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The land sold by John Aldred and Lillie Ann Aldred in 1784 was at the
confluence of Polecat Creek and Deep River, east of Randleman. These were
two different men, with two different marks, two different wives, and two
different parcels of land.
From the land records we know that John Aldred and Lillie Ann Aldred were
still alive on 24 January 1784. From the Last Will and Testament of John
Allred (husband of Margaret Chaney, father of Jonathan Allred) we know that
he was still alive on 15 September 1792. Because the 1790 census records
refer to him as “John Alred Snr.” we may conclude that his father, John
Aldrid, the husband of Lillie Ann Aldrid, was deceased.
According to the traditional genealogy, the four “original” Allreds –
John, Thomas, William, and Solomon – were the sons of John Alridge and Anne
Hamilton, who were married at Overwharton Parish, Stafford County, Virginia.
Ann, or “Annie,” born c. 1709, was the daughter of James and Grace Hambleton
of Westmoreland County, Virginia. She and her two older brothers, James and
John, were not “of age at Law to inherritt there Estates,” when her mother’s
will was written on 11 February 1727. Having determined that Lillie Ann
Aldred and Margaret Chaney were married to two different men, I reasoned
that the mysterious Lillie Ann was actually Annie Hamilton.
To whom Annie Hamilton (Hambleton) was actually married is somewhat of a
mystery. The traditional genealogy holds that she was married to John
Aldridge (Alridge, Aldred, Alred) (Born 16 May 1706, Wicomico Parish,
Northumberland County, Virginia), and that he was the son of William Aldridge
(Arledge) (Born February 1675, Wicomico Parish, Northumberland, Virginia,
Died 20 January 1724, Northumberland, Virginia), and the grandson of Clement
Aldridge (Born 25 September 1636, Worstead, Norfolk, England, Died 19 January
1699, Northumberland County, Virginia), whose ancestry could be traced back
to Rev. Henry Aldred (Born 1530, Worstead, Norfolk, England, Died 3 November
1612, Worstead, Norfolk, England). The Allred family now believes, based
upon DNA evidence, that they are not descended from Rev. Henry Aldred. But
DNA tests are not conclusive, for the very reason stated on the Allred
website: a negative result may only mean that “there was an illegitimate
child or adopted child somewhere” in the family tree. Moreover, DNA tests
do not identify the point before which the traditional lineage is incorrect.
The traditional genealogy has also been questioned based upon the timeline.
If Anne Hamilton married John Alridge in 1738, and Elizabeth Horner was born
in 1747, Anne could not have been Elizabeth’s grandmother. However, as shown
above, the earliest recorded marriages of Elizabeth Horner’s children were in
1801, 1802, 1802 and 1803, and her father John Alred appears on the 1755 tax
list as a single man, which suggests that a birth date of 1747 for Elizabeth
Horner is too early. More importantly, the 1738 marriage date for John
Alridge and Annie Hamilton may be incorrect.
According to the Overwharton Parish Register, Stafford County, Virginia,
John Alridge and Anne Hamilton were married on 11 June 1738. However, the
“original” register of births and marriages, of which a photographic copy is
on file at the Virginia State Archives in Richmond, was actually compiled by
Powhatan Moncure, Esq., after Reverend John Moncure became rector upon the
death of Reverend Alexander Scott in 1738. All the “original” entries are
in the same handwriting, that of Powhatan Moncure. It was he who began a
systematic record of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths. While the
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