James Roberson 1773-1815 – Howard’s 4th Great-Grandfather
For more than 30 years, I had been searching for the origins
of James Roberson, my husband’s 4th great grandfather. I knew James
was born about 1775 in South Carolina, that he married Martha Davis, and that
they had three children before moving to Giles County, Tennessee. A probate
record in Giles County confirmed that James had died and Martha was his widow,
but nothing pointed clearly to James’s father or siblings.
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| Giles County, Tennessee Probate Record 1815 Estate of James Robertson |
In South Carolina, I found tantalizing clues—deeds in
Laurens County involving a John Robertson and a Basil Robertson, including one
where John sold land to a James O. Robertson. I suspected a connection, but
without documentation, it remained only a hypothesis. Census records placed
Basil in Warren County, Kentucky, and James in Giles County, Tennessee, but the
relationship between them was still a mystery.
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| Deed Records - Laurens County, South Carolina James Odell Robertson / John Robertson / Martha Robertson |
I even traveled to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to research at
Western Kentucky University. A librarian there, who happened to be a descendant
of Basil Robertson, believed our families were connected, but neither of us
could prove how. Later, a Y-DNA match from a gentleman in Texas strengthened
the case that my husband’s line was tied to Basil’s family. Still, the exact
relationship eluded me. I began to think Basil might be James’s brother, with
John Robertson of Laurens County as their father.
And then came the moment that changed everything.
One day, I opened FamilySearch to review Basil’s profile,
hoping to find a deed linking him to South Carolina or Kentucky. Instead, I
found something entirely unexpected: a probate record for a Basil Robertson of
Warren County, Kentucky, born in 1745 and died in 1831. Not just one
record—several. His children had contested his will, and the estate took nearly
twelve years to settle. The documents revealed disputes over the sale of
enslaved people and disagreements with the executor, one of Basil’s sons.
The probate papers listed all of Basil’s children—and among
them was a son named James Robertson, married to a Martha, with all their
children named as heirs.
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| Warren County, Kenntucky - Chancery Court Record - Heirs of Basil Roberson Martha Roberson, widow of James Roberson deceased, John, James, Reginal "Nig", Henry, Bazel & Nathan, sons of James Roberson deceased. Nancy, Elizabeth & Martha, Eleanor, daughters of James Roberson deceased. - |
There it was. After decades of searching, the answer had
been waiting in a probate packet in Warren County, Kentucky. James wasn’t
Basil’s brother—he was Basil’s son.
I sat there stunned. After thirty years of piecing together
clues, chasing records across states, studying deeds, census entries, and DNA
matches, the truth finally emerged from a single set of probate documents. It
was my breakthrough moment—one I wish I could have shared with my mother‑in‑law,
my research partner and fellow Roberson detective. She would have been thrilled
to know that together, we had pushed the Roberson line back one more
generation, all the way to Basil Robertson, my husband’s 5th great
grandfather.
Basil Roberson was born about 1749, likely in the Carolinas.
Around 1770 he married Mary Ellen—her surname still unknown—and together they
raised a large family of eleven children. Their first son, James Odell
Roberson, arrived about 1773, and their youngest was born in 1790. Basil served
his country during the Revolutionary War, fighting in 1781–1782 in the South
Carolina Cavalry under Colonel Maham at the Ninety-Six District garrison. Sometime in the early 1800s Basil moved to Hardcastle, Warren County, Kentucky where he died in 1831 and several of his decendants still live.
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| Children of James & Martha (Davis) Roberson As listed in Warren County, Kentucky Chancery Court Records |
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