Lettie Adams

Lettie Simpson was born about 1772, probably in Pasquotank County, North Carolina. Her parents, Benjamin Simpson Jr. and Sarah Jinnings, were married 6 Aug 1771 in Pasquotank County. They later moved to Rowan County, where Benjamin appears applying for a land grant in in 1778, and again in 1785. He appears in the reconstructed 1780 Rowan County census, and again in 1790 with 12 people in the household. Notably, there are three Jinnings living nearby at the time: William, John and Robert, all apparently of about the same age.

Lettie married John Hobbs Adams Jr, sometime about the end of 1786, probably in Rowan County, where the Adams lived not far from Benjamin Simpson's family, just before the Adams clan moved to Wilkes County. She was John's 2nd wife; his first wife was Nancy Ann Caudill. Lettie and John's first child, Sarah Jane "Sally" Adams, was born 26 Dec 1787; they are believed to have had at least twelve known children: Sarah (married Jeremiah Caudill), Jennie (born 1789, married Benjamin Webb), Mary (born 1792, married William Green Adams), Benjamin (born 1794, married Sarah Elizabeth Caudill, then Nancy Holbrook), Solomon (born 1796, married Nancy Hogg), Simpson (born 1797, married Susannah Baker), Spencer (born about 1799), Randolph (born 1802, married Nancy Caudill), John (born 1803, married Elizbeth Mullins), Lydia (born 1805, married Ephraim Hammons), Agnes (born 1807, married Alexander Smith), and Absolom (born 1809, married Nancy Frazier).

John and Lettie appear in the 1790 census of Wilkes County, NC, with 9 people in the family. They again appear in the 1800 census of Wilkes County NC with 6 children. According to a 1952 article about the family history, John and family, with John's brothers Benjamin and Spencer, emigrated to Letcher County, Kentucky, about 1803, where the last three children were born, Lydia, Agnes, and Absolom.

John died in August 1815; he is buried in the Webb Cemetery, in Mayking, KY. Lettie thereafter lived with her son Simpson Adams, in Letcher County. According to the family history, she died about 1845. She is likely buried near her husband John in the Webb cemetery, though her headstone has been lost.

She appears in some trees as "Lydia" Simpson, though the name Lydia is an error, derived from a record for another person, a Lydia Adams who appears in the 1840 Surry County census; this Lydia has no connection to Lettie, who had emigrated to Kentucky long before 1840.

Numerous DNA matches between descendants of Lettie's children, and descendants of both Benjamin Simpson Jr., and his brother Samuel Simpson, prove the link between Letty and Benjamin; there are at least 7 DNA links between Lettie and Benjamin (and at least 3 to Samuel's descendants).

Lettie is incorrectly shown in many trees as the daughter of her uncle Samuel Simpson, and his wife Mary [Swain] Simpson. The source of this error is an 1803 land transfer of land from Lettie's husband, John Hobbs Adams, to Benjamin Caudill; the transfer was witnessed by Lettie's brother Samuel, who some have confused with her uncle Samuel, the brother of her father Benjamin. Lettie's brother Samuel must have died young; he disappears from the record thereafter, and apparently his early disappearance has contributed to the confusion. This misunderstanding was spread in a 1952 newspaper article, by an amateur genealogist, who presumed that Lettie was the daughter of Samuel and Mary ["...Lettie Simpson, whom we presume was a daughter of Samuel Simpson, a neighbor in Wilkes County, and who later settled in Orange County"]. Of course the Samuel in Wilkes County was not Lettie's uncle Samuel. Lettie's uncle Samuel and his wife Mary never lived in Wilkes County; they lived in Chowan County until 1784, when they moved directly to Orange County. In addition, Samuel and Mary's children are well documented; he listed his children, in his own hand, with their birthdates, in his Kirk of Scotland Hymn Book, and Lettie is not included.

It's also, of course, notable that John Adams and Lettie [Simpson] Adams named one of their sons Benjamin, and none were named Samuel.