Mary (Clay) Belcher
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Mary (Clay) Belcher (abt. 1710 - 1770)

Mary Belcher formerly Clay aka Watkins
Born about in Dale City, Chesterfield, Virginiamap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Wife of — married 1732 in Virginiamap
Wife of — married before 1747 in Henrico Co., VAmap
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 60 in Chesterfield, Chesterfield, Virginiamap
Profile last modified | Created 5 May 2011
This page has been accessed 4,298 times.
Cross of Saint George

Contents

Note

Remember, when reading this genealogy that Chesterfield County was made from Henrico County in 1749, so some reasearch says Chesterfield County and some Henrico.

Disputed Middle Name

No evidence has been found that Mary’s middle name was Obedience, save for family bible reference. In all public records, she was known as plain Mary Clay, like her mother. Since all public records say Mary not Obedience, please don’t add Obedience to her name unless you have proof and add your citation to the source section.

An online family tree is NOT proof. Wills, land deeds, birth records, etc., with this middle name would be proof, but from what has been seen so far, there are none.

Mary and Richard had a son Obediah, I believe through time, people got confused and added Obedience to her name. Then this caused more confusion and people thought there were two Mary’s as Daughters to Henry and Mary, when there was just one.

Also note that the Jamestown Society does NOT recognize a Mary Obedience as a daughter to Henry. They do recognize Mary Clay. While it may be true our Great grandmother was Mary Obedience Clay, there is simply no verifiable source to prove that, so please do not add the middle name to this profile without a REAL and verifiable source.

Biography

Mary was born about 1712.

Mary Clay a widow of Thomas Watkins, was remarried to Richard Belcher and they had several kids together. Mary had 17 kids in total between both husbands

Mary’s Brother William was the executor of Richard’s will, because he was the brother-in-law (2)

Mary's father, Henry Clay's will ( 1 ) was signed March 28, 1749, and probated at the September term of Chesterfield Court, in 1760. The sons were granted letters of administration on the oaths of George Farrar and Allyson Clarke, witnesses. B. Watkins was Clerk of Chesterfield County at that time.

The following extracts from it may be interesting :

“I, Henry Clay, of Henrico County, being of perfect health, mind, and memory, thanks be to God therefor, and calling to mind my mortality, and knowing that it is appointed unto all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and tes- tament, that is to say, princably and first of all I give my soul into the hands of God that gave it, and as for my body I com- mend it to the earth, to be buried in a Christian - like and decent form at the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the general Resurrection I shall receive the same again by mighty power of God ; and as touching my worldly goods wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, devise, and dis- pose of the same in manner and form following :

“I give and bequeath unto my son, William Clay, the land and plantation whereon he now lives, and my land and plantation on Deep Creek, in Henrico County, whereon ‘Richard Belcher’ now lives, to him, his heirs, and assigns forever. “

“I give to my daughter, Mary Watkins, five pounds, current money. “

I give to my grandson, Henry Clay (this is son, the Dr. Henry Clay, of Ky.), 240 acres adjoining the lands of James Hill &c.

I give and bequeath to my ‘granddaughter, Mary Clay’, daughter of Charles Clay (afterwards Mrs. Stephen Lockett), one negro girl, named Phoebe.

I give unto ‘Mary, my well - beloved wife’, the plantation whereon I now live, during her natural life, and my negroes, Lewis, Jo, Sue, Nann, Jenny and Sarah, during her natural life, and what stock and household goods she pleases to have or make use of, of mine. “

She passed away about 1770. [1]

Sources

  1. Find A Grave: Memorial #141136701 page for Mary Obedience Clay Belcher (1710–2 Dec 1770), citing Belcher - Richard D Belcher Family, Deep Creek, Chesapeake City, Virginia, USA; accessed 17 Feb 2022; Maintained by RFB Jenkins (contributor 47712974).
    Note: Memorial/Not official Death Record.
  • Source: S104 Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. 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. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=6125615&pid=1566


Scott Grant Created WikiTree profile Gooding-99 through the import of Scott Grant Ancestors_2013-01-23.ged on Jan 23, 2013.

Robert Stiles Created WikiTree profile Gooding-119 through the import of 2013-07-01.ged on Jul 1, 2013





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Mary by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:

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Mary Clay
Mary Clay



Comments: 26

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I originally posted this on the discussion of John Belcher’s line. However since there is so much about Mary Clay in this post, I am also posting it on her discussion page.

At first I thought Belcher-280 and Belcher-4242 were the same person but I am convinced after doing some online research and using a little logic that they are two separate persons whose information has been conflated. I found the following online:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/collaborate/LVJF-N51 book 4 page 162 Chesterfiled co va will of John 23 jul 1776 to wife (not named) dau Mary, son Edmond, dau Mell Puckett, son Francis, Thomas, and daus Elizabeth and Jane/ will of John proven 1788 extrex Mary Belcher. 24 Feb 1762 edmund Belcher of Lunnenburg Co Va sells to Mark Puckett 194 acres bounded by Thomas Puchett, Thomas Belcher and John Belcher of Deep Creek.

I believe one person is just plain “John Belcher” (no Richard as middle name as middle names were apparently rare in that day and the other is “Richard Belcher (no Dick as middle name but “Dick” is a common nickname for Richard). I believe they were both sons of John Belcher, Sr.

Per Wikitree, John Belcher Sr. married Mary (Frogley) Belcher November 7, 1710. Children of John are listed as James b. 1694, Robert b. 1700 and William b. 1705. Both John and Richard are estimated to have been born about 1710. If this information is correct, then John Belcher Sr. must have had another wife prior to Mary (Frogley) Belcher. I believe John was probably born around 1700 making him the son of the first wife. Richard may have been the son of the first wife or of Mary (Frogley) Belcher since he was born about + or - 1710.

To add to the confusion, both John Belcher Jr. and Richard Belcher married a spouse named Mary, thus two Mary Belchers. As Bartley McRorie has commented, John Belcher Jr.’s wife is listed several places online as being Mary Gooding (1695-1780) and married about 1720 (that is the reason I believe John was born about 1700 and is older than Richard). Richard married Mary Clay about 1732. (https://holleymc.tripod.com/fam00086.htm has the following information: Mary Gooding and John Belcher married 1720, Mary Gooding’s birthdate given as 1695, died 1780. John Belcher birthdate given as 1698)

That brings us to the issue of children. Between Wikitree.com, ancestry.com, and familysearch.org, there are at least 25 children attributed to Mary Clay (if that is true Mary deserves a memorial!). I believe part of those children were actually Mary Gooding’s children and others perhaps wishful thinking on the part of some “researchers”.

I found the following online and seems to match well with the will quoted above for John Belcher.

https://wc.rootsweb.com/trees/146088/I218131/mary-gooding/individual Family (of Mary Gooding) Marriage: Married: John Belcher on Abt 1720 at Virginia. John Belcher: Birth: Abt 1698 in Henrico County, Virginia. Death: 23 Jul 1776 in Manchester Parish, Chesterfield County, Virginia Children: Thomas Belcher: Birth: 28 Jun 1722 in Prince George County, Virginia. Death: Abt 1761 Edmund Belcher: Birth: Abt 1725 in Virginia. Death: Abt 1782 in Charlotte County, Virginia Jane Belcher: Birth: Abt 1729 in Virginia. Death: in Y Mary Belcher: Birth: Abt 1731. Death: in Y Francis Belcher: Birth: Abt 1733 in Henrico County, Virginia. Death: Bef 27 Jun 1782 in Amelia County, Virginia Melvina Belcher: Birth: Abt 1735. Death: in Y Elizabeth Belcher: Birth: Abt 1737. Death: in Y

John Belcher’s death is listed as July 23, 1776. However it appears to me July 13 is the date the will was written but which was not proved until 1788 suggesting he died much closer to 1788. Richard Belcher on the other hand died in 1763—-“WILLIAM CLAY EXECUTOR ,INVENTORY OF RICHARD BELCHER 7-16-1763 AUG 1763 WILLIAM CLAY IS GRANTED ADMIN OF ESTATE OF RICHARD(DECEASED)”

Now in regards to Richard Belcher’s children with Mary Clay Belcher. Richard Belcher and Mary Clay are said to have married about 1732 which sounds right based on their estimated birthdates of about 1710 (or maybe the determination was made the other way around). Anyway, Isham Edwin Belcher and Richard Jr. clearly are Richard’s children and the other listed children born after 1732 very well could be too.

That brings us to another issue—when was Mary Clay married to Thomas Watkins? One source says Richard Belcher married the widow Mary Clay Watkins. However she must not have been married very long to Thomas Watkins if she was married to Richard Belcher at age 22. And online sources give Thomas’s death as 1781. So then we conclude she must have married Thomas Watkins after Richard Belcher died—so sometime after 1763. However her children with the last name Watkins (Mary Curd and John Watkins) appear to have been born in the late 1740s or early 1750s. Did she divorce Richard Belcher? Was the Mary Clay that Richard Belcher married ever a Watkins?

posted by Kenneth Frank
So I can't find why she is linked as married to both Belcher brothers, John Richard and Richard D. as well as Watkins. Neither of the brothers'profiles explains this either but many trees are continuing to pass on incorrect information because people are getting created and moved without leaving notes . Apparently an entire set of duplicates was created for this part of our immediate family within the last week. I am trying to sort out the best way to propose merges or agreements and wanted to leave this note here because I've read the passionate biography and feel you're someone who will contact me back about this when you have time. Thanks! Becky
posted by Becky Simmons
I got the information from a family bible but was told it was very common to marry the brother of a deceased husband.
posted by Janet (Webster) Groves
Thank you for being thr one person to respond on such a well established and heavyily managed profile. You're correct that it isn't a completely uncommon occurrence but we can't prove these are different men let alone brothers and no one has offered sourcing for the two marriages... There are at least a couple of members who have been posting and asking questions for several months with no replies so now I'm back to questioning once more ;)
posted by Becky Simmons
I've been spending some time just cleaning up, doing some "housekeeping", hoping that it would help me get to know these people better! I'm beginning to think she was married to Richard, (after Watkins) and that his brother John needs to have the spouse removed, and the middle name removed too! There is a serious lack of "hard evidence" but clues do lurk! I will keep on this ...
posted by Bartley McRorie
Clay-2985 and Clay-295 appear to represent the same person because: One in the same person Clay-2985 and Clay-295
posted by [Living Mayberry]
Clay-2977 and Clay-295 appear to represent the same person because: Thisis a triplicate of the same woman again, These are the same person, these profiles have been edited and are now ready to be mrged. Henry and Richard Belcher’s wills have proven they are the same women, Mary remarried after she was widowed.
Clay-2018 and Clay-295 appear to represent the same person because: These are the same person, these profiles have been edited and are now ready to be mrged. Henry and Richard Belcher’s wills have proven they are the same women, Mary remarried after she was widowed.
Have seen claims that Mary O.Clay was daughter of Henry Clay who was b. 1672 Henrico Co. and Mary Mitchell , married abt. 1707. Mary O. would be sister of Wm. Mitchell Clay, b. 1738 Henrico Co who married Phoebe Belcher 1760 in Bedford Co. Va. Any proof of this? or that Mary O. Clay is daughter of earlier Phoebe Belcher?
Clay-619 and Clay-295 appear to represent the same person because: Same/similar vitals. Same parents. Same spouse.
posted by Jillaine Smith
Clay-2067 and Clay-2018 appear to represent the same person because: HI

This looks like a duplicate person

do you agree?

Thanks spe

posted by [Living Estes]
Is this the daughter of John Clay, born abt 1668 and Mary Bass, born 1680? The Mary that married Watkins is mentioned in the will of this apparently incorrect father Henry Clay.

More support concludes that Henry had a brother John. This might explain the uncertainty of how Richard Belcher was so closely tied and the parents of this Mary. See discussion at http://www.angelfire.com/la2/gen/belcherblues4.html

posted by David Wilson
Looking at https://archive.org/stream/clayfamily00smit#page/68/mode/2up/search/Belcher it appears that Henry mentioned a daughter Mary Watkins in his will. He also mentions giving land currently occupied by Richard Belcher to his son William.
posted by David Wilson
My mother went back and researched all of these people. My sister has my mother's records so I can't look to see why my mother included her in the family tree. The profile was uploaded by another person and I entered the info my mom had on our tree. Until I can see why, I am leaving her in here as I did not do the research personally, my mom did. (I can't ask my mom as she is deceased, just trying to put all of her work on here so it can be shared, she would have liked that)

Thanks,

Betty

posted by Betty Tindle
No one knows who the parents of Mary Obedience Clay was. She is not included in any reputable Clay genealogy. She may have been the wife of a young Clay man who died early or brought into a Clay household and assumed the Clay name. No lineage society accepts her as a Clay descendant. Elizabeth Tissot
posted by Elizabeth Adams
Gooding-119 and Gooding-99 appear to represent the same person because: A profile already existed for Mary Gooding. Please merge them together and make any necessary edits. Thank you!
posted on Gooding-99 (merged) by Alison Andrus

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