Rachel Edna (Taylor) Beasley (1717 - 1789)

Born 9 Oct 1717 in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Maryland

Ancestors

Wife of Solomon (Beesley) Beasley — married 1742 in Beasley Island, Craven County, North Carolina

Descendants

Died 1789 at about age 71 in Beasley Island, Craven County, North Carolina

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Michelle Brooks [send private message], Colleen Peterman [send private message], and James Pittman [send private message]

Biography

Rachel Eda was born in 1717. Rachel Eda Taylor ... She passed away in 1789.

Solomon married first RACHEL TAYLOR, daughter of Abraham Taylor.^[1][2]

Research Notes

Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Title: General Index to Civil War and Later Pension Files, ca. 1949 - ca. 1949; NAI Number: 563268; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Grou Note: A "contest widow" is a rival claimant to the right to receive a widow's pension.In a time when divorce, remarriage, palimony, and name changes were far less official, it was possible for multiple associations to surround a CW vet's life.Identity theft, mistaken identity, fraud, and what was euphemistically called "vicious habits" (sex offenses, prostitution, etc) were all grounds for denial of a purported vet's or widow's claim to gratuitous benefits.In 1863 the whole business of dependency in veterans' claims was still evolving.Each of the women on the file had to prove their right to receive an award.Ultimately the decisions were made by the Pension Bureau's Law Division. If there are three women on the claim file, each with a "widow original" pension application, I suspect:(1) a former wife, with dependents, and possibly a legitimate divorce decree; (2) a current wife; (3) a woman who claimed the decedent was in fact her long-lost husband, who skeedaddled from the family and supposedly changed his name.Children of a former marriage were entitled to benefits as dependents, with a guardian (usually the former wife or her new husband) actually receiving the benefits.Pension vouchers were prepared quarterly.If the award amount was .00 a month, this would mean four .00 vouchers a year.They could be redeemed at the Post Office; the postmasters actually received them and held them in trust for the pensioners to pick up.In an era when a working man's wage was a day, pensions were a tempting source of free lifetime $$.

Sources

1. ↑ Abraham Taylor will (1751), Craven County, North Carolina, Will Book 5: 262. See also Stephen E. Bradley, Early Records of North Carolina (Keysville, Virginia: Stephen E. Bradley, 1994), 7: 110; record no. 516.
2. ↑ U. S. Census, Craven County, North Carolina, page 432, column 2, line 45, Solomon Beazley; National Archives microfilm publication M637, roll 7.

See also:

• North Carolina, Index to Marriage Bonds, 1741-1868 Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc
• Family Data Collection - Births Edmund West, comp. Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc
• Family Data Collection - Marriages Edmund West, comp. Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc
• American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) Godfrey Memorial Library, comp. Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.