Samuel H.W. Pattillo (1780 - ca. 1840) My Third Great Grandfather on my Father's Side

Samuel was the son of Solomon Pattillo and Sarah Major. He was the youngest of four children

Tobacco Gold growing in Mecklenburg Co. Virginia in 2017
Samuel Pattillo was most likely a tobacco farmer.

named in his mother’s will in 1817. He had an older sister, Rebecca who was born about 1774, and two older brothers Williamson, born about 1776 and Edward in about 1778. Samuel was born about 1780. All of these children were born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.

It is not clear what his middle name was. In the Pattillo book by Melba Crosse she notes that she found two documents where he used “H” as his middle initial but in most records he used “W”. On the 1820 and 1840 censuses he is shown as Samuel W. Pattillo. On his marriage record it shows Samuel H. Pattillo. I’ve guessed that his middle name was Henry because his oldest son’s middle name is Henry. I’ve found no records that provide his middle name but someone on Ancestry noted his middle name as “Willis”.

By 1800 Samuel’s family had moved a little south to Mecklenburg County, Virginia where he appeared on a tax list in that year. Much of what I know about Samuel comes from court records I found when I visited the Mecklenburg County Courthouse in 2014 and 2017. The earliest of these documents is dated December 21, 1805 when Samuel is shown as a trustee in a debt agreement between Peter Peterson and a firm called Bilbo & Langley. This record is from Warren County, North Carolina. A Google search brings up two more references to Bilbo & Langley but neither explains what sort of firm it was.

Next is a deed from April 7, 1807 when he sold a 66-acre tract of land on Woodpecker Creek in Mecklenburg County to Willis Vaughn and his wife Edie.

Woodpecker Creek crosses Highway 49 and is southwest of Chase City
in Mecklenburg County, Virginia

On September 15, 1810 Samuel purchased a tract of land from Lewis Toone for 179 pounds. The purchase included “and appurtenances” which probably means a house and other farm structures. The curious thing about this transaction is that the debt was recorded in British pounds rather than American dollars – 34 years after the American Revolution.

October 18, 1811 is the first time Samuel appeared on a circuit court record when he was summoned to appear as a witness at the courthouse in Boydton, Virginia. That same year he purchased a 66-acre parcel of land from Willis and Edie Vaughn for $187. On the survey of this new piece of property one of the surveyor’s landmarks was labelled “Pattillo’s Corner Red Oak”, so it seems the new parcel was contiguous with a parcel he already owned. These two land transactions with the Vaughns are confusing – in one Samuel sold a 66-acre parcel to Vaughn and in the other he purchased a 66-acre parcel from Vaughn – maybe it was the same parcel that he sold and then bought back from the Vaughn’s.

Between 1813 and 1819 I found four more court documents involving Samuel. The first in November of 1813 was the circuit court case of Marshall Moody vs. Charles Burton. In March of 1814 Samuel served as the administrator of the estate of John Fair. This is interesting because it was typical at that time for the court to appoint a family member or other close associates to serve as the estate administrator. I have no idea who John Fair was or why Samuel was called upon to administer his estate. Fair could have been a neighbor or personal friend but there are no Fairs in our family tree as far as I know.

In March of 1819, when Samuel was 39, he was involved with a pair of interesting cases that came before the Grand Jury. One was an assault case filed against Thomas W. Gillespie who got into a brawl in a tavern. The other was against Alexander Gillespie who was accused of using profanity in the home of Henry Dedman. These seem like petty crimes – I wonder why they went to the Grand Jury?

Samuel would have taken his tobacco crob to a tobacco
wharehouse similar to this one in Chase City

Later in 1819 Samuel was called upon to appraise the value of the slaves owned by Thomas Spain who had passed away. At that time it was standard practice for a person’s estate to be inventoried and the value of his estate to be appraised. Local men in the community – typically land owners were routinely called upon to provide these services to the court. Samuel worked on the appraisal with William Brame, Charles Hutchison, William Baptist and John Jeffries.

Samuel’s mother Sarah died in 1817. Her will was dated April 4^th of that year. In it she left Samuel one feather bed and furniture. Her son Williamson received, “one Negro man by the name Frank also one feather bed for him and his heirs ... I give and bequeath to my son Edward M. Pattillo one Negro boy by the name Littleton, 2 feather beds and furniture ….”. The remainder of her estate was to be equally divided among her four children – so her daughter Rebecca received substantially less than the sons.

On the 1820 Mecklenburg, Virginia census Samuel W. Pattillo was listed with his wife, children and six slaves. Samuel was 40 years old but the census provides no additional information.

Samuel was particularly active in civic affairs during the 1820s. I’ve found eleven court records from that decade. On May 21, 1821 Samuel served on another grand jury. The case had something to do with his father-in-law Pettus Phillips and the business Craddock & Pattillo. The court document notes that Samuel was paid $3.75 for his service on the jury but is unclear on other details. Craddock & Pattillo was a general store owned by David Craddock and Dr. William J. Pattillo – no relation. The store was located adjacent to the Quarter Horse Race Track in Christianville. Christianville is now called Chase City and is near the town of Boydton.

This is the courthouse in Boydton. Built 1838-1842 at the
end of Samuel's life.

Three of the court records were land transactions. On February 16, 1822 he and Sally executed two transactions – in one they sold a 70-acre tract of land to Alexander Clausel for $300, and in the other they sold a 100-acre parcel to Richard Harris for $600. The third land transaction occurred in March of 1824 when Sam purchased another 179 ¾ acres from Elizabeth Toone after her husband William Toone died.

The other seven cases involved myriad civic responsibilities. In June of 1821 he was again asked to appraise an estate – this time it was for a man named William Hurt. In August of 1823 he helped appraise the estate of John Murphy. He did another appraisal for the estate of Eliza Farrer in 1826. At the end of the decade on December 21, 1829 Samuel was a surety (a person who takes responsibility for another's performance of an undertaking) in a case involving Elizabeth Baskerville – “a person of unsound mind”. Makes you wonder what that was all about.

On the census of 1830 Samuel was living in a household with 8 others – there were 7 males including Samuel and two females – his wife Sarah and their youngest child, a daughter Ann who was born in 1828. Only Samuel was identified by name. Neither slaves nor free persons of color were recorded on the census that year.

I have found only two court documents for Samuel from the 1830s. One indicates that he served on another jury when he was 50 years old. I don’t know what the case was about. Then in 1831 he was a surety for the estate of Martha Butler. A newspaper article in the Richmond Enquirer dated September 2, 1836 includes the name Samuel W. Pattillo as a member of the Republican Van Buren Committee who endorsed “Martin Van Buren of New York and William Smith, of Alabama for President and Vice President of the United States.” 

Downtown Boydton in 2017 - a designated historic district

On September 23, 1841 Samuel did something that seems peculiar. He signed an agreement to pay several debts he owed to five individuals not later than April 1, 1843.  And, he put up practically everything he owned as collateral – including the 200 acre tract of land he lived on, plus his entire household and kitchen furnishings, his plantation tools and utilities, all his feed and animals, his shotgun and all the crops that were currently growing on his plantation plus the crops from the upcoming year. The total of what was owed came to $875.40. The equivalent in 2017 is $23,633, so the debt was not huge – so why did Samuel have to risk everything he owned?

I don’t have a date of death for Samuel. Crosse believes he died sometime before the 1840 census because he was not enumerated on that census. He would have been about 60 years old when he died. In May of 1841, his son Charles was appointed to administer Samuel’s estate. The inventory included 1 parcel of corn, 1-2000 pound slack (presumably an old spelling of sack) of oats, 2-1200 pound slacks of oats, 2 slacks of fodder (350 and 500 pound), 1 parcel of fodder, 1 parcel shucks, 1 600 pound parcel of tobacco, 1 Bay mare, 1 dark Bay heifer, and 1 yearling. The total value came to at $92.31 ($2917 in 2017). This doesn’t seem like much for someone who was a landowner. Given Samuel’s extensive civic involvement it appears he was a man of some stature in the community – trusted and well-regarded.

1840 Mecklenburg County census. Samuel is listed 4th from the bottom.

None of the documents I’ve found for Samuel say that he was a farmer but given the contents of his estate and knowing that the vast majority of men living at that time in Virginia were farmers, I think it is safe to assume that that was his profession and way of life. I know that his son James Henry, my 2^nd great grandfather was a tobacco farmer so it is likely that Samuel grew the same crop for income.

For information about Samuel’s marriage and children read the post about his wife Sally C. Phillips.

Sources: Melba Crosse book on the Pattillos; 1820, 1830 and 1840 censuses; Ancestry website; tax and other court documents including land deeds; Marriages of Mecklenburg Co. book; the will of Samuel’s mother; and Samuel’s probate documents.

Detail of an abandoned farm storage structure.
2017 Mecklenburg County