Person:Esau Worrell (1)

Biography

Esau Worrell11 Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements, by John Perry Alderman; Alderman Books, Hillsville VA, 1985, p. 176-177. According to the old Worrell Bible, he was born May 1, 1760 in Pennsylvania, probably the eldest child of James and Elizabeth (Crandall) Worrell. He was grown when his parents moved to North Carolina, and it is said that after the battle of Gilford Courthouse in March 1781, the he viewed the scene of the battle and was dissuaded by his father from joining the army. The story may well be true since the Worrells are thought to have briefly lived in Guilford County. Sometime after 1790 the family moved to Virginia where his father acquired land on Island Creek and died some ten years later in 1802. It was shortly after he came to Virginia that he met and married Nancy Bobbitt, daughter of Capt. William and Nancy Bobbitt. The marriage bond is August 20, 1793. Nancy Bobbitt Worrell lived to a very old age; some though later that she lived to be 109. The census records are not consistent in listing her age, but she was likely born about 1773 and was very nearly a hundred years old when she died in 1873. Esau acquired his father’s hundred acre grant and grants of his own for another five hundred acres. His own grant of 100 acres was his early home, and he still owned it when he died, referring to it in his will as the old tract “I formerly lived on” (Grayson, W.B. 1-547). It was on Island Creek and he willed it to his daughter Nancy Franklin. He was overseer of his road precinct by 1807, and several times he was called to court as a juror. He sued one Thomas Nedary in 1808, which resulted in an attachment verdict in his favor on June 23 upon a sorrel horse, saddle and bridle (Grayson, Orders 1806-1811). He had signed Sheriff McKenzie’s bond, and the shortage in one of the deputy’s accounts for the year 1809 resulted in a judgment against Esau and many of the prominent people in the county (Grayson, Orders 1806-1811, February Term, 1811). It is not known whether he had to pay any of the shortage or whether the sheriff was able to defray it all. At August Court 1812 Esau was tried for an assault; the old records do not show who the “victim” was, but the jury’s sympathies must have been with Esau for it only fined him one cent (Grayson, Orders 1811-1819, p. 63). In 1812 he bought the Wileman farm on Little Reed Island and moved (Grayson, D.B. 3-151). It was just south and west of Hillsville, part of the old Williams grant, and was one of the best properties in the county; he paid $500 for it. It had a cabin, a house and a barn, as opposed to the simple cabin, which had been his abode on his older tract (1815 Grayson Assessments). He sold in two transactions his other Island Creek property to Charles Calfee. When his father-in-law died in 1817, Esau’s financial situation must have improved considerable, for Bobbitt was wealthy. He lived on for another twenty years, but there are not so many records of him during the 1st period of his life. He wrote his will in 1835 and it was probated at December Court 1838 (Grayson, W.B. 1-547). He left his Little Reed farm to his widow for her lifetime, with direction that at her death it was to pass to his sons Esau Jr. and Jesse. Provision was made for two daughters and a grandson, James McClure. His monument in the Worrell-Edwards Cemetery has his death date as Dec. 6, 1838. as indicated, his widow survived him by thirty-five years. There is no comprehensive list of his children in either the Grayson or Carroll records. The obituary of his youngest surviving daughter, Nancy Franklin, (printed in Holden, The Earls of Southwest Virginia, p. 172) proves that there were twelve, two of whom died in infancy. The traditional list of Esau’s offspring is to the same effect: (1) Peter Worrel, born about 1795, married Martha Hall in 1826. (2) John Worrell, born in 1797, died in 1863, married Olive Jones. (3) Rosanna Worrell, born about 1799, married William McClure in 1820, and died a few short years later. Esau apparently raised her son James. (4) William Worrell, birth date uncertain, married Martha Wilson in 1826 and migrated to Indiana in 1835. (5) James Worrell, born about 1802, married Elizabeth Kenny and later remarried the widow Amelia Smith. (6) Amos Worrell, born about 1805, married Dorthula Jones. (7) Sarah Worrell, born about 1808, married first Abraham Paul in 1843 and remarried James B. Crockett in 1868. (8) Esau Worrell, Jr., born in 1810, died in 1880, married Nancy Edwards in 1837. (9) Legrand Worrell, who died about the time he was grown. (10) Jesse P. Worrell, born about 1814, married Rebecca Cooley in 184 and eventually moved to Missouri. (11) Nancy Worrell, born in 1816, married Joel Franklin and died in 1900, the last surviving child. (12) Lottie Worrell, died in infancy.

1. ↑ John Perry Alderman. Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements. (Alderman Books, Second Printing, Copyrighted 1985)
   176, 12/28/06.
2. ↑ John Perry Alderman. Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements. (Alderman Books, Second Printing, Copyrighted 1985)
   177, 12/28/06.