Person:Catherine Walker (20)

Catherine is now seen as the "Hetty Walker" identified as the daughter of John Walker III of the Wigton line, and Ann Houston. The basis for identifying "Catherine" as White's "Hetty", is based on the fact that John Walker III left a bequest to "Ann Bell" whom he identifies as his granddaughter. At the time of his death John had a number of grandchildren, and this bequest to a single grandchild seems unusual. The argument has been made by User:Dan Welch that "Hetty Walker" is in fact Catherine Walker Bell, wife of Robert Bell of Northwestern NC. Robert's personal history is well documented, and we know that he lived in the general area were John Walker III and his family were living until 1770 or so. Robert's wife Catherine died sometime before 1770, leaving an infant daughter "Ann". This would be the "Ann Bell" to whom John III left a bequest in his will probated 1778. Basically, he was leaving a bequest to his granddaughter in memory of his daughter.

The argument might be made that there's no direct evidence that "Catherine Walker Bell" is the daughter of John Walker III. Apart from the above, that's true enough. However, its also true that there's no direct evidence that John III had a daughter "Hetty". The basis for identifying "Hetty" as his daughter is strictly limited to what's said in White 1902. White 1902 had a very imperfect understanding of this family line. She was not, for example, aware that they had spent time in North Carolina. She also makes other "nameing errors" in her list of children of John and Catherine. She identifies, for example", the husband of daughter Margaret as "John Judy". Margaret is well documented as the wife of "John Snoddy". In this regard, it is useful to remember that White's sources of information about this family line were descendants of William Walker aka "the Wyanadotte", a grandson of John III through his only surviving son John IV. William the Wyandotte was captured by Indians about 1776, when he was about age 11, and lived among them the rest of his life. The fact that he could remember enough of the names of his family relations that White could get most of it right, is in and of itself, quite amazing. On this basis, its not surprising that White 1902 jumbled a few names, converting John Snoddy into John Judy, and Catherine into Hetty.

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