Correction to Identity of Our 5th Great-grandfather Raney/Rainey

Our 5th great-grandfather was not Peter Rainey, as I originally thought, but his brother William Rainey (1750 Albemarle Parish, Sussex Co., VA - 1799 Northampton Co., NC). Never quite comfortable with Peter as our ancestor, and unable to identify his wife's family through DNA matching, I took an in-depth look at Peter's brother William. He did have a son named James, but because they were living in Northampton County, North Carolina, why would James have traveled up to the old home grounds of Sussex County to marry Martha Parham in 1800? Why not marry the girl on the next plantation? We have strong DNA matches to descendants of the Parhams, so I'm certain of that match.

Sussex County, Virginia

Northampton County, North Carolina

In an experimental mood, I changed our family tree by making our 4th great-grandfather, James Rainey (c1775 - 1838/40 White Co., TN), the son of Peter's brother William Rainey and his wife Catherine Hall Vaughan (1745 (VA or NC - 1836 Warren Co., NC). It then fell into place. DNA matches I couldn't figure out turned out to be to the descendants of Catherine Hall Vaughan's ancestors, the Vaughans (who came out of the Surry/Sussex counties of Virginia to Northampton County) and the Poindexters. I feel certain this is correct. It doesn't change the identity of our 6th great-grandfather, another William Rainey (c.1722 Surry [future Sussex] Co. - 1765 Sussex Co., VA).

So, our new-to-us 5th great-grandfather, William Rainey, was born in Albemarle Parish, Surry [future Sussex] County, Virginia Colony on 26 January, 1750, the 2nd child and first son of William and Mary Jackson Rainey. 

Greensville County, Virginia

Earlier, in 1742, William's grandfather, Thomas Jackson (1793-1751) (father of his mother Mary Jackson Rainey and our 7th great-grandfather) patented about 300 acres in what became Greensville County, which he transferred to the Wainwrights, who failed to pay quit rents on the property, as did the Jackson heirs, Peter Jackson and his sister and her husband Mary Jackson (1724-1774) and William Rainey (1725-1768), so that in 1766 Mary's and Peter's brother Ralph made suit and obtained the right to the property, which he assigned to his nephew, our 5th great-grandfather, 16-year-old William Rainey. The property was re-surveyed and found to contain 312 acres rather than 300. Perhaps William sold off some of that land, but he kept at least seven slaves on a plantation of 110 acres there, even after he moved across the border to Northampton County, North Carolina, probably because that was where his bride's family the Vaughans lived. The North Carolina Provincial Congress passed a ban on importing slaves from Virginia into North Caroline in 1774, believing increasing the number of slaves in the colony would increase the number of runaways and free blacks. We'll get back to that Greensville plantation a little later.

Catherine Hall Vaughan's mother, another Catherine Hall Vaughan, our 6th great-grandmother, died shortly after her daughter's 1745 birth; her father William Vaughan (1722-1794) remarried and provided her with numerous half-siblings.

 William and Catherine had sons Hall, William, James (our 4th great-grandfather), Edmond, Thomas Hall, Daniel, Polly, Betsy Patsy, Catherine Hall, and Maria Ann, all named in William's will in that order, so we'll assume James was the third son, although at least one sister may have been older. 

Fatally ill, William prepared his will in March 1799 in Northampton County. It's an interesting Last Will & Testament, if only to show the family's lifestyle. Most men gave their wives control of their property only if they remained widows, normally indicating it be sold for the children's benefit if the widow remarried, but William didn't do that, and it would  cause trouble in the future. He left his personal and real property to Catherine, which included the 110 acres in Greensville, Virginia, and the seven slaves Cherry, Betty, Violet, Ellick, Lilly, Harry and Serena.  Northampton County was becoming a race horse breeding area, home to the famous stud Archie, ancestor of Man o' War. William left Catherine two horses, a gray and a sorrel, nine head of cattle and twenty head of hogs. He designated that she obtain for the three youngest sons, Edmond, Thomas Hall, and Daniel, each a horse when they reached the age of twenty. Because James was not included, we can assume he was already age twenty or older, which would put his date of birth at 1775 or earlier. 

The household items were nothing of value: four beds and furniture (bedding); two tables; seven chairs; one riding chair and harness; four iron pots; a kettle; a Dutch oven; three pewter dishes; eight plates; three basins; six spoons; six earthen dishes; 18 earthen plates; two teapots; one tea kettle; three earthen bowls; small quantity cups and saucers; one ox cart; five plow hoes; five weeding hoes; three hilling hoes; two grubbing hoes; two chests.

When the youngest son Daniel reached twenty years, William's will decreed that "the whole of my estate after the sons having had their horses, to be equally divided among my wife Catherine and all my surviving children" in "equal proportions." He then listed the ten children. He named Catherine and his son William executors. William's will was probated at the 1799 December court of Northampton County.

William Rainey's actual signature on his 1799 will, spelling it Raney. When the clerk copied it into the county Will Book, he changed the spelling to Rainey.

 The following spring our 4th great-grandfather, James Rainey, traveled up to Albemarle Parish, Sussex County, Virginia, where his father William had been born 50 years earlier, perhaps where he also had been born, and married Martha Parham on 3 April 1800. As a third son he had little to offer. Many of his siblings were still children - his sister Maria Ann born just before his father's death - so there was little chance of the plantation and slaves in Greensville County being sold and the proceeds divided. All we know at present is that James appears on the 1810 census for Pulaski County, Kentucky, with a wife and family. I doubt he and Martha made the move alone, but for now we don't know what extended family members, if any, traveled with them to Kentucky. 

About 1811, back in Northampton County, William's widow Catherine married Benjamin Putney. She yet had minor children in her household. Her son, Thomas Hall Rainey, was an ambitious man, who had married in February 1808 Elizabeth Gray, daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. Family myth says that after her father forbade the marriage, they eloped over the frozen Roanoke River, no doubt on a fine horse. It appears he feared his new stepfather was up to no good regarding the plantation in Greensville County, so he entered his mother's house and carried off the paperwork in the form of bonds, which were required in any sale of that property. Benjamin Putney and his mother sued him for the return of the paperwork, which Thomas claimed in a deposition, after swearing on the "Holy Evangelists" (the New Testament), he'd taken to protect the rights of his brothers and sisters and his own claim on his father's estate. Eventually the suit was settled and he returned the papers. Thomas Hall Rainey owned a mill for wheat and possessed slaves to work his cotton fields. He also was a money lender as some wealthy men were, banking not trusted by many. After a long illness - his doctors' bills were enormous for the time, running into the hundreds of dollars - he died in 1826, leaving his estate in trust for a son and three daughters, with  Elizabeth as guardian. Elizabeth insisted the children be sent to private boarding schools, the expenditures for which she had to report to court-appointed guardians after her own guardianship was terminated for her being a spendthrift.  And because of it we have a record of how an upper-crust daughter, such as Nancy Rainey, our fist cousin 5X removed, then about age 11, was outfitted for boarding school in 1829.

c1830 children's clothing

All clothing was handmade. Yards of various types of cloth were required: Indian cotton, cambric, calico, check cloth, flannel, muslin, dimity, linen, lace, ribbons; spools and balls of threads; bunches of pins. Other items were: a cashmere shawl; a veil; a hat and a band box; leather shoes and a finer pair of Morocco leather shoes; boots; a bandanna handkerchief and a silk handkerchief; silk gloves; three pairs of stockings and a pair of garters and belt; a fine comb [its teeth close together, likely for combing out lice nits]; 2 tortoise side combs; one strand necklace; a pair of scissors and scissors chain; a silver thimble; a belt clasp; a quire of paper; ink powder; a pen knife. The cost of board and room itself for Nancy was $40.00.

Warren County, North Carolina

Our 5th great-grandmother Catherine's husband, Benjamin Putney, died in 1825. In the 1830 census, Catherine was living at Six Pound in northern Warren County, North Carolina, next door to her daughter, Catherine Rainey Riggan. In fact, three of William and Catherine's daughters married Riggan brothers.  Catherine died in 1836. If our James's last brother Daniel was born in 1793, he would have reach age 20 in 1813, received his horse, and then the Greensville County plantation and slaves would have been sold, and the profits dispersed to all ten children. Did our James get his share? And how would he get it in Pulaski County, Kentucky?

 W-e-l-l, via the U.S. Postal Service, of course. No rural delivery was yet available, but there was a post office at a home or a store by 1803 in Somerset, James' nearest town. No postal money orders were available until the Civil War, but monies could be sent through the mail. 

Below is a video "Save Our Post Office" produced by People for the America Way, the song sung back in 1958 by Alabama shape note singers, a very old manner of singing in America. 

As of June 2020, 671 high-volume mail processing machines were ordered removed from sorting facilities across the U.S.

Be aware. The United States Postal Service is enshrined in the Constitution as a core priority of the federal government because it provides an irreplaceable service. It’s part of the lifeblood of our communities. By making sure that all Americans, regardless of where they live, can be in contact with one another, the Postal Service knits together the fabric of our community. It unites all of us.

With startling reports that the USPS is cutting back on services because they are stretched for revenues, we simply can’t afford for the USPS’s role to be diminished, particularly as we become even more reliant on meeting our needs in this time of the COVID-19 crisis.