Robert Patterson of LC married Sarah _____ no later than 1738. They were most likely married in Sussex Co DE, as Robert bought his 106 acres on Pembertons Branch in 1732, and when he sold it in 1738, it was sold by Robert AND his wife, Sarah Patterson.

Robert and Sarah had at least two children (maybe three or four) by 1744 based on Margaret Adams’ Will.

The testators were Samuel Hull, Jacob Gum, and Thomas Lunday (pictures of their signatures and marks already presented above). The executors were her sons Robert Patterson and Samuel Adams (notice the spelling of “Addams” throughout the Will).

Figure 7 - The Mark of Margaret “Addams” on her original Will, written in 1744

Figure 8 - The Clerk of Court’s transcription of the Mark of Margaret “Addams” on her 1744 Will

A few observations about this Will come to mind, beginning with the fact that neither of Margaret’s husbands are mentioned in the Will. It can be assumed that both were dead by September, 1744. Their names are revealed in the February 1, 1770 probate that took place, as William Patterson and John Adams.

Another observation is that the Patterson marriage was first, while her marriage to John Adams was second. This is based (in part) on the order of the children listed in the body of the Will, as well as the order of her sons as they are listed as the Executors, also in the body of the Will. Even more so, the obvious ages of Robert Patterson and his sisters (the mothers of Margaret Dollinson and Esther Harrison) have to been considered.

Also notice that Margaret does not specify the names of her daughters who bore the two grand daughters named in the Will. This writer does not know the identity of the mother of Margaret Dollinson. It is widely accepted that the mother of Esther Harrison was Catherine "Adams" who married Jeremiah Harrison ca. 1730 (this date is the most commonly accepted date for their marriage, but not confirmed). More on this subject later…

Yet another observation is that this writer does NOT know for certain which husband of Margaret Adams was the father of the daughters. There appears to have been AT LEAST three daughters, to wit, Jane (who married Daniel Love), Elizabeth (who married a Harrison, and I believe it was Jeremiah Harrison; therefore she would have been Esther’s mother), and the “unknown” daughter who was the mother of Margaret Dollinson. If Catherine (who married Jeremiah Harrison and MAY have been the mother of Esther Harrison) was a daughter of Margaret Adams, then there were four daughters of Margaret. The general rendering by most genealogists is that all of the daughters were by Margaret’s marriage to John Adams. However, the evidence has been presented to suggest that Jane was the only Adams daughter, and the other two were Pattersons.

The identity of daughter(s) Elizabeth and Catherine are another issue. It’s obvious that “Catherine” was not named in the Will. Were Catherine and Elizabeth the same person? Further details on this line of thinking will be considered, but first, Esther Harrison must be properly identified.

Regarding the identity of Esther Harrison, grand daughter of Margaret Adams; Esther grew up and married Robert Cravens Jr., brother of William Cravens and Madge Cravens Black, both of whom moved to CFBC and who lived next to Robert Patterson there. That would mean Esther Harrison Cravens was the niece of Robert Patterson.

Twelve days after Margaret wrote her Will in 1744, the following record was written on the back of the Will (this is quoted from the original Will, not the transcribed version in the Will Book):

All transcribed records this writer has seen have listed this third individual as “Ester Harrison”. But this writer has a copy of the actual original document in hand, and it clearly says “Elessabath Harrasson”. On the other hand, the transcription of this record in the Will Book (which was done by the clerk of court) says “Ester Harrison”. Notice the following scanned images of the original document versus the Clerk of court’s transcribed version in the Will Book.

Figure 9 - Original Document handwritten by Daniel Love in 1744 with his signature and the marks of Jane Love and “Elessabath Harrasson”; the lower page is off-centered a little to the right of the upper page

Figure 10 - Clerk of Court’s transcribed version of the Children of Margaret and their Signatures and marks (this is what’s in the Will Book)

It’s no wonder why so many researchers have listed “Ester” Harrison as one of these “children of Margaret” that signed this document. However, this writer believes that the Clerk made an error. In his defense, the handwriting of Daniel Love on the original IS hard to read. Plus, with the last name “Harrasson” after the name it would have been easy to make that assumption since there was a Harrison listed in the body of the Will, that of “Esther Harrison”.

This raises many questions. Yes, it could be that Esther Harrison was actually Elizabeth Esther Harrison. On the other hand, she was born in the late 1730’s or early 1740’s by most accounts (Esther Harrison married Robert Cravens Jr. ca. 1760. Robert Cravens Jr. was born in 1733). Would a child just a few years old (10 at the most) be signing or making a mark on a signature on a Will? It is possible, but it just doesn’t make sense in this case.

Was this person actually Margaret’s daughter Elizabeth, who was named in the body of the Will? This record states that “We the CHILDREN of Margaret Adams…”. Elizabeth was a child of Margaret, while Esther Harrison was a grand child of Margaret. All of the handwriting on this particular probate appears to have been that of Daniel Love (Margaret’s son-in-law) as seen below. He should have been able to keep the names of each person straight since he was part of the family, as opposed to a clerk of court who might get it wrong.

Figure 11 - This is where the children of Margaret accepted her Will, dated just 12 days after Margaret wrote her Will in 1744; this part of the document appears to be in Daniel Love’s handwriting