This is not a proven relative. Wettenhall Warner might be my 5th great grandfather but he is on the other side of the 4th great grandparents that I am having trouble proving. He was the husband of Elizabeth Sarah Cargill, one of the relatives on the way back to the Mayflower.
Wettenhall has a stellar history. He was an Irish immigrant. Although there is no military history, he was the Justice of the Peace in Orangeburgh, South Carolina during the Revolutionary War. And there's a tasty tidbit about him possibly related to Pocahontas. This is how family rumors are started but this can never be proved. My cousin has a much more interesting family that I have and I would love to tell her that I am related to Pocahontas. I need a feather in my cap (pun intended).
His father-in-law left him land in his will and it appears the family was well-to-do. They were also deeply religious and were the founding members of the oldest Baptist Church in South Carolina.
Changing direction!
While I wait for Mayflower confirmation, I am going to start looking at my Ancestry DNA results. My 1st and 2nd cousins are a no brainer. We speak frequently and share the same passion for genealogy but the list shows five 3rd cousins and the relationship to them.
Abitapumpkin comes up as a 3rd cousin match and Tdsimmons1950 comes up as a 4th cousin with William F. "Billy" Morris as our shared ancestor. However, it seems I have more information then they do.
Billy Morris was my 4th great grandfather. He was the husband of Charlotte "Lottie" Warner.
We actually have some documentation on Billy Morris. This is an excerpt from the book Kinsmen All: Descendants of Wettenhall Warner and Related Families. Pg 409.
"Billy Morris, of Methodist faith, served as a Deputy Sheriff in St. Tammany Parish in 1811 & 1812. He lived in and ran a water mill on the Bogue Chitto on the Louisiana/Mississippi State Line. He and his sons were cattlemen. Billy fought in the Battle of New Orleans along with his son, Whit, in the 12th-13th Consolidate LA militia, under the command of the brother-in-law, Thomas C. Warner. Served from Dec 1814 - March 1815, under the command of Capt. Thomas Bickham and Major John Wright. Also fighting in this Regiment were Willis Brumfield, Edwin Fussell (brother of two of his sons-in-law) and Stephen Richardson (his son-in-law). His son, Chess, served in the Civil War.
Billy's daughter, Betsy and her 2nd husband, Tom Brassfield, lived and operated a mill on Lee's Creek (sometimes called Brassfield Creek). Betsy Creek in Washington Parish is named after Betsy and is on the old homestead of her father-in-law, Hardy Richardson."
We also know he was a confederate soldier in the 12th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry in the Civil War. He enlisted as a Private and mustered our as a Corporal.
Elizabeth Sarah is my 5th great grandmother. At this point, I am related to a lot more people. There are over 300 connections for her on Ancestry.com.
John Cargill and Rachel Tinsley had 10 children. John was very fair in dividing up his property. He made sure that his "beloved Rachel" got what she needed to survive without him but for some reason it appears that he and Rachel died on the same day. I can't find any information that says differently but I suspect the information may be incorrect.
The other thing I find interesting is that Elizabeth is not mentioned in the will. She was married to Wettenhall Warner and the land went to him. Wettenhall was the Justice of the Peace in the Orangeburgh Distict during the Revolutionary War. There is a side note here, it is mentioned that he may be a possible descendant of Pocahontas. There is no information to back that up so it's one of those legends that gets passed down. It may or may not be even close to the truth.
Wettenhall and Elizabeth were charter members of the oldest Baptist Church in South Carolina. Several of their sons and son-in-laws were ministers.
Elizabeth was born in Lunenburg, Virginia on February 4, 1749. She married Wettenhall at the age of 17 on July 29, 1766.
She passed away on March 17, 1787 at the age of 38. She had given birth to fraternal twin on March 5, 1787 so one has to guess that her death at such a young age was related to the birth of the twins although there is no documentation to support the theory. What a loss for her children.
