Person:James Stoneman (1)

Biography

James Stoneman11 Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements, By John Perry Alderman; Published by Alderman Books, 1985, p. 222. The family researchers have discovered that he was born June 17, 1735 and died June 29, 1829, being the son of John and Elizabeth (Markham) Stoneman. His wife, whom he married Dec. 25, 1767, is said to have been Sarah Freeman, daughter of John and Hannah Freeman. Sarah was born Jan. 16, 1751 and died April 14, 1844. Sarah was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and being a Quaker girl, she was dismissed from the Cane Creek Meeting in North Carolina in 1772 for marrying outside the faith (1 Hinshaw 420). She was readmitted to the church in 1785 and six years later her children, Joshua and Elizabeth were also received into the church. In 1793 the family transferred their church membership to the Westfield Meeting in Surry County, North Carolina, which at the time was the nearest meeting to their new home in Virginia. James and Sarah probably moved in 1793 to Elkhorn Creek, near Chisel Knob. In 1794 John Pickerell entered with the surveyor 100 acres to include the plantation whereon “James Stoneman now lives” (Grayson, Entry A-41). This apparently was the tract which James had surveyed in 1798 and to which he received the grant in 1808. He also acquired a survey for 165 acres, adjoining the first tract, and acquired the second grant in 1796. These two tracts were all he ever owned in Grayson and they lay on Elkhorn Creek, touching Chisel Knob on the north side. He deeded part of the land to his son Joshua in 1808 and the rest to his son John in 1819 (Grayson, D. B. 2-406; D. B. 4-88). His son James was not given land. His will, which was written in 1813, was probated in Grayson in 1839 (Grayson, Will Book Two). He is not found in the census after 1820 so the traditional death date of 1829 is likely right. His will names six children: (1) Elizabeth Stoneman who married Charles Cole in 1795, (2) Sarah Stoneman who married John Mooney in 1801, (3) Hannah Stoneman whose husband was a Davis, (4) Joshua Stoneman (1772-1840) who married Elizabeth Davis and then Sarah Burcham, (5) James Stoneman who married Nancy Hannigan, and (6) John Stoneman (1792-1874) who married Elizabeth Hickman. It would seem that Nancy Stoneman Burcham (1773-1857), wife of Levi Burcham, was another, but she was not named in the will.