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The Ancestry of Allie May (OXLEY) Chipman: 3 False Beckwith Royal Lines / Beckwith and Creath of Cape Girardeau Co., MO / Riddle of Stoddard Co., MO / Oxley and Faulkner of Lenoir Co., NC

John Franklin Riddle (1828-1904) and Joellan Beckwith (1831-1896) were the grandparents of Allie May (Oxley) Chipman, wife of my great-grandfather James Edward Chipman.  It’s their families we’ll explore in this column.

[Death certificate for Allie May (Oxley) Chipman; date of death 27 Dec 1935; parents given as “Aquilia Oxley” and “Mary Caroline.”]

[Grave marker for James Edward and Allie May (Oxley) Chipman at Senath cemetery, Dunklin Co., MO.]

John Franklin Riddle’s father George Riddle had settled in Stoddard Co., MO.  John Franklin Riddle moved to Dunklin Co., MO, where on 1 Apr 1858 as “John Riddle, of Dunklin County, Missouri” he received land grant Certificate No. 24.703 for 40 acres.  (Bureau of Land Management records.)

Allie’s parents, Aquilla Voin Oxley and Mariah Caroline Riddle, were married on 2 Jul 1874 in Dunklin Co., MO.  Aquilla’s middle name was “Voin,” not “Vester,” as the marriage record proves (Dunklin Co., MO Marriage Book 1, p. 38).

[Tombstone of Aquilla Voin Oxley, born Dec. 5, 1847, died Nov. 18, 1887, father of Allie May (Oxley) Chipman, at Rocky Hill Cemetary near Campbell, Dunklin Co., MO.]

On 5 Jan 1888, Mariah C. Oxley applied for Letters of Administration on her husband’s estate, and the application lists A.V. Oxley’s heirs as William V. Oxley, Ida Oxley, Jennie Oxley, and Allie Oxley:

[Death certificate for Mariah Caroline (Riddle) Oxley, widow of Aquilla Voin Oxley; date of death 8 Nov 1934; parents are shown as “Jhon Riddle” and “Ella Beckwith.”  Her parents’ formal names were “John Franklin Riddle” and “Joellan Beckwith.”]

[One of my favorite family photos: Oxley family reunion ca. 1926 in Clay Co., AR.  In the 1st row Left in the black dress is Mariah Caroline (Riddle) Oxley.  The ancient gentleman seated to the Right of her is her brother-in-law George Milton Oxley.  The young girl holding a baby at the end of the 1st row Right is Pauline Aquilla Chipman.  At the Left behind the woman in the patterned dress is Allie May (Oxley) Chipman, and next to her wearing a sweater vest is her son Winford William Chipman.  James Edward Chipman is in the far Right back row.]

[Service record for George Milton Oxley, CSA.  He was released by his Union Army captors on 6 Jun 1865 at Grand Ecore, LA.  Dunklin Co., MO, with its cotton operations, had sympathized with the Confederacy.  George Milton Oxley participated in Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s Missouri raid of 1864, and received a Confederate Pension from the State of Arkansas (Application No. 15623).  He died in 1940.]

Above: George Milton Oxley grave marker, Gravel Hill Cemetery, St. Francis, Clay Co., AR.  The tombstone is wrong: George Milton Oxley was born in 1849, not 1847.  His brother Aquilla Voin Oxley was born in 1847.

Below: the question of George Milton Oxley’s birthdate is resolved by this detail from the 1900 Chalk Bluff, Clay Co., AR Federal Census, SD 1, ED 5, Sheet 5, which clearly shows his birthdate as Sep 1849.  In his pension he also gives his birthyear as 1847, which suggests he lied about his age when he enlisted with the CSA.  He was actually only 15 years old when he was paroled in Louisiana.

[Death certificate for William J. Oxley, another brother-in-law of Mariah Caroline (Riddle) Oxley; date of death is 8 Nov 1913; parents listed as “James Oxley” and “Rillie Faulkner.”  His mother’s name was actually “Annaretta Faulkner.”]

The James Oxley family is found in the 1850 Haywood Co., TN Federal Census, District No. 12, pp. 40B–41, Household 525, as follows: James Oxley 51 b. NC, Ann Oxley 38 b. NC, Wm. Oxley 12 b. TN, John Oxley 10 b. TN, Clay Oxley 8 b. TN, Cintha Oxley 6 b. TN, Nancy Oxley 5 b. TN, Aquilla Oxley 3 b. TN, Milton Oxley 1 b. TN (The first son William was evidently named after Annaretta’s father William Faulkner, and the second son John probably named after James’ father John Oxley.)

Below: this article from a Clay Co., AR newspaper gives some general information regarding the Oxley family.  (Click on image to enlarge.)

What is known of the origins of John Franklin Riddle and Joellan Beckwith, the parents of Mariah Caroline (Riddle) Oxley?

Joellan Beckwith was the daughter of Joseph and Eliza Jane (Creath) Beckwith, who married on 20 Jan 1823 in Granville Co., NC.  Joseph Beckwith was born in CT, and thus presumably a descendant of Mathew Beckwith, of Lyme, CT.  Joseph Beckwith d. in 1847 in Stoddard Co., MO.

Mathew Beckwith was deceased by 6 Jun 1682, when his inventory was filed. He’s said to have died falling from a cliff.  He had four sons: Mathew, Joseph, Nathaniel, and John, and three daughters.

Three royal lines have been claimed for our Beckwith family, all of them false:

Beckwith, Paul.  (1891).  The Beckwiths.  Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s Sons.  (Book is available as a free download from Internet Archive and Google Books.)

I.  On pp. 17, 18, 27, 28, 73, 74, Paul Beckwith discusses Mathew Beckwith.  The Beckwiths is notorious in the genealogical community.  Paul Beckwith was one of the most practiced pedigree peddlers of his era.  To correct the incredible number of errors would require a book of its own. 

On p. 17 Paul Beckwith says:  “We must now return to Marmaduke Beckwith of Clint and Dacre, and find mention of Mathew Beckwith, who is possibly the Mathew Beckwith who is first recorded at Saybrook Point, Conn., in 1635, and the ancestor of by far the largest, numerically, of the American Beckwiths and whose descendants are to be found in every State of the Union, Canada and the Sandwich Islands.”  But on p. 27, the author claims without caveat that this Mathew Beckwith was the son of Marmaduke Beckwith and his wife Anne Dynly.  And p. 73 states Mathew Beckwith was born ca. 1610 in Ponteferact, Yorkshire, England.

Between 1899 and 1907, Albert C. Beckwith (later joined by Edward S. Beckwith) of Elkhorn, WI, published 6 Volumes of Beckwith Notes which cover the descendants of Mathew Beckwith.  The authors were highly critical of Paul Beckwith and corrected many errors in The Beckwiths, among them refuting the claim on chronological grounds that Marmaduke Beckwith and Anne Dynly were Mathew’s parents, as Anne Dynly would have been about 81 years old when Mathew was born (see No. One, pp. 6–7).

There appears to be confusion over the identity of this Marmaduke Beckwith.  The English Baronetage, Vol. III Part II (1741), p. 680, gives a different account, but shows the couple without a son Mathew (who according to most authors was b. ca. 1610):

II.  It’s also alleged that Mathew Beckwith’s wife was “Elizabeth Lynde” (sometimes called “Mary Lynde”), daughter of Enoch Lynde and wife Elizabeth Digby.  Douglas Richardson’s Plantagenet Ancestry (2004) p. 483 lists 5 sons and no daughters for Enoch Lynde and Elizabeth Digby.  Richardson’s Royal Ancestry (2013), Vol. III, p. 682 repeats the same information.  Since the line fails at “Elizabeth Lynde,” it’s unnecessary to examine the rest of the pedigree. 

Where did the tale of “Elizabeth Lynde” originate?  On p. 73 of The Beckwiths, Paul Beckwith states Mathew Beckwith “was left a legacy by Capt. Lyrado….”  In Beckwith Notes No. One, p. 9, the authors remark: “If Capt. ‘Lyrado’ (perhaps somebody’s misreading of ‘Lynde’) left to Matthew a legacy of mentionable value the legatee was very likely the testator’s son-in-law.  The earliest Lyndes were first of Boston and later of Saybrook.  Until proof or fair presumption of such a legacy can be shown the Beckwiths need not care how the Lyndes were descended from ancient kings and mediaeval nobles.”

We have already seen that the purported parents of “Elizabeth Lynde” (or “Mary Lynde”) had no such daughter.  From whom, if anyone, this supposed legacy was received has not been demonstrated.  The only reason “Lynde” had been suggested was familiarity with the name.  Clearly someone read Beckwith Notes No. One and decided to go forward with the tale without any documentation.  The motive was linkage to a known medieval pedigree.

So there’s no proof for any of it.  Nobody knows from whence Mathew Beckwith came, although it’s a safe assumption he emigrated to Connecticut from somewhere in England.  There’s no evidence he was born in Yorkshire as Paul Beckwith claimed.  The identity of his wife is unknown.  Mathew Beckwith is far more likely to have been the son of a tradesman than the scion of an illustrious house.

III.  John Beckwith’s son John m. Prudence Mainwaring, daughter of Oliver Mainwaring. The Mainwaring family has a valid royal line from King Edward I of England. Seth Beckwith, a Revolutionary War soldier and resident of Montville, CT, was a descendant of John and Prudence.  Seth Beckwith had a son Joseph who was b. 25 Jan 1785, but that Joseph d. 1820 in Montville.  Joseph and his brother Russell served in the War of 1812.  Joseph Beckwith of Stoddard Co., MO was just a contemporary of Seth Beckwith’s son Joseph.

[Beckwith, Albert C. & Edward S.  (1907).  Beckwith Notes Number Six.  Elkhorn, WI: The Authors. p. 41]

There are 3 main stemma of Beckwiths in the United States: descendants of Mathew Beckwith (CT); of George Beckwith (MD); and of Sir Marmaduke Beckwith (VA).  I have not seen evidence proving any of the 3 are actually biologically related.

The Beckwith stemma varied significantly in social class: Mathew Beckwith a yeoman; George Beckwith an indentured servant; and Sir Marmaduke Beckwith a baronet of distinguished ancestry.

[Record of creation of Beckwith baronetcy from Complete Baronetage by G.E.C., Vol. IV (1904).]

I received this from Beckwith expert Hubert S. Beckwith:

Families often left their home state in search of land to support their families.  They might stop somewhere for a few years before continuing on, and along the way, family members could die.  Finding the parents of Joseph Beckwith of Stoddard Co., MO could be difficult.

To illustrate the scope of the problem, by the 1800 Federal census there were 130 Beckwith households in the USA, with 111 of those reasonably attributable to descendants of Mathew Beckwith the immigrant.  78 of those households are found in CT alone, and a further 23 in NY, which was a popular migration point.  Some descendants of Mathew Beckwith are found in the 1800 NC census as well, although I haven’t been able to connect any of those NC Beckwiths to our Joseph Beckwith.  And those are just households listed under the name “Beckwith;” there were undoubtedly more Beckwiths in households enumerated under a different name, as in the case of Beckwith widows who remarried.  Her Beckwith children will be merely numbers in the household of her new husband.

Can we say anything about the birth date of Joseph Beckwith? There are only two extant census records for Joseph Beckwith, both in MO: in 1830 he’s listed in Cape Girardeau Co. (p. 454) as 30-40, and in 1840 in Stoddard Co. (p. 4) he’s 50-60. This gives a range of birth years of 1780-1800. A discrepancy like this can mean he was born in a census year. That would place his year of birth as ca. 1790.

The early probate records in Stoddard Co. are lost, but I located in the Stoddard Co. court record books sufficient proof of Joseph Beckwith’s heirs.  Joseph Beckwith was deceased by 5 Oct 1847 when his administrator, David Huddleston, was ordered to cover the estate’s debts.  By 3 Jul 1849, Joseph’s widow Eliza had become administratrix.  The court records listed the following heirs of Joseph Beckwith:  Franklin Beckwith a minor, Joanna (Joellan) Beckwith a minor, Amanda Beckwith a minor, and Laura M. Beckwith a minor.  Brumfield Beckwith wasn’t listed because he wasn’t a minor at the time.  Eliza posted a $400.00 bond. 

Three of Joseph Beckwith’s children had issue: Brumfield, Joellan, and Laura.  Franklin Beckwith d. childless on 18 Mar 1873.  An affidavit filed 31 Mar 1873 listed his heirs as Bromfield Beckwith, Joella Riddle, Lorah McWherter, Amanda Cosby, and Elizabeth Beckwith (Franklin’s wife; her first name was Mary):

On 18 Nov 1878, in Dunklin Co., MO, John Franklin Riddle, husband of Joellan (Beckwith) Riddle, was granted guardianship of “Amanda Crosby (insane).”  Amanda had married W.L. Cosby, a miller.  In the 1860 Federal census the couple was residing in New Madrid Co., MO, with three children:  Mary J., James, and Sarah M. Cosby.  It’s not clear if any of the children were Amanda’s.

Joellan (Beckwith) Riddle and Laura M. (Beckwith) McWherter have descendants.

Brumfield Beckwith, died 10 Jan 1877, has descendants in the male line.  I salvaged 14 pages from his probate file, which was in a deteriorated condition, and may have disintegrated by now.  On 5 Feb 1877, in Dunklin Co., administration of Brumfield Beckwith’s estate was granted to Jacob R. Beckwith and Nathaniel Payne.  Brumfield’s heirs were listed as Harriet A. Thompson, Jacob R. (Russell) Beckwith, and M.F. (Moses Franklin) Beckwith.

If we are to learn anything further of the origins of Joseph Beckwith, it will probably come from descendants of Brumfield Beckwith, of whom I compiled the following:

Above: detail from 1822 Islands Creek District, Granville Co., NC Tax List.  The sixth entry from the top reads “Beckwith, James,” followed by “Creath, John Sr.”  In my opinion the “Beckwith, James” entry is an error, and should have been “Beckwith, Joseph.”  I have never found a James Beckwith that had a demonstrable connection to Joseph Beckwith.  Errors do occur in official documents.  Why was Joseph Beckwith in Granville Co., NC?  Granville Co. is in central NC on the VA border, across from Mecklenburg Co., VA, where John Creath Sr. had relatives.  Click on image to enlarge.

A deed, made in Cape Girardeau Co., MO 11 Aug 1831, recorded 14 Sep 1831, from Joseph Beckwith and Eliza his wife, witnessed by Oliver Creath and Sarah M. Creath, to Franklin Cannon, for two lots in the town of Jackson, MO, might contain a clue to the ancestry of Joseph Beckwith.  Joseph and Eliza J. (Creath) Beckwith had a son named Franklin.  “Franklin” as a given name isn’t completely unknown during this period, but “Francis” is more common.  Onomastic evidence is sometimes very helpful , but it can be misleading.  Then as now, couples could use a name they liked, whether or not it belonged to a relative.  Joellan Beckwith married John Franklin Riddle, and there’s no known “Franklin” in his pedigree—“Franklin” may have been derived from a county in VA where his mother’s family, the Hales, had once resided.  Nonetheless, it’s a striking coincidence that Joseph and Eliza sold land to Franklin Cannon, and named a son Franklin.  “Cannon” isn’t a surname that shows up in the ancestry of Eliza J. (Creath) Beckwith.  It appears that Franklin Beckwith was named for Franklin Cannon.

There’s evidence that Joseph Beckwith wasn’t a good businessman: in 1831 he was sued in the Cape Girardeau Circuit Court by William Ranney and John Ranney over a debt of $67.00.  His wife Eliza Jane (Creath) Beckwith was involved in extensive litigation surrounding her husband’s estate that eventually wound up at the Missouri Supreme Court in 1853.

Eliza Jane Creath, b. ca. 1801, was the daughter of Samuel Creath (ca. 1773–1813) and wife Nancy Ragland, m. 14 Feb 1795 (Samuel Creath’s brother John Creath m. on 1 Jan 1794 Mary Irby).  Samuel Creath’s will dated 31 Aug 1812 in Warren Co., NC, probated Feb. Court 1813, leaves entire estate to wife Nancy for her lifetime, with reversion to his children. Nancy (Ragland) Creath was the daughter of William Ragland (DAR no. A0933397), whose will made 23 Oct 1823, probated Feb Court 1825 in Granville Co., NC, mentions his daughter Nancy Creath.  William Ragland’s ancestry is traced back several generations in the colonies, but connection to any family in England and Wales is unproved.

Joseph and Eliza Jane (Creath) Beckwith and Eliza’s relatives moved from Granville Co., NC to Cape Girardeau Co., MO.  John Creath on 24 Jan 1837 received 43.46 acres (Certificate No. 3302) and on 25 Jun 1841 received 40 acres (Certificate No. 6076). Nathaniel and William Creath on 6 Nov 1823 received 122.74 acres (Certificate No. 338). Harriet Creath on 17 Feb 1847 received 40 acres (Certificate No. 8091).  [Harriet (Webb) Creath was the wife of John Creath.]

John Creath also had a son named Franklin b. ca. 1838.  Franklin Beckwith was b. ca. 1829, so he wasn’t named for Franklin Creath.

The probate papers of Nathaniel Creath, who owned a saddlery shop in Jackson, MO, dated 23 Mar 1823, list his heirs as William Creath and Albert G. Creath (m. Elizabeth Juden) of Cape Girardeau Co., MO and Nancy and Jane Creath of Granville Co., NC. “Jane Creath” is Eliza Jane (Creath) Beckwith.  At the time Nathaniel Creath’s estate was probated, William Creath, his administrator, didn’t know that Eliza Jane Creath had m. Joseph Beckwith 2 months earlier in Granville Co., NC.  Nancy Creath is Nathaniel Creath’s mother, Nancy (Ragland) Creath, who was living when his estate was probated. As noted above, Nathaniel Creath and William Creath filed a land grant on 6 Nov 1823, but at that point Nathaniel Creath had been deceased for more than 7 months.

William Creath and Minor W. Whitney in Nov 1820 founded newspaper “Independent Patriot” at Jackson, MO.  William Creath was sheriff of Cape Girardeau Co., MO from 1822–1828.  Later he’s found in Wayne Co., MO where on 30 Dec 1835 he received 40 acres (Certificate No. 1601), on 17 Jan 1837 received 16.5 acres (Certificate No. 1822), and on 1 Aug 1842 24.4 acres (Certificate No. 2782).  William Creath, d. 1839, m. Martha Atkins, d. 1871.  They were the parents of 10 children.  In 1828 William Creath settled in Greenville, Wayne Co., and was a merchant.

An appeal to the Supreme Court of MO filed in 1853 in Wayne Co., MO, regarding the settlement of William Creath’s estate, lists the surviving heirs as: Albert Creath, George Creath, Joseph White, Samuel Creath, Martha Past, Sophia White, and John Past.

A Dunklin Co., MO resident with a connection to the Creath family of Granville Co., NC was Erby (Irby) Beckwith Creath (11 Sep 1855–18 Feb 1937), son of Oliver Creath.  On 26 Oct 1876 he married Susan Emily Elder, and is buried at Elder Cemetery at Campbell.  I believe this individual to be a descendant of Samuel Creath’s brother John Creath, and thus a relative of Eliza J. (Creath) Beckwith.

Deloris Williams, a family historian working with records of Granville and Warren Cos., NC cleared up a family mystery:  a close friend of the Samuel Creath family was Bromfield Ridley (ca. 1742–1796), who was also called “Broomfield.” Bromfield Ridley was the son of James and Mary (Bromfield) Ridley.  Brumfield (or “Broomfiled”)  Beckwith was evidently named after Bromfield Ridley.

I compiled these notes on the Creath family:

(The above notes refer to Samuel Creath and Peter Oliver as being “insane.”  At the time, the elderly who suffered from senile dementia were termed “insane.”  I’ve seen this before.  Having the elderly adjudged “insane” allowed the family to take control of their affairs.)

The following item corroborates the above notes:

___________________________________________

John Franklin Riddle was the son of George Riddle (or Ruddle), born ca. 1790 in VA, died ca. 1859 at Crowley’s Ridge in Stoddard Co., MO, and his wife Sarah Hale (liv. 1860).  George Riddle married Sarah Hale on 8 Nov 1818 in Floyd Co., KY.  The origin of George Riddle is unknown, but he named one of his sons Bird Riddle.

I urge readers to exercise care when researching the Riddle or Ruddle family—you’ll encounter contradictory statements.  The first assumption made in the literature is that John Ruddell Sr. and wife Mary Cook are the progenitors of the Ruddle family of VA.  There is no definite proof that any Riddle or Ruddle male married a Bird.  However, the following from John Ruddell of the Shenandoah Valley: His Children and Grandchildren by Harold Turk Smutz (June 1974) seems relevant to our Riddle family:



This post first appeared on Acme Nuklear Blimp & Robotics, please read the originial post: here

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The Ancestry of Allie May (OXLEY) Chipman: 3 False Beckwith Royal Lines / Beckwith and Creath of Cape Girardeau Co., MO / Riddle of Stoddard Co., MO / Oxley and Faulkner of Lenoir Co., NC

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