John Covington's children with Nancy Wall

Moonlight on the Great Pee Dee by Blue Sky

When our grandfather John Covington's (4GGF) first wife Hannah Dockery died in the late 1760s, he married our grandmother Nancy Wall (4GGM). John and Nancy had the nine children who are profiled in the next two posts.

John Wall Covington

Our uncle John Wall Covington (3U) was born in North Carolina in 1771. He was the first child born to John Covington (4GGF) and our grandmother Nancy Wall (4GGM). At some point before his marriage in 180, John Wall moved to South Carolina. He was 36 when he married Elizabeth Strother. Below is the record of their marriage:

Note: William Easterling who granted Reverend Lewis the "licence and authority" to marry the couple was married to John's (and our) first cousin Elizabeth Covington (1C5X), daughter of John, Sr.'s brother Henry (4U).

A year after John Wall's marriage, his father died. In his will, John, Sr. left his son a tract of land of an undisclosed size and "one negro woman named Tamar." We wrote about John Sr.'s complicated stipulations regarding Tamar and her children in our "John Covington" post. He hoped that "the family of negroes should not be separated" unless that proved financially unfair to the rest of his children. He did will, however, that Tamar's children be sold only within the Covington family.

John Wall lived only one year after the death of his father. He died in 1809 at age 38. His wife Elizabeth was pregnant with their first child at the time he made out his will. Below are parts of his rather complicated will.

In the name of God Amen. I, John Wall Covington. . .being in a low state of health, but of a sound mind and of a disposing memory through the mercy of God, do make this my last will and testament.

As to my worldly estate, wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me, I will and desire that it may be disposed of in the following manner. . .Out of the funds I have in the hands of William Thomas, Esq. (1C5X) consisting of my undivided part of his last years crop of cotton. . . and a sum of money which is due me from my father’s estate, and which I have sued for. I wish my executors hereafter named to collect and pay all my just debts, the principal part of which is due to the executors of my father’s estate for certain Negroes I lately purchased at the sale of the same.

Note: John Covington, Sr. had about 24 slaves when he died. He left only one to each of his children. The rest were to be sold. John Wall must have purchased most of his father's slaves as he named 20 in his will.

If these funds I have named should not be found sufficient to discharge all my just debts I will and desire that my executors sell one or more of my Negroes at their discretion, until the whole be fully paid and satisfied. After which I will and desire that my executors hereafter to be named appoint three or five freeholders of good character to be approved by the ordinary of our district, aforesaid, to divide the following named Negroes, Jim, Sye, Cook, Billy, Captain, Tom, Jack, & Ned, young lads, & Julia, Rose Aneca, Tina, & Cate, also wench Tamer and her children, Lucy, Rachel, Beck, Charles, Frank and Jude, equally according to their value, between my beloved wife Elizabeth Covington, and the child she is now pregnant with, which division when so made shall be final. The one half allotted to my wife, I give to her and her heirs forever, also my household furniture, chairs and horse, and what ever else may not hereafter be disposed, to her and her heirs forever. The other part which may be set apart to the unborn infant. I give and bequeath to him, or her (as the case may be) and to his or her heirs forever.

Lastly, should the infant not be born alive, or arrive to the age of discretion, in that case and no other, I desire and will that the part allotted to him or her be in like manner equally divided between my own brothers & sisters to each, or representative of each, one equal part, to them and their heirs forever.

Our uncle Robert Thomas (4U) was one of the witnesses to John's will. The will was proven in August of 1809 by the same William Easterling who recorded John's marriage certificate.

Elizabeth Covington Cole

Our aunt Elizabeth "Betsy" Covington (3A) was born ca. 1773 in North Carolina, the second child born to John and Nancy. Ca. 1795, she married John Cole. Over the next fifteen years, seven children were born. It appears that the family lived near the town of Rockingham. I can find no will for John Cole when he died ca. 1820 but there is a record of how his slaves were dispersed to his wife and children.

The census of 1820 shows Elizabeth as the head of the household with five children still living with her and seven slaves. Her daughter Eliza (1C4X) was under 10, her son William (1C4X) was 16, her twin sons Alexander "Sandy" (1C4X) and Wyatt (1C4X) were 18, and her daughter Harriet (1C4X) was about 21. Sons John (1C4X) and Reuben (1C4X) were already living on their own.

Note: Son William's middle name was Bonaparte. He was born in 1803, the same year that Thomas Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Shown on this census page living in close proximity to Elizabeth were our cousins Stephen Wall (1C5X), Benjamin H. Covington (1C5X) and Elijah Thomas (1C5X). Three others on the page are obviously related but I'm unable to place them: Rachel Thomas, Robert Covington and Alexander Covington. The Covington family in North Carolina, by this time, had grown to monumental proportions.

The census was taken by our cousin, Assistant Marshall Alfred Dockery (2C4X), whose notes are at the bottom.

Elizabeth died at age 51 four years after the 1920 census. She left a will which named five of her seven children. Most probably Reuben and Sandy had already left for Tennessee. Elizabeth left her "negro man Joe" to Wyatt and her "negro woman Lucy" to Harriet. To her son William she bequeathed her "negro boy Jesso." Eliza received the "negro boy Richmond." When Elizabeth died, William and Eliza were still in their teens and it was Elizabeth's "wish and desire that my daughter Harriett remain the the home I now occupy for the purpose of keeping together and taking care of two younger children which I hope none of my children will be opposed to."

Benjamin Covington

Our uncle Benjamin Covington (3U) was born in North Carolina in 1775, the third child born to John and Nancy. Ca. 1800, he married Nancy Collins. They had six children, but two died young. Nancy died not long after her last child was born in 1824. After Nancy's death, Benjamin married our cousin Hannah Everett (1C4X) and, with her, had two more children. Hannah's mother was Mary Thomas (3A) daughter of our grandfather William "Billy Ram" Thomas (4GGF).

When Benjamin died in 1855 at age 80, it appears that he had four living children, three sons and a daughter, all from his first marriage. He left most of his property and other possessions to Hannah until her death, after which it would be divided equally among the children.

Hannah also received "four Negro slaves viz Richmond and Jim, Judah & Hannah, the last named one being Rachel's youngest child." At Hannah's death "said Negroes together with the increase. . .I give to all of my children."

Then Benjamin, indicating that he didn't trust his wife, left lengthy instructions about her handling of the inheritance:

The Negroes & other property herein given my wife & the increase of the Negroes, I do not wish sold or removed out of the state, & if my wife should marry again and any attempt is made to removed the Negroes and other property; my Executors are requested & hereby authorized to prevent it, & if in no other way to take the Negroes &other property as possessions. My wife is not permitted to sell any Negroes only by the consent of my Executors. . .or with their consent she may exchange a turbulent & refactory slave for an other. . .

To his four children, Benjamin left the remainder of the property including slaves "Rachel, Adam, Lew. Janday, Caroline, Molly, Jethro, Harriet and Nancy, Bob Boy, Tamar, Stacy, Cordsey & Child Edward together with their increase."

Sons John (1C4X) and David (1C4X) and son-in-law William Powell were named executors to watch over his wife.

Benjamin's daughter Ann (1C4X) married William Powell. Their daughter Eliza Jane (2C3X) would eventually marry James Gathings who was the great-great grandfather of our esteemed and exacting Covington family researcher Lou Poole (5C). We'll have more on the Gathings family in a future post.

The 1850 census is a good indication of just how convoluted the family relations got back in the early 19th century. Living in close proximity to Benjamin was his brother William Wall Covington (3U), his son John C. Covington (1C4X), who married our cousin Margaret Thomas (2C4X), and Mial Wall (1C5X) who was the nephew of our grandmother Nancy Wall. Mial married our cousin Mary Covington (1C5X), daughter of William Wall Covington. Also living in the neighborhood was Thomas Covington (2C4X) who married his (and our) cousin Hannah Covington (2C3X). Further down the road were Thomas Covington's brother Riley (2C4X), another William Wall Covington (2C4X), Champness Terry (1C4X), another Benjamin Covington (2C5X) and Wiley Covington (1C4X) who married our cousin Sarah Wall (2C4X).

William Wall Covington

Our uncle William Wall Covington (3U), born in 1777 and later known as "Uncle Billy," was the fourth child born to John and Nancy. Ca. 1800, Uncle Billy married his (and our) cousin Mary "Polly" Covington (1C5X). Mary was the daughter of our uncle Henry Covington (4U), one of our grandfather John's brothers. Mary evidently came to the marriage with a son. Lou Poole speculates about how that may have come about:

The next issue deals with the fact that she (Mary) apparently did come to the marriage with at least one child whose father was someone other than William Wall Covington. There is absolutely no doubt that William Wall Covington in his 1858 will named Mial Covington (2C4X) as his step-son. Mial was not his son, and William had not adopted Mial, else he would not have labeled him a step-son. So Mial Covington was Mary’s son by a different father. The fact that Mial’s surname was Covington means either that he was of illegitimate birth, or that Mary had previously been married to another Covington. The most likely explanation is that he was illegitimate.

In his research, Lou found another possible child of Mary's. Daughter Elizabeth (2C4X), would also have been born before Mary's marriage to William. Eurie Covington White (4C1X) in her Covington Cousins wrote that Elizabeth was born in 1798, two years before Mial.

Further corroboration of Elizabeth's birth came from the book Sketches of Old Marlboro by Duncan McColl (4C2X) who descended from our Thomas family. Duncan noted that Elizabeth Covington, who married John Thomas (1C4X), was only a half-sister to Uncle Billy's daughter Mary (1C4X).

Note: John Thomas was a grandson of our grandfather William Thomas (4GGF).

In 1801, Billy's father John transferred to him the deed to 100 acres for the nominal fee of $10. He also received, in 1805, "an undetermined amount of land" as an inheritance from his uncle and father-in-law Henry Covington (4U).

John Covington died in 1808. He left Billy, along with brothers Thomas (3GGF) and Henry (3U), a parcel of land in Tennessee that had been granted to John's brother William (4U) for his Revolutionary War service. John also left each of his children one slave. Billy received the negro man, Jesse.

The 1810 census shows that Billy owned 4 slaves. That same year, Billy, Thomas and Henry sold the parcel of land in Tennessee that they had inherited from their father.

By the 1820 census, Billy had doubled his slave count to 8. In 1823, he purchased, for $250, about 60 acres of land from our grandmother Rachel Thomas (4GGM). Rachel's first husband William Thomas (4GGF) had died in 1800 and her second husband, Elijah Thomas (1C5X) had died in 1822.

By 1830 the number of slaves Billy owned had dwindled to 3. It's possible that he had sold some to help pay for the home he built ca. 1826. We learn a little bit about the house from our cousin Anne Wall Thomas (1C5X) in her Walls of Walltown:

William (Uncle Billy) Covington, built his house about seventy-five yards north of the old Meeting House. It was ". . .a large two-story frame house. . ." probably built about 1826" as these figures are scratched on the plastering of the wide chimney. There were four large rooms in the house. . .two on the first floor, two on the second. The kitchen, of course, was in a separate building behind the house." Webb's Ferry road ran between his house and the Meeting House. . .This was a fine house in its day. .

Billy left the house to his son Alexander (1C4X) who left it to his daughter Mary Covington Nichols. (2C3X). Mary's son Alexander Nichols lived there until his death in 1932 and his wife lived there until her death in 1960.

Below is a ca. 2010 picture of the house, which has evidently been vacant since 1973.

In 1839, Uncle Billy's wife Mary died in 1839 at age 61. Sometime after her death, Billy married our cousin Sarah Leak (2C5X), who descended from our Raiford family. Sarah had been married to our cousin William Terry (2C5X) who had died in 1827 at age 50. At the time of their marriage, most of Sarah's 13 children were grown and gone. Since Uncle Billy was about 65 and Sarah close to 60 when they married, they had no children together.

Somehow, between 1830 and 1840, Uncle Billy's financial prospects seemed to have brightened. The 1840 census shows him living in the Black Jack District of Rockingham and his slave count had jumped to 19. Uncle Billy's fondness for purchasing slaves is related in one of our cousin William I. Everett's (3C2X) famous sketches about the Covington family. These sketches were published in the Bennetsville, SC local newspaper in 1934. William Everett was related to the Covington by his great-grandmother, Elizabeth Covington Everett (4A), our grandfather John's (4GGF) sister.

From William's Everett Sketches

It is surprising to learn what a large proportion of the citizens of Richmond and adjoing counties are descendants from the two brothers, John (4GGF) and William (4U) Covington, who came to the neighborhood of Rockingham before the Revolutionary war. Along with many who are not named Covington the writer is descended from one or both of these brothers.

The oldest of the name that I remember was Uncle Billy who was not my uncle at all.

Note: Uncle Billy was William Everett's first cousin two times removed.

He was a man honored by all who knew him and well deserved the place he held in the hearts of his neighbors and acquaintances. He had a rare fund of humor in his makeup and I have heard that during court week he would go to Rockingham and taking his seat on the plaza of the tavern he would draw crowds to hear his talk. He had a brother, Uncle Ben (3U)(Coleter Ben he was called, to distinguish him from others of the same name). . .

On one occasion Uncle Billy was on his way to the blacksmith shop to have some plows sharpened when he met the preacher on his way to his appointment. The preacher asked Uncle Billy what he was doing and where he was going. The reply was that he was going to the shop to have some work done on his plows. The preacher wanted to know the whys and wherefores and the reply was "to make cotton" and on the further inquiry what he was going to do with the cotton replied "buy niggers to make more cotton to buy more niggers."

And so it was that Uncle Billy kept growing cotton and buying niggers and rearing sons and daughters who were a credit to their inheritance and the country in which they live. Uncle Billy died when I was a small boy and all that I know of him is by hearsay.

One of the best and truest friends I have ever had was a grand son of Uncle Billy and was gifted largely with the sense of humor that was characteristic of his grand father. He was known as Bill Sandy (2C3X). . .Speaking of Bill Sandy reminds me of the number of Williams and Bills in the Covington family when I was growing up. There was the Doctors Bill, Bill Legs, Bill Buck, Sugar-lipped Bill, Bill Riley and possibly others.

Well I might keep on writing about the Covingtons--the Bens, the Bobs, the Jims and all the other names you could think of as it took many names to find proper niches for this numberous tribe of outstanding men and women.

Uncle Billy's second wife Sarah died in 1852 and he followed six years later. He died a wealthy man at age 80. He left to his youngest son Alexander All Covington (1C4X) "the tract of land upon which I live and all the lands I own adjoining the ?, including the mansion house outhouses and all other buildings. . ."

Note: Family lore said that Alexander's middle named "All" signified that he was "all" Covington since both his parents bore that name.

The rest of the children all got $4,300, some of which had already been given to them so the amounts in the will varied but the end value was all the same. Uncle Billy had ten children which meant in addition to his plantation which went to his son Alexander, he gave his children $43,000, a whopping amount in those days. Stepson Mial Covington received only "the sum of one dollar."

The rest of the property was to be divided ten ways "share and share alike with this special provision:

First, that my negroes be valued by two or more discreet and disinterested persons to be named by my executors. . .and divided among my children remaining in this county and that those of my children who have removed off. . .shall each receive in cash or other property, an amount equal in value to the respective share in negroes received by each of those remaining. . .my object being, simply not to scatter my negroes but to keep them as much as the case will admit of, in the same neighborhood.

Uncle Billy appointed his oldest son William (1C4X) and his cousin and son-in-law Mial Wall (1C5X) executors of his will.