Nancy Parker

Who's Nancy's father?

From link to the Will of Nathaniel Parker, 1811

" ....Sixth, I give and bequeath to my second wife's daughter Nancy Parker, one dollar and no more of my estate, real or personal. ..."

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notes

Uncertain as to who was Nancy Parker's father. The story goes like this:

Nathaniel Parker married Mary Ramsey Bledsoe on the 4 December 1791 and separated roughly a year later. In the Knox Gazette dated 29 November 1794 Nathaniel Parker stated that his wife Mary had left his bed and board and warned all persons that he would not be responsible for her debts or contracts. On November 21, 1800 Mary Parker sued for divorce from Nathaniel Parker. On November 12, 1802 a trial was held. Twelve days later, on November 24 1802, the court entered it's final decree. The court awarded her separate bed and board and awarded her separate maintenance in the amount of $200 per annum to be paid quarterly
A local Sumner County, TN. tradition is that Mary Ramsey was pregnant with the child of Thomas Sharpe Spencer, who was killed by Chief Doublehead on 1 April 1794 on the Cumberland Road [Lamb and Allied Families by James L. Mohon, p. 221] before they could be married. The administration of Thomas Sharpe Spencer's estate was granted to Thomas Donnell at the January 1795 term of court in Sumner County [Sumner Co., TN County Court Minutes p. 80). This was a little more than three years after Mary Ramsey married Nathaniel Parker.
Nathaniel Parker wrote his will in Sumner County on 25 February 1811 [Sumner Co., TN WB 1:156 J. He named his children and mentioned "my second wife's daughter Nancy Parker." It is presumed that was a reference to his wife Mary Ramsey Bledsoe. She was probably about 45 years of age when she married Nathaniel Parker, being nearly at the end of her childbearing years. Anthony and Mary Bledsoe were not known to have a daughter named Nancy.
So Nancy Parker receiving only a one Dollar in Nathaniel Parker will's sixth bequest makes sense as she was born when her mother Mary Ramsey Bledsoe Parker was still married to Nathaniel Parker thus the Parker surname for Nancy, but she was not a biological child of Nathaniel Parker.

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• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LK3G-CF9