Dabney Family of Early Virginia
Cornelius Dabney (b 1630) and his descendants
First Name:  Last Name: 
[Advanced Search]  [Surnames]

John Dabney

Male 1749 - 1831  (81 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name John Dabney 
    Born 3 May 1749  Albemarle County, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Died 11 Mar 1831  Williamson County, Tennessee Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Person ID I681  Dabneys of Virginia
    Last Modified 30 Sep 2016 

    Father John Dabney,   b. Abt 1715, New Kent County, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Bef 1771, Hanover County, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 55 years) 
    Mother Anna Harris,   b. 31 Mar 1724, Albemarle County, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft Jul 1766, Hanover County, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 42 years) 
    Married Abt 1739/40  [3
    Family ID F322  Group Sheet

    Family 1 Anna Harris 
    Last Modified 26 Oct 2016 
    Family ID F478  Group Sheet

    Family 2 Margaret Smith,   b. 8 Dec 1757, Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1 Oct 1823, Williamson County, Tennessee Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 65 years) 
    Married 9 Oct 1772  [1, 4
    Last Modified 28 Nov 2011 
    Family ID F487  Group Sheet

  • Notes 
    • John Dabney was born to John Dabney and Anna (Harris) Dabney May 3, 1749 in Albemarle or Hanover County, Virginia, which may explain the label “John Dabney of Albemarle” in W. H. Dabney’s Sketch of the Dabneys of Virginia. His mother was Anna Harris, a daughter of Major Robert and Mourning (Glenn) Harris of Albemarle County.
      He was married first to Anna Harris, probably a relative through his mother, who bore the same name. Anna appears to have died childless early in their marriage, and John remarried to Margaret Smith October 9, 1772 in Charlotte County, Virginia.
      John and Margaret had fourteen children: Charles S., born October 19, 1773, died early; Elizabeth (Betsey), born June 29, 1775; Anna, born May 15, 1777; John, born January 21, 1779; Patsy, born June 9, 1780; Leah P., born October 31, 1782; William, born May 9, 1784; Lemuel Smith, born February 27, 1786; Charles Anderson, born December 3, 1788; Nancy H., born January 3, 1791; Margarette S., born May 11, 1793; Mary (Polly), born November 10, 1795; Smith, born February 3, 1797; Bethinia S., born April 25, 1803.
      John and Margaret moved from Virginia to North Carolina before 1774 when John was paid £10 as a member of the North Carolina Assembly. In 1779, John purchased a tract in Guilford County, then sold it in 1783.
      In 1789, he was elected with 4 others to represent Rockingham County at the second North Carolina Constitutional Convention called to vote a second time on whether the state would accept the proposed Constitution of the United States. The first convention had refused to ratify the Constitution in 1788 because it lacked certain amendments desired by the delegates. At the second convention, the delegates rejected an initial proposal along the same line, but finally approved a second proposal to accept the draft with a recommendation that the desired amendments be added later through the amendment procedure provided in the Constitution. The first proposal failed 82 to 187 and the second was approved 195 to 77. John Dabney was in the minority voting for the first proposal and against the second.
      When the 1790 census was taken, John and Margaret were living in Rockingham County with seven children. In December, 1790, he purchased 270 acres on Deep River and Indian Creek in Chatham County, which was nearer to the new state capital at Raleigh. He probably moved his family there about that time. In 1794, he purchased 230 adjoining acres. He was elected to the lower house of the North Carolina Assembly in 1794 and served to 1803 with only two 1-year interruptions. In 1799, he sold both tracts and in 1800 purchased 301 acres on Little Brush Creek. At the time of the 1800 census, his family were living in Hillsborough, Chatham County, with six children. In 1803, he added 329 additional acres.
      In 1801 John received a land grant for 228 acres in Wilson County, Tennessee, from the State of North Carolina, but he did not move to Tennessee until after November, 1807, when he sold his last tract of 329 acres in Chatham County. In that year, when he was 56, he was first listed in the Williamson County, Tennessee, tax records with 200 acres and three slaves. The next year he was assessed with 231 acres, which remained constant until he transferred his land to his son, Charles A. in 1827 and dropped out of the tax list at age 78. Before 1813, he also obtained 950 acres in Giles County, on which he paid a tax of $2.32 in 1813. He later obtained 300 additional acres in Giles County, which he combined with the 950 acres and gave to his two eldest sons, John and William, before he died.
      John signed his will in 1824 and a codicil in 1825, six years before his death in 1831, marking him as an exceptionally prudent man for the time, when most men waited until death was close before signing their wills. In the will, he mentioned the prior gift to his sons John and William of 1,250 acres in Giles County and bequeathed his home farm in Williamson County to Charles Anderson Dabney, the youngest of his three surviving sons. He also left most of his house furnishings and farm tools to Charles. To three of his grandchildren, Robert McLemore House, Lemuel Smith House, and Elizabeth Jenkins House, children of his deceased daughter, Polly Minor House, he left three slaves and to Elizabeth House a feather bed and furniture. The rest of his estate, he left to his daughters, Elizabeth Warren, Anna Bennett, Nancy H. Bond, Peggy S. McLemore, and Betheny (Bethinia) S. McLemore, with a provision that none of the slaves be sold out of the family. He also gave the wife of his deceased son William a feather bed with furniture. In a codicil dated May 20, 1825, he instructed his executors to withhold the principle of his bequest to his daughter Peggy S. McLemore, who was remarried to Thomas B. Mallony, and to pay her the annual income until her husband’s death after which she would receive the principle. If Peggy should die before her husband, her property should be divided among her children as if she died intestate and unmarried.
      John’s wife, Margaret, evidently died before the writing of his will in 1824 because she was not mentioned. John died March 11, 1831, probably in Williamson County, or possibly in Giles County. [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]

  • Sources 
    1. [S287]

    2. [S312]

    3. [S263]

    4. [S725]

    5. [S301]

    6. [S416]

    7. [S314]

    8. [S315]

    9. [S316]

    10. [S427]

    11. [S428]

    12. [S38]

    13. [S287] His death date was given from a bible record..