#samuel-gilbert — Public Fediverse posts

Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) of Wythe County, Virginia, Wayne County, Kentucky, and Morgan County, Alabama: Chronology of Initial Land Transactions in Kentucky

Note of Robert Henderson assigning 200 acres in Wayne County, Kentucky, to Thomas Brooks, 27 August 1810, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 473-4, grant no. 1644, certificate no. 844

Or, Subtitled: “Know all men by these presents that I John Caperton of Franklin County west Tenneſsee — do make ordain and appoint my trusty friend Thomas Brooks of Wayne County state of Kentucky”

As a previous posting notes, at some point between 19 February 1797, when their oldest child Jane was born in Virginia, and 26 March 1798, when the tax list for Wythe County, Virginia, was compiled, Thomas Brooks and Sarah Whitlock, who had married in Wythe County on 14 February 1796, moved from Virginia to Pulaski (later Wayne) County, Kentucky. A subsequent posting then tracks this family’s life in Pulaski and then Wayne Counties up to 1836, when Thomas and Sarah joined their children in Alabama in the final year of the elderly couple’s lives. (To read the continuation of this posting, please click the numeral 2 below.)

This posting fills in some significant gaps in my previous research about Thomas and Sarah Brooks’ first years in Kentucky. Last week, I spent valuable time in the Kentucky Land Office in Frankfort, where the astute and very helpful archivist Jaime Phillips pulled for me the complete file of paperwork for two grants the Commonwealth of Kentucky made to Thomas Brooks in Wayne County. These grants were for two tracts of land of 200 acres each on the waters of Beaver Creek in Grassy Valley and on Otter Creek, on which Thomas and Sarah raised their family from at least 1801, and which they sold in 1836 as they prepared to move to Alabama. The paperwork (surveys, warrants, grant documents, land assignments) found in both sets of land documents provides critically important information to anyone seeking to understand Thomas Brooks’ early land transactions in Pulaski and Wayne Counties, Kentucky.

What follows is a chronology of these early land transactions, a chronology that cites, among other sources, the file of documents for each of Thomas Brooks’ 200-acre tracts in Wayne County:

In 1799, Thomas Brooks appears on the tax list in Pulaski County taxed for no property.[1]

On 18 November 1799, Thomas had a survey for 100 acres on Pitman Creek in Pulaski County.[2] In 1800 on 19 July, Thomas was taxed for this 100-acre tract in Pulaski County, with the tax list stating that the land was entered by John Kelly and surveyed for Thomas Brooks.[3]

After Wayne County was formed in 1800 from Pulaski and Cumberland Counties, Thomas Brooks began appearing on the Wayne County tax list while remaining for some years on the Pulaski County tax list for the 100-acre tract on Pitman Creek he had acquired from John Kelly/Kelley (both surname spellings appear in various documents) and for another 400-acre tract he himself had entered on Buck Creek. The 1805 tax list for Pulaski County shows Thomas taxed for both of these tracts, 100 and 400 acres, with a notation that the 400-acre tract was entered by Thomas.[4] By July 1807, the 400-acre tract was slated for sale by the county sheriff because Thomas had not paid taxes on it.[5] Thomas Brooks and wife Sarah sold the Pitman Creek tract of 100 acres on 14 August 1820 to John Williams of Pulaski County, with the deed noting that the land had been granted to Thomas as assignee of John Kelly by patent from the Commonwealth of Kentucky dated 14 December 1811.[6] The posting I’ve just linked has a digital image of this deed.

Grant of Commonwealth of Kentucky to Thomas Brooks, 2 January 1811, 200 acres in Grassy Valley on waters of Beaver Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 473-4, grant no. 1644, certificate no. 844

By 1802 in Wayne County, Thomas began to be taxed in Wayne County for 200 acres on waters of Beaver Creek in Grassy Valley that he had acquired from Robert Henderson, who was assigned this land by John Kelly, who entered it.[7] Thomas did not obtain the grant for this land until 2 January 1811,[8] but it appears he was living on the land by 1802 and perhaps earlier than that, and that this and another 200-acre tract I’ll discuss in a moment were his home tracts in Wayne County.

Warrant to John Kelly, 29 August 1798, 200 acres in Grassy Valley on waters of Beaver Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 473-4, grant no. 1644, certificate no. 844 Survey for John Kelly, 16 August 1799, 200 acres in Grassy Valley on waters of Beaver Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 473-4, grant no. 1644, certificate no. 844 Assignment by John Kelly to Robert Henderson, 5 November 1799, and by Henderson to Thomas Brooks, 9 March 1801, 200 acres in Grassy Valley on waters of Beaver Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 473-4, grant no. 1644, certificate no. 844

After John Kelly received a warrant for the 200 acres in Grassy Valley on 29 August 1798 under terms of the act of the Assembly to give encouragement and relief to settlers, the 200 acres, then in Pulaski County, were surveyed for John Kelly on 16 August 1799, and Kelly then assigned the land to Robert Henderson on 5 November 1799, and on 9 March 1801, Henderson assigned the 200 acres to Thomas Brooks.[9] The warrant for this land issued to John Kelly states that the land was in Grassy Valley on the waters of Beaver Creek joining Robert Henderson’s claims above and John Henderson’s claims below. The papers for this land grant held by the Kentucky Land Office also include a note written 27 August 1810 by Robert Henderson of Garrard County, Kentucky, making his trusty friend Thomas Brooks of Wayne County his power of attorney as the grant for this land was made to Thomas Brooks. See the head of this posting for a digital image of Henderson’s note.

At the same time that Thomas Brooks was taxed in Wayne County in 1802 for the 200-acre piece of land on Beaver Creek in Grassy Valley, he was also taxed for an additional 70 acres on Beaver Creek.[10] This 70-acre tract doesn’t appear on Wayne County tax listings for Thomas Brooks after 1802. Since by 1804 he was being taxed for 200 acres and 135 acres, both on Beaver Creek, I think it’s likely that the 70 acres mentioned in 1802 were part of the 135-acre piece of land for which Thomas began to be taxed in 1804, with the tax list stating that Thomas had entered this land himself.[11] Thomas had a survey for the 135 acres on 29 October 1805, with the survey stating that the land was on Beaver and Otter Creeks in Wayne County.[12]

The 1806 tax list for Wayne County shows Thomas taxed again for the 200- and 135-acre tracts on Beaver Creek, with the tax list saying that John Kelley had entered the 200-acre tract and had assigned it to R. Henderson.[13] The tax list reiterates that Thomas entered the 135-acre tract.

In 1807, Thomas Brooks begins to be taxed in Wayne County for two tracts of 200 acres each, as well as for the 135 acres on Beaver Creek.[14] The tax list places both 200-acre tracts on Otter Creek, noting that one tract had been entered by John Kelley and then assigned to R. Henderson, and the other had been entered by John Caperton.

Warrant to Samuel Gilbert, 27 August 1798, 200 acres on Otter Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 469, no. 670, certificate 895 Note by Samuel Gilbert, 4 December 1798, assigning to John Caperton 200 acres on Otter Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 469, no. 670, certificate 895 Survey for John Caperton, 24 July 1799, 200 acres on Otter Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 469, no. 670, certificate 895 Note of John Caperton, 30 September 1809, assigning Thomas Brooks 200 acres on Otter Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 469, no. 670, certificate 895 Grant of Commonwealth of Kentucky to Thomas Brooks, 29 December 1810, 200 acres on Otter Creek, Wayne County, Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 469, no. 670, certificate 895

On 27 August 1798, Samuel Gilbert was issued a warrant for the second 200-acre tract I’ve just noted under terms of an act of the Assembly for encouraging and giving relief to settlers.[15] On 24 December 1798, Gilbert assigned the land to John Caperton, who had a survey of the land on 24 July 1799 and who then assigned it to Thomas Brooks on 30 September 1809.[16] Note that the 1807 tax list suggests that Thomas Brooks had already occupied this land by 1807. The land was granted to Thomas Brooks by the Commonwealth of Kentucky on 29 December 1810.

As I stated previously, by 1802, when Thomas Brooks began to be taxed for the 200 acres John Kelley had entered and then assigned to Robert Henderson, it appears to me that Thomas Brooks and his family were living on that piece of land as their home tract. They were likely living on this land prior to March 1801 when Henderson assigned it to Thomas Brooks. By 1807, I think they had added Caperton’s 200 acres to the home tract.  

As we’ve seen in a previous posting, these two 200-acre tracts were the last pieces of their land that Thomas Brooks and wife Sarah sold in November 1836 as they prepared for their move from Kentucky to Morgan County, Alabama. When Thomas and Sarah sold 200 acres on Otter Creek to Thomas Marcum on 8 November 1836, the deed stated that the land had been surveyed on 24 July 1799, the date on which John Caperton had a survey for the 200 acres assigned to him by Samuel Gilbert, which Caperton then transferred to Thomas Brooks.[17] A digital copy of the deeds is at the posting I’ve just linked.

When Thomas and Sarah sold the 200-acre tract in Grassy Valley to Daniel Shearer two days after they made the previous deed, the deed stated that the land had been patented by John Kelly and assigned to Robert Henderson and that it was surveyed 16 August 1799, with the land bordering John Henderson.[18] See this previous posting for a digital copy of this deed.

[1] Pulaski County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1799, p. 2.

[2] Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 10, p. 259.

[3] Pulaski County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1800, unpaginated.

[4] Ibid., 1805, unpaginated.

[5] See the Palladium (Frankfort, Kentucky) (23 July 1807), p. 5, col. 1.

[6] Pulaski County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. 4, pp. 328-9.

[7] Wayne County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1802, 13 August, unpaginated.

[8] Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 473-4, grant no. 1644, certificate no. 844.

[9] See ibid. along with the documents held by the Kentucky Land Office for grant 1644 in Land Grants South of Green River, which include the original survey with notes on the back by Kelly assigning the land to Henderson and Henderson assigning the land to Brooks.

[10] Wayne County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1802.

[11] Wayne County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1804, unpaginated.

[12] Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 7, p. 99.

[13] Wayne County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1806, unpaginated.

[14] Wayne County, Kentucky, Tax List, 1807, unpaginated.

[15] Kentucky Land Grants South of Green River Bk. 8, pp. 469, no. 670, certificate 895. The warrant is in documents held by the Kentucky Land Office for grant 670 in Land Grants South of Green River.

[16] See ibid.

[17] Wayne County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. I, pp. 391-2.

[18] Ibid., Deed Bk. G, pp. 152-3.

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