Argument for an unknown wife of William Paschall(c1703-1774) Clarence E McDaniel - December 2008 I have been thinking about this for quite a while. After 30+ years of being deeply into PASCHAL research there are many things that are difficult to put into mere words; "gut" feelings are bound to occur. First - I think William married as his "3rd" and last wife, the widow of John King named, Tabitha. She had a daughter also named Tabitha. Thus an error occurred in previous researches in thinking William married his young ward. Tabitha died shortly after William seemingly from old age. This King family were likely part indian and not the more famous John King family of the area. This would then show that Reliance, P, was not the daughter of Tabitha. Williams first wife, Reliance Dennis, was too old to be the mother of Reliance, P, born c1767. This then leads to the hypothesis of a "2nd" wife between Reliance Dennis and the widow, Tabitha. Second - the alliances 1. William willed "tokens" to his oldest sons, having given them their inheritance prior to his death. He may have done this to insure that they received it. ie, a second family existed. This is a common ploy, the token shows he had not forgotten them and thus leaving the will open for contest. 2. William made exact bequests to those of the "2nd" family with Dennis an exception. 3. The memory of the names Reliance and Dennis only occurs in the older, 1st, family and their descendants. 4. The court records show antagonisms that seem to be of the type not usually encountered by close relations. This is in the realm of reading "between the lines" as the records are only minutes with no details. After these problems the exodus of the older members began to other regions. A more through explanation of #4 requires an extensive prelimenary digression: The family with little exception stayed together until William died in 1774. At this time, the older children of Samuel were of age to marry while the oldest of Thomas were yet babies. Thomas lived east of Smiths Creek, south of the homeplace while most of the older sons lived south and west of the homeplace. The first problem seems to have involved the birth of Samuel, Dx. He was likely the son of Reliance,D1. She later married John Hammock which allied the Hammock family to that of the D-line. William,D3, married Mary Hammock, sister to John, futhering the alliance. John,D4, married Mary Robertson. Thomas married into a neighboring family, either that of the Russell, Twitty or Woods lines. William,D3, was a witness to the strange contract between William and son, Thomas, a year before William died. It would appear that William had to guarantee to pay Thomas for food and fuel. This tends to indicate things were not the best in the family. I suspect the father of Samuel, Dx, was someone in the Thomas camp. By 1777, the Hammocks move to Georgia followed by William, D3, and by 1796, Samuel, D, himself. Later John, D4,'s daugther, Elizabeth, D44, had a son, Samuel. Again the blame seems to fall to the Thomas side. This rupture appears to cause the exodus of John, D4, to Rockingham County, NC, about 1812. He was followed by 3 sons of James, I, and the allied Wilson family. After the death of his step-mother, Tabitha, Thomas obtains the original homeplace and gives bonds for his sister, Reliance,P, up to 1786. This is an indication that Reliance is a full sister and nearest to his age. At this time Thomas begins acquiring land, quite a bit of which is that of the original grants. One such tract is that given by Samuel to his son, William,D3, now in Georgia. Thomas then deeds this land to his son, William, K2. By 1796 Samuel sells his homeplace to Thomas and moves to Abbeville, South Carolina, just across the river from his children.During this period, John,E, dies (1776); Isaiah,F, sells and moves to Franklin county; Elisha,H, sells and moves to Caswell county. Dennis is living at his site in Granville county. This leaves only John,D4, to contend with the Thomas faction in Warren. The I-line of James does quite well until the sudden death of James in 1792. This line then allies itself between John,D4, and the sons of Thomas. John,D4, had become quite well off and seems to have apprenticed, Robert,I2, into his care. After the apprenticeship Robert moves to Chatham county. In all the contrversy, Dennis seems to be the mediator, as he always seems to be for everyone. After his father's death he sells his land across Smith creek from the homeplace and buys land from Elisha on Deep creek. In this deed Elisha's wife, ANN, is named. This is usually done where there is an interest on the part of the wife's family. There are two reasons I think he did this: 1. He married into same line as Elisha; ie, Anderson or Nichols, thus the wife's interest 2. He wanted a site to erect a water mill The conclusion: Dennis named his sons Anderson, Nichols and Elisha;. daughters, Mary and Sarah. Anderson named a son for Zebulon M Pike. The Pike family was from Woodbridge, New Jersey! My guess is that William married Sarah, Dianna, or Ruth Pike as his second wife. If not Pike then he married a close relative of Reliance. ie, the Dennis family, thus naming son Dennis for that reason. This would also explain how he came to name his youngest daughter. Perhaps it is a combination of both familes! Thus a Dennis married a Pike and the male died and the widow married William. This is my prediction but no evidence other than the associations cited above is known at this time. We need now to speculate on when and where the 2nd marriage took place. In 1739 William was living in Woodbridge as shown by a NewYork court document. In 1744 William applied for 150 acres of land in Edgecombe county, North Carolina. He had to be with two others as the grants were 50 acres for each person present. In 1745 he applied for a stock mark registration. His entire family must have moved soon after 1744. James, I, from tax lists, appears to have been born c1739 and Dennis,J, c1747. James' son Samuel named a daughter, Reliance(rellie) Dennis. Thus James was the last of the older, 1st, family. Sarah,L, may be the oldest daughter and she may have been part of the 1st family as I find a Dennis Buchannon among the descendants. Thus her birth likely 1741-1745. Thomas,K, never named a son Samuel, James, Elisha, Isaiah. Nor a Dennis or Reliance. No descendants did either. Thomas was a well known Pike name. Indeed, a William Paschall was a witness, in Woodbridge, to the will of Thomas Pike in 1729. Dianna,M, married Richard King; names are not known but no Reliance/Dennis King has been found. This name would seem to be more in the 2nd line. Ruth,N, appears to have died unmarried. From the name (Pike family) I would guess her to be from the 2nd line. Rachel,O, married Henry Wilson and all their children are known, no Reliance but a Dennis Wilson. Rachel most likely belonged to the second family Reliance,P, unknown but birth year, c1767, means 2nd family origin. From the above we can guess Reliance died about 1741-1746 and William remarried in this period. Did the marriage occur prior to the move to North Carolina? The answer here lies in whether or not some of the Dennis/Pike lines came with William to North Carolina. I don't have any real feeling for this but would guess he married then moved. These then are my conjectures based on the little evidence I've related.