Elizabeth Ann Curtis Waller (1742-1803) My 5th Great Grandmother on My Father's Side

King George II was the King of England when
Elizabeth was born in British America

Elizabeth Curtis was the daughter of Rice Curtis Jr. (1704-1787). Her mother was Susanna “Ann” Brock, daughter of Joseph and Mary Chew Brock. Note: Some sources show Martha Thacker, Rice's first wife, as Elizabeth's mother but Rice married Susanna in 1733 so it is very unlikely that Martha was Elizabeth's mother since Elizabeth was born in 1742. Rice was married two or three times and there is some confusion in the records about which of his wives bore which children. In his will, Joseph Brock named each of his children and the husbands of two of his daughters. This confirms that Susanna was Joseph’s daughter and the wife of Rice Curtis, Jr.

Elizabeth was born on August 19, 1742 in Spotsylvania when it was still part of British America, and George the II was the King of England. She had two sisters, Jane and Frances. She also had three half-siblings who were the children of Rice’s first wife Martha Thacker. They were Martha, Mary and Rice Curtis III.

In 1757, Elizabeth and her sisters received a 150 acre tract of land from George Pendleton. Elizabeth was 14 at the time. This was property that her father had previously sold to Pendleton. The deed does not provide an explanation as to why Pendleton sold the property to the three girls.

When she was 23 Elizabeth married John Waller in Spotsylvania, Virginia in about 1764-65. John was a preacher in the Baptist Church for 35 years and spent a great deal of time travelling to the parishes he headed which were located in several different counties. John being away from home so much would have meant that Elizabeth had charge of caring for their nine children and their farm on her own much of the time.

Elizabeth was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia and
lived there until 1793 when she and John moved to
South Carolina

Their children included Ann born in 1765 who married Abraham Marshall who was also a preacher. Elizabeth’s son John Nicodemus was born in 1767. He became a reverend and carried on his father’s work. Benjamin born in 1768 is my fourth great-grandfather. See my May 30, 2018 post for more about Benjamin. Frances Jane born in 1770 married Joseph Wardlaw. Daughter Mary Magdalene was born in 1774 and she married James Watson. Phoebe born 1775 married Edward Collier. Son Thomas Baxter was born in 1776 and he married Sarah White. I don’t know when their daughters Elizabeth or Dorothy Virginia were born. Dorothy married Carr McGehee and Elizabeth married James Sales. All of Elizabeth and John’s children were born while they were living in Spotsylvania, Virginia.

During their married life, and while Elizabeth was having their children, John was imprisoned at least three times – in 1768, 1771 and 1774 – because of his religious views and his preaching against the official Church of England. One can imagine that this made Elizabeth’s life more challenging than that of most of her peers. She also lived through the American Revolution between 1775 and 1783.

In 1793, when Elizabeth was 51 the family moved to Abbeville, South Carolina. Records explain that one of the reasons they moved was so they could be close to their daughter Ann and her husband Reverend Marshall. Another reason was the availability of cheap land.

Elizabeth died in 1803 at the age of 61, when Thomas Jefferson was the US President. She is buried in the Waller-Hacket Family Cemetery in Greenwood South Carolina. Her husband, sons John and Benjamin, and a few other family members are buried with her. The cemetery is located on the Vines home place on the road from Scotch Cross to Cambridge and is said to be near where the Waller family home was.

This is Elizabeth's will

Elizabeth left a will dated August 1, 1803 that was administered by her two sons Benjamin and Thomas. In it she made a point of leaving an extra $100 to her daughter Dorothy but the will did not explain why. Didn’t she realize her descendants would want an explanation? She also left money to her grandson Albert Waller, so he could purchase “a black sute of casamore”. I believe this means a black cashmere suit. All that remained, after her debts were paid, was to be divided equally among her eight children. She named all her children except John so he must have died before his mother.

I found one page of an inventory of her possessions in her probate packet while visiting Abbeville in 2017. Many of the items listed are illegible but of those I could read the assortment was different from many inventories I’ve read before. Those items included beeswax and honey, wheat, corn and oats, thread, black yarn, spun cotton, a bead quilt, lining fabric, flannel, pins, sugar, chewing tobacco, a small trunk, cottonseed and $130.50 in cash. I hope the chewing tobacco was for guests – not for Elizabeth.

This is one page of the inventory of
Elizabeth's estate from her probate packet

Sources for this post: Elizabeth’s Last Will; Adventurers of Purse and Person Virginia by John Frederick Dorman; Descendants of Capt. Thomas Carter of Barford by Joseph Lyon Miller, Effie Shelton Campbell; A Crane's Foot by E. Stuart Gregg, Jr; Virginia County Records Spotsylvania Co. 1721-1800, Transcriptions from Original County Records Wills, Deeds, Admin & Guardian Bonds, Marriage Licenses and List of Rev. War Pensioners; Greenwood County Sketches by Margaret Watson; FindAGrave website; Abstracts of Old 96 & Abbeville District Wills & Bonds compiled by Willie Pauline Young.