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Note: GloriaWigent.FTW
The following information about the first two John Earl's is from the Internet. Apparently, there have been several people who are doing research on this person. I'm just taking their information until there is a chance to find out more about him myself.
The Earl/Earle/Earls line has been one of the most disputed and difficult families to trace.
Some people say the first John Earl was born in Scotland, moved to Wales, sailed to America about 1740. There is a story that his ship sank and he had to swim to shore.
John's last name isn't given in the genealogy I found, but his son islisted as John Earl, Jr. Apparently there is a book written by a man named Jim Earl that states that he thinks John Earl was married to Mary "Polly" Watts. She died, and John married a lady named Agnes. John Earl, Jr. did name one of his daughters, Mary Polly Earl.
In the 1791 Granville County, Ragland District, there is a John Earles, Senior listed about two names above John Earl, Jr.
This is some information I received from Tom Aiken at rootsnva@aol.com: Change Date: 9 Jan 2005
Very little documentable information has been found on JOHN EARL. There was a legend in the family that has been widely accepted and repeated: THIS HASN'T BEEN PROVEN. IT'S JUST A LEGEND.
"According to family tradition, John Earl came from England and settled in Virginia. He made a crop of tobacco (tobacco being used for currency in the early days of Virginia) and sent back to England for his fiancee, Mary Elizabeth "Molly" Watts. He met her on the boat before she landed, and married her there. Miss Watts is said to have been a near relative of Sir Isaac Watts, the hymnologist, perhaps a niece."
It is a matter of history that John Earl lived in Lunenburg County, Virginia, about 1749, and that the parish made an allowance for the support of Richard Watts in 1758 or 1760. (see Landon C. Bell's 'Cumberland Parish' and 'Sunlight on the South Side', both in Duke Library). Consult indexes for Earl, Hurl and Watts.
John Earl was paying tithes in Lunenburg County, Virginia as late as1764 when Keziah Earl was 11.
John Earl "late of Lunenburg County" bought 200 acres of land near Kittrell near Long Creek (then Granville County) in 1765. (Book H, Page 53 in Granville County Register of Deeds office).
John Earl sold 200 acres near Kittrell in 1796. In 1783 and 1791, John Earl bought land for 200 pounds sterling on Tabbs Creek near Oxford (Book O, page 319 and Book N, page 80.)
John Earl and Agnes had at least two children, John and Keziah.
Keziah Earl married George Harris in 1772. She was born in 1753, before her father came to North Carolina, died April 15, 1849, aged 95 years old. (From a document attributed to Hays, obviously a descendent of George and Keziah.
THIS IS THE FAMILY LEGEND.
An assiduous search of original records has revealed no evidence in support of this legend. No such John Earl or Earle or Mary Watts is mentioned in colonial records as documented in Early Virginia Immigrants, Some Immigrants to Virginia, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Cavaliers and Pioneers, Colonial Records of Virginia, or other sources indexed on Family Tree Maker's Family Archives: Virginia Colonial Records, 1600's - 1700's.
The absence of documentary proof does not mean that there was no Mary Elizabeth Watts who was brought to Virginia by John Earl whom she married. Many Virginia records have been lost or destroyed. I am inclined to believe that legends usually have a factual basis when there is no conceivable reason for them to be invented.
One possibility is that a John Earle came to Virginia in the earlier colonial period, when the immigration records were less complete. OurJohn Earl might be descended from him. I have found numerous records of Watts families in Virginia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I suspect therefore, that the legend might have originated at an earlier time and, like most legends, got revised over the years. I have no evidence that this is so, but the facts I have found would be much more compatible in that scenario.
My conclusion, however, is that the legend, if accurate, is immaterial to me, as I am clearly descended from John Earl and Agnes through John Earl the younger and Zebiah Sims.
Except for the fact that Keziah Earl married George Harris, nothing in the above legend has been corroborated. The John Earl who lived in Lunenburg (and later Mecklenburg) County, Virginia, and who supported Richard Watts was married to a lady named Agnes, as shown in a deed in which she relinquished her dower rights. Agnes was born about 1735 in Brunswick County, Virginia and died about 1818 in Granville County, North Carolina. Agnes and John were married about 1754 in Lunenburg County, Virginia. This has been documented. We have an established family line back to this couple. The documentary trail, at present, ends here.
John Earl did move to Granville County, where he left a will naming his wife, Agnes, his son, John and two daughters, Elizabeth and Rebecca who were then unmarried. If he had a daughter named Keziah, she was not named, perhaps because she was already married.
US/International Marriage Records 1340-1980 states:
John Earl, Birth Year: 1728 Marriage Year: 1760 Spouse: Agnes ? Source #: 384.000 Source Type: Electronic Database # of page:1 Submitter Code: RCA
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Where did John Earl and Agnes come from? Did they come from Canada or one of the northern states? There has been extensive research and documentation of the three main Earl / Earle families that are known in the United States. So far, I haven't been able to connect our Earl family with any of these three families.
Tom Aiken has been researching the Earl/Earle families for some forty odd years.
No parents have been identified for John Earle of Lunenburg County. There were several John Earles in Virginia, descendents of Sir John Earle of Somersetshire, England, and Northumberland County, Virginia. Careful review of this family's members, as reported in the book, The Venturers, by Virginia G. Meynard, and by Belinda Myrick-Barnett in e-mail, revealed no John who could have been the one in Lunenburg County,Virginia.
In 1760, John Earl of Granville, North Carolina, granted to Thomas Wiggins, planter in Granville County, land located in what is now Vance County near Nutbush Bridge. Is this our John Earl?
In the North Carolina marriage records, there is a John Earl born in England who married a Mary Watts, born in England. The source # is 3699 007. This needs to be proven.
Tom Aikens stated in an E-mail to me, Gloria Wigent, dated 23 Jun 2004:
John Earle is found in records of Brunswick, Lunenburg and Mecklenburg Counties of Virginia, from 1747 to about 1760, when he moved with his family to Granville County, North Carolina. He died in Granville County about 1799 leaving a will which named his wife, Agnes, son John and two daughters.
The younger John married Zebiah Sims in Warren County, North Carolina, and died at about the same time as his father. Zebiah Sims, was the daughter of Edward Sims II and Elizabeth Duke, according to several reports on World Connect Project. She has a very long and illustrious pedigree.
I can find no record of John Earle earlier that 1747 - no immigrationor passenger list record, no parents, no marriage record. He might have moved to Virginia from another colony. There were John Earles in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, butI cannot make a connection. Any help will be much appreciated.
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