Person:Francis Wilkinson (5)

The answer to the question of Thomas and Brannoc Wilkinson's parentage can be found through the Washington Co VA land records. On 10/28/1871 Samuel Wilkinson willed to "my son Francis and my Daughter Ann all my goods & Chattels that's on [the] Clinch [River]." This land was probably in the Lower District in the vicinity of Ft. Blackmore and would have already been surveyed and recorded before the will was written. Francis' lands on Thompson Creek in the Upper District in the vicinity of New Garden Station were not surveyed until 9/1781 through 1785. Beginning in 1798, Rachael and her son Brannoc Wilkinson are found in the Lower Dist. Tax List for Russell Co VA. Were the lands Samuel willed to Francis and Ann these lands in the Lower District? If so, reasonable conjecture leads to the belief that Francis was Rachael's husband and the father of Thomas and Brannoc. Is there a record of Samuel's original land grant or purchase in what was then Washington Co VA?

Francis Wilkinson was born in about 1747, probably in Chester Co PA. After peace was reached between the British and French in 1764, King George III prohibited settlement beyond the Appalachians. This decree forced settlers seeking new lands to look south into the newly opened lands of the Valley of Virginia. Just before the Revolution, Francis, in the company of his family, migrated down the Great Wagon Road south and west into the Valley of Virginia and central North Carolina. Francis is first found recorded in a 1769 Orange Co NC Quaker Meeting rent record.

Belief that Francis was at some time in the Dorchester Co MD/Kent Co DE area comes from a series of evidences. In the 1880 Warrick Co IN Census, Grandson Henry Wilkerson, son of Brannoc, stated that his father was born in Delaware. And in about 1768, Francis married Rachael Brannock b. c. 1750 Kent Co DE. At the time of son Brannoc's birth, the boundary between Maryland and Delaware had recently been shifted west from its initial location. Therefore, family births, marriages, and wills along with land transactions and court proceedings which had been recorded in Dorchester Co MD were now recorded in Kent Co DE. [1775 Boundary Map]

In Francis' father's will of 1782, nonspecific lands "on Clinch" were left to Francis and his sister Ann. Subsequently, Francis purchased land in the New Garden Station on Thompson Creek (vic. Honaker VA) in what was then Washington Co VA. These lands would eventually be located in Scott and Russell counties.

Francis is found in survey and tax records up until his death after the 1797 property tax list was compiled. The last record of Francis comes from the 1798 through 1803 land purchase by Stephen Woolsey of lands between Thompson and Lewis Creeks in Russell Co VA which had been Francis' and were subsequently willed to his siblings. Beginning in 1798, wife Rachael and son Brannoc are found in the Lower Dist. of Russell County. Francis is believed to be buried on the family property between Thompson and Lewis Creeks in Russell Co VA. [Wilkinson Family Migration]