Wallis/Wallace Clan Crest
Multiple family trees throughout
the web identify the parents of Matthew Wallis of Amelia County, Virginia as
Matthew Wallis, Sr., and Sarah Crenshaw without any source information.
NOTE: The names Wallis and Wallace
are used on some records interchangeably, later generations of this line
eventually adopted the spelling as Wallace, but Wallis will consistently be
used, unless otherwise specified in a documented source.
MATTHEW WALLIS
Matthew Wallis was born Abt. 1756
in Amelia County, Virginia.
In March 1781, he entered the United States Army as a fifer in Amelia County
and was transferred to 1st NC Regiment, under Capt. Thomas Donoho.
Matthew saw action in the battles of Guilford Courthouse, Ninety-six and Eutaw
Springs. He was discharged at Charlotte, North Carolina in August 1782.
By 1790, he was living in Wake
County, North Carolina,
and later moved to Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina, where he died
on 26 September 1821.
MATTHEW WALLIS’S MARRIAGE
There is conflicting information
for Matthew’s marriage to Sarah Sneed of Amelia County, Virginia. In 1845, Sarah
filed a pension application for her husband’s Revolutionary War service, she
states that they were married in 1787.
A North Carolina marriage record for Wake County, shows Sarah Sneed
marrying Matthew Wall on 5 January 1792.
In an un-published family history entitled
“Wallis-Wallace” by Verda Womack, there is a transcribed note when discussing
the pension that states a clerk of the court attempted to locate a marriage
file and found a marriage bond endorsed to Matthew Wallis of Wake County but
that the rest was blank. The transcription further explains “about that time,
many refused to marry under English law which was so hated and had ceremonies
of their own.”
Children attributed to Matthew
Wallis and Sarah Sneed are:
1. Richard
Wallis (1784-
2. Matthew
Franklin Wallis (1786-1860)
3. Allen
Wallis (1792-1868)
4. Martha
Ann Wallis (1793-1883)
5. Peter
Randall Wallis (1795-1868)
6. Nancy
S. Wallis (1796-1879)
7. Jeptha
Wallis (1800-1879)
8. Sarah
Susan Wallis (1801-1877)
9. Marina
F. Wallis (1805-1863)
10. Matilda
Polly Wallis (1807-1872)
The birthdates of Richard and
Matthew Franklin raise more questions as to the union of Matthew and Sarah. Sarah
further states in the pension application that she “was living in Amelia County
Virginia and was well acquainted with Matthew Wallis before and after his
service”.
Despite the detailed information
of Matthew’s Revolutionary War service, along with a duly sworn statement from fellow messmate, Moses Hopper, the pension was ultimately denied lacking “proof of
service”.
After Matthew’s death, Sarah moved
to Greene County, Missouri living in the household of her daughter, Matilda
Wallis.
Sarah died on 31 July 1847, she is buried in Old Salem Cemetery in Greene
County, Missouri where her tombstone reads that she was the “Consort of Matthew
Wallis”.
MATTHEW WALLIS and SARAH CRENSHAW
Genealogies on FamilySearch show the
elder Matthew Wallis being born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1735 with his
death and burial as 1759.
Sarah Crenshaw is also shown as being born in 1735 in Amelia County, but no
death date is given for her.
Multiple trees on Ancestry.com and
genealogies on FamilySearch list the children for Matthew Sr. and Sarah as:
1. John
Wallis (1754-1845)
2. Matthew
Wallis (1756-1821)
According to the Revolutionary War
Pension application filed in 1819 for John Wallis, he entered the service in
Virginia in 1775.
His regiment joined General Washington, where he participated in the battles of
Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He was discharged as a Dragoon in
December 1778.
The application is sworn to by witness, Samuel Blakenship, who attests that he
knew John before and after his service in the Revolution.
The application is applied for in Iredell County, North Carolina, the same
place Matthew was living in 1814. It is likely that John is Matthew’s brother
or cousin.
John and Matthew “Wallace” are
both listed together on the 1800 Census for Salisbury, Iredell County, North
Carolina along with a Thomas Blankenship on the same page.
Figure
1 – 1800 U.S. Federal Census for Salisbury, Iredell, North Carolina
Marriage records for Matthew Sr.
and Sarah Crenshaw were not found in Amelia County Marriage Bonds 1735-1755.
A will dated for 2 January 1754
written by John Wallace, Sr. of Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, Virginia, lists
wife, Mary, his sons as Matthew, John, Jeff, and several daughters.
Two of the daughters Sally and Molly, are later in Mary’s will 15 July 1773
both with the last name “Blankingship”.
An Order
Book for Amelia County was located which contains a chancery case for “Jeff
Wallace vs Matthew Wallace, son and heir of Matthew Wallace Decd” on 25 July
1760. It appears there was a dispute regarding
ownership of land. Matthew is advised that he can contest the decree “within
six months” after he reaches the age of twenty-one.
If Matthew was born about 1756, he
cannot be the Matthew referred to in the above chancery case as he would have
only been five years old at the time of the dispute.
An entry in Will Book 1 for Amelia
County has an entry for Matthew Wallis with a death date of 19 May 1759, but no
family members are listed.
In 1768, Sarah Davis, wife of
Robert Davis and “former widow of Matthew Wallace” has a dower laid off and
assigned for the estate of Matthew Wallace, the death date of Matthew Wallis of
19 May 1759 is listed under the entry.
A will dated 7 March 1786, by
William Crenshaw of Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, Virginia bequeaths three
slaves to his daughter Sarah Wallis.
One of the witnesses on the will is Matthew Wallis. It is noted that the will
was sent to “John Wallis living in Iredell, near Statesville” North Carolina.
This raises yet another dilemma.
John was also married to a Sarah,
as listed in the pension application
and on a widow pensions list for John Wallis, dragoon in North Carolina.
A FindAGrave entry identifies her as Sarah Granger
who died 14 November 1846 in Iredell County, North Carolina.
Ryan Wadleigh, a Wallace
researcher cites on his blog that the names Granger and Crenshaw are
“variations of the same name”
This assertion is also a topic of discussion on Ancestry message boards
and research of unrelated Crenshaws, as the names are seemingly interchangeable
amongst some known records.
GRANGER/CRENSHAW
An Ancestors entry on FamilySearch
for Thomas Joseph Granger Crenshaw of Lunenburg County, Virginia, explains that
several phonetic versions, mostly using the letter “G” were used in pre 1850
records. These include Grancha, Cranshaw, Granger, and Granchawe.
An account of the “Old Slave
House”, owned by John Crenshaw, notorious for being a Reverse Underground Railroad,
where free blacks were kidnapped and sold back to slave states, recounts the
testimony of a victim in 1828. The kidnapped victim, names her attacker as John
Granger, but in the legal documents, Granger is crossed out and Crenshaw is
written in.
An Abraham Granger of Pickens and
Greenville Counties, SC show census records where the names Granger and
Crenshaw are used interchangeably.
No marriage record for John Wallis
and Sarah has been located and according to her account in the pension application,
they were married on 25 May 1780 in Amelia County and that they were “married
without license was published and married in church as was customary at that
time of which there is no record to her knowledge”.
ONE MATTHEW OR TWO?
The 1782 Census for Amelia County
lists Matthew Wollis along with 2 other white people in his household.
Others listed in the same grouping are William Crenshaw, George Holland, Phoebe
Holland, and William Sneed, purported father of Sarah Sneed. Details of the
month the enumerations were done has not been found.
Matthew Wallis was stated to be in
the service between March 1781 and August 1782.
Someone else could have provided the census information, but who were the other
two people in the household?
A 22 June 1786 entry in an Amelia
County Order book shows an indenture between a Matthew Wallace and Mary his
wife relinquishing her “right of dower” of lands to Phoebe, Zachariah and
George Holland.
This entry is the cause for online speculation that Matthew was married prior
to Sarah Sneed, while this fits with the 1787 marriage date offered by Sarah in
the pension application, it does little to prove that Matthew was married
before or that this is the correct Matthew.
A court order book lists Matthew Wallace
on a Grand Jury in Amelia County on 24 May 1787.
Matthew’s son, Matthew F. Wallis
was born in 1786 in North Carolina, confirmed by his entry in the 1850 Census.
This would mean that Matthew was already in North Carolina, making it possible
that another Matthew was the man referred to in the 1760 Chancery case, the
1782 Census and the one married to Mary.
Also, in 1786 the William Crenshaw
will was witnessed by a Matthew Wallis.
Matthew Wallis was living in Wake,
North Carolina in the 1790 Census.
JOHN WALLIS, BROTHER, OR COUSIN?
When John Wallis died in 1845, his
wife Sarah applied for his Revolutionary War pension. Since there was no formal
marriage record, Samuel Blankenship again testified that although he was not
present for the wedding, he knew them to be married, and that Sarah was of a
trustworthy character.
He went on to state that they were
all “raised in the same neighborhood in Amelia County” and that at the time of
the marriage (1780), John’s father was very displeased with the union and that
Sarah and John had lived with Samuel’s grandmother for two years, before moving
to North Carolina.
While there were Wallis women
married to Blankenship’s, it has not yet been determined who Samuel was related
to or who his grandmother is.
A letter written to Sarah Sneed
Wallis in December 1821, three months after the death of Matthew, from Sarah
and John Wallis, addresses her as “beloved and affectionate cousin”, the letter
ends with Sarah writing that she hopes to visit her one more time before she
dies and that she is her “kind cousin until death”.
Perhaps this was the way the Sarah’s addressed one another, but it would seem
odd, if they were indeed “sisters-in-law”.
CONCLUSION
Misinformation is often propagated
on many trees across many platforms online. While using this information to
provide clues to our research, it is important to verify and source as much as
we can, especially in eras where records can be scarce.
In this case, there is not enough
evidence to confirm that Matthew is the son of a man named Matthew Wallis and
wife, Sarah Crenshaw. Often, there are shreds of truth in this un-cited
information, such as Sarah Crenshaw being married to a Wallis, just not the one
she is typically linked to.
Returning to the will of John Sr.,
date 1754 naming three sons as Matthew, John, and Jeff; it is likely that the
Matthew named, is the man who died in 1759 and the subject of the 1760 Chancery
case. Eliminating him as a candidate for Matthew’s father. This would also remove
the Sarah who re-married Robert Davis in 1768 as a candidate for Matthew’s
mother.
Ryan Wadleigh, has guessed that
John may be the son of Jeff,
however Jeff died 19 August 1763,
so that would invalidate him as a candidate for John’s father, who was upset
about his marriage to Sarah as related by Samuel Blankenship but does not
eliminate him as a possible candidate for the father of Matthew.
Little has been found on John
Sr.’s son John, who is a potential candidate for the father of John or Matthew.
The Blankenship’s, Crenshaws,
Sneed’s and other repeating names are often found among the census, property,
and other town records with the Wallis/Wallace Family of John Sr. This “FAN”
club requires a deeper study to figure out where our probable cousins, Matthew,
and John fit in, or if they are in fact cousins.
STAY TUNED!
