Frances Mathis has not been researched particularly well for the purposes of this website due mainly to the fact that the Coleman family is well documented and there are many publications that discuss Frances's marriage to Robert Coleman and her children. In particular this web page lists several sources for those researching her line. Frances married Robert Coleman possibly in Surry County, Virginia or even in North Carolina after her father had moved there. An estimated marriage of "before 1752" can be suggested for Frances and Robert Coleman based on the fact that their son Thomas Coleman witnessed a Halifax County deed in 1766.²⁰⁸ English law allowed minors as young as 14 to witness deeds meaning that Frances and Robert were married no later than 1752. This date is at odds with the marriage date of "no later than 1745" as put forward in the excellent review of the Coleman family The Robert Coleman Family from Virginia to Texas 1652 - 1965 written by J. P. Coleman, a former governor of Mississippi (see above link). Mr. Coleman mistakenly believed that a witness to a deed must be at least 21. Frances appeared in two Halifax County, North Carolina deeds in 1761 and 1774. In the former she witnessed a transaction where her husband purchased land²⁰⁹ and in the latter she released dower on land that Robert Coleman was selling.²¹⁰

After the 1774 deed Robert and Frances Coleman are no longer to be found in Halifax County records. In Mr. J. P. Coleman's book he mentions an earlier Coleman account written by Mrs. Jennie I. Coleman in 1906 in which through deep personal knowledge she recounted several facts about the Coleman family at-large. From her writings Mr. Coleman states that Robert Coleman moved to Fairfield County, South Carolina in 1775 so it is to there that Frances moved with her husband.

The will of Robert Coleman, recorded in Fairfield County and written 31 Mar 1795, states that his wife at that time was named Susannah.²¹¹ Further, per Gov. Coleman's book, a 1792 Fairfield County deed states that Robert Coleman had married Susannah, widow of William Jones. And, finally, a 1779 Fairfield County deed shows where William Jones and his wife Susannah had sold land there. Thus, we know that sometime after 1779 Robert Coleman had married Susannah. While this does nothing to pinpoint when or even where Frances Mathis Coleman died it does give somewhat of a time frame.

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Sarah Mathis married Abner Hill probably after her father had moved to North Carolina so this places her marriage in the early to mid 1740s at the earliest, although this early date is quite unlikely. Sarah was already married by the time her father wrote his will in 1764 and I think it more probable that she married by the late 1750s to early 1760s. Thomas Hill was granted land in that part of Edgecombe County, North Carolina which would later become Halifax County on the same day in 1743 as James Mathews Sr. received his first grant.²¹² This Thomas Hill was probably the same Thomas who was a brother of Abner Hill. While no record exists for Sarah's marriage to Abner Hill he is the only logical Hill she could have married. Abner's name appears in many Mathews/Mathis deed records in both Edgecombe County, North Carolina and Chatham County, North Carolina. Deed records of Abner selling land show that his wife was named Sarah²¹³ and that he owned land that adjoined Sarah's brother Isaac and was therefore in the vicinity of her brothers Charles and Thomas as well.²¹⁴ Abner Hill is the only Hill who had a wife named Sarah who is not identified as belonging to any other family group, i.e. no records give us the married name of Sarah, hence there is nothing against her being Sarah Mathis, daughter of Thomas.

A number of people who were members of families living in the same general area as the Mathews in both Virginia and North Carolina were moving into Orange County, North Carolina, in particular the part that would become Chatham County (1771), over a broad number of years from at least 1740s onwards. Among others there were Drake, Hill, Daniel, Rosser (sometimes read as "Roper" because of the classic cursive long s letter), Arrington/Harrington, Lee and many others. With the exception of Frances Mathis (above) all of the children of Thomas Mathis Sr. would sell the land they inherited from their father and move to this same area. The exact date that Abner and Sarah Mathis Hill moved there is unknown to me, but it was probably at least by 1769 when Abner Hill witnessed deeds where his brothers-in-law Thomas and Isaac Mathis purchased land from Charles and Agnes Harrington in Orange County.^{215, 216}

While most of her brothers and/or their children would eventually move to South Carolina and Georgia it is unknown at this time whether or not Abner and his wife followed suit. Abner Hill is last confirmed in Chatham County in 1787 when he sold three parcels of land. It is possible that he moved out of the county after this, but no record of him anywhere else has been found to date. There was an Abner Hill listed in the Chatham County 1795 tax list²¹⁷ in the same district as Isaac Mathis, but it is possible that this Abner was a son of Sion Hill who is known to have had a son by that name.

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As is seen from the will of James Mathews Sr. there were only two specific individuals that he named: his son Thomas and his grandson Charles (son of Thomas). James Sr. willed "to my grandson Charles Mathis 100 acres ... lying on Hawtree [Creek] in the County of Halifax".²¹⁸ The reasons for this are a mystery when considering that at the time of his death James Sr. had a number of adult grandchildren living. Why was Charles singled out?

At least two of the children of Thomas Mathis, Sr. were schooled in law, Charles and his brother Thomas. Charles was a sitting judge in Orange County and also captain of a company of militia.²¹⁹ Charles was in Orange County at least as early 10 Oct 1766 when he sold 1000 acres (possibly being the land his grandfather gave and almost certainly a transcription error as there is no evidence he ever obtained 1000 acres) of land in Halifax County and the deed noted that the was "of Chatham County".²²⁰

When Charles died in Chatham County in 1777 he left a will in which he named his wife Jane, 8 children and one unborn child that Jane was pregnant with at the time.²²¹ After the death of Charles his wife Jane would marry neighbor and witness of the will of Charles, Joseph Brantley.²²² The Brantleys were neighbors to Charles Mathews and his children, appearing in many deed records. There were two other Mathis-Brantley intermarriages after the Revolutionary War illustrating how close these two families were, not just in North Carolina, but also into Georgia and further westward as both families migrated.

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Any discussion on James Mathews is rather convoluted. What is known for certain is that he was born in Surry County, Virginia 4 Aug 1739.²²³ A James Matthews is found in the muster roll of Capt. Charles Matthews in Chatham County in 1774.²²⁴ Presumably this James is Thomas's son especially considering that brothers Thomas and Isaac were also in the same militia company. After 1774 James Mathews does not appear in Chatham County records until a 1787 deed for a State Grant to James.²²⁵ This presumes that Chatham County deed records are complete (perhaps they are, but I cannot say for certain). Also in question is whether or not the James in the 1787 grant is the son of Thomas.

Beginning in 1794 we find a James Mathews with wife Dinah living in Edgefield District, South Carolina.²²⁶ What makes this James especially intriguing is that we also find Isaac Mathews Jr. and William Mathews in the same district. These two men were first cousins (sons of brothers Isaac Mathews Sr. and Charles Mathews respectively) and if the Edgefield James Mathews is the son of Thomas Mathis Sr. then this James would also be their first cousin. If some record could be found in South Carolina with James or any of his immediate family in some of the same records as the families of either Isaac or William then the issue of relationship might not be so confusing, but unfortunately even though the families of all three men lived in the same county nothing to date from Edgefield has been found to tie them together as being related (other records do this for us regarding Isaac and William).

Digging into the records from Edgefield District we find deeds that tell us that the wife of the Edgefield James, Dinah, was the daughter of William Braswell²²⁷ and Sarah Lamar. The surname Braswell is found in many phonetic forms such as Brazeal, Breaseal, Breazel and many others. In Edgefield District records it is more commonly found as one of the phonetic variations and is hardly ever spelled the same way twice! For the purposes of this discussion the "Braswell" spelling will be used regardless of any actual records referenced in an attempt to avoid confusion. The presence of Henry Braswell next door to both Thomas and Isaac Mathis in Chatham County²²⁸ taken in conjunction with James Mathews of Edgefield District having married a Braswell is extremely interesting. Discussing these points with a Braswell researcher yielded evidence giving a high degree of certainty that the James Mathews of Edgefield District was in fact the son of Thomas Mathis Sr.

According to Braswell family researchers William Braswell of Edgefield District is likely the son of Richard Braswell of Orange County, North Carolina whose will was recorded in 1761 naming children Mary, Tabitha, Valentine Jacob, and Richard William.²²⁹ According to one of these researchers, Ann Braswell, several Braswell men apparently used their middle names as the names by which they were commonly called.

Given the indirect and circumstantial outlined above it is the opinion of this researcher that the James Mathews of Edgefield District is the son of Thomas Mathis Sr. James's name is found on several deeds between 1794 and 1819 in Edgefield. The last record was a deed of sale for a slave sold by James Smart & James Broadwater to Caroline Williams dated 17 Jul 1819. Just a month later, on 20 Aug 1819, James's will was recorded in Edgefield County in which he named his wife Dinah and nine children.²³⁰

One final note on whether or not James Mathews of Edgefield was the son of Thomas of Halifax County, North Carolina concerns yDNA testing. In June of 2011 test results for a descendant of Henry Mathews (died ca. 1829) of Edgefield County were released by FamilyTreeDNA. It is believed that the Henry Mathews who died around 1829 was the Henry named in the will of James Mathews. One primary reason for thinking this is that Henry lived in the general area that James lived which was well away from the area that Isaac Mathews and William Mathews and their families lived. The DNA test results reveal that Henry's descendant is a match for those of us who are confirmed to be descended from James Mathews Sr. With this is mind Henry is most likely the son of someone from Edgefield County and James is the most likely candidate, ergo, the evidence leans more towards James being a son of Thomas.

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Nothing is known of Milly Mathews after being named in her father's will.

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Many internet family trees have a specific date of birth for Isaac that does not match the reality of the evidence at hand. Many trees and second and third hand sources place his birth at various times in the 1750s. The will of Isaac's father gives us all the evidence that we need that Isaac must have been born no later than 1747 and most likely before that date. Thomas Mathis's will points out that his sons Thomas Jr. and Benjamin have not yet reached legal age: 21. He does not include the same language about Isaac when he devised property to him. Even in the absence of that caveat we still know that Isaac must have been at least 17 at the time his father wrote out his will in 1764. Thomas Sr. appointed his sons Charles and Isaac to be the executors of his will and English law required executors to be at least 17. So, at the very latest Isaac would have had to have been born no later than 1747 and quite likely he was born no later than 1743 since there was no mention of Isaac not being of legal age.

A Sept 1769 Orange County, North Carolina deed record shows where Isaac purchased 320 acres of land from Charles and Agnes Harrington on the south side of the Cape Fear River in the area that would become Chatham County.²³¹ Isaac's brother Charles had been in the same general area (along Deep River) since at least 1766 and Thomas purchased land from the Harringtons 8 months prior to Isaac also along the south side of the Cape Fear River (adjoining tracts, presumably, based upon other deed records that mention Isaac and/or Thomas).

One interesting record from the Revolutionary War period mentions Isaac Mathis. In the 1819 Revolutionary War pension application of Drury Parham of Spartanburg County, South Carolina he states that he "again entered the service of the United States as a substitute for one Isaac Mathews in Chatham County, State of North Carolina..."²³² Parham's application stated that he was born on the Roanoke River in Virginia (Brunswick County most likely) and when he was young his family moved to Halifax County, North Carolina. The Parhams appear in many records in the same areas that the Mathews family lived in both Virginia and North Carolina so it would not be unlikely that Isaac and Drury Parham knew each other from their communities and that Parham's substitution for Isaac was not just a random event.

Isaac Mathis appears in a few deed records of Chatham County during the 1780s and 1790s, but we never get a feeling for his family or if he even had one. In the deed records from Virginia and Halifax County we can at least sometimes see or envision familial relationships, but this is rarely the case in the Chatham County deeds involving Isaac. The 1790 census is the first time that we see that Isaac apparently has a family.

1790 Chatham County, NC Census
Head of household	White males 16+	White males under 16	White females	Slaves
Isaac Matthews	2	3	5	7

It would appear that Isaac had a rather large family assuming that they are all his direct family. Not counting himself he has 4 males and 5 females in his household in 1790.²³³ The identities of all of these people could be debated. However, as we will see in the section covering generation 2 it may be possible to identify some of them even without a smoking gun or a big flashing arrow over their head blinking out "A child of Isaac"!

A 23 Oct 1799 deed shows where Isaac sold 640 acres of land that he held.²³⁴ Assuming that all records of him acquiring land are accounted for then this only left him with about 30 acres. Why did he sell it all? Apparently he did so in preparation for moving to Georgia.

The fate of Isaac Mathis is another that can only be explained by observing other people that appear in records around Isaac or his family. The penultimate date in which he is confirmed in North Carolina is the 1795 tax list for Chatham County.²³⁵ Only one portion of that county's tax records survive for 1795, but luckily it is for the district in which Isaac lived. While Isaac appears in at least one deed in Chatham County after 1800, he last appears as living in North Carolina in the 1799 deed mentioned above. He does not appear in the 1800 census in North Carolina so perhaps he had already moved by the time of that census.

An 1811 Chatham County deed gives interesting information that can only be interpreted logically in one way. In this deed Isham Daniel sold 4 slaves to his sons Jesse Daniel and Littleton Daniel for their use after the death of Isham and his wife. At the end of the deed there is a paragraph that basically says that if Isaac Mathews comes and pays a part of the cost of the slaves that he would get an equal share in them.²³⁶ The two or three words before "...part of [the cost]" in the deed are hard to read, but the intent is clear. There is really only one explanation for why Isaac would be offered this opportunity: his wife must be a close member of this family and entitled to a portion of the slaves of the estate of Isham Daniel. Jesse and Littleton Daniel are known to have had a sister who had married Jesse Jean: Sarah (Daniel) Jean. Sarah, or Sally as she appears in the records, was widowed by 1800 since she appears in the Chatham County census as head of her own household.²³⁷

After the Revolutionary War many southern families began to move into Georgia as land was opened up first in the form of bounty grants in return for service from the war and then later, starting in 1805, in the form of land grants that were awarded by lottery after new territory was "acquired" from the Native American population. Eventually the land encompassing the entire modern boundaries of Georgia would be doled out from lotteries (not counting the original pre-Revolutionary War colony of Georgia which was a much smaller version of the state as viewed today).

Viewing the records of some of the original and early lottery counties such as Warren, Wilkes, Hancock, Baldwin, Putnam and Washington we find a number of Mathews/Mathis families from North Carolina along with families that were Mathews neighbors going back as far as the early 1700s. Many familiar Mathews/Mathis names can be found in the early newspapers of the state, especially the newspapers from Milledgeville which was the state capitol from 1804 to 1868. Since Milledgeville is central to the majority of the counties where the Mathews families lived in the early 1800s a large number of articles and notices mentioning them can be found, however the number of mentions with genealogical value is not overwhelming. The Augusta Chronicle is an older newspaper, going back to 1785, but being much further south than the above named counties there are not as many articles that mention members of this extended Mathews family.

Milledgeville had newspapers going back to the very early 1800s although many of them did not last more than a few years in print, but where one would close down another would immediately take its place. Free online archives of these papers can be found here. It is from these early newspapers that we first find out that it was to Washington County that Isaac Mathis had moved. While there is no smoking gun that tells us that the Isaac Mathis of Washington County was indeed the same as the Isaac from Chatham County there can not be much doubt that they are one and the same.

The earliest articles from Milledgeville newspapers that mention Isaac Mathis are estate notices after his death. The very earliest of these is from the 13 Apr 1814 edition of the Georgia Journal where we find that Henry Partridge had applied for letters of administration on the estate of Isaac Mathews on 9 Mar 1814.²³⁸ According to law letters of administration had to be filed with the court the day following the funeral of a person who died intestate. For this reason Isaac almost certainly died a few days prior to 9 Mar 1814. Starting with newspaper issues in Aug 1814 Sally Mathis is listed as administratrix along with Henry Partridge. How do we know that this Isaac is the same as the Isaac from Chatham County, North Carolina? There is nothing to indicate that the two are the same beyond a shadow of a doubt, but by using other records to see who was living around the Isaac in Georgia it is clear that Isaac was living in an area surrounded by people who had formerly lived around the Isaac from Chatham County.

From Chatham County, North Carolina court records we find the following entry from 1790 that gives us an idea of some of Isaac's close neighbors:

Ordered that the following persons be appt. a jury to lay off a new road from John Avents Ferry on Cape Fear River, to wit: Isaac Mathews, Thomas Partridge, Joseph Yarbrough, Drewry Parham, John Womack, John Avent, Solomon Chapman, David Chapman, Burrell Williams, Jesse Jean, William Redden, Seth Cotton, Richard Burt, Henry Chapman, William Ragland, Lewis Jones, William Dillard & David Mims...²³⁹

Additionally, the 1795 tax list for Chatham County contains these same families living in a single district further reinforcing the fact that they were members of the same community.²⁴⁰

The 1820 census for Washington County, Georgia brings all of the above observations together. We find Sally Mathis (the only Sally Mathis for Washington County) on page 127 (assuming she was one of the two females in the 45+ age column then she was most likely Isaac's wife).²⁴¹ Fifteen names above her is Henry Partridge, son of Thomas Partridge from the Chatham County court entry above and the administrator of Isaac's estate (perhaps Henry married one of Isaac's daughters?). Four names above Sally we find Littleton Daniel, brother of Sarah (Daniel) Jean, further reinforcing the claim that Isaac married a sister of Littleton and Jesse Daniel per the 1811 Chatham County deed mentioned above. Further, we find several other surnames listed near to Sally Mathis in the 1820 census with Chatham County roots such as Hopkins, Rutherford (in-laws to Isaac's brother Thomas), Parham (see court record for road crew above), Williams and others. An exhaustive comparison of the 1795 tax list was not made with the 1820 census, but the logical conclusion thus far should be apparent. With the evidence at hand such as the deed records, the estate notice for Isaac Mathis, the Chatham County surnames in close proximity to Sally Mathis (including her own brother!) the obvious conclusion is that the Isaac Mathis of Washington County, Georgia was the same person as the Isaac Mathis of Chatham County, North Carolina.

Given that Henry Partridge applied for letters of administration on Isaac's estate on 9 Mar 1814 he undoubtedly died very near to that date. Based on the 1790 census and observations made on the 1820 Washington County, Georgia census entry for his widow Sally we can conclude that he left behind a number of children. With only one exception the names of none of these children are obvious, but as we will see below we can possibly infer some of them.

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Thomas Mathis Jr., as noted above in the section on his brother Isaac, arrived in the area that would become Chatham County, North Carolina in 1769. Some internet family trees place Thomas's date of birth at 9 Jun 1756, but as was seen with the typical year of birth for his brother Isaac as found on the internet this date cannot be correct. Many old DAR records use this date and it is from that organization that the date probably originated. Perhaps it came from an early DAR membership application and the date was perpetually carried forward by successive applicants. Whatever the original source for this date, it is likely off by about 10 years. For Thomas to have made a purchase of land in 1769 English law required that he be 21 to do so without the oversight of a guardian. No such oversight is mentioned in that 1769 deed meaning that he was at least 21. As such, his birth could not have occurred after 1748. Additionally, his father's will written in 1764 points out that he was not yet of legal age. This means that he could not have been born before 1743. Using these two records gives a range of 1743 to 1748 for his year of birth.

On 16 Apr 1772 Thomas married Mary Ann Rutherford, daughter of Colonel Robert and Dorothy Ann Brooks Rutherford.²⁴² Anonymous internet sources place her date of birth at 1758 which means she would have only been 14 when she married. This is not impossible to imagine, but it does seem to be unlikely especially considering the stature of the Rutherford family.

In addition to the 160 acres that Thomas purchased from the Harringtons in 1769 he also bought 50 acres in Chatham County from Jesse Lee in 1772.²⁴³ Lee was probably related to the John Lee who witnessed the will of Thomas's uncle Isaac Mathews Sr. in Halifax County in 1768. Rutherford family history tells us that while passing through South Carolina during the Revolution Robert Rutherford purchased 250 acres in Newberry District in 1778.²⁴⁴ Thomas Mathis sold the 210 acres that he owned in Chatham County on Dec 23 and 24, 1777 to Thomas Partridge (father of Henry Partridge who was executor of Isaac Mathis's will) after which there is no record of where Thomas lived.²⁴⁵ What is known is that he followed the Rutherford family to Newberry District when they moved there in 1780 so he possibly either moved to Newberry in 1778 or stayed on his Rutherford in-law's land until they all moved to South Carolina.

Thomas stayed in Newberry District for a number of years, but would eventually move to Hancock County, Georgia. He appears to have owned more than one section of land and it seems likely that his lot on Buffaloe Creek adjacent to or near land owned by his son Charles and son-in-law John Borland was his homestead. By 1794 he is found in the Hancock County tax lists on the same page as his nephew Elisha Mathis, son of Charles Mathews above, who would later marry Thomas's daughter Nancy.²⁴⁶ Thomas had probably been in Georgia for a few years prior to 1794 as his daughter Dorothy is listed in the 1850 census as being born in Georgia and her date of birth is known to be 26 Jun 1792.²⁴⁷ Several notices in Milledgeville area newspapers indicate that Thomas was in business of some sort. One such, dated 7 Jul 1818 from the Georgia Journal, announces the dissolution of the "firm of T. & C. Mathis & J. Brantley" on the "consequence of the death of C. Mathis" which was signed by Thomas Mathis, executor, and Mary Mathis, executrix.²⁴⁸ This announcement coincided with the death of Thomas's son Charles Mathis who was married to Mary Gary so we infer that the Thomas mentioned was in fact the Thomas Mathis under discussion here. A number of announcements in newspapers of the time show that Thomas was frequently an executor of estates of family, in-laws and neighbors so it is possible that he had an education in law. At least one and possibly two of Thomas's sons were attorneys (Gabriel and Robert respectively) so this presumption would not seem unreasonable.

Thomas died in Hancock County in 1829 leaving a will which he named 10 children.²⁴⁹

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Benjamin Mathis's name is only confirmed in two records. The first mention is found in his father's will in which it is stated that he was not yet of legal age and the second is a 6 Jan 1774 Halifax County, North Carolina deed in which he sold the land that his father had devised to him.²⁵⁰ He likely had reached legal age around this time so if a maximum age of 21 is taken for 1774 then his date of birth would have been no later than 1753. The deed in which he sells the 150 acres that his father had left him states that he lived in Chatham County, North Carolina so undoubtedly he was living with one of his siblings when the majority of them had moved there a few years prior.

Benjamin's fate after 1774 is unknown. It is possible that he followed his brother's Isaac or Thomas to Georgia. Records from the areas of Washington and Hancock County suggest that the name "Benjamin" may have been carried forward by future generations so he may in fact have survived to move to Georgia.

According to the last will and testament of Charles Mathews his son Edmond fought in the Revolution. No original sources have been found to confirm this. Edmond died in 1805 and many records of service were lost in the burning of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812 so it is not surprising that there is no record of his war service. At some point Edmond married a woman whose name is found spelled as Dicey in his will²⁵² and Docy in the 1820 census.²⁵³ Dicey and Docey are both pet forms of Theodosia so perhaps that was her name. Edmond appears sporadically in the records of Chatham County, North Carolina through the early 1790s and first appears in Georgia in the 1794 tax list of Hancock Co where he was taxed for 84 1/4 acres.²⁵⁴ Curiously the deed of sale for this same land is dated Dec 1798. The deed says he bought the land from Robert Rutherford (probably either the father-in-law or brother-in-law of his uncle Thomas Mathis who lived in Hancock County also) and that it was "on the waters of the Beaver Dam [Creek] of Ogechee [River]..."²⁵⁵

Edmond died in Hancock County sometime in 1805 and his will was written 25 Dec 1804. In his will he named one son, James, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Dicey (Theodosia?), Nancy and Sarah. Edmond's wife Dicey survived until at least the 1820 census where she is still found in Hancock County, but her fate after 1820 is unknown.

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Brittain Mathis (name spelled several different ways phonetically in the records) was born 7 Nov 1752 in Halifax County, North Carolina.²⁵⁶ While his father's will made no mention of his Revolutionary War service, Brittain's obituary, printed in the 31 Aug 1824 edition of the Georgia Journal, stated that he volunteered for service in a regiment of horse that was organized in Halifax County. The article also referred to him as "Capt. Brittain Matthews" and that he rose to that rank during the war.

No records are known that place Brittain in Georgia prior to mid-1802 although it is quite likely that he was in Hancock County by the 1790s. Virtually every other close family member who moved to Georgia was in the state by that decade. We infer that he was in Georgia no later than 1802 due to the fact that he had registered for the 1805 Georgia land lottery.²⁵⁷ One of the prerequisites for registering for the lottery was residence in Georgia at least one year prior to the land act which was dated 11 May 1803, hence, we know that at the very least Brittain was in Georgia as early as May 1802. Brittain was a fortunate drawer in the 1805 lottery and won land in Baldwin County. Putnam County was formed out of Baldwin County in 1807 and it is Putnam that his obituary stated that he lived at the time of his death.

At this point in time only the name of Brittain's wife, Jane, and two children are known with certainty²⁵⁸ although his obituary did state that he had an extensive family. Various internet sources state that his wife was Jane Wilson and give the names of 5 children, but that information has not been confirmed at this time. Curiously, various internet sources attribute "Jane Wilson" as the name of Brittain's mother so there may be some conflation of data occurring here. Two children, Jane and Lewis, are known from the limited estate records that I currently possess. Future research may reveal the names of other children.

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Of the children of Charles Mathews whose fates we know his daughter Lydia was the only one to not move to Georgia. Lydia married John Riddle about 1778 and stayed in Chatham County, North Carolina until her husband's death sometime before Nov 1830.²⁵⁹ Lydia and her children sold their land after John's death and moved to Hardin County, Tennessee in 1831. After remaining in Tennessee for 10 years most of the family including Lydia moved on to Stoddard County, Missouri.

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Little is known of Milly Mathis. Her name appears in only two records: her father's will and in Chatham County court records of Feb 1783: "...Thomas Riddle, pay unto Milly Matthews, 5 pounds per annum for the term of Seven Years toward to maintenance of a base begotten child, begot of her body, he giving John Riddle, as security for the same."²⁶⁰ Thomas Riddle, brother of John Riddle who had married Milly's sister Lydia, had married Frances Minter, widow of Richard Minter, ca. 1781. Milly's pregnancy could have well occurred prior to this marriage, but after the bastardy bond nothing is known of her.

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Lewis Mathis was perhaps the last of his siblings and close relatives to move to Georgia. The birth of his oldest known son, Jeptha, coincides with the approximate time frame in which he moved so it is unclear where he married his wife Luranah Brantley, either in Chatham County, North Carolina or Washington County, Georgia. It is unclear from the records precisely when Lewis first arrived in Georgia, but a narrow approximation can probably be deduced from the records.

Some sources place Lewis in Washington County, Georgia before 1800, but a Dec 1801 Chatham County, North Carolina deed states that he was living in North Carolina when his brother Elisha sold Lewis 75 acres that had been inherited from their father.²⁶¹ By Feb 1807 a Chatham County deed states that Lewis was at that time living in Washington County, Georgia.²⁶² An 1807 arrival in Georgia is further backed up by the membership rolls of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Warthen, Georgia.²⁶³ If we accept that "Rainer" was a nickname for Lewis's wife Luranah then they are most likely the Lewis Mathis and wife Rainer accepted by letter into the church 13 Jun 1807. This latter date probably explains why Lewis is not found in the list of drawers for the 1805 Georgia land lottery. One had to have been living in Georgia for a year prior to May 1803 to be eligible to draw. This places the arrival of Lewis in Washington County probably sometime between 1805 and early 1807. Even with this said, Lewis is not found in the list of drawers for the 1807 Georgia land lottery so he may not have arrived until 1806. This of course assumes that he would have registered for the lottery. Most people did register, however there were a few holdouts who resisted for various reasons such as religious grounds (associating the lottery with gambling), confusion or even apathy.²⁶⁴

Lewis is found in the 1820 census living in Washington County,²⁶⁵ but sometime after that he moved to Hardeman County, Tennessee for he is found there in the 1830 census.²⁶⁶ Lewis is known to have had 8 children and marriages for 7 of them have been located in Hardeman County marriage records with the earliest being 1 Jan 1828 (daughter Martha).²⁶⁷ Lewis died in Hardeman County 13 Jan 1834 and his family remained there for a number of years. His widow Luranah died in Hardeman County in 1849 and several, if not all, of their children moved on to Mississippi.

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Very little is known of Laban Mathis at this time. Chatham County deed records show that he was living in Warren County, Georgia in 1798 when he sold land in North Carolina to his brother Elisha.²⁶⁸ When he registered for the 1805 Georgia land lottery his place of residence was given as Hancock County, Georgia.²⁶⁹ Laban's name does not appear in the list of drawers for the 1807 lottery for some reason, although he is believed to have still been living in Hancock County at that time. A Jan 1810 court record shows that Laban Matthis and Elisha Matthis, among others, were assigned to build a road from "Mitchells old Store" to Milledgeville.²⁷⁰ The final record of a Laban Mathews in early 1800 records is a man by that name living in Talbot County, Georgia at the time of the 1830 census.²⁷¹ He is ticked off in the 50-59 age bracket so it is possible that this Laban was the son of Charles Mathews. More study needs to be done on Laban to determine his fate.

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Elisha Mathis had moved to Georgia by at least 1794. The Hancock County, Georgia tax list for 1794 shows Elisha listed on the same page as his uncle Thomas Mathis.²⁷² It is inferred from the records that Elisha married his cousin Nancy Mathis, daughter of Thomas Mathis. There is a Hancock County marriage record for Elisha marrying a Nancy Mathis 6 Feb 1810.²⁷³ Elisha was named as one of the executors of his uncle / father-in-law's will and Thomas's daughter Nancy is the only Nancy Mathis known from Hancock County or the surrounding area during this period of time.

Elisha was a fortunate drawer in the 1805 land lottery, drawing a lot in Wilkinson County, however it is unknown whether or not he actually lived there.²⁷⁴ By the time of the 1820 census he is found in Putnam County, which was formed out of Baldwin County in 1807.²⁷⁵ Elisha doesn't appear as a fortunate drawer for the 1807 lottery so he likely purchased land in Baldwin County prior to 1807 or in Putnam County directly after the formation of that district.

To date, the marked headstone of Elisha Mathis is one of the earliest known for the extended Mathews family. He died in 1838 and was buried in Odom Cemetery in Putnam County where a number of other families such as Driskell/Driscoll, Farrar, Hunter and others who were related to the various Mathis families in Georgia are also buried.²⁷⁶ No date of birth is given on Elisha's tombstone although it does note that he was 66 when he died, a fact confirmed by other contemporary sources.

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The other two children of Charles Mathews, Eli and the child with whom his wife was pregnant at the time of Charles's death, are known only from the last will and testament of Charles. Nothing else is known of them at this time.

Ann L. Hunter was the first child named in the will of James Mathews. While there is no indication of what the L stood for it would not be out of question to presume that it may have stood for "Lamar" as that was her maternal grandmother's maiden name. Lamars are mentioned in several deeds in Edgefield County, South Carolina where James Mathews is also mentioned so the families likely lived very near each other. The first name of Ann's husband is not known with certainty, but it may have been James Hunter based on observation of available records. Hunter's brother Alexander had married Ann's sister Elizabeth (see below) and James Hunter and Ann's brother Abraham are found in several Alabama records together. James and Abraham also lived very near each other as evidenced by census records.

Estate records of James Hunter for the year 1839 name 4 children, William, Charles, Thomas and Louisiana and wife Eleanor C. Hunter. In Dec of 1820 James had married Eleanor C. Mathews (last child of James Mathews in table above), but census records for 1830 show that Hunter had 2 boys in the 10-14 age bracket so these could not have been children of Eleanor. Inference is therefore made that James Hunter had previously been married and that the earlier wife was Ann L. Mathews. No firm date of death is known for Ann, but obviously it must have been before Dec 1820 when James Hunter married Eleanor Mathews.

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While we can't be 100% certain which Hunter was married to Ann Mathews, we can be certain which Hunter her sister Elizabeth married. Estate records for Alexander Hunter in 1838 mention his wife Elizabeth S. Hunter who must have been the daughter of James Mathews. James entrusted James Hunter and A. Hunter to witness a deed in 1811 in Edgefield County, South Carolina in which he and his wife sold nearly 200 acres of land.²⁷⁷ The 1820 Alabama state census shows that Alexander and his family were in Dallas County, Alabama by the time that census was taken.²⁷⁸ Neither James Hunter nor Abraham Mathews is found in Dallas County nor any other location in the 1820 census. Perhaps their families were en route for Alabama when the census was taken. By the time of the 1830 census all three men (and Dinah Mathews, mother of Elizabeth, Ann and Abraham) were found in Dallas County with their families.^{279 280 281}

By the time of his death Alexander and Elizabeth Hunter had 7 children (per Alexander's estate records). In 1840 Elizabeth is inferred to be living in the home of her eldest son James H. Hunter as she is presumed to be the woman in the 40-49 age bracket.²⁸² In 1850 Elizabeth is listed as the head of the household with 6 of her children and one grandchild living with her.²⁸³ By 1860 Elizabeth had moved to Lowndes County, Alabama to live with her son James and it is presumably in Lowndes County that she died in 1864.²⁸⁴

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The next child of James Mathews who was named in his will was son Thomas. Nothing further is known of him at this time aside from the will. As of the summer of 2011 new information is coming to light which may reveal who this Thomas was. yDNA testing has revealed that Henry Mathews (next section) is a descendant of James Mathews Sr. A descendant of a Thomas Knewle Mathis has identical DNA test results to Henry. As we will see below there is every reason to believe that Henry was a son of James (son of Thomas, not James Sr. who is the patriarch of the at-large Mathews/Mathis family) ergo it may be that James's son Thomas was Thomas Knewle Mathis. This is highly speculative at the moment and needs much more research.

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The Henry Mathews named in the will of James Mathews now appears to be the Henry Mathews who died in Edgefield County, South Carolina ca. 1829. As mentioned in the previous section recent yDNA testing of a descendant of Henry proves a connection to the at-large Mathews family. In my opinion the most likely father of Henry is James Mathews although I am not so convinced that Dinah Braswell Mathews was his mother.

Henry only appears in eight Edgefield District deeds, but it is apparent that he was living in the western part of the county near the Savannah River. Henry never sold or bought land and no deed mentions land that bordered any he might have owned so we cannot determine precisely where he lived. The deeds in which he appears are exclusively of a type in which he witnesses the transactions of others. Four of the eight deeds in which Henry appears mention waterways that can be located: Dry Creek, Sweetwater Creek, Chavers Creek and Buckhalter Creek. All four of these waterways are near and between two areas that James and Dinah Mathews owned land: Loyd Creek to the north and Ft. Moore Bluff to the south.

Since I highly suspect that the James Mathews in Edgefield District was the son of Thomas Mathews (mainly due to his apparent ties back to Chatham County via James's wife Dinah) and that James had a son named Henry and the descendants of the Henry of Edgefield are obviously related to the at-large Mathews family (from yDNA evidence) and the Henry of Edgefield was living fairly near to where James and Dinah owned land (and fairly far away from any other Mathews) I conclude that the Henry Mathews of Edgefield County was the son of James and Dinah Mathews which means that James must be related to the at large Mathews family.

According to a Howard family bible Henry married Nancy Howard, daughter of Enos Howard and Sarah Green.²⁸⁵ This marriage most likely took place in Edgefield County around 1808 since Henry's eldest child, Thomas Charles Mathis, was born 24 Sept 1809.²⁸⁶ When Henry died ca. 1829 he did not leave a will and multiple sources must be used to gather the names of all of his children. His eldest son, Thomas, was appointed administrator of the estate and he is listed as Henry's son in some later estate papers when Henry's land was being sold.²⁸⁷ Most of the remaining children can be found in the same estate papers, or in Janie Revill's book summarizing Edgefield County records. A final child who is typically overlooked is a daughter, Sarah, who died before Henry's estate was settled.²⁸⁸

Henry's youngest son, Andrew Jackson Mathis, was born about 1828.²⁸⁹ Henry only appears in the 1820 census and his wife Nancy is the head of their household in the 1830 and 1840 census. As such it would appear that Henry died sometime around 1828 or 1829 give or take a year.

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John Mathews is only known with certainty from the will of James Mathews. There was a John Mathews who also appears in Edgefield County deed records as early as 1798 living in the Stevens Creek area which is the same area that James and Henry Mathews are found. For this John to have been a son of James Mathews he would have had to have been born much earlier than several of his siblings. To purchase land one needed to be at least 21 years of age and the 1798 deed shows a John Mathews purchasing 209 acres on Stevens Creek from Leonard Nobles.²⁹⁰ This John would have been born, at the latest, in 1777. There are a smattering of other deeds that mention a John Mathews in this area until at least 1819 (which curiously coincides with the year that James Mathews died). Whether or not this John was the son of James Mathews is unknown and there is not enough information at hand to make a determination one way or the other.

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Like his brother John, James Mathews Jr. is only known for certain from the last will and testament of their father James. There are a number of deeds that mention a James Mathews, but the overwhelming majority of these can be attributed to either his father or another James Mathews who lived in the northeastern part of the county near the village of Ninety Six who was a son of William Mathews. While in most cases it is easy to determine what part of the county a given deed takes place it is not so easy to determine if every deed in the Stevens Creek area refers to the elder James Mathews rather than his son. In the 1820 census of Edgefield County there is a James Mathis listed who may be the son of the elder James Mathews.²⁹¹ Several surnames on the same census page as this James Mathis and the page before and after James have some of the same surnames found in deeds of the elder James Mathews and also Henry Mathis. Further study could determine if this James was living near the Stevens Creek area in 1820.

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Abraham Mathews (also commonly found as Abram) left, perhaps, the most records of any of the children of James Mathews. After the death of James in 1819 Abraham and his mother Dinah quickly sold off the land that his father had owned in Edgefield County. Land records of Edgefield County clearly show James Mathews purchasing 150 acres and 43 acres in 1799²⁹² and 1814²⁹³ respectively from his wife's Lamar relatives. On 19 Dec 1819 Dinah Mathews and her son Abraham sold these two plats to Joseph Hutcherson [Hutchinson] and the deed points out the 1799 and 1814 deeds in which they were originally acquired by Abraham's father.²⁹⁴

Abraham, his mother, and his siblings who are known to have moved to Alabama (brother Samuel and sisters Elizabeth and Eleanor---- his sister Ann may have died before leaving South Carolina) apparently moved away quickly. Neither Abraham, nor his mother nor his brothers-in-law Alexander and James Hunter are located in the 1820 census records of Edgefield County (Alexander Hunter is, however, found in the 1820 state census of Alabama in Dallas County²⁹⁵). Beginning in 1830 we find all of these people in the census records of Alabama where they would live out their lives (with the exception of Samuel as discussed below).^{296 297 298 299}

Fortunately Abraham kept a family bible in which the names of his wife and children were studiously recorded. From the bible we learn the dates of birth for Abraham, his wife and 13 children. He married Harriet Adams probably around 1825 in Dallas County, Alabama and that they had a large family of 13 children.³⁰⁰

Abraham and his family lived in Dallas County until some time after the 1840 census. Afterwards he is found living in Perry County for the remainder of his life.³⁰¹ Abraham died at the ripe old age of 90 on 22 Jun 1890 and was buried in Marion Cemetery where several other family members were interred.

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Samuel Mathews appears to have moved to Alabama with his mother and several siblings. He is probably the 20-29 year old male found in his mother's household in the 1830 Dallas County census.³⁰² After his mother died Samuel is enumerated immediately following his brother Abram in the 1840 Dallas County census.³⁰³ After 1850 Samuel disappears from Alabama records, however it is possible that he moved to Texas. A descendant of a John Duke Mathews traces his tree back to a Samuel Mathews. From the link just given we see that John Duke Mathews was from the area Dallas County, Alabama. More research needs to be done on this family sub-group, but this would appear to be the family of Samuel who was a son of James and Dinah Mathews.

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It is believed that Eleanor Cornelia Mathews married her sister Ann's widower, James Hunter. Ann apparently died before 1820 leaving James with 2 young children. On 30 Dec 1820 Eleanor married a James Hunter in Dallas County, Alabama.³⁰⁴ The 1830 census shows that Hunter had two children that had to have been born prior to his marriage to Eleanor.³⁰⁵ The names of these children as well as the two that he had from his marriage to Eleanor are given in James Hunter's estate papers from 1839.

The first person presented here as a theoretical child of Isaac Mathis is William Matthews. William's surname is kept at Matthews since that is the spelling found by and large after he moved to Missouri and, most importantly, his descendants use that spelling. There are two primary reasons for hypothesizing that William was one of Isaac's children. First, he was living in Washington County, Georgia before moving to Missouri and apparently living near where Isaac lived. Second, it is known that William is a descendant of James Mathews Sr. because the results of one of William's descendant's yDNA test matches those of us who have a confirmed paper trail back to James. With only one exception Isaac is really the only viable option for William's father among those Mathews/Mathis men who are known. The one exception is Benjamin Mathews, but Benjamin is believed to have been too young to have been William's father if William was in fact born in 1764. In my opinion this leaves only Isaac among the known Mathews/Mathis men who were old enough to have been William's father and about whom we know nothing for certain regarding their family. Note the repeated emphasis on known Mathews/Mathis men. There is at least one glaring hole in our current knowledge on the extended Mathews family. As has been noted elsewhere on this website it appears likely that there was an unknown son of James Mathews Sr. whose offspring may explain the presence of various mystery Mathews men in various locations. They appear to be related to the James Sr. family based on their interactions with them and their living in very close proximity to them.

Since there does not appear to be any mystery Mathews or Mathis individuals living around the area where William and Isaac lived during the period of the late 1790s to early 1800s Isaac seems to me to be the best option for William's father. In an effort towards full disclosure there was a John Mathis Sr. in Washington County as early as 1805 that has been brought up as a possible father of William, but not enough is known about that individual aside from the fact that he may have been the John Mathews who is known to have moved to Washington County from Halifax County, North Carolina (per his later Revolutionary War pension request).³⁰⁷

William's birth is recorded as 23 Jul 1764 in the family bible of his daughter Telitha.³⁰⁸ No source involving William specifically informs us of his place of birth, but the 1880 census entry for his son William Russell Matthews shows that his father was born in North Carolina.³⁰⁹ Headright and Bounty Grant records indicate that a William Mathews/Matthews (both spellings are used) received land in Washington County, Georgia in 1784 and 1786. This land may have been awarded for Revolutionary War service, but it is unknown if this William is the William theorized to have been Isaac's son or some other man.

William Matthews married Charity Jane English, daughter of Thomas English and Jane Wicker, about 1801-1805.³¹⁰ There is a William Mathis who was on the rolls of people entitled to draw in the 1805 Georgia land lottery and that William had two draws which indicated that he either had a wife and/or children.³¹¹ It is believed that this William was the William who married Charity Jane English. An individual had to be a resident of Georgia for one year prior to the land act of 1803 in order to be eligible to draw so William was either married or had children already by 1802 at the latest. William drew two blanks (meaning he did not win any land) and immediately after the drawing William Mathews and those members of the Wicker and English families who did not win any land moved to Missouri. Several documents from Cape Girardeau County, Missouri clearly indicate the presence of William Mathews in that county by 1806.³¹²

Church records of Bethlehem Baptist Church near Warthen in Washington County indicate that William was a member of that congregation.³¹³ Although Charity's name is not on the membership roll her parents were.³¹⁴ An interesting fact about this church is that it was located in the same area that Isaac Mathis lived on Keg Creek. The church was first located on Keg Creek when it was formed in 1790. In 1795 it was relocated just to the northeast of Warthen between the town and Williamson Swamp Creek.³¹⁵ An 1815 notice from the Georgia Journal mentions a parcel of land being sold that was on Williamson Swamp and adjoined Mathis.³¹⁶ We cannot tell for certain if "Mathis" in this case refers to land that Isaac Mathis owned. Whether or not Isaac owned the parcel just mentioned is not necessarily important one way or the other. What is important, however, is that Keg Creek was no more than a handful of miles away on the west side of Warthen and William Mathews was a member of this church that was perhaps only an hour's ride away from where Isaac lived on Keg Creek.

Little investigation has been done to date by this researcher after William moved to Missouri. It is known that he had 13 children, 10 of which have been identified. William died about 1836 and at the time he was said to have been about 70 years of age. His wife Charity died about 1860 and she was said to have been about 80 years old.³¹⁷

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With William Mathews we have some interesting observations regarding where he probably lived and went to church in comparison to Isaac Mathis, but we have to approach the possible tie of Robert Mathews to Isaac in a much more round-a-bout way.

There were at least two other men named Robert Mathews who should first be eliminated as not being the Robert Mathews discussed here to avoid possible confusion. Both of the Roberts will be discussed elsewhere as they are known members of the extended Mathews family. The first was the Robert Mathews who was a son of Isaac Mathews Sr. This Robert moved from Halifax County, North Carolina to Wilkes County, Georgia where he died in early 1805. The other Robert Mathews (Mathis) was a son of Thomas Mathis (brother of Isaac Mathis) and died in Hancock County, Georgia in 1824.

The Robert who is theorized to be a son of Isaac Mathis does not appear in any records of Washington County, Georgia as far as I know. The two counties in which he does appear in the records aren't even adjoining Washington County. He first appears in the records of Pulaski County, Georgia where he is mentioned in court records as a jurist. He is also found in the 1820 census for that county.³¹⁸ Shortly after the census Robert moved to Walton County, Georgia. It is recorded in the deed records of that county that Robert acquired lot #71 which was in the northern part of the county.³¹⁹ Curiously this deed stated that Robert was of Warren County, Georgia when he purchased the lot. After Robert died in mid-1823 his estate papers mention that he also owned lot #75.³²⁰

Just these few records is obviously not enough to associate Robert with Isaac. The tie that binds, however, is found with Robert's neighbors and known associates. In the Pulaski county census for 1820 John Jean, son of Isaac Mathis's second wife Sally (Daniel) Jean Mathis by her first marriage, is found listed 15 names below Robert Mathews. After moving to Walton County we find that Robert is a very near neighbor of not only John Jean (their lots touched on a corner), but also Absalom Hopson (who was listed a few names below John Jean in the 1820 Pulaski County census) and also James Carmichael. We find James Carmichael listed 5 names above Sally Mathis, widow of Isaac, in the 1820 Washington County census pages.³²¹ Not only that, but James Carmichael had married Sarah Mathis (see below) another of the theoretical children of Isaac.

It should be clear now that these records show that the Robert Mathews of Pulaski County in 1820 was obviously the same Robert found a few years later in Walton County. Additionally, the association of John Jean and James Carmichael indirectly hint at a possible tie back to Sally (Daniel) Jean Mathis in Washington County.

John Jean and Robert's widow Mary applied for letters of administration on Robert's estate on 1 Sept 1823 which tells us that Robert had died no more than a few days prior to that date. Estate papers of his wife Mary from 1853 reveal that her maiden name was Barker (a brother is referenced). The names of 4 children are given in their estate papers.

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Several bits of information concerning Sarah Mathis and her husband James Carmichael are hearsay that I have not been able to verify independently. No source has yet been found that implicitly states that the maiden name of James's first wife was Mathis or Mathews, but there definitely seems to be some Mathis connection as one of their daughters, Mary Mathis Carmichael, had the middle name of Mathis and after she married Daniel Jean several of Mary's children had compellingly interesting names that hearken back to some connection to the Mathis family such as Littleton Mathis Jean and Robert Mathis Jean.³²²

As noted above in the section above on Robert Mathews there is no doubt that James Carmichael was allied with John Jean who himself connects to the Mathis family by being a step-son of Isaac Mathis. Carmichael was living very near to Isaac's widow in the 1820 census and very shortly thereafter he was a next door neighbor of Robert Mathews's widow and children and very near neighbor of John Jean.

Various internet sources give specific dates of birth and death for James Carmichael, 25 Mar 1784 to 7 Feb 1863, and Sarah Mathis, about 1789 to 23 Apr 1853, but these dates have not been verified. It is quite possible that they are known from cemetery records or a family bible. Supposedly James and Sarah married 8 Apr 1808 in Walton County, Georgia, but this also has not been verified. For certain the marriage is almost guaranteed to have not taken place in Walton County as that county was not organized until 1819. While a few people were living there prior to the 1820 land lottery when Walton County land was distributed it seems very unlikely that a marriage would have taken place in what was Creek Indian land in 1808, especially when considering that Carmichael was living near Sarah Jean Mathis in Washington County in 1820.

The first appearance of James Carmichael in Walton County that I have found was his May 1824 purchase of lot number 70 in northern Walton County.³²³ Robert Mathews had died by this date and lot 70 was directly beside lot number 71 (to the south) where Robert's widow and children lived.

James Carmichael has not been located in the 1830 census, however by 1840 he was living in Heard County, Georgia.³²⁴ In 1850 he is again listed in Heard County and it is from that census that we are able to first estimate the birth year of his wife Sarah (age 60).³²⁵ Sarah is not found after this date so the 1853 year of death found on the internet is at least plausible. Only two children are known from their marriage. The fact that only 3 children are listed in James's household in 1820 lends credence that they probably had a fairly small family.³²⁶

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The connection of Gideon Mathis to Isaac Mathis is perhaps the most tenuous of all of the theoretical children of Isaac. There are two sources that are causes for thought. The first involves the estate of Jesse Daniel who died in Chatham County, North Carolina in 1822. Estate administration papers list Gideon Mathis as one of several men who owed a debt to Jesse who just happened to be the brother of Isaac's second wife Sally. While it would be impossible to say for certain that the Gideon mentioned in this record was the Gideon Mathis found in Georgia it is particularly interesting that a man named Gideon Mathis owed a debt to the estate of the brother-in-law of Isaac Mathis.

The second source that possibly connects Gideon to Isaac, although only indirectly, is a copy of an old letter, written by a C. C. Dobbs, in the possession of Daniel family researcher Sonia Hetherington that states that Gideon Mathis and Nancy Mathis (see below) were brother and sister.³²⁷ Even if this is true we are still unable to satisfactorily connect Nancy to Isaac. I tried to connect Hetherington, but to date no current email address for her has been found to verify the letter.

In any event, family history holds that Gideon Mathis was married to Hannah Brantley sometime before 1813. Their oldest child is believed to be Mary and her birth date per her tombstone is 15 Feb 1813.³²⁸ The marriage of Gideon to a Brantley is interesting given the obvious connections between the Mathews/Mathis families of Chatham County, North Carolina of which Isaac Mathis was a part of (see also Charles Mathews family). To date Brantley family researchers who have done extensive work on their lines have not been able to conclusively identify Hannah's parents.

Regarding Gideon's daughter Mary, an interesting observation is made that bolsters the argument that these speculative children of Isaac were all part of a larger sphere of connection. Mary's son Charles Gideon Thaxton, from her first marriage, married Amanda Abagail Smith, grand daughter of James Carmichael and Sarah Mathis. If it is true that Gideon Mathis and Sarah (Mathis) Carmichael were in fact siblings then Charles Gideon Thaxton married his second cousin. If the supposition that Gideon and Sarah were not siblings or children of Isaac then the marriage of Thaxton and Smith would seem to be an extreme coincidence in the larger view of the children of Isaac Mathis.

The first appearance of Gideon known to this researcher is the 1820 census in which he is found in Jones County, Georgia.³²⁹ In 1830 Gideon is found in the census records for Meriwether County, Georgia.³³⁰

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Littleton Mathis is the only theoretical child of Isaac that we can actually be fairly certain of. In Cotton to Kaolin: A History of Washington County, Georgia, 1784 - 1989 editor Mary Alice Jordan erroneously states that Littleton Mathis was the son of Thomas and Mary (Rutherford) Mathis.³³¹ We can be almost 100% certain that this is incorrect due to the fact that Thomas does not name Littleton in his will, nor does Littleton appear in the estate papers of Thomas. Aside from their last name there is nothing to connect Thomas to Littleton. Conversely there are a number of bits of circumstantial evidence to connect Littleton to Isaac.

Littleton died 5 Mar 1883 and when The Sandersville Herald reported his death in its 8 Mar 1883 edition the obituary stated that Littleton "...was born within a few rods of the spot where he had lived, with the exception of perhaps a few months, continuously until 1877..."³³² If that statement is true then Littleton was born on Keg Creek and lived there for most of his life. The 1825 tax list for Washington County shows that Littleton was taxed for 40 acres of land on K[eg] Creek and that he owned no other land (or at the very least was not listed as owning any additional land in the county).³³³ Littleton's tax list entry further shows that his land adjoined John Bentley. Isaac's widow Sally Mathis is also in the 1825 tax list and shown living on K[eg] Creek. The 1820 census shows that John Bentley is listed 2 names below Sally.

Littleton married Martha Elizabeth Hooks, daughter of Hillary Hooks and Sarah Smith, on 11 Dec 1823 in Washington County.³³⁴ Listed 4 names below Sally Mathis in the 1820 census is Hillary's widow, Sally Hooks.

While the connection between the Knight and Mathis families is not known to me Littleton and his wife Martha are buried in the Knight-Mathis Cemetery in Washington County.³³⁵ Listed immediately before Sally Mathis in the 1820 census is Charles Knight.

Littleton's mother, Sally Mathis, was a daughter of Isham Daniel and one of her brothers was Littleton Daniel. The name Littleton is used many times across several generations of the Daniel family. This fact taken together with the above observations of where Littleton lived in 1825 (Keg Creek); his in-laws living near Sally Mathis; his 1825 neighbor John Bentley living very near, if not next door, to Sally Mathis in the 1820 census; his having the name that is very commonly found in the Daniel family; and, his burial place carrying the name of a man who lived next to Sally Mathis in 1820 leaves only one logical conclusion in lieu of any direct evidence: Littleton must have been the son of Isaac and Sally Mathis. There are other bits of circumstantial evidence that could be brought up, but the facts mentioned here should be sufficient to lead one to the conclusion that Littleton was Isaac's son.

The family bible of Littleton Mathis gives us the names of 14 children and many dates for births, marriages and deaths for 3 generations.

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As mentioned above in the section on Gideon there is a letter written by a C. C. Dobbs many years ago that purportedly claims that Gideon and Nancy Mathis were brother and sister. This claim does not connect either of those two to Isaac, however if one sibling is found to be a child of Isaac from an independent source then obviously the other would be Isaac's child also, assuming the letter is correct in its claims. Apparently this letter is also the source for the Nancy in question being a Mathis since no other records can be found which give her last name except for various internet postings that tie back to the Dobbs letter.

Whatever the opinions on Nancy may be it is known that David Daniel was married to a woman named Nancy per the 1850 census in Choctaw County, Mississippi.³³⁶ Nancy appears in no census records beyond 1850 and David later remarried. The 1850 census shows 8 children in their household.

Sarah "Sally" Mathis was the first child named in the will of Thomas Mathis and per the will she was married to a Chappell. Thomas appears to deviate from naming his children in order although there is a good possibility that Sally was in fact his oldest. Chappell family researchers report that Sally's husband was John, son of John Chappell and Nancy Harrison, and that he and Sarah were married in 1795. Not much is known of John and Sarah Chappell by me, but they reportedly had 11 children and the family eventually moved to Talbot County, Georgia.

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After naming daughter Sally in his will Thomas's remaining children are almost certainly not named in order of their birth. Gabriel Throckmorton Mathis was probably the second child of Thomas and Mary Mathis. Much discussion has taken place on internet forums and mailing lists about that intriguing middle name: Throckmorton. The name absolutely smacks of posh British gentry. Several theories have been put forward as to the reasons for its use as a middle name of one of Thomas's children, but I hold no particular theory as being any more possible than another. Throckmorton is completely unknown as a first, middle or maiden name in the at-large Mathews family aside from Gabriel. It also is unknown as a name in use by the Rutherford family by any of Mary Rutherford Mathis's siblings or parents. It is possible that some earlier generation of the Rutherford family had used the name. Or, it would seem just as possible that it was the name of a close friend of either Thomas or Mary.

Gabriel is the first Mathews/Mathis confirmed to have received education beyond the local, rural level. The Georgia state legislature established the University of Georgia in Athens (Clarke County) in 1785, but it took nearly 20 years for the land to be set aside, a board of trustees formed and money raised to finally build the university. It wasn't until 1801 that classes were finally held and that first class graduated in 1804. Among the nine graduates of that first class was William Walter Rutherford who may have been a relative of Gideon via his mother Mary Rutherford Mathis. The second class graduated the following year with only 4 seniors and among the four was Gabriel Mathis.³³⁷

The fact that Gabriel was able to attend the first public university in the United States and that his brother John was a doctor reveals that Thomas Mathis must have been a man of at least moderate wealth, either obtained by his own labors or from a combination of family wealth and that of his wife's Rutherford family. The entrance requirements of the University of Georgia at that time were quite specific and indicate that it is highly unlikely that Gabriel received his childhood education in a normal school. From the list of requirements is this statement which would probably seem a bit strange to us today: "No one shall be admitted unless he shall be found able to read, translate and parse Cicero, Virgil and the Greek Testament and to write true Latin in Prose..."³³⁸ The full capability of doing ANY of those things was not taught in a typical post-colonial period school. Gabriel's father must have either sent him away for schooling during his formative years or hired a private tutor.

Gabriel decided to live in Clarke County after graduating and in late 1810 he married Letitia Eugenia Billups (her given name is spelled several ways in the records), daughter of William Billups of Clarke County.³³⁹ Gabriel and his family stayed in Clarke County until sometime between 1830 and 1840. He is found listed in the census records of 1820³⁴⁰ and 1830³⁴¹ in Clarke County and by 1840³⁴² he had moved to Randolph County in the southwestern portion of Georgia. Gabriel stayed in Randolph County for a number of years and is found there in the 1840 and 1850 census records.

The 1850 census record appears to have erroneous (and strange) data for Gabriel.³⁴³ Gabriel was likely born in the early 1780s and possibly as early as 1780 (assuming his age of 90 is approximately correct in the 1870 census). Some internet sources place his date of birth as 1787 most likely due to the age given for him in the 1850 census, however, this is almost certainly incorrect since it disagrees with the age given for Gabriel in every other census in which he is found. If the head of household or their spouse was unavailable it was not uncommon for census enumerators to get their information on families from neighbors or even those in the household who had no business giving the data. Gabriel's age is given as 63 in 1850, but for this to be true he would have had to have been a child prodigy who graduated from the University of Georgia with a 4 year degree at the age of 17. An estimation of 1780 closely agrees with a statement given in Gabriel's War of 1812 pension papers. After his death on 10 Dec 1877 Gabriel's son-in-law, Richard Scarborough, stated Gabriel lacked the time between 10 Dec 1877 and 14 Aug 1878 or being 100 years old.³⁴⁴ Whether or not Scarborough's statement is 100% accurate it is still very close to my estimation of ca. 1780 which is actually derived from the census records (except for 1850).

Not only is his age incorrect, but his name is listed as Jobe(!) Mathews. I have stared at that census record quite a bit and there is no way that "Gabe" is what was written and it is almost certainly "Jobe". It is highly unlikely that Jobe Mathews is some other individual besides Gabriel since the head of household in which we find "Jobe" is listed as Zenoe L. Mathews. One of Gabriel's sons was Zenas Leander Mathis; the chances that Zenoe L. is not in fact Zenas Leander would seem highly unlikely given how unusual his name was.

Gabriel has not been located in the 1860 census, however we do find his sons Gabriel Jr. and Charles in Dale County, Alabama.^{345, 346} In 1870 Gabriel is enumerated living near them in Dale County so it is possible that he was simply missed in 1860 (which does happen with some families occasionally) and that he had also moved there after 1850.³⁴⁷ The US Department of Interior's website for the Bureau of Land Management does show Gabriel T. Mathis and Gabriel R. Mathis (Gabriel's son) obtaining land in Dale County between the period of 1853-1854.³⁴⁸

It is believed that there is a family bible which lists Gabriel's children. Various sources on the internet attribute 11 children to him and Letitia. Seven of these children have been located in census, marriage and family history records. The counts of children given for Gabriel's households in pre-1850 census records do seem to jibe with the total count of 11 although it appears that the 4 children who cannot be located in later records probably died young.

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Nancy Mathis was born about 1782 most likely in Newberry District, South Carolina where her father lived for a few years prior to moving to Georgia. She married her cousin Elisha Mathis in Hancock County in 1810³⁴⁹ and they had a single child, John Thomas Mathis. After Elisha died in 1838³⁵⁰ Nancy and her son moved to Marion County, Georgia in the western portion of the state. Nancy was most likely the 60-69 year old female in the household of her newly married son in the 1840 census³⁵¹ and in 1850 we find her living alone relatively near to her son.³⁵² Also in the same general area were grandchildren of Nancy's aunt Sarah Mathis Hill (wife of Abner Hill).

It is unknown when Nancy died, although she was buried back in Putnam County. She is not found in the census records after 1860. Her son, John Thomas Mathis was an officer in the Confederate Army and after the war he remarried in Putnam County. Since Nancy was buried in Putnam County their family group no doubt returned to Putnam either during or immediately after the war. Elisha, Nancy, their son John and several other related families (Driskell, Farrar, Odom and possibly others) are buried in Layson Cemetery (aka Odom Cemetery) which is believed to have originally been the Elisha Mathis family cemetery and located on his property. See Layson Cemetery at Find-a-Grave for details.

See section on Elisha Mathis for more information.

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According to an abbreviated family bible record printed in a DAR publication Charles Mathis was born in 1786.³⁵³ The accuracy of this date is unknown and the trustworthiness of DAR records from the time period the information on Charles was first published is questionable (as a side note, DAR has made an incredible effort over the past few years to clean up a lot of their problematic family data). Regardless, the date of 1786 would appear to be acceptable based on what is known about the other children of Thomas. This same bible record also states that Charles was married to Mary Gary, a fact which is confirmed from the marriage records of Hancock County, Georgia where we find that they were married 22 De 1807.³⁵⁴ Mary was a daughter of James Gary and Rebecca Lee. James Gary was a brother of Hartwell Gary, father-in-law of Charles Mathis's brother Robert R. Mathis (below).

Little is known about the life of Charles Mathis. One of he few things about him that we do know is that, as was mentioned in the section on his father Thomas, he was apparently in business with his father and a J. Brantley. What that business might have been is unknown. As has been mentioned in previous sections the Brantleys had intermarried with the Mathis family and vice versa on several occasions so there is a possibility that J. Brantley was related in some way to Thomas and Charles. Based on Hancock County court records it appears that Charles also ran a tavern out of his home. On 4 Dec 1815 he was granted a license to "...retail Spirits at his place of residence in Hancock County for the term of one year..."³⁵⁵

In the will of Thomas Mathis, written 2 Jun 1824, we see that Charles was already dead. The newspaper notice that mentioned that Charles and his father were in business together was a notice of dissolution of their firm based on the death of Charles. This was dated 7 Jul 1818 so the death was sometime prior to that account. The DAR family bible record mentioned above simply states that Charles died in 1818.

A newspaper notice from Oct 1818 tells us that Charles lived on the waters of Buffaloe [sic] Creek and his land adjoined John Borland³⁵⁶ who, as noted below, was married to Mary Mathis, one of Charles's sisters. Hancock County court records name four children: Martha Ann, Julia Elizabeth, Susan and Sidney P. Mathis.³⁵⁷

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Dr. John Rutherford Mathis, born about 1787, was another child of Thomas and Mary that, presumably, received higher education. Several newspaper notices from Milledgeville, Georgia area newspapers refer to him as "Dr. John Mathis".³⁵⁸ It would seem safe to assume that his title was a result of some type of medical education/training, but where he received his education in that area is unknown. The two closest universities that may have taught medical classes would have been either the University of Georgia in Athens where John's brother Gideon received his degree or possibly even the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. There were other colleges in the South such as the College of Charleston (South Carolina) and the College of William and Mary in Virginia, but the former was only sporadically open between 1797 and 1811 and closed completely between 1811 and 1824, whereas the latter may have been too far away when UGA and UNC may have offered a satisfactory education and would have been closer to where John was from.

John married Priscilla Dupree probably around 1805 in Georgia and was living in Washington County, Georgia at least as early as 1818.³⁵⁹ Priscilla's last name is given as "Dupree" in a number of internet genealogies and while this is probably true I have located no original source record giving that name. Priscilla and Lewis Dupree both applied for letters of administration on John's estate on 30 Mar 1829 so John most likely died within a handful of days prior to that.³⁶⁰ Due to Lewis Dupree also applying for administration on John's estate the idea that Priscilla was also a Dupree seems reasonable since there were no known Dupree ties in the Mathis family at this time.

There were a large number of Milledgeville newspaper notices from the early 1800s that name a John Mathis. It is doubtful that all of them refer to the John discussed here. Some refer to Dr. John Mathis--- these probably do refer to this John--- while other notices mention a jailer, a constable, a court clerk and a politician. The jailer and constable may have been the same person while the clerk and politician was likely John Mathews, son of James Mathews III. As has been mentioned previously there was another John Mathews/Mathis living in Washington County who was from Halifax County, North Carolina and it is this other John that may have been the jailer and/or constable.

Estate records indicate that John had 8 children living at this time of his death in 1829 in addition to his wife Priscilla.³⁶¹

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The next child of Thomas Mathis was probably his daughter Mary, born about 1788 or 1789 (her tombstone says 1789). On 1 Nov 1810 she married John Borland in Hancock County, Georgia.³⁶² Like the Mathis family the Borlands were also from the area of Orange and Chatham County, North Carolina prior to moving to Georgia. John Borland and his family lived next door to Mary's brother Charles (as mentioned above in the section on Charles) on Buffalo Creek and apparently lived on Charles's land after his death. Perhaps Borland lived there prior to the death of Charles as well.

John Borland is found in the census records of Hancock County in both 1820³⁶³ and 1830.³⁶⁴ After this his location is uncertain and there seems to be misinformation about where he lived in 1840. Many people count him in Clarke County, Alabama in the 1840 census, but this would seem to be unlikely. First, Clarke County is on the extreme western side of Alabama and his wife Mary and son Thomas Mathis Borland were known to have lived and died in the area of Dale County (later Houston County), Alabama: why would John move so far west and then his widow and at least one child move back eastward? Second, John's wife Mary is known to be buried in what is now Houston County (part of Dale County at the time she died) in Clark Cemetery.³⁶⁵ Perhaps the "Clark" part of the cemetery name was somehow convoluted with Clarke County? Third, and perhaps most importantly, the J. W. Boland found in the 1840 census in Clarke County was counted as being age 30-40 and the female, presumably his wife, is in the 20-30 column. Both of these age brackets are far too young to have been accurate if this were truly the John Borland who married Mary Mathis, John Borland would have been in his mid 50s and Mary Mathis Borland would have been 41 or 42. While it is true that inaccuracies abound in the census records as far as ages go it seems likely that the age brackets for John and Mary would have been one tick higher if this were truly them. Also, their children would have certainly been living with this at this time and no children are found in this Clark County household.

So, the fate of John Borland is unknown although internet information says that he died in 1850, however to date we do not know where he died. His wife Mary on the other hand is found buried in Clark Cemetery outside of Dothan, Alabama (her tombstone actually reads Tolly Borland) with the dates 1789 to Nov 1876. Interestingly in the same cemetery we also find a grandson of Mary's brother Gabriel Throckmorton Mathis along with his wife and son. At least one of Mary's sons, Thomas Mathis Borland, was married in Randolph County, Georgia in 1849.³⁶⁶ During this same time period Gabriel Mathis and several of his children were also living in Randolph County. In the 1850s Gabriel moved to Dale County, Alabama. While we are unable to trace either John Borland or Mary Mathis Borland through the census records past 1830 it would appear that the Borlands were following the Gabriel Mathis family. First to Randolph County, Georgia and then at some point on to Dale County, Alabama.

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Robert R. Mathis did not appear in many records so details on his life are largely a mystery. He married Julia B. Gary, daughter of Hartwell Gary, a local Hancock County, Georgia judge, and Rebecca Butterworth on 22 Dec 1814 in Hancock County.³⁶⁷ Court records show that when he died in 1824 he had three children.³⁶⁸ After his death his widow married James M. Parmer or Palmer.³⁶⁹

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The eighth child of Thomas Mathis was Dorothy Brooks Mathis who was born 26 Jun 1792 in Georgia (probably Hancock County)³⁷⁰ and named in honor of her maternal grandmother Dorothy Ann Brooks. She married her cousin John Morgan Minter, a grandson Abner and Sarah Mathis Hill, Dorothy's uncle and aunt, in Hancock County on 6 Feb 1817.³⁷¹

The Minters are not found in the 1820 census, but in 1830 they are located just to the west of Hancock County in next-door Putnam County where a few other Mathis relatives also lived.³⁷² By 1850 the family was located near the Alabama border in Marion County³⁷³ where, coincidentally, Dorothy's sister Nancy and the family of Nancy's son John T. Mathis also lived. Dorothy died in Marion County on 21 Jan 1852 and was buried in the Buena Vista City Cemetery. Perhaps spurred by the death of his wife John Morgan Minter, a Georgia state senator, moved to Texas in 1853 and his children soon followed him.

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Elizabeth R. Mathis was the ninth child of Thomas Mathis. Her middle initial is given on both her tombstone and on her marriage license to Pleasant Bonner and while R may have stood for Rutherford evidence has not surfaced yet to prove this definitively. According to her tombstone she was born 11 Nov 1794, probably in Hancock County.³⁷⁴ She first married Pleasant Bonner, son of Richard Bonner and Frances Mitchell, on 4 May 1819 in Hancock County.³⁷⁵ The Bonner family was related by marriage in at least one instance to the Gary family to which the Mathises also intermarried. It is possible that some unknown familial relationship existed between the Bonner and Mathis family prior to Elizabeth's marriage to Pleasant as we find Elizabeth's father joining with her future husband and Thomas Haynes in applying for letters of administration on the estate of Alexander Bonner in 1815,³⁷⁶ however it could be just as likely that Thomas Mathis was a close friend and neighbor to the Bonners prior to Elizabeth's marriage.

Pleasant Bonner and his young family are found in the 1820 census in Hancock County where we find a young girl in the household, daughter Mary Frances Bonner.³⁷⁷ It is possible that they had at least one other daughter as we find a second child in the household of Elizabeth's second husband, Henry Hunter, in the 1830 census, although it is of course possible that the second girl may have been Hunter's daughter from a previous marriage. Pleasant Bonner died sometime before 1829 and Elizabeth married Henry Hunter on 24 Mar 1829 in Hancock County.³⁷⁸ Interestingly Elizabeth's father's will, written in 1824, calls her "Eliza Hunter", but she did not marry Hunter until 1829.

In both the 1830³⁷⁹ and 1840³⁸⁰ census records we find Henry and Elizabeth Mathis Hunter living in Putnam County. In 1830 they are living very near to Elizabeth's sisters Nancy and Dorothy Brooks Mathis Minter, but by 1840 Nancy had moved to Marion County with her son and the Minters were likely there as well. The 1840 census records show the three sons that Elizabeth and Henry are known to have had.

Both Elizabeth Mathis Hunter and her husband Henry Hunter died and are buried in marked locations in what was probably originally known as the Elisha Mathis family cemetery (brother-in-law of Elizabeth) and is now either Odom Cemetery or Layson Cemetery in Putnam County. The cemeteries are yards apart so it is difficult to tell which is which. Elizabeth died 19 Sept 1845 and Henry died almost exactly two years later on 12 Sept 1847.

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The youngest child of Thomas and Mary Mathis was Martha G. Mathis, born about 1798. On 22 Dec 1819 she married Chappell Cox, son of Cary Cox Jr. and Martha Rountree, in Hancock County.³⁸¹ By the time the 1820 census was taken the newlywed couple were residing in Putnam County where Chappell's family lived.³⁸² They are found quite near to where Martha's sister and Nancy and her husband Elisha Mathis were living. By 1830 the western side of Georgia had opened as a result of the land lotteries and Chappell and his growing family are found in Talbot County.³⁸³ While living there Chappell served at least one term, in 1837, in the Georgia State House of Representatives. Sometime after 1840 the family moved southward to Stewart County probably to that portion that would become Webster County in 1856 for it is there that Chappell and his wife Mary died. Chappell is buried in Lebanon Baptist Church Cemetery and his tombstone gives 1863 as his year of death. His wife Martha supposedly died in 1859, but the location of her burial is unknown.

Martha and Chappell had at least two sons and four daughters.