William Jones, Sr.

List of Enslaved People Belonging to William Jones (1802-1885)
Research by Stacy Ashmore Cole
Updated: 5/7/2021 < link >

Introduction
William Jones, a white planter and slaveholder born May 6, 1802 in Liberty County, died in 1885, well after the Civil War, which meant that he had no probate records that would have identified enslaved people belonging to him. However, other information exists that can be pieced together to allow descendants of these enslaved people to trace their ancestors’ lives. This article uses those other documents to create a table of all the people known to have been enslaved by William Jones with the information about them that was found as of April 2021.

Finding the Sources
William Jones’ parents were Samuel Jones (1767-1836) and Mary Way (1767-1845). Mary Way was the daughter of Moses Way (1734-1786) and Ann (Winn) Way (1740-1790). William Jones himself married Mary Jane Robarts (1806-1886) in 1823. She was the daughter of John Robarts (1766-1817) and Elizabeth Quarterman (1773-1826).

These dates and relationships are as important as the date of William Jones’ death, because they are potential pathways by which William Jones could have obtained enslaved people: through inheritance when a parent or grandparent died.

Additionally, enslaved people could have entered the Jones family’s possession when women married into the family, bringing with them inheritance from a parent or grandparent, so the maiden names of the women are also important. It was common in Liberty County for freed people to adopt a surname of an early enslaver of their family, so the maiden names may well hold clues.

Here are dates to look for:

• William Jones’ father Samuel died in 1836, which was after William Jones became of age and married (in 1823), so if he were to have set up on his own as a planter, he would have needed to have obtained land and enslaved people in a way other than inheritance. This makes deed records important. We will also look for inheritance records from 1836.
• His mother, Mary Way, also did not die until 1845, so any “property” she inherited from his father would not have come to William until after 1845.
• Mary Jane Robarts’ father, John Robarts, had died prior to her marriage to William Jones, so the possibility she brought enslaved people and/or land into the marriage, should be considered.
• Her mother, Elizabeth Quarterman Robarts, died in 1826, a few years after Mary Jane’s marriage to William, so that is another date to look for an estate inventory or will that might show an inheritance.
• William Jones also had siblings with whom he might have traded land and/or enslaved people: Rebecca Jones (1792-1829) (married to John Way), Samuel Jones Jr (1797-1819), Moses Liberty Jones (1805-1851), and Ann T. Jones Varnedoe (married to Nathaniel Varnedoe) (1794-1839). They all died prior to the Civil War, so their probate records could be very useful in tracing enslaved people associated with this family.

The usual records to research in this case are deed records, which would include marriage contracts and deeds of gift, wills, and estate inventories. Although the research is handicapped by the fact that William Jones died after the Civil War, so had no probate records naming enslaved people, a surprising find and a generous gift suddenly opened up new horizons for this research.

The Sources
Sharon Hoffman, a retired journalist and a researcher of the Liberty County African American community, discovered a copy of William Jones’ plantation journal for sale online! She purchased it, and kindly lent me a copy and permission to cite it.

Another incredibly useful discovery was that William Jones’ daughter, Cornelia Jones Pond, born in 1834, wrote a memoir of her life in which she named specific enslaved people and described them. Combining her memoir, the journal, and the available court records (deeds and probate) for the Jones family makes it possible to shine a light on these enslaved people’s lives.

What does the plantation journal tell us? While the journal itself is mostly concerned with the weather, there are lists at the end, by year from 1842 to 1860, of enslaved people who were given blankets, baskets, and bags, and from whom Jones bought hogs. Putting the names into a spreadsheet by year tells us what years these people were with Jones. Each person appears to have received new blankets every 2d or 3d year, and the other items even less often, so they were not mentioned every year.

The Cornelia Jones Pond memoir is from a genre of slaveholder memoirs written after the Civil War and looking back with nostalgia. They are sentimental, whitewashed, and biased, but individual facts in the memoirs can be useful. In this case, Pond mentioned and told stories about the enslaved people she grew up among. The stories are entirely from her own biased perspective, but still place the people in a place and time.

The deed and probate records show us when certain people were purchased by William Jones and when inheritances resulted in enslaved people coming into his possession. Full citations for all these records are at the end of this page. Special notes:

William Jones’ father Samuel left everything to his wife Mary, who died in 1845 and divided her estate between William and his brother Moses L. Jones. In 1846, William and Moses divided Mary’s estate.

William Jones’ sister-in-law Amarintha E. Robarts married Robert P. Burton. When his father-in-law John Robarts died, the estate was divided between R.P. Burton [as Amarintha’s husband] and William Jones’ wife.

Black and white people in early Liberty County attended the same churches. In 1846, a local clergyman, plantation owner, and slaveholder, Rev. Charles Colcock Jones, made a census of every African American church member in Liberty County’s 15th district. This remarkable document names over 1100 Black church members, enslaved and free, and lists their slaveholders. A number of people held enslaved by William Jones attended church. In addition, the Midway Congregational Church of Liberty County, was founded in 1852, and its quarterly session records from 1852-1867 name its African-descended members, both enslaved and free.

Location
Pond’s memoir also specified that she grew up on her father’s Tekoah plantation, which she said bordered on the Woodmanston plantation owned by Louis LeConte. Woodmanston Plantation is on Barrington Ferry Road southeast of Riceboro. There were several large plantations in that area, and many freed people settled and farmed there after Emancipation. …

All this to say that it is not clear where the people who were not listed in the plantation book were held, or that all were on the same place, but all were almost certainly within the general vicinity shown on the map above.

Putting the Sources Together
Combining all these sources into the table below gives us a picture of the people held enslaved by William Jones over the course of his adult life. It was the custom to use prefixes to distinguish people of the same name, such as “Old,” “Big,” “Little,” “Young.” These references have been listed separately, but for example, “Old Affee” may be the same person as “Big Affee.” Also, when blankets were issued, Jones often listed the recipient with “(and her children)”. These references are listed separately from the same name by itself. For example, “Bell (and her children)” may be the same person as “Bell” listed by herself, since her children are later listed separately, but the references have been separated just in case.

Caution: When there are several people of the same name, an attempt has been made to put the information with the right person based on dates. Also, there were many white planters with the surnames Jones in Liberty County, and many of them held enslaved people with similar names. Please check the information for yourself if you are using this document to find ancestors.

References

1. Jones, William (fl. 1823-1860) [Plantation Book]. Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03703 < link >
2. Mehaffey, Karen Rae (1999) "A Confederate Dame: Cornelia Jones Pond's Reminiscence Captures A Vanished Grandeur," Civil War Book Review: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 . DOI: 10.31390/cwbr.1.1.1 Available at: https://repository.lsu.edu/cwbr/vol1/iss1/1
3. Recollections of a Southern Daughter: A Memoir by Cornelia Jones Pond of Liberty County. By Cornelia Jones Pond. < GoogleBooks > Introduction (document attached)