Nothing beats viewing a record in its original form. There's nothing wrong with using books of abstracts, but you need to always be cognizant that mistakes can be made when viewing these records for the purpose of publishing them in an abbreviated form. Words can be misread; the presentation of the original can be incorrectly described; names can be mistakeny omitted; entire documents can be accidentally left out of a book of abstracts; the abstractor or author can erroneously interpret what they are viewing; records can be assigned to the incorrect individual, etc. I've seen every one of these mistakes in published books and in some instances it was years before I saw the original and saw the mistake that was made. Seeing the record in its true form can, in some instances, lead to a completely new interpretation of the individual in question.
Below are links to scans of many different documents covering various Mathews individuals. All of these files are probate records. There are wills from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, chancery causes from Virginia (called equity or probate records in other states), inventories and appraisals from North Carolina and Georgia.
Some of these files are fairly large (typically between 1 to 3 Megs, but a few a little larger) because I typically scan at a resolution of 300 DPI so they can be zoomed in without much aliasing.
Click the underlined names below for a pdf file with asscoiated records. Dates beside the names refer to the earliest date of the records for the individuals. Some of these records cover a number of years especially if there were children involved and annual returns were required to be filed with courts.
| Hancock County | |
|---|---|
| Edmond Mathis (827 kb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1805) Inventory: 3 pages |
| Thomas Mathis (2.6Mb) | Will: 3 pages (recorded 1830) Division of slaves: 1 page Inventory: 3 pages Returns and payments: 11 pages |
| Putnam County | |
|---|---|
| Brittain Mathis/Mathews (17Mb) (Note: this file is incomplete at the moment) |
Miscellaneous papers: 8 pages (beginning 1824) Payments and receipts: 2 pages Estate sale: 3 pages Inventory: 3 pages Returns: 2 pages |
| Walton County | |
|---|---|
| Robert Mathis/Mathews (648 kb) | Inventory: 3 pages (1823 ?) Returns: 1 1/2 pages Estate sale: 1 1/2 pages |
| Chatham County | |
|---|---|
| Charles Mathis/Mathews (3.4 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (unrecorded, but written 1777) |
| Halifax County | |
|---|---|
| Ann Mathews (1.4 Mb) | Will: 1 page (recorded 1806) |
| Arthur Davis (3.9 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1790) |
| Gideon Mathews (3.4 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1815) |
| Isaac Mathis/Mathews [Sr.] (4.0 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1768) |
| Isham Matthews (2.7 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1847) |
| James Mathews [Jr.] (6.2Mb) | Will: 3 pages (recorded 1775) |
| James Matthis/Mathews [Sr.] (4.1 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1762) |
| Mary Mathews (2.9 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1819) |
| Moses Matthews (3.3 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1815) |
| Raps [Repps] Matthews (1.7Mb) | Will: 1 page (recorded 1782) |
| Thomas Pace (3.3 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1795) |
| Thomas Mathis/Mathews [Sr.] (5.9 Mb) | Will: 3 pages (recorded 1765) |
| William Matthews (1.6 Mb) | Will: 1 page (recorded 1812) |
| Nash County | |
|---|---|
| Francis Ward (4.2 Mb) | Will: 3 pages (recorded 1800) |
| Northampton County | |
|---|---|
| John Floyd (1.9 Mb) | Will: 1 page (recorded 1779) |
| Joshua Stap (1.9 Mb) | Will: 1 page (recorded 1765) |
| Thomas Matthews (1.9 Mb) | Will: 1 page (recorded 1770) |
| Fairfield County | |
|---|---|
| Robert Coleman (1.6 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (recorded 1796, typescript of original) |
| Brunswick County | |
|---|---|
| Hubbard Quarles (2.7 Mb) | Will: 2 pages (appended as 1 page) (recorded 1780) |
| Charles Mathews (344 kb) | Chancery cause 1784-004, 2 pages (started 1782) |
| Drury Mathews (1.3 Mb) | Chancery cause 1807-014, 6 pages (started 1795) |
| John Mathews (1.2 Mb) | Chancery cause 1809-024, 7 pages (1809) |
| Luke Mathews (3.4 Mb) | Chancery cause 1813-021, 6 pages (started 1812) |
| John Mathews (671 kb) | Chancery cause 1816-065, 3 pages (started 1809) |
| Christopher Dameron (24.8 Mb) | Chancery cause 1859-029, 35 pages (started mid 1850s? many Mathews in here) |
| Lunenburg County | |
|---|---|
| William Matthews (4.3 Mb) | Chancery cause 1811-008, 4 pages (started 1808) |
| Thomas Taylor (4.3 Mb) | Chancery cause 1822-026, 8 pages (started 1821 ?) |