Person:Elizabeth Harrison (100)

Information on Elizabeth Harrison

Dr. William Rickman married his step-cousin Miss Elizabeth Harrison in 1774, daughter of Benjamin Harrison the Signer of the Declaration of Independence and owner of Berkeley Plantation. She was also the older sister of William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States. Dr. and Elizabeth Harrison Rickman had no children. A previous marriage to anyone by Dr. William Rickman has not been substantially proven at this time, and is not yet considered completely factual. The descendants of Jesse Rickman of North Carolina believe Dr. Rickman was married previously married to a Van Meter and had several children, she dying around 1775; the Jesse Rickman lineage suggests Dr. Rickman later married Miss Harrison. This is what cannot be substantiated.

When Dr. William Rickman died in 1783, his widow Elizabeth inherited his property, including Millford. The 1787 tax records show Elizabeth Rickman charged with two tracts of land, 223 acres (0.90 km2) and 365 acres (1.48 km2), with no name directly associated with the land. Elizabeth Rickman subsequently married John Edmondson around 1789. Her will, drafted in May 1790, specified all of her land was to go to her husband John Edmondson; upon his death, the Thomas Brown tract was to go to her brother William Henry Harrison, while the 280-acre (1.1 km2) home place would go to Carter Bassett Harrison, another brother. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rickman]

From "Edmondson vs. Bloomshire", 78 U.S. 382 (1870), U.S. Supreme Court Records:

On the third of May, 1790, Elizabeth Edmondson made her last will and testament, which was olographic, and on the first day of January, 1791, she died, leaving her will in full force, and on the twentieth of the same month the will was proved and admitted to record in the county where she resided at her decease. [Source: http://justia.us/us/78/382/case.html]