Major Lea (1771 - 1822)

Born 21 Apr 1771 in Orange, North Carolina

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 16 Jul 1822 at age 51 in Grainger County, Tennessee, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Tom Lea [send private message]

Biography

Major Lea was born on 21 April 1771 in Orange County (later Caswell), North Carolina. He was the son of Luke Lea and Elizabeth Wilson. He passed away on 16 July 1822 in Grainger County, Tennessee and is buried in Lea Springs Cemetery, Grainger County.^[1]

Name

Care should be taken not to confuse Major Lea with others of the same name. The name Major does not come from any military designation, but from the maiden name of his great-grandmother, Frances Major..He had an uncle Major Lea (b 1742) son of James Lea and Anne Herndon, as well as a first cousin, Major Lea, Jr. (b 1775) son of another Major Lea who married Rhoda Jarnagin.

The Major Lea living in Mississippi in 1820 is either the uncle or the cousin of our Major Lea.

Name: Major /Lea/^[2][3]

Marriage

Major Lea married Lavinia Jarnagin on 5 November 1793 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.^[4]

Family

Major and Lavinia reportedly had the following children: Pryor Lea (1794-1880); William W. Lea (1796-1878); Anderson Lea (1798-1807); Thomas Jarnagin Lea (1799-1838); John H. Lea (b 1801); Cynthia Lea (1805-1887); Harmon G. Lea (1805-1887); Cecelia Lea (1807-1807); Albert M. Lea (1808-1891); Luke Lea (b 1810); James Lea (1814-1814).

"... Rev. Luke Lea, of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, who married Mary, daughter of Zaccheus Wilson, Esq., signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, May, 1775; a member of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, 1776, and of the convention of 1788 which deliberated on the constitution of the United States; Rev. Luke and Mary (Wilson) Lea had three sons: 1. Rev. Major Lea, married Lavinia Jarnagin, and had four sons: Luke Lea, member of the United States Congress from Tennessee, 1833-37; Judge Pryor Lea, member of the United States Congress from Tennessee, 1827-31; Dr. Wilson Lea; and Albert M. Lea, of the United States army, 1831-36, lieutenant-colonel of the Confederate army, 1861-65, whose son, Edward Lea, of the United States navy, was lieutenant-commander of the United States gunboat "Harriet Lane" in 1862, and was killed in battle at Galveston, Texas, January 1, 1863. 2. Colonel Luke Lea, married Susan Wells McCormick and they had one son: Judge John McCormick Lea, president of the Historical Society of Tennessee. 3. James Lee, married Eliza Roddy and they had two children : Mrs. Judge Samuel H. Harper and Major Squire Lea ... married, in 1814, Eliza Neilson, of Virginia, and they had one son: Hon. James Neilson Lea, LL.D. ...."^[5]

Land Acquisitions

Captain Thomas Jarnagin gave the westernmost plot of acreage of what is known a Richland to his daughter, Lavinia as a wedding present. The boundary, which consisted of 375 acres, was deeded to Lavinia and her new husband, Major Lea on August 6, 1796. This deed is one of the earliest land deeds from the time that Tennessee was first formed, and is the first deed placed on record in Grainger County. One of the most important and, at the time, unusual aspects of this deed is that Jarnagin did not only name his new son-in-law, Major Lea, the property owner, but jointly names his daughter, Lavinia. This was unusual because property rights for women had not yet been codified in the South.

The following transactions do not represent all land transactions for Major Lea. On the 1799 Tennessee Tax list, Grainger County, TN, he is listed with the original 375 acres; in 1810 he had 930 acres; in 1820 he is listed with 700 acres.

23 Jan 1809 Warrant No. 426, 157 1/2 acres, Grainger County, Tennessee: Entry No. 87, 24 September 1807 in the Office of the Surveyor, 157 1/2 acres of land issued to James Lea and assigned to Major Lea, "... in the County of Grainger in the District of Hamilton on Richland Creek..."^[6]

10 August 1812 Warrant No. 2618, 15 acres, Grainger County, Tennessee: Entry No. 580, 25 July 1811 in the Office of the Surveyor, "founded on a Warrant of No, 674 issued by Archibald Roan to the Heirs of Thomas Jonakin for one hundred acres of Land dated the 13th day of June 1810 which Certificate is assigned by said Heirs to Major Lea the Enterer there is granted by the said State of Tennessee unto the said Major Lea and his Heirs a certain tract or parcel of land containing fifteen acres lying in the County of Grainger in the District of Hamilton on the west side of Richland Creek ... . Surveyed August the 7ths 1811..."^[7]

13 January 1818 Warrant No. 5617, 10 acres, Grainger County, Tennessee: Entry made in the Office of the Surveyor, 25 July 1816 "founded on a warrant of number 2949 issued by John Carter to Thomas Ogletharp for six hundred and forty acres of land dated the tenth day of May 1793 one hundred and ten acres of which are assigned to Major Lea, the enterer there is granted by the said State of Tennessee unto the said Major Lea and his heirs a certain tract or parcel of land containing ten acres lying in the County of Grainger..."^[8]

13 January 1818 Warrant No. 5618, 100 acres, Grainger County, Tennessee: Entry made in the Office of the Surveyor Number 1725 dated 25 July 1816 "founded on a warrant of number 2949 issued John Carter to Thomas Oglethorp for six hundred and forty acres of land dated the tenth day of May 1793 on hundred and ten acres of which are assigned to Major Lea the enteror there is granted by the said State of Tennessee unto the Major Lea and his heirs a certain tract or parcel of land containing one hundred acres lying in the County of Grainger ..."^[9]

Census & Tax Lists

Census: Tennessee, Early Tax List Records

Date: 1799

Place: Grainger County, Tennessee^[10]

Captain Coxes Company, taken by William Hankins, Esq.: Lea, Major; 375 acres, 1 white poll, 1 black poll, $32.84. On the same list are Thomas Jarnagan and Chesley Jarnagan. FN #37 attached to entry "A Baptist minister (May 21, 1771-July 16, 1822); married, Nov. 17, 1783, Lavinia Jarnagin." The footnotes found in this publication were entered by those who abstracted the data and compiled it. They are often inaccurate, as is true of the marriage date included here, which should be 5 November 1793.

Census: Tennessee, Early Tax List Records

Date: 1800

Place: Jefferson County, Tennessee^[11]

Capt. Lane's Company: Lea, Major, 1 white poll. Also on this list is James Lea, 800 acres, 1 white poll, 3 black polls.

Census: Tennessee, Early Tax List Records

Date: 1805

Place: Grainger County, Tennessee^[12]

Lea Major is listed, number polls and acreage not included.

Census: U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820

Date: 3 Feb 1810

Place: Grainger County, Tennessee^[13]

Major Lea; Remarks: Matthew Campbell Justice of the peace for Grainger County, February the 3rd ADM 1810; Land: 930; Situation: Richland Creek; White polls: 1; Black polls: 3.

Census: U.S. Census Reconstructed Records, 1660-1820

Date: 1820

Place: Grainger County, Tennessee^[14]

Major Lea; Remarks: A List of polls & Taxable property in the County of Grainger in the bounds of Captain John Perrin's Company; Land: 700; White polls: 2; Black polls: 5.

Guardianship

Extracted in Tennessee Tidbits 1778-1914: Volume III, pub. 1989, ed. Fischer & Burns. Minor children: Harmon Graves, Albert Miller, Cynthia, and Luke Lea appointing Lavinia Lea as their guardian. Other heirs: Pryor, William W., Thomas J., and John H. Lea.

Sources

• WikiTree profile Lea-235 created through the import of Laura's Family Tree_2012-04-21.ged on May 4, 2012 by Laura Mittler.

• Source: S45 Author: Yates Publishing Title: U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Publication: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Repository: #R1
• Repository: R1 Name: Ancestry.com Address: http://www.Ancestry.com E-Mail Address: Phone Number:
• Source: S69 Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.; Repository: #R1 NOTE This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

1. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #7708595
2. ↑ Source: #S69 Page: Ancestry Family Trees
3. ↑ Source: #S69 Page: Ancestry Family Trees
4. ↑ Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.
5. ↑ see Jordan, p 1583.
6. ↑ Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Early Tennessee/North Carolina Land Records; Roll: 58; Book: 1-1.
7. ↑ Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Early Tennessee/North Carolina Land Records; Roll: 60; Book: 3.
8. ↑ Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Early Tennessee/North Carolina Land Records; Roll: 62; Book: 5.
9. ↑ Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, Tennessee; Early Tennessee/North Carolina Land Records; Roll: 62; Book: 5.
10. ↑ Tennessee, Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. "Early East Tennessee Taxpayers," p 101
11. ↑ Tennessee, Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. p 7
12. ↑ Tennessee, Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. p 175
13. ↑ Tennessee Records of Grainger County - Tax Lists, 1810 [TN State Library and Archives]; Call Number: FHL Film 464105; Page Number: 240; Family Number: 11.
14. ↑ Tennessee Records of Grainger County - Tax Lists, 1820 [TN State Library and Archives]; Call Number: FHL Film 464105; Page Number: 549; Family Number: 8.

• See also:

• Information on son, Albert Miller Lee. A Towering East Texas Pioneer: A Biographical Sketch of Colonel Albert Miller Lea. Block, W. T., East Texas Historical Journal, XXXII, 2 (1993), 23-33.
• Jordan, John W., LL.D., Editor; Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs. Volume I. New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911.
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richland_(Blaine,_Tennessee)
• Caroline Eller; Heather Bailey (July 30, 2014). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Richland / Lavinia Jarnigan Dower Tract, Lea Farm, Trout Farm, Nicely Farm, Nance Farm, Fox Farm" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved June 14, 2018. Includes 73 photos from 2014: https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/14000941.pdf