The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
I believe it's time for all serious Woods family researchers to drop the myth that this William Woods lived on the Hico River in Caswell County, NC.He was not an elder in the Little River Presbyterian Church and he did not die in 1785.He did not bequeath his plantation to his son Samuel Woods.
This William Woods lived on Raccoon Creek in the east part of Hanover Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.A local road, Woods Lane, still bears his name.He died there in about 1751.He had a brother Nathan Woods in Lancaster County who died in 1752.
William Woods took a warrant for 300 acres of land in Hanover Township in 1738.After his death, his widow Jane Woods, his eldest son William Woods II, and his son in-law John Strain occupied his land.John Strain had married William's youngest daughter Mary and they had sons John who was born in 1759, and William W. Strain who was born in about 1761 or '62.William Woods II married Mary Hannah of adjacent Paxtang Township in about 1758.
The senior William Woods had two, and possibly three, daughters who were not accounted for in Neander Woods's manuscript.Sarah Woods married David Carson of adjacent Paxtang Township in 1753, and Margaret Woods married Robert Carson of Paxtang Township in 1755.It's possible that there was a third daughter, Jennet (Little Jane) Woods who married William Bryan.By the early 1780s all three, with their husbands and with their nephew John Strain (b 1759) were living in a tight cluster on the Muddy Fork of Big Limestone Creek in Washington County, NC/TN.Another nephew, William Woods III (b 1771, son of William Woods II) had joined them by 1789.
William Woods Sr. had three children who left Pennsylvania for North Carolina as young adults, probably in the fall of 1751.The three were the younger sons John Woods and Samuel Woods, and the eldest daughter Elizabeth Woods who had married David Mitchel of adjacent Derry Townsip of Lancaster County.David Mitchel settled first on Little River in Orange County, NC but by 1779 he had taken new land on the Hico River in Caswell County, NC where he was joined by his wife's siblings Samuel Woods and Sarah (Woods) Carson.By 1781, Sarah and her husband David Carson had moved to Tennessee.
The son John Woods married Ann Lovey Mebane in North Carolina and the couple lived out their lives on Little River in Orange County.Their great-grandson, the Hon. John D. Woods of Hickory Valley, TN would become a prime source for Neander Woods.The judge's accountings of his family's history in early North Carolina was fairly accurate, but regretfully Neander Woods didn't take the judge's reports in proper context.I urge all serious researchers to read the judge's comments in Woods-McAfree Memorial.
The son William Woods II lived in Guilford County, NC from about 1772 until 1779 when he moved to Tennessee.He was joined in Guilford County by two of his nephews, John Strain and William W. Strain, in 1775.The nephew John Strain moved from Guilford County to Orange County in the fall of 1779 where he lived for a time with his uncle John Woods on Little River before moving to Tennessee in the fall of 1781.The nephew William W. Strain returned to Guilford County where he married Guilford resident Sarah Spruce in 1799.
I will be happy to share any of my numerous sources that support this accounting of the William Woods family, and I urge all Woods researchers to join me in fleshing out the story.
More Replies:
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Cecilia Fabos-Becker 7/21/14
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Rebecca Haninger 5/16/14
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Rebecca Haninger 5/16/14
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Allan Mitchell 10/17/05
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Deborah Kunkle 4/27/04
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Terry Woods Pratt 5/29/04
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Gary Carson 7/02/06
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Robert Wallace 7/25/06
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
michael woods 10/05/03
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Craig Woods 5/29/03
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Terry Woods Pratt 5/30/03
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
FRANK WEATHERSBY 5/08/03
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina
Terry Woods Pratt 5/09/03
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Re: The Myth of William Woods (b c1695) of North Carolina