Note 10/3/2011: This post refers to a man named who was born by 1760. Willis is his first name, and he lived in North Carolina. Some of you are looking for a man who lived in Texas one hundred years later. This is not him.
June 3, 2011
I spent a few hours tonight looking for data on W. Anderson on the Patriot Rolls and the Bounty Land Warrants of North Carolina. Willis has a land warrant number 4566. On the North Carolina list of Bounty Land the largest number of a land warrant was 3975. I cannot find a Willis Anderson listed on the muster rolls or Patriot Lists of either North or South Carolina.
That doesn't mean he is not there. I seem to find several patriots named William Anderson in both states. It's possible Willis was recorded as William when he enlisted, so I check each of those records as they come up. Right now I think that Willis may have enlisted in North Carolina, but received his land warrant through South Carolina because he is not on the list of land grants issued through N.C.
One fact I did glean is that for Willis to have earned 640 acres of Bounty Land, he must have served 84 months or seven years as a private. Therefore, I investigated a William Anderson who was a N.C. troop who served 84 months under Col. John Armstrong. Unfortunately, that William had land grant #522 and he received it years before Willis was awarded his.
It looks like I may have to pay the National Archives to have a copy made of Willis' Bounty Land grant file. I have gotten the picture that Willis was probably a young, single man to keep re-enlisting for 7 years. When he was listed in 1790 with one son, that may have been his first child, not the last child of a large family.
May 31, 2011I just found out from Ancestry.com that Willis is in AGBI listed with a birth date of 1750, but then every Anderson I looked at was listed as being born in 1750, if they were the head of the household in the 1790 census. ERROR: In the 1790 census he is the only male in his household over 16, with a boy under 16, and 1 woman. Willis' location in 1790 is listed as Ninety-Sixth district, Edgefield, SC. CORRECTION: There was more than one Willis Anderson. The one in Edgefield County was not the one from whom John McDowell got the warrant. I am still looking for the location of the Willis who served 7 years in the Revolution and died before 1796.
May 23, 2011
I have been stumped trying to figure out anything more about where John McDowell came from before he arrived in White County, TN, in 1810.
Last night I decided to try Ancestry again to locate anything about W. Anderson, who was the Revolutionary vet that John got his land through. John was Willis' assignee of the 30 acres on Fallingwater River.
1. I already knew that W. Anderson had Warrant 4566 granted on Feb. 9, 1796.
2. Last night I found out that Willis was listed in Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants. It says Anderson was a N.C. Private. 9 Feb 1796. 640 acres to heirs.
So Willis was from North Carolina when he enlisted. By 1796 Willis had passed away. He or his family must have filed the appropriate paperwork to receive a bounty when that legislation was passed by the Federal government. I think that happened in 1792.
This new information begs some questions:
Was John McDowell an heir of Willis Anderson? No, it appears there was not relation.
Did John McDowell live near an heir of Willis and purchase the warrant from the heir? Still don't know the answer to that in July 2012.
Can warrants be purchased? ANSWER: Yes, they can. 10/03/2011
Why did John get 30 acres out of 640? Usually heirs would get 1/4 or 1/8 or 1/10 of the estate. One tenth or 10% would be 64 acres, and John got 30 acres, less than 5%. Maybe John's mother was an heir and she divided up her portion between her children.
Was Willis Anderson granted a larger portion of land in Tennessee, and John just took part of it? Could other people who lived near John McDowell in White County be sharing part of Willis Anderson's land?
