John Beasley (abt. 1685 - 1755)

Born about 1685 in Maryland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1755 at about age 70 in Beasley Island, Craven, North Carolina

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Biography

JOHN BEASLEY/BEESLEY of unknown parentage, was born possibly though not certainly in Maryland, say 1685. He was not likely born in North Carolina as is claimed in many genealogical websites. He died in Craven County, North Carolina, before May 1755, intestate.^[1] He married WINIFRED (___), who survived him and was named administratrix of his estate, but she may have been a later wife and is not proven as the mother of his children.

Much erroneous information about John has appeared in various online sources. Some researchers have claimed that he was identical to John Beazley of Essex and Caroline counties, Virginia, son of William (see Chapter 1, number 5). This assertion can be demonstrated as false, given the continuous evidence of that John in the Caroline County records. Other genealogists have invented for him a wife called “Sarah Joann Cagwell Jenkins.” There is no evidence in the historical record of Maryland, Virginia, or North Carolina for such a person. More likely this name has been cobbled together from several sources, with “Cagwell” being borrowed from Shafer and Odell’s Descendants of the Sutton-Beasley Family of Brown County, Ohio. We have demonstrated that the Beasleys of Caroline and Spotsylvania counties were entirely separate from this one.

The earliest record of John Beasley can be found in Baltimore County, Maryland, on 7 November 1719, when, as John “Beasly,” he witnessed with Edward Edwards a deed between Abraham Taylor and John Taylor for the sale of 100 acres.^[2] He does not appear in the deeds in his own right or as a witness to other documents. However, the deed links John to Abraham Taylor, whose family also became established in Craven County, North Carolina, and whose daughter married John’s son, Solomon. Abraham Taylor moved to Craven County about 1727. He made his will there in 1751, naming daughter Prudence, granddaughter Dina (daughter of son John), wife Ede, son-in-law George Marshall, and other children to divide the estate, including, Jacob Taylor, Rachel Beesley, Joseph Taylor, and Abraham Taylor.^[3] Abraham’s daughter Rachel married Solomon Beasley (see below). Jacob Taylor would later serve as guardian and master for James Beasley, son of Oxford, in 1741.^[4]

John Beasley probably moved to Craven County with the Taylors. On 3 April 1733, his name appears with Solomon and Oxford Beasley on a petition to the North Carolina Executive Council, requesting to have the Craven County Council meet at New Bern near the Neuse River, instead of at Edenton.^[5] In 1734, John “Beesly” joined John Durham in giving security of £100 for John Short to keep a ferry over the Neuse River.^[6] In 1743, he served as foreman on a jury in Craven County.^[7] At the same court session he brought a suit on unspecified charges against Phill Trapnall, and a jury awarded him £29.^[8]

John obtained several land grants in Craven County. On 9 September 1735, he petitioned for a warrant of 200 acres in Craven Precinct in what was then Bath County on the north side of the Neuse River beginning at White’s Branch.^[9] He next obtained a grant for 200 acres on the north side of the Neuse River on 29 June 1738.^[10] Then on 20 April 1745, he was granted a patent for 200 more acres, also on the north side of the Neuse River, a tract that became known as “Beesley’s Island.”^[11] This grant was later referenced on 29 January 1765 in a deed between William Barber and Joseph Gadd.^[12] John sold to William Beasley, his likely son, 100 acres on north side of the Neuse River (perhaps part of his earlier grant) for £20 on 15 July 1747, with the document witnessed by William Peters, John Collins, and John Hollinsworth.^[13] On 20 April 1750, he sold to William Barber 100 acres on the north side of the Neuse, being part of his 1745 grant.^[14]

At the June court, 1747, John petitioned the court as “John Beasly Sr.,” and prayed “that as he is stricken in years & incapable of Labour that he may be Exempted from publick taxes & Levies & all publick Services.”^[15] The court recommended that the petition be granted and sent to the General Assembly for approval. John died in Craven County probably in the spring of 1755. On 13 May 1755, the court in Craven County recorded:

The Court being moved that Winifred Beasley have letters of admõn of the Estate of Jno decd her husband ordered that she has admõn accordingly giving security in £140 postd viz John Hollinsworth and Simon Beasley and that Mr. Secretary have notice to issue the same.^[16]

On the same day, the court recognized a deed of sale between William Beasley to Lucretsy Beasley for a tract of 100 acres in Craven County, with the sale proved by oath of John Hollinsworth.^[17] No records of the estate sale exist in the records of Craven County. However, the loose estate records of “John Beeslie,” dated May 1755 and returned 13 August 1755, exist in the papers of the North Carolina Secretary of State.^[18] Buyers at the sale included Simon Beeslie, “Benja. Beeslie,” John Beeslie, Solomon Beeslie, “Vieniah” Beeslie, William Beeslie, James Beeslie, and Winifred Beeslie. Several others were also purchasers, including Abraham Taylor.

Evidence of John’s children is thus largely circumstantial. The connection of Simon, Benjamin, John, Solomon, Viennah, William, James, and possibly Winifred suggest that they were his children, grandchildren, or other close relatives. The association of Simon, William, and Solomon Beasley with John Hollinsworth and other members of the Hollinsworth family in subsequent deed records serve as evidence of a probable link that the three were siblings, though whether there was a familial relationship to the Hollinsworths is not known. The association does suggest the possibility of a family tie, however, and the family is perhaps connected to the Hollinsworth family of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland.^[19] An extensive amount of information about John Beesley’s descendants can be found in various undocumented online sources, but not all of the claims made in these sources can be substantiated in other direct sources.

Sources

1. ↑ Stephen Bradley, Early Records of North Carolina, Volume III: Loose Papers and Related Materials, 1712-1798 (Keysville, VA: Stephen Bradley, 1993), page 6, #53.
2. ↑ John Davis, Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Records, Volume One: 1659-1737 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1996), 319.
3. ↑ Abraham Taylor will (1751), Craven County, North Carolina, Will Book 5: 262.
4. ↑ Wyenette Parks Haun, Craven Precinct-County, North Carolina Court Minutes, 1730 thru 1741, Book II, (Durham, NC: Weynette Parks Haun, 1987), 138, #284.
5. ↑ http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/craven/court/alter01.txt: accessed 2 July 2014. See also Robert J. Cain, ed., Records of the Executive Council, 1664-1734 [Colonial Records of North Carolina, Second Series, Volume VII] (Raleigh, NC: Department of Cultural Resources, 1984), 303.
6. ↑ Weynette Parks Haun, Craven Precinct-County, North Carolina Court Minutes, 1730-1741, Book II (Durham, NC: Weynette Parks Haun, 1981), 46, #84.
7. ↑ Weynette Parks Haun, Craven County, North Carolina Court Minutes (Pleas and Quarter Sessions), 1742-1748, Book III (Durham, NC: Weynette Parks Haun, 1983), 41, #400-401.
8. ↑ Ibid, 42, #404.
9. ↑ A. B. Pruitt, Colonial Land Entries in North Carolina, Volume 1 (1735-1752) (No place: A. B. Pruitt, 1994), 29, #371.
10. ↑ Weynette Parks Haun, Craven County, North Carolina Deed Abstracts, Deed Book I, Deed Book 5, 1707-1775, Book I (Durham, NC: Weynette Parks Haun,. 1996), 57, # 386, citing Deed Book 1: 352. See also Robert J. Cain, ed., Records of the Executive Council, 1753-1754 [The Colonial Records of North Carolina], Second Series, Volume VIII (Raleigh, NC: Department of Cultural Resources, 1988), 80, 86.
11. ↑ Haun, Craven County, North Carolina Deed Abstracts, Deed Book I, Deed Book 5, 1707-1775, Book I, XXX
12. ↑ A. B. Pruitt, Abstracts of Deeds, Craven co., NC, Books 2, 3, & 4, 1708-1765, 78, #1755.
13. ↑ A. B. Pruitt, Abstracts of Deeds, Craven co., NC, Books 2, 3, & 4, 1708-1765, 146, #2263.
14. ↑ Haun, Craven County, North Carolina Deed Abstracts, Deed Book I, Deed Book 5, 1707-1775, Book I, 78, #532, citing Deed Book 1: 468.
15. ↑ Haun, Craven County, North Carolina Court Minutes (Pleas and Quarter Sessions), 1742-1748, Book III, 108-109, #596.
16. ↑ Craven County Court Minutes, 1753-1758, page 40, microfilm roll 3, C-028-30003, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
17. ↑ Ibid.
18. ↑ Stephen Bradley, Early Records of North Carolina, Volume III: Loose Papers and Related Materials, 1712-1798 (Keysville, VA: Stephen Bradley, 1993), page 6, #53.
19. ↑ “Our Hollinsworth Family in America,” Rootsweb, (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jayken/hollingsworth/hr/650103129.htm: accessed 14 November 2014).

SOME BEASLEY FAMILIES OF THE COLONIAL SOUTH

A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF CERTAIN FAMILIES WITH THE SURNAME OF BEASLEY-BEAZLEY-BEEZLEY-BEESLEY IN VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND NORTH CAROLINA, FROM THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

By John D. Beatty, CG Fort Wayne, Indiana Privately Published 2014

Acknowledgments

Posted by Doug Beezley, Cincinnati OH Administrator Beasley Genealogy Project PDF of Beatty's document available at http://beasleygenealogy.net