Martha Jennings (bef. 1679)

Born before 1679 in Isle of Wight, Virginia

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Biography

Name: Martha Jennings^[1][2]

Birth: before 1679 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia
No original 17th-century source can be found for her birth. We only know that she was under 17 when her father wrote his will in October of 1678.^{[1] [2]}

Parents: John Jennings (bef.1620-1678) & Mary (Unknown) Seward (bef.1644-)^[2]
(Please see Research Notes)

Marriage and Children: (Please see Research Notes)

Death: unknown
No original 17th-century source can be found for her year and place of death. The last piece of direct evidence proving Martha was still alive is her father’s 1678 will. Depending upon which, if any, man was her husband, there may be pieces of evidence that she was still alive on certain dates but since there is no solid proof for either of her potential husbands we cannot begin to estimate her date of death.

Research Notes

About her parents:
Most genealogists and biographers agree that Martha was the daughter of John Jennings and his last wife, Mary (unknown) Seward. However, there is a slim but unlikely chance that her mother was Martha (Harris) jennings, an earlier wife of John Jennings. Biographer, Brayton, states unequivocally that Martha was the daughter of John Jennings and Mary (unknown) Seward, the widow of William Seward,Sr. However, this appears to be based, in part, on Brayton’s assertion that Martha (Harris) Jennings died childless sometime before Feb 1663. He based his assertion on the fact that Martha (Harris) Jennings deeded over to her husband, land she had inherited from her late father. Brophy assumed her only reason for doing so was to circumvent an archaic tenant of English Common Law called “tenancy in curtesy”, which held that a married woman’s property reverted to the crown upon her death unless the wife had given birth to a live child during the marriage. It would take an expert in history and 17th-century English law to determine the validity of Brayton's argument. If Brayton’s logic is flawed, it opens a narrow window of time (16 Sep 1661 to Feb 1663) when Martha Jennings could have been born to Martha (Harris) Jennings but a much wider window of time (Feb1663 to 10 Sep 1678) for her to have been born to Mary (unknown) Jennings. We should attach no significance to the fact that her name was Martha because in the 1600’s, the firstborn child of a subsequent marriage was often given the same name as the deceased spouse from the previous marriage.
About her marriage and children:
Either Martha or her sister Mary married William Thomas about 1695 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.^[2] It is unclear which sister married which of the several men named William Thomas all living in Isle of Wight County at the time. Biographers Bodie^[3] and Brayton reached different conclusions although Brayton appears to have made a stronger argument as to which William Thomas married a Jennings sister but neither biographer was able to conclude which sister. Unfortunately, there are missing Isle of Wight County deed books which may have resolved the question. Whichever sister it was, she had a son named John Thomas and possibly other children^[2]. The line from John Thomas appears to have died out after 3 more generations and the line(s) from the other children, if there were any, have probably also died out, which precludes resolving the question via DNA analysis.
Yet another theory is that Martha Jennings married Edward Miller II (abt.1668-1727) based upon some rather loose associations without any direct evidence. The Miller-Jennings marriage could most likely be proved or disproved by autosomalDNA if the Miller descendants have a significant number of DNA matches to descendants of Joanna (Jennings) Owen and Sarah (Jennings) Luck, the only siblings of Martha Jennings who are known to have living descendants. It is unknown if any descendants of Edward Miller II have been DNA tested. We know from his will that Edward Miller, II’s wife was named Martha but there is no direct evidence that she was Martha Jennings. There are some casual and indirect Miller/Jennings associations but none of them come close to proving a marriage between Edward Miller, II and Martha Jennings.

Association 1 - The father of Edward Miller II witnessed the will of Thomas Elms. William Lewer was a neighbor of Thomas Elms. George Lewer, presumably a relative of William Lewer witnessed the will of Martha Jennings’ father. Stated another way, the father of man A witnessed the will of man B, whose neighbor’s relative witnessed the will of girl C’s father. Yes? or No? Can we assume that man A married girl C?

Association 2 - Edward Miller, II’s maternal grandfather witnessed a codicil to the will of Martha Jennings’’s father. Stated another way, man A’s maternal grandfather witnessed a codicil to the will of girl C’s father. Yes? or No? Can we assume from this that man A married girl C?

Association 3 - Thomas Taberer witnessed the will of Martha Jennings’ father. Ten years later,Thomas Taberer and Edward Miller, II jointly witnessed the will of John Grove. Stated another way, Man D witnessed the will of girl C’s father while 10 years later, man A along with man D witnessed the will of man E. Yes? or No? Can we assume from this that man A married girl C?

If you answered no to all the above assumptions, then the circumstantial evidence is just too weak to assume Edward Miller, II and Martha jennings were man and wife.

This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Blanche Adams Chapman, Wills and Administrations of Isle of Wight County, Virginia 1647-1800; Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland; 1975 reprint of the original 1938 edition; Will of Captain John Jennings mentions current wife, their children together, and her children from a previous marriage
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Colonial Families of Surry and Isle of Wight Counties, Virginia, Volume 4, The Descendants of Capt. John Jennings of Isle of Wight County, Virginia; copyright: 2001 by John Anderson Brayton; published by: Cain Lithographers, Inc., Jackson, Mississippi.
3. ↑ John Bennett Boddie, Seventeenth-Century Isle of Wight County Virginia, 1938; reprinted by: Janaway Publishing, Inc., Santa Marta, California, 2012