As we begin examining the 3rd and 4th generations of Kerleys in America, we start getting more reliable records. For example, we start seeing useful Bible records, some census records and more recent land records. Most of the relationships in this section dealing with the third and fourth generations of Kerleys in America have better support than do the relationships for the first and second generations.

WARNING: Although all of the individuals discussed in this section actually existed, not all of the relationships among these people are absolutely certain. Where there is some uncertainty as to the nature of a relationship, I will indicate so. What follows is my attempt to create a narrative that is consistent with the facts that are available. I am very receptive to other theories and evidence.

WILLIAM (“OLD MATE”)³ (Henry²,William¹)

Overview. Henry's oldest son was named William (probably after his grandfather). This William grew to adulthood on the family farm in South Carolina. According to family legend, his nickname was Old Mate. He accompanied his neighbors, the Boone's, to Kentucky in 1779 (when he was about 22 years old). He stayed in Kentucky for less than a year, returning to South Carolina just in time to experience some of the battles of the Revolutionary War in his backyard. He married and started raising his family on the family tracts near Rimini, South Carolina.

William/Old Mate remained in South Carolina until he reached his 30's. In 1789 he decided to to re-locate his family to Kentucky. Maybe he recalled fondly what he had seen a decade earlier with the Boone's? William and his family did not stay in Kentucky very long, and they ultimately settled in central Tennessee, near the town of Hartsville, in the early 1800's. William remained in Tennessee for the rest of his life, dying there in the late 1840's at age 93. All of his children (except perhaps one daughter) remained near Hartsville for their entire lives, making this area of central Tennessee one of the largest concentrations of Kerleys in early America.

William³ (Henry²,William¹) William Kerley was the eldest son of Henry Kerley. He was probably born around 1756 or 1757. We can base an estimate of his birth date on a key fact about his father. We know that his father, Henry, had no children when he applied for his land in South Carolina in 1756. So, we can safely conclude that the earliest that any of Henry's children were born was late 1756 or early 1757. I assume that William was born in late 1756 in South Carolina.

There are several references to William that verify his existence. First, a biography of his grandson, King Kerley, states that both King’s father and grandfather were named William. See History of Brown, Cass and Schuyler Counties, Ill. Biography of King Kerley, p.410. Second, much of the work completed by Marina Blatherwick (a lot of which was oral family traditions communicated directly to her) also confirms that William Kerley was the son of Henry Kerley. See Blatherwick letters. Third, he shows up in the 1820, Smith County, TN census.

Life in South Carolina. William lived in South Carolina for about the first 32 or 33 years of his life. I assume that he probably resided on his father's farm while he was growing up. I am not sure, however, where he lived after his father (i.e. Henry) sold that farm in the late 1770's. At that point, William would have been in his early 20's and would have been old enough to own land on his own, but there are no surviving records showing that William ever bought or was granted land in his own name. So, I suspect that he might have moved onto his grandfather's nearby farm which, as far as we know, was still in the family at that time.

During his early life in South Carolina William had three major, life-changing experiences. First, he became acquainted with the famous Daniel Boone, and traveled with him on one of his early trips to the wilds of Kentucky. In her research, Mrs. Blatherwick’s indicates that William went to Kentucky with Boone. She assumed that he did so in 1769 because many published historical records indicate that a person named William Cooley (or Cool) accompanied Boone on his first trip to Kentucky in that year. See e.g. The Adventures of Daniel Boone by Daniel Boone at p. __; Bakeless, John, Daniel Boone (1939) at 48; Faragher, John Mack, Daniel Boone (1992) at p. 76; Bayley and Bruse, Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road; Thwaites, Daniel Boone (1902) at 72. However, if William was born in approximately 1756, then it is unlikely that he would have been old enough to accompany Boone in 1769. He would have been only 13 years old, and as far as we know, would not have been living anywhere near the spot in North Carolina from which Boone departed.

It is more likely that William accompanied Boone on a trip he made 10 years later in 1779. The reason I believe this is so is because of the connection between William's father, Henry Kerley, and the Samuel Boone family. Samuel was Daniel Boone's brother, and as we saw earlier, Henry Kerley and Samuel Boone lived pretty close to one another in the Camden District of South Carolina in the 1760's and 1770's. Moreover, Henry and Samuel shared military experiences, both serving together in the 1759 Cherokee fights.

In 1779, Daniel Boone organized several expeditions to settle Kentucky. He actively recruited settlers from the western parts of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In fact, in early 1779, he traveled from his home in North Carolina down to Charleston, South Carolina to sell skins and furs that he had obtained from his hunting activities. See Draper MSS, Vol. 11C, p. 107. It would not be surprising if, on this trip, he stopped to visit his brother Samuel.

In any event, in the fall of 1779, whether prompted by Daniel's visit or by some other of Daniel's recruiting efforts, Samuel Boone decided to join Daniel's expedition. That fall, he moved his family to Kentucky. We do not know the exact details of his move since Daniel organized - and there were several - simultaneous and overlapping groups of people moving to Kentucky that fall. But, it is quite certain that Samuel and his family were in one of them. See ______, The Boone Family at 58.

Two of Samuel's sons, Samuel Jr. and Squire, provide us with details of part of this trip. In a pension application filed in 1832, Samuel Jr. stated that in 1779 he was living in South Carolina and “hearing that his uncle Daniel Boone was raising a company in North Carolina to march to Kentucky, … went to Rowan County where Col. Boone was raising it, and entered it as a volunteer.” See https://revwarapps.org/s1168.pdf. After describing his service (two times serving as a substitute for his father, Samuel, who had been drafted), Samuel Jr. stated that “in the month of March 1779 I left South Carolina to move to Kentucky where I arrived in the fall of the year 1779 having stopped a while in North Carolina.” He indicates that they left from North Carolina on Sept. 15, 1779 and arrived in Boonesborough Fort the last week in October that year.

Squire Boone, Samuel Jr.'s brother, tells a similar story. Squire’s pension application describes that he was living in Camden District, South Carolina in 1777 and that he moved to Kentucky in the fall of 1779. (As we noted above, the original Kerley settlements in South Carolina were in the Camden District). See https://revwarapps.org/w8372.pdf

So, in early 1779, Henry's neighbors, the Samuel Boone family, were clearly excited about re-locating to Kentucky. It would not be surprising, therefore, if Samuel might have mentioned the upcoming trip to his neighbor and companion-in-arms, Henry Kerley. Henry could have then easily suggested to his eldest son, William, that it might be a good idea for him to go with the Boones and see what Kentucky was like. So, in all likelihood, when he was about 23, William left with his neighbor, Samuel Boone and Samuel’s family, and traveled to Kentucky with a group of 100 settlers that the Boones had put together. I have conducted extensive research on the details of this trip, primarily by pouring through the Draper Papers that pertain to this trip. These papers, mostly correspondence between a researcher named Lyman Draper and various members of the Boone clan, describe in detail many facets of this trip (and several other matters pertaining to the Boone family). Although this correspondence reveals the names of many of the people who accompanied Daniel Boone on that trip, they do not provide a comprehensive listing. I have been unable to find any reference to any person named Kerley in these Papers (so far).

The Papers do, however, provide a fascinating description of this trip. (Insert description of the trip from the Draper papers). See Farmer 202-204.

We do have one other interesting clue as to a relationship between the Boone's and the Kerleys. A daughter (Lucy) of the aforementioned Squire Boone, son of Samuel, eventually married a fellow named John Kerley in Kentucky. This particular John Kerley was the son of Major William Kerley of Kentucky. This marriage shows that there was some form of a relationship between the Kerleys and the Boones. I assume that Major William Kerley might have accompanied his cousin, William, to Kentucky in 1779. See: 3rd Generation: William (son of John)

William did not stay in Kentucky long. According to Marina, he stayed only one year. Thus, he would have returned in mid to late 1780 just as the battles of the Revolutionary War were about to engulf his family’s farmlands in South Carolina. In fact, he may have returned in order to support his parents and other family members as the British and Patriot forces clashed in that area.

William entered manhood while the Revolutionary War was underway, and the War was the second life-altering event that William experienced while in South Carolina. It is highly likely that a primary factor underpinning William's decision to join Boone’s expedition to Kentucky in 1779 was his political beliefs. By all accounts, it appears that at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, William was a Loyalist, i.e. he was on the side of the British and he did not support the Patriot cause. In 1931, one of William’s descendants wrote that “my great grandfather was a Tory at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.” See, letter dated September 2, 1931 from J.E. Kerley to Marina Blatherwick. Furthermore, the party Boone organized [in 1779] for his trip to Kentucky included “a good many Loyalists.” See, Faragher at 203. A daughter of one of the men on that expedition noted:

"I believe the different opinion in Politiks was the greatest reason that induced my father to come to Kentucky as soon as he did. I have often heard him say it was one of the most trying things he ever met with; to see some of his best friends so carried away in so bad a cause."

Statement of Rebecca Boone Grant, daughter of William Grant and Elizabeth Boone. Draper MSS, vol. 22C, p. 41.

Moreover, some of Marina’s notes specify that William’s wife, Mary Bostic, was a royalist. See Blatherwick Papers entitled “original immigrants”. And, “there were many Tories east of the Wateree.” Gregoire, History of Sumter Co. at 48. Thus, to avoid being involved in an increasingly hostile situation with his neighbors whose sympathies were with the Patriots, William may have chosen to join with other Tory-minded folks and try to see what opportunities existed in Kentucky.

William returned from Kentucky to South Carolina just as hostilities between the British and Patriots were erupting in the Camden District. The British were very active in the Halfway Swamp area in South Carolina in late 1780. In fact, the British and Patriot forces skirmished literally in the Kerleys' back yard on December 12 and 13, 1780.

[Francis} Marion collected enough men during the month of December (1780) to enable him to openly harass British troops on the Santee Road. On December 12, Major Robert McLeroth and his 64^th Regiment were escorting a party of recruits from Nelson’s Ferry to Camden, when Marion attacked the rear of the British column in the vicinity of Halfway Swamp. McLeroth drew up his men in a field to the east of the road and carried on negotiations with Marion until nightfall, when he made his escape under cover of darkness. The next day Marion attempted to outflank him by placing a detachment at Singleton’s Mill ten miles north, but this plan miscarried when the Singleton family were discovered to have smallpox and Marion’s men declined to occupy their buildings. Halfway Swamp (now Spring Grove Creek) is in Clarendon County, about a mile south of Rimini. Singleton’s Mill was in present Sumter County, in the vicinity where Poinsett State Park is now located.

Lipscomb, Terry W., Names in South Carolina vol. 23 (Winter, 1976) at p.34. See also, Lipscomb, Terry W., Battles, Skirmishes and Actions of the American Revolution in South Carolina.

In her version of the battle, Anne Gregoire incorrectly indicates that the skirmish took place in February, 1781, but she adds a very useful fact for our purposes. She mentions that during the battle Marion pitched camp by a cypress pond on the east side. See, Gregoire, Anne King, The History of Sumter, South Carolina (1954) at 49. You may recall that the original Kerley settlements in South Carolina were on Halfway Swamp, near a cypress pond. As these opposing forces battled it out on or near the Kerley settlements, both sides probably wandered around looking for loot. William's grandson, King Kerley, relates a story that his grandfather used to tell. William said he “crawled under the barn in South Carolina to hide their small store of silver coin during the Revolution.” See, History of Brown, Cass and Schuyler Counties at 410.

Gregoire at pp. 36 - 54 provides detailed info on the War around this area. She describes the area as being split between those who supported the British and those who supported the Patriot cause. William/Old Mate seems to have been torn between these two sides. A family legend describes how William's thinking evolved during the War.

My great grandfather (William) was a Tory at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. He was taken by the Continentals and hanged, the rope broke and he escaped. Later he was caught and they tried to shoot him but the pistol flashed and failed to shoot. He again made his escape. He with four other men were hiding in a house, the Continentals surrounded it, captured and killed all but him. He hid in a dog fennel patch all day. While there, he decided he was wrong, so that night he went and joined himself to the Continentals and fought through the remainder of the war.

J.E. Kerley letter dated September 2, 1931.

These three brushes with death were probably exaggerated as this story was passed down through the family. However, there is probably at least a grain of truth to it, particularly the idea that William was not very sympathetic to the Patriot cause at the beginning of the war. In any event, no researcher has, despite tremendous efforts, been able to find any evidence that William ever served on either side in the Revolutionary War. There are simply no records supporting this conclusion. (Likewise, there are no records showing that any of William’s brothers served in the Revolutionary War, despite the fact that at least two of them, James and Henry would have been old enough to serve. Thus, this early generation of Kerleys apparently had loyalties other than to their new country.)

The third life changing experience that William had in South Carolina was that he got married and started his family there. Although we have no actual records to verify this, Marina’s letters and research specify that William’s wife was a woman named Mary Bostic. Given the date of birth of the first of their children we can assume that William and Mary were married in South Carolina about 1778. (At this point William would have been about 20 or 21 years old). So, he apparently got married just before setting out on Daniel Boone's 1779 expedition to Kentucky. Could he have been scoping out a place to re-settle his new bride and family? Possibly.

William and Mary started having children right after they got married. Their first 6 children were all born in South Carolina. These children were:

James⁴ (1779) (1850 census for Smith County, TN., family # 1193, age 71)

Henry (abt. 1783) (1830 census for Smith County, TN, family #210, age b/w 40 and 50)

Mary Delilah (1784) (1850 census for Marshall County, KY, family # 293, age 66 born in South Carolina)

William (April 11, 1786) 1850 census for Macon County, Tn., family # 104, age 64

Nelly (1789) (1850 census for Smith County, Tn., family # 1195, age 61; 1860 census Smith Co, TN family # 1284, age 72)

William's last two children, Elizabeth and Daniel, were born outside of South Carolina. Elizabeth indicated in 1850 that she was not certain in which state she had been born. (1850 census for Smith co, TN family # 1205, age 56) (She was born in 1794). Her brother, Daniel, was born on April 4, 1797, in Kentucky. See, Macon County Tenn. Censuses for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Exactly where in Kentucky we do not know. (Marina's records corroborate all of these children).

Although William's father, Henry, packed up and moved his family out of South Carolina sometime around 1780 or 1781, William decided not to join his parents and siblings in their move to Virginia. He stayed on the family holdings in South Carolina for another 10 years. (One researcher, however, indicates that he may have lived in Charleston for a short period during those years). By the end of the 1780's, however, William decided that his future lay elsewhere. The conditions around Halfway Swamp became intolerable, and this may have prompted William to abandon the Kerley holdings there. “After the year 1790, when freshets in the river became more frequent, the climate became more sickly. The residents along the [Halfway] Swamp suffered severely from agues and fever.” (A freshet is a great rise or overflowing of a stream caused by heavy rains or melted snow.) Draper papers, vol. UU, p. 187 (A paper written by Samual Burose entitled “Stories About and Names of People Living on the Santee Around 1776”. William decided that he had had enough. It was time to move.

In deciding where to relocate, William's thoughts turned to Kentucky. He apparently had seen enough good things on his visit to Kentucky a decade earlier (in 1779) to make him decide to relocate his family there. So, around 1789-90, he left South Carolina, never to return. Published biographies of King Kerley specify that William left South Carolina when his son William (born in 1786) was about 3 years old. See, History of Brown, Cass and Schuyler Counties, Ill. at 410. An earlier version of the same biography of King Kerley confirms that William first moved to Kentucky after leaving South Carolina. History of Schuyler and Brown Counties at 361.

We do not know exactly where in Kentucky William moved to. But, there are several land records confirming that a William Kerley lived on the Green River "about one mile below Green River Lick" between 1796 and 1802. (I have not been able to find out where Green River Lick is - still need to track this down). These records show that William had a 200 acre spread there in 1796 and 1797. He sold 51 acres in 1800 leaving him with a 149/150 acre spread there in 1799 and 1800, and a 149 acre spread in 1801. He then sold those 149 acres on April 5, 1802. These land transactions fit perfectly with the family story that William settled in Kentucky in the 1790's and moved to Tennessee in the early 1800's. I assume that these transactions refer to our William. (These do not refer to Major William (see 3rd Generation: William (son of John) because the Major was living then in Madison county and there are records describing his land purchases in that county).

There are also some vague references in the old Kerley records to Adolphus, Kentucky being the "old home place." Adolphus, Kentucky, is just over the TN state line, almost directly due north from Hartsville. This could also be the place where the Kerleys lived for a while. (Further evidence for this assumption is the fact that one of William's sons, James, married a girl in Barren County, KY in the early 1800's. Barren and Allen Counties (where Adolphus is located) adjoin each other).

William does not appear in any censuses for 1790 or 1800. That is not surprising, since he was probably in transit when the census was taken in 1790. Moreover, the 1790 and 1800 federal censuses for Kentucky no longer exist. (They were destroyed by fire in the War of 1812). Similarly, the 1800 and 1810 Tennessee census records no longer exist. (There is, however, an interesting census record for Nash County, North Carolina in 1800 which lists a William Kerley family that fits almost perfectly for William and his family. This could possibly refer to our William, but I have uncovered absolutely no indication that William ever lived in this part of North Carolina. Nash County is in north-eastern North Carolina, far from the Kentucky and Tennessee borders. We know that William and his family were in Kentucky in 1797 (his son, Daniel, was born there), and it seems more logical that he would have taken his family to Tennessee directly from Kentucky. But, maybe he went briefly to North Carolina for some strange reason, before ultimately settling in Tennessee. We may never know the true story here).

In any event, William did not stay very long in Kentucky. By 1803, he and his family were living in Tennessee.

Settlement Near Hartsville, Tennessee. Just east of Hartsville, Tennessee, Goose Creek flows into the Cumberland River. Approximately 5 miles upstream from this intersection, Goose Creek divides into two branches; one branch continues northeast into Macon County and Meadorville (the “East Fork”). The other branch runs northwest towards a little place called Green Grove where it again forks, with one branch running almost due north (the “Middle Fork”) and the other branch continuing on towards the northwest (the “West Fork”). William Kerley settled his family on the Middle and West Forks of Goose Creek.

The area where William ultimately settled is approximately 5 miles north of Hartsville, Tennessee. This land was at various times in Davidson County, Sumner County, Smith County, Macon County and then Trousdale County. As Tennessee grew and prospered, the boundaries of its counties were continuously redrawn. The Kerley farms were located in a section of Tennessee that was repeatedly sub-divided, and this is why although the farms themselves actually never moved, the legal description of their locations repeatedly changed. In any event, if you go to Hartsville, TN., today and travel north for a few miles, you will return to the land where this particular branch of the Kerleys settled.

Our earliest record of William’s presence in this area is September 27, 1803, when he witnessed the will of a fellow named Daniel Mungle. See Smith County, TN Will Book. (Daniel Mungle was a Revolutionary War vet who was one of the very earliest settlers in that part of Tennessee. He had received 640 acres of land for his service). This the first of many interactions between the Kerley and Mungle families. As we shall see, the Kerleys bought land from, sued and married Mungles.

Our next record of William’s presence in the Smith County area is in a December, 1807, court document in which William Kerley was named administrator of the estate of a Lewis Cobb. In this document William makes certain claims against the estate of Lewis Cobb for certain expenses associated with the maintenance of the widow Cobb and the schooling of five Cobb children. Smith County Will Book #5, 1805-1809, p.41. Obviously, the Cobb and Kerley families must have been close for William to be serving in such a crucial fiduciary capacity for the Cobbs. In fact, it looks like William actually took the widow Cobb and her children into his home (because William's claim against the estate included charges for boarding these folks).

I suspect, but have not been able to confirm, that the widow Cobb was actually William's sister. There is one cryptic reference on Ancestry.com that says that Lewis Cobb's wife was named Sarah Kerley. It also indicates that Lewis Cobb was 42 when he died in 1807. (Making his birth date approximately 1765. Given the ages of the children in the estate paperwork, it looks like Lewis and Sarah were married about 1795). Thus, Sarah was probably born about 1770. If that is correct, then Sarah was probably a younger sister of William. She and her husband, Lewis Cobb, probably came from South Carolina with the rest of William's family. The Cobb estate was finally settled in December, 1812. Smith County, Wills and Inventories 1812-1814 (July 18, 1812).

The Kerleys were not unaccustomed to slavery. As we shall see, slavery intersects the story of the Kerleys in several areas. The first documented such encounter arises in connection with William’s settlement of the Cobb estate. In 1811, William obtained permission from the court to sell a Negro girl, property of the deceased, and to “appropriate money amongst those who are entitled”.

During these early years in Tennessee there is no evidence that William owned any land of his own. He was probably just living on a tract without any legal claim or right to that land. This was not unusual for the settlers of that era. William was probably working and trying to save some money to buy some land that he could call his own. This took quite a while, but eventually the day the came and William became a legal landowner.

On September 20, 1811, (about 8 years after we first see William in that part of TN),William purchased 100 acres on the Middle Fork of Goose Creek from Isaac and John Mungle. As we saw earlier, William had previously witnessed Daniel Mungle's will, and Isaac and John were two of Daniel’s sons. (Daniel Mungle (1750 – 1803) married Abigail McKinney in Abingdon County, Virginia on Sept. 14, 1786. Their first son, Isaac, was born on April 1, 1788, in Virginia. Another son, John, was born in Virginia in 1790. Daniel served in the Virginia Colonial Militia.) The transaction document indicates that the 100 acres includes William’s “improvements where he now lives” and is a part of Daniel Mungle’s original grant. This particular transaction was witnessed by Henry Kerley. This Henry probably was not William's father (who we suspect did not move to TN until the 1830's or 1840's). So, I believe this witnessing Henry was a son of William (who would have been about 30 at that time). In any event, the Kerley family now had a permanent base in central Tennessee.

As William's sons reached adulthood, they each, in turn, moved out of their dad's farm and established themselves nearby on their own land. On January 26, 1815, William (Old Mate), for some unknown reason, sold his 100 acre farm to his son, James. See, Smith County Deed Book D; pp. 96-97. The record of this transaction confirms that the land being transferred is exactly the same land that William (Old Mate) had purchased a few years earlier. A few years later, William Jr. bought 100 acres on the West Fork of Goose Creek, about 3 miles east of Old Mate's farm. See, Transaction dated April 1, 1816. Sumner County Deed Abstracts 1806-1817, p. 382. (William, Jr. added 4 ½ acres to his holdings in 1828.) Then next year, on September 24, 1817, another son, Henry, bought 93 acres on the north bank of the Middle Fork of Goose Creek, which purportedly adjoined the land his father first bought when he settled in that area. So, by the end of 1817, William and three of his sons were all living in close proximity to one another in the greater Smith–Sumner county areas. All of these holdings were on either the West or Middle Forks of Goose Creek.

Prior to making these purchases and settlements on Goose Creek, William Jr and his brother Henry may have lived for a brief time in the north-eastern portion of what is now Macon County (about 13 miles from Old Mate's Middle Fork holdings). A person named William Kerley (I assume that is William Jr, but am not certain) purchased 30 1/2 acres on the Long Fork of the Barren River on October 28, 1811 from Solomon Debow. William apparently settled there for a while, and his brother Henry might have lived with him. Both William and Henry were reported as finding horses in that area in 1811 and 1814. See, Carthage Gazette, March 8, 1811. See Carthage Gazette December 2, 1814. Then, in 1818, William bought two more tracts of land in that same general vicinity. One tract was 30 acres on the Salt Lick of the Barren River; the other tract 10 acres on the Long Fork of the Barren River. The 10 acre purchase was made from the same person, Solomon Debow, who had sold William the 30 1/2 acres a few years earlier.

The record for the 10 acre purchase in 1818 states that William was living on that land when William bought it. But, we know that William also bought 100 acres of land on the West Fork of Goose Creek in 1816. So, was William Jr living up on the Long Fork of the Barren River in 1818, as the deed specifies? Maybe he had not yet relocated to the land on Goose Creek yet. Or, shudders, these transactions on the Barren River might have been entered into by yet a completely different William. That is, neither Old Mate nor his son. In that event we would have yet another mystery to solve. Who was this new William? Until convinced otherwise I am going to assume that William Jr was involved in all of these transactions.

In any event, the Kerley presence on the Middle and West Branches of Goose Creek during the 1810’s and 1820’s is very well-documented. William Jr. (and his 100 acres) show up regularly on the Records of Taxable Property in Sumner County between 1816 and 1821. So does Henry and his 93 acres. Of particular interest in these records is the significant variance in the spelling of the name Kerley from year to year during this relatively brief 5 year period. William’s last name is spelled Kirby, Culey and Curley. (One interesting note here is that the record for 1821 refers to William as “Willie Kirby”. This is perhaps evidence of William, Jr.s nickname.) Henry, meanwhile, is referred to as Carley, Kirby and Kerley. The legal descriptions of the land that is being taxed confirm that it is the spelling of the owner’s name, not the land itself, that is changing from year to year.

William appears to have been a rather active fellow. Margaret Moore, another Kerley researcher in the 1930’s, states in one of her letters that based on interviews Marina had, Marina knew that Old Mate "played cards and drove fast horses practically till the day of his death.” See, Margaret Moore letter, October 6, 1930. Old Mate probably inherited this love of horse racing from his father. Horse racing was the chief amusement in South Carolina when Henry was living there. See, Gregoire, History of Sumter County, S.C. at 37.

Our general impression that William/Old Mate was an active, somewhat rambunctious, person is supported by an early court record of Smith County. On August 16, 1815, William was indicted by a grand jury for assault and battery. There wasn’t much to this case, however, since on the same day the county prosecutor dropped the charges after a motion to dismiss was made by William’s attorney. In fact, William was able to recover his attorney’s fees for making his defense. See, Smith County Court Minutes 1813 – 1815.

That same year, William was sued for slander by Abegal Mungle Alias Street. Daniel Mungel’s wife was named Abigail. Did she remarry someone named Street? Did William object to the re-marriage and say something offensive? Who knows? This is the first of several legal disputes between the Kerleys and the Mungles. The Kerleys were the victor in this first battle, as Abegail dropped her charges and the case never went anywhere. William again convinced the court to allow him to recover his defense costs.

William and his sons appear to have lived fairly normal lives in frontier Tennessee. They served on grand jury panels; they witnessed land transfers for their neighbors; they gave bonds for their neighbors, and basically tried to make a living in difficult circumstances.

Two of William's sons, James and Henry, served in the War of 1812.

William shows up exactly where we expect him in the 1820 census. He is listed in the Smith County, TN census (family no. 1091). There is one male and one female ages 45 and above which presumably refer to William and Mary. There are also listings for one male between 16 and 26 (presumably son Daniel) and two females between 16 and 26 (presumably their two daughters Elizabeth and Mary). Their son, James, was apparently living right next door (family # 1090) with listings that fit perfectly for James and his family at that time.

There are, however, no further specifically-identifiable census listings for William after 1820. He and Mary may be the persons listed as being between 60 and 70 in Daniel Kerley's household in the 1830 census Smith Co., TN, (family #1371) (that 60 to 70 range works out pretty close to our expected birthdate of 1756-7 for William). He does not appear anywhere obvious in the 1840 census. (There is one person between the ages of 80 and 90 living in the household (Isaac Ethengal) next door to William's son, James, in this census. Could William have been living there with a married daughter who we do not know about who married an Enthengal? Possibly. Or could this last name be a mangling of Isaac Ethan Mungle, husband of Nellie Kerley? Note: there are absolutely no other listings for any person named Ethengal in the entire Ancestry.com data base other than this one listing in the 1840 census. This tends to make me think that this was not a real name -- rather it was what the census taker heard). I have checked the entire Smith County 1840 census and there are only a few individuals who are older than 80 years old. This next door neighbor seems to be a likely candidate for our William. The only other possibility is a listing for a William Carlee (last name spelling is not clear, however) who was between 80 and 90).

According to Marina Blatherwick, William's father, Henry, came to live with William shortly before his (i.e., Henry's) death in the early 1840's. She says that Henry came "from one of the Carolina's." We know that Henry left South Carolina and moved to Virginia around 1781. If Marina is correct, then it looks like Henry later moved from Virginia to one of the Carolinas. I suspect that Henry moved to Burke County, North Carolina, and lived there with one of his other children.

In any event, we know that William died when he was 93 years old. See History of Brown, Cass and Schuyler Counties, Ill at p.410. So, he probably died around 1849. (He is not listed in the 1850 Tennessee census anywhere). We are not quite sure where William and Mary are buried. They could be buried in one of the three Kerley cemeteries in and around the Middle and West Forks of Goose Creek. The William Kerley cemetery is about 3 miles from the Daniel Kerley cemetery which, in turn, is about 2 miles north of the James Kerley cemetery. Or, they could be buried "in the old Greer cemetery." Andrew Greer purchased 640 acres of land on the Middle Fork of Goose Creek. The Greer land adjoined the Mungle grant, and probably adjoined the part of the Mungle grant that was sold to Old Mate in 1811. There is no listing of any Kerley being buried in the Greer cemetery, but there are several unmarked stones there.

Before ending our discussion of William/Old Mate, we should note that there were several other families living in Smith and Sumner counties at this time who had names very similar to Kerley, and thus it is almost impossible to state definitely who is being referred to in the old court documents. For instance, there was a Collie family who had a number of land transactions on the East Fork of Goose Creek. And there was a family of Carleys, who frequently had their names misspelled as Kerley. Each of these families had Williams, both senior and junior. Finally, there was a family of Kirbys (including some Williams). Given this remarkable convergence of similar-sounding names in one area and the imprecise spelling capabilities of many of the record-preparers of that era, determining which family is being referred to in the records is difficult. Relying primarily on location appears to be the best way of maintaining sanity in this analysis.

Finally, the fact that William did not get a land grant in Tennessee tends to indicate that he did not serve in the Revolutionary War. Other folks in that area (e.g. Daniel Mungle, Andrew Greer) were both Revolutionary War vets and they received grants of 640 acres of land for their service. Their grants were right there in Middle and West forks of Goose creek. If William had served in the War, we would certainly expect that he also would have received a similar grant.