BENJSNED A COMMENTARY on Benjamin SNEED by Richard "Dick" Baldauf NOV 1996 [The first part of this is a continuation of EXPLOSND.asc; Dick's separate update on Benjamin (c1721-1819) follows. As in other things, Dick gets credit for everything but typing errors. LSS] Benjamin SNEED, presumably the eldest son of William of Hanover, was born in Albermarle County in 1721, as he was 29 years of age in 1750. (Court House Records) He probably became a "teacher of the English language" at age 24, and followed that profession for 71 years, at which time he removed to the home of his son John in Danville, KY, where he died three years later at age 98. He was employed as a tutor by Charles Lewis, Jr. and taught the younger Jefferson children in the school on Buck Island. (_Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy_ by Boynton Merrill, Jr.) He was also reported to have been a teacher of Thomas Jefferson. (_Kentucky Reporter_) At the Albemarle Historical Society are notes collected by William B. Sneed indicating that "Fancy Hill," property bought from Peter Jefferson, was built by Benjamin with the help of his brother Alexander. He died in 1819 (See obituary in Sneed Notes from the _Kentucky Reporter_ of Lexington.) The wife of Benjamin and the mother of John is traditionally con sidered to be Mary Ann (Polly) PERRY. However, all the known evidence militates against this. The Trader chart shows "Benjamin 1721 m. Jemina (DB 9, p124, Eliz HARRIS, Benj. & Jemina 1785)" Another pedigree reads "Executed a deed to his wife Ergimallin (unreadable) 1785." Someone apparently pulled this file but failed to retain a copy. However, as the record stands, there was a previous wife who was alive in 1785. We have no record of the marriage of Benjamin to Mary Ann, or Polly PERRY, as she was also called. Nevertheless, the Trader data show an "Ex Deed 1801 to wf. Mary Ann (Polly Perrry) & dau. Susannah FARIS & son John & wf. Sarah JOHNSON." Frances Sneed reports this item from a volume of _Virkus_: "Benjamin Sneed m. 2nd Mrs. Mary Ann AYRES." And then there is this data from Fawn Brodie's biography, _Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History_. She writes, "Polly Sneed may have been the wife of the schoolteacher 'Mr. Sneed,' mentioned by Martha Randolph in her letter to her father May 12, 1798." Ms. Brodie's entrees on Polly Sneed run from Sept. 1792 to May 1802. If this Polly Sneed was the wife of Benjamin, his first wife had to have died between 1785 and 1792. The identity of this Polly Sneed is hard to determine, since Ben jamin would have been 80 years old in 1801, when the deed was drawn. Polly, also described as a tutor, was still keeping ac counts on Sally Hemings and her family in 1802. She must have been considerably younger than Benjamin. She would fit the role of daughter much better than wife. Clearly, much more investiga- tion is required before we can know who the mother of John might be. The family of Benjamin Sneed is small for the times: one son and three daughters, none bearing the name of Jemina, Mary Ann, or Polly. 1. _John_ (1755-1855) m. Sarah JOHNSON, dau James & Mildred MIMS 2. _Peggy_ m. Richard JOHNSON. Deed 1798, gift from Benjamin Sneed to dau's husband. 3. _Susannah_ m. George FARIS. Deed 1801, Charlottesvillle, VA 4. _Frances_ m. David GARTH. See _Douglas Register_ for children. Of John Sneed much is known; of the three daughters and their hus- bands virtually nothing in known. David Garth and Frances Sneed appear to have had two children in Goochland. Nothing found at this point suggests that there is any relationship between the families of Sarah Johnson and Richard Johnson. The record of Benjamin's children shown above appears in at least three pedigrees showing his descendants. No mention is made of any other children. It may therefore come as a surprise to real ize that William Sneed of Louisa Co., VA, b. 1768-d.NOV 25, 1836 was also a son of Benjamin. He married Lucy STEVENS in 1794 and had ten children. And there is this notation: "Others, but not known." In a letter to Richard Baldauf dated 25 SEP 1995, Ben Sneed writes, "The first child, as far as I can tell, was John Sneed b. 1755-d.1856 .... His brother William b.1758 was my forefather." In William's pedigree sheet brother John (b.1755) and sisters Peggy, Frances and Susannah are named, but their descendants are not given. Thus we know that Benjamin definitely had five children and perhaps more. John SNEED, son of Benjamin, was born at Fancy Hill, Albemarle Co., on Feb. 2, 1755 and died Dec. 21, 1855 in Danville, KY. He married in Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle Co. on Nov. 10, 1782 Sarah JOHNSON, dau of James & Mildred (MIMS) Johnson, originally of Goochland, but said to be of Albemarle Co., Fredericksville Parish in the reference. ("Certain Central VA Marriage, Church, and Cemetery Records, Albemarle Co. et. al" by the Genealogical Records Committee.) If accepted literally, this means that the Johnsons were probably living in Albemarle Co. at this later date. According to the Danville _Tribune_, John Sneed "was for some years the Secretary to Thomas Jefferson, then volunteered in an expedition against the Cherokee Indians, and after that became a soldier in the Revolutionary struggle, in which service he con tinued until the close of the war." (See "Death of a Revolution ary Veteran!" in the January 1856 _Tribune_.) In a letter written on 21 SEP 1930 Frank M. Sneed paraphrases material found in the pension files. He says "Most of the declara- tions and affidavits are in his own handwriting, which is remarkably good, but disclose very little family history. They do, however, illuminate the old man's character." It is in this document that John states that "we have raised a family of ten children." Admitting that their records are incomplete, the War Department makes no mention of John Sneed's second enlistment un der Gen. Greene, nor do their dates correspond with those in his affidavits, which were accepted by the Pension Bureau as correct." Although there is more of interest to be related about this cen tenarian, our purpose is to focus on the reliability of the SNEED pedigree. We shall therefore proceed to the identification of the children of John & Sally Sneed. Originally in 1930, six people were named as children of John & Sally: _Alexander, Matilda, Mar tha, John H., Cynthia Mims, and Mary M._ By 1939 the list had grown to nine: _Alexander, Matilda, Martha, John H., Cynthia Mims, Mary M., Sarah, Benjamin and Clayburn._ Presumably a later version, undated, shows a listing of eight names, with those _Benjamin and Clayburn_ being omitted. Since this last list shows some dates and the names of all the spouses, we believe that these eight children are those of John & Sarah JOHNSON. Con- ceivably the other two did not live to maturity. Children of John & Sarah (Johnson) Sneed [I will shorten this to just dates and spouses. LSS] 1. _Alexander_ b. 1786 m. Elizabeth CAMPBELL, dau Col. Robert 2. _Matilda_ m. Thomas HUGHES 3. _Martha_ b. 8 MAR 1785 d. 14 OCT 1847 KY m. Michael HOPE 1802 4. _John H._ b. 4 MAY 1792 d. 4 JUN 1876 m. Elizabeth FINLEY 5. _Cynthia Mims_ b. 10 JAN 1784 Goochland Co. VA m. 29 NOV 1820 John WILSON of Illinois 6. _Polly_ m. 11 DEC 1822 Thomas HARRISON 7. _Jane_ m. William HUGHES 8. _Sarah_ m. 5 JAN 1813 John B. BROWN It must be noted here that Polly was the recorded name of the dau. referred to as Mary M. It would appear that Mary peferred her formal name to her informal. At first blush the name Polly would seem to go back to Polly Perry, but the Mary M. could well stand for MIMS. Conspicous by its absence is the name _Benjamin_, which appeared on the second list of names. Sarah also had a brother named Benjamin. In this attempt to explore all possibilites, the facts did not always come forth in the right order. Thus there may be an oc casional contradiction. This should not, however, interfere with the final conclusion. [Now to Dick's update on the father, Benjamin. LSS] According to the SNEED family records, Benjamin Sneed of Al bemarle Co. was born in 1721 and died in 1819. The date of his death is confirmed by his obituary in the _Kentucky Reporter_ (14 APR 1819), which states that he died "six or seven days subse quent to the middle of his ninety-eighth year." Thus the date of his birth seems well confirmed. This Benjamin is not to be con fused with another Benjamin SNEAD who was born in 1735. Tradition has always been that this Benjamin, born in 1721, was the eldest son of a William SNEED of Hanover living prior to 1755. The children of this William are sometimes shown as fol lows: Benjamin b.1735, Alexander b. 1736, Zacharia b. 1737, Charles d. 1781, William b. 1739 and Robert b. 1740. Since the vital records were destroyed, there is no documentation of these dates and relationships. They were simply passed down from generation to generation by those living on the same land. The only son whose birth is validated is Benjamin, whom we have said was born in 1721, and who signed a property deed in 1750 which he could hardly have been able to do (if born 1735) at age 15. As William B. (Ben) Sneed writes in a letter dated 18 SEP 1995, "It is believed, based on names, number of people living in New Kent County, VA at the time, that the father of the above was named William." It is also presumed that a William, born to a John Sneed of New Kent County in 1690, and living in Hanover County in the 1740's, was the same person. But once again there is a problem of dates. Ben Sneed, in a let ter dated 26 JUN 1991, writes, "James Sneed, then 98, filled me in on the details relative to when Fancy Hill was built and by whom." In his SEP 1995 letter Ben Sneed continues, "According to James Sneed, whom I met in Brentwood, TN in 1973, ... Alexandria [Alexander] Sneed came to Albemarle to help Ben build 'Fancy Hall', which was completed in 1750." An Alexander born in 1736 is unlikely to have been helping in the building of a Fancy Hall completed in 1750. This knowledge does, however, support the exis- tence of a brother named Alexander. And since James was a descen dant of Zacharia, it seems highly probable that Zacharia was another brother, despite the 1737 date of birth shown in the data published by _The Sneeds of Johnson County, Tennessee_. Further study may provide evidence that Charles, William and Robert were also brothers, as that belief goes back for many generations. If we can tentatively accept these SNEED relationships, however, what are we going to do about John Snead? Mrs. Hatcher writes in _The Sneads of Fluvanna_, "The death of William probably occurred after 1755, as in that year he is listed for the last time as the landowner of his parish. In the next processioning his place in the precinct is taken by a John Snead, who was presumably his son." She mentions only one other brother for John, a younger William, living in Henrico in 1752 but returning to Hanover before his father's death. If John Snead was the heir of William b.1690, why is he not even mentioned in the records of Benjamin's family? Or to ask the op- posite question: Why aren't the six brothers mentioned in Mrs. Hatcher's version? To me, this is a very bothersome question. Mrs. Hatcher, it appears, has the advantage by knowing that her John replaced William b. 1690 after the year 1755 in the proces sioning records. Could it be that there was another William? Or unbelievable as it seems after all these years, could Benjamin Sneed be, as Susan Tillman suggets, the son of John, grandson of Thomas, g-grandson of Henry, g-g-grandson of Samuel? In such a pedigree we would find Benjamin having an uncle named Alexander and a cousin Jacob to match the one so often associated with Benjamin's group. [I'll attempt to describe two linear charts provided by Dick. The first is a ?revision of the Trader chart described in explosnd.asc. This Thomas being "of New Kent" and son of William b.1630 on that chart. LSS] Thomas Snead/Sneed had children: Rebecca, John, Jacob, Alexander et al. Son _Alexander had sons: Matthew, Jacob and Christopher. Son _John_ had sons Benjamin and Alexander. Under _Benjamin_ Dick penciled in son John and grandson Alexander. [The following chart is that for children of Benjamin SNEED: John b. 1755, Susannah b. 1776, Peggy, Francis, William b. 1768 and ?Lydia. John b. 1755 m. 1782 Sarah JOHNSON; they had Martha, Alexander, Matilda, John H., Cynthia Mims, Mary (Polly), Jane and Sarah. Susannah b. 1776 m. George FARIS 1795; they had Minor J., Calvin, Amelia Emily, Grenville, Matilda Peggy m. Richard JOHNSON 21 OCT 1785. Frances m. 1781 David GARTH; they had William b.1782, John b. 1784 and Fanny William b. 1768 m. 1794 Lucy STEVENS; they had Benjamin, Stapleton, Evan, William, Henry, Mary and Elizabeth.