A GENEALOGICAL MISCELLANY III,
MADISON COUNTY, TENNESSEE

By Jonathan K. T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1996

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A CHANCERY COURT CASE, A GENEALOGICAL NUGGET: JONES

Appearing in the JACKSON GAZETTE, Jackson, Tennessee, June 13, 1829, this legal notice:

STATE OF TENNESSEE
8th Judicial Circuit, to wit: In the Clerk's Office of the District Chancery
Court at Jackson, April Rules, 1829.
Richard Smith, Complainant vs Calvin Jones, Atlas Jones, Reuben Wilcox and Susan his wife, Willis ReeVes and Thisbe his wife, Jabez Lawrence and Sabra his wife, Bolus Jones, Egbert Jones, Julia A. Jones, Maria Jones and Calvin Jones, Harrison Walton and Susan his wife, Luna Calvin, Atla5 and Eliza H. Orton, all heirs of Andes Jones, deceased, and Andrew L. Martin, Defendants.

This day came the complainant aforesaid, by his Solicitor, and it appearing by the return of the Sheriff of Madison county and the affidavit of the complainant's said Solicitor that all of the defendants aforesaid except the defendants Atlas Jones and Andrew L. Martin, cannot be found and are not inhabitants of this State and they failing to enter their appearance herein, as required by law and the rules of this Court, It is ordered that said defendants make their appearance herein, at the next Term of Court, to be held on the 4th Monday in the month of September next and plead, answer or demur, to the complainant's bill of complaint or the same will be taken for confessed against them, set for hearing ex parte and the matters thereof decreed accordingly. And it is further ordered, that this order be published six weeks in the Jackson Gazette, printed in the town of Jackson.
Test, Rob. Hughes, Cl'k. & Master. June 13. Pr. fee, $18.37.

The bill states, that on the 10th day of January 1822, in the state of North Carolina, Complainant purchased of the said Andes Jones in Nash county in said state, for the sum of eight hundred and seventy five dollars paid at the time, a military land warrant No. 402, for 1000 acres, issued to the heirs of one John Stanton, a sergeant in the revolutionary war, which warrant was assigned by Green Stanton (who was the only son and heir of Zachariah Stanton then deceased; sole brother and heir of said John Stanton), to the said Andes Jones, the locative interest supposed to be one eighth was to be reserved, which warrant at the time of the contract was supposed to be in the hands of messrs. Hunt and Dickins, locators in the Western District of the state of Tennessee and was supposed to have been entered in the 12th surveyor's district, second range and third section in the county of Carroll; and that accordingly in the deed executed by said Andes Jones, transferring said warrant to Complainant, the said warrant is stated to have been entered in the said 12th district, second range and third section in Carroll county. And the Bill further sets out, that at the time of said contract, the intention and design of the parties was the sale and purchase of the said warrant and not any particular tract of land except the land covered by the said warrant and that the description and statement of the locality of the place on which the said warrant was supposed to have been entered was out of abundant caution and further, that both parties, at that time, were under a mistake as to the locality of the land covered by said warrant, the same having in fact been entered in what is now Hardeman county, in the 10th surveyor's district, ranges one and two and section six, in the place of being entered in Carroll county in the 12th surveyor's district, as set forth in said contract and deed before mentioned; and further stating, that on the 6th day of January 1823 a Grant founded on said warrant was issued for 1000 acres, to the said Andes Jones, in the 10th district, ranges one and two and section 6th; and further representing, that since the issuance of said Grant but before the mistake which had been made was found out, the said Andes Jones departed this life, without having lawful issue, leaving the following persons his heirs at law, to wit: Calvin Jones, his brother, residing in Wake county, North Carolina; Atlas Jones, his brother, residing in Madison county, state of Tennessee; Luna Wilcox his sister who married Reuben Wilcox, residing in the state of New York; Thisbe his sister who married Willis Reeves, residing in Orange county, state of North Carolina; Sabra his sister who married Jabez Laurence, residing in Berkshire county, state of Massachusetts; Belus Jones and Egbert Jones, both of lawful age, children and heirs of Heman Jones, deceased, brother of said

 

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Andes Jones, residing in Pike county, state of Illinois; Julia A. Jones, of lawful age, Maria Jones and Calvin Jones, minors, all residing in Troy, state of New York, children and heirs of Horace Jones, deceased, br. other to said Andes Jones; Susan who married Harrison Walton, Eliza H. Orton, of lawful age, and Luna, Calvin and Atlas Orton, minors, residing in the state of New York, at or near Rega, in said state, children and heirs of Thetis Orton, deceased, formerly Thetis Jones who intermarried with Horatio Orton, the said Thetis being the sister of said Andes Jones and further stating, that since the purchase of said warrant of Andes Jones, he had ascertained that Messrs. Hunt & Dickins did not locate the said warrant but that the same was located by messrs. Porter, Polk & Co. and that the said Andrew L. Martin claimed and owned the locative interest by regular assignment and transfer. The Bill further states and expressley charges, that it was the warrant and not any particular tract of land or the tract of land in Carroll county, complainant was purchasing but the land to be saved and secured by virtue of said warrant; and prays that the contract may be specifically carried into execution and the title to the 1000 acres of land, entered and saved by said warrant, described in said Bill, with the reservation of one eighth part of the locative interest, may be divested out of the heirs at law of Andes Jones and vested in said complainant, his heirs and assigns forever and for further and general relief /payment of legal fees and court costs/.

W. /William/ Stoddert

 

A biographical sketch of CALVIN JONES (1775-1846), mentioned in the above notice, appears on page 315 of the DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY, edited by William S. Powell, Chapel Hill, 1988, volume 3.

Several of the family of ATLAS JONES, mentioned in the above notice, are mentioned in the "Jones" sketch in MY OLD SALEM CEMETERY TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS SCRAPBOOK, by Jonathan K. T. Smith, Jackson, Tennessee, 1996, pages 25-26.

 

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