A frequent research subject on the blog has been the facts surrounding the murder of Captain John A. Thornhill, nephew of my 4th-great-grandmother Elizabeth Thornhill Jones. I have posted before about finding cases mentioning family from the Tennessee State Library and Archives. While looking again for references to the Matthews family I decided to check if I may have missed cases for the Thornhill family. I apparently missed a big one. The case of State of Tennessee v Pleasant Riggs (1869) is a whopping 107 pages. This is a companion case to Rankin v State of Tennessee, argued before the Supreme Court of Tennessee in 1867.
The case includes depositions and statements from several of my extended family, including my 3rd-great-grandfather Joseph Jones, Elizabeth Thornhill Jones' brother, Richard Thornhill, and others.
I have long thought that I had enough background material to turn the stories surrounding Thornhill into a book. Adding another 107 pages of case material from the Tennessee State Library & Archives expands this greatly. I will work through this slowly and try to weave in references from my prior research. There's much more to come on this case.
 |
| Source: TSLA. State v Pleasant Riggs, cover page. |
I have long thought that I had enough background material to turn the stories surrounding Thornhill into a book. Adding another 107 pages of case material from the Tennessee State Library & Archives expands this greatly. I will work through this slowly and try to weave in references from my prior research. There's much more to come on this case.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.