1726 William Pickett married Elizabeth Cooke, daughter of the Honorable Mordecai and Elizabeth (Buckner) Cooke, of Gloucester County, Virginia. Elizabeth Cooke Pickett died after 1777. [1] [2] [3]
1736 John, son of William and Elizabeth, was born on February 26 and was baptized on March 23, 1735/36. [4]
1736 John Martin, a money-lender, threatened to foreclose on all freeholders who were in debt to him, if they voted for Gibson, who was the opponent to Martin in an election in Caroline County. Gibson won. Martin foreclosed on 33 men, including John Gouge and William Pickett. [5]
1737 Martine, son of William and Elizabeth, was born on December 25, 1736 and was baptized in February 1736/37. [6]
1739 William Pickett and Benjamin Reynolds [were granted] 850 acres in Orange County, in the Little F[ork], by S. side of North R.; L[and] originally granted to Rachel Russell 28 Sep. 1728 who failed to cultivate, & now gr[anted] to John Pickett who relinquishes to William Pickett & Benjamin Reynolds. 29 June 1739. [7]
1755 William Churton surveyed 640 acres in Orange County for William Pickett. Dated February 26. The tract was on both sides of Parkee's Branch (which is) the waters of New Hope, joining Richard Parker and Valentine Braswell. signature Fras Corbin. Entered November 4, 1754. Back of document reads: Ex(ecuted) 2 June 1755, 456 acres, Grant 24 July 1760. [8]
1755 Wm Pickett plat, 456 acres in Orange County, joining Parkers Corner, Braswels line, both sides of ye bents of Beartree Creek ad both sides of Lick Creek. Dated June 2. [9]
1755 Pickett's Ordinary was near the Fork of the Rappahannock River where the North River and the Rapidan River meet. A map dated 1755 shows Pickets Ord at this Fork, where the Rapidan [Rapid Anne] River meets the north branch of the Rappahanock River. Pickets Ord is adjacent to a north-south road. [10] A description of Picketts Ordinary reports [11]:
Dalrymple names, in all, five ordinaries north of the Rappahannock, of which other records also survive. These were:
Picketts: This is indicated as the first public house on the Fredericksburg-Winchester road above Falmouth. After passing the 'Stanstead' plantation of Charles Carter of Cleve "Picket's Ord." is shown to be seven miles north of the Rappahannock falls. In 1755 its site was in King George, though now in Stafford. The court minute books of King George of the time are missing and it is therefore impossible to identify that one of the Picketts who had license to keep this ordinary in 1755; but it seems likely that he was the William Pickett whose son was long a foremost figure in Fauquier, and from whom descended by another line the Confederate hero of Gettysburg. …
1755 Colonel [George] Washington gave orders, dated October 6, for Captain Woodward to march for Fort Cumberland according to a schedule which stopped at Pickets Ordinary and then at successive ordinaries on the road north from Fredericksburg, Virginia. [12] [13]
October 13 to William Pickets
October 14 to Marten Hardens
October 15 to Joseph Nevils
… October 26 to Fort Cumberland
1760 Land in Fairfax County, Virginia was described as near land of William Pickett, Thomas Lord Fairfax, and James Corder. [14].
1760 A lease was signed between William Pickett and Thomas Lord Fairfax for for 275 acres in Manor of Leeds in Fauquier County, Virginia. [15]
1760 William Pickett and Martin Pickett witnessed a deed between James Bell and John Blakemore in Fauquier County, Virginia. [16]
1761 William Pickett of Fauquier County sold part of a tract, purchased in 1698 by Henry Pickett, to James Kay. The land was bounded by a branch of Cockelshell Cr, a patent granted to William White now Dishman's line, Capt. Robert Rennolds, Thacker's line, Portobacco Swamp & Carter's line. [Cockelshell Creek is close to Piscataway Creek, the original homestead of father Henry Pickett.] [17] [18]. Note that brother Henry Pickett inherited land on Cockleshell Creek from Uncle William Pickett in 1743.
Deed. William Pickett of Fauquier Co, VA for 89 pd sold to James Kay of Essex Co a 267 a. tr of land being pt/o 500 a. of land which was sold & conveyed by & from John Amiss & Sarah his wife unto Henry Pickett by deed dated 10 Jan 1698, the sd 267 a. of land now lying & being in Essex Co & a smaller part thereof in Caroline Co is bounded by a br of Coikelshell Cr, a patent for land formerly granted to William White now Dishman's line, Capt Robert Rennolds, Thacker's line, Portobacco Swamp & Carter's line. … Wit. Robt Rennolds, Edward Vawter, Joseph Petterson, Wm Gibson, John Carter Junr. Proved 19 Oct 1761 & recorded. Attest: John Lee Junr clerk (Pg 60)
1761 William Pickett witnessed a deed between James Ball and Elias Edmonds in Fauquier County, Virginia. [19]
1761 William Pickett Jr, John Pickett, and Lieut. Martin Pickett, perhaps the sons of this William Pickett, were on the roster of Captain William Edmond's company of Fauquier County, Virginia troops in the French and Indian War. John Baisley (Beasley?) was a sergeant in the same company. [20] [21]
1763 William Pickett and Martin Pickett (possibly sons) witnessed a deed between John Spilman and John Morgan in Fauquier County, Virginia. [22]
1763 William Corder paid (son) Martin Pickett for livestock in Fauquier County, Virginia. Witnessed by William Pickett. [23]
1764 [Son] William Pickett Jr was paid to build a prison in Fauquier County, Virginia. [24]
1764 Charles Duleny paid [son] Martin Pickett for two negros and a horse in Fauquier County, Virginia. Witnessed by J Blackwell. [25].
1766 William Pickett, of Hamilton Parish, Fauquier County, Virginia, died in 1766. He made his will on September 26, 1766. The will was in probate November 24, 1766. An abstract reports [26] [27] [28]:
To daughter Sarah Pickett, slaves and personal property, when she becomes of age. Wife, Elizabeth Pickett, all estate except land that I hold in Caroline and Culpepper Counties - to go to son Reuben Pickett when he comes of age. Land that I hold in Caroline Co, after decease of my mother, to be sold the money arising from sale to be paid (daughter) Mary Ann Marshall. Daughter Sarah Pickett to have 70 pounds curr. After decease of my wife property to be sold and divided among my 3 sons - John, Martin, and William Pickett, except should my sons George and Reuben Pickett not have as much as the others they shall be made equal. Executors: wife and sons Martin and William Pickett. Witnesses: Henry Kamper, James Peny, Philip Kamper, Sarah Peny.
1766 Another abstract of William's will reports [29]:
Wife Elizabeth; sons John, Martin, William, George, Rubin; daughter Sarah; last three minors; Maryann Marshall put lands in Culpepper and Caroline for sale. Kamper was a witness.
1767 Elizabeth, William, and Martin Pickett, administrators of the estate of William Pickett Senior, requested the appearance of William Duling at Chancery Court in Fauquier County, Virginia. [30]
1770 Jemima Cooke Chilton, mother of Captain John Chilton, wrote to her sister, Elizabeth (Cooke) Pickett, wife of William Pickett, in Fauquier, announcing the death of their brother, Mordecai Cooke. [31]
1772 Martin and William Pickett, executors of the last will of William Pickett, sold 15 acres with Picketts mill on the North east side of Carters Creek to William Dulin. Dated January 16. [32]
Research Notes:
c 1710 William Pickett was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. John Pickett is shown here as William's father [33]. An alternative parentage reported by great grandson Richard Pickett (son of Stephen and Sarah Orrick Chilton) speculated that William's father might be George Pickett of Westmoreland. An alternative source reports that William was born in Essex Co, resided for a while in King George and in King and Queen Co.'s, and at the time of his death was living in Fauquier Co. (source not recorded).
William Pickett has also been named as a son of George Pickett and Ida Martin, rather than as a son of John Pickett and Mary Mess, as we show. We welcome further evidence clarifying the identity of his parents. [36]
1778 James Kay bequeathed to his children a messuage and 267 acres "a tr of land at the upper end of Essex County and was formerly in the occupation of William Pickett dec'd bounded by Dishman's line, Capt. Robert Rennolds, Tacker's line, a br of Portobacco & Carter's line". Dated October 19. See the 1761 sale by William Pickett to James Kay. [37]
Although there are some uncertainties and apparent inconsistencies about their birthdates, documents suggest that several of the children of William and Elizabeth were well-known adherents of the early Baptist Church in Virginia. An excerpt from a description of the South River Church reports that John, Reuben, and Mary Ann (wife of William Marshall) were siblings. We show all three as children of William Pickett and Elizabeth Cooke. [38] [39] [40]
Being in the seventieth year of my age, and according to David's standard, of three score years and ten, as the number of our days on earth - it is probable, this will be the last year of my pilgrimage here below - though in as much health now, as I ever was in my life, age excepted - and though I yet travel a great deal, as well as attend to my own business at home. - Having a few leisure hours while there, which hours I mean to appropriate to a historical statement of ten Baptist Churches, of which I have been in succession a legal member. The first Church of which I was a member, and where I was baptised, was called South River Church, being the southern branch of Shenandoah, and near the forks of said River, famous for the fertility of its soil, and discharging itself into the Potomac River at Harper's Ferry, on the north border of Virginia - said River spreads through and makes a part of the great rich valley, between the south Mountain or Blue Ridge, and north Mountain - said valley is about twenty miles broad and several hundred miles long. The materials or converts of which this South River Church was first composed, was chiefly under the Ministry of William Marshall, whose short biography I have given elsewhere - others also laboured in said bounds, as John Picket, whose sister Marshall had married, Reuben Picket, brother of John, and the famous James Ireland, after being released from Culpepper prison, laboured much and with great success on the waters of Shenandoah River …
See also, [41]
DNA Most of the DNA matches listed here have ancestral trees back to William Pickett and Elizabeth Cooke, but do not show William's parents. The number of DNA matches suggests that William Pickett shares common ancestors with Robert Wolfe, perhaps through John Pickett and Mary Mess. [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]
[1] T. Triplett Russell, John K. Gott, Fauquier County in the Revolution (Heritage Books, 2008), 25, [GoogleBooks].
[2] Louis Alexander Burgess, Virginia Soldiers of 1776: Compiled from Documents on File in the Virginia Land Office (1973), 622, Names William as son of Martin Pickett, instead of John Pickett and Mary Mess, [GoogleBooks], [AncestryImage].
[3] Louis Alexander Burgess, Virginia Soldiers of 1776: Compiled from Documents on File in the Virginia Land Office (1973), 1336, Correction: Names children of William Cooke [corrected to children of William Pickett], [GoogleBooks], [AncestryImage].
[4] Clayton Torrence, "Pickett Family of Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 49 (1941), 80-86, 186-190, at 187, [JSTOR(UM)], [JSTOR(UM)].
[5] Thomas Elliott Campbell, Colonial Caroline: A History of Caroline County, Virginia (Richmond, Virginia: 1954), 86-87, [GoogleBooks].
[6] Clayton Torrence, "Pickett Family of Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 49 (1941), 80-86, 186-190, at 187, [JSTOR(UM)], [JSTOR(UM)].
[7] William Lindsay Hopkins, "Virginia Land Patent Books 17, 18 and 19 (1735-1741)," Magazine of Virginia Genealogy (Genealogical Society Quarterly) 25 (1987), [1]55-74, [2]55-73, [3]60-76, [4]47-76, at 64, [Ancestry_VGSQ].
[8] Margaret M. Hofmann, The Granville District of North Carolina 1748-1763, Volume 5 (1995), 213, deed 6324.
[9] Margaret M. Hofmann, The Granville District of North Carolina 1748-1763, Volume 5 (1995), 213, deed 6325.
[10] Joshua Fry, the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina, [LibraryOfCongress], [LibraryOfCongressCatalog].
[11] Fairfax Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, Vol. 2, 489, [GoogleBooks].
[12] Joshua Fry, the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina, [LibraryOfCongress], [LibraryOfCongressCatalog].
[13] National Archive of George Washington papers, [URL].
[14] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 146, [GoogleBooks].
[15] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 168, [GoogleBooks].
[16] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 178, [GoogleBooks].
[17] Mary Marshall Brewer, Essex County, Virginia, Land Records, 1761 - 1772 (2006), 10, citing Essex county deed book (29?)-58.
[18] Clayton Torrence, "Pickett Family of Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 49 (1941), 80-86, 186-190, at 186, citing Virginia deed 29-60, [JSTOR(UM)], [JSTOR(UM)].
[19] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 331, [GoogleBooks].
[20] William Armstrong Crozier, Virginia County Records, Vol. 2 (New York: Fox, Duffield & Company, 1905), 97, [HathiTrust].
[21] "Notes and Queries," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 7 (1900), 303-316, at 305, [HathiTrust].
[22] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 437, [GoogleBooks].
[23] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 35, [GoogleBooks].
[24] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 39, 43, [GoogleBooks].
[25] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 165, [GoogleBooks].
[26] Junie Estelle Stewart King, Abstracts of wills, administrations, and marriages of Fauquier County (Clearfield, Baltimore: 1939, reprinted 2001), 5, citing Fauquier County Virginia Will 1-110, [GoogleBooks].
[27] Stella Pickett Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States of America (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1911), 415, [GoogleBooks].
[28] Horace Edwin Hayden, Virginia Genealogies: A Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland (1891), 645, Footnote, [GoogleBooks].
[29] John P. Alcock, Fauquier Families, 1759-1799 (Athens, Georgia: Iberian Publishing Co, 1994), 280, [GoogleBooks].
[30] Library of Virginia Archives, Chancery Records, [VA Archives].
[31] Ann Chilton McDonnell, "Chilton and Shelton: Two Distinct Virginia Families," William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series 10 (1930), 62.
[32] John K. Gott, Fauquier County Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 (Heritage Books, 1988), 132, [GoogleBooks].
[33] Rosemary B. Hill and Dixie J. Clark, A Gathering of Picketts, Vol. 1 Virginia & Kentucky (self-published, 1998), 124, [GoogleBooks].
[34] Rosemary B. Hill and Dixie J. Clark, A Gathering of Picketts, Vol. 1 Virginia & Kentucky (self-published, 1998), 151-172, [GoogleBooks].
[35] Stella Pickett Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States of America (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1911), 415, (3-1), [GoogleBooks].
[36] Genealogy of Wilkinson and kindred families, [URL].
[37] Mary Marshall Brewer, Essex County, Virginia, Land Records, 1772-1786 (2006), 69, citing Essex county deed book 31-423.
[38] William Warren Sweet, Religion On The American Frontier The Baptists 1783 1830 A Collection Of Source Material (1931), 116, citing John Taylor, A History of Ten Baptist Churches (1827), [InternetArchive].
[39] John Taylor, Baptists on the American frontier: a history of ten Baptist churches of which the author has been alternately a member (1827), [URL].
[40] John Taylor, Chester Raymond Young, Baptists on the American frontier: a history of ten Baptist churches of which the author has been alternately a member (Reprinted 1995, with annotations), UM Hatcher graduate library: BX 6248 .V8 T331 1995, [URL].
[41] John Taylor, Thoughts on Missions, [URL].
[42] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this sibling of Robert's ancestor. The lineage is through a descendant shown on our website, [Link].
[43] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this sibling of Robert's ancestor. The lineage is through a descendant shown on our website, [Link].
[44] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this sibling of Robert's ancestor. The lineage is through a descendant shown on our website, [Link].
[45] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this sibling of Robert's ancestor. The lineage is through a descendant shown on our website, [Link].
[46] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this sibling of Robert's ancestor. The lineage is through a descendant shown on our website, [Link].
[47] The family tree of a person who has a DNA match to Robert suggests a lineage to this sibling of Robert's ancestor. The lineage is through a descendant shown on our website, descent is not certain, no shared Pickett matches, [Link].