The Watlington Ancestry

One of our discoveries as we examine the Watlington family line is that from this old family name in England there have been several male immigrants to America, and though very likely related through English ancestry, not closely related through our American ancestors. The focal point for early Watlington ancestors in America is in Virginia, around the ports of the York and James Rivers, where sea captains with the Watlington name plied their trade between those ports, the West Indies, and English ports.    

Two Watlington brothers left England for America in 1609. The ship on which they sailed wrecked at Bermuda in stress of weather, and at this place some resolved to stay. The brothers were:
 

It is probable, since no further record of Francis is found in Bermuda, that Francis and his family came with others to Virginia. Of William we have a public record that on July 17, 1625 he was appointed Provost Marshal. On the July 17, 1628 he was confirmed in the office, but no further mention of him is made in LeFroy's Memorials of Bermuda.  

On the 19th of April 1655, Mr. Francis Watlington of Devonshire Tribe, Bermuda, was appointed ``Counselor'' for that Tribe in lieu of Mr. Richard Norwood. It is quite probable that this Francis was the son of the William Watlington above mentioned.  

In Norwood's survey of the lands of the colony of Bermuda (made in 1663), the lands of Francis Watlington of Devonshire Tribe are described, on which is included his dwelling. At his death in 1679, he made provision in his will for his wife Mary and four children: Francis, Mary, William and John. Francis is mentioned as having already received a portion of the inheritance, but is left his ``seal ring'', a type of family blessing. William, son of Francis, reared a family of four sons and four daughters, although there appears to have been two wives, and we are not sure which wife comes first, or if all children are by the same mother:

Jane August 16, 1696

William March 17, 1700

John May 1, 1703

Francis February 17, 1705

Joseph April 27, 1711

Martha July 1, 1713 (m. Wm. Cox) Ruth Mary

Although William, son of Francis lived and died in Bermuda, leaving a son William, and daughter Mary and Sarah, the other three sons are thought to have emigrated to other parts. They offer prime suspects for the ancestry of George W. Watlington.

Another untraced Watlington, who might have come to America, is John, the son of Francis and Jehoshebe Albouy, who is reported to have left Bermuda. He would have been born about 1720-50.    

There is a strong oral tradition that George W. Watlington's ancestors came from the Bermuda Islands; that two or three sons came and that they came ``before receiving their inheritance,'' that is, not waiting until their father died. The sons of William and Elizabeth Dill (wife by first? marriage) fit this picture most definitely, and the family names nearly parallel the names given the George Watlington children born a century later:

William's children George's children

Jane Mary Jane (Mollie)

William William (Uncle Billie)

John John Roberts (Dr.)

Francis Frank W. (grandchild)

Joseph Joseph (grandchild) Martha Ruth

Mary Mary Jane (Mollie) Elizabeth (for Elizabeth Dill)

It was John, Francis, and Joseph who were the 3rd, 4th, and 5th children who were characteristically more free to emigrate than the first born or the younger children. One of these three brothers could be the grandfather of George W. Watlington.

Now the problem is to pick up these children or their descendants in the U.S.A., which is complicated by the disastrous burning of files of official papers in the Southern states during the four years of the Civil War, fought most bitterly in Virginia, the homeplace of the Watlingtons. Though Virginia was the door through which most immigrants passed into the southern states, many did not stay long years there. Watlingtons were found in early years in Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, and in the early years of the settlement of Kentucky. Some known lines from Bermuda have also gone to New Jersey, Indiana and Colorado. Some from Virginia settled early in Marengo County, Alabama. Possibly part of this same group migrated into Mississippi in the early 19th century.  

In 1830 George W. Watlington and young family were in Henderson County, Tennessee, in that part of the county which became a part of Chester County in 1882. A year or so later George and Catherine were settled on a large acreage near Five Points or Big Springs Community, 17th Civil District of Madison County, where they remained until death overtook them in the mid 1860's.  

George was born in Virginia, and paid personal tax there in 1802-1807. He paid poll tax in Knox County, Tennessee in 1810, and married there in 1814 to Catherine Tabler, whose family had lived in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Dr. Alfred N. Tabler, and a sister Charlotte Harris accompanied the George Watlingtons to West Tennessee, a land recently (1818) opened for settlement. George's last public record in Knox County was in 1828, so we can presume that he brought his family directly from Knox County to Henderson County, and later shifted about six miles to the George Watlington homestead, in Madison County.   

George Watlington lived with a William Watlington of Dinwiddie County, Virginia. Dinwiddie County is to the south of Petersburg and Richmond, with Dinwiddie as the county seat. He is listed by name, as a free white male over sixteen years of age in the Personal Tax Record of 1802 and after, until 1807. In the years of 1804, '05, '06, and '07 he is listed separately from William as if he might be living in separate quarters. This places his birthdate at about 1785 or 1786. From this evidence it is accepted that George W. was the son of William, who died about 1806 [51].  

In the existing records of personal taxes for the period 1782-1807 in Dinwiddie County, one of the general records of the period which was not destroyed during the Civil War, is the record of a John Watlington and an Edward Watlington also. At the apparent death of John in 1785, five slaves are named as being a part of the estate. The estate was settled in nearby Petersburg, the closest port city on the James River. This John could have been a grandson of William of the Bermuda Isles.  

The Hastings Court record and property deeds of Petersburg help to clarify the relationships some. A property deed and court records indicate that William is a brother to John (d. 1785) and Edward and his wife Sarah are his principal heirs. William served for a time as administrator of John's estate, since Edward and Sarah were at that time in Gloucester Co., Va., where we know there were other Watlingtons, descendents of Paul Watlington, who may have been relatives. John and William of Dinwiddie may have been originally from Gloucester Co. At any rate we know that they shared a Bermuda connection with those of Gloucester.

We therefore have evidence that George was a son of William Watlington with whom he lived for at least two years (1802-1803). After the death of William in 1805-06, George Watlington soon left Dinwiddie County and is next found on public record in Knox County, Tennessee in 1810, among other relatives.

This link between John, Francis, and Joseph Watlington of Bermuda is speculative as based on a Dinwiddie County Tax record; but I do not think it is nearly so speculative when related to the oral tradition, the common family names, and the history of the Watlington sailors coming and going on the James River. The family had contacts there and immigration often follows family ties and contacts.

In the adjoining Prince George County a John Watlington arrived ca. 1703 with Adam Heath who received land in Prince George and Surrey Counties. There is a reference in a May 1705 land deed of Prince George Co. to a tract of land that bounded on the land of Watling as well as that of Abraham and Adam Heath. This indicates that this John Watlington probably settled on land adjoining Adam Heath in Prince George Co., adjoining the later Dinwiddie Co. In the Prince George tax list for 1782 and 1787 a Francis Watlington is listed. The John Watlington, immigrant of 1703, whose land is mentioned in the deed to Adam Heath of May 1705, may well be the father of the Francis Watlingtron of Prince George Co. tax list in 1782 and 1787 and also of the brothers John and William of nearby Dinwiddie Co. in the same years. Dinwiddie County was formed in 1752 from a part of older Prince George Co. Adam Heath and the older Watling land adjoining him remained in Prince George County. John Watlington owned land (indicating maturity of age) in 1761 in Dinwiddie Co. The proximity of land holding families of the same surname would indicate that John and the younger Francis of Prince George County were likely related to John and William of nearby Dinwiddie Co.

We are not told where John Watlington of 1703 came from. He may have come from the Bermudas, or from England. We do know that many persons from Bermuda later immigrated to the mainland, and that through the sailors in the family Virginia was well known to the Watlingtons in Bermuda.

The exact connection is not there at this time. We do have the strong oral tradition of the Watlington families being English and coming through Bermuda. From our studies we are quite sure these traditions are true. There is a Bermudian connection, which may be 17th century or may be early 18th century. But our oral tradition is supported by many sea-going connections and 17th century records of sea-faring Watlingtons and land ownership by the sea-faring captains Francis Watlington Sr. and Jr. of Bermuda (1650-87).

The descendents of the William Watlington who was Provost Marshall in early Bermudian history have traced their lineage back to England of the 16th Century and earlier and the lineage has been proven and accepted. (See Family Heritage, by Hereward Trott Watlington [4])  

There were undoubtedly other Watlington immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries, some of whom we know came from Bermuda, some from England directly. But the strong tradition of the descendents of Paul Watlington (b. 1678) who married Elizabeth Reade and the descendents of William Watlington of Dinwiddie County is that their ancestors came through Bermuda, and that they left family in Bermuda.  

The research on this has been done over a period of many years by a variety of Watlingtons from Toronto to Oklahoma to Bermuda to Tennessee. I have been using resumes and materials gathered by James L. Watlington and Mary Wolford and graciously shared with me. We have more documentation for the above references than I have indicated. See Ch. 13 for a more detailed attribution.   

-- Ripley, Tenn., February 1974
Memphis, Tenn., 1979