Finding the Witty ancestors

First I have to admit there is no evidence this person was my six times great grandfather, Jonathan Brittain, born (probably) in Yorkshire England. (1695-1750) There is a record of his daughter's birth, which is the only record with his name on it that I've found. My ancestor Mary Wity, didn't end up being this woman.

Jonathan Brittain's daughter was Mary Brittain Witty. She was born on 4 MAR 1721 in Bradford, York, England. Source: England Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

Some of the Ancestry contributors have posted plaids for Jonathan and Mary Brittain - the Yorkshire England plaid.

Mary Brittain married John Witty (1720-1793) who had been born in either England or Wales. He has a plaid attributed to him also, but it's unlikely that he would have had anything with this cloth (described as Witt-Roxburgh Dist.) I'm including it here just because I think it's pretty.

Now I'd like to think this Witty couple came to the American Colony of North Carolina.

But I must admit, this couple named Mary Brittain Witty and John Witty remained in England, and thus are recorded as dying there as well. So Mary Brittain and her husband, another John Witty are not on my Ancestry tree!

But I'm pretty certain my ancestor, John Witty (1720-1793) was from North Carolina (though he may have been born in England) who was living in Guilford County, on the county line of what became Rockingham County, NC.  He was my great times 5 grandfather. There are a lot of North Carolina land records with John Witty's name on them. He received an original land grant (I think) for serving in the American Revolutionary War.  The bills of sale of his land give his presence in the area throughout the years of his life.

I'm going to continue to call his wife Mary, though we don't know her surname at this time. She had her children in North Carolina, wherever she had been born. But she obviously didn't die in England, as the other Mary (Brittain) Witty did. I am amazed that other descendants (cousins of mine) believe that she and John would go back to England to die...after living their whole lives in North Carolina.

The Witty children include:
Mary (1751-1792)
Andrew (1753-1818)
Elijah (1756-1841)
John Jr. (1761- ?)
James (1768-1740)
Ezekiel C. (1770-1842)

A document exists about a John Witty who married in 1815, which is after the death of our grandfather, so I'm adding "Jr." to his name. John Jr. had a daughter that had been listed in error as the daughter of her grandfather, John Sr., before I started looking more closely. The daughter was Margaret "Miss Peggy" Witty Winchester (see more below.)

Great times 5 Grandmother, Mary Witty died at some date in Guilford County, North Carolina. The dates that are on most Ancestry trees belong to the Mary Brittain Witty who lived her whole life in England, with birth and death dates recorded there. These wouldn't be the correct dates for my Great x5 grandmother Witty.

There is however, a Witty Cemetery, in Barren County, KY where John and Mary Witty's son, Ezekiel C. Witty (1770-1842) is buried.

Incidentally, while getting some of the people into the correct families, I found "Miss Peggy" Margaret Witty Winchester (1785-1870) married Dr. William Winchester and they moved to Kentucky. There's an interesting document as to whether to move her grave to another site when the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) started building dams and creating Kentucky Lake in 1937-1944. The actual document mentions that her grave was not moved, being in the Winchester Cemetery in Concord, Calloway County, KY.  I looked to see about the Witty graves, because some of them also had noted that they were moved for the new dams. Only 2 Witty graves were mentioned, and neither were moved.

My great times 4 grandfather was James Witty (abt. 1768-1840). He moved to Alabama, and his son, Carrol Witty (1818-1898), moved to Texas. There he had a daughter,  Eugenia Witty Booth (1817-1898), who was my great times 2 grandmother.

My mother's family tree has these Alabama Wittys who eventually came to Texas. In the next couple of posts I'll be re-posting some old blogs from 2014-2018, with hopefully a bit of better editing. I can't believe how many names I've misspelled!