Person:Jane Tinnin (4)

[Alamance County_Feb 2006_backup.FTW]

Message board posting from Alex Thompson regarding Alexander's wife: t is generally accepted that the wife of Alexander MEBANE Sr. of Ireland, PA and NC was Mary TINNIN. His DAR Index record shows: Alexander MEBANE Sr. b.11-26-1716 Ire, d. bef.2- -1793 NC m. Mary TINNIN; Civil Service & Patriotic Service; NC

But is there any real evidence that the mother of his children was named Mary? Alexander's wife was living when he wrote his will in April 1789, but he referred to her only as "my wife" and I have found no deed or other record which gives her name.

Alexander's grandson James Mebane, in a paper used by Rev. Eli W. Caruthers in "The Old North State in 1776" (1854), stated that Alexander had six sons and six daughters, but he didn't name Alexander's wife or any of the daughters. He related stories of Alexander Mebane's wife Mary's encounters with British and Patriot troops shortly before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse (1781), but he was referring to his mother, Mary Armstrong, wife of Alexander Jr.., who was a Colonel of the N.C. Militia (promoted to Brigadier General after the war). James, born 1774, was just a child at the time, but the events were still vivid in his mind. A portion of his tale (on page 89) seems worth repeating here, because it clearly shows the reference was to Mary wife of the younger Alexander: "Eight or ten of General Picken's men [from South Carolina Patriot forces] called at the gate, when Mrs.. Mary Mebane, wife of Alexander, went out accompanied by some of the youngest children who were at home with her, and one of the men presented a pistol to her breast and threatened to shoot her unless she would tell them where her husband was. She replied that he was where he ought to be, in General Green's camp; and after some more talk, they asked her for something to eat. She brought it out to them, and they eat it sitting on their horses, and departed."

In pre-Revolutionary War days, it was customary to name the oldest daughter after the maternal grandmother (the mother's mother), but none of Alexander's daughters named their oldest daughter Mary. In fact, though he had granddaughters by nine of his known children, only two granddaughters were named Mary, and one of them was almost certainly named after her other grandmother.

There is firm proof as to names of five of Alexander Sr.'s six daughters. Their names and birth order of their daughters, as well as I can determine, were:

1) Elizabeth married James ANDERSON, son of John and Ann (MOORE) ANDERSON. Elizabeth's oldest surviving daughter was Ann (b. 1762), the second was Jane (b.c1770), and a third daughter was Margaret (b.1780 -- James ANDERSON's grandmother was the widow Margaret MOORE). I don't know exactly when Elizabeth and James got married, so I can't say for sure that Ann was the first-born daughter; an earlier Jane may have died young. (Ann m.1788 Richard BULL, Jane m.1793 James DIXON, and Margaret m.1799 William POTTS.) There was no daughter Mary.

2) Jane married William ANDERSON, son of John and Ann (MOORE) ANDERSON. Jane's oldest daughters were Jane and Ann, and a third daughter was Frances. A nephew (Alexander ANDERSON son of Robert) reported that Jane was the oldest, and that seems correct. (Jane m.abt.1781 John THOMPSON, Ann m.1782 David MITCHELL Jr.. and Frances b.1775, m.1794 Thomas ARMSTRONG.) There was no daughter Mary.

3) Frances married John GRAHAM, who I believe was son of William and Ann (ADAMS) GRAHAM. As listed in the family Bible, Frances' oldest daughter was Jane and her only other daughter was Ann. (Jane b.1773, m.1794 John WALKER Jr.. and Ann b.1776, m.1797 Jehu HALL.) There was no daughter Mary.

4) Margaret married Andrew MURDOCK, parents unknown. Margaret's oldest daughter was Jane and the only other daughter was Nancy. (Jane b.1785, m. Abraham CRAIG and Nancy b. 1786, m.1809 Joseph STEEL.) There was no daughter Mary.

5) Ann married James(?) MORROW, parents unknown. Ann's only known daughter was Jane. (Jane b.1771 per Cemetery record, m.1812 John WALKER Jr.., after his first wife Jane GRAHAM died.) There is no indication of a daughter Mary.

Thus the overwhelming evidence for the first name of Alexander Mebane Sr's wife was Jane. The only non-Jane among eldest daughters was Ann, the paternal grandmother's name.

Among Alexander's sons, we would expect the second-born daughter to be given the name of its paternal grandmother. Three of Alexander's sons had more than one daughter:

1) Alexander Jr.. married Mary ARMSTRONG, daughter of James and Mary (BIRD) ARMSTRONG. As listed in the family Bible, Alexander's oldest of several daughters was Janett (Jane), and the second was Mary. (Janett b.1768, m.1791 Richard STANFORD, and Mary b.1770, m.1794 Robert HODGE.)

2) James married Margaret ALLEN, daughter of George and Margaret (ANDERSON) ALLEN. James' oldest daughter was Elizabeth and the second was Jenny (Jane). (Elizabeth b.c1781, m.1805 Richard WOODS and Jenny b.1783, m.1805 Exum ELLIOT. Other daughters were Nancy b.1787, m.1808 Samuel WHITE, Mary "Polly" m.1829 James WOODS, and Margaret "Peggy" m.bef.1832 James TATE.) Mary was the next to youngest daughter.

3) David's first wife was Ann ALLEN, daughter of George and Elizabeth (ANDERSON) ALLEN. David's oldest daughter was Elizabeth, the second was Jane, and a third daughter was Frances. (Elizabeth b. 1793, m.1813 John MITCHELL, Jane b.1800, m.1819 John THOMPSON Jr.., and Frances b.1802, m.1840 Fenner WALKER.) David had another daughter by his second wife, widow Elizabeth (TAIT) YANCEY; their daughter's name was Martha Ann (b.1821, m.1839 Milton Thompson Holt). There was no daughter Mary.

So both James and David named the second born daughter Jane. Only in the case of Alexander Jr.. was the second oldest Mary, which was the name of the maternal grandmother. He also broke with convention and named his oldest son James, after the maternal grandfather.

A fourth son, John, married Sarah, widow of William KINCHEN. They had just one daughter, whose name was Ann (m. Thomas HILL). The other sons were William (the oldest), who left no daughters, and Robert, killed in 1781, who never married.

As Robert M. Mebane pointed out to me, there was also a report that Alexander Sr's wife was Elizabeth MITCHELL, daughter of David and Elizabeth MITCHELL. That report was by Miss Amanda Anderson, who was born about 1836 and was an educator at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Wilson Co. TN. She was a granddaughter of Rev. Alexander ANDERSON, grandson of Alexander MEBANE Sr. by his daughter Elizabeth. Apparently Miss Amanda believed that her greatgrandmother Elizabeth MEBANE was named for her mother. I don't know what evidence she may have had for that. But as shown in the above analysis, there is no support among granddaughters' names for Elizabeth being the mother of Alexander MEBANE Sr.'s children. James and David MEBANE named their first-born daughters Elizabeth, but that name came from their maternal grandmother Elizabeth (ANDERSON) ALLEN. If anyone knows of evidence for MITCHELL being the name of Alexander MEBANE Sr's wife, I would very much like to hear about it.

It seems likely that the predominant family legend is true that Alexander's wife was a TINNIN. He and TINNIN brothers John, James, Carns and Robert all left northern Lancaster Co. PA around 1750, and all wound up in Orange Co. NC. Alexander's 1755 Orange County Tax record reads: Alexander MEBANE, Esqr. with William CAIRNS: 2 White Polls, 3 Black Polls. William CAIRNS (other records spell the name CARNS) seems most likely to have been a cousin of Alexander's TINNIN wife.

There also seems no reason to doubt the report by TINNIN investigators that Alexander's sister Jane MEBANE was the wife of John TINNIN. But it seems quite likely to me that Alexander's wife was Jane TINNIN, not Mary. I think that the report that Mary was his wife started by confusing Alexander Sr. with Alexander Jr.., whose wife was Mary. Once that error got into the DAR records, the error has ben used by many investigators.

1. ↑ Ronald Boyd's WorldConnect database 1397503.