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At least new to me, recently discovered, and it changes some traditional beliefs regarding which William Turpin married Esther King and which one married Elizabeth (Dixon) Williams (neither of whom married Sarah Whitty).
Mary Turpin Layton reported that Elizabeth (Dixon) Williams (first husband: Thomas Williams) married (2) William Turpin, son of William Turpin and Sarah Whitty, and I know a lot of people have picked up on this, but Somerset County tax records contradict this information. I’ve seen Esther King attached to various William Turpins, usually as a first or second wife of the William Turpin who married Sarah Whitty, but unless there was a divorce, that’s impossible – there is clear evidence that Esther (King) Turpin and Sarah (Whitty) Turpin were both alive at the same time. In the actual records I’ve found of these couples, there is no evidence to prove the specific identity of Esther’s and Elizabeth’s husbands.
But I’ve found solid evidence in the tax records of Somerset County (combined with other records such as wills and estate records) – I would say as close to irrefutable as anything one can find, short of actual marriage records including parents’ names – that Esther King married William Turpin, son of William and Sarah (Whitty) Turpin, and that Elizabeth (Dixon) Williams married William Turpin, son of John and Rebecca (Benton) Turpin. Also that these three William Turpins – husbands of Sarah Whitty, Esther King and Elizabeth (Dixon) Williams – were definitely three different people, all heads of household at the same time over a period of years.
There is also, in the tax records, good information regarding the ages of sons, as they turned 16 and were listed as polls in their parents’ households, and possible indications of marriage dates, as sons moved out of parents’ households into their own homes. Daughters, of course, weren’t taxable, so these records don’t help much with daughters. Nonetheless, the tax records (combined with other records, such as wills) have helped me with such things as sorting the children of John Turpin and his two wives, Rebecca Benton and Hannah Williams. I now believe that Mary and William were definitely Rebecca’s children, that Elizabeth was very likely Rebecca’s and that Sarah probably was, while Joshua and Nehemiah were definitely Hannah’s sons and Sarah possibly her daughter. I think Rebecca may have died in 1712, when Elizabeth was born, and that John may not have married Hannah until about 1720, when she was named as Hannah Turpen in her father’s will; her two certain children, Joshua and Nehemiah, were born between 1722 and 1727. The tax records also prove that Hannah was still living and still a widow in 1759, the last tax year I’ve seen.
I have good information on Elizabeth (Dixon) Williams, since she’s part of my family (I could write a lengthy tome proving the date of her parents’ marriage, gleaned from a comparison of multiple documents), but I knew nothing about Esther King until I set out to sort the marriages of the Williams. I have learned that she was Esther Denwood, daughter of Arthur and Esther Denwood and, before she married William Turpin, wife of Upshur King, who died in 1728. She married her William Turpin in 1729 or 1730, and they produced three children – Denwood, William and Priscilla.
If anyone wants to know more about any of this, please post a reply. The only way to use the tax records for this purpose is to trace individual families over a period of years, following the trail of location, sons and other relatives who are listed as polls, and (importantly in this case) the names of slaves, as they remained in one family or passed from fathers to sons and from dead husbands to new husbands. Proof found here isn’t the sort of thing one can state in a sentence or two. It’s all very dense, so I figured I wouldn’t post the whole intricate mass unless someone is interested, in which case I’ll be glad to post it.
So if you’re interested in any or all of this, please post a reply. I you have specific questions, please ask them. Or if, like me, you’re interested in the whole family (I‘m interested in the first three or four generations, starting with William and Margaret (Ivery) Turpin), tell me that and I’ll post everything I’ve learned from the tax records.
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