The Woolston Family, Rewritten

Of all the families in my tree, the Woolstons of Burlington County, New Jersey, are the one I have had to rebuild most completely this year. Earlier posts on this blog — my 2007 birthday post for Caroline Bishop Woolston, the 2009 Wordless Wednesday photo of her, my 2006 post for Lettice Woolston — were written from the compiled version of this family that I had carried for years. This fall I read the two wills that govern the family, John's (1838) and his widow Beulah's (1854), along with the Burlington County death register, Orphans Court records, and the wills of the preceding generation. The compiled version does not survive the records. Here is the family as the documents give it.

Eleven children, not nine

My database long showed John Woolston (1766–1838) and his wife Beulah with nine children. The wills prove eleven — four sons and seven daughters — and the nine-child set I had matches neither John's will nor Beulah's. The sons: Abel B. (1797–1834), my ancestor; Thomas B. (born about 1804); John B. (born about 1818); and Joseph, who died by 1852 and was previously unknown to me entirely — he married Martha Joyce in 1839 and left a daughter, Matilda, who married William I. Budd. The daughters: Rebecca (Rogers), Lydia (Eayre), Eliza Ann (Wilkins), Beulah Ann (Scattergood), Lettice (Lippincott), Hannah A. (Coles), and Rachel (Merritt). Several of the daughters' death records name their parents outright — "J Woolston" and "B Woolston" — which is about as direct as evidence gets.

Beulah's name is Briggs — proven

For years Beulah's maiden name floated in trees as "Bishop," "Briggs," or nothing. It is Briggs, and it is proven twice over: her 1854 Burlington County death register entry names her parents, and an 1814 Orphans Court citation identifies her in her father's family. She was a daughter of Abel Briggs, a Northampton Township farmer with about 200 acres, and his wife Lettice — born, herself, a Woolston. Abel died intestate in 1787; his estate was insolvent, and 80 acres were sold by court order in 1792 to pay his debts. The "Bishop" surname sometimes attached to Beulah (and to her granddaughter Caroline, below) has no support on either the Woolston or the Briggs side — it is contradicted.

The will fight of 1854

Beulah outlived John by sixteen years and made her own will — and two of her sons fought it. On 6 May 1854, Thomas B. and John B. Woolston filed a caveat against their mother's will, a bare protest with no stated grounds. The caveat was admitted, and that September Thomas B. took administration of the estate himself, with the will annexed. The records don't tell us what the brothers objected to. But it is Beulah's will, caveat and all, that names her children and her son Abel's children — and closes questions this family has carried for generations.

Caroline, settled at last

Beulah's granddaughter Caroline (1826–1879), who married Dr. Ezekiel Cooper Chew in 1842, appears in most trees — mine included — as "Caroline Bishop Woolston," and the Bishop was often treated as her birth name. Her sister Sarah H. Woolston's 1879 will settles it: Caroline was born a Woolston, Abel's daughter. The "Bishop" middle name is real, but it came through her mother's Haines family — her great-aunt Rachel Haines married Japheth Bishop in Burlington in 1804. Caroline's mother, Rachel (Woolston) Woolston — Abel's wife was herself a Woolston by birth — was probably a daughter of Samuel Woolston and Hannah Haines, though that link is still graded probable, not proven.

A Woolston married a Woolston — and there were two lines

Beulah's mother Lettice was a Woolston who married Abel Briggs in 1773, and Lettice's own parentage is now proven: she was a daughter of Samuel Woolston of Northampton Township, whose 1773 will names "Daughter, Lettis Briggs, £15." Samuel belonged to one of two distinct Northampton Township Woolston lines — his (Samuel Sr. and Susannah's) is the one I descend from. The other line, John (1686–1753) and Hannah's, produced Jacob, Melentus, Cornwell, and Newbold Woolston. Untangling which line a given Woolston belongs to has been the quiet work under all of this.

What is still open

One question survives the wills: John Woolston's own parentage. Cornwell, William, and Samuel (d. 1773) have been ruled out as his father; Jacob (d. 1799, intestate), Melentus, and Newbold remain open. One tantalizing record: a "John Woolston Jr." signed a petition on 20 January 1794 — which implies an elder John Woolston was living in 1794. Small conflicts also remain, and I'm leaving them visible rather than tidying them away: Beulah's death appears as both 29 April and 2 May 1854 in the records, and Lettice's birth year (about 1750) is an estimate. This family's WikiTree profiles now carry the corrected children, Beulah's proven name, and the research notes behind every claim.

Sources: Will of John Woolston (1838) and will of Beulah Woolston (1854), Burlington County, New Jersey; Burlington County death register, 1854; Orphans Court citation, 1814; will of Samuel Woolston (1773); will of Sarah H. Woolston (1879). Verdicts follow my research grades: proven, probable, possible, unproven, contradicted.

Revisiting the Will of George Wright (1853)

In October 2008, I posted the will of my ancestor George Wright (1780–1853) of Washington Township, Brown County, Ohio ["Will of George Wright (1853), Brown County, Ohio," 9 Oct 2008]. This fall I went back to George in earnest — part of a cluster study of every Wright household in Clermont, Brown, Adams, and Highland counties from Ohio statehood to 1850 — and the will was one of the first records I re-read, this time from the recorded copy itself (Brown County Will Records, vol. 3, pp. 99–100). Eighteen years on, here is what the record actually says, what it doesn't say, and what I've had to correct.

What the will provides

George made his will in August 1845. His wife Elizabeth (Robins) Wright received a widow's life interest only — a room, furniture, and the rent of the farm — not the land itself. His sons John Wright and Samuel P. Wright were provided for, as were two daughters by way of small annuities: Susanna was to receive $10 a year for three years, and Sarah $10 a year for two years. George named three executors: his sons John and Samuel P., and "my brother Joseph Wright." Samuel and Joseph both declined to serve; John qualified alone, posting a $600 bond.

Untangling the dates

Three dates attached to this will have been conflated in family trees — including, at times, my own notes. The probate journal (vol. 1, p. 172) shows the will was probated on 22 August 1853, about two weeks after George's death on 5 August 1853. The recorded copy in the will book is endorsed 23 August 1853 — the day it was recorded, not the day it was probated. John's executor's account was filed 5 March 1856, and the estate was finally settled 9 November 1858, more than five years after George died. As for the will's own date: two careful readings of the date line give different days — the 10th and the 18th of August 1845. Until the original is examined again, I'm citing it honestly as August 1845.

The children — and one daughter who isn't

The will names four children: John, Samuel P., Susanna, and Sarah. Working from the full record set, their marriages are: John to Ann Wardlow (9 Sep 1834); Samuel Pangburn Wright to Rebecca Ruth Hall (17 Apr 1845 — the date sometimes given as 2 June 1845 is a misreading of the recording date); Sarah to Allen Hendrixson (29 Oct 1839); and Susanna, most probably, to Samuel Summers in Henry County, Indiana (22 Jan 1839).

That last identification matters, because there is a decoy. A Susanna Wright married William Riley Hall in Brown County on 29 Oct 1840, and she has been attached to George's family in tree after tree — a tidy story, since her husband's sister Rebecca married George's son Samuel. But that Susanna was not George's daughter. Her 1880 census entry shows both of her parents born in Pennsylvania, and she went on to marry Sidney Ogden in 1857 after Hall's death. She belongs to some other Wright family, still unidentified.

One more absence explained: compiled lists of George's children include a daughter Asenath (born 25 Jun 1825), who does not appear in the 1845 will. She isn't missing because she was cut out — she died 28 Jul 1830, aged five, fifteen years before the will was written.

What we know about George's parents — and don't

Three deeds prove George's mother: in 1808 George conveyed Clermont County land to "my Mother Sarah Wright Widow"; in 1812 Sarah conveyed land to "my son George Wright"; and George's own 1827 deed recites that the land was "deeded to George Wright by his mother the widow Wright." His father was probably the John Wright who died in Clermont County about 1801, but no record I have found states that in so many words — probable, not proven. Sarah's maiden name appears as "Fleming" in compiled sources; I have found no primary record for it, and it should be treated as unproven.

Elizabeth's parentage: still an open question

George's wife Elizabeth Robins (married 27 Jan 1812 in Adams County — a date that comes from Dumford's compiled Shaw Genealogy, since the original Adams County Marriage Book #1 survives at the West Union courthouse but has never been filmed) remains unplaced. I have tested the usual candidates against the records: Obadiah Robins of Allegheny County is unproven (no record names any child of his); Daniel Robins of Adams County is possible as a man, but his 1790 census household contains only one female — there is no room in it for Elizabeth, age nine. Current work is focused on a John Robins whose 1790 Washington County, Pennsylvania household held five females. Elizabeth herself left no will or estate in Brown County — a proven negative, and consistent with the life interest her husband's will gave her.

What's next

The cluster study continues: the John Robins household reconstruction, James Wright's 1899 Adams County probate file, and George's Brown County tax-list run (the FamilySearch images are currently blocked, so that one may wait for a research trip). George's WikiTree profile (Wright-61666) now carries these research notes with full citations, and I'll update this post's predecessor with a link forward rather than rewriting it — the 2008 post stands as part of the record of how this research has grown.

Sources: Brown County, Ohio, Will Records vol. 3, pp. 99–100; Probate Journal vol. 1, p. 172; Clermont and Brown County deed records (1808, 1812, 1827); Brown County marriage records; 1850 and 1880 U.S. censuses. Verdicts in this post follow the evidence grades I use in my research notes: proven, probable, possible, unproven, contradicted.

Christmas Tree, 2025