James³ (Henry,² William¹). James is perhaps the person with the clearest, proven link to Henry and Sarah. There is an old Bible (published in Edinburgh in 1783) with numerous handwritten entries on it. The Bible record can be found here: James Kerley Bible Record . The very first entry in this Bible is a statement that James Kerley was the son of Henry and Sarah Kerley. The record also indicates that James got married in July, 1778. Assuming that James got married when he was about 21, that would make his birth date sometime around 1757. In 1757, James' father, Henry, was living in South Carolina, and having a kid in 1757 would be consistent with Henry's supposed birth year 1736. I assume that James was born in South Carolina.

Sometime in the late 1770's, when he was about 20 years old, James moved to Burke County, North Carolina. This was about the same time that his father, Henry, sold his farm in South Carolina and relocated to Albemarle County, Virginia. (Recall that for some reason, most of the Kerley clan (Henry and his sons James, Daniel and Henry, Jr) departed from South Carolina during the height of the Revolutionary War around 1780). We do not know if James first accompanied his father and other siblings to Albemarle County and then moved on to Burke County, N.C. or whether he moved directly from South Carolina to Burke County, N. C. I tend to believe that James came with his father to Albemarle County, but did not stay there long. The reason for this belief is the connection between the Kerley family and the family of a man named Hezekiak Inman. Hezekiah was in Albemarle County VA in 1770 as there is a record of him selling 400 acres of land to a man named Robert Page. Hezekiah later moved to Burke County and died there on October 24, 1778. Hezekiah's survivors then had dealings with two different branches of the Kerley family. Hezekiah's widow, Jane Inman, married Ambrose Williams. Ambrose Williams was the father of James' wife, Elizabeth Williams. And, Hezekiah's sons sold some of his land to James' brother, Henry, in 1794. So, the Inman clan seemed to follow the same general route as did the Kerleys.

James' movement from South Carolina to Burke County was consistent with the general migration patterns of that time.

Few if any of the settlers of this early period came from Europe or from the British Isles directly to the Burke area ... A few early settlers followed the wagon road from Charleston, South Carolina, into the Carolina backcountry, but by far the most heavily traveled route to the Burke frontier was the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia.

Phifer, Jr., Edwin W., Burke County: A Brief History at 13. In addition, Scots-Irish "played a dominant role in the development of Burke County." Id at 14. So, the fact that many Scots-Irish settled in this area is consistent with our theory that the Kerleys were Scots-Irish.

The Bible record indicates that James married a woman named Elizabeth Williams, daughter of Ambrose and Mary Williams, on July 16, 1778. Whether he married Elizabeth in South Carolina (before relocating), in Virginia (while in the process of relocating) or in North Carolina (after relocating) is unknown. James and Elizabeth made Burke County in western North Carolina their home for the next 30 years. About 10 years after they got married they started having children. (Not sure why it took them 10 years to produce their first child?). Unlike most of the other Kerley families of that era, James and Elizabeth had a relatively small family. According to the Bible record, they had four children:

Daniel (June 4, 1789 - abt 1841) Daniel served in the War of 1812. He enlisted, on September 13, 1814, in the 3rd Regiment of the East Tennessee Militia. (In Colonel William Johnson's Regiment and James Tunnell's company). This unit mustered at Knoxville and marched to the vicinity of Mobile, Alabama, via Camp Ross (present-day Chattanooga). The men were used primarily as road builders and wagon guards. While they were at Camp Mandeville (near Mobile) in February, 1814, there was much disease. Daniel, like many of his comrades, got sick. and was unable to be discharged when his term of service was up. He was mustered "sick, absent" and detained by sickness until after May 31, 1815.

Ambrose (1792 - 1794)

Mary (May 1, 1794 - ?) Mary's fate is unknown. It does appear, however, that when she was about 24 she had a child out of wedlock with a man named Lowe. The child was named Andrew. And, in 1843 he petitioned the Tennessee legislature for permission to change his name from Andrew Lowe to Andrew Kerley. Some time after getting his name changed, he relocated (with a bunch of his Kerley kin) to Johnson County, Illinois. A group of Burke County Kerleys all settled there around the same time. This group included Lewis Kerley (a cousin (son of his mother's uncle, Henry Kerley)) and his family, Quilland T. Kerley, (a second cousin (the son of his mother's cousin Aaron), and another distant cousin Daniel M. Kerley. All three of these other Kerley families were related to one another and all had their origins in Burke County, NC. So, somehow Andrew got in touch with them and decided to join them in making the trek to Johnson CO., Ill.

Both the 1860 and 1870 censuses for Johnson County, Ill. indicate that Andrew was born in TN in 1818.

William (Oct. 09, 1799 - Jan. 14, 1888).

James and his brother, Henry, appear in the 1790 Burke County census as Henry and James Carely. James' listing is one male over 16, one male under 16 and two females. (Presumably a wife and a daughter). He also appears in the 1800 Burke County census. (He is near Henry, his brother and the spelling is Cirley). All entries fit perfectly for his family: one male under 10 (William), one male 10 to 16 (Daniel), one male over 45 (James), one female under 10 (Mary) and one female 26 to 45 (Elizabeth). There are no further census entries in Burke County for this James after 1800.

Although James apparently did not buy any property in Burke County until 1807 (when he purchased 150 acres) he was certainly an active part of the community. There are records of him putting up a bond for his brother, Henry, in a lawsuit in 1785, and also of him being involved in lawsuits in 1785 and 1787. In 1788, he and his brother were summoned to work on a new road being cut through the area. (Note that this road was to run along Linville Ridge, near where we expect his brother's (Henry) farm was). But, neither he nor his brother showed up for work on that road because the next year (1789) both of these guys were subpoenaed for failing to show up for that road work. And, in 1793 he served as a juror.

It appears that James died sometime between 1807 and 1810. At that time he would have been about 50 years old. We know from a biography of one of his great grandchildren, (William O. Kearley), that James' wife, Elizabeth, moved from Burke County to Cumberland County, TN in 1810. It seems unlikely that Elizabeth would have made that move without her husband if he was, in fact, still alive.