Thomas Capps (1725 - 1785)

Born 1725 in North Carolina

Husband of Jane Capps — married 1759 in North Carolina

Descendants

Died 1785 at about age 60 in Thorney, Union, Tennessee

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Stephen Freeman [send private message]

Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

From Gerald Jones: "A two installment research paper by this researcher was published in 2010 in the NC Genealogical Society Journal, Volume 36, numbers 2 and 4, entitled The Capps Family of Chatham, North Carolina 1750-1800-Parts 1 and 2 (From the horse and buggy days of a family history depiction of the 1890s to the space age of DNA testing of the 2000s)"

In this report, Parts 1 and 2, focus will be on two key sources uniquely applicable to the Capps of Chatham County, North Carolina. One is a handwritten account from the late 1800s; the second deals with results of DNA testing some 115 years later. The first is crucial to setting forth a genealogical paper trail from about 1750 to 1850. The DNA test results provide some clues that should prove helpful for tracing this ancestral line further back in history.

A copy of this report is available from the NC Journal. An email attached copy of the report will be sent by request to interested parties.

Birth Abt 1733 NC The birth year is a guess based on the birth of oldest child William about 1756. Marriage Abt 1754 This is a guess based on the estimated birth of oldest child William in 1756. Death Aft 1800 NC Chatham This is based on the fact that he does appear in the 1800 Chatham census as Thomas Capps. In his household is son Sampson Capps and family. Children NC Chatham The children are listed in the Thomas Capps Family Sketch. This includes spouses and many of the grandchildren.

A William Capps is a shown as an immigrant in 1702 to NC. This could be the progenitor of the Capps of NC, including Thomas. If so this William would probably be his grandfather. Note that another early William Capps arrived in Jamestowne before 1620. He has no connection to this Capps line of Chatham based on DNA analysis. Another Thomas Capp was a headright in 1674/1675 in land patented in Accomack County.

1790 NC Chatham There is no Thomas Capps in this census. There are, however three William Capps. It is likely that Thomas may have been Thomas William Capps or William Thomas, and used the name William in this census. (See Research Paper in a separate note for this generation.

Note by Stephen Freeman: Almost no English Americans had middle names before about 1775. Extremely unlikely that his name was Thomas William Capps. I have therefore removed the middle name until evidence can be produced.

The substance of the first instllment of that paper is establishing that Thomas had an official given name of William.) There are a good reasons to support this notion. First, it is somewhat unusual to find that no sons or grandsons (as far as I can tell) were named Thomas. His oldest son was named William, and a number of grandsons carried that name. Second, in the 1790 census the two oldest sons who were married, William and Jacob, are listed. But where are Sampson and Willis? One possibility is they are in the household of William "Ser" Caps where he is listed with two other males (one 16+ [Sampson] and one not yet 16 [Willis] and a crowd of seven females. We know there were five girls in the family, and his wife would make six. The seventh female is a mystery .There is also a problem that all of these girls would not likely still be living with their parents. At the same time none of the sons-in-law are listed in the 1790 NC census, and later all these daughters and families migrated west with the extended Capps family. Finally, one finds most of these Capps and related families going west before 1800. Grainger TN became a county in 1796, and perhaps land was becoming available. Thomas Capps Family Sketch 19 May 1894 MO Lincoln Bedford Note: This is an extremely important family history document. It was written by David Kenney Capps, youngest son of Sampson, when he was eighty years old. Before this became readily available, researchers were guessing who the parents of certain Capps were. Joyce Capps, a dedicated genealogist, thought the father of William Capps, who died in the 1830's, was Sampson, not Jacob. Since Jacob was married to Sarah Sanders it opens up a great number of earlier ancestors such as Hollowells who were among the first Quakers in Virginia in the 1600's. David Kenney also reflects on the Civil War calling "Union County" that came out of Grainger a carpet bag change. He refers to one highly educated relative who was starved to death by the Feds because he refused to take the "Devels iron clad oath". This document can be found on the web at genforum.genealogy.com/yadon Early NC tax lists 1755-1764 Beaufort NC A Thomas Capps shows in these tax lists. Beauford is on the coast near where William Capps is shown immigrating in a headright of 1702. In the 1764 list there appear also Richard, son of Thomas and William, son of Thomas. Other Capps names in these tax lists in Beaufort are James (1755) and John (1764). Also Will Capps shows in NC (no county) in 1701. This must be the 1702 headright.

Name

Name: Thomas /CAPPS/^[2][3][4]

Residence

Residence:

Date: 1764

Place: Beaufort, North Carolina, USA^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Capps-398 was created by Michael A Orr through the import of Michael A. Orrs Missouri Orrs_2014-03-25.ged on Mar 25, 2014. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.
2. ↑ Source: #S270
3. ↑ Source: #S269 Page: Source number: 6117.005; Source type: Family group sheet, FGSE, listed as parents; Number of Pages: 1
4. ↑ Source: #S75 Page: Ancestry Family Trees Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=2245283&pid=866
5. ↑ Source: #S270

The Ancestry of William Ransom Capps (includes chapters referenced above) https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/783315/?offset=&return=1#page=1&viewer=picture&o=info&n=0&q=

• Source: S269 Author: Yates Publishing Title: U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Repository: #R2
• Repository: R2 Name: Ancestry.com Address: http://www.Ancestry.com E-Mail Address: Phone Number:
• Source: S270 Author: Jackson, Ron V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp. Title: North Carolina Census, 1790-1890 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Repository: #R2
• Source: S75 Author: Ancestry.com Title: Public Member Trees Publication: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.; Repository: #R2 NOTEThis information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.