Family of Cherry (Jones) Wood
Grandmother of Drusilla (Jordan) Hamlin
Cherry Jones was the daughter of Jordan Jones, who was the son of James Jones.
I do not have concrete proof that James Jones was the son of Nicholas Jones of Sussex County, but this Nicholas did have a son named James and Nicholas' other children were intricately linked to the Felts and Hamlins, who went from Virginia to Ohio, along with the Jones. I am confident that Nicholas Jones is the father of our James Jones.
I am a little less confident that Nicholas Jones was the son of Rice Jones. However, Nicholas Jones was an uncommon name in the Tidewater area of Virginia in this point in history. The only record I found of a Nicholas Jones of the correct age was Nicholas Jones, the son of Rice Jones.
The Rice Jones family lived in Middlesex County, Virginia. Rice married Jane Cocke, and they had three sons: John, Rice, and Nicholas. Nicholas was baptized in 1685, probably not long after his birth. (Source: The parish register of Christ Church, Middlesex County, Va., from 1653 to 1812, Page: 27.) Nicholas is mentioned in his Grandfather Nicholas Cocke's will in 1687, and mentioned again in 1696 in the will of his uncle Maurice Cocke. (Source: The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 5 edited by Philip Alexander Bruce, William Glover.) Thereafter, he is not mentioned in any family documents. He is conspicuously missing from a 1698 document that mentions his older brothers and their guardian. Therefore, some genealogists believe that Nicholas died before reaching the age of thirteen, as Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith concluded in his book "Smith of Abram's Plains" (1998).
However, I propose that Nicholas did not die. I don't know why he wasn't included in the guardianship. Perhaps because of his young age, he went to a different guardian? At any rate, in 1708, a Nicholas Jones was married to Anne Hoyle in Christ Church Parish in Middlesex County. This is surely the same Nicholas, who would have been 23 at this time, assuming he lived. To me, this marriage is strong evidence that Nicholas Jones, son of Rice Jones, did in fact, live to adulthood. It seems very unlikely to me that there would be another unknown Nicholas Jones of approximately the same marriageable age in the same church where the Rice Jones family attended.
I found no further records of Nicholas and Anne in Middlesex County. My hypothesis is that Nicholas did not stay in the area, because, unlike his older brothers, he did not inherit land there. (John inherited land in Essex County, and Rice Jr. inherited land in Middlesex County.) Also, if it is true that Nicholas was raised by a different guardian than his brothers, family ties connecting him to the area may not have been strong.
About twenty years after Nicholas Jones, son of Rice Jones, disappears from the Middlesex County area, our ancestor appears in Sussex and Surry counties, apparently unconnected to any of the Jones families of Sussex and Surry. Our Nicholas was married to an Elizabeth, not an Anne, but spousal deaths and remarriage were very common in Virginia at this time, so it is quite possible that Elizabeth was his second wife.
The case is not airtight, but at this point, I believe that Nicholas Jones, son of Rice Jones, is our Nicholas Jones.
1. Nicholas Jones b. abt 1685. d. 1754, Sussex Cnty, VA. “Nicholas Jones, in 1730, bought land in the area around Cash's Corner in Sussex County, VA. There is Assamoosick Swamp to the west, Secorrie Swamp to the north, and German Swamp to the east. German Swamp used to be Jeremy’s Swamp and….” Others who lived near Jeremy’s Swamp included John Hamlin, William Hamlin (maybe the William Hamlin who was the father of our Charles Benjamin Hamlin?) and William Felts (who was the father of Jesse Felts).
+ Elizabeth b. about 1685. Their children:
2. Nathanial Jones, b. about 1710. Married Sarah.
2. Sarah Jones b. about 1712. Married William Felts, who was born about 1712.
3. Jesse Felts (A Quaker who went to Stark County, Ohio, with my Hamlins, Woods, and Jones) Married Cherry Hix in 1788. Their children:
4. Shadrach Felts. Married "Polly" Hamlin, who was a daughter of Charles and Martha (Moore) Hamlin
4. Elizabeth Felts. Married Stephen Hamlin, the son of Charles and Martha (Moore) Hamlin. Their children:
5. Sarah Agnes Hamlin. Married Joseph M. Sebrell, the son of Joseph and Rebecca (Jones) Sebrell.
5. James E. Hamlin. Married Matilda Jones (daughter of Jordan and Sarah (Johnson) Jones.
2. Mary Jones b. about 1714. Married James Hern.
2. Nicholas Jones b. about 1716
2. Rebecca Jones, b. about 1720
2. James Jones, b. abt 1718, d. about 1793, Southampton Cnty, VA. Married Faithy Bailey, daughter of Walter Bailey, and granddaughter of Ansolme Bailey. Their Children:
3. Anselem Jones, died bef. 1807, Southampton Cnty, VA . Married Sarah
3. Mary “Molly” Jones. Married Benjamin Kitchen.
3. Lucy Jones. Married Mr. West
3. James Jones, Jr. Married Averilla Sebrell, daughter of Benjamin and Nancy “Ann” (Morris) Sebrell.
3. Rebecca L. Jones, b. 1775, Southampton Co, VA., d. 1842, Stark Co, OH. Married Joseph Sebrell, son of Benjamin and Ann (Morris) Sebrell. Son:
4. Benjamin Sebrell, b. 1789, d.1862. Married Sarah Marshall. Son:
5. Joseph Marshall Sebrell. Married Sally Agnes Hamlin (daughter of Stephen Hamlin & Elizabeth Felts)
3. Jordan Jones, born Southampton Co, VA., Moved to Ohio.
m. 1st Sarah “Sally” Johnson
4. Cherry Jones, b Southampton Co, VA., Moved to Stark Co, OH.
m. Thomas B. Wood
5. Nancy Ann Wood
m. David K. Jordan
6. Drusilla Ann Jordan
m. John E. Hamlin (son of Charles Benjamin & Susannah (Snyder) Hamlin.
4. Martha “Patsy” Jones, b. about 1783
m. Mr. Cousins
4. Matilda A. Jones, 1804-1890.
m. James E. Hamlin (son of Stephen Hamlin & Elizabeth Felts)
m. 2nd Nancy Ferrol
4. James Jones
4. John Jones
4. Judith Jones
m. Jordan Fenimore
4. Sara Jones
m. James Heart
4. Ansalom Jones m. Mary Hamlin (daughter of William Hamlin & Hannah Holloway; granddaughter of Charles & Martha Hamlin.)
Sources:
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jmljr&id=I98437
http://www.birdsongfamily.com/genealogy/birdsong_gen4/rebecca_micajah.htm http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=77&p=surnames.felts
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jmljr&id=I97910