Churchill Hooper's 1807

Churchill Hooper briefly served in South Carolina troops during the American Revolution, but apparently lived across the Savannah River in Georgia. His land, and that of his brother Thomas, lay just south of the Broad River, straddling what is now the Wilkes and Lincoln County line. Although the age of Churchwell is unclear, his oldest surviving daughter Elizabeth (Hooper) Joslin claimed to be 66 when she was enumerated in 1850.
THe identity of Hooper's wife, and whether he had more than one wife, remains undetermined. His widow in 1808 was Mrs. Mary Hooper. Earlier, when he sold some of his Georgia land in 1787, his wife's name was given as Mary Hooper. When he sold again on 4 April 1796, "Churchwell Hooper & Mary, his wife," sold their remaining land to William Ford, "all of Wilkes County," Georgia.
That same year, 1796, Churchill Hooper purchased land in Davidson County, Tennessee. The document herein reproduced is the actual loose will of Churchill Hooper. The Davidson County Court made a another copy of this will (Davidson County Will Book #4, page 17) as part of the record of its October 1808 term. Church Hooper had been alive as late as March 1808, for on that date he sold a slave to Gabriel Joslin (Davidson County Deed Book #3, p 204).
The court copy and the loose will have slight differences in capitalization and punctuation, with the loose will being closer in style to modern usage. There were two inconsequential differences in wording. The court copy and other associated documents varied in spellings of the given name, using Curchell, Churchell, Churchill, and Churchwell. In contrast, the loose will itself used only Churchill. Still, an endorsement on the back side of the will (written when the will was submitted to the county court) was in a different handwriting and spelled the decedent's name as Churchwell Hooper.
The handwriting for the will itself appears to match that of the signature of witness A. Walke. The transcription (at the bottom of this web page) attempts to match the capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and line breaks in the original loose will. I have used square brackets to indicate words supplied from the Will Book copy - the missing words were on parts of the loose will where the edge had curled back from, or broken off, the sheet of paper.

The last will & testament of Churchill Hooper of Davidson County State of Tennessee dated 17th day of November 1807 In the name of the great & merciful God of Heaven I Churchill Hooper calling to mind the uncertainty of [life] & finding myself in a very low state of health do in duty & [for] the satisfaction of myself & my family do make this my last will as follows, to wit, - In the first place - I Give & bequeath to my son Thomas Hooper & to m[y] daughter Elizabeth Joslin - the two little negroes now over at Thomas Hickman's named Lewis & Lamb & my son Thomas Hooper is to have his choice of the Two, - In the second place, it is my will that One hundred dollars is to be paid unto my daughter Tiddy Dauge out of the money due me from Tho[mas] Hickman when it becomes due - In the third place, It is my will that One hundred dollars is to be paid unto my daughter Jerushia Hooper out of the money owing to me from Thomas Hickman, this money to be lodged in the hands of my brother Thomas Hooper for her, fourthly and lastly, It is my will that all the rest of the proper[ty] that I shall leave, is to be equally divided between my wife & the rest of the Children not mentioned above, - I do hereby constitute and appoint my brother Thomas Hooper my only and sole executor to see that this my will is carried into full Execution - As witness my hand & Seal this 17th day of November 1807 - In the presence of the great God of Heaven - & in the presence of the undersigned witnesses his Signed Sealed & acknowledged Churchill C Hooper in presence of - mark A. Walke his Benja P Pack mark

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

modified 21 October 2004