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KITTURAH TAYLOR

 

Kitturah Taylor, born 13 January 1820, Virginia, married William Brisco, 16 March 1843, in Warren County, Missouri. Their first child Elizabeth was born in 1843 in Missouri. Shortly thereafter, Kitturah and William, a native of Tennessee, moved to Hancock County, Tennessee. The William Brisco family is enumerated in both the 1850 and 1860 Federal Census, at the Sneedville Post Office, Hancock County, Tennessee.

Attempts to identify the parents of William Brisco, born between 1819-1822, in Tennessee have led to only one possible match. In the 1830 Williamson County, Tennessee census is the household of Nancy Brisco, b. 1780-1790, and two boys, one aged <5 years old, born between 1825 & 1830 and the second boy, aged 5-10, born between 1820-1825. Nancy was the only remaining Brisco household after Isaac Briscoe and family left the county.

There is some confusion as to the origin of Kitturah Taylor's birthplace due to another Vincent Taylor family that is found in Williamson County, Tennessee.
The 1830 Federal census enumerated: Vincent Taylor, b. 1790-1800 and wife, b. 1800-1810 have three children: 1 male and 2 females all under the age of 5, born between 1825-1830. As can be seen these children were born 5 to 10 years after Kitturah's birth date of 1820. This Vincent Taylor family is again enumerated also in the 1840 Williamson Co., TN census).

Sneedville is the county seat of Hancock County, which was created from Hawkins County in 1846. Newman's Ridge in Hancock County is the oldest know Melungeon home site in North America. The Melungeons are believed to be a group of Portuguese people, a group of settlers Spain brought to this county in the 1500s. The settlers first intermarried with the Cherokee, Powhatans and the Pamunkeys. They secondly intermarried with escaped slaves, English, and Scotch-Irish natives. Tennessee laws were made and set up to deprive the Melungeons of their basic rights: land ownership, the right to vote, and education. Many Melungeons hid their ancestry with other identifiers calling themselves "Black Dutch, Black Irish, or Native American (usually Cherokee). Common Melungeon surnames in Hancock County are Collins, Gibson, Looney, and Sizemore.

The agent for Indian affairs of the Cherokee Nation ordered all intruders on their land to remove by the first day of July 1819. Citizens of Hancock County petitioned asking that the government to stop the removal of White settlers from Cherokee lands because they were mostly poor farmers who had just planted their crops. Included in the list of petitioners were John Brisco, Thomas Brisco, and William Brisco. Thomas and John Brisco were in Captain Looney's sector in the 1810 census.

Six more children are born in Tennessee from 1847 to 1862: John Henry, 1847; Mary Frances, 1849; William Campbell, 1851; Nancy Margaret, 1853; Permelia Jane 1855; and Winnie Ann, 1862.

In the spring of 1865 the Brisco family moved to a small town called Bowen, Powell County, Kentucky. The move was completed during a heavy spring rainstorm. A baby infant, b~1864/5, died during the journey. The father, William, made a tiny coffin from saplings, and the mother, Kitturah, wrapped the baby in her own shawl. They buried the infant in a tiny grave beside the Cumberland Trail. A year later Kitturah Taylor died in 1866 in Powell County, Kentucky. (Ref. "A Tribute to My Grandmother: Nancy Margaret Briscoe Townsend" by her granddaughter Kathryn Baber).

 

(2) KITTURAH "Kitty" TAYLOR

Genealogy research by Helen James Bingaman, Rita Ashley Fishman, Gary & Brenda Hollan, Barbara Lewellen & Edgar Rose

Kitturah is the French form of the English name Catharine. Kitturah is also a variant spelling of the biblical name "Keturah" (KE-TU-RAH), which first occurs in the Old Testament-Genesis 25:1. (Reference: Books of the Holy Bible: Proper Names in the Bible, by William Smith, LL. D, 1881, page 10).

Marriage Certificate

Be it Remembered that on the 16th day of March in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred forty three that I, Thomas Bowen, a minister of the Gospel did solemnize the rights of matrimony of between William Brisco and Catharine Taylor both of the County of Warren, Missouri. Given under my hand the day and year above.

Thomas Bowen, Minister of the Gospel.


Filed for record this 12th day of April 1843, Eli Carter, Clerk.

Missouri State Archives

 

Children:

2-a. Elizabeth BRISCO. Spouse George D. CURRY/KIRBY
2-b. John Henry BRISCO. Spouse: Jane SPARKS
2-c. Mary Frances BRISCO.  Spouse:  William M. TREADWAY
2-d. William Campbell BRISCO. Married Matilda V. REED
2-e. Permelia Jane BRISCO.  Sp 1: Allen Pinckney JAMES; Sp 2: Stephen A. Douglass TOWNSEND
2-f. Nancy Margaret BRISCO.  Spouse: William TOWNSEND
2-g. Winnie Ann BRISCO. Spouse: Bunion Simpson WIERMAN
 

 

(2-a) Elizabeth BRISCO (BRISCOE), b. 1845, Warren County, Missouri. Died May 17, 1885. Living in Lee County, Kentucky in 1880.

(2-b) John Henry BRISCO (BRISCOE), Born about 1847, Hancock Co., Tennessee.

(2-c) Mary Frances BRISCO (BRISCOE), b. about 1849, Hancock Co., Tennessee. Living in Lee County, Kentucky in 1880.

(2-d) William Campbell BRISCO (BRISCOE), b. 3 April 1850, Hancock Co., Tennessee. Died 22 Feb 1914

Children: (Estill County, Kentucky)

(2-e) Permelia Jane BRISCOE, Born ~1855 Hancock Co., TN

(2-f) Nancy Margaret BRISCO (BRISCOE), b. 18 January 1853, Hancock Co., Tennessee.

(2-g) Winnie Ann BRISCO, b.20 May 1862, Hancock Co., TN; d. 29 May 1952, Morehead, Rowan Co., KY


Bunion Simpson Wierman, daughter Zannie, and Winnie Ann Brisco, ca. 1917. Lexington, Kentucky.

 

 

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