Person talk:John Vest (21)

Not John Vest in Revolutionary Pension Application S15692 [31 December 2011]

I have a John Vest in my ancestry whom I have been researching although I have not yet posted to WeRelate the information that I have about him. He is the father of Person:Mary_Vest_(40) with Nancy Bailey. I think I have accumulated enough evidence to state with a high degree of certainty that he is the John Vest in the pension application, and as such, I'm afraid that John Daniel Vest II cannot be. My evidence is as follows:

1. In the pension application John Vest states that 1). he has lived continuously in Bedford County, Virginia since 1789 and that 2). at the time of the application he is 82 years old.

2. In the 1810 census there is a single John Vest living in Bedford County. He is presented as living with a family with 1 male under 10, 1 male between 10 and 15, 1 male between 16 and 26, 1 male between 26 and 45, 1 male over 45 (presumably Vest himself), 1 female between 10 and 15, 3 females between 16 and 26, and 1 female over 45. This would make him at the very least 65 by 1830, and probably much older as he has (presumably) a child in the 26-45 age bracket whom he probably did not father at age 14 or less.

3. There are several court cases involving a John Vest of Bedford County in the chancery court cases listed on Virginia Memory [1]. There is a long running suit between John Vest and William Mead over the leasing of a parcel of 200 acres of property, index number 1832-002, original case number 3, in which it establishes that John Vest was leasing property from William Mead continuously starting in February of 1791 and going on to the point of the case. Among relatives mentioned in this document are John Vest jr., Joshua Vest, and Edward Davison -- John Vest's son-in-law by marriage to his daughter Nancy.

4. Another case in the Virginia Memory collection establishes all of the surviving adult children of John Vest as of 1835 at the time of his death as well as the name of his lawyer. This is case 1845-038 Edward Davison & wife etc. v. John Vest etc. The children mentioned in this case in the wake of the the death of John Vest sr. are: Nancy Davison, Rebecca Harris, Polly (Mary) Acton, James Vest, Betty Cobb, John Vest jr., Joshua Vest, and William Vest. This case also provides the name of the administrator of John Vest's estate as William Leftwich jr. William Leftwich jr. is also mentioned in the pension application of February of 1833. This establishes a relationship with a person on the pension application as well as establishes that this John Vest died after the 1833 date and it establishes that this John Vest is the father-in-law of Joseph Acton and has very different children from those of John D. Vest. Nowhere in any of these documents have I seen John Vest or his son referred to as John D. Vest.

If there is some kind of evidence that you can provide that contradicts this evidence and can make a case that the John Vest in pension application S15692 is in fact John D. Vest, I would love to hear it. However, I think I have a pretty strong case here that he is not.

I--Herrmoody 14:49, 31 December 2011 (EST)