Simon Poe Sr. (abt. 1708 - 1793)

Born about 1708 in Essex, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Bradford) Poe — married 1725 in Essex, Virginia

Descendants

Died 9 Apr 1793 at about age 85 in Chatham, North Carolina, United States

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Biography

Simon was born in 1708. He passed away in 1793.

Simon Poe (Sr) son of Samuel Poe and Mary Hook

His Will can be read in the free online version of Ruth Herndon Sheild's book about his daughter Sary/Sarah Poe and her spouse William Pendleton Herndon. At his death Simon left his slave, a woman named Wency, to his current wife Rhoda. ^[1]

Nothing in the historical records seems to indicate where Simon Poe was born. He first appears in the court records of Caroline County, Virginia on September 9, 1737 – he was almost thirty years old. At the time, William Poe (married to Lydia), and Benjamin Poe also lived in Caroline County.

About a year before he died, Simon Poe married Rhoda Marsh. An article about their unusual marriage ran in several papers in September/October of 1792, including the Baltimore Evening Post on 20 September 1792 and the New-Jersey Journal on 10 October 1792. It stated:

Fayetteville, September 4. Extract of a letter from Pittsburgh, Chatham county, September 8.

Last week was married within three miles of this place, Simon Poe, aged eighty-four years, to Miss Rhoda Marsh, a maiden lady, aged fifty-eight. He had been married before, and has now living, by his late wife, one hundred and eighty-six children, grand children, and great grand children."

Research Notes

Birth Year Some sources list a birth date of around 1690 and/or an age at death of 105 years old. Both data are given, for instance, by Prof. John G. Herndon FASG, citing for the latter a private conversation he had in 1939.^[2] The estimate 1708 is also common and is inferred from the newspaper announcements of Simon's second marriage which states he was 84 years old in late 1792. This is more consistent with Simon's first appearance in Virginia records in 1737, even though other Poes thought to be close kin to Samuel Poe who died in 1725 to appear in records within a year after his death. Simon was already a wealthy landowner by 1737, so a sudden first appearance in that year in his late 40s would be surprising.

The estimate 1708 is also more consistent with the inferred birth years of his children in the 1730s — that is, all children except for his daughter Sarah, who married William Herndon. It seems the estimate 1690 comes from assuming that Sarah was the first wife and mother of all of the children of William Herndon, and that she was of comparable age with him. While he began having children in the early 1730s, record of his wife being named Sarah begin in the late 1740s. Sarah removed to North Carolina with William's children after his death, and the 1793 will of Simon Poe lists first among his daughters Sarah Herndon. Sarah would need to be born by 1715, and possibly earlier, to be the mother of all of his children, requiring a birth year for Simon no later than the 1690s. However, it is quite within the realm of possibility that William married twice, with the second wife being Sarah Poe, or even that Sarah's Herndon husband was actually a different man — the only known original document providing evidence that Sarah married a Herndon was her father's will.

Because the newspaper article is primary evidence, discussing a Simon Poe of old age in Chatham County when no other was known to live there at the time, we infer that it was the present man who married Rhoda Marsh and that he was almost certainly born in the 1700s, meaning that his daughter Sarah could not have been the mother of William Herndon's children in the early 1730s.

Simon's birth year can be determined by his marriage at age 84 to Miss Rhoda Marsh who was 58 at the time. The notice was dated Wednesday, 3 Oct 1792. His will was dated 9 Apr 1793 and is in the Chatham County, NC records Vol. 1 Chatham Co., NC Wills - File # 22.018 - Page 146. Simon died sometime between 9 Apr 1793 and 9 Aug 1793.

He lived in both Virginia and North Carolina. The first mention of him is in the Caroline County, VA court records dated 9 Sep 1737, when he was approaching 30 years of age. So, for now, until any historical records surface to prove his place of birth, it shall be listed as Caroline County, VA. This is only a personal conclusion and should not be used as actual proof of his place of birth.^[3]

Heirs listed in will of 1793:

• wife Rhoda
• children:
  • Sary Herndon
  • Mary Barry
  • Jane Madsey
  • Lucy Straughn (dec'd) (children Mary George and Lucy Staughn)
  • Simon (dec'd) (son Stephen)
  • Stephen
  • William
  • James
  • Frances Thomson

^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ https://archive.org/details/descendantsofwil00shie/page/n13/mode/2up
2. ↑ John G. Herndon, The Herndon Family of Virginia vol. 1 (Haverford, PA?: privately printed, 1947) page 41
3. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80578920/james-simon-poe), Simon Poe, ; Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 29 March 2021), memorial page for Simon Poe Sr. (1708–1793), Find a Grave Memorial no. 80578920, ; Maintained by Alabama Poes (contributor 47242651) Unknown.
4. ↑ Shields, Ruth Herndon, The descendants of William and Sarah (Poe) Herndon, of Caroline County, Va., and Chatham County, N.C, 1956, pog 2 https://archive.org/details/descendantsofwil00shie/page/2/mode/2up

• "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKB-R26 : accessed 29 March 2021), Simon Poe Sr, Chatham, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 202, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 7; FHL microfilm 568,147.
• Chatham County, NC records Vol. 1 Chatham Co., NC Wills - File # 22.018 - Page 146 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9G4-993X-X

See Also

• World Connect (sourced)
• This article suggests that Simon Poe (whose daughter is Sarah Poe Herndon) was married to a "Rhoda" Poe; presumed to be Rhoda Flowers Marsh.

See Also:

• FamilySearch Tree

Acknowledgments

Victor Morales Velasco by 13 Mar 2020.