Ambrose Richard T. Pittman

In the Name of God Amen. The 25th Day of March in the year of our Lord God Amen, One thousand seven & hundred & eighty six. I Ambrose Pittman of Halifax County in the State of North Carolina being through the abundance of the goodness and mercy of God though weak in body yet of sound & perfect mind and memory, do make and ordain this for and as my last will & testament in the manner & following form.

I give & recommend my soul to the hands of Almighty God that gave it & nothing doubting but that at the general Resurrection I shall receive the Same, and as touching such worldly Estate as it hath pleased Almighty to bless me, I give and dispose of the same in the manner and form following.

Imprim, I give & bequeath to daughter Lucy Haynes twenty shillings to her & her heirs & assigns.

Item, I give to my daughter Selah Pittman her Heirs & assign twenty shillings also two cows & calves.

Item, I give to my son Elisha Pittman twenty shillings to him his heirs and assigns.

Item, I give to my son Elijah Pittman twenty shillings to him his heirs & assigns.

Item, I give to my son Arthur Pittman twenty shillings to him his heirs & assigns.

Item, I give to my daughter Phoebe Ralls twenty shillings to her heirs and assigns.

Item, I give to my daughter Ann Spier fifty three pounds six shillings and eight pence to her & her heirs and assigns.

Item, I give to my daughter Miller Pittman my Negro Girl Grace one feather bed and furniture two cows & calves one chest called hers one pewter dish one pewter basin marked with (M) to her heirs & assigns.

Item, I give & Bequeath to my Daughter Zilpha PITMAN my Negro Girl named I---- one feather bed & furniture two cows & calves one pewter dish one D. basin two plates and 3 spoons marked (Z) to her heirs and assigns.

Item, I give and bequeath to my grandson Willie Pittman one feather bed & furniture & if he stays on the plantation as one of the family to the age of 21 Years I give him one horse bridle & saddle & a suit of common clothes to him his heirs & assigns.

Item, I give & bequeath to my son John Pittman the land & plantation whereon I now live being three hundred & twenty acres. Also to him and his heirs I also give my son John Pittman my Cider Hogshead & Bibles, my still my copper & carpenter tools one feather bed & furniture one iron pot rack & pestle two pewter basins one dish two plates & three spoons my two Negroes Chelsea and Agg my cart & wheels to him & his heirs.

Item, I give & bequeath to my two daughters Millie Pittman and Zilpha Pittman my loom & all the gear thereunto belonging also all my spinning wheels & cards also my flax hackle to them & their heirs.

I also give all that part of my estate that is not before given away to be equally divided between all my sons & daughters that are living at my death to them & their heirs and I do hereby constitute & appoint my three sons Elisha Pittman, Elijah Pittman & John Pittman the whole & sole executors of this my last will & testament, and I do hereby revoke & disannul all & every other former will made by me heretofore, & do hereby ordain this my last will & testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & affixed my seal the day & date

Signed, Sealed, Published

Pronounced & declared by the said

Ambrose Pittman for & as his heirs

Last Will & Testament in Ambrose tp Pittman (his mark)

Presence of

Robert John Pittman

Elizabeth Pittman

Samuel Pittman

Halifax County February Court 1787. Then this will was exhibited in open court, and duly proved by the oath of John Pittman & Samuel Pittman two of the subscribing witnesses thereto & on motion ordered to be recorded, where upon Elisha Pittman & John Pittman qualified as executors thereto.

Test: Wm Wotton CC

The "mark" of Ambrose Pittman, the signature of a man unable to sign his name, usually from illiteracy but sometimes from illness, is the same as that made by Thomas Pittman, his father, who died in 1730.

Family members researching their Pittman lines sometimes find themselves pruning branches rather than adding them, after evaluating the material published in 1907 in a book by Mrs. H. D. Pittman called Americans of Gentle Birth and Their Ancestors (Vol.1 and 2) , in which the author mistakenly identified Ambrose Pittman of Halifax County, North Carolina, as a son of Thomas Pittman and Hannah Fielding of Lancaster County, Virginia. That Ambrose Pittman was born a whole generation later than Ambrose of Halifax, as can be proved from his Revolutionary War pension application file (#S.30655). His file states that he was born 9 Nov 1750 in Lancaster County, Virginia, and that he removed to Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1790. His pension application file mentions a son, Ambrose. He was married on 22 May 1796 to Susanna Warren in Woodford County, Kentucky. He was included on a list of Revolutionary War pensioners who lived in Laurel County, Kentucky, in 1840 -- Ambrose Pittman, "aged 92." He died in Laurel County, Kentucky on 17 Feb 1842. A record in Deed Book Q, Mercer County, Kentucky, on 14 Oct 1845, lists the heirs of Ambrose Pittman: Fielding Pittman, Lawson Pittman, Eliza Pittman, William Pittman, Ambrose Pittman, heirs at law of William Thomas, Robert Thomas, Thomas Lilllard, William Simpson deceased, and Joseph F. Baine the only heir and child of George Baine deceased. 498 acres of land was distributed from the estate.

In her book Mrs. Pittman states that Ambrose Pittman who died in 1842 was a son of Richard Pittman who was born in 1753, who married a Miss Warren and settled in Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1790. In fact, they were brothers, both sons of Thomas Pittman and Hannah Fielding of Lancaster County, of the Northern Neck of Virginia. Mrs. Pittman traces her husband's lineage from another brother of Ambrose and Richard Pittman -- Williamson H. Pittman, who married Judith Watkins on 7 March 1787 in Chesterfield County, Virginia. This family is clearly unrelated to the family of Ambrose Pittman of Halifax County, North Carolina, who was already an adult with children of his own before 1750.

A second source, A History of the Higgs Family , published in 1933 by William Miller Higgs, complicates matters further by trying to show a relationship between Thomas Pittman of Lancaster County Virginia and Thomas Pittman of the Surry, Isle of Wight County Virginia family, when in fact, there was no documentation to back up his conclusions.

These two sources also report that Ambrose Pittman of Halifax was married to Mary or Annie Streetor, but no proof of this has ever been cited, and therefore this relationship should not be assumed unless the proof comes to light. Another source, An Abstract of North Carolina Wills 1760-1800, published in 1925 by Fred A. Olds, indicates that Ambrose Pittman named his wife Lila in his last will and testament. Examination of the original page in Halifax County Will Book III reveals that, in fact, no wife is even mentioned in this will, much less named.

Many searchers who are descendants of Ambrose Pittman of Halifax County, North Carolina, continue to include Thomas Pittman and Hannah Fielding, and Annie Streetor, on their charts, and it has been hard to convince some of them that their sources were in error! An excellent summary contrasting these two groups of Pittman's can be found on pages 59 and 60 of a book called Tennessee Cragon's and Their Kin , written by Colonel (Retired) Henry D. Cragon of Birmingham, Alabama. A copy of this book is in the collection in the library at Halifax, North Carolina.

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Source number: 3.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: CEC 1,7836::962569

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,9061::0

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Halifax County, North Carolina, Wills; Author: North Carolina. County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Halifax County); Probate Place: Halifax, North Carolina 1,9061::2031006

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,9061::0

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Halifax County, North Carolina, Wills; Author: North Carolina. County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Halifax County); Probate Place: Halifax, North Carolina 1,9061::2031006

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@R-1197395292@ U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Yates Publishing Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,7836::0

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Source number: 3.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: CEC 1,7836::962569

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,3566::0

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1,3566::16761599

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@R-1197395292@ Virginia, Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,7832::0

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@R-1197395292@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina, Will Abstracts, 1760-1800 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,3945::0

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1,3945::4619

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,9061::0

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Halifax County, North Carolina, Wills; Author: North Carolina. County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Halifax County); Probate Place: Halifax, North Carolina 1,9061::2031006

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Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=70672091&pid...

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina Wills 1,48337::0

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https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=FLHG-NCWills&h=31029... 1,48337::310299

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@R-1197395292@ North Carolina, State Census, 1784-1787 Ancestry.com Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data - Register, Alvaretta K. State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001.Original data: Register, Alvaretta K. State Censu 1,49368::0

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