Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for John Pickett --- Go to Genealogy Page for Hannah Withers

Notes for John Pickett and Hannah Withers

1735 John Pickett, son of William and Elizabeth Pickett, was born on February 26, 1734/35 at St Paul's Parish, Stafford, Virginia [1]. John Pickett was born February 26, 1735 in King George County, Virginia [Parish Church Register, Born on March 26, 1735, baptized on March 23, 1736. St. Paul's Parish Register, Stanford - King George County, Virginia 1715 - 1798, p. 48; The Registry. p. 106] [2].

1741 An Indenture Deed (a 99 year lease) between Hancock Lee of Hanover Parish and William Pickett of Spotsylvania Co. for 150 Acres in Hanover Parish was signed by William Pickett and his wife Elizabeth with a notation of John Pickett, son, dated 16 April 1741 [3] [4].

1757 A summons for John Pickett, perhaps this one, of Anson, son of William Pickett, to appear at November term and answer William Little's plea of trespass. £200 sterling. Dated June 4. [5]

1757 John Pickett brought 400 acres of land on the Pee Dee River in North Carolina, on August 13, 1757. Witnessed by James Pickett and Mar Kimbrough. [6]

Research Notes:

John Pickett, son of William and Elizabeth, was perhaps the same John Pickett, Baptist preacher, who married Hannah Withers in 1770, as we show here. However, the birthdate of John Pickett, Baptist preacher, is reported as 1744, which is inconsistent with the 1735 birthdate of the son of William Pickett in the notes above. We seek further documentation for these possible relationships.

"Elder John Pickett was born in King George county, Va, January 14, 1744". [7] [8] [9]

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. [10]

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 …

A biosketch reports [11]:

Elder John Picket was born in King George county, Va., January 14, 1744. He was in early manhood a lover of pleasure and a dancing master. He was converted to Christ under Joseph Murphy's preaching in North Carolina in 1765. Returning to Fauquier county, at that time the home of his parents, in 1767, he began to exhort. Carter's Run church was originated in a large measure from his labors. He became pastor here May 12, 1772, the date of his ordination. He suffered imprisonment in the Fauquier jail, and preached to the crowds that gathered at the windows. He traveled extensively on tours of preaching, in which he was greatly blessed. Fifty were baptized at one time in the Shenandoah river as the fruits of his preaching. His zeal increased with his age, and in June, 1803, God called him to his reward.

1770 John Pickett and Hannah Withers were married on September 24 in Fauquier County, Virginia. [12] [13] [14]

The Baptist doctrine was opposed by the Church of England and other authorities. [15]:

"Captain M'Clanagan's place was thronged with people, some of whom had come forty miles to hear John Pickett, a Baptist preacher of Fauquier County. The rector of a neighboring parish attended with some leading parishioners "who were as much prejudiced … as he was." "The parson had a chair brought for himself, which he placed three or four yards in front of Mr. Pickett … taking out his pen, ink and paper, to take down notes of what he conceived to be false doctrine." When Pickett had finished, "the Parson called him a schismatick, a broacher of false doctrines … [who] held up damnable errors that day." Pickett answered adequately …

1769 John Pickett started the first Baptist Church in Fauquier at Carter's Run. He was imprisoned (in the jail that his brother William had built 4 years earlier) "for preaching contrary to Act of Parliament", and he continued to preach from the jail window. [16]

1780 John Pickett received a grant of 400 acres in Caroline County, Virginia. Dated December 11. [17]

The first vestry of Leeds, several of whose members lived in the Court House village, consisted of Martin Pickett, John O'Bannon, James Scott, Henry Peyton, William Edmonds, Humphrey Brooke, Samuel Grigsby, William Pickett, Charles Chinn, Thomas Marshall, John Moffett and John Chilton. The first minister of Leeds was the Reverend James Thomson, who came from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1739. [18]

1784 The will of James Withers, of Fauquier County, Virginia, named daughter Hanna Pickett. [19]

1802 The estate of John Pickett was administered by Samuel Hopkins, in Orange County, North Carolina. [20] This inconsistent with the date and place of the death of John Pickett, spouse of Hannah Withers.

1803 John Pickett died in June, 1803. [21]

1803 The will of John Pickett, in Culpepper County, Virginia, was dated 9 July and named Hannah and children John, Wm, Caty married to Hume, Elizabeth married to Settle, Polly married to James, Sally, Judith, Nancy, Hannah, and Lucy. Land owned in Kentucky. [22] [23]

The names of children shown here are from the will of John Pickett. [24]


Footnotes:

[1] FamilySearch.org, [FamilySearchRecord].

[2] 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)].

[3] King George County, Virginia, Deed 2-362; FHL film # 032062.

[4] Rosemary B. Hill and Dixie J. Clark, A Gathering of Picketts, Vol. 1 Virginia & Kentucky (self-published, 1998), 185, [GoogleBooks].

[5] Larry W. Cates, "Abstracts of Civil Actions from Salisbury Supreme Court 1757-1759," North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal 39 (2013), 148.

[6] County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Anson County, North Carolina), Anson County, North Carolina Deeds, C1-376, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].

[7] Robert Baylor Semple and George William Beale, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (1894), 471, [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].

[8] James Barnett Taylor, Lives of Virginia Baptists Ministers (1838), 64, [GoogleBooks].

[9] Rosemary B. Hill and Dixie J. Clark, A Gathering of Picketts, Vol. 1 Virginia & Kentucky (self-published, 1998), 186, [GoogleBooks].

[10] 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].

[11] Robert Baylor Semple and George William Beale, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (1894), 471, [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].

[12] Fauquier County, Virginia Marriage bonds and returns, 1759-1854; marriage register, 1854-1906, 1-36, [FamilySearchImage].

[13] Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940, [AncestryRecord].

[14] Anemone Love Binkley, A Man Called Jim (1986), 196, [GoogleBooks].

[15] Rhys Isaac, "The Nature of the Baptists' Challenge to the Traditional Order in Virginia," William and Mary Quarterly 31 (1974), 345-368, at 365.

[16] T. Triplett Russell, John K. Gott, Fauquier County in the Revolution (Heritage Books, 2008), 19, [GoogleBooks].

[17] Anemone Love Binkley, A Man Called Jim (1986), 196, [GoogleBooks].

[18] Kuzriel Meir, Pickett Research No longer online. (2001), 4.

[19] "The Withers Family," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 7 (1900), 87-91, at 88, [HathiTrust].

[20] Orange County, North Carolina, Estate Folders, John Pickett, [FamilySearchImage].

[21] Robert Baylor Semple and George William Beale, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (1894), 472, of 471-2, [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].

[22] Raleigh Travers Green, Genealogical and historical notes on Culpeper county, Virginia. Embracing a revised and enlarged edition of Dr. Philip Slaughter's History of St. Mark's parish (1900), 53, [HathiTrust].

[23] Anemone Love Binkley, A Man Called Jim (1986), 196, [GoogleBooks].

[24] Patricia Finn Hunter, Pickett Cousins, a 350 year history 1640-1990 (self-published, 1991), 10-11, [GoogleBooks].