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Only two persons with the name of Philips or Phillips appears in the 1810
census for Randolph County. One, a woman whose name is illegible, had no sons.
The other, Jas. (James) Philips, age 26-44, had a wife 26-44, and six children:
one boy 10-14, one boy 5-9, one girl 10-14, and three girls 5-9. James has to
be the father of Stephen, Elmsly, Jean, Sally, and two other girls.
This is confirmed by process of eliminations. In a six-county area, including
Chatham, Cumberland, Guilford, Moore, Orange and Randolph counties, there are
forty-three persons in the 1810 census with the name of Philips or Phillips.
Of these, nineteen have one or more sons aged 10-14, but only eight have four
children of the right genders and age brackets to be the four orphans. Of
these, six were still alive in 1820 and so their children were not orphans.
The other two (James Philips of Randolph County, and Zion Phillips of Chatham
County) are not found in 1820. But Polly Philips, by the gender and age
brackets of her children in the 1820 census, can be identified as the widow of
Zion, so her children were not orphans. That leaves James Philips of Randolph
County. He must have been the father of the four orphans.
The other two daughters of Jas. Philips are discernible in the Randolph County
marriage bonds. These generally list a bondsman, or a witness, or both. When
the same name appears recurrently, it can be an indication of family ties among
the couples being married. For example, Jno. (John) B. Troy witnessed four
Phillips marriages:
Stephen Phillips and Delila Allred, 13 April 1819 (Peter Amick, Bondsman)
Samuel Barker and Jenny Phillips, 13 March 1824 (Enoch Williams, Bondsman)
Orran Williams and Losaidy Philips, 9 June 1838 (Zimri E. Lamb, Bondsman)
Riley Vestal and Polly Phillips, 13 December 1843 (Benjamin Branson, Bondsman)
Enoch Williams married Jemimah Phillips, 20 April 1811, in Randolph County.
Enoch was the bondsman for Samuel Barker and Jenny Phillips. This connection
suggests that Jemimah and Jenny were sisters.
Enoch Williams, in the 1830 census for Randolph County, is on the same page
with William Allred, son of Jonathan Allred, first cousin to Delilah Allred.
Enoch has seven sons. Orren Williams, who later married Delilah Allred's
daughter Losady (Losaidy) Phillips, may have been one of them.
On the next page in the 1830 census are Josiah Bowdoin and Jesse Vestal. Two
of Jesse Vestal's cousins, (Riley Vestal and Thomas Vestal), married two of
Stephen and Delilah's daughters (Mary “Polly” Phillips and Rachel G. Phillips),
in 1843 and 1849, respectively. Stephen Phillips sold 236.5 acres on Brush
Creek on 8 August 1851 to Josiah Bowdoin (Book 9, Page 192), who, in 1857, was
administrator of the estate of Elizabeth Phillips, second wife of, and widow
of, Stephen Phillips (whose will is dated 18 October 1855).
Peter Amick, bondsman for Stephen Phillips and Delilah Allred, is listed in the
1830 census for Randolph County on the same page as Joseph Allred, who was
Delilah's father. Zimri E. Lamb, bondsman for Orran Williams and Losaidy
Philips, is listed in the 1840 census for Randolph County on the same page as
Stephen Phillips, who was Losaidy's father.
And, interestingly, Stephen Phillips, in the 1830 census for Randolph County,
is listed on the same page as Wiley Wall (or Walls). Franklin Phillips (born
c. 1842), who was living in Stephen's household in the 1850 census, is not
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