William ‘Old Bill’ Blevins

Existence is disputed, origins are disputed, wife is uncertain, and children are seen as children of James Blevins and Margery Tosh. See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blevins-39

Biography

https://www.anamericanfamilyhistory.com/TennesseeFamilies&Places/Bl...

William Blevins was born about 1691. He was called Old Bill.

His children may have included:

1. James Blevins (1708, married Sarah Stetson),
2. Mary Blevins (1710, married Elisha Wallen),
3. Daniel Blevins (1712, married Sarah Sutton),
4. John Blevins (1716), married [SIC: possibly Sarah Dillon]
5. William Blevins (1718, married Agnes Wallen) [SIC: Agathy unknown]

Before 1740, his sons and son-in-law, Elisha Wallen, went on long hunting expeditions to Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.

On March 13, 1748, John, James and William Blevins had land surveyed in an area of Virginia that would become Henry County.

They built a blockhouse on Smith River, in what would become Henry County, Virginia with the Wallen family.

In 1751, the Moravian Records reported that William Blevins and his sons

would bring in to the local trading post more pelts than there was cash to pay for, but that they would gladly accept goods in lieu of cash.

There is no name on the hunter roll more familiar than the name of Blevins. Once William Blevins had to go through the mountains to salt his cattle. He came upon them in a small clearing and was just in time to see them stampeded by a panther that had just killed a small heifer. As soon as the panther saw Blevins it leaped for him and succeeded in reaching his belt, which it tore from him, but with a dextrous swing of his knife Blevins freed himself, the beast paying the penalty for its rash deed. (from Historic Sullivan)

In 1767 John Blevins (son of Daniel), John Blevins, Sr., Dillon, and James Jr. appeared on the tax list in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

William died in 1767 in Virginia.

Disambiguation

From Ancestry, as a starting point for sorting out her husband, William Blevins:

• Reference: Ancestry

Sorting out 3 men named William Blevins, by Rob Blevins

Most people reference William Blevins and say he was married to Ann Bunch, he was a Longhunter, and that he signed the Watauga Purchase. The problem I have with this blanket statement is that I'm sure we are dealing with at least three different men. I hope to get some help sorting out the men named William Blevins all of whom figure into the Blevins family history.

I'll start with the William everyone seems to agree on. William Jr. was the son of John William (or William John) Blevin. He was apparently born in 1690 or 1691 in Fromby (which is in England just north of the Welch border).

He apparently came to Rhode Island as a boy. Most people credit him as being married to Ann Bunch BUT some others identify his wife as being Mary Bean. For sorting purposes, let’s call William Jr. OLD BILL as he is known by some. He apparently died about 1767.

The second William is, I believe OLD BILL'S son. He was born about 1718, although some place his birth as early as 1710. This William III is often referred to as THE ELDER and most say he was married to Agnes Wallen. THE ELDER died sometime around 1777.

The third William is, I believe THE ELDER'S son. He was born about 1735 although some place his birth as being around 1730. This William is often referred to as THE COLONEL and there is a fair amount of information on him relative to the disposition of his estate. He married Ann Morrell and he died around 1805.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that the Blevins people left Rhode Island sometime around 1724 stopping in Bucks County PA, then on to New Jersey, and then by 1734 to Prince George's County MD. By the late 1730's or early 1740's they landed in Southwestern VA.

Question 1. Does anyone DISAGREE with this line of William Blevins? (Old Bill, Elder, Colonel.) Or are these men of different family lines?

Question 2. Most people say that Ann Bunch was an Indian from New Jersey or MD. If so, was she Old Bill's SECOND wife? It seems he was married in Rhode Island (perhaps to Mary Bean) and had children BEFORE he left Rhode Island. A second and perhaps more plausible answer is that Ann Bunch was The Elder's FIRST wife (before Agnes Wallen) and that she was William the Colonel's mother. Ann may have died young and the Elder married Agnes Wallen afterwards. Anyone have an opinion?

Question 3. Are Wallen, Wailing, and Walden the SAME family names and derivatives of Elisha Wallen's family?

Comment 1. I believe that all three of these Williams were hunters. BUT, long hunts are physically demanding and not for old men. There are references to Blevins men being hunters in the earliest VA records (1740 or so) but most of the longhunt stories start around 1761. Old Bill would have been 70 years old in 1761 so I contend that the William Blevins in the longhunter stories was William the Elder (age 43 in 1761), William the Colonel (age 26 in 1761) or both.

Comment 2. The Watauga Purchase was signed in 1774. Old Bill probably died around 1767 and The Elder would have been close to 50 years old at the time. I contend that the William who signed the Purchase was probably William the Colonel who would have been about 39 years old..

References

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 11 2019, 1:15:46 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Mar 18 2019, 1:45:19 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Mar 18 2019, 2:18:56 UTC
• https://familysearch.org # L27B-DSC *Ancestry Boards; surname Blevins info taken from "Blevin's Ancestry" by Bill Dwayne Blevins, August 1972. Bill D. Blevins, Publisher, 716 East 6th St., Mountain Home, AR. here also added a copy of the Wataugah Purchase on March 19, 1775, witnessed by William Blevins (the William Blevins who signedthe Purchase according this probably was the one known as “The Colonel” (abt 1735-1805) and married to Ann Morrell)
• http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.blevins/1166/mb.ashx
• http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/e/s/Rick-West-Pasadena... William Blevins, born 1684 in Prince Georges County, Maryland. He was the son of John Blevins. Father of Mary Belvins, born 1710 in Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island.
• “The Blevins Men of Monocacy and Goochland: The Southern Migration of the James Bliven Family.” Robert P. Blevins (June 1, 2020) < PDF > Page 23. The following table provides a summary of the theoretical family of James Blevins (Bliven) and Margery Tosh. For the sake of establishing generational parities, I have assigned the suffix "the Patriarch" to James and the suffix "the Matriarch" to Margery and have labeled them as the founding generation of the Blevins Family Southern Branch.

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William Blevins came from Fromby on the West Coast of England and Wates in the late 1600’s and settled for a time in what is now the state of Maryland. In the mid 1740’s members of his family left Maryland to settle in southwestern Virginia. From Virginia, they moved to East Tennessee and eventually to Alabama. Descendants are still found in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and many other states. Family names, such as, James, William, Gaines, John, Richard, Emerson and Lewis are common from the beginning until the present time proving common ancestors.

William and his family arrived in central Virginia by about 1734. They were in southern Va in Henry County, Va. when it was formed from Pittsylvania Co., in 1776. William #2 and his sons were Long Hunters and wide ranging explorers in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. In the Moravian Records - it was reported in 1751 that William Blevins and his sons "would bring in to the local trading post more pelts than there was cash to pay for, but that they would gladly accept goods in lieu of cash."

William was purported to be a cruel man that would hang the meat from his hunts from the rafters of his house, but not allow his wife to have them, instead giving them to a mistress that he kept on his property.

There is no name on the hunter roll more familiar than the name of Blevins. Once William Blevins had to go through the mountains to salt his cattle. he came across them in a small clearing and was just in time to see them stampeded by a panther that had just killed a small heifer. As soon as the panther saw Blevins it leaped for him and succeeded in reaching his belt, which it tore from him, but with a dextrous swing of his knife, Blevins freed himself, the beast paying the penalty for its rash deed (Taylor, 1909).