Sarah (Lillard) Bradley (1745 - 1821)

Born 1745 in Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1821 at about age 76 in Abingdon, Washington, Virginia, USA

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Research Notes

Traditions on Lillard Family Origins

In 1928, Ephraim Stout Lillard published a book called “Lillard: A Family of Colonial Virginia.” Though Stout Lillard’s work is something of a watershed in the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary history of the Lillard family (and he deserves great credit as the “grandfather” of Lillard genealogy), his work suffers from a paucity of authentic sources, especially in the colonial period and earlier. It has been criticized, as David H. Lillard, Jr., author of the second edition has pointed out:

“by professional genealogists on several grounds. . . there is a general paucity of documentation to authoritative sources. . . {and} generally fails to adequately distinguish between statements or conclusions which are based exclusively on family tradition and those based on documented primary sources or authoritative secondary sources.” [1]

In preparing his second edition of the book, David Lillard went to a great deal of effort to examine the records to try to confirm Stout Lillard’s conclusions regarding the relationships of the Colonial Lillards in Culpeper County, Virginia, and the two alternative pedigrees that the original edition discusses. In fact, many subsequent researchers have accepted only one of the two pedigrees – the one regarding the medieval Welsh and French Huguenot ancestry. The other was that the family was English in origins, and begins with a John Lillard who emigrated directly from England to Virginia. Although there are a number of records in England and Scotland of the surname Lillard or Lilliard, there are actually none yet found for the surname in France.[2]

Regarding the Colonial Virginia pedigree, David was unable to find any reference in the extant records of a Benjamin Lillard who married Elizabeth Lightfoot. In my own researches so far, I was unable to find any record of a Benjamin Lillard of the right time period at all. Ephraim Stout Lillard’s conclusions regarding Benjamin and Elizabeth (Lightfoot) Lillard, and their parentage of the Culpeper County Lillards is based solely on various family traditions. In fact, though some sort of familial relationship can be guessed at, there is no primary or authentic secondary source to justify that all of the colonial Culpeper Lillards were even siblings.

David Lillard discusses the extant records of the Lillards in Prince William, Essex, Fairfax, and Orange counties, and is behooves Lillard researchers to read this chapter of his book carefully. It is his conclusion that a John Lillard of Orange County recorded in the 1720s and 1730s is the likeliest candidate for the progenitor of the Culpeper Lillards, but he specifically states that it cannot be proved unless further records are found. It cannot even be proved at this time that all the Culpeper County Lillards were even siblings, which is why David chose to present the family as separate branches, with each branch beginning with a specific Culpeper Lillard ancestor.

Biography

Sarah was born about 1745 in Virginia. She was the daughter of Benjamin Lillard and Elizabeth Lightfoot.

Sarah married John Bradley.

She passed away in 1821. Find A Grave: Memorial #100621796 ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 9 October 2019), memorial page for Sarah Lillard Bradley (1745–1821), Find A Grave Memorial no. 100621796, citing Sinking Spring Cemetery, Abingdon, Washington County, Virginia, USA ; Maintained by Suzanne (contributor 47726614)