A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Martha unknown
From the Parks manuscript:
I am not able to give the maiden name of his wife, but previous to her marriage with Robert Cunningham, she was the widow Hamilton, and the mother of several children, and if I am not mistaken, one of her daughters married a William Campbell and was the mother of Gen. William Campbell of King’s Mountain fame. Two of her daughters by Robert Cunningham also married Campbells of the same family. One of these was Arthur Campbell of Campbell Station East Tennessee, and the father of Gen. John Campbell a soldier in the War of 1812, and the grandfather of William C. Campbell some twenty years ago Governor of Tennessee. The other daughter of our ancestor Robert Cunningham also married a Campbell, some of whose Descendants I knew in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, worthy and respectable men. From them and from General John Campbell of Arkansas, I received a large portion of my information in regard to the Campbell family.
The fact that Parks remembered or had heard family stories about being related to those Campbells surely has some basis, but the specific information he gives does not seem to be correct. Such references as I could find on Gen. William Campbell of King’s Mountain fame give no indication that he was descended from a Hamilton or a Cunningham. His father was not William Campbell, but Charles Campbell, and his mother’s maiden name was Buchanan. The other parts of Parks’ story, while not quite fitting with information I have found, are at least closer.
In the section on The Cunninghams, Waddell’s “Annals of Augusta County” gives the following version:
His wife was a widow Hamilton, and the mother of several children at the time of her second marriage. One of her daughters, Mary Hamilton, married David Campbell, and was the mother of John and Arthur Campbell, and others. Two of the daughters of Robert Cunningham also married Campbells. He had no son.
Then, in Waddell’s section on The Campbells, there is much information about descendants of David Campbell and Mary Hamilton. Arthur Campbell had a son, Col. John B. Campbell, who died in the War of 1812. Margaret, one of the daughters of Mary Hamilton and David Campbell, married another David Campbell, who was one of the pioneers of Campbell’s Station, near Knoxville, TN. One of Margaret’s grandchildren was William B. Campbell, who was a governor of Tennessee (this isn’t in Waddell, but in Foote’s “Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical”, among other places). So, Parks’ account fits, in spirit if not in detail, with Waddell’s account of the Cunninghams, Hamiltons, and Campbells.
However, there is a well-known genealogy of these Campbells by Margaret Campbell Pilcher (“Historical Sketches of the Campbell, Pilcher and Kindred Families”), which has a different story. She says that Mary Hamilton’s mother was Martha Conyngham, whose second husband was Walter Conyngham, a cousin (as opposed to Robert Cunningham in the version above). Martha and Walter Conyngham had a daughter named Jane Conyngham (therefore, a half-sister to Mary Hamilton), who married yet another David Campbell, whom Margaret Campbell Pilcher calls “Black David” Campbell. (She calls Mary Hamilton’s husband “White David” Campbell to differentiate them.) “Black David” and Jane were the parents of David Campbell of Campbell’s Station, who married Margaret Campbell and had Gov. William B. Campbell as a grandson. (William B. Campbell was Margaret Campbell Pilcher’s father, by the way.)
I don’t know what to think of all this, since I don’t know what evidence either Waddell or Pilcher had for their conclusions about the parentage of Mary Hamilton. It seems wisest for now not to include the Campbells, since there is considerable question about whether or how they are related to the Cunninghams and Davises, but on the other hand I’m inclined to believe Waddell’s version since Parks was closer to these events than Pilcher (he was born in 1799, she was born in 1843). He got the details wrong, but it’s hard to believe he would be completely wrong about being related to the Campbells. In addition, the court judgment discussed below could be evidence for Waddell's version since it implies some sort of relationship with David Campbell. (It is also possible that there is a more-distant relationship, with Robert Cunningham being related to Walter and Martha Conyngham, but married to someone else. This way, Robert’s daughter Martha Cunningham would not be Mary Hamilton’s half-sister, but they might be cousins of some sort.)
My compromise for now is to include Mary Hamilton as a half-sister of Martha Cunningham, with Mary's husband and children, but not put any further effort into that line. Also, since I don't know of any reliable information on Robert Cunningham's other daughters, I am not including them.
The Ancestral File says that Martha was born in 1713, but this cannot be true if her daughter Martha was born about 1726. It would probably not work even if daughter Martha was born about 1731 since Robert was her second husband and she already had several children with her first husband.
Some sources, like Parks, just call her widow Hamilton, but some give her first name as Martha. There is some confirmation of this in a deed in Augusta County Deed Book 5, pp. 448–450, from Robert Coningham to Walter Davis on 9 Jun 1753, which was signed by Robert Coningham and Martha Coningham. There is also an Augusta County court judgment from 1759 (originally discovered through an entry in Chalkley’s Chronicles, Vol. 1 p. 323 for County Court Judgments from May and November 1759), which refers to Martha, wife of Robert Cuningham.
The papers for this court judgment were obtained from the Augusta County Genealogical Society. They do provide some useful information, but they are frustratingly difficult to read and don't give desired details. Apparently David Campbell sued Robert Cuningham for expenses incurred by David for Robert's wife, Martha, "she being turned out of doors by you". I suppose that David Campbell was probably the husband of Martha's daughter Mary Hamilton (see above). This cries out for an answer to what happened between Robert and Martha that she was "turned out", but unfortunately the court papers do not say. There is an accounting page dated February 1759 that refers to funeral expenses for Martha. It would be nice if a death date were given, but at least we know that she died in or before February 1759.
The accounting page refers to:
- "3 months Boarding of yr wife Martha"
- "5 months attendence when She was lying sick"
- "Funeral Expences Trouble & attendence"
- "2 Bushels of malt"
- "1 Bottle of Abeatment [?] Drops"
The listed expenses are totaled to 10 pounds 7 shillings 6 pence, but the latter two numbers are crossed out, both on the accounting page and on a discussion page. It appears that Robert was required to pay ten pounds to David, but the discussion is difficult to read. The final page of the papers was signed by John Madison as representative of King George II, on 20 Aug 1759.
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
Page generated on 31 October 2023; see http://wilsonfamilytree.org/ for further updates