Nancy Rayburn

Nancy Rayburn

• Father: Hodge Rayburn
• Mother: Unknown (?)

• Nancy Rayburn was born circa 1769 in North Carolina.
• She married Howell Collier Adams, son of Benjamin Adams and Frances Adkinson, say 1790, and Howell's sister Rebecca married Thomas' Nancy's brother Thomas.
• Nancy Rayburn became a widow at the circa January 1814 death of her husband Howell Collier Adams.
• Her will was proved in April 1814 at Dickson County, Tennessee,
       Wrote at the request of Howell Adams Esquire after being mortally wounded at the Battle of Muckfaw viz:
       My Will and desire is that all my just debts be paid 2nd that all my children that is not married and left me when they marry shall have as much of my Estate as will be equal with those that have married and that they all, that is all my children shall as they marry or come to age to act for themselves shall have three hundred dollars in good property or money to be raised out of my estate A. that my wife Nancy Adams keep my estate together to raise my children in her hands during her remaining my widow and if she should intermarry that she have choice of the negro women belonging to my estate. Should any of negroes prove unruly it is my will that those that I have left to manage my Estate should sell them which I think he told me was is Wife, his Sons William Adams, Hodge Adams and that the money that he the Testator had sued Benjamin Joslin for was not money belonging to his Estate it was his Sons William Adamses as it was his horse that was sold for the same but the bond was taken in his name and further this Testator said not.
       Sworn to before me 10 day of Feb. 1814. Attest sworn to before me this 10th day of February 1814, Cuthbert Hudson, Jesse G. Christian J.P. Recorded on the Minutes of the Court at April Term 1814, Field Farrar Clerk.
       State of Tennessee, Dickson County, April 1814 Term, Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions. Then was the foregoing Verbal will of Howel Adams decd produced in open court and duly proven by the Oath of Cuthbert Hudson and ordered by the Court to be recorded. Test Field Farrar, Clerk of said Court.
• Nancy Rayburn died circa 1820.
• Research Note: It remains to be verified whether Keziah Adams, Nancy Adams, Benjamin Adams, James H. Adams and Felix Grundy Adams are children of Howell Collier Adams and Nancy Rayburn. Research is ongoing. It may be significant that Howell Collier Adams' sister (who first married Nancy Rayburn's brother Thomas) Rebecca Adams Rayburn Gainer ended up in Monroe County, Mississippi, very near to the Alabama counties where the Adams siblings settled.

• Last Edited: 22 Oct 2014