other and interacted on land deals for over twenty years after Richard and Rebecca Pace were deceased. These families lived in close proximity, the precincts and county lines changed continuously but the families remained together.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
It is easy to locate a marriage license or death certificate in the 21st century but Richard Pace and Rebecca Poythress lived in the late 17th and early 18th century. Any records of their marriage or their deaths disappeared long ago. All one has today are the remaining records and abstracts. As a result, this study has been organized to determine if there was a relationship between Richard and Rebecca Pace and Rebecca Poythress through their family relationships, property locations, ownership patterns, connections to the affairs of siblings, family migrations to Surry Co., and Bertie Pct., and the naming of issue. This study has been a broader examination than previous efforts in identifying Rebecca Poythress’ husband. It has thoroughly examined every scrap of evidence, both direct and circumstantial.
Richard Pace, Jr., grew up in the same area where court justices Major Francis Poythress and John Drayton,(193) John Poythress’ step-father-in-law, lived. Richard Pace, Sr., appeared in front of the same men inside the Merchant’s Hope courtroom.
No record has been located that would indicate Rebecca Poythress married any other man. An extensive search for women named Rebecca of the same age, has not yielded any other possibility. John Hicks married Rebecca Rives about 1712.(194) He was at the estate sale of John Barlow in Surry Co., with the Pace family on August 18, 1738.(195) John and Rebecca Hicks’ daughter, Rebecca, married Edward Tatum.(196) Edward’s brother, Christopher, married Bridget Scott, granddaughter of Thomas Boyce.(197) Rebecca Poythress’ niece, Rebecca Poythress, daughter of Rebecca’s brother, John, was much younger than she and was a minor in 1724.(198) Rebecca Birchett, daughter of William Birchett and Mary Wright, married William Lee in 1720.(199) A number of other women with the given name Rebecca, not mentioned in this study, were identified but were too young to be considered or were subsequently identified by their maiden names. No practical alternative husband has ever been suggested for Rebecca Poythress and no alternative maiden name has ever been presented as to the identity of the spouse of Richard Pace, Jr. No other family was located with a daughter, Rebecca, who married a Pace.
It is ironic that Elizabeth Cocke, in her 1751 will,(200) mentioned her granddaughters, Rebecca, Ann and Tabitha, daughters of her son James Cocke. Rebecca Pace’s daughters, though older, included Rebecca, Ann and Tabitha. Elizabeth Cocke was the mother of Elizabeth who married Robert Poythress (1690-1747) a first cousin of Rebecca Poythress.(201)
The major objection to the Pace-Poythress marriage were the 1711 gifts where Rebecca Bartholomew identified both daughters by their maiden names. Rebecca’s daughter, 32 year old Rebecca Poythress, was probably married at the time, with children, and had probably been living on the property for years. She was not mentally challenged. If she had been, she would not have received the 300 acres. She was not deceased or it would have been recorded in her sister’s 1721 sale of adjoining land. Records for the period 1711 to May 14, 1728, exist and there is no record of her death or the sale or disposal of her estate.(202) In Anne Bartholomew's deed, it stated, “enjoy to her, & their own proper use,” indicating that she was also married. If Avent and Howard had seen the original deed to Anne Bartholomew, not an abstract, they would have seen that Mrs. Anne Green was addressed as Anne Bartholomew, her maiden name.
The use of a maiden name in a deed involving a married woman was not unknown in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Richard Pace, Sr.’s 1659 deed, his mother was referred to as Mrs. Sara Maycock and his father as George Pace. In William Bradford’s 1724/5 deed, his mother was referred to as Alice Smith and his father as Nathaniel Bradford. In Anne Green’s 1721 deed, her 42 year old sister was referred to as Rebecca Poythress.(203) In Judge Jeremiah Exum’s will of 1712, he did not identify three of his daughters, Mary Ann, Jane and Sarah, by their married names and did not mention their husbands. It is noteworthy that an associate Judge would know how to write a legal will.(204)
Rebecca Bartholomew gave land to her daughters on September 10, 1711, perhaps as a result of the increasing expectation of Indian hostilities. On or about September 10, 1711, Tuscarora Indians captured John Lawson, Baron Christopher deGraffenreidt and two servants on the Neuse river in North Carolina. Lawson and one servant were subsequently put to death. Twelve days later, the massacre began. On September 13th, Charles and Rebecca Bartholomew appeared in open court and swore that the deed to Rebecca Poythress “and her heirs” was in fact their act and deed.
At 51 years of age, Rebecca Bartholomew may have decided to ensure that her daughters had secure futures. Anne appears to have been a newlywed and her and Rebecca appear to have had no personal real estate. Rebecca’s deed to Rebecca Poythress and Anne were “in consideration of the natural love and affection” that she held for her daughters and “for & towards the bettering & advancing” of their “fortune(s) in the world.” Rebecca Bartholomew and her husband were deceased by 1721 and she may have been deceased by 1717 when Anne and possibly Rebecca moved to Surry Co.
During this study, no evidence was found to disqualify a marriage between Rebecca Poythress and Richard Pace, Jr. Rebecca Poythress’ relatives permeated this study; her father, Major Francis Poythress; her step-brother, John Bartholomew; her half-sister and brother-in-law, Anne Bartholomew and Burrell Green; her aunt, Elizabeth Tye Jane Wicket; her nephews, John and Charles Bartholomew; her cousins, Philip Jane, Christopher Jane, Margaret Wynne Goodrich; Robert Wynne and Peter Poythress. Rebecca Poythress’ brother, Francis Poythress, and Richard Pace’s nephew, Richard Pace, were involved in several business transactions on November 11, 1718, and held adjoining properties one mile southwest of the old Pace homestead. Rebecca Poythress’ father, Major Francis Poythress, and Richard Pace’s step-father, Nicholas Whitmore, held land adjacent to Adam Tapley and William Harrison. Rebecca Poythress’ cousin, Margaret Wynne Goodrich’s husband, Edward Goodrich, was security for Richard Whitmore when Richard qualified as administrator of Nicholas Whitmore’s estate after Nicholas’ widow, Mary Pace Whitmore, relinquished her right to administer the estate.(205) And, John Denton, one of the witnesses to Rebecca Bartholomew’s 1711 gift to her daughters was present at the estate sale of John Barlow in Surry Co. with most of the Pace family in August of 1738.
Rebecca Poythress’ family members interacted with the Pace family and resided in close proximity to Richard and Rebecca Pace in Charles City Co., later Prince George Co. By 1716 to 1718, Richard and Rebecca as well as Anne and Burrell Green were living in Surry Co., the area that became Sussex Co.(206) John Scott and Bethia Boyce were in Surry Co. by 1718 and their son, John Scott, Jr., died there in 1724. Their daughter, Bridget, married Christopher Tatum. From Surry Co., the associated families moved into North Carolina and were involved with each other as documented in the Bertie, Northampton and Granville records.
Rebecca Poythress and Richard Pace were of the right ages to a marriage prospect. They had known each other for years. Rebecca’s mother, Rebecca Bartholomew, had known Richard Pace and his family for most of Richard Pace, Jr.’s life. There is nothing to preclude that a marriage occurred. Rebecca Poythress did not live in some distant county and it is not that the Poythress and Pace families had no shared interests or family ties. Rebecca was in the right place at the right time and with the right opportunities for association. Rebecca Poythress was, perhaps, one of the few suitable marriage prospects for Richard Pace.
Utilizing careful analysis, deductive logic and a preponderance of the evidence, direct and circumstantial, it is highly probable that Rebecca Pace and Rebecca Poythress were one and the same woman, that she, Rebecca Poythress, married Richard Pace, Jr. There is no evidence to the contrary and the available evidence places Rebecca Poythress’ closest relatives within Rebecca Pace and her families’ sphere of neighbors. After Rebecca Pace’s death, Rebecca Poythress’ relatives continued to be involved with Rebecca Pace’s children and grandchildren.
Final Word on Extant Records
The oldest book in the Pr. Geo. Co. courthouse contains the deeds, wills, inventories and miscellaneous instruments, from February 9, 1713/14 to May 14, 1728, with a few records back to 1711, in all, 1,116 pages of records. The second oldest book contains minutes of the county court from the March term 1737/8 to April, 1740, and a single court of Sessions and two or three courts of Oyer and Terminer by special writ to local justices. This book possesses 87 to 400 pages. The third book covers the clerkship of Theodorick Bland with contents similar to the oldest book covering the time frame from June 12, 1759, to June 10, 1760, composed of fragments of 75 to 196 pages. The fourth book contains instruments of earlier dates from February 13, 1787, to November 8, 1792. These are the only original volumes remaining for Pr. Geo. Co. prior to 1800. If Rebecca Poythress or her husband sold her 300 acres after May 14, 1728, there would be no record of it and there is possibly no record of her land transferring after her death. With no deeds, wills, inventories, court records and miscellaneous instruments existing for Pr. Geo. Co. after May 14, 1728, until the minutes of the county court, March term 1737/8, there would be no record of the sale of the easterly run property for that period of time. An in-depth search of land patents in the Library of Virginia has not produced a record of this land being granted or being referenced in patents to family, friends, neighbors, relatives or anyone else.
Richard Pace died between August 18, 1738, and February (~14), 1738/9. Rebecca Pace died after March 13, 1736. Richard left a will but no other probate documents including an inventory of his estate or an estate sale have been located for him. No will has been located for Rebecca Pace and there is no record of her death. In Richard Pace’s will, he stated that “I give and bequeath unto my Son Thomas Pace & his heirs for ever the Plantation where I now live with three hundred twenty acres of land thereto belonging, reserving unto my Dearly beloved wife Rebecah Pace the sole use & benefit thereof during her natural life.” It is unknown when Thomas came into possession of the 320 acres after his mother’s death and it is not clear whether the 320 acres was bequeathed by Thomas’ 1764 will to one of his sons.
177 Bertie Pct., NC, Wills, John Pace, 21 Mar 1726/7, Aug 1727. The witnesses incl. Abraham Burton, John Bobbitt and Francis Garnet. John’s children were John, William, George, Frances, Anne, Elizabeth and Mary Melton.
178 Northampton Co., NC, Deed Bk 1, p. 266, John Avent to John Davis, Aug 1746.
179 Sussex Co., Va., Will of Col. Thomas Avent, 21 Sept 1756, 18 Nov 1757.
180 Pr. Geo. Co., va., Deeds, 1713-1728, p. 573, Will of Christopher Davis, 1722.
181 Northampton Co., NC, Bk 1, pp. 405-406, John Modesby to Christopher Jane, 3 Nov 1749.
182 Northampton Co., NC, Bk 1, pp. 505-506, Christopher Jane to Joseph Scouls, 8 Nov 1751.
183 Northampton Co., NC, Deed #542, p. 329, Joseph Scouls to Henry Meacham, 23 Jan 1764.
184 Northampton Co., NC, Deed Bk 3, 1759-1774, p. 5, Thomas House to Philip Jane, 26 Mar 1759.
185 Northampton Co., NC, Deed #93, p. 58, William House to Henry Meacham, 3 Nov 1759.
186 Morris, Jane, The Duke-Symes Family, pp. 174-175, Granville Co., NC, 1758.
187 1741 - Edgecombe Co. was taken out of southwestern Bertie; 1746 - Granville Co. was formed from Edgecombe Co.: 1764 - Bute Co. was formed from the eastern part of Granville Co.
188 Granville Co., NC, Deed Bk F, p. 179, Thomas Pace to Christopher Jane, 5 July 1760.
189 Granville Co., NC, Tax Lists, CR044.701, State of North Carolina Library and Archives, Raleigh, NC.
190 The North Carolina Journal, editor William Perry Johnson, 1755 Tax List Granville Co., NC.
191 Muster Roll of the Regiment in Granville Co. under the Command of Col William Eaton as taken at a general Muster of the said Regiment, 8 Oct 1754.
192 Bute Co., NC, Deed Bk 5, p. 192, Thomas Clifton to John Huckaby, 26 Nov 1774.
193 Chas. Cty. Co., Va., pat. 5, p. 107, grant to John Drayton, 14 June 1665.
194 Surry Co., Va., Deeds, Will Bk, 1715-1730, p. 963, Will of John Hicks, 31 July 1738, 20 Aug 1739.
195 Surry Co., Va., Deeds, Wills, 1730-1738, p. 881, Acct. of estate of John Barlow, 16 Aug 1738.
196 Dorman, John Frederick (1928-2021), 4th ed., Vol. 3, “Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5, 2005,” publ. By Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., in collaboration with the Order of First Families of Virginia, p. 272.
197 Surry Co., Va., Court Orders, 7 Nov 1734, p. 72. “Richard Ledbetter is appointed Overseer of a bridle Way from Quarrel Swa(m)p at Henry Ledbetters old path to the old Westward ford on Maherrin River, & from thence the Straitest way into (Christopher) Tatum(‘)s Road and that all the Male Labouring Tyths between the great Creek & Matt Edwards he being included William Kymball Thomas Bailes Richard Bryan & John Bartholomew assist in Clearing the Same.” John Bartholomew lived in this area near William Kimball and Tatum’s road. (2) Weisiger, Benjamin E., III, “Prince George County, Virginia, Wills and Deeds, 1713-1728, Iberian Publishing Co., 1973, pp. 100-101. Pr. Geo. Co., Va., Wills & Deeds, 1713-1728, part 3, p. 700, Inventory of estate of John Scott, Jr., 12 May 1724. John Ledbetter assisted in the inventory of John Scott, Jr.’s estate. Christopher Tatum was married to Bridget Scott, the sister of John Scott, Jr. John Bartholomew was Rebecca Poythress’ step-brother and John Scott, Jr., and Bridget Scott Tatum were the children of her first cousin Bethia Boyce Scott.
198 Smith, Jr., Claiborne T., “Poythress of Prince george County, Virginia,” Historical Southern Families, John Bennett Boddie, Vol. IV, 1968, pp. 31-32.
199 Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43674700/rebecca-lee.
200 Henrico Co., Va., records, Will Bk 1, Will of Elizabeth Cocke, 9 Aug 1751, 6 July 1752.
201 R. Bolling Batte papers, Library of Va., Chart of Poythress Family in America, Section A of two sections, 1977.
202 The oldest book in PG Co. Courthouse is the deeds, wills, inventories and misc. instruments, 9 Feb 1713/14 to 14 May 1728, with a few records back to 1711, 1,116 pages of records. The second oldest book contains minutes of county court Mar term 1737/8 to Apr 1740 and a single court of Sessions and two or three courts of Oyer and Terminer by special writ to local justices. 87 to 400 pages. The third book covers the clerkship of Theodorick Bland with contents similar to book 1, 12 June 1759 to 10 June 1760, fragments of 75 to 196 pages. The fourth book contains instruments of earlier dates 13 Feb 1787 to 8 Nov 1792. These are the only extant original volumes remaining for PG Co. prior to 1800. If Rebecca sold her 300 acres after 14 May 1728, there would be no record of it. There is possibly no extant record of Rebecca Poythress’ land transferring after her death.
203 Copying the wording on an original deed onto a new deed was a common practice in the clerk’s office. However, deeds usually noted that a neighbor was deceased.
204 Boddie, John Bennett, Historical Southern Families, Vol. 1, pp. 182, 322-323, Will of Jeremiah Exum, 3 Sept 1712, 28 Mar 1720. Mary Exum, daughter of Judge Jeremiah Exum and Ann Lawrence, was the second wife of Barnaby McKinne and her third husband.
205 Pr. Geo. Co., Va., Ct. Orders & Return of Executions, 1714-1720, June 1718.
206 Burrell Green either lived near his brother, William, in the area of George Pasmore’s land about 18 miles north of Richard Pace’s 1,220 acres or in the area of lands belonging to George Pasmore, Thomas Poythress and his brothers, Peter Green and Lewis Green, Jr., about 4 miles north of Lawrence House and Sarah Pace.
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