Pope Family Documents Name Granville Co. NC and Williamson Co. TN Enslaved

Osborn Pope, born before 1755 if we believe his age from the 1800 US Federal Census of Granville, wrote his will on 3 April 1811.  His will was recorded in Granville Co North Carolina in the February term of 1812. In the Index for Granville Records under Jane Nicholson's entry, it is listed as being recorded Feb 1818 however, the record itself shows that it was recorded in February Term of 1812--another reason to seek out earlier and original sources. Within the will are the names of some enslaved with details on what should happen  after his death. See will at the site listed in the citation below.

"Granville, North Carolina, United States records," Osborne Pope Will, Feb. Court 1812, Will book Vol 7, p 229;  images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9GW-Y9C5-R : accessed Mar 29, 2024), image 245 of 710; IGN 007639740.

In addition to the will recorded in Granville County, North Carolina there was also a case filed in  Williamson Co Tennessee which focused on that probate file in the years 1825 & 1826.  If you have worked in Williamson Co TN Probate you know there was an attempt to index and contain files in folders with a listing on index cards which was meant to be somewhat of a summary of the folders contents.  While this was done with the best of intentions, it is still necessary to examine each document.  There are at least 2 cases I know of in my own research where persons of the same name have been combined into one folder without any notation which makes it appear that the documents were all for ONE person. I would caution researchers when they use this set to exam each document with this in mind.  I have contacted the archives clerk and asked them to include a notation when I found this had occurred once I sorted out which documents belonged to each of the same named persons.  That said, this Osborne Pope file is a full of information for anyone researching persons enslaved by the Granville Co NC Pope Family.  It mentions the names and ages of the children of the enslaved that have been born between the time period of 1812 and 1825.

"Tennessee Probate Court Files, 1795-1955," Probate Folder Osborne Pope(of Granville Co., NC), images, FamilySearch

(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-2F3C-G2 : accessed 29 March 2024), Williamson > County Court, Probate, divorce & family records > 1800-1899 > Pewitt, Joel - Potts, Mary Ann > image 2340 of 2960; IGN # 004727159.