Will You, or Won't You?—Finding the Probate of Mary Towler Bennett

Few things are better for your research than helping someone else with their genealogy conundrums. At least for me, it helps me to reexamine old problems with new eyes. That has certainly been the case with me these days. My husband recently took a commercial DNA test, and our conversations have made me want to revisit some of my Bennett lines in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

In an effort to identify more Bennett cousins on my DNA, I've been reworking all of my Bennett lines and claims. These lines in my tree date back to the early 1800s, so I'm using will and probate records to reconstruct early Bennett families where vital records don't exist. That means revisiting the Virginia Wills and Probate collections on Ancestry.com.

I'm not sure what happened to the Pittsylvania County resources in this collection. But soon after that database launched, these records were no longer available. Trying to search Pittsylvania County records produced error after error. When I contacted Ancestry about the problem, I was told the agreement to share the records was under renegotiation.

That was several years ago, and I'm not sure if they ever figured out their issues. Trying to view or search Pittsylvania County records still produces errors. But where there's a will, there's a way. And I found a way.

If I gave away ALL of my secrets, I wouldn't have any left for myself 😘

I got access to Mary Polly Towler Bennett's will and accounts current files. I can no longer find the collection where I got the will from, and I'm presuming it has been removed. So unfortunately I can't cite the Ancestry image I have. But it's in Will Book 2, pg 197. She made out her will on 3 May 1849, and it was recorded after her death on 21 May 1855.

Her children are listed, and she left each of them "one dollar."

• Sabra Bennett Watson
• Absalom Bennett
• Dinia Headrick
• Jane Tosh
• The children of her deceased son, Henry Towler

The rest of her estate went to her son Crafton Bennett, who was her executor. He's also the same guy from this post.

Today, I found a companion piece of documentation to this will. The accounts current books are not records I have previously used because I didn't know what they were. In a nutshell, they're inventories and entries that track how executors administer the wills and estates of the deceased. Many times, they include inventories of items that were sold as part of the estate, and to whom they were sold. This was the case with Mary's estate. I also can't cite this record because the collection is in limbo right now. But if you view Accounts Current book 21-22, pg 364, you won't be disappointed.

Here we see Crafton Bennett selling off his mother's belongings, presumably to increase the value of the estate and pay off any outstanding debts. Looking through the other pages here, I've seen slaves named as their sale and exchange is recorded. I don't know if every county has Accounts Current records. But Pittsylvania County does, and they'd be a great resource for those seeking to document enslaved relatives.

It's really fascinating to see how few items people owned back then, especially in comparison to today's consumer culture. If I had to write down everything I own, there's no way it would all fit in the space allotted here.

A Bastard's Inheritance: The Suicide of Crafton Bennett

Because yesterday, today, tomorrow, and Monday were, are, and will be exceedingly long days for me, I am not in a happy mood. To give you an idea, this was the face I made as I was sitting in my rush hour traffic today:

Isn't that just lovely? </sarcasm font>

What this means is that I am finally in the mood to sling some mud around, which is why I am going to tell you about my good ol' ancestor, Crafton Bennett. For no other reason than it gives me a legitimate reason to repeatedly use the word bastard.

To begin this story, we need to take a trip over to Google Books.

The older your ancestor is, the more you need to rely on Google Books as a resource--and not just to look for genealogies. Many of the primary sources, especially older legal documentation, is going to be available on Google Books. This was the case for Crafton Bennett.

This book is called Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia and it delineates the trials in which Crafton Bennett was the defendant against his bastard half brother, Henry Toler.

In case you weren't aware, English law from this time period had no sympathy for bastards--a term which specifically means a person who was born out of wedlock, or of an unknown father. One of the ways in which this manifested itself was that bastards could not inherit property. And the fledgling nation of the United States needed to decide whether or not they were going to continue in the same vein.

Essentially, Joseph Toler (grandfather) specifically writes into his will that Henry Toler (bastard) and his descendants are to receive of his estate, along with his daughter's other legitimate children. Crafton Bennett (non-bastard, and my ancestor) tried to nullify this clause in his grandfather's will. 

The courts decided to break with English tradition and do away with the disinheritance of bastards. Crafton Bennett returns to appeal the decision, and the book above reveals the verdict.

 

Crafton Bennett loses his appeal, and it is maintained that because Henry Toler was legitimized by Crafton's father, there should be nothing to inhibit his descendants from receiving their share of the inheritance. Crafton's consequence for dragging this out in court is to pay "damages and costs."

I don't have any records to show how much money that would have been. However, one could take the following news story as an indication that it was very substantial.

Suicide. --Crafton Bennett, of Pittsylvania county, Va., committed suicide, by hanging, on the 22d ult. Cause supposed to be pecuniary embarrassment.
The Richmond Daily Dispatch, April 6, 1861

Now, was Crafton's death really a suicide? I think there is certainly room to believe he was murdered and it was made to look like a suicide. How thorough was the investigation into his death? We simply can't be sure. We can only judge by what the record has given to us.

But if it was in fact a suicide, one could imagine that the monetary damages to him were severe enough that his life and self image were destroyed. He may have also possessed other vices in his life to push him to that mental anguish, or already had a depressed disposition that the verdict only exacerbated. Regardless of the twisted rationale in his mind, one thing is certain. He saw no other option than taking his own life.

The contempt between family members over an inheritance--money and slaves--erupts into an even more tragic end. And considering it was at the outbreak of the Civil War, Crafton Bennett's death becomes all too symptomatic of the incivility tearing the nation apart at the seams. The casualties of war were many, and not all of them on the battlefield.

I find it so indicative that the wealth this man sought to amass and protect is ultimately what destroyed him, and I'm sure there were many on both sides who had to learn this unfortunate lesson.

The Civil War, in my opinion, began as a contest of politics, power, and wealth--and ended as a search for civility. At the heart of that struggle, for both sides, was to accept that for as long as a man loved money more than he loved his brother, the fighting would continue.

Sometimes the journey to humility can be a cruel and unforgiving teacher.