Charity Jane (Pennington) Casey (abt. 1751 - aft. 1817)

Born about 1751 in Province of South Carolina [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Randolph Casey Sr. — married about 1766 in Province of South Carolina

Descendants

Died after 1817 after about age 66 in Jefferson County, Illinois, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Daphne Maddox [send private message]

Biography

Oh what a pretty mess this is! In 1876 Charity's great-grandson, Lewis F. Casey wrote a short history of the Casey family. He used for a reference his own grandmother (wife of Abraham P. Casey) and his father-in-law, Zadok Casey (brother of Abe P). Zadok Casey said (according to Lewis) that his mother was Mary Jane Pennington (Zadok did name a daughter Mary Jane and perhaps he mis-spoke or was misunderstood.). That statement has had family genealogists running in circles for decades. After years of research, I can no longer believe this is true.
Charity Pennington married Randolph Casey, and was mentioned in deeds (1787, before Zadok was born) and his will^[1]. Charity's father, Jacob Pennington, did have a daughter named Mary, but she married a Noble (as recorded in Jacob's will). There does not seem to be a Mary Jane Pennington who married Randolph Casey.
Instead, I theorize that Lewis misunderstood Zadok to say his mother was Mary Jane, when I think it must have been Charity Jane, or Zadok mistakenly said his daughter's name (Mary Jane) instead of his mother's name (Charity Jane)--don't old people often say the wrong name of a child? Unfortunately, there is no easy proof, but documents do seem to line up with this.^[2]

Charity had a "special" relationship to her father's family. He separated her out of the line of other children, but gave her an equal part. This interesting statement near the end of his will^[3] shows a different relationship -- "I order and appoint that all and singular other my estate be equally divided between my loving wife, her children and my daughter, Charity."
This leads us to believe that Charity was either the first child and the daughter of another wife (or possibly an illegitimate child). I am exploring the possibility of Jacob having a first wife before Mary Cannon. So it's probable that Charity was NOT the daughter of Mary Cannon.

Marriage

Jacob Pennington's will was written in 1762, and does not give a married last name for Charity (or even a maiden name), so she must have married Randolph Casey after that date. Their first child was born around 1767. So, it's likely that Charity married Randolph Casey in about 1766. (Their 2nd child was born in Nov 1768.)

If Charity was born in 1751, she would have been 11 when her father's will was written, 15 when she married Randolph (who was 29), and 16 when her first child was born. Her last child was born in 1796, making her 45 years old. She could have been born in 1750, but not really much earlier than that or she would have been too old to have Zadok in 1796.

They lived in the Old Ninety-Six District of South Carolina near Spartanburg. This was a hotbed of fighting near the end of the revolutionary War (and even after Yorktown-1781). Randolph and his brothers fought the British in several famous battles (Kings Mountain, Oct 1780) and served under "The Swamp Fox" Gen. Francis Marion.

in 1787 they were living in Greenville Co, SC. when they sold some land that Charity had inherited and maybe moved to Newberry Co, SC (all of this area was in the Old 96 District).

They had several children in SC, but by 1790 they had moved to Greene Co, GA (where Hiram, Samuel & Zadok were born). Daughter Rebecca married Erasmus Noble in about 1796. He had probably been married to Charity's sister, Mary (called Mary Noble in their father's will).

About 1800 they moved to Sumner Co, TN, then on to Smith Co, TN. Smith Co (now Macon Co) was in north-central Tennessee up near the KY border. Randolph and Charity lived near or on Brushy Creek near Meadorville, 4 miles south of Lafayette.

Randolph died there (Smith Co) in 1814. Zadok took his mother to Illinois. The "History of Jefferson County, Ill." says Zadok brought his mother with him to IL in 1817. Zadok moved to Illinois with one horse, his wife Rachel, his son Samuel King who was 5 months old, and his mother Charity. The women took turns riding the horse with all their belongings and Zadok walked with his rifle. The trip took them a month.

Disputed Spouse

There is a theory Randolph had an earlier spouse. There's no certain evidence of that, though. It may be a misunderstanding of vague statements from descendants. See also the Willard & Related Families^[4], Older sites, not up-to-date on latest research;profile of Mary Jane or Abigail Pennington (archived/old), and Jacob Pennington (archived) for discussion. If this is to be believed, some of the older children would be of Mary Jane, rather than Charity, and Charity would have married Randolph by 1787.

Sources

1. ↑ Randolph Casey will - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Randolph_Casey_Will_1814
2. ↑ Mary Jo Freeman's research
3. ↑ Jacob Pennington's will - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Jacob_Pennington_Will_1762
4. ↑ http://rfmin.net/mjgen/casey/casey.html

• Source: S-1311973920 Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=18452480&pid=572
• Source: S414831417Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=113175596&pid=1600
• Freeman, Mary Jo. "Casey Family (archived)." Mary Jo's Genealogy Web Site, 2003-. Updated Casey page at - http://rfmin.net/mjgen/casey/casey.html
• Freeman, Mary Jo.Profile of Charity Pennington (archived). "Willard & Related Families", RootsWeb, 9 October 2017. [This site has not been able to be updated for over a year, so is out of date, doesn't have newer research.]
• Pennington, Rod." Jacob Pennington, Son of Abraham (archived)." Rod Pennington's Homepage,

Acknowledgements

• Contributors: Mary Jo Freeman