Adam A Jones Sr. (abt. 1759 - abt. 1830)

Born about 1759 in Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1 Oct 1830 at about age 71 in Warren, Georgia, United States

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Biography

Rev. Adam Jones Sr. served with 2nd Virginia Regiment (1776), Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Adam Jones Sr. is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A061778.

Rev. Adam Jones Sr. was born about 1759 in Amelia, Virginia to parents Benjamin Jones and Johannah Perry. He married first Frances Fowler about 1775 in Virginia. Children: Martha (Patsy) and Aaron. He married second Susannah Denmark. Children: Adam Jr., Elizabeth, Stephen, Seaborn Solomon. After Susannah died in 1821 he married third Nancy Bexley on 20 Sep 1821 in Warren, Georgia. He died on 1 Oct 1830 in Warren, Georgia.

Research Notes

• A note by someone on FamilySearch:

"There are several Adam Jones who served in the Am. Rev. War which make researching difficult. I have personally found 3.

My notes are on Rev. Adam Jones: Interesting enough, his sister also named Susanna married a cousin who was named Adam Jones. After her husband's death, she claimed through deposition a land grant from his service during the Rev. War. She testified that their children tore up his paperwork. The State of Virginia has that Rev. War land claim on file. It is very strange to read knowing that she might have claimed her brother's land, because her husband did not serve long enough according to other historians. The National Archive Department recognizes Reverend Adam Jones (1755-1830) officially.

His first wife: Rev. Adam Jones' son, Elijah Jones (who died in MS) left a will asking his brother to take care of his half-sibling Aaron Jones. I believe he asked Thomas Jones to do so. Nevertheless, his commitment to caring for Aaron is records thus: On 20 Jan 1823 Elijah Jones was appointed Guardian to Aaron who was considered "Adult Insane". His parent was listed as Adam Jones. Source: "Warren County, Georgia, 1793-1900, Genealogy II" by Daniel Nathan Crumpton; page 360. I have not found sufficient records to point to whom Aaron's mother was.

Rev. Adam Jones of the Long Creek Baptist Church in Wilkes/Warren County served as pastor from about 1795 until 1820. http://users.waymark.net/shmartonak/gawalng.htm. There is a biographical sketch written on "Georgia Baptist" by J. H. Campbell that does describe his history fairly well (pages 181 through 183). He came from VA with a large family and settled in Warren, GA. He was originally Methodist while in VA and had hoped to unite with them in GA. Since he could not, he decided to unite with the Baptist, yet had a fear of being baptized. Apparently, going into the water caused him to break out into a cold sweat. Once he overcame it was recorded that he "exercised" his religion regularly, thereafter.

His property is not far from "Beall Springs", and they shared a property line. Several of Mannum/Mennum Beall descendants married into the Rev. Adam Jones' line.

Susannah Denmark was his 2nd wife. It is proven that he was married a third time to a church member Nancy Baxley after Susanna died, as she is in his will. She later remarried after Adams death.

His headstone says: Sacred, To the Memory of Rev. Adam Jones, Who departed this life, 1Oct-1830, In the 75th Year of his, Age. The death date of 1830 is recorded with the DAR and does match my family records. Next to him on his 9.9 AC farm is his wife Susanna (2nd wife). Her headstone rubbing says: Sacred, To the Memory of Susanna Jones, Who departed this life May 13th 1821, In the 55th Year of her Age. Her maiden name is Denmark. She is a descendant of William Denmark a Rev. Soldier. Rev. Adam Jones did file a will that is on record with the Warren Co., GA probate department and list his children.

His grave site location: The Map number is 027 - 015 and the property description is 9.9 AC E/S MACON HWY. You will need a guide and permission of the property owners, as the graveyard is located on private land."

But our Adam Jones was not the only Adam Jones on the scene. The many Jones's living in this area during the Colonial era complicates, to say the least, genealogical research on this family. The 1771 tax list of John Hawkins, Sr. shows Benjamin Jones with sons Thomas and Adam living next to Benjamin's brother, John Jones, and his sons Benjamin and Adam. At this time sixteen was the minimum age for the poll tax so both Adam Jones' were born before 1755. By June 1778, Adam Jones' cousin, Adam Jones, had joined the 2nd Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line as a private.

Records indicate that in 1777-1778 Adam Jones migrated South from upper Bute/Warren County, NC to Cedar Creek, a tributary of the Tar River, along with or in the same time frame as his brother Thomas and sisters Jane Darnall and Ann Young. His sister Susannah was also living in this area by 1791 but, perhaps, arrived after her brothers.

In 1778, Adam Jones in on the tax list of Captain Bryant Ferrell, along with his brother Thomas and his sister Ann Young, assessed for 132 pounds. On April 19, 1778 Adam Jones entered a claim for 250 acres at the head of Davis' Creek bordering D. Jeffreys and Osborn Jeffreys, a large land owner. This land is near the Tar River in what became Franklin County in 1779. The abstract states: "sent by T. Vinson; no land to be found". Yet, on June 16, 1778 he received a grant for this land (Holcomb, Bute County, North Carolina, Land Grant Plats and Land Entries, p. 102).

At the estate sale for David Young, Ann Young's deceased husband, Thomas Jones, Adam Jones and Charles Darnall, the former Jane Jones's husband, were purchasers (Bute County Record Book 2, p. 258). The report of the sale filed in the August 1778 term of the Bute County Court shows that Adam Jones bought a basin and a plate for 3 pounds, 5 shillings, 6 pence and an ax for 1 pound, 15 shillings (C. R. 015.508.2, List of Buyers, NC Archives).

On August 3, 1779, Adam Jones and Demetrius Young, son of Ann Young Paschall, witnessed a deed from Isaiah and Ann Paschall to James Young for 180 acres on the south bank of Crooked Creek adjoining Ferrell and John Young. The Ferrell was probably Captain Bryant Ferrell the local tax assessor and a substantial landowner. Under the deed both Isaiah and Ann Paschall reserved the use of the land to themselves as long as either lived (Joseph W. Watson, "Abstracts of Early Deeds of Franklin County NC 1779-1797", p. 4).

Adam Jones was witness to other deeds over the next several years. On December 22, 1779 he witnessed four deeds and was the grantee on a fifth (Franklin Co., NC DB-1, p. 56-62). In that transaction he bought 100 acres from Jesse Rowland on the Orney Branch adjoining Jeffries.

On September 3, 1783 he witnessed a deed by which James Young sold the above tract of 180 acres back to Isaiah Paschall for 100 pounds (Franklin Co., NC DB-4, p. 76). The land was described as lying on the south side of Crooked Creek at the mouth of Haw Branch and up said branch adjoining John Young and Ferrell,

Adam Jones left Franklin County sometime in 1785. A deed dated September 26, 1785 for the foreclosure sale of a tract of land by Sheriff Roger Jones of Franklin County described the land as adjoining "..the lands that belonged to Joseph Bridges and Adam Jones.." indicating that it was no longer owned by them (Franklin Co., NC DB-5, p. 126). The tract of 440 acres, adjoining David Jeffreys and John Perry, was sold for 40 pounds to Thomas Stokes who, apparently, assumed some existing debt on the property. Five months later, on February 17, 1786, Thomas Stokes sold the same tract, cited as lying on Cedar Creek, and the deed again listed Adam Jones and Joseph Bridges as previous owners of adjoining land (Franklin Co., NC DB-5, p. 175). Adam Jones had "gone to Georgia."

Adam Jones was married three times, the name of his first wife unknown. It appears that they had at least four children, Thomas, Aaron, Elizabeth and Martha Ann, all born in North Carolina. Susannah Denmark was the mother of his other seven children. However, no record for either of his first two marriages has been found. However, it appears that Adam and Susannah married after they migrated to Georgia from North Carolina.

Adam Jones and William Denmark, Susannah Denmark's father, both migrated to Georgia after the Revolution, perhaps together. By 1786 Adam Jones had settled with his brothers Thomas, James and Samuel on Long Creek in Wilkes/Warren County and William Denmark was settled in Effingham/Bulloch County to the South. Adam Jones' name does not appear on the 1785 tax list for Captain Ledbetter's District in Wilkes County although his brother Thomas' does (#46) as does Nathan Fowler. By 1786 Adam Jones' name is on Captain Ledbetter's tax list paying only a poll. In 1787 Captain Mitchell was in charge of this tax district and Adam Jones is again listed for only a poll.

Methodism was strong in North Carolina where the Jones family lived. The Rev. Francis Asbury, the first American Methodist bishop, passed through Bute/Warren County five times and preached at Hawtree Creek in June of 1780. Adam Jones, raised as a Methodist, may have heard him preach. But when he reached Wilkes County there were no Methodist churches in the area so he became a founding member of the Long Creek Baptist Church when it was organized in 1786. However, it took the new convert some time to fully accept the Baptist principle of total immersion in baptism. Mercer's History of the Georgia Baptist Association says about him: "Like many others, he appears to have been afflicted with a singular kind of hydrophobia upon this subject. A cold shuddering took hold of the good man's feelings, when the thought of being 'buried with the Lord', according to Baptist usage came across his mind". He was ordained by the church congregation as a minister in 1793 and took over as pastor at Long Creek church in 1807 where he served until 1825 when he resigned due to old age. The records of the Long Creek Baptist Church are on microfilm in the Georgia Department of History and Archives in Atlanta (Microcopy AH 181, Box 61, Drawer 21) and the Library of the Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville.

On October 1, 1788, Nathan Fowler deeded two acres for a permanent site for the Long Creek Baptist Church, the deed in the names of Adam Jones and Edmund Nugent acting for the church (Wilkes County GA DB-B, p. 80). The deed also gave church members access to Nathan's spring some 200 yards West of the church site.

According to local history, over the years, two groups with permission, broke off from the Long Creek church to form separate churches. First was a church built by a Mr. Jewell, the owner of the cotton mill at what is now the town of Jewell. Long Creek members who lived in the Jewell area had to cross the Ogeechee River to get to the Long Creek church. Due to flooding, they often couldn't get there. Although not a religious man, the mill owner, their employer, decided to remedy the problem by building a church of their own. Two years later, the story goes, the owner got religion and joined the church he had created.

The second departure came after the Civil War when some Black members of the Long Creek congregation left to start their own church, now New Salem Baptist Church, several miles away. It is said that a number of Black members stayed at Long Creek church after the split and some for life.

During the Civil War the church at Jewell had a narrow escape from General Sherman's march to the sea. A Union officer, given orders to burn the mill, rode off on horseback to carry them out. On reaching the mill a masonic emblem incorporated in the smokestack caught his eye. Being a Mason himself, he could not bring himself to destroy this symbol of brotherhood. Instead, he set fire to bales of cotton stacked outside, creating a splendid column of smoke that could be seen by the far away Union forces as evidence that the entire mill was burning. Thus the mill was spared.

In 1790, Adam Jones was co-executor with Arthur Fort of the will of Benjamin Nicholson who also migrated to Georgia from Bute/Warren County, NC, perhaps coming in the same wagon train as Adam and others in the Jones family. His brother Thomas helped to inventory the estate (Early Records of Georgia, Vol. II, p. 266). Adam Jones was an officer in the local militia in 1797. He was commissioned as lieutenant on April 18, 1797 in the First Battalion commanded by Major John Larson (Excerpts from "Historical Collections of Georgia" Rootsweb/GA/Warren). Burrell Perry, another immigrant from Bute County, NC, was commissioned lieutenant in the Second Battalion commanded by Major Solomon Slater on November 26, 1795. William Smith, son-in-law of Nathan Fowler, was also an officer in the Second Battalion.

On March 23, 1790, Stephen and Celia Mitchell sold to Adam Jones 150 acres on Long Creek adjoining Arthur Fort for the sum of 50 pounds (Wilkes County, GA DB-A, p. 274). His brother Thomas bought land from the Mitchells on the same day. Eventually, Adam Jones became a substantial landowner along Long Creek. On the 1805 Warren County tax list, he was taxed for 400 acres bought from the Mitchells and 108 acres bought from Nathan Fowler, the latter tract bought on March 29, 1796, part of a 300 acre grant that Nathan received in 1786 (Warren Co., GA DB-A, p. 275). Adam Jones, Jr. was taxed for 220 acres.

By 1805, Adam Jones was in Captain John B. Flourney's tax district where he was taxed on 400 acres adjoining Rushing that he had bought from Mitchell, probably Stephen Mitchell, and on 108 acres next to Beall that he obtained from Nathan Fowler, both tracts located on Long Creek. In addition, he owned six slaves.

Rev. Adam Jones' will, signed by his mark, was made on October 14, 1826 and witnessed by John McCrary, Augustus Beall and William Jones. It was proved in the Warren County Court on November 10, 1830 by John McCrary and Augustus Beall. Executors were sons (by Susannah Denmark Jones) Elijah, Adam, Jr. and Stephen Jones. Under the will he gave his son, Seaborn Jones, the tract of land where Adam Jones then lived, containing about 262 acres, plus another tract near his previous home. He stated that he desired his wife, Nancy, continue to live in the home and share it equally with Seaborn Jones. In the event of disagreement between Seaborn and his widow, he stated that the executors should work out a satisfactory settlement. His wife was also given all of his livestock, farm vehicles and implements, household goods, furniture and five slaves including two children. Title to all of the property enumerated for her in Adam Jones' will, except for a Negro child named Charity, was conditioned on her remaining a widow. To his son, Nathan Jones, Adam Jones gave land along Long Creek, apparently where he first lived when he came to the area, as well as two Negroes, William and Frank. All property not specifically disposed of under the will plus the property given to his wife, in the event of her death or remarriage, was to be equally divided among his other children, named in the will; Thomas Jones, Patsy (Martha) Fowler, Aaron Jones, Elizabeth Glover, Simon Jones, Elijah Jones, Adam Jones, Stephen Jones and Susannah Chambless.

Three years after Adam Jones' death, on February 26, 1833, Nancy Jones married Thadeus Camp. Under the terms of Adam's will, the property willed to her was to be sold and the proceeds divided among the children named in the will. On March 16, 1833, the executors held a sale of the chattels willed to Nancy Jones. Most of the items were sold to Adam Jones' sons. Among the buyers were Adam Jones, Seaborn Jones, Simon Jones, Samuel Jones (brother of Rev. Adam Jones), Sterling Jones, Stephen Jones, Wilson Jones (son of Elijah Jones) and Milford Jones (kinship unknown). Other buyers included Zephaniah Fowler, husband of Martha (Patsy) Jones, and their son Terah Fowler.

The house where Adam Jones lived was still standing until the 1980s and then belonged to Allen Howell. It was near the Ogeechee River on Georgia Highway 16, about one-fourth to one-half mile east of the Hancock County line and five miles east of Jewell's Mill. But by the time of the 2000 Jones Reunion at Long Creek Church it was gone. Earlier it had been said that, going west, the large old house stood high on a bank off the left side of the highway not far from the road to the Long Creek Church where he served as pastor. According to local information, an iron fenced burial plot containing the graves of Rev. Jones, Susannah Jones and J. W. H. Jones, a grandson, was located in a field about 300 yards behind where the house stood. (Source: http://www.ncgenweb.us/ncwarren/fam-hist/jones-benj.htm)

Sources

• US Federal Census 1820

• Virginia Compiled Marriages

• Georgia Marriages

• Georgia Compiled Marriages

• Georgia Marriage Records from Select Counties

• Georgia Wills and Probate Records

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 11 Aug 2022), "Record of Adam Jones", Ancestor # A061778.

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176614384/adam-jones: accessed 11 August 2022), memorial page for Adam Jones Sr. (1759–1 Oct 1830), Find a Grave Memorial ID 176614384, citing Jones Family Cemetery, Warren County, Georgia, USA; Maintained by Jimmy Morris (contributor 47132742).

• Long Creek Baptist Church
  Warren County, Georgia in Four Volumes
  Vol. I, 1786-1883
  Vol. II, 1884-1912
  Vol. III, 1912-1921
  Vol. IV, 1922-1951
  Loaned by George W. Ivey, Jr., Clerk, Long Creek Baptist Church, Warrenton, Georgia, for microfilming purposes. 1954. Added by amb 01:23, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

• "Descendants of Benjamin Jones": "It appears that in the 1740s Benjamin and Johannah Jones, parents of Adam Jones, migrated from Virginia to the Hawtree Creek area in Granville County, North Carolina. This area in 1764 became Bute County and, in 1779, Warren County.

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-LBZ3-QM?i=232&cc=1927197

• Beebe, Jo Carolyn. The Beekeepers and Sons of Andrew. 1998. (Unpublished)
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2BB-8WNW : 21 July 2020), Adam Jones, 1830; Burial, , ; citing record ID , Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
  • 176614384

• "Georgia Marriages, 1808-1967", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWCY-62V : 11 January 2020), Adam Jones, 1821.

• "United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLW-HTL : accessed 14 February 2022), Adam Jones, Senior, Hancock, Georgia, United States; citing p. , NARA microfilm publication , (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll ; FHL microfilm .

• "Georgia, County Marriages, 1785-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXJK-6TK : 7 February 2020), Adam Jones and Nancy Bexley, 20 Sep 1821; citing Marriage, Warren, Georgia, United States, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Morrow, FHL microfilm 219,569.
• http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/t/e/r/K-Ternes/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0031.html