Valentine Allen and Mary Page of VA-and the Browns
There has been a lot of discussion over the years as to who Valentine and Mary (Page) Allen's daughter (daughters?) married in the Essex Co., VA area.There has even been questions as to whether she was named Elizabeth or Mary.One Elizabeth Allen married a William Brown, and another Elizabeth Allen married a Francis Brown.That Francis Brown was a member of my overall maternal Brown family, and he was a son of the older Francis Brown who died in Essex Co., VA in 1691/1692.This family is represented by DNA "Group 10" at the Brown Genealogy Society DNA testing poject website.I have real doubts, however, that the William Brown who married into the Allen family was related to "my" Francis Brown.Some people seem to believe that the wife of Francis Brown (versus William Brown) was actually out of ANOTHER Mr. Allen who was a close relative of Valentine Allen.
The William Brown who married a Miss Allen, and who fathered a daughter named Mary Brown (who married James Landrum), has caused some confusion.Some records showed William's wife as Elizabeth, while other records showed her as Mary.Also, one later record showed that Elizabeth was the "mother-in-law" (perhaps actually "step-mother" in today's terminology) of Mrs. Mary (Brown) Landrum....as opposed to her mother.All very strange.
I now know that there WAS a William Brown who married a Mary Allen in 1693 (per a record that a fellow researcher just found at the Essex Co., VA courthouse).This was well after Mrs. Mary (Brown) Landrum had married James Landrum....plus records after 1693 showed that Mrs. Mary (Brown) Landrum's father William Brown was still married to an Elizabeth....so this was apparently a later/younger William Brown who was marrying a Mary Allen in 1693.Perhaps this was a son of the older William Brown.Does anyone know who this Mary Allen in 1693 was?
I do not know, however, if the above marriage between a William Brown and a Mary Allen in 1693 necessarily explains all of the confusion between the name "Elizabeth" and the name "Mary," since it is not always clear which William Brown was being discussed as the name of the wife seemed to "flip-flop" from one record to the next.
There was a William Brown who died in 1676/1677 who married an Elizabeth, and they had children named William, John, Maxfield and Elizabeth.One record shows that this was the William Brown who married an Elizabeth Allen (though that record shows her as a SISTER of Valentine Allen versus his daughter), but other records show that this William Brown was married to an Elizabeth Darnall.Does anyone have any information on the "Darnell" surname?Could she perhaps have been a second wife of the older William Brown, and could she have been the referenced mother-in-law/step-mother of Mrs. Mary (Brown) Landrum?
A book available on the internet shows that after the older William Brown died in 1676/1677, his widow Elizabeth Allen married second to Evan Morgan and third to James Taylor.If that should be true, however, then her deceased husband William Brown was married to an Elizabeth Allen at his death and NOT to an Elizabeth Darnell.Does anyone have any information on a widowed Mrs. Elizabeth (Allen) Brown who married second to Evan Morgan and third to James Taylor?James Taylor's "known" wife was a Miss Thompson, and James Taylor is an ancestor of US Presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor (and as I recall, Zachary Taylor was the father-in-law of Confederate President Jefferson Davis).Based on James Taylor's "importance" in American history, I would have thought that an earlier wife would be something that is well-known, but I see almost nothing on the internet that seems to discuss such an earlier wife.Like I said, "all very strange."Comments?
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Re: Valentine Allen and Mary Page of VA-and the Browns
Bill Davidson 4/25/11