Owen Tutor (1772-1850) of Cumberland Co., NC, and the three Owen Tudors

                                         Owen Tutor, (1772-1850), of Cumberland Co., NC

1. Owen Tutor (1772-1850) arrived in Virginia in the summer of 1790. By 1792, he was in North Carolina where he spent his whole life. About November or December of 1799, he married. He lived in Cumberland Co., NC, for over 50 years.
2. He arrived in the United States alone. He had no family living around him until he had grown children.
3. His descendant’s YDNA showed that he did not have close relatives or parents in the U. S. but did have distant cousins from a common ancestor back in the United Kingdom in the 17th century.

Owen Tudor (1742-1800), of Sussex Co., VA., & Orange Co., NC, and son, Owen Tudor (1787-aft. 1821), of Orange Co., NC

1. Owen Tudor (1742-1800), son of Henry Tudor, of Sussex Co., VA., lived in Sussex Co. until at least 1771. 
2. By 1780, he was in Northampton Co., NC., and by 1785, in Granville Co., NC. 
3. In 1790, he was in Anson Co., NC, where he was enumerated with three boys under 16 and four females, one of which was his wife, Lucy. His son, Owen, was born February 14, 1787.
4. By 1798, he was in Orange Co., NC, where he died in 1800. He was insolvent at his death and left his widow, Lucy, who was unable to care for their son, Owen (1787-aft. 1821). The court required Owen to live with William Crutchfield until he was 21 years old and to learn the blacksmith trade.
5. The last records for son, Owen Tudor (1787-aft. 1821), appear in 1813 and 1821 in Orange Co., NC.

                                Owen Tudor (1794-1871), of Orange Co., NC, & Ashe Co., NC

1. Owen Tudor (1794-1871) appears to be the son of Harris Tutor (1768-1839), the son of Owen Tudor (1742-1800). He married Elizabeth Frances “Fanny” McClain in 1816 after serving in the War of 1812. He appears to have died in Ashe Co., NC.

2/21/26

Owen Tutor (1772-1850) of Cumberland Co., NC

    Most of the earliest material regarding Owen Tutor came from William Manning Moore by telephone and by correspondence. Mr. Moore was born in 1909 and died in 1979. He was the grandson of Mary Eva Tutor who married Sidney Daniel Churchill. Mary Eva Tutor was the granddaughter of Owen Tutor, the progenitor of the Tutor family. 

    Mary Eva Tutor’s parents were Owen Young Tutor and Lucinda Dennis. Lucinda Dennis died about 1860 or 1861 when Mary was two years old. About 1862, Owen Young Tutor, after the decease of his wife, the mother of his seven children, took his two daughters, Nancy and Mary Eva, to Cumberland Co., NC. The girls stayed with their aunt Lucy Jane Tutor Hobby, the daughter of their grandfather, Owen Tutor. Mary Eva was born in 1859 and died in 1934. Lucy Jane was married to Alex Hobby. Alex Hobby had two daughters, Ann and Susan, who also lived with them. Lucy Jane Tutor Hobby was born in 1816 and died in 1900. Owen Young Tutor died at Drewry’s Bluff, VA, during the War between the States, on May 16, 1864. This left all of his children orphaned.

    William Manning Moore was a history teacher and a family researcher. He stated that most of his information came from his grandmother, Mary Eva Tutor Churchill. Mr. Moore was 25 years old when his grandmother died. He stated that his grandmother had been raised by her aunt Lucy Jane Tutor Hobby who was the daughter of Owen Tutor. Mary Eva was 41 years old when Lucy Jane died. Lucy Jane was about 34 years old when her father died.

    Mr. Moore would have learned what he knew about the earliest Tutors from his grandmother, Mary Eva, before her death and up until he was 25 years old. Mary Eva would have learned all that she knew about her family from her aunt Lucy Jane, the daughter of Mary Eva’s grandfather, Owen Tutor.

    Mr. Moore stated, not long before his death, that he was working on a book about the Tutor family but he never got to finish the book. As a result, all that remains is the material that he sent to M. R. Tutor up until 1979. Mr. Moore was 70 years old at his death.

    All of the material relating to Owen Tutor’s birth in Wales and his trip to the United States aboard a privateering vessel and his indentureship once he arrived are all from William Manning Moore. The name of Owen’s wife and his children came from Mr. Moore who had also reviewed a family Bible with the information.

    Some would say that this information is not reliable. It is up to the reader to make his or her opinion from Mr. Moore’s writing and from the extant records. Alternatively, some would say that Owen Tutor was the son of Owen Tuder and grandson of Henry Tuder, of Sussex Co., VA. According to DNA, this is not the case. And, it appears that Owen Tuder had a son named Owen who was born in 1787, 15 years after Owen Tutor’s birth.

    Henry Tuder and his wife, Elizabeth, lived in Sussex Co., VA, and had ten children. Henry Tuder’s oldest son and oldest child was Henry Tuder II who was born about 1740. He married Sarah Watkins and they had four children, Jesse, Henry, Lavina and Sally. His son, Henry III, who was born in 1763, married Lucretia Adams and had eight children, Patsy, Amy, Rebecca, Henry, John, Lucy, Benjamin and Nancy. Their son, Henry IV, who was born in 1785, married Dolly Woodford. Their son, Henry V, who was born in 1815, married Sarah Jane Mason. Henry Tudor V was the great-great grandfather of Robert W. Tudor.

    The late, Robert W. Tutor, is the closest Family Tree YDNA match to M. R. Tutor at 37 markers and shows an 82.89% probability that they have a common ancestor within ten generations. There are two mutational differences between R. W. Tudor’s YDNA and that of M. R. Tutor. One is a short term mutation difference and one is a long term mutation difference. From the YDNA comparison, it would appear that the most recent common ancestor would have been in the United Kingdom. 

    Henry and Elizabeth Tuder’s second son and second child was Owen Tuder, born about 1742. He married Lucy Harris, daughter of William Harris and Lucy Clark, and they had ten children, four boys and six girls. Their known children were Harris, Phoebe, Fanny and Lucy, born in Albemarle Parish of Sussex Co. The first four children were born from 1764 to 1771. Harris Tuder married Mary “Polly” Henderson. The names of other sons and daughters of Owen Tuder have not been discovered except for their son, Owen, who was born in 1787 and later apprenticed, by court order, to William Crutchfield in 1800, to learn the trade of blacksmith, until he attained 21 years of age. 

    After the births of Owen and Lucy Tuder’s first four children, they moved to North Carolina as they were in Northampton Co. by 1780. Meticulous records were kept by Albemarle parish and according to the records up until 1778, there were no more children born to or christened for Owen and Lucy Tuder in Albemarle Parish, after August 4, 1771. By 1785, Owen was paying taxes in Granville Co., NC, but had evidently left the county by the time of the 1786 taxes. In 1790, Owen and Lucy were living in Anson Co., NC. According to the census, there was one male 16 and over, Owen Tuder, four females, and three males under 16. The three males were probably sons born between 1774 and 1790. The four females probably included Lucy Tuder, Owen’s wife, and three daughters. His son, Harris Tudor, was 22 years old and lived in Orange Co., NC. Owen Tuder was 47 years old. He died in 1800. He was insolvent at his death and was undoubtedly the reason that his son, Owen, was required to be apprenticed by the court.

2/21/26

AI: Final Determination on the Marriage of Rebecca Poythress and Richard Pace, Jr.

After exhaustive research spanning decades of original records, deeds, wills, land transactions, and family associations, the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that Rebecca Poythress and Rebecca Pace were one and the same woman and that she married Richard Pace, Jr.

No credible evidence has ever surfaced to suggest otherwise. The many attempts to identify an alternative spouse for Rebecca Poythress have failed to produce any viable candidates. Instead, all data points—geographic proximity, intertwined family networks, legal documents, and social interactions—converge around the union of Rebecca Poythress and Richard Pace, Jr.

The 1711 deed from Rebecca Bartholomew to her daughters, though using maiden names, does not contradict the marriage but rather reflects common legal practice of the era. Both daughters were clearly married by that time: Anne Bartholomew to Burrell Green, and Rebecca Poythress to Richard Pace. The continuity of family relationships and joint appearances in legal and social contexts throughout the early 18th century further solidify this fact.

Beyond reasonable doubt, Rebecca Poythress’s closest relatives lived, worked, and transacted alongside the Pace family, and these ties persisted long after Rebecca Pace’s death through her children and grandchildren. There is simply no alternative explanation that aligns with the preponderance of evidence.

Thus, this study firmly closes the question: Rebecca Poythress did marry Richard Pace, Jr.