Correcting the Samuel Todd Traditions

By Richard K. McMurtry

May 2003; rev May 2005; May 2007, November 2010

 

Background

 

There is a Todd family tradition that Samuel Todd of Augusta and Botetourt Counties, Virginia (VA) was the son of a Samuel Todd and Ann Houston.  This Samuel Todd, Sr. also was alleged to have:  (1) been born ca 1690, (2) settled on Hay’s Creek, Augusta County, VA, (3) died prior to 1754, and (4) been the brother of Robert Todd of Philadelphia/Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. (Robert Todd of Montgomery County was the ancestor of Mary Todd Lincoln). 

 

This couple also was said to have been the parents of Sarah Todd who married John Houston, Ann/Nancy Todd who married James McMurtry, Esther Todd who married John Taylor, and Isabella Todd who married Patrick Young.

 

Though it is true that above Samuel Todd and Sarah Todd are siblings, the remainder of the tradition is either incorrect or unsubstantiated and appears to be based on conjecture.

 

There was no Samuel Todd who lived in Augusta Co VA and married Ann Houston.  The Samuel Todd who did live in Augusta Co was the son William Todd who settled there in 1750 from New Jersey.  William was kin, possbily brother, to Robert Todd 1697-1775 of the Mary Todd Lincoln group of Todds.

 

Samuel Todd of Augusta County was born ca 1739, came as a boy with his father William Todd from the vicinity of the Abington Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia County - possibly in nearby Hunterdon Co New Jersey. They settled in Augusta County, Virginia by 1750.  He lived in the Augusta, Botetourt, Rockbridge County area until 1807 when he moved to Kentucky.  His father William Todd had children baptized between 1723 and 1738 at the Abington Prebyterian Church in NW Philadelphia County and between 1729 and 1734 at First Presbyterian in the city of Philadelphia.  William left no land records showing a Pennsylvania residence, but he must have lived within travelling distance of the Abington and Philadelphia churches, possibly in Hunterdon Co NJ, just to the east of Philadelphia County.     There is a William Todd that appears in NJ Supreme Court records in 1755/45. 

 

The only connection of Samuel to the Houston family is that his sister Sarah Todd married John Houston.

 

 

Discussion

 

This tradition of Samuel Todd – Ann Houston marriage has come to us in stages in the first decades of the 1900s.  First, between 1905 and 1912, Mrs. Clementine Railey, a descendant of Samuel Todd of Augusta/Botetourt, decided that her Samuel Todd was a son of Samuel Todd identified in a 1905 Todd Family History as a brother of Robert Todd of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.  Second, between 1923 and 1931, she grew to believe that the older Samuel’s wife was “perhaps a Houston”.  She apparently hadn’t seen or fully understood the reference to Samuel Todd being the son of William Todd mentioned in the 1916 publication of Augusta County records by Lyman Chalkley.   Third, following in the footsteps of Mrs. Railey, Mrs. Margaret Scruggs Carruth of Dallas, Texas writing in the 1950s decided that the wife’s name may have been Ann and listed Samuel’s wife as “Ann?Houston”.  About the same time, a Mrs.Jesse Lappe of San Antonio, TX listed the elder Samuel as “Samuel Todd (1685-1758) of Rowan Co., North Carolina who married Ann Houston”.   The Rowan Co family was descended from Joseph Todd d 1699 in Philadelphia and not related to the Mary Todd Lincoln group.

 

The alleged children of this couple also came in stages.  As late as 1931, Mrs. Railey identified only Samuel and Sarah as children.  Writing in the 1950s, Mrs. Carruth listed Samuel, Sarah and Isabella and Mrs. Lappe listed all five.

 

However, the documentary evidence shows that Samuel Todd of Augusta/Botetourt was the son of William Todd, not Samuel Todd.  There is no evidence for another older Samuel Todd in Augusta County; the marriage to a Houston seems conjecture; the addition of the name “Ann” to this tradition seems to have come fairly late and remains of unknown origin. 

 

The discussion below (1) clarifies the evidence that Samuel Todd was the son of William Todd who settled in Augusta County ca 1750, not the son of the Samuel Todd who allegedly married Ann Houston, (2) suggests one possible  theory as to how Mrs. Railey confused the traditions of the Houston family with the traditions of the Todd family, (3) indicates what is known about the other alleged children of this couple, (4) and discusses what is known about the children of Samuel Todd, son of William.

. 

Evidence for Samuel Todd of Augusta/Botetourt being the son of William Todd

 

Samuel Todd of this study was born ca 1739, presumably in Pennsylvania or New Jersey; came to Augusta Co, Virginia as a young boy with his parents and siblings around 1750, married Jane Lowery in the early 1760s, had children 1763-1770s, moved to Botetourt County where he became a county official (sheriff and tax collector) and large landowner in the 1780s, moved to Clay Co., Kentucky in 1807 and died in Jefferson Co., KY in 1812/13.

 

The essential evidence for Samuel being the son of William Todd, not the son of a Samuel Todd/Ann Houston, is that in 1801 “Samuel Todd, son of William” made a formal deposition in a court case that “in 1754-5 or 1756, Tobias Burk came to the home of his father”.  This suggests that Samuel as a young man, say 17 years old in 1756 (hence born ca 39) observed these events.  The depostion shows that this particular Samuel Todd was still in the area as a man of age 62 in 1801.  And there is only one Samuel Todd family in the area at that time, namely, Samuel Todd b abt 1740 and his son Samuel Todd b abt 1777.

 

The question arises as to whether there might have been two Samuel Todds in the area – one the son of William and another the son of the Samuel Todd who supposedly married Ann Houston.  The answer lies in answering the following questions:

 

1. Is the Samuel Todd who is in Botetourt in 1801 the same Samuel as the one who purchased land in Augusta County 40 years before? 
2. Is there only one Samuel Todd in the area during this time?

 

If the answer to both questions is yes, then this proves that Samuel Todd of Augusta/Botetourt County is the son of William Todd and that there is no other Samuel Todd, son of Samuel Todd and Ann Houston in Augusta County, in this era.

 

The tax records of Botetourt and Rockbridge Co. and the land records of Augusta, Botetourt and Rockbridge show us there is only one adult Samuel Todd during the colonial era. 

 

Looking first at the tax lists for Botetourt, we find there is only one Samuel Todd in the period 1783-1806 (with the exception of 1803 in which Samuel’s son Samuel is also listed as Samuel Todd, Senior and Samuel Todd Jr.)  and looking at the tax lists for Rockbridge County, we find there is no Samuel Todd 1783-88, but there is a Samuel Todd 1792-1798. 

 

The Samuel Todd of Rockbridge is not a second Samuel Todd; he is the Samuel Todd who owns land in Rockbridge but lives in Botetourt.  We know this because there is a land sale in Rockbridge by Samuel Todd and his wife Jane of Botetourt in 1789 and land purchase in 1791 in Rockbridge by Samuel Todd of Botetourt.   We believe that Samuel does not appear in the tax records for 1783-88 in Rockbridge even though he is a landowner because his brother James was living on the land and appears in the tax lists as liable for tax for those years.

 

Not only do we know that there is only one Samuel Todd during the early statehood era, we known that this Samuel Todd is the same Samuel Todd who purchased land in the colonial era.  Samuel Todd and his wife Jane of Botetourt sold the Whistle Creek land in Rockbridge in 1789 just after the death of James Todd in 1789.  This land was the land that Samuel Todd bought from Benjamin Borden in 1762.  This proves that the Samuel Todd of 1789 sale is the same Samuel as the one who appears in the county records in the 1760s. 

 

Another early land transaction is the 1761 purchase by Samuel Todd and his wife Jane of land on Buffalo Creek from William Todd.  A Samuel Todd with a wife Jane is most likely the same Samuel and Jane who bought land on Whistle Creek just over the ridge from Buffalo Creek in 1762.  This supports the notion that there is one Samuel and that he is the son of William.   All the references to Samuel Todd  in the Augusta, Botetourt and Rockbridge records appear to refer to this same Samuel except for one reference to his son Samuel in 1803.

 

 The Samuel Todd Jr of the 1803 tax lists is Samuel and Jane’s son Samuel b 1772 or 1778.  He appears to have bought land in Campbell County in1804 and sold it in 1815 and then moved to Kentucky ca 1820 and to Franklin Co in 1831 where he died in 1859.

 

In summary, there is only one Samuel Todd in the area during the 1761 to 1801 period (other than his son Samuel) and this Samuel Todd is the son of William Todd.  There are no documentary references to a Samuel Todd of the previous generation.

 

            Evidence against the Samuel Todd/Ann Houston tradition

 

There are reasons to doubt Mrs. Railey’s tradition about a Samuel Todd marrying an Ann Houston, living on Hays Creek, and dying there ca 1754.

 

There is no documentary evidence that any Samuel Todd ever lived or owned property on Hays Creek. Also, there is no probate or other estate record for an elderly Samuel Todd who died ca 1754.   The land records for the Samuel Todd (1739-1812) were initially on Buffalo Creek and Whistle Creek in the 1760s, Calyor Creek a Branch of Buffalo Creek and “Forks of James” in the 1780s, Pond Bottom in James River in 1790s, and other grants in Botetourt County.  There are no references to a Samuel Todd prior to 1761 in Augusta County at all. 

 

However, there is a John Houston who lived on Hays Creek and who died in 1754.  Perhaps Mrs. Railey’s tradition is a confusion with the Houston family traditions.

 

I believe that Mrs. Railey had no evidence of a Samuel Todd in Augusta County prior to 1754, but tried to explain the family tradition of a connection to the family of Mary Todd Lincoln by linking Samuel to the Samuel Todd, identified as a brother to Robert Todd, ancestor of Mary Todd Lincoln, in the 1905 Todd Family history article.    The only known connection between the two families was the Samuel Todd’s daughter Sarah married a Rev John Todd, a cousin of the grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln.  So there was a connection, but not the one Mrs. Railey asserts.

 

Mrs. Railey does not identify a specific wife, but asserts only that she was “perhaps a Houston”.  We don’t know why she thought this but perhaps she knew of a tradition of her Todds living on Hays Creek and she knew the Houstons lived on Hays Creek.  She also says at one point that she thinks the John Todd in Ireland may have married a Houston. 

 

The “Ann” part of the Houston-Todd marriage tradition was not introduced by Mrs. Railey, but rather by later family historians.  There is no Samuel and Ann in Augusta County area; perhaps a later historian found a Samuel and Ann Todd in another county or in North Carolina.  In Spotsylvania Co., VA, there is a William Houston that sold land to Samuel Todd of Spotsylvania Co., VA in 1772 and a Wallace Houston with a will 1761-1772.   Also, Mrs. Lappe says that the couple lived in Rowan Co., North Carolina.  There was a Samuel Todd in Rowan Co NC who died in 1759 and who was related to the Lancaster Co, PA Todds.   The Mrs. Jesse Lappe letter in the 1950s alludes to the Samuel Todd of NC being the husband of Ann Houston.  Perhaps the Houston-Todd link lies in one of those places.

 

            Children of Samuel Todd and Ann Houston

 

Data on the children of the supposed Samuel Todd and Ann Houston marriage has come to us from Mrs. Louise Buell Todd in 1966 and Mrs. Jesse Lappe in 1958.  They state that their children were:

 

Samuel (md Jane Lowry), Esther (md John Taylor), Isabella (md Patrick Young), Sarah (md John Houston), and Ann/Nancy (md James McMurtry). 

 

We now know that Samuel and  Sarah were children of William Todd, not Samuel Todd.  The evidence for Samuel is discussed above.  Sarah who married John Houston is likely a sister of Samuel because Sarah’s son Rev. Samuel Houston officiated at the marriage of Samuel Todd’s daughter Jane and a family tradition was that Rev Houston and Samuel’s daughter were cousins.  Also, we know that William Todd (Samuel Todd’s father) had a daughter Sarah born 1729 – the right age to be the Sarah who married John Houston.

 

As for the other three, they are not likely children of Samuel and Ann because there is no evidence of such a married couple in Augusta County. 

 

If these three were Todds, they could be daughters of William Todd (who settled in Augusta County in 1750).  If there were children of William, they must have been born prior to 1723 since between 1723 and 1738 his children’s baptisms are recorded in the Presbyterian churches of Philadelphia County.   We assume that Samuel does not appear in these records because William may have left Philadelphia County before Samuel’s birth in 1739/1740.   Nancy Todd alleged wife of James McMurtry was probably born in the mid- to late-1720s since her eldest son was born 1752; so it doesn’t seem likely she was a daughter of William.    Isabella’s children were born in the late 1740s, early 1750s; so she was probably born in the early 1720s.  She could have been a daughter born to William prior to the recording of the first baptism.  About Esther we have no data.

 

The other longshot possibility is that they were daughters of James Todd, but this is not likely.  There is a reference to a James Todd whose daughter Hannah was married in 1758 in Augusta County.  This James Todd is either the James b 1726, son of William, or an older unidentified James Todd.   If there is an older James Todd in the area, then Hannah could have been born in the 1730s and been the sister of Nancy and the others.  If this James Todd born 1726 is son of William, then we would have had to have married by age 17 and his daughter Hannah would have had to have married by age 14.  This is not impossible, but certainly at the limits of probability.  In any event, if this James is the son of William, then he could not have been the father of Nancy, Isabella and Esther.

 

The Janeway Store records in Bound Brook New Jersey record a pair of brothers: James and Andrew and pair of brothers:  Robert and William.  If this William is the father of Samuel Todd, then William baptised his children in Abington PA and bought goods in NJ – 55 miles away.  If Robert and Andrew of the Janeway Store records are the brothers who settled in Philadelphia/Chester Co, then William and James were their brothers also.  Hence, the James who apepars in the 1758 record above could conceivably be a brother of William who came with William to Augusta Co. VA.  At this point, this does not seem likely but must be kept as a possibility.

 

As far as the girls are concerned, we are not sure if these three women (Nancy, Isabella, and Esther) were Todds at all or who their fathers’ were.

 

As far as Isabella Todd is concerned, there is no documentary sources proving she is a Todd.  It may be that family historians assumed a Todd connection because Samuel Todd became guardian of her children after the death of her husband Patrick Young in 1761.  She may have been a Todd, but we don’t have much evidence to support this.

 

As far as Ann/Nancy Todd is concerned, there is no documentary source proving she is a Todd.  We do know that the sons of James McMurtry, Joseph and William McMurtry, who came to Kentucky ca 1781 were said to be sons of a Todd mother in various sources – some said Nancy Todd and others said Hannah Todd.  The sources we have for this tradition are:  (1) Dr. William McMurtry, great-grandson of James McMurtry, wrote in the 1880s that James’ wife was Nancy Todd and that she was a great-grandaunt of Mary Todd Lincoln, (2) a note in the Emilie Todd Helm papers of unknown authorship that said Nancy Todd was the mother of Joseph and William and Elizabeth McMurtry and the sister of David Todd (ancestor of Mary Todd Lincoln).  This note also said that Elizabeth married a Lusk.  We have corroborating evidence to support this.  This note also said that Nancy’s husband, the father of William and Joseph and Elizabeth, was Joseph McMurtry and that Nancy and David had a sister Elizabeth who married Samuel McMurtry.  Evidence shows these statements are not true -  the father of William, Joseph and Elizabeth was James McMurtry; Elizabeth, sister of David Todd, married James Parker (3) Myra McMurtry had a note that said the Joseph Hays was the son of a Hays and Elizabeth Lusk, that a McMurtry married a Lusk, that the mother of Mrs. Lusk was Hannah Todd, and (4) that one W. H. Hays said his mother’s mother was a McMurtry and that her mother was a Todd.  We do not know the original source of these traditions.  I suspect that IF James McMurtry was married to a Todd, that it was most likely his second wife Hannah who was a Todd and that she was the Hannah born 1732, daughter of William Todd.  I do not believe that Nancy Todd was the first wife of James.  However, this is conjecture.  See companion essay on William McMurtry’s Letters for more discussion of the Nancy Todd-James McMurtry tradition.

 

As far as Esther Todd is concerned, this writer has no information concerning this family.

 

Children of Samuel Todd and Jane Lowry

 

Note that children and grandchildren of Samuel Todd are discussed more completely in the essay on the family of his father William Todd.  Information on Samuel and Jane (Lowry) Todd’s children comes from documentary sources, letters in the 1880s of two grandchildren (Sisters Gabriella Todd and her brother Dr. William Todd), letters between 1912 and 1931 of a great-great granddaughter (Mrs. Clementine Railey), and letters in 1966 of the wife of another Todd descendant (Mrs. Louise Buell Todd).

 

The data provided by Mrs. Louise Buell Todd, building on the traditions of Mrs. Railey, listed 11 children of Samuel Todd and Jane Lowry.  The table below shows that we have documentary evidence for 7 (James, Jane, Samuel, John, Alice, Lydia, and Sarah), two additional children are mentioned by Mrs. Railey in 1912 (Hannah and Polly) and two more are alleged by Mrs. L. B. Todd in 1966 (Robert and William).  Further research is needed to confirm or disprove these relationships; however, it is only the Robert and William that are doubtful. 

 

The difficulty here is that Samuel’s will in Jefferson County in 1813 does not list any of his heirs, but lists his executors, i.e. his son John Todd and son-in-laws Thomas Crawford and John Craig.  Research in the Clay County records might provide additional evidence.

 

We have confirmed that Samuel and Jane Lowery Todd had 8 of the first 9 children  in Mrs Buell’s lists: Jane, James, Samuel, John, Alice, Lydia, Polly and Sarah.  We have not been able to confirm Hannah; we doubt the inclusion of William and Robert. 

 

The chart on the next page shows what is known about these children and includes the information in Mrs. Railey’s letters.

 

	Child	Confirmed	Birth year	Spouse	Residence	Sources:
1	James	Yes	b1768-73	Polly Lowry	Clay Co, KY 1810; died pr to 1820; no issue, widow remained in Co	CARailey ; Clay Co records ;
2	Jane	Yes	1763-1842	Thomas Crawford md 1794	Green Co., KY=> Indiana	Numerous
3	Samuel	Yes	1772	1 Charity Dabney md 1807 VA 2 Monarchia Fenwick md 1824 KY	=>KY 1809 Gallatin Co 1811 Franklin Co 1831	Wm Todd and Sister Gabriella letters in Helm collection; CARailey
4	John	Yes	Prior to 1775	1 Sarah Sterrett md 1800 2 Anne Hubbard (Taylor) Taliaferro	Oldham, KY	Jefferson Co & Oldham Co records; CARailey
5	Alice	Yes	1776-1841	John Craig           md 1792	Owen Co & Scott Co., KY
6	Lydia	Yes	1778	John Lowry of SC	Jessamine Co., KY.	Mentioned as “infant daughter” in a suit for slander in 1778; CAR.
7	Hannah	No		David Ewing Mr. Minatt	Wayne Co, KY; Knoxville,TN	CARailey
8	Polly	Yes		Evan Frances	Bourbon Co., KY	CARailey; Bourbon Co deeds
9	Sarah	Yes	1775? -1865	Rev. John Todd 1794 Rockbridge Co., VA	D Southport, IN
10	William	No				Source: LBTodd This appears to be a confusion with the William Todd of the 1778 Rockbridge tax list who was probably the son of Wm Todd Sr.
11	Robert	No			Logan Co, KY	Source: LBTodd No information given other than his residence.  This may be Andrew Todd's son of Adair Co KY

*LBT= Louise Buell Todd; CAR=Clementine A. Railey

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

 

A.  Mrs. Clementine Railey

 

Mrs. Clementine A. Railey (born 1855)was the:

·                     great great granddaughter of Samuel Todd (1739-1812),

·                     great granddaughter of Jane (Todd) Crawford (1763-1842),

·                     granddaughter of Alice (Crawford) Brown, (1797-d after 1883 )

·                     daughter of Hamilton Brown

 

Her early letters (1912/1913,1923) are the most complete source of the children of Samuel Todd.  These letters plus later ones (1931) are the source of the tradition that her ancestor Samuel Todd was the son of Samuel Todd, who was the brother of Robert Todd, the progenitor of the Mary Todd Lincoln family.  Mrs. Railey surmised that the elder Samuel had a wife “perhaps a Houston”.  Later historians seem to have added the name Ann to this tradition making Samuel Todd and Ann Houston parents of Samuel, Sarah, Nancy, Isabella, and Esther Todd. 

 

Her letters written in 1912/1913 claimed that Samuel was the father of 6 daughters and 3 sons.  She also indicated their spouses and places of residence and death.  Her source was “a letter dictated by my grandmother to Dr. S.S. Todd” in 1883 in Morning Sun, Iowa.  Her grandmother would have been 86 years old at this time.  Some of the children are confirmed in letters from other of Samuel’s grandchildren; some are confirmed in documentary sources; some remain to be researched.  One of the children, Sarah Todd, married John Todd a cousin of the grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln.

 

It appears that between 1905 and 1912 she decided that her Samuel Todd was the son of an elder Samuel Todd who was reported to be a brother of Robert Todd, ancestor of Mary Todd Lincoln, in a 1905 Todd Family History.  Seilhammer may have reported this because the will of John Todd of Armagh had a son Samuel or because someone else earlier reported Samuel as a brother to William.  She claims in 1913 that she was a 4^th cousin to Mrs. Lincoln and that “my grandmother told me that but I (neglected to remember).  She does not say exactly what her grandmother told her.  I wonder if the remembered connection to Mary Todd Lincoln family was through the 1794 marriage of Sarah Todd to John Todd,  rather than Samuel Todd being a brother of Mary Todd Lincoln’s ancestor.  I wonder if Mrs. Railey’s grandmother thought there was a cousin connection and the Mrs. Railey deduced the connection after the publication of the 1905 history.

 

Though she seems certain of the connection between the elder Samuel Todd and the Mary Todd Lincoln family, she makes no mention of the Samuel Todd-Ann Houston connection and states rather that “I want to find some history..connection between the families of Gen Levi Todd and Samuel Todd” and “Can you tell me about the relationship of Sheriff Samuel Todd of Botetourt and Maj Gen Levi Todd of the Revolutionary Army or of Gen Levi Todd and Judge Samuel Todd of Frankfort?”

 

Her letters make no mention of the Ann Houston connection.  In 1931, she mentions that the elder Samuel Todd “settled on the isolated frontier, his wife perhaps a Houston.”  Even at this late date, she does not mention “Ann Houston”.  It appears that someone else has added the name Ann to her “perhaps a Houston”. 

 

In a 1930 letter to Mrs. Arthur Thomas McCormack of the Woman’s Auxiliary to the Kentucky State Medical Association  that Samuel Todd had two sons, John and Samuel.  She said that Samuel the son married Charity Dabney and moved to Kentucky about 1820 and built a colonial home at Frankfort.  Samuel Todd  the son was judge of the Circuit Court of Franklin, Woodford, Scott and Bourbon Counties for 30 years.  She described the three generations of Samuel Todds.

 

Mrs Railey also wrote in 1931 to Mrs. Margaret Scruggs Carruth in Texas.  Mrs. Carruth refers to Mrs. Railey as Cousin Clementine.  Mrs. Carruth refers to this 1931 letter in a letter written in 1957 to Mr. Hampton Randolph.  Mrs. Carruth’s letter quotes from Mrs. Railey’s 1931 letter that “Samuel Todd with his family and other families (his son, Samuel II, my great great grandfather 18 years of age) came from Pa., settled on Hay’s Creek, Augusta County.”   She goes on, “I have record of but two children:  Samuel II, my great great grandfather, and his sister Sarah Todd m. John Houston.”  So this shows that Mrs. Railey was not the source of the tradition that Esther, Isabella and Ann/Nancy Todd were children of Samuel and Ann Houston. 

 

Mrs. Carruth later referred to the Elder Samuel Todd’s wife as “Ann?Houston”.

 

Mrs. Jesse Lappe (1896-1986) in her 1958 article on the Todds in the Mormon Library cites a “Samuel Todd (1685-1758) of Rowan Co. NC who married Ann Houston”.  There is no question mark.   Perhaps Samuel Todd of Rowan County (who came from Lancaster Co PA 1750-1758) married Ann Houston in PA before coming to North Carolina and perhaps this has been synthesized with the “perhaps a Houston” tradition of Mrs. Railey.

 

B.  Mrs. Louise Buell Todd

 

Mrs. Louise Buell Todd (b 1909) was a very active family historian in the 1960s.  She wrote a booklet on Parson John Todd of Louisa County, VA, but exchanged information with other Todd historians concerning other branches of the Todd family, including Samuel Todd of Augusta/Botetourt whose daughter Sarah married John Todd, son of John Todd of Louisa Co.

 

C.  Leads in the Emilie Todd Helm papers

 

I suspect that a very careful examination of the Emilie Todd Helm papers might yield more clues than I was able to uncover in the 7 hours I spent there last week.

 

D. Other potential sources

 

The Augusta/Botetourt and Rockbridge County records have been searched fairly well, but it is possible that miscellaneous papers or court minutes might yield additional information about the Todd family branches.

 

It would be good to compile a chronological table of all the Samuel Todd references, especially the purchases and sales of land.  The land purchases and sales would provide additional confirmation that there is only one adult Samuel Todd in Augusta/ Botetourt/ Rockbridge County during the colonial era.

 

Some of Mrs. Railey’s letters reside in the papers of Mrs. Arthur McCormack, biographer of Jane Todd Crawford, in the custody of the Filson Club in Louisville.