Rebecca (Armstead) Dowdy (1748 - 1820)

Rebecca Poe wife of Thomas Dowdy, Sr. of Deep River, Chatham, N.C. married 2nd Rebecca [ POE ]; she likely died sometime before 1818 when son Thomas Dowdy was granted administration bond for the estate of his father Thomas Dowdy, dec'd. and certainly by 1820 when the children began the process of selling their father's land as legatees of the estate.

Newspaper article from July 1930 “Poe Reunion Recalls Famous Man: Gathering at Pittsboro This year Outstanding for Heroic Tales about Jesse, Who Left Virginia to Come to Chatham County in Revolutionary Days” by Myrtle Ellen LaBarr

"...Nor have I yet been able to learn the given name of his [Jesse's] father or mother, though the latter may possibly be available in some tradition of the Dowdy family. His mother later married a man of that name, by whom this first Jesse Poe had a half brother Thomas Dowdy, long a leader in May’s chapel church, as shown by Purefoy’s old History of the Sandy Creek Baptist association, published about 1858...."

Note: Jesse Poe featured in the 1930 news story was of a similar generation as Thomas Dowdy Jr (see next). Poe died February 15, 1859. And Thomas Dowdy Jr (next) is indeed the person referenced in the Sandy Creek Baptist publication. Supposedly, a young Jesse, his widowed mother, and step-brother Benjamin Poe b 1749, later a revolutionary war solider, migrated from Culpepper VA to Chatham where his mother supposedly married Dowdy. Benjamin Poe's pension record shows he enlisted in Chatham NC; therefore, the family was in Chatham before the Revolution (and the widowed mother could have married Thomas Dowdy and borne their first child, Thomas Dowdy, Jr. in 1774) Also from find a grave:

Birth: 1740 Death: 1818 Gulf Chatham County North Carolina, USA

REBECCA POE DOWDY Some call her Lucy Hubbard Poe Dowdy. Widow of (1) William Poe and (2) Thomas Dowdy of Deep River. Dates are estimates only. She could have been born as early as 1720 or as late as 1745, more likely the latter.

In the 1960s, Dowdy family researchers wrote that "Mrs. Dowdy," widow of William Poe (d. 1760) and Thomas Dowdy of Deep River, was thought to be buried near the grave of her son Jesse Poe (c1760-1859) and very probably her second husband Thomas Dowdy (d. 1815) in what was then called the "Poe Cemetery." The Poe cemetery was also described as being located on the former Dowdy plantation, also called the Jesse Poe Cemetery. Some call it the John Poe Cemetery but may be confusing it with another site.

Some family researchers were calling her (or confusing her with) "Lucy Hubbard Poe Dowdy." See Lucy Hubbard Dowdy. Dowdy family historians today say that there were two Thomas Dowdys in Chatham County, N.C., simultaneously, one Thomas Dowdy of Rocky River (d.1802) who married Lucy Hubbard from Sussex County, Virginia, and the other, Thomas Dowdy of Deep River (d.1815) who married first Elizabeth Parsons and second Mrs. Rebecca Poe, mother of Jesse Poe. Some family trees show Rebecca Poe as a daughter of Simon Poe, so she may have married first to her cousin. Some other family trees show the same Thomas Dowdy with three wives, Elizabeth Parsons, Lucy Hubbard, and Rebecca Poe. Most family trees call him as Thomas Dowdy "Jr." The name Lucy is handed down in both Thomas Dowdy families. There were no readable markers for Jesse Poe, Mrs. Thomas Dowdy, nor Thomas Dowdy to be found there then as today.

“The Tysors of Old Chatham” (1972) by William Harold Broughton, p.4: “Chatham County records show that Thomas Dowdy had married the widowed mother of Jesse Poe, Sr., probably as his 2nd wife. She is believed to have been the 2nd wife of William Poe.” Bob Farmer’s Genealogy (2014) shows her as Lucy Hubbard Poe and states: “Lucy Poe Dowdy is believed to have been the first(sic?) wife of William Poe of Culpepper County, Virginia. This may explain the connection the Poes have to the old Dowdy place in Chatham Co, NC which contains what is now called the John Poe cemetery where one of the Thomas Dowdys is buried.”

One Thomas Dowdy was in Sussex Co, VA by 1757 (court case) and married Lucy by 1760: (Deed Book A-E, p. 112, 20 June 1760). 19 November 1761 (Sussex Co. Deed Book B, at p. 236): Etheldred Jelke and wife Phyllis (Hubbard), Matthew Hubbard and wife (Mary Sammons), and Thomas Dowdy and wife Lucy (Hubbard) Dowdy, conveyed to Nathan Northington of Sussex County, 215 acres on the north side of the Great Swamp, for 73 pounds, 19 shillings and 6 pence.

Thomas Dowdy and wife Lucy sold the land where they lived in Sussex County in 1771 and moved to Chatham County, N.C., sometime between then and 1778 when they are on record there. One "Lucy Dowday" died in Sussex Co., VA., in 1790 when a coffin for her was billed to the estate of Patrick Lashley. Perhaps this was a niece of Thomas Dowdy, unless his wife had returned to Virginia for some reason.

Also from find a grave: