JAMES ELLIS
I believe James Ellis may have been the oldest son of William and Martha Ellis born abt 1762 in Rowan Co., North Carolina and died April 7, 1857 in Washington Co., Tennessee. He married July 16, 1800 in Washington Co., Tennessee to Elizabeth Gresham daughter of Thomas Gresham and Dorcas Lane
The Gresham Manuscripts written @ 1877 by Dr. Albert Gresham (born 1817) and his brother gives a glimpse of the many Lane-Gresham-Ellis relationship, most of which occurred after the Ellises moved to Tennessee. The William Ellis who moved to Tennessee had several children who married Lanes or Lane descendants. James Ellis(b. 1766) married Elizabeth(Betsy) Gresham(b. 1776). Alcey (Ally) Gresham married Fuller Gresham. Betsy and Fuller's mother was Dorcas Lane. Her father was John Fuller Lane (b. 1727). John Fuller Lane was the son of Richard Lane(b. 1698) and Sarah Fuller (b.1702). Dorcas Lane's sister Jemima(1756) married John Ellis (1742-1842), a brother to the above Wm Ellis, Sr. It was this marriage that I believed would connect the Ellis line to NC to the one in Tennessee. Another marriage was between Wm Ellis, Sr.'s son John(b. 1780) who married Elizabeth Lane Bean (b. 1787). She was the daughter of Rhoda Lane and Robert Bean (1752). This Rhoda is said to be the daughter of Rev. Dutton Lane (b.1732) who was perhaps a brother or very close relative to the Rev. Tidence Lane(b. 1724) and the above listed John Fuller Lane. Margaret Ellis (b.1769), a daughter of William Ellis, Sr., married Edmund Bean (b.1763) who was a son of William Bean, Sr., the first settler to Tennessee. Source; Alfred Ellis of Wm & Hannah Davis Ellis descent