$300 one day after date I promise to pay Nancy Edwards three hundred dollars for value received this 15^th 1840                             Benjamin Edwards

Received of Theodore Clarkson and Martha his wife, late Edwards, Catherine Edwards and Sarah Edwards, heirs and devisees of Benjamin M. Edwards, deceased, three hundred dollars in full of a note for that sum heretofore appended, which I held on said B. M. Edwards and on which I have not exacted or charged any interest, the same has not been paid to me in money but by the receipts of said devisees and heirs to me for so much as advanced and paid to them in part of their share of the estate in my hands as widow of their father, Edward B. Edwards, deceased, August 9, 1855.

                                                                  Nancy Edwards

Attest.  J. L. Edwards

This old document was part of my grandmother’s genealogy – some of the best things were handed down and saved!  It concerns money from the estate of Edward Barber Edwards – husband to Nancy, and father to Benjamin, Martha, Catherine and Sarah, heirs mentioned in this note and the will of Edward Barber Edwards.

Edward Barber Edwards and Nancy Linton were pioneers to Washington County, Kentucky, arriving in 1816.  Edward was the son of Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Barber, born in Maryland April 21, 1768.  His family moved to Loudoun County, Virginia, about the time of the Revolution where he met and married Nancy, daughter of Captain John Hancock Linton and Ann Mason.  Nancy was born about 1778.

Five of Edward and Nancy Edwards’ children were born in Loudoun County – Susan Clark in 1797, John L. in 1800, Catherine Kitural in 1805, Jonathan Joseph in 1805, Benjamin Mason in 1809 and Mary Jane in 1814.  The last two daughters were born in Washington County – Martha L. in 1817 and Sarah Barber in 1822.

Edward Edwards died in 1824.  His will was written January 16^th of that year and proved in court March 8^th.  Nancy lived another 37 years, raising the children.  She died July 2, 1861.

Five of their children married, four producing grandchildren for Edward and Nancy.

Susan Clark Edwards married John Compton Taylor November 25, 1828.  They are my 3^rd great-grandparents.  They had four children before her death in 1836 – Catherine Elizabeth Taylor (my 2^nd great-grandmother), Edward Edwards Taylor, Benjamin Springer Taylor and Margaret Ann Taylor.

John L. Edwards married Mildred L. Linton, a cousin, October 13, 1831, in Logan County.  John brought his bride back to his home in Washington County.  They had one daughter, Lucretia Edwards.

Jonathan Joseph Edwards married Nancy Millie Linton (a cousin – must have been confusing since both brothers’ wives went by Millie!) July 20, 1829.  They had seven children – Alfred, Lucretia, John L., Susan, Edward, William and Ben Edwards.  To make things even more confusing Ben married his cousin, Lucretia, better known as Lucy.

Mary Jane Edwards married James Caleb Janes May 29, 1832.  They had no children but helped raise great-nieces and nephews.

Martha L. Edwards married Stephen Theodore Clarkson June 19, 1848.  The couple had five children – Edwin Barber Clarkson, Francis Polin Clarkson, Annie Clarkson, Margaret Mason Clarkson and Sidney Albertus Clarkson.

This photograph was made in 1901 during an Edwards, Linton, Clarkson reunion.  The three older women seated in the middle of the photograph are Mary Jane Edwards Janes (in the high back chair), to her left is her sister Sarah Barber Edwards and to her right is Catherine Elizabeth Taylor Linton, their niece and child of their sister, Susan Clark Edwards Taylor.  Three of Catherine Taylor Linton’s children are in the photo – the man standing directly behind her is son John Edgar Linton and to his right, daughter Alice Clark Linton.  The woman standing at the extreme left of the photo, as you look at it, is youngest daughter Frances Barber Linton Montgomery, my great-grandmother, with husband Robert E. Lee Montgomery, and daughters Alice, my grandmother, the oldest, standing in front of her father, and Margaret, Laura and Lillie.  The woman seated close to the Linton/Montgomery family is Lucy Edwards, a niece of the two Edward sisters and wife of Ben Edwards, and the man standing behind her is Bill Edwards.  Susie Edwards, another niece, is seated behind Sarah Barber Edwards.  The Clarkson family is on the right of the photo as you look at it.