Looking at Early Jefferson County Deeds

Building from yesterday's Progress Check on my First Families of Tennessee project, I've focused some attention on the deeds of early Jefferson County, Tennessee in the hopes of finding the connection between my Thomas Jones and a pre-December 1796 arrival in Tennessee. In February I included a reference to a Thomas Jones in Land Deeds of Jefferson County, Tennessee 1792-1814. Below is a copy of the actual deed from the Jefferson County Archives, made on 2 December 1800.

Source: Jefferson County Archives, Deed Bk F, Pp123-124

Thomas Jones entered into another deed with John Johnson on 27 September 1818 for fifty acres. On this deed, it notes that John Johnson had moved to Green County, Kentucky. The deed covered the gap of Bays Mountain and included water courses profits. Witnesses on the deed were J. and Thomas Coffee (or Caffee).

Margaret Barnes made a deed with Thomas Jones on 26 January 1807 (registered 6 October 1819) for 135 acres in Jefferson County.

Source: Jefferson County Archives, Deed Bk P, P 223-224

This deed was proven in Court in 1818. Note above that Isham Good and John Wright, original witnesses to the deed, were no longer living in Jefferson County at the time. There is a James Barnes who married Elizabeth Julias in Jefferson County, and one tree on Ancestry indicates his date of birth around 1761. I don't know who this Margaret Barnes was, or her connection to Thomas Jones.

Another deed between Hugh Henry and Thomas Jones was made 17 October 1833, for one hundred acres on Dumplin Creek in Jefferson County. This deed was registered 5 February 1834, and it covered land that was devised to Hugh Henry in the will of William Henry dated 15 September 1825. It is worth noting there is a marriage record for Hugh Henry to Elizabeth Jones in Jefferson County dated 20 September 1831, and Hugh Henry was listed next to Thomas Jones in the 1840 US Census in Jefferson County. It is very possible this Elizabeth Jones was the daughter of Thomas Jones.

There's a few more interesting early deeds to cover, and that will be in another post.