Jemima Sharpe (Alexander)

Curator Note (Pam Wilson, 22 September 2019): Jemima was the second child in this family named Jemima. She married a Sharpe, though conflicting accounts of his first name exist. Evidence linking her as husband of James Sharp is circumstantial, but she was clearly not married to his brother Thomas Sharp(e) (who was married to Elizabeth Gillespie and Mary McFerrin and who lived until 1785 in Cecil County, Maryland). The name "John Thomas Sharpe" often attributed as her husband in many family trees appears to be fictitious--at the least, it begs for documentation.

Jemima, apparently recently widowed young c. 1759, migrated south with her children and members of the Alexander family into Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in the early 1760s. She is buried there alongside her daughter, sharing a headstone, in the original Sugaw (aka Sugar) Creek Presbyterian Cemetery, where she died in 1797.

A Missouri Chapter of the DAR was named for her by a great-granddaughter. noting that she "rendered great aid to the cause of American independence" (Report of the National Society of the DAR, 1907, on Googlebooks) with no further explanation. A query published in the American Monthly Magazine, Vol. 38 (1911), p. 328, reads: "Wanted: Will some member of the DAR in Mecklenburg find official proof that Jemima, sister of John Knitt and Hezekiah Alexander, Rev. heroes, gave her services as a nurse on the battleground--proof that the Mrs. Sharpe referred to in Wheeler's History of NC was Jemima (Alexander) Sharpe? Family tradition says she not only nursed the soldiers and gave her own sons to the cause, but that she walked to the prison ships to help nurse the sick; and this is referred to in Alexander's History, but as she is only called "Mrs. Sharpe," I have as yet been unable to prove it my ancestress."

DAR magazine March 1952, page 312 lists children. Buried in Sugar Creek Cemetery, 101 Sugar Creek Road, West Charlotte, N. C., the first headstone in the cemetery of the church, just a little distance from the gate. "Sketches of North Carolina" by W. P. Frost, which states, "History states that this Jamima Alexander was one of the earliest immigrants to this country, the nearest neighbors being ten and fifteen miles....She was a widow thirty-eight years, and did all in her power to help her country in those trying days."

Jemima Alexander, born 09 Jan 1726 in Cecil Co, MD; died 01 Sep 1797 in Mecklenburg Co, NC. Buried at Sugaw Creek Presbyterian; married James Sharp Abt. 1744 in Cecil Co, MD.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bruckner/knox/pro...

Confusion: Her daughter Priscilla Sharp (1750-1838) married a Lewis Jetton. The Lewis Jetton Family Bible is preserved in the Tennessee State Library and Archives and is transcribed in Family Bible Records, Wayne County, Tennessee by Wayne County Historical Society (Wayne County, Tenn.) beginning on page 89 (available on Google Books). However, this transcription is imbedded in the insertion into this book of Fred Hime Gillam's 1987 Gillham and Allied Families genealogy book, and this may have been the source of much confusion as it is very hard to tell where the Bible records end and Gillham's interpretation and speculation begin. He says (p. 92 of the Wayne County book) that Jemima Alexander married Thomas Sharp (listing their children as William, John, James, Joseph and Samuel) and that his brother James Sharp married a sister or half-sister of hers, perhaps named Margaret Alexander. However, he lists the children of James and (Margaret) as: Ezekiel, John, James, Isabella, Priscilla and Sarah. Fred Gillham PROVIDES NO SOURCE for this information. It is not listed in what seem to be the Jetton Bible Records.

• Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Apr 9 2022, 3:00:51 UTC

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H/O Major John Sharpe D/O James Alexander and Margaret McKnitt* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 4 2022, 18:33:59 UTC