Ann (Collins) Robinson (1777 - 1831)

Born 31 Jan 1777 in South Carolina

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 17 Feb 1831 at age 54 in Robinson Springs, Madison, Mississippi, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Liz Shifflett [send private message] and Marianne Muse [send private message]

Biography

Ann Collins, daughter of Moses and Hannah (Willis) Collins, was born 31 January 1777.^[1] "Nancy" was a diminutive of "Ann",^[2] and she was known as Nancy Collins.^[3]

Birth: 31 January 1777^[4][5]

Parents: Moses married Hannah Willis in South Carolina.^[6] He was a resident of Orangeburg District and served in the South Carolina Militia during the Revolutionary War.^[7]

Marriage: to John Robinson on 20 December 1796^[4] in Richmond County, Georgia^[8]

Death: 17 February 1831,^[4] Robinson Springs, Madison County, Mississippi^[6]

Research Notes

Path to Mississippi

The biography for Moses by "The Order of the First Families of Mississippi" says that he "descends from John Collins, Maidstone, Kent County, England, who emigrated to Virginia in the early 1600s. Moses received lands as compensation for service in Georgia, and the family first moved there, living in three counties before moving to the Gulf Coast area. He married Hannah Willis, daughter of William Willis III and Susannah Toney, in South Carolina on 6 August 1774."^[6] The biography concludes:

'The entire family, parents, children, their spouses and children, other relatives, and entourage came to Mississippi Territory via military passport in 1811-1812, where they first settled in Jackson County. Moses served on a Jackson County jury in 1812. By 1814, they had moved to Pike County, Mississippi and were censused "east of the Pearl." Moses had farming interests in South Carolina, Georgia, and south Mississippi. They were members of China Grove Baptist Church in Pike County (now a Methodist congregation, and now in Walthall County), and of Palestine Baptist Church in Hinds County. Moses died in 1816 while visiting his son Joseph, and is buried at China Grove, as is his son-in-law John Hatcher who died there in 1815.'^[6]

Another biography for Moses, posted in Mississippi GenWeb,^[9] not only talks of the family's path to Mississippi but also discusses Hannah Willis (daughter of William Willis, but not Susanna Toney): "The logical conclusion derived from these documents [see the posted biography] is that Susanna Toney was a legatee and daughter of Isaac Odom, that she was the widow of Charles Toney who died between 1786 and 1789, and that she married William Willis in 1789 at the time he made his notation in the Moses Collins Bible."^[9]

"Moses Collins, Sr. was likely born in old Granville Co., SC in about 1753. He died January 29, 1816 in Pike Co., MS. He was probably the son of John Collins and his wife who is unknown."

The presumed father, John Collins, "lived in Granville Co., SC in 1765. He later lived in Orangeburg Dist., SC.... Leven Collins and James Collins, thought to have been brothers of Moses Collins both lived in old Winton Co., later Barnwell Co., SC. Leven Collins was a representative to the Eighth and Ninth General Assemblies of SC between 1789 and 1791. James Collins was the father of Elizabeth Collins, wife of Benjamin Toney, an early settler of old St. Tammany Parish, LA (now Washington Parish) and old Pike Co., MS (now Walthall Co.)."

Moses apparently struck out for Mississippi, via Georgia, on his own (which implies his brothers were not eligible, or did not take advantage of, land grants in Georgia offered to veterans): "Moses Collins left Barnwell Co., SC about 1794 and on 20 Sept. 1796 purchased a 600 acre tract of land on Spirit Creek in Richmond Co., GA. By 1812 he and his large family had removed to Jackson Co., MS Territory where he was a justice of the peace. Before 1814 the family moved to old Pike Co., MS Territory where Moses died in 1816."

Another Nancy and John

This family of Robinson seems to be descended from Maryland Robinsons. The John that Nancy Ann married was often called John III because of the two "John" ancestors before him who migrated in this pattern: John I came from Maryland to SC. John II born in SC, came to GA. John III, born 1773, married Nancy Collins in Richmond County, Georgia in 1796.^[3]

At any rate, the Robinson-Collins marriage descendants of Claiborne County, Mississippi, find that they are descended from a John Robinson I, often called "John, Sr", who married Lucy Fell of Fell's Point, Maryland. They moved to Edgefield, South Carolina right before the Revolution.^[3]

John I died in SC. John Robinson II, born 1773, stayed behind in SC when his widowed mother and younger siblings moved to Pennsylvania. (Mother Lucy Fell Robinson remarried to a ….Maury.) Then John II had son John III born Sept 12, 1773, in SC; in about 1800 after the marriage in Richmond County, Georgia in 1796, of John III to Nancy Collins, the family moved to Claiborne Co MS where their home place became known as the settlement of Robinson Springs.^[3]

It is a very unfortunate coincidence that another Nancy Collins-- for this researcher still unknown parentage-- married another John Roberson or Robinson (almost interchangeable in the various public records) in 1808 in GA, in Putnam County, and she has been confused with Nancy Collins, born 1777 to Moses Collins from SC. The Nancy Collins (also spelled often Collans in GA) in Putnam could be the daughter of several other Collins men who are in early GA--for instance a James Collins who marries an Anne Headspeth on 2 Aug, 1780 in Richmond GA. But since the Nancy Collins who married John Roberson in Putnam County is dead by 1821, probably in Walton Co GA, (John Roberson then remarries to Selah Pike) and the Nancy Collins who married this John III from Maryland is said to have died in 1831 in MS, near Robinson Springs, they are just not the same person. Also, the John Roberson of the Putnam Co GA marriage says, in 1850, that he was born around 1790, quite a bit younger than the John Robinson III born, according to MS descendants, in 1773. Also the pattern of migration, though similar to a point, is different in the final settlement. The Maryland Robinsons go to Mississippi in the early 1800s, very early for settlement in MS. The SC and GA John Roberson/Robinson goes from Fayette, GA to AL in about 1837, and though perhaps he later has a sojourn in MS, as some in the family say, no one seems to be sure, and a good guess is that they are getting the Maryland-SC-GA-to-Mississippi Robinsons mixed up with the SC-to-GA-AL Roberson/Robertson/Robinsons.

See notes on husband, John Robinson (Roberson, Robertson).

Sources

1. ↑ Information from the Moses Family Bible, posted here (accessed 8 September 2021).
2. ↑ Behind the Name website: Nancy (accessed 8 September 2021).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} See The Order of the First Families of Mississippi: 1699-1817. Notes made by Mary Collins Landin. Author's family look back from Mississippi settlement 1811-1812, to trace a Collins marriage of daughter Nancy Ann in 1796 in Richmond Co GA to a John Robinson.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Henning, Elma & Merle Rummel, The Toney Family History, Gateway Press, 1979, pg 478
5. ↑ Hatcher Families Genealogy Association, online tree. Entry for Ann Collins (accessed 8 August 2020), implies Family Bible as source - the following information is on the entry for her father, Moses Collins: Mississippi Cemetery and Bible Records, Volume XVI, Mississippi Genealogical Society, 1976. Moses Collins Bible:
   

   Original owner - Moses & Hannah Willis Collins
   

   Address - Marion County, (now Walthall Co.) Mississippi
   

   Present owner [1976] - S. D. Collins, Jackson, Mississippi
   

   Bible published by - Alexander Kincaid His Majesty's Printer, Edinburgh (1769)

6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3} "The Order of the First Families of Mississippi: 1699-1817", Moses Collins (accessed 8 August 2020; replaced 19 June 2023 with Wayback Machine capture): Daughter "Nancy Ann (1777-1831, m. John Robinson III, d. Robinson Springs, Madison County)".
7. ↑ Moses Collins, DAR Patriot Ancestor #A024536.
8. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #119268657 for Nancy Ann Collins (accessed 10 August 2020: no images; no sources).
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} The Family of Moses, Sr. and his wife Hannah (Willis) Collins (accessed 8 August 2020). Statement at bottom of biography:
   

   " Much of the information provided herein was supplied by the late Seaborn D. Collins of Jackson, MS. Cousin Dee, as he was known, was in possession of the old Moses Collins Bible from whence came many of the birth, marriage and death dates of this Collins family. This Bible was printed in 1769."

• Henning, Elma & Merle Rummel, The Toney Family History, Gateway Press, 1979, pg 478.
• Find a Grave, Hinds Co MS for Hannah Willis Collins, wife of Moses Collins of Orangeburg, SC. Hannah Willis Collins dates are 1754-1833.
• Appendix to Memory Aldridge Lester's 1957 book, Alldredge-Aldridge-Bracken-Nesmith Families And Their Kin. Appendix by Robert Newton Aldridge Jr., The Aldridge Family: England to America. Online courtesy of Hathi Trust. See also WikiTree's source page for Memory's book.
• Genealogy forum 9 September 2000 post by Jan Bell: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/robinson/6478/
• John Robinson Jr, DAR Patriot Ancestor #A097563 (mentioned in Jan Bell's post as son of John and Lucy (Fell) Robinson; accessed 8 September 2021).
• Boards discussions, online, of Ancestry.com about John Robinson (Roberson) and Nancy Collins. Many mistakes here, but discussions led by Darlene Worrell, a descendant of John Robinson born c1787, are in right direction. [Source/comment from Marianne Muse - links not included.]
• FamilySearch Person ID LH19-ZCK has a Nancy Collins born 31 January 1777, died 1831, daughter of Moses and Hannah (Willis) Collins and married to John [Roberson] - in 1808 with children marrying in Alabama and Georgia. And Person ID LY6W-P78 for John has him as son of John Robinson and Mary Raymond, but dying in Putnam, Georgia in 1845. So... a blending of information from both couples. The only source for Nancy is the 1808 marriage. As of 8 September 2021, John's PID had 20 sources, including the 1808 marriage, an 1821 marriage to "Selah" Pike in Walton, Georgia, and the 1850 census for Talledega, AL that has John Robinson (born c1787 in SC) and Cely Robinson (born c1805 in SC) and ten others, ages 4 to 21, with the five youngest (4 to 12) born in Alabama and the others (13-21) born in Georgia.
• "Georgia Marriages, 1808-1967", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWQN-NMT : 11 January 2020), John Roborson, 1808.
• "Georgia Marriages, 1808-1967", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWCT-J5H : 11 January 2020), John Robinson, 1821.
• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH54-XNW : 19 December 2020), John Robinson, Talladega, Talladega, Alabama, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). Image, accessed 8 September 2021.

Acknowledgements

This profile (Collins-3213) was created June 7, 2012 by Liz Shifflett - a "brickwall", with information on Nancy (just Nancy, not "Nancy Ann", b 1777/d1858, married John Robinson 1796), from information in the appendix to Memory's book (citation in source list, above).

Information about the Robinson family added by Marianne Muse in August 2019 courtesy of Mary Collins Landin. Additional information added in September 2019 courtesy of Andrew Creveling.

See Changes.