Person:Ardre Bartee (1)

Ardre was married to Catherine by whom he had two daughters. When Catherine died, sometime before 1827, he married Mary Ann Chapman. By her he had 4 children and then she died about 12 hours after giving birth to the fourth child. I don't know how he managed with 6 small children and no wife, but he did for about 14 months, at which point he married Sarah Elizabeth (Betsy) Whitehurst. Ten years later, Ardre died. His two older girls were married, but Betsy was left with 7 children, the oldest of whom was 15. His youngest child, Theophilus, was two when his father died and did not know who his father was. I have no idea why this was not mentioned. It caused a huge brick wall in our research for years until Sharon Gable finally found the document that broke it down.

This is from Sharon Gable's research:

Bartlett B. Munden was appointed in March of 1844 to be the administrator of Ardre's estate. In April of 1846, a lawsuit was filed against the estate of Ardre which named the heirs. In March of 1850, the sheriff was appointed to administer the estate and in March of 1851, the administration of the estate was turned over to Ardre's son, Thomas B. Bartee. Thomas submitted the final accounting on September 1, 1852.

"As for Ardre's children, Chancery Order Book 2 (pgs. 3-4) for Norfolk Co (along with other pages in this unindexed book) lists Bartlet B. Munden as administering the estate for 'Betsy Bartee the widow, Thomas Bartee, Susan Bartee, Jesse Taylor and Catherine his wife, Robert Bartee, John Bartee, Rebecca Bartee, Theophilus Bartee, Edwin Manning and Conning Manning the last six being infants represented by John R. Rilly who has been appointed guardian ad litem...' The name Rilly is not a "for sure" transcription. In some of the writings it appeared to be Tilly or Pully."