Job's Children: The Deed

Sunday, August 8, 2021

The Deed

When I was looking into the children of Ezekiel Morton and wife Betsy Brumbalow Morton of Almond Township, Stanly County, North Carolina, I fell into the trap that many other people did while trying to determine his dozen children or more.

Thru-lines, on ancestry.com, had me related to a host of supposed descendants, even from a couple of possible children I'd not heard of.

I tested the theory of one of those names in my Thru-lines, George C. Morton, who had migrated to Webster County, Missouri, and determined that the reason I share DNA with his descendants, whose family had left this area prior to the Civil War, was that I was actually related to them through the other side of my family, from a different Morton ancestor, Samuel Parsons Morton, who I believe was an older brother of George.

But there was another confused line, a daughter, some had merged into one person, while it now appears to me was two separate people.

The reason is because of a deed, in the Stanly County Register of Deeds, an old deed that had been brought forward and refiled with the current county government of Stanly County, after it had originally been drawn up several years before Stanly County was born, in Montgomery County, North Carolina.

If Ezekiel Morton had a Will, it must have went up in flames in one of the many Courthouse fires Montgomery had been subject to, by arsons attempting to erase public record of their sins or debts, a possibly a few natural disasters thrown in.

The Deed can be found in Book 17, Page 280, at the Stanly County Register of Deeds.

The Deed reads;

This Indenture made this 1st day of August in the year of our Lord, 1834 Between John Morton, Eliz (marked through), Joseph Morton, Hezekiah Morton, Green Morgan and his wife Dicey, William Morton, John Whitley and his wife Becky, of the first part and Jesse Morton of the other part, all of Montgomery County and state of North Carolina. Witnesseth that for & in consideration of the sum of $66 dollar to him paid in hand by the said Jesse Morton thus by these judgements bargain and sell unto the said Jesse Morton all our right & title & Claims belonging to the said Jesse Morton all our right and title and claims belonging to the said lands of Ezekiel Morton, deceased, situated , lying and being in the state of North Carolina and County aforesaid on the West Side of Bear Creek all warrant and defend ourselves our heirs & assigns & executors, Administrators & assigns forever and doth hereunto set our hands and seals this day and date about and within the presence of these witnesses,

Allen Burris

Gideon Morgan.

Signed,. John Morton, Joseph Morton, Hezekiah Morton, Green Morgan, Dicey Morgan, William Morton, John Whitley

Executed on the testament of Allen Burris, Jesse Morton

AC Freeman (clerk) December 31, 1885.

This deed named all of the living children of Ezekiel Morton above the age of majority. It excluded his younger children, the oldest being Nancy, 16, followed by Sussanah, Ezekiel John, Levi C. and Green Allen.

People had merged Hannah and Rebecca "Becky" Morton into one person. In fact, I've discovered that Hannah Morton Fowlkes was not the daughter of Ezekiel Morton at all. More on that in another post.

But Rebecca Morton Whitley was, and actually was his eldest daughter. Becky, as she was called, was born on October 23, 1810. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1832 or 1833, probably, she married John Needham Whitley. He's found interchangeably as John or Needham. John N. Whitley was the son of Needham and Sarah Sides Whitley, part of that generation when the English and German settlers started mingling.

John Needham Whitley circa 1890. He was married several times and died in Texas.