|
The Miles Family
Six Generations of the Miles Family The Uncertain Generations Three Later Generations (with documentary evidence) SIX GENERATIONS OF THE MILES FAMILY By Dr. Steven R. Butler I am a Miles family descendant by virtue of the extramarital relationship of my grandmother, Alice May Tate Butler, and my biological grandfather, Charles Wesley Miles--a relationship that resulted in the birth of my father, Raymond J. Butler, who was given the surname of my grandmother's husband, Herman H. Butler, the man who either knowingly or unknowingly adopted my father. The precise nature of the relationship between Charlie and Alice, whether short-term or long term, or consensual or non-consensual, is unknown. Both parties kept their relationship, whatever its nature, a secret, and both took that secret to their graves-my grandfather in 1958 and my grandmother in 1972. It wasn't until March 2019 that a 23 and Me DNA test brought it to light. Owing to my father's advanced age at the time (ninety-one), the truth regarding the circumstances of his birth was deliberately withheld from him, in the belief that it would do him more harm than good. He died a little more than seven months later, never knowing the identity of his actual biological father. Since the spring of 2019, I have done my best to construct a history of my biological paternal line, after figuratively "pruning" the Butler and associated branches from my family tree. The following family history is the result of nearly four years of intermittent research, based on documentary (i.e., "paper trail") evidence, and also the fact that I can count more than forty verifiable DNA matches to people who are descended from a Miles family that originated in Baltimore County, Maryland, removed to Orange and Caswell counties, North Carolina, and then resided briefly in Logan County, Kentucky before migrating further south and west into Robertson County, Tennessee. OUR ANCESTRAL HOME IN AMERICA: Our first Miles ancestor almost certainly came from England in the late 1600s, making the journey to North America aboard a tiny wooden ship propelled by sails and the wind that took six to eight weeks to make the potentially perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Upon arrival, he or she made a home in Baltimore County, Maryland, which by a remarkable coincidence is the same place my mother's ancestors-the Jenkins family-became settled. Baltimore County was officially created in 1659. It was named for Cecil Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, the founder of Maryland. It was originally much larger than it is now. Over the years, other counties or parts of other counties were carved out of Baltimore County, most notably Harford County, the eastern portion of Baltimore County where both my paternal and maternal ancestors resided before leaving Maryland and moving south into the Carolinas. As far as can be known, the Miles family resided in the eastern part of Baltimore County (not Baltimore City) from the 1680s until the early 1760s, a period of approximately eighty years, more or less, until a few years before the part in which they resided became Harford County (in 1774). My mother's ancestors lived there during the same period, for the same or a similar number of years. During that time, members of the Miles family were taxpaying landowners and some were also slave-owners. This is their story, as best as we know it, derived from public records. CLICK ON THE MAP TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE.
EVAN MILES In his informative book, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, author Robert W. Barnes has a short section about Evan Miles, but does not attempt to link him to the individuals for whom I have prepared the following biographical sketches and to whom I believe I am descended. Nevertheless, I cannot help but think that he is related to them, owing to the fact that he lived in the same area, Spesutia Hundred, in the same county. My educated guess is that he was the brother of John Miles, Sr., who is treated in the section immediately following this one. According to Barnes, Evan Miles died in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1706. We do not know his date of birth. On June 5, 1706, his widow, Rebecca (who afterward married a man named Cornelius Harrington), was appointed administratrix of his estate. During their marriage, Evan Miles and Rebecca produced children, which Barnes names as:
JOHN MILES, Sr. To the best of my knowledge, the earliest known member of this family in America, from whom I and my heirs and many of my paternal line cousins are descended, was an English immigrant named John Miles, born about 1650, Upon arrival on this continent or sometime afterward, he settled in Baltimore County, Maryland, where, according to Robert W. Barnes, the author of Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, he was called upon to appraise the estate of a deceased neighbor, George Gunnell, in 1680. It appears, however, that this is a mistake. The only deceased person named Gunnell whose estate was appraised in Baltimore County in 1680 was Edward Gunnell, and though a George Gunnell is mentioned in the record, he was not the decedent. Furthermore, John Miles is not named nor did he sign as an appraiser. Our actual public mention of John Miles, Sr., dated 1683, is found in the archived records of colonial Maryland, where he was a landowner. The following information about how that was possible is from the Maryland State Archives, Guide to Government Records, Land Patents: "When King Charles I granted the Charter of Maryland to Cecil Calvert on June 20, 1632, he gave him ownership of all land within certain boundaries of what was the Maryland colony. Lord Baltimore had full authority to "assign, Alien, grante, demise, or enfeoff" parcels to persons willing to purchase the same. Until the time of the Revolutionary War, all land grants in Maryland came from the Lords Baltimore and the Proprietor. After the Revolution, this power was transferred to the State. The Land Office was established in 1680 to administer land patents and is still in existence today. The Patent Process
[http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=land-patents; accessed March 5, 2023.] On October 3, 1683, after receiving a warrant or certificate for 200 acres of land called "Stepney," located in Baltimore County on the east side of the eastern branch of the Bush River (alongside Stepney Road in present-day Aberdeen, Maryland), John Miles, Sr. had it surveyed. It was patented on May 10, 1685. A dozen years later, on December 6, 1695, he had an adjacent 200-acre "Addition" surveyed. It was patented on January 10, 1695 O.S. (Old Style) or 1696 N.S. (New Style). Thanks to the painstaking work of the late Mike Pierce, a dedicated Maryland history researcher, the precise location of both these tracts, located in what is now Harford County, Maryland is known to us. Both tracts are located about a mile north of the old St. George's Parish or Spesutia Church and Cemetery. In 1692 and 1694, Miles was a taxable in the Spesutia Hundred or St. George's Parish. In 1695, both he and his son, John Miles, Jr. were taxables in Spesutia Hundred.We are also told that in March 1709, in Baltimore County, John Miles conveyed 50 acres of land called "Farmer's Farm" and "Margaret's Mount" to a man appropriately named Gregory Farmer. (See also Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Book IR A, p125.) According to Barnes, John Miles died (apparently intestate) in Baltimore County on February 5, 1712. Barnes says further that an administrative bond was posted on August 1, 1713 by William Cook with John Stokes and Lawrence Taylor. On August 1, 1713, Miles' estate was inventoried by Joseph Johnston and Cadwaller Jones, who appraised its total value as £24, 19 shillings, and 10 pence. It consisted largely of livestock and household items, including a Bible, which serves as evidence that he was able to read (and presumably also, to write). The name of John Miles' wife or wives is unknown, but it is believed that he had at least one son, also named John Miles, who is treated in the section following. His supposed father's place of burial has unfortunately been lost to history. The place of burial of John Miles, Sr. has unfortunately been lost to history. The most likely possibility is the Old St. George's Episcopal Church Cemetery, a.k.a. Spesutia Church Cemetery, at the corner of Spesutia Road and Perryman Road in Perryman, Harford County, Maryland (a few miles due west of the Aberdeen Proving Ground), but if so, the grave marker has disappeared, if ever there was one. The present church, the third erected on this site, was built in 1851. A historical marker stands nearby (https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=146952) Another ancestor, John Whitaker (or Witticar or Whitacre), who died in 1713, may be buried here also. JOHN MILES, Jr. Colonial tax records tell us that in 1695, John Miles, Jr. was a taxable in Spesutia Hundred, a parish in the eastern part of Baltimore County, part of what later became Harford County. It is supposed, by inference, that he was the son of the John Miles who is treated in the foregoing section because the two are listed in the tax book side by side. They also had land holdings near one another. John Jr. is believed to have been born about 1677, in Baltimore County, and thus the first Miles of our line to be born in America. Barnes tells us that John Miles, Jr. was married twice. Some researchers say that the name of his first wife is unknown. Others identity her as Mary Peckett Gough. His second wife, says Barnes, was Mary (maiden name probably Webster), whose first husband was Thomas Litton, who died, leaving her a young widow with a son, Thomas Litton, Jr., and a daughter, Sarah Litton. Her second husband was Thomas Youngblood, by whom she had a son named John Miles Youngblood. Thus, John Miles, Jr. was her third husband. They were married, according to Barnes, in Baltimore County sometime before March 3, 1713, when they sold 100 acres of land to one Thomas Cullin. Another compiler reveals that Miles, Jr. was a carpenter by trade. Barnes also tells us that with his first wife, John Miles, Jr. had two sons: John Miles, III, born March 16, 1696, died in infancy and was buried May 3, 1696, and Thomas Miles, born about 1696 and survived. Thomas might have been the older son. Lord Baltimore's Rent Rolls reveal that on October 24, 1699, a 252-acre tract called "Miles Forest," located "above the head of Bush River," was surveyed for John Miles, Jr. It was patented on June 1, 1700. This land, the first on record for John Miles, Jr., was located slightly northwest of his father's "Stepney" and "Addition" tracts in present-day Aberdeen, Maryland, and also not far from the old St. George's or Spesutia Church and Cemetery at Perryman. Amazingly, after more than three hundred years, much of "Miles' Forest" remains heavily wooded to this day! On October 10, 1704, either John Miles, Sr. or John Miles, Jr. patented a 300-acre tract of land, located about eight miles north of present-day Aberdeen, Maryland, just below the Deer Creek Historic District, which is about three miles southwest of Darlington, MD. It was called "Margaret's Mount," and abuts a larger, 400-acre tract, also called "Margaret's Mount," patented by John Miles, Jr. on 10 September 1724. Barnes tells us too that in March 1709, in Baltimore County, John Miles conveyed 50 acres of "Margaret's Mount" and some land called "Farmer's Farm" to a man appropriately named Gregory Farmer. (See also Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Book IR A, p125.) On December 2, 1719, John Miles was granted a 100-acre irregular-shaped tract of land called "Miles' Improvement." On December 8, 1719, it was surveyed for him. It was located about 10 miles due north of "Miles' Forest," near present-day Darlington, Harford County, Maryland, on the north side of Deer Creek and adjacent to a thousand-acre tract that lay on both sides of Deer Creek, called "Batchelor's Good Luck," which had originally been patented in 1709 by a man named Enoch Spinks. That same year, "Batchelor's Good Luck" was purchased from Spinks by William Holland, who is mentioned by name-along with the tract name "Batchelor's Good Luck"-in John Miles' 1724 patent for "Miles' Improvement." Thanks to the patient, painstaking work of a Kingsville, Maryland researcher named Mike Pierce (unfortunately, recently deceased in 2022), I have been able to pinpoint the location of "Miles' Improvement." It was located about 2 miles southwest of present-day Darlington, Harford County, Maryland, north of Deer Creek (as John Mile's patent reads), and slightly west of a smaller creek called Holland's Branch, obviously named for William Holland, the man who bought the larger "Batchelor's Good Luck" tract of land from Enoch Spinks more than 300 years ago. This is still a rural district, with scattered farm houses, some of them quite old, standing alongside country roads here and there. There is even a farm house right smack in the middle of what used to be "Miles' Improvement" today. In another land transaction, John Miles and his second wife, Mary Litton (maiden name possibly Webster), sold 100 acres of land to a Baltimore County planter named Robert Hawkins for 2,800 pounds of tobacco (which was used as a medium of exchange in those days when there was a shortage of coins and currency) John signing his name, and Mary, who was obviously illiterate, making her mark. On August 7, 1722, for 7,000 pounds of tobacco, the couple sold a 56-acre tract to William Brasher…line of Robert Hawkins...patented October 10, 1704, surveyed by Henry Ward. Signed John Miles and Mary (X) Miles. Wit. Samuel Howell, Mark Witaker and Robert Clark. On September 15, 1716, John Miles, Jr. and wife, Mary, gave her son, Thomas Litton (who was also a carpenter by trade) sixty-two acres of land "for love and affection." The deed was witnessed by Thomas Miles, Sarah Litton (who made her mark) and Robert Voles, who also signed with an "X." On November 2, 1720, John & Mary Miles, of Baltimore County gave sixty acres of land called "Father-in-laws' bounty," to Thomas Litton, Jr. The deed was witnessed by: William Marshall and H. Whitehead. One researcher has pointed out that in those times, the term "father-in-law" meant step-father, which helps to verify John Miles Jr.'s relationship to Thomas Litton. In 1722, "for love and affection," John Miles, Jr. gave his plantation to his wife, Mary. That same year (1722), when John Miles, Jr. wrote his will, he named his wife, Mary, as executrix, granting her his "whole and personal estate" for her use during her lifetime. The will also stated, that at her discretion, she could put "his well-beloved son (actually, stepson), John Miles Youngblood" in possession of his plantation (called "Miles' Improvement"), while she still lived, but if she did not find it "convenient" to do so, John Miles Youngblood was to inherit the estate at her death. Martha Litton was bequeathed some livestock, which was to be given to her when she either came of age, or got married. Her relationship to John or Mary Miles is not stated, but other records provide evidence that she was the illegitimate daughter of Thomas Miles and his stepsister, Sarah Litton, and therefore the granddaughter of both John Miles, Jr. and his wife, Mary. John Miles, Jr.'s will stated further that if John Miles Youngblood should die without having any children, his estate was to go to Martha Litton and her heirs; but if Martha Litton should die without having children, the estate should be inherited by the nearest blood relative of John Miles. I can't help but wonder why John Miles, Jr. did not leave his estate to his son, Thomas Miles instead of his stepson. Perhaps he and Thomas had had a falling out? To recapitulate: Thomas Litton was Mary Miles' son and John Miles' stepson; Martha Litton, born in 1718, was the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Litton by her step-brother, Thomas Miles, and thus the granddaughter of John Miles, Jr., and his wife, Mary. On December 3, 1724, Sarah Litton married John Beddoe. On March 2, 1732, her daughter, Martha Litton, married George Cole. John Miles Youngblood owned a fifty-acre tract in Baltimore County called "Rose Mary Ridge," which he patented in 1730. In 1723, Michael French "records the branding mark of Mary Miles," signing by mark, and on November 25, 1724, John and Mary Miles deeded 100 acres of land in Baltimore County to Thomas Cullin, shoemaker, the same person to who they sold land shortly after their marriage. John Miles Jr. died on March 14, 1731. His widow survived him by several years. On January 17, 1733/34, she conveyed, as her late husband's will allowed, "all her personal est. to her s. John Miles Youngblood." In all likelihood, she died sometime shortly afterward. Her place of burial has been lost to history. THOMAS MILES [1] Thomas Miles [1], believed to be the son of John Miles, Jr. and his first wife, Mary Peckett Gough, was born about 1696 in Baltimore County, Maryland. About 1716, Thomas Miles married Catherine Poteet, probably in Baltimore County, Maryland. Together, they had the following named children:
Thomas Miles also had an illegitimate child with his stepsister, Sarah Litton, a daughter named Martha Litton, who was born April 27, 1718. Here is a list of land and legal transactions on file in Baltimore County for Thomas Miles:
Baltimore County deed records show further that two year later, in 1752, Francis Jenkins, my maternal 6th great-grandfather, also sold land in Baltimore County, MD to James Billingsley-100 acres, to add to the 103 acres he had already purchased from my paternal ancestor. Thus, we know that Billingsley knew them both. Did Thomas Miles and Francis Jenkins also know one another? As small as the population of Baltimore County was at that time, it's hard to imagine that they were not at least acquainted with each other.
There are eleven references to Thomas Miles in the Monthly Meeting Records of the Quakers who met at Gunpowder in Baltimore County (now in Harford County), Maryland, and three to Peter Miles. There are also two references to a Hannah Thomson, who married a man named Thomas Miles in December 1771, but his or her relationship to the elder Thomas Miles is uncertain. The entries concerning her have been included here anyway. All apparent spelling and/or grammatical errors are in the original. Also note: The first of these entries was made at a time when the colonies were using the Julian calendar, in which the first month of the year was March. In 1752, Britain and her colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar (in which the first month is January) and all subsequent entries reflect that change. The above public domain picture of Quaker founder George Fox preaching in Maryland can be found on Wikimedia.
Interestingly, there are two Friends, or Quaker, Meeting Houses at Gunpowder, with its adjacent burial ground, still standing today near the small town of Sparks, Maryland, about 22 miles due north of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. One, built in 1773, is a private residence. The other, constructed in 1821, is still being used as a place of worship. The first meeting house, the one that Thomas Miles would have known, is no longer standing. A history of the Gunpowder Meeting House can be accessed HERE. Thomas Miles' first wife, Catherine, died in 1761 or earlier, and he remarried. His second wife was Hannah Whitaker MacComas, widow of Alexander MacComas, who died in late 1760 or early 1761. As noted in the list above, this earned him the condemnation of his fellow Quakers Thomas Miles' Quakerism is also confirmed in an inventory of the estate of Alexander MacComas, dated November 2, 1761, p. 107, which reads: "Thomas Miles, one of the people called Quakers, made his solemn affirmn that the foregoing inventory is a just and perfect one of the of all the goods & chattels rights and credits of Alexander MacComas, late of Baltimore County, deceased." The entry also names Hannah, "his wife." Sometime before 1766, Thomas Miles and his second wife, Hannah, emigrated to Orange County, North Carolina (the part that was later included in Caswell County). Four of his seven sons-Abraham, Jacob, Peter, and John-as well as his only known daughter, Hannah, also went to live in Caswell County, North Carolina. Another son, Aquila Miles, migrated south at about the same time, but went instead to Edgefield District, South Carolina. Moses Miles also went to South Carolina. Only Thomas Jr. stayed behind in Maryland. Orange County, North Carolina, the seat of which was Hillsboro (also spelled Hillsborough), was formed by an act of the colonial legislature in 1752. The county was originally much larger than today's Orange County, being made up of portions of Wake, Randolph, Guilford, and Rockingham counties, as well as all of present-day Durham, Person, Caswell, Alamance, Chatham, and Orange counties. In 1777, Caswell County was formed from the upper portion of Orange County, the part that adjoins Virginia, and in 1791/92, a further division occurred when Caswell was divided into two counties equal in land size, the one to the west still called Caswell and the one to the east called Person County. CLICK ON THE MAP TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE.
Writing in 1910, author Francis Nash described why settlers were attracted to this land:
Although the forests were beautiful, wrote Nash, all this "magnificent" foliage made "a dense shade below." Consequently, he added: "Nowhere else can one obtain so clear a conception of the immense toil that confronted the early settlers when they came to make a home in this wilderness. It involved more than a contract with nature. It was a wrestling match with it, as Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, and would not let Him go until the blessing had been bestowed." On the plus side, wrote Nash: "All this territory [in a day when there were no local grocery stores] was a paradise for the hunter and trapper, abounding in bear, deer, beaver, wild turkey, and all the smaller varieties of game." Likewise, it "was the habitat and hunting grounds of the Haw, the Enoee, and the Occoneechee Indians," the latter being a peaceful, unwarlike "clan of the Cherokees and not a separate tribe."
"Pioneers," continued Nash, "began to locate in Orange as early as 1740, but the great army of settlers began its inflow in 1750 and continued until 1770. Of these, the most numerous were the Scotch-Irish, Quakers, Germans and Welsh from Pennsylvania, and the English from Virginia and the eastern counties of the province." Nash added that from 1755 to 1765, the period during which the Miles family settled in Orange County, "the county filled rapidly," with a population in the latter year numbering about 18,000. Like many Southern planters, Thomas Miles, Sr. was both a land-owner and a slave-owner. At the time of his demise, he owned 740 acres in Orange County, North Carolina (in a portion that afterward became part of Caswell County). How he acquired it is a mystery. There are no deed records on file for him in either Orange or Caswell County, as either grantor or grantee, and there seems to be no record of his ever being granted any land by the colonial government. He also had seven slaves, which he bequeathed in his will, by name, to various members of his family. (See below.) Thomas Miles Sr.'s second wife, Hannah, all his sons, and his daughter, also named Hannah, are named in his will, which was admitted to probate in Caswell County, North Carolina in 1766.
Following her husband's death, Thomas Miles' widow-his second wife, Hannah Whitaker MacComas-acquired and sold land in Caswell County as follows:
Hannah Miles, widow of Thomas Miles [1], died sometime after 1789, in Caswell County, North Carolina. Some researchers say she died in Baltimore County, Maryland, but that seems highly unlikely. At least one researcher claims, without providing a source, to know the exact date of her death: October 18, 1792. The location of her grave has been lost to history. JACOB MILES, SR. Jacob Miles, Sr., a son of Thomas Miles [1], was born about 1725 in Baltimore County, Maryland. In 1768, when he was about forty-three-years-old, along with his elderly father and several of his brothers and their families, he moved to Caswell County, North Carolina. On November 10, 1748, in Baltimore County, Maryland, Jacob Miles, Sr. married his then-future stepsister, Hannah MacComas, daughter of Alexander MacComas and his wife, Hannah Whitaker MacComas (who became Jacob's stepmother after Hannah Whitaker MacComas became the second wife of his father, Thomas). Together, Jacob and Hannah had the following named children:
There are sixteen land transactions in the deed records of Caswell County, North Carolina, in which Jacob Miles, Sr. is either a grantor (seller) or grantee (buyer).
In 1800, Jacob Miles, Sr. was enumerated in the federal census for Hillsboro, Caswell, North Carolina, as follows: Free White Persons - Males - 45 and over 1 In February 1800, Jacob Miles, Sr. wrote or dictated his last will and testament, as follows:
Jacob Miles, Sr. probably died sometime in September 1804. The location of his grave has unfortunately been lost to history. It is not known how long his widow, Hannah, survived him or where her grave is located. JACOB or ALEXANDER? Presently (as of November 2023), I am uncertain as to whether Jacob MILES, Jr./Sr. is my ancestor or if it's Alexander Miles. Both were sons of Jacob MILES, Sr. Because of the uncertainty, I have included biographies of them both. ALEXANDER MILES Alexander Miles, a son of Jacob Miles, Sr. and his wife, Hannah MacCommas Miles, was born about 1747 in Baltimore County, Maryland. He was about nineteen when his grandfather, his mother and father, and most of the rest of his family moved to Caswell County, North Carolina. Although he was only about 28 years old when the Revolutionary War began in 1775, there seems to be no record of military service for Alexander Miles. About 1778 or 1779, Alexander Miles married Lucy Shelton. Together, they had the following named children:
On December 20, 1779, Alexander Miles received a North Carolina land grant of 400 acres in Caswell County on Country (County?) Line Road. (See Land Grant Book 41, p.176, Grant No. 189, issued December 8, 1778.) On July 28, 1779, he received a grant for an additional 29 acres. On October 30, 1783, Alexander Miles, in payment of 50 shillings per hundred acres, received a grant from the State of North Carolina for 399 acres of land in Caswell County on both sides of Rattlesnake Creek. (See Caswell County, NC Deed Book B, p.306, Grant No. 477) On September 22, 1784, Alexander Miles sold this same tract of 399 acres to Joseph Talbert for 400 Pounds. (See Caswell County, NC Deed Book C, p.81.) Later that same year or sometime in 1785, Alexander Miles died, apparently from some sort of illness. He was only about 37 or 38 years old. Only six days after selling his 399-acre tract on Rattlesnake Creek, Alexander Miles wrote a will, which is on file in the Caswell County, NC courthouse in Yanceyville, and transcribed below:
The location of the grave of Alexander Miles seems to have been lost to history. On December 26, 1786, his widow, Lucy, married Joshua Carney, by whom she had other children, and who, after marrying Lucy, became stepfather and guardian to her minor children by Alexander Miles. Carney also took over the duties of executor of Alexander Miles' estate, apparently in accordance with Lucy's wishes. About fifteen years after their father's death, Thomas and John Miles disposed of all 607 acres of land that they inherited from their father. The first sale, dated October 26, 1799, was for 207 acres, which they sold to Truman Hubart, for $400. (See Caswell County, NC Deed Book L, p.302.) Then, just a little more than two months later, on February 1, 1800, they sold the remaining 400 acres to Turner Lea for $800. (See Caswell County, NC Deed Book L, p.365.) On December 9, 1799, Alexander Miles' daughter, Elizabeth, married William Kimbrough. I have several DNA matches to her descendants. In October 1804,Alexander Miles' father, Jacob Miles, Sr., died. In his will, he named seven of his grandchildren: Martha Gunn (daughter of Martha "Patsy" Miles Gunn); Jacob, John, and James Graves (sons of his late daughter, Hannah Miles Graves); and Alexander Miles' sons Thomas and John Miles and their sister, Elizabeth Miles Kimbrough (which he spelled "Cimbro"). He did not name Alexander Mile's son, Jacob, probably because he was dead, the same reason he did not name Martha or Nancy Graves, who had died in 1801 and 1803. It is not known why he did not name Azariah Graves, who was still alive, or Lewis Graves, or Isabel Graves. JACOB MILES, JR./SR. I have identified this ancestor as Jr./Sr. because when his father was alive, he was known as Jacob Miles, Jr., but after his father died, he was called Jacob Miles, Sr., owing to the fact that he then living in a different state (Tennessee) and also had a son named Jacob Miles, who was then being designated "Jr." Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr., a son of Jacob Miles, Sr., was born on February 5, 1756 in Baltimore County, Maryland. When he was about twelve-years-old, he emigrated to Caswell County, North Carolina with his parents, some aunts and uncles, and his grandfather, Thomas Miles, Sr. Jacob Miles Jr./Sr. was a Revolutionary War veteran. Here is his testimony from his 1833 application for a federal pension based on his military service:
On October 2, 1783, in Caswell County, North Carolina, Jacob Miles Jr./Sr. married Anna Nancy Rice, daughter of James Rice. Together, they had the following named children:
There are ten land transactions involving Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. on file in the deed records of Caswell County, North Carolina. In all these transactions, he is identified as Jacob Miles, Jr., or, after his father died in 1804, simply as Jacob Miles:
As can be seen from the above deed records, over the course of nearly two decades, Jacob Miles Jr./Sr. acquired a total of about 2,407 acres in Caswell County, North Carolina, yet seemingly sold only 603.7 acres. This begs the question: What happened to all the remainder of his acreage? Jacob Jr./Sr. also witnessed a deed dated April 10, 1789, in which his step-grandmother. Hannah Miles, sold Robert Smith 60 acres of land on both sides of Rattlesnake Creek for 9 barrels of corn yearly "for as long as she lives." This land was part of tract granted Hannah Miles by the State on 12 April 1780 adjacent Jacob Miles Sen., Joseph Tolbert, Samuel Henderson. Also witnessed by John Scott. (Caswell County, NC Deed Book G, p.100.) Sometime before 1809, Jacob emigrated from Caswell County, North Carolina to Logan County, Kentucky, where he lived for one year. Although there are no deeds on file for him in Logan County records, there is a document that he signed, which also mentions his wife, Anna (daughter of James Rice, who died in 1809). This document, drawn up and signed by Jacob and his Rice brothers-in-laws, is an odd one. Claiming that father-in-law James Rice was not in his right mind when he wrote his will, Jacob and his in-laws decided among themselves, as the lawful heirs of James Rice, to divide his father-in-law's property among themselves, as specified in this document. Sometime between 1812 and 1813, Jacob Miles Jr./Sr. emigrated to Robertson County, Tennessee, which is directly south of and adjoining Logan County, Kentucky. There are seven land transactions for him on file in the deed records of Robertson County:
Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. was enumerated in the 1800 federal census for Hillsboro, Caswell, North Carolina, as follows: Free White Persons - Males - Under 10 2 On August 6, 1810, Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. was enumerated in the 1820 federal census for Caswell County, North Carolina, as follows: Free White Persons - Males - Under 10 1 On August 7, 1820, Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. was enumerated in the federal census for Springfield, Robertson, Tennessee, as follows: Free White Persons - Males - Under 10 1 In 1830, Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. was enumerated in the federal census for Robertson County, Tennessee, as follows: Free White Persons - Males - 70 thru 79 1 On April 16th 1832, Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. paid the heirs of R. A. Allen $308 for seventy-seven acres of land in Logan County, Kentucky, on the waters of the Red River. So far as it is known, this was his only land purchase in Logan County. In 1833, Jacob Miles Jr./Sr. applied for and was granted a federal pension based on his military service in the Revolutionary War. He was pensioned at the rate of $30 per year, commencing March 4, 1833, for service as a private for nine months in the North Carolina militia. On April 4, 1835, at the age of seventy-nine, Jacob Miles, Sr. decided to write or dictate a will, which even though he knew how to write his name, as he did when he signed his pension application, probably owing to the fact that he was seriously ill, he signed the will with an "X."
Jacob Miles Jr./Sr. probably died in September 1836, about a year after his son Thomas passed away. His final resting place has unfortunately been lost to history. Some researchers hold that after his death, his widow, Anna, went to live with their son, Alexander Miles, in Macoupin County, Illinois, to where he (Alexander) had moved about 1832, and that she died there some time later in 1836. In 1837, Hiram Rice, appointed by the circuit court of Logan County, Kentucky, to represent a group of Jacob's relatives-Alexander Miles, Jacob Miles, Abner Miles, Thomas Miles, Joseph Smith and wife, Catherine Miles Smith, James Gunn, John Bell and wife, Elizabeth Gunn Bell, William Bell and wife, Sally Gunn Bell, George W. Amos and his wife, Elizabeth Stratton Amos, Thomas Stratton, Eliza Stratton, Beverly Stratton, and Samuel Stratton-sold, to a man named Jarratt Ivey, the acreage in Logan County that Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr. purchased in 1832. THE MISSING LINK For a while, from 2022 to late 2023, I thought that Thomas Miles, son of Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr., might be the father of my great-great-grandfather, William B. Miles. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to go on in terms of the paper trail--only Thomas Miles' will, which names a son, William, and also the fact, which may or may not be coincidental, that Thomas Miles died in 1835 and then, in 1836, William B. Miles first shows up in the records of Franklin County, Tennessee, which suggests that he moved there after his father died. In addition, while I do have multiple DNA matches to Jacob Miles, Jr./Sr., and also Jacob Miles, Sr., as well as to Thomas Miles, Sr., I have but one DNA match to someone that claims ancestry to Thomas Miles [2]. In short, the evidence, both paper and DNA, was weak, but now, after uncovering some new evidence, I have concluded that Thomas Miles [2] was NOT the father of William B. Miles. Why? Because I recently (October 31, 2023) found a deed in Robertson County, Tennessee records, dated October 26, 1836, showing the heirs of Thomas Miles--which included his wife, Esther, his daughters, Martha and Nancy, and his sons, Malachi and William--selling his land. Since this record is older than the first record we have of William B. Miles in Franklin County, Tennessee in April 1836 (and 114 miles away from Robertson County), it seems to be a fair bet that William Miles of Robertson County and William B. Miles of Franklin County are NOT one and the same person, as I had thought they might be. So, who was the father (and mother) of William B. Miles? The answer: I don't know, but I am working hard to try to find out. Stay tuned!
Six Generations of the Miles Family Three Later Generations
This website copyright © 1996-2023 by Steven R. Butler, Ph.D. All rights reserved. |
In 1751, or possibly earlier, Thomas Miles converted to "Quakerism," and subsequently became a member of the Society of Friends, better known as "Quakers." His son, Peter, and a woman named Hannah Miles (relation unknown), likewise became Quakers. It's uncertain whether Thomas Miles' wife or any of his other children became Quakers. Unfortunately, all three ran afoul of the strict rules by which Quakers lived, as can be seen in the Quaker Meeting Minutes entries that follow.
