John Booker Sudberry

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 4084

Family/Spouse: Maggie Callis. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 4064

Abner married Mary Stial Newland. Mary was born in 1836; died in 1907. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• Reference Number: 4065

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 4034

Notes:

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From the Valdo James Smith Research document, The Sudburys of Virginia and Tennessee.

EZE1CIEL SUDBURY (1788-1865), the third Sudbury to bear the name "Ezekiel", was
born in Amelia County to William Sudbury and his wife Frances. His own family
Bible (transcription by Joyce Poynor, referred to in this history as the "Ezekiel Sudbury
Bible") lists his birthdate as April 5, 1788. The date of his marriage to CATHERINE
FAGG is recorded in the Ezekiel Sudbury Bible as June 7, 1810. Catherine had been
born on June 28, 1788. According to information reproduced in Joyce Poynor's
History, Catherine may have been the daughter of JOHN FAGG, of Nottoway
County, Virginia, a "continental soldier of the 11th and 15th Virginia Regiments".

U.S. census records for 1810 show Ezekiel and Catherine as married and living in
Nottoway County, Virginia. They were still living in Nottoway County at the time of
the 1820 census. In addition to an unidentified male aged 10-16 living with them at
that time, the census record for 1820 lists two girls and one boy under the age of ten,
undoubtedly Ezeldel's daughters, Nancy and Elizabeth, and son William. (According
to the Ezekiel Sudbury Bible, two girls who died in infancy were also born to Ezekiel
and Catherine in 1811 and 1815.)

Sometime after 1820, Ezekiel and his family migrated from Virginia to Williamson
County, Tennessee. The date of this move is somewhat uncertain. Although the
author of this history has not located Ezekiel in the 1830 Tennessee census with his
brothers Shadrack and William, Glenn Boyd says he has discovered an entry for
Ezekiel in 1830, along with tax records for Ezekiel in Williamson County, Tennessee
for the years 1831-1833. The memorial marker for Ezekiel in the Sudbury family
cemetery near Burwood, Tennessee, states that he came to Tennessee in 1820.
However, the source of the information on the marker is unknown. The author of this
history believes that Ezekiel most likely came to Tennessee in late 1829 or early 1830
along with Shadrack and William.

The 1840 census entry for Ezekiel in Williamson County, Tennessee, indicates that he
had five young males and one young female living with him and his wife. Two of the
males were between the ages of 20 and 30. One of these was probably Ezekiel's son,
William, but the identity of the other remains unknown. The other three young males
fell into the age groupings 15-20, 10-15, and 5-10. The younger two were probably
Ezekiel's sons Abner and George, but the identity of the young man between 15 and 20
is uncertain. The age range of the girl listed as living in Ezekiel's household is given
as 10-15. This is almost certainly his daughter, Sophia.

Oddly, Ezekiel does not appear in the 1850 census index for Tennessee. However, he
is listed in the 1860 index (still in Williamson County), at age 72, with his name
misspelled as "Elizakel". The other members of his household at that time were his
wife Catherine, age 71, and his daughter, Sophia, age 32.

Joyce Poynor's History (page 137) gives information relating to Ezekiel copied from a
deed book in the Williamson County Courthouse in Franklin, Tennessee. The entry in
question appears to be dated May 10, 1855, and describes some sort of conveyance of
real property involving Ezekiel Sudbury III and Nathan Meacham. The property
consisted of 53i acres of land in District 2, at the "headwaters of Leipers Fork".

The Ezekiel Sudbury Bible gives the date of Ezekiel's death as May 28, 1865.
According to the same source, Catherine died on March 5th of the following year.
They may be buried in the Sudbury family cemetery near Burwood, where a memorial
marker can be found bearing their names. (For directions to the cemetery, see entry
1626 for Abner W. Sudberry.)
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C

Ezekiel married Catherine Fagg. Catherine was born in 1788; died in 1866. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 4035

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3578

Notes:

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From the Valdo James Smith Research document, The Sudburys of Virginia and Tennessee.

WILLIAM SEINIIIRY_was, like his brothers David and John, probably born between
1747 and 1758 to Ezekiel Sr.'s second wife, Anne. The only known records of his
childhood and adolescence are the 1758 reference to him and his siblings being bound
as apprentices by the local churchwardens, and an additional record, cited by Glenn
Boyd as referencing a further apprenticeship.

William and his brothers David and John would appear to have been the right age to
have fought in the Revolutionary War. However, despite the oral tradition passed
down to Nancy Sudbury Yates (and from Nancy to Valdo Yates Smith) that one of
Nancy's greatgrandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War, the sources listing
Revolutionary War veterans for the state of Virginia do not mention any Sudburys.
William's marriage on July 29, 1784, to_FRANCES DUNNAVANT, is listed in the
book Marriages of Amelia County, Virginia 1735-1815. The record reveals the
interesting fact that Frances was not "given away" by anyone, but instead "wrote her
own consent" to be married. The marriage was witnessed by John Wyley and Clark H.
(last name unknown). Samuel Booker served as surety.

There is also an entry for William in the 1787 Virginia census for Amelia County
(district of George Booker, Tax Commissioner) which simply indicates that a man
named John Archer, Sr. was "charged with" William's tax. Whether this means that
William was a laborer working for Mr. Archer, or that he was somehow disabled, is
unknown. Although it seems that William was not a landowner in 1787, he almost
certainly was by the late 1790s. Glenn Boyd writes of Nottoway County tax records
listing William dated May 12, 1796, May 18, 1797, May 24, 1798, and May 29, 1799.

William apparently died in the year 1800. Glenn Boyd cites an unidentified record
from Nottoway County dated August 11, 1800, which refers to Frances Dunnavant
Sudbury as administratrix of the estate of William Sudbury, deceased. Use of the term
"administratrix" in this context means that William unfortunately died without a will.
Glenn lists an additional record from 1809 indicating that Frances was granted
administration of William's estate, but the date seems clearly wrong, since it is nine
years distant from the earlier reference to William's estate.

Frances Sudbury survived her husband by more than twenty years. According to Glenn
Boyd, Frances's name appears in Nottoway County tax records for the years 1809,
1810, 1814, 1815, 1817, and 1818. Information about Frances can also be garnered
from the U.S. census records for Nottoway County. An entry from 1810 shows her as
one of two women in her household over the age of 45, with five children (two boys
and three girls). The 1820 census record lists, in addition to'Frances, one "free white
male" aged 18-26, two "free white females" aged 16-26, and two "free white females"
under 10 years of age. While the two young women could have been born before
1800, and thus could be Frances's daughters, and the young man, born no earlier than
1794 might possibly be William D. Sudbury, the only one of Frances's known sons
who doesn't have his own separate entry in the 1820 census, the identity of the two
little girls is a complete puzzle.

Glenn Boyd supplies the record which gives the approximate date of Frances's death.
This unidentified source, dated January 1, 1824, recites that administration of Frances
Sudbury's estate was granted to her oldest son, Shadrack Sudbury. Most likely she
died in late 1823.

As far as Frances's ancestry is concerned, more census work needs to be done. Entries
for Hezeldah Dunnavant (head of a family of seven "white souls") and Philip
Dunnavant (two white souls) appear in the First Census of the United States, Amelia
County, Virginia (1782), in the list of the same census taker as recorded the entry for
John Sudbury. Entries for the following "heads of families" appear in the First Census
of the United States, Amelia County, Virginia (1785): Hodge Dunnavant (eleven white
souls), Philip Dunnavant (three white souls), Abner Dunnavant (three white souls),
Estate of Nowell Dunnavant, and Clement Dunnivant (six white souls). Could it be that
Nowell Dunnavant, who apparently died in 1784 or 1785, was Frances's father, and
that she gave her "own consent" to be married as a result of his death or incapacity at
the time of her marriage to William in 1784? Perhaps there might be a will for Nowell
Dunnavant in the Amelia County records.

Unfortunately, we may never know the names of all of William and Frances's three
daughters or their husbands, if any (although there is strong reason to believe that Mary
Polly Sudbury was one of the daughters). Hampering our ability to research these
individuals is the destruction of records that occurred in Nottoway County, where
William's children were raised and, most likely, got married. If marriage records
existed for that period of time in Nottoway County, the names of his daughters would
probably be available to us. Carol McGinnis, in her book Virginia Genealogy:
Sources & Resources, explains the tragedy of the missing records as follows:

During the last week of the Civil War, Federal soldiers "ransacked the [Nottoway
County Clerk's] office, hacking the record books with their sabers and throwing
the mutilated volumes into the horse trough on the square." Three deed books
were destroyed or lost; several of the early order books were badly mutilated, as
were another deed book and a will book. Marriage records [up to 1856] also
were destroyed.
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Simon married Frances Darnavant. Frances was born in 1764 in 1825; died in 1825. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3579