James Beard married Jane/Jenny Clendenin
Note: Just as my own line's surname morphed into "Beaird" from Beard, some in this line spelled and still spell their surname Baird. We will continue to use the family name Beard for our record keeping and for ease of indexing. In this line, we find both Beard and Baird spellings on the various records for the same people, so we regard these as interchangeable.
James Beard was born between 1770 and 1780, probably in the Valley of Virginia before his father moved west to what would become the state of Tennessee. He married Jane "Jenny" Clendenin/Clendennon in 1803 or sooner. She was the daughter of John Clendenin and his wife Mary who were from the Cowpasture River area of the Valley and close neighbors of the Beard family there. Jane's parents had also moved to Tennessee, and her father died in Sevier County before 1810. James and Jane Beard lived in Adair County, Kentucky in the early years of their marriage, as the entire Beard clan had moved there from Eastern Tennessee about the year 1798. On the 1802 Tax List there, we find James Beard and we also find a James Clendenin/Clendennon---and Jane had a brother by this name. He lived on lands on the Green River. In 1807, we find an Adair County record that James and Jenny Beard sold property to a John "Clenderman" in Book B, page 2 of the records. Jane's father was a John and she also had a brother by that name. It appears that young James and Jane may have moved then, to property in Maury County, Tennessee. We must mention here that many other Beard family members were moving down to middle Tennessee at this same time and most were living in neighboring Bedford County by 1820.
In about 1810, old John Clendenin died in Sevier County, Tennessee, leaving 212 acres of land on Flat Creek, south of the French Broad River, in Sevier County, Tennessee to his heirs. Those heirs are listed in a document as Mary, James, John, Nancy, and Polly Clendenin and Esther McGee, Jenny Beard, and Betsy Clabaugh. Esther/Ester was married to John McGee. Jenny was married to James Beard. Betsy was married to Charles Clabaugh. (East Tennessee Patent Book 2, page 695, 20 June 1810.
On 11 August 1811, a Power of Attorney was filed by James Beard "of Maury County, Tennessee" and his wife Jenny to John McGee of Warren County, Tennessee (Jenny's brother in law, married to Esther) to convey to William Douglas of Bath County, Virginia any rights in 340 acres patented to John Clendenning, being 1/7, and to demand payment due for this land on the Cowpasture River. This power document was executed in Tennessee, and it seems to have been filed there, in Adair County, Kentucky, and in Bath County, Virginia. Jenny Clendenin Beard's siblings and mother, all "of Sevier County, Tennessee", also executed a Power of Attorney for the same John McGee of Warren County.
On 12 September 1818, a document was filed in Adair County, Kentucky by John Beard Sr. which stated that John was giving his son "James Beard of Maury County, Tennessee" a slave. (Deed Book E, page 55.) John died shortly afterwards, it seems.
In 1819, James and Jenny Beard sold 100 acres on the Green River in Adair County, Kentucky to Benard/Bernard Moore. Book E, page 86. This land was probably where they had lived when in Adair County.
On 12 August 1819 in Warren County, Tennessee, a document was filed pertaining to the estate of Jenny Beard's father, John Clendenon. His son in law Charles Clabaugh of that county "with his inlaws" released claims on "a Negro woman named Suck who was being sold to Mathew Cort/Court? in Jefferson County, Tennessee. In addition to the inlaws, James and John Clendenon, sons of John Sr deceased, were listed. The inlaws listed in the document were John McGee [married to Esther Clendenon]; James Beard of Maury County, Tennessee [our subject, married to Jane/Jenny Clendenon], and Hugh Beard of Bedford County, Tennessee. There were two Hugh Beards in Bedford at this year, the elder Hugh who was far too old for this cite, and the younger Hugh, son of Samuel and cousin of James who married Jenny. In 1810, in the list of heirs of John Clendenon, the only unmarried daughters were Polly (short for Mary) and Nancy, so one of these daughters must have married young Hugh Beard, the son of Samuel, between 1810 and 1819.
The census of 1820 for Maury County, Tennessee shows the James Beard household: two boys under ten, two boys 10-16, a male over 45, two girls 10-16 and wife over 45. This listing is found on page 14; on page 16 we find a Samuel Beard with two males 16-26 and himself over 45. We believe that old John Beard no doubt had sons named James, Samuel, and Hugh, and John. It is likely that this could be his son Samuel living close by his brother James. However, we must be careful in Maury County, as there was another family of Baird/Beard name found there, to which our line is not related.
In 1822 James Beard was a buyer at the estate sale of a Thomas Shelby in Maury County.
http://thebeardfamilyhistory.wikia.com/wiki/James_Beard_married_Jane/Jenny_Clendenin
