The Worley Family of North CarolinaEverly body wants to go home to England. I suppose this is the cause of the big problems of John Worley and Hester BloUnt. Many a genealogist has squeezed in 'Hester' Blount as one of the many children of John Blount and Elizabeth Davis. Now what the 'big deal' about that is that John Blount and Elizabeth Davis are certifiably known to not only run back to England, but also to run back into a remote Royal line linage. Big Deal! Of course all the Blounts and I dare say Worleys as well, will also so run back to England, but one like to have it in a 'pedigree' with peoples' names, dates, places and 'connections'. That is one motivation to search out one's genealogy, for such and such bragging rights I guess. But another from a very LDS perspective is to get that genealogy 'right' not just in a printed 'authorized' or 'certified' form, but in a form and manner which connects actual children, husbands and wifes togethers as they really were in all reality and true history as well. No bought or contrived ancestral connections wanted in the LDS respect, or else it will all have to be redone according to the real truth of the matter. So here we have the dilema. There are more John Worleys and Hester Bloounts daughter of John Blount and Elizabeth Davis than are jus flat out possible. Some one may be right, but the others will be wrong.Now to add to the problem, can you guess just how many Johns there are walking around in Colonial America? And there certainly are fewer John Worleys, but the commonality of the name John has assured that there just isn't one John Worley which has to be dealt with nor is there likely to be just one set of John Worley Sr. and John Worley Jr. either. So on this page, I will present the 'alternative' John Worley alignments and arrangements that I have come across. And I guess, just for the fun of it, I'll begin with what I'll call the 'wikitree' family of John Worley and Hester Blount, because that is where I found it online: |
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Here the 'WikiTree' pedigree seems to pull Esther Blount of the family of John Blount and Elizabeth Davis back up
out of North Carolina in order for her to marry into the Worley family which was of Virginia and ended up in
Cumberland. Certainly there would be more than one John Blount family just as there were more than one John
Worley families. And certainly there is a great heritage to be found in the history of Cumberland and the
Cumberland Gap in the movement of western settlement. From North Carolina Edenton, Chowan, it is more to the
north and west to travel to the Cumberland in the early days of its history in the 1700s which is not the more
natural route west out along the Chowan river, but stanger things have happened I suppose. What is of some interest
is that a Biography written by Carter Alexander Worley Jr., while speaking of old John Worley of Henrico, Goochland,
and Cumberland and his wife Esther, never does he state that Esther was a Blount nor that she came out of
Chowan North Carolina. In fact his writing seems to point to his
Worley (variously spelt) family
came into the Virginia colony in 1649, as did the Washington family.
Perhaps one argument for keeping both the related Blount family and Worley family in North Carolina about these times would be a land owner's listing map dated 1733 round about the Albemarle Sound with J. Blount family still showing land holdings in Chowan Precinct on the north bank of the sound and the J. Worley family living next to the R.(Richard) Leary family on the south bank in Tyrrell Precinct. Along here it was but a ferry's ride across the sound betwix the two families and even near to be conneted to the Leary family for the worley family. But still the question remains, was this the John Blount and Elizabeth Davis family with daughter Hester? One might easily align John Worley of Cumberland up with Esther Blount daughter of Peter Blount whose namd was indeed 'Esther' and one could furhter argue what was a 97 year old John Worley doing up in the Cumberland at his supposed longivity death. Better man than most all to be living the hard life of the Cumberland at the age of 97.  |
Now this may seem to answer things but considering the information presented, I must find there are at least three John Worleys liven here in the same time frame in Tyrrell and chowan area if not more in other areas as well. There is John Worley whose will is dated 1740 and given his death at that time he cannot be either of the other two. Some like to make him John Worley Sr., which may be the case but the designation of 'Senior', if indeed he is the Senior Worley in all this—his will certainly does not so state it as such. In fact, he just may be neither the Sr nor the Jr John Worley here. The second John Worley of this date is the brother of Lovick Worley, so mentioned in Lovick's will as his 'loving brother John Worley'. And as Lovick's will is date 1854, Lovick is not refering to John Worley who passed away in 1840, some 14 years prior to 1854. And of course the third John Worley is the John Worley thought of by some as John Worley Jr who supposed died in 1844/45. So take your pick of these three known John Worleys who are substantiated as existing in North Caroliina, 1) John Worley who died in 1841 will provided on one of the two worley pages, the 2) John Worley who is reported to have died 1744/5 intestate leaving orphans and the 3) John Worley who is still living to be mentioned in his brother Lovick's will of 1757. And then there are those Virginia John Worley's being born and dying in Virginia. One of then married Hester or is it Esther Blount the daughter of John Blount and Elizabeth Davis, the family certified to cross over seas and traces back into English and in to some obscure royal line(s). |