Bible of Elijah and Susannah (Leachman) Willoughby

Pages from a Bible owned by Della Melissa (Hutson) Norwood, restored and preserved for Michelle Pierce, 2005 by Bob Inge, Lake City Co, who reported: “many tears, pieces missing, holes, much information missing or faded.”

 

[Page one:] This book was purchased Anno Domini 180–

By David Rice   Greene [County, Tennessee]

 

Job Comes T Willou… born Dec the 18^th 1847

Job Comes Willoughby w… the 18^th 1847 1847

Job C. T. Willoughby was born December the 18^th 1847

 

[Page two: The first column is almost totally destroyed. The name Willoughby can be read four or five times plus the years 1840, 1842, [illegible], 14^th day of [missing month, known from another page to have been February] 1846.

 

The second column was probably written first and contains numbered births, as follows:

Missing, a few letters only visible]

–) Elijah Berryman Willoughby was born June the 4^th 1832

3) Mary-ann Elizabeth Willoughby was born March 15^th 1834

4) Margaret Eeveline Willoughby was born April [xx]^[xx] 1836. [This is a different ink, smeared and faded, but possibly says the 21^st or 23^rd.]

5) Benjamin Franklin Willoughby, Born January 31^st 1838 ~ 1838

 

[Page three: written in a more modern hand, possibly in pencil:]

Born

Job Combs Willoughby Dec 18, 1847.

Mary Jane Florence Smith March 22, 1858.

John Wesley Hutson Oct 2, 1869.

Edith Melissa WilloughbyAug 10, 1880.

Leslie Willoughby Hutson May 15, 1905

Otto Albert Hutson April 21, 1913.

 

Marriages.

Job Combs Willoughby and Mary Jane Florence Smith were married Aug 22 ‘79

John Wesley Hutson and Edith Melissa Willoughby were married October 11, 1896.

 

Death.

Job Combs Willoughby July 24, 1886.

Mary Jane Florence Willoughby (Reeves) March 13, 1905.

 

[Page four: This appears to be practice writing similar to page one. There are also drawings of two women or dolls, one large and one small.]

Job Comes tomas was born J. Combs the 18^th  1847

Willoughby Emily Willoughby

18

J[illegible] Sister

Job Combs

Willoughby

Benjamin Franklin Jeffers[off page]

Willoughby was born January the 31^st day Adomin 1838

 

[Page five:} Nelson M Brown and Sarah J Willoughby was mar[r]ied Dec the 29 1859

 

[Page six, the first column has:]

Benjamin Jefferson Willoughby son of Elijah Willoughby was born December 7^th 1810

Katharine Rusel James daughter of Berryman James was born Dec 22^nd 1810

Benjamin Willoughby and Katharine James was married October 15^th 1829

— — — —

Nelson M Brown and Sarah J Willoughby was Maried Dec the [illeg.] 185[?]

Nelson Brown son of [illegible] Brown was Born February the 11 183[?]

 

[Second column]

Benjamin Willoughby

— — — —

Robert Parker and Polly Richey was married Dec^r 31^st 1836[1]

Samuel M Stewart and Elizabeth See W[as married?] March 24, 1850[2]

— — — —

William P Willoughby and Nancy Howard was married December the 30^th 1852 = 1805 a 1852

Robert Sarchet and Margaret Willoughby was married April the 8^th 1855 = 1855

 

[Page seven:]

David Rice born September the 1^st Anno Domini 1775[3]  [This birth is in a very different hand from the rest of these notes.

 

At least half of the column headed Births is missing. The second column, with the same heading, starts:]

5 Susannah Willoughby was born Jan 31th anno domin 1795

6 Sarah Willoughby was born Sep the 15 Anno Domini 1800

7 Elijah Willoughby was born March 12^th ano domin 1802

8 George Willoughby [the rest of the page is missing, except a fragment along the right margin, probably George’s birth year —04 or —06 and —hby De <end of line> thirty first –ear of his age —ty seven. Did George die in 1837, when he was 31?]

 

[Page eight starts with more practice writing in the first column:] Benjamin [next line] Biermann

Elijah Willoughby and Susanna Leachman was Maried Oct[o]ber the 23 day anno domini 1787   1787 [The writer copied over some of the words, possibly helping to preserve them, There is no “h” on Susannah, and “Anno Domini” is not copied over, but very faint.]

Enoch Willoughby [remainder of this marriage record is missing. Very large writing.

 

Second column, more practice words:] Mary

Martha Willoughby [This is written in large, dark letters, almost over the faint record below.

Very faint:] Rhoda Willoughby and Moreland was married Sep 4 Anno Domine 1804.

Polly Willoughby and James Richey was married May the 20 Anno Dom…[4]

 

[Page nine, across the top of the page:] The war for the [Come   enas — commenced?  —Comberland?] in the year Eighteen and Sisety 1860 and they are still fiting yet and this is the years 1865

[Along the side of the page:] 1860 Abraham Lincoln President

 

[Page ten, hand-drawn lines on an originally blank page. At the bottom of the page are initials, MW:]

Born

9 Benjamin Jefferson Willoughby was born December the 7 – 1810

Elijah Beneman Willoughby son of Benjamin J Willoughby was born June the 4 1839

Martha E Willoughby was born February the 14 1846

 

Death

Benjamin Jeffers Willoughby died August 30^th 184[? Probably 9]

Elijah Berman Willoughby died June the 6 1846

 

[There are also two pages of a Clay Co IN deed, apparently made in 1830, between Berryman James and Benjamin Willoughby. It is only in occasional spots where the reader can distinguish a few words, conventional language for a deed. James’s daughter married Willoughby’s son.]

 

Internal evidence suggests the Bible was purchased before 1810 by David Rice of Greene Co TN. At some time the Bible was acquired by the Willoughby family.

The earliest Wiloughby notations were made in now-faded ink of events from 1787 through the death of a 31-year-old in 1837. Many portions of this record are missing, including the exact birth date of my ancestor, Elizabeth, ca 1813.

Possibly after the marriage of Benjamin Jefferson Willoughby and Katharine James in 1829, a new hand wrote the family events, including the children of Benjamin and Katharine.

The latest event in this hand is the birth of Martha Willoughby 14 Feb 1846. A child or young woman, probably Martha, used the Bible for copying. She particularly enjoyed making copies of her younger brother Job Combs Thomas Willoughby’s birth record; it is only from this writing that we know he had a third given name. Martha died in 1927 in Walla Walla WA. There are no records in the Bible after 1860. It is tempting to think she was married then and left the Bible at home.

The Bible must have passed to Job’s family, since a new hand, possibly using a pencil, wrote the events in the life of Job and his wife, through 21 April 1913. This was probably Edith Melissa (Willoughby) Hutson, since her mother’s death is recorded here, and she likely wrote everything on one occasion.

Della Melissa (Hutson) Norwood was the granddaughter of Edith Melissa (Willoughy) Hutson. After her death in 1991, the Bible was given to Michelle Pierce of Lake City CO, who writes,  “It was in a paper grocery bag and smelled very musty. It had no binder and the pages were very water damaged. It didn’t take long to figure out what a treasure I had. Although I was broken hearted to see what was lost on torn and missing pages, I was thrilled by the remaining information.”

[1] The marriages of two granddaughters are listed here, Polly, daughter of Polly (Willoughby) and James Ritchey, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sara Eveline (Willoughby) and George See. Polly Ritchey, sometimes written as Richey, married Robert David Parker, the brother of her aunt Elizabeth (Willoughby) Parker’s husband, Greenberry.

[2] “Rootsweb Tree Zimmerman” at Ancestry.com identifies her as a daughter of George and Sarah (Willoughby) See.

[3] “East Tennessee Hicks, Bowmans and Cooks” at Ancestry.com has a David Wilson Rice born in Bedford Co VA this exact day and died in Greene Co TN in 1864, having outlived three of his four wives. He was in Greene Co TN, the same county as the Willoughbys, which makes me guess the Bible was acquired second hand by the Willoughby family.

[4] Jefferson Co TN Marriages give a date of 16 May 1812 for this marriage. Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.Original data – Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.

 

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