Early Davidson County Tennessee Marriage Bonds and Licenses

Have you, like me, read for years that "all the earliest Davidson County, Tennessee marriage bonds and/or licenses were destroyed" and lamented that loss? Then you should know that the claim is false. For example, if you go to www.genealogy.com to search their Tennessee Marriages database, you'll find a statement that the records were destroyed by fire and that only the marriage register survives.
However, I recently learned that many such bonds and a few licenses actually do exist. They are held in Nashville by the Metro Archives and have been microfilmed. Because these two-centuries-old papers have suffered from folds, tears, stains, and insect damage, some are quite difficult to decipher.
What makes the originals so valuable is their inclusion of other names, besides those of the bride and groom. These tiny little details can be huge clues. And in most cases, the signatures are the ACTUAL signatures of the bondsmen.
I will be adding to the example below whenever I can find a few moments to transcribe and scan my photocopies. It may take me a year or more to complete.
To help this file load more quickly, the only scans actually included in the page will be those for Sinah Hooper. When I add transcriptions for other bonds, I'll include a hyperlink to the scan of the document. Better copies of these documents will appear in Volumes 4 and 5 of the Hooper Compass.

Alston/Hooper 1795 Bond

Territory of the united States of America South of the River Ohio
Davidson County ss
We Eneas Hooper & George Havard Acknowledge ourselves our heirs &^tc Jointly & Severally firmly bound unto his Excellency the Governor of the said Territory for the time being in the sum of five hundred poounds warrant money & To be paid to his Said Excellency his Successors in office or Assigns Conditioned to be Void If there shall not thereafter Appear any Lawfull cause Why John Alston and Sinah Hooper Should not be Joined together in holy Matrimony, Witness our hands and seals this   3     day of     June     1795.

Ennis Hooper   seal

Andrew Ewing

George Havard   seal

Alston/Hooper 1795 License

United States of America .............Davidson county ss
To any Regular Minister of the Gospel having the care of Souls .. Or Justice of the peace
These are to Authorize and Impower you or Either of you, to Solemnize the Rites of Matrimony Between John Alston     & Sinah Hooper [blotted, may say "of Davidson"] county Agreeable to the Directions of an Act of the Assembly of North Carolina in Such cases [blot] and provided
Given at the clerks office in said county the     3     day of   June     1795

Andrew Ewing

Hooper/Foster 1809

[abstract] John Hooper & Charles Stewart of the county of Davidson and state of Tennessee ... bound ... in the sum of 1250 dollars ... this 5th day of July 1809. The condition of the above obligation is such, that whereas John Hooper hath prayed and obtained a license to marry Polly Foster. ... [signed] John Hooper, Charles Stewart

This later license was from a different source - it was mailed to the War Department in 1891 as part of the evidence pertaining to pension benefits for the survivors of former federal soldier Claiborne C. Hooper. Notice that the license is in actuality a certified copy, based on records then [1891] existing in the Davidson County Clerk's Office.

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This page is © 2003, 2004 by a c goodwin. Comments or corrections are much appreciated. (The volume of email prohibits personal replies for all but a small number of messages received.)

updated 20 October 2004.