Nathan Alldredge

Name:	Nathan Alldredge
Born:	about 1739 probably Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Died:	31 Dec 1826 Knox County, Tennessee
Parents:	Believed to be son of William Aldridge (b. 1702)
Children:	William Alldredge, Eleanor (Alldredge) York, Margaret (Alldredge) Allred, Sylvania (Alldredge) Long, Mary (Alldredge) Allred, Sarah (Alldredge) Julian, Nathan Alldredge (b. 1781), Andrew Alldredge, James Alldredge, Enoch Alldredge (b. 1790), Hannah (Alldredge) Wood, Elizabeth Alldredge

Overview

Nathan Alldredge was born about 1739, probably in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He is believed to be the son of William Aldridge (b. 1702), who settled in about 1755 on Sandy Creek in what was then Orange County, North Carolina, now Randolph County. Nathan received his own land grant in Randolph County in 1786. Migrating westward, Nathan died in Knox County, Tennessee on 31 Dec 1826.

A great deal of genealogical confusion has resulted from the fact that there was also a man named Nathaniel Aldridge, a contemporary of Nathan Alldredge, who also settled in Orange County, North Carolina, at around the same time. Genealogists over the years have ascribed records to Nathan that actually related to Nathaniel, and vice versa, even sometimes conflating the two men as one. They also have assumed that both men were related to William Aldridge (b. 1702), placing both Nathan and Nathaniel as William's sons.

Recent DNA research at the Aldridge Surname Group DNA Project at Family Tree DNA has proved conclusively that Nathan Alldredge and Nathaniel Aldridge were two different men with different, unrelated paternal lineages. But untangling the confused and conflated records of the two men is an ongoing task. In this page, I will seek to present exactly what is known and can be proven about Nathan Alldredge.

Records that are indisputably Nathan Alldredge

Death notice

Death notice of Nathan Alldredge, from the Enquirer (Knoxville), 17 Jan 1827.

There is no question that our ancestor, Nathan Alldredge, died on 31 Dec 1826 in Knox County, Tennessee. His death notice appeared in the Enquirer (Knoxville) on 17 Jan 1827:

DIED — On the 31st of last month, in this county, NATHAN ALDRIDGE, aged 87 years.

It is from this same record that we fix his approximate birthdate at about 1739.

Will of Nathan Alldredge

Nathan Alldredge signed his will on 23 Mar 1818, not so "sick and weak in body" that he didn't live another nine years. The following transcription is from the Historical Records Project's transcription of Knox County Estate Book No. 4 (1824–1830) — the original book apparently no longer extant.

Nathan Alldridge

The last will and testament of Nathan Alldridge was produced to court for probate, whereupon Alexander Stowell & Maxwell Brown subscribing witnesses thereto made oath that they saw the said Nathan Alldridge sign and seal, and heard him pronounce publish and declare the same as his last will and testament and that at the time of publishing the same he was of sound mind and memory to the best of his knowledge and belief — and the same is admitted to record and is in the words and figures following to wit —

"In the name of God Amen. I Nathan Alldridge of the county of Knox being suck and weak in body but of sound mind and disposing memory (for which I thank God) and calling to mind the uncertainty of human life, and being desirous to dispose of all such worldly substance, as it has pleased God to bless me with, I give and bequeath to my well beloved wife Hannah to live in the house I now live in, during her natural life if she should continue a widow, also two feather beds and furniture and bedstead and cord — one cow and calf and all the puter and kitchen furniture and one chest and one table, one flax wheel, one check reel, one arm chare & one common chare.

• Item. I give to my son William Alldridge 1 dollar.
• Item. I give to my daughter Ellenor York one dollar.
• Item. I give to my daughter Margaret Allred one dollar.
• Item. I give to my daughter Sylvanie Long one dollar.
• Item. I give to my daughter Mary Allred one dollar.
• Item. I give to my daughter Sarah Julian one dollar.
• Item. I give to my son Nathan Alldridge one dollar.
• Item. I give to my son Andrew Alldridge one dollar.
• Item. I give to my daughter Elizabeth Alldridge one lume, one flax wheel and one cotton wheel, one cow and calf and two year old heifer and one sorrel horse, saddle and bridle, two feather beds and furniture, one bedstead and cord — one ewe and two weathers and one lamb and one Bible —
• Item. I give to my son James Alldridge fifty acres of land where he now lives — Running strait across the tract — Beginning on the lower line of the tract I live on — Running north forty five — East so as to include fifty acres on his part —
• Item. I give to my son Enoch Alldridge fifty acres of land where I now live to run strait across the tract with James line, also one sorrel mare, one saddle and bridle and one gray horse and all the plantation and carpenter tools, two feather beds and furniture and one bedstead and cord, one cow and two year old heifer, five head of sheep, and all the tubs, barrel and cags and all other such like plunder and twenty two dollars that is due from Julian Millicom, and Enoch to be at the expence of all demands against the estate. I also give to Enoch one rifle gun, and it is my desire that all the hogs be left for the familys use.
• Item. I give to my daughter Hannah Wood one dollar. And lastly I do hereby constitute and appoint my son William Alldridge and James Alldridge Executors of this my last will and testament, Hereby revoking all other former wills or testaments by me heretofore made; in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 23d day of March and in the year of our Lord 1818.

Nathan {his mark X} Alldredge

Signed, sealed, published and declared to be the last will and testament of the above named Nathan Alldridge in presents of us who at his request and in his presents have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses to the same.

• Alexander Stovall
• Aron Gentry
• Maxwell Brown

It appears the spelling Alldridge is consistent throughout the will, with the name spelled Alldredge at the signature. This spelling serves as a distinguishing mark of this Nathan and his family compared to other Aldridge families.

1799 Knox County petition

Nathan Alldredge, a resident of Knox County, Tennessee, by 1799, signed a petition of Knox County residents for the division of the county for better administrative convenience:

To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Tennessee:

The petition of sundry Inhabitants of Knox County humbly sheweth that their local situation is such as renders it very inconvenient for them to attend the usual place of holding Courts, General Musters, Elections, etc., some of us having at least from 25 to 40 miles to travel & generally very bad Roads, having sundry large Water-Courses, and Ridges to cross, Your Petitioners humbly conceive that their Grievance might be much alleviated by the division of Knox County in the following manner, viz. ...

Signatories to the petition include:

• Nathan Alldredge
• Wm. Alldredge
• Nath'l aldredg junr
• Solomon Allred [son-in-law of Nathan, husband of Mary]
• Geo. Julin [Julian]
• Jn. Julin [Julian] [son-in-law of Nathan, husband of Sarah]
• William Wood
• Sampson Wood
• Obadiah Wood

The spelling Alldredge is present in the available transcription. (The "Nath'l" of Nathan Junior, we will excuse as a bad reading.)

1795 Knox County deed

The first record of Nathan Alldredge in Tennessee is a deed, recorded in Knox County, Tennessee, Deeds of Conveyance Book C2, page 81, on 6 May 1795:

"Hiram Green of the County of Knox, Territory south of Ohio sells a piece of land consisting of 640 acres on the south side of Clinch River to Nathan Aldridge of Jefferson County, territory south of Ohio ..." Witnesses: Stephen Julian and Thomas Hunter.

There is no deed record of Nathan Alldredge in Jefferson County, Tennessee. According to Memory Aldridge Lester, "This deed shows that Nathan stopped briefly in Jefferson County, Tennessee. I went there once and looked for him in the deeds but did not find any record of him. Nathan sold out in Randoloph [North Carolina] in September and October 1774, so he must not have taken up land in Jefferson. Probably just spent the winter there."

Ambiguous records

1802 tax list, Anderson County, Tennessee

The name of Nathan Aldridge on an 1802 tax list in Anderson County, Tennessee, adjacent to Knox County, could refer to either Nathan Alldredge Sr., or to his son, Nathan Alldredge Jr. Anderson County was created by act of the Tennessee legislature on 6 Nov 1801, from fractions of Knox and Grainger counties. Though Nathan Sr.'s will was probated in Knox County, it is not certain that he resided there all the time from 1799 until his death.

A List of taxable property and polls in Capt. McCamey's Company for 1802. By John McCamey Esquire.

Aldridge, Nathan

50 acres

Brush[y] Fk

1 poll

Also listed:

• Allred, Solomon [son-in-law of Nathan Sr., husband of Mary], 1 poll
• Juland, George [probably Julian], 125 acres, B. Fork
• Juland, John [probably Julian, and son-in-law of Nathan Sr., husband of Sarah], 1 poll

North Carolina records

1794 deeds in Randolph County, North Carolina

Though I don't personally consider these records ambiguous or disputed, the fact is that both the Nathan Alldredge and the Nathaniel Aldridge lineages claim descent from William Aldridge (b. 1702), and that, according to DNA evidence, at least one of them is wrong. So for the sake of argument, I will include them in their own category.

To me, the coincidence of the dates of Nathan Alldredge selling land in Randolph County, North Carolina, and buying land in Knox County, Tennessee, are too near to be mere chance.

Deed Book 7, page 26. Nathan Aldredge sells to Jeremiah York for 20 pounds 50 acres on Mt. Pleasant Creek, branch of Sandy Creek land adjoining John Alred, being a tract that "I bought of Absalom McDaniel and bought by sd. McDaniel of Jas. McAlroy by deed from Granville dated 30 June 1762..." Dated 30 October 1794. Proven August Term Court by oath of John White.

Deed Book 6, page 8. Nathan Alldredge sold to Peter Smith of Guilford County, North Carolina, 200 acres for 260 pounds being part of tract that Nathan purchased of Henry Pierce first cleared out of the state office 20 July 1786, adjoining Jonathan McCallum, Jeremiah York and Pearce's... Dated 2 September 1794.

I appreciate that these deeds give their own title history.