"BILLY RAM'S" CHILDREN ~ PART I

Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation. ~ Raquel Cepeda

Great Pee Dee River

Our grandfather William "Billy Ram" Thomas (4GGF) had eight children with his first wife Hannah Pratt. He had five more with our grandmother, Rachel Roe Thomas (4GGM). Here, we delve into the lives of five of Billy Ram's children with first wife Hannah

William Thomas, Jr.

Our uncle William "Silver Heel" Thomas (3U) was the first child born to Billy Ram and Hannah Pratt. He was born ca. 1762 in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. William, Jr. was about seven years old when his father pulled up stakes and moved to North Carolina. A little more than ten years later, when he was 18, William joined the North Carolina militia. In August of 1781, he was wounded in the Battle of Beatie's Bridge. He received a pension for his disability which might have been on his foot. The nickname "Silver Heel" came from that belief. We wrote about William's war career in our "Southern Families in the War" post.

Ca. 1782, William married our cousin Sally Everett (2C6X). Sally was the daughter of our cousin Phylis Eubanks (1C7X) and her husband Lawrence Everett. The couple lived in the Cartledge Creek area near the town of Rockingham, on land possibly given or sold to William by his father.` Three children were born to the William and Sally before she died in 1795 giving birth to her fourth child, William III (1C4X), who died along with his mother. Sally was about 35 when she died. About two years later William married widow Sarah Ewing and four more children were born.

When William, Sr. died in 1800, he had probably already given property to his four older sons from his first marriage. In his will, he left these sons only his wearing apparel, books and bibles. William was named executor along with his mother

.

William, Jr. represented Richmond County in the House of Representatives in the years 1810, 1814, 1816, 1819, and 1820. He was also a member of the State Senate in 1821 and 1822.

William died in 1824 at age 72. He may have already given his older children from his first marriage their inheritance but his will only mentions his children from the second marriage. John (1C4X) and James (1C4X) received "all the lands I own on the waters of Little Mountain Creek supposed to contain between eleven or twelve hundred acres in different tracts. . ." To youngest son George (1C4X) he left "all my lands where I now live containing by estimation eight or nine hundred acres. . .also all the lands that I bought of Daniel Smith containing three hundred and seventy acres. . ."

William also left two hundred acres of land to his two grandsons, Calvin (2C3X) and William Everett (2C3X), sons of his daughter Mary Thomas Everett (1C4X)

The last part of the will concerned his wife and the dispensing of his negroes:

Fourth, I give unto my wife, Sarah Thomas, as much of my household furniture, kitchen furniture and all other necessary things that she may wish for a comfortable living also my negro, Flan and my negro girl, named Rachel-all which is to belong unto my wife, Sarah Thomas, during her widowhood. I also give unto my wife, Sarah Thomas, one thousand dollars for her support and to give or to be at her disposal during the same period above mentioned my son, George Thomas is to build a small house near his own for his mother, move her into it, take care of her, see that she does not suffer for firewood at her door, see that her money is laid out to an advantage for her support and at the marriage or death, portion or part of money if any, to be disposed of as hereafter directed.

Fifth, I give my son, John Thomas, negroes Annen and Big Mary.

Sixth, I give my son, James Thomas my negroes namely: Nell, Tompny, Charity and Wiley, but James must pay John one hundred dollars. I also give to George Thomas little Mary and her son, Daniel, and Flan after her marriage or death.

Eighth, I also give to my daughter, Rachel Haley (1C4X) my negroes namely, Grace, Jane, Samuel, Nathan, Harriett.

Ninth, I also give to my grandson, Daniel Curtice (2C3X), my negro man, Jack.

Tenth, I also give unto my other grandson, William Curtice (2C3X), my negro man, Luke.

family intermarriage

William Thomas, Jr., his sister Mary and his daughter Mary all married into the Everett family. The tree below is one small example of intermarriages that frequently happened between limited groups of families in the Rockingham area of North Carolina. Every member on the tree are relatives of ours with the exception of the first Lawrence C. Everett and his two sons.

(1) Phylis Eubanks ~ 1C7X

(2) Mary Thomas ~ 3rd aunt, daughter of our grandfather William "Billy Ram" Thomas and sister of (4) William Thomas, Jr.

(3) Elizabeth Covington ~ 4th aunt, sister of our grandfather John Covington

(4) William Thomas, Jr. ~ 3rd uncle, son of our grandfather William "Billy Ram" Thomas

and brother of (2) Mary Thomas

(5) Sally Everett ~ 2C6X, daughter of our cousin (1) Phylis Eubanks Everett

(6). Lawrence Covington Everett ~ 1C5X, son of our aunt (2) Elizabeth Covington

(7) Mary Thomas ~ 1C4X, daughter of (3) William Thomas, Jr. and (4) Sally Everett

When William, Jr.'s daughter Mary Thomas married Lawrence Covington Everett, she married her mother's 1st cousin and her own 1st cousin one times removed. Not an unusual occurance in the 18th century South.

Mary Thomas Everett

Billy Ram and Hannah Pratt's second child, daughter Mary (3A), was born in Maryland ca. 1762. She, like her brother William, Jr. married into the Everett family. Mary is shown on the chart above as the second wife of Lawrence Everett.

Ca. 1747, Lawrence Everett married our cousin Phylis Eubanks (1C7X) in Maryland. They had four daughters all born in Maryland. Phylis had probably died before 1778 when Lawrence first showed up in North Carolina records. The Everetts certainly knew the Thomases in Maryland so it was natural that Lawrence would renew his acquaintance with Mary. They married ca. 1780 and had five children before Lawrence's death in 1800. Mary was pregnant with their sixth child when her husband died.

In his will, Lawrence left Mary "my land containing two hundred acres with the Improvement and a Negro woman name Fran." Mary was to have the land and Fran until her death and then "the said land and Negro Woman with her Increase to be equally Divided between my dear and well beloved children. . ."

As is often the case with men who marry more than once, the "well and beloved children" who were to inherit Lawrence's estate were only the five children and unborn child from his second marriage. The four daughters from his first marriage each received "one shilling only."

Stephen Thomas

Our uncle Stephen Thomas (3U), third child of Billy Ram and Hannah Pratt, was born in Maryland ca. 1765. Toward the end of the Revolutionary War, he served in both the infantry and the calvary of the North Carolina militia. In 1781, his thigh bone was broken when he was hit by a musket ball in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, one of the final conflicts of the war. Six years later, Stephen was awarded a disability pension for the injury he had suffered.

After the war, ca. 1783, Stephen married our aunt Mary Covington (3A), daughter of John Covington (4GGF) and his first wife Hannah Dockery. Mary  had a twin sister, Sarah "Sallie" Covington (3A). Based on the birthdates we have for them, Stephen and Mary married very young, when she was 17 and he was 18. Three years after their marriage, Stephen was able to buy his father's original 200 acres of land on Cartledge Creek that William had purchased in 1767.

It's been impossible to figure out how many children Stephen and Mary had. His will names only two sons and mentions other children but not by name. It's believed that all of the children were born in North Carolina. In March of 1796, Stephen and Mary sold their 200 acres to our uncle Benjamin Covington (3U), son of our grandparents, John and Nancy Wall Covington. The sale was evidently in preparation for the couple's move to Montgomery County, Tennessee that same year.

Stephen was most likely encouraged in the move to Tennessee by his uncle Benjamin (4U), Billy Ram's brother, who had received land there for his service in the Revolutionary War. Stephen wasn't the only child of Billy Ram and Hannah Pratt to make that decision. Nathan, Elizabeth and George would all soon follow.

Where Stephen's family was living in Tennessee for the first five years is a mystery. The first tax record for newly formed Montgomery County lists Stephen Thomas owning no land. Finally, in 1801, he was able to purchase, for $75.00, 210 acres on Budds Creek, a few miles south of the Cumberland River. Stephen and Molly's land was in Dickson County, not far from the bustling port city of Palmyra.

(1) Richmond County, NC Palmyra, TN

1803 was a noteworthy year for the Thomas family. Stephen's brother Nathan (3U), possibly encouraged by Stephen, sold his land in Richmond County, NC and also made the journey to Tennessee. Stephen sold his brother 75 acres of his own land to facilitate the move.

That same year, Stephen was appointed guardian of three young girls, the daughters of William and Hannah Cobb. Since both parents were deceased, it's possible that the girls came to live in the Thomas household.

Palmyra was a great place to be living in the early 19th century. In various acts between 1801 and 1807, the town was designated "the only port of entry or delivery within the said district."

Stephen's public service in his new bustling city included serving as justice of the peace and as a trustee for the Baptist church. According to the Court Minutes of December, 1809, Stephen's occupation was listed as "Esquire on the Bench."

In 1814, Stephen's oldest son, John Covington Thomas (1C4X) did his part in the War of 1812, serving as a sergeant in the West Tennessee Militia. Shortly after his service, he moved to Mississippi where he married and raised his family. In 1860, John was granted 80 acres of land near Little Rock, Arkansas. He moved there with his wife and some of his children. He died there in Arkansas a year later at age 77. I'm including two photos that are supposedly of John that have been posted on various ancestry sites. The first is said to be John and one of his sons. The other is a drawing.

In 1817, Stephen made an inquiry at the federal office in Palmyra about a possible pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. It appears that the pension was granted.

In August of 1820, Stephen was a candidate to become an elector for president of the United States. Tennessee was one of 15 states that chose their electors by popular vote. Electors were appointed by the state legislature in the other 8 states. For his candidacy, Stephen took out the following ad in the Clarksville Gazette:

August 26, 1820: TO THE VOTERS OF ROBERTSON, MONTGOMERY, STEWART, DICKSON, HICKMAN, HUMPHREYS AND WAYNE COS. On the first Tuesday and Friday in November, it will be your previledge and duty to select some person through whom you may vote for President and Vice President of the United States; and permit me to inform you I am a candidate as an elector. I am one who fought and bled in the revolutionary war, to obtain that liberty which we now enjoy the benefit of, have resided in the county of Montgomery for twenty four years and now solicit your friendly aid; and if elected, will vote for JAMES MONROE as president and DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, vice president. I am the publicks obedient Servant

S. Thomas

Unfortunately, Stephen was not chosen as one of his state's seven electors. James Monroe, however, was elected in a landslide over John Quincy Adams.

A month after taking out his ad, Stephen wrote the following letter to his son John who was still living in Mississippi:

Near Palmyra

September 4th, 1820

Dear Son and Daughter

I take this opportunity to return to you my grateful acknowledgement for your respects offered me in your letter of the 11th of Aug last. We are all well and hope these few lines may find you the same.

I am a candidate for an election to elect a president and vice president of the U.S. as you will see by the enclosed. You wrote to me to inform you of the candidates for president. I know of not others but those you will see on the enclosed circular. Mr Monroe and Thompkins. The electors have to meet at Murfresborough the first Monday in Dec next. It is supposed Mr McGill killed his wife Nancy. He has had his tryal and was found by the jury guilty of manslaughter, was sentenced by the judge to be branded in the left hand with the letter "M" and to be imprisoned ten days and pay all cost. He gave his lawyer $400.00 and the cost will be very considerable. I should not have thought of wrighting to you, but to keep you in fresh remembrance of us, as William (1C4X) can inform you of particulars better than I can wright.

I wish you to wright to me when ever any particular occurrence takes place worthy of information as I expect to do to you. Give my compliments to your wife, and to all acquaintence which is in your country, we should be glad to see you all. I should have wrote a great deal more but the boys can give you a full history all about us and your sisters and neighbors, the scarcity of money, the distresses of the people, the dreadful distress in the neighborhood about Mr McGill and his wife, this tryal, punishment, and the general opinion of the people about Mr McGill.

We are yours,

S Thomas

Mary Thomas

John Thomas, Esq

Covington County,

Mississippi

N.B. Your mother wants to talk a great deal with you. She wants to move from Budds Creek and probable we may move next fall but don't know where to. We suspect Julia and William Boatright will stay with us next year and then all of us move somewhere but don't know where, probably over Tennessee River.

Stephen died in 1825 at age 60. In his will, he left to two of his sons, John and William, "all my books, my watch and wearing apparel to be equally divided between them." To his "beloved" Mary he left all of his land and negroes along with his horses, cattle, hogs, tools, plantation untensils and household items.

At Mary's death "what may there be remaining. . .to be sold and equally divided between my three surviving sons and daughters." Mary was to be the sole executor.

Elizabeth Thomas Ratliff

The information on our aunt Elizabeth (3A), 4th child born to William and Hannah Pratt, is scant. She was born in 1767, the last child born in Marylyand. Ca. 1793, she married her (and our) first cousin Zacariah Ratliff (1C5X). Zachariah was the son of Billy Ram's sister Susannah Thomas Ratliff (4A.

From what little information I can find, it appears that Elizabeth and Zachariah had five children born between 1794 and 1801. Sometime around the turn of the century, the family followed Elizabeth's brother Stephen to Tennessee. By 1831, according to a land record, they were in Madison County, Mississippi. Death dates for both are given in the early 1830s but I can find no proof of either death. All of their children remained in Mississippi.

John William Thomas

Our uncle John W. Thomas (3U), the fifth child born to Billy Ram and Hannah Pratt, was born in 1769. He was the first of the couple's children to be born in North Carolina after the move from Maryland. In 1794, he married Miriam Medcalf.

We haven't been able to figure out the exact number of children born to William and Miriam but it appears to be at least 11. Census records from 1800 to 1830 show John William Thomas in Anson County, NC. By 1840, when he was 71, he had moved to Barbour County, Alabama with his wife and, it appears, most of his children. Miriam died a year after the move. The 1850 census shows John still living in Alabama with a young boy, Jeptha Thomas 19, and two young girls Mary 23, and Rebecca Thomas 18. These young members of William's household are too young to be his own but may be children of a deceased son.

William died three years later in 1853 at age 84.