Lucretia Wells Witty (1775-1817)

A great times 4 grandmother, wife of James Witty, and mother of Mr. Carrol Witty...she seems to have been confused on a lot of Ancestry trees with her sister Elizabeth. But if the will of her father, James Wells, is to believed, Elizabeth married Mr. Riece/Reeves, and Lucretia married Mr. Witty. Their names on their father's will are Lucretia Witty and Elizabeth Riece.

There are so many dates that make me scratch my head in wonder, when looking at the Wells family tree. I will just say that as of this date in time, it seems as follows. (These may change if I find any documents to substantiate other dates!)

Lucretia was born in 1775 in Surry County, North Carolina. The county was formed in 1771 from Rowan County, NC, which had been where her parents were living and several of her siblings births were recorded. This was before the American Revolution, so North Carolina was a colony still at the time Lucretia was born. Surry County now consists of about 2/3 Piedmont land, rolling hills, and the other 1/3 is the Appalachian Mountains to the west, including now the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park.

Lucretia was the 7th of 10 children born to James Wells (1728-1810) and Mary Price Wells (1730-1809). There are some alternate dates and places of her birth, namely in 1775 in Virginia (Surry County is on the NC/VA border) or 1768 in Delaware or Maryland. (See why it's hard to figure out much about this family?)

Without any documentation, it is conjectured that she married James Witty (1768-1830) in 1800. Their oldest son, George Witty, was born in 1805 or maybe 1808 in Limestone County, Alabama. A newspaper obituary in 1847 says he had been the first baby born in Limestone County in 1808.

There is a document in the Guilford County NC Quaker meeting in 1806, where James Witty and his family are removed from that meeting to move to another one. At one time there was an Ancestry tree that said his first wife was named Mary, who was mother of his earlier children, all but one of whom died before the move to Alabama, and we don't know her death date either. And his second wife was Elizabeth Wells (which I seem to believe not true.)

The Wittys had a son in 1815, Andrew Jackson Witty, born in Tennessee, whose death is unknown.

Their son, Carroll Witty (1818-1898) was born in 1818, in Limestone County AL.  James Calvin Witty was born in 1824 (death unknown.) And finally they had a daughter, Martha Jane Witty Hine, (1827-1891 also born in Limestone County AL.

Grandmom Lucretia was part of the 1830 Census of Limestone County AL, in James Wittys' household of 10 persons. I have no idea who was who, as it's just broken down by ages, and so many of the birth dates are not accurate.

As all the other dates are very nebulous, I can guess that the death date of Lucretia was after she was counted in the 1830 Cenus, but not in Martin Co., Indiana. That record is referring to Lucretia Ellis who died in Martin Co, Indiana, not my gggg Grandmother Lucretia Witty. Unfortunately that Indiana Lucretia is given the same parents as my Lucretia Wells Witty.

My ggg grandfather, Carroll Witty, moved further west into Texas. George Witty has his grave in Limestone, AL. There's no information on James Jr. or Jackson's deaths.  Martha Jane is buried in Athens, Limestone County, AL.