Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for Walter Francis Leake --- Go to Genealogy Page for Hannah Pickett

Notes for Walter Francis Leake and Hannah Pickett

Research Notes:

A biosketch reported [1]:

Walter Leake, born about 1704, to whom reference has already been made, married Judith Mask, and died at the old homestead in Goochland, and was highly influential in the county. His third son, William, settled in Buckingham County, Virginia, married Judith Moseley, moved to North Carolina in 1761, and had issue one son, Walter, who was born November 30, 1761, in Anson County. This Walter married Hannah Pickett, who dropped the final "e" in the spelling of his name, took a creditable part in the battles of the Revolution, and died, at the age of 83, at Rockingham, North Carolina.

Walter and his wife Hannah (nee Pickett) had issue as follows: William P. married Anne P. Wall, Walter P. married Mary Cole, Judith Moseley, married, first, Wiiliam T. Cole; second, Thomas Steele, Nancy married Dr. John Coleman, Sarah married Rev. William Terry, Mourning P. married Colonel Charles Robinson, Francis T. married Crawford, James P. married Jane Crawford.

In glancing at the list of the numerous descendants of this Walter, one is impressed by the many men of prominence whose names therein appear. Mentioning a few only, reference must not be omitted to Colonel John Wall Leake of the Confederate Army, whose reputation for gallantry went so far afield; or to Walter Leake Steele of Richmond County, a popular member of the forty-fifth and forty-sixth Congresses; or to Walter R. and James A. Leake of Anson. A son of Walter Leake and Hannah Pickett, Francis T. Leake, settled in Kemper County, Mississippi, and was a cotton planter of prominence in that State.

James Pickett Leake and his wife, Jane Wall Crawford, the parents of Thomas Crawford Leake, had no family but the one child who was born to them at Rockingham, May 2, 1831. A successful merchant and planter, his father was a man of energy and firmness of purpose, and enjoyed an enviable and more than local reputation. Yielding to the pressure in his home State he held office at various times; he was an adviser on public affairs of importance and was one of the Council of State during the administration of Governor Dudley. A long and useful life was his—his name standing for business success and for his unobtrusive practice of extending kindness and help to others. The mother, daughter of Thomas Crawford of Paris, Tennessee—a well-known manufacturer of that place—was a lady of gentle manners, refined tastes and devout life. On her son and only child she lavished all the maternal affection of her nature; his training, development and the proper molding of his character being her constant care. Naturally, under such circumstances, everything contributed to the mental, moral and physical welfare of the son. Certainly few boys have been blessed with a wiser father or a more devoted mother. He had, seemingly, every advantage that was good for him, including, while still very young, the benefits of travel to and from the various sections of the country, and, in accompanying the family to the cities and health resorts of the North and East, had many opportunities of acquiring the right kind of knowledge at first hand. He received his elementary education at the local schools near his home and completed his college course at the State University from which he graduated with credit in 1853.

1790 Walter Leek lived in Anson County, North Carolina, in a household with 1 males under age 16, 1 males age 16 and over, and 3 females. [2]

Ann, daughter of William Leake and Hannah Pickett, married William Terry, son of James P Terry and Ann Robards. [3]

1806 William Pickett Leak, son of Walter Leak and Hannah Pickett, married Ann Poytress Wall in 1806. [4]

1844 Walter Francis Leak was buried at Leak Cemetery, Rockingham, Richmond County, North Carolina. [5]


Footnotes:

[1] Leonard Wilson, ed., Makers of America: biographies of leading men of thought and action, the men who constitute the bone and sinew of American prosperity and life, Vol. 2 (B.F. Johnson, 1916), 604, [HathiTrust].

[2] United States Federal Census, 1790, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].

[3] Rosemary B. Hill and Dixie J. Clark, A Gathering of Picketts, Vol. 2 Virginia & Kentucky (self-published, 1999), 35, [GoogleBooks].

[4] Daughters of the American Revolution. Craighead-Dunlap Chapter, Miscellaneous records of Anson County, North Carolina (1941), Mrs. J. L. Little, "Leak Family", [FamilySearchImage].

[5] Find A Grave Memorial 32628760, [FindAGrave].