FOUND THE WILL OF CAPTIAN JAMES WEEMS!!!!!

Dear Bill,

We found the will for James Weems d. 1723 in New York City!

The archivist was so excited that she found it, she actually called me! She's never been asked to find anything from that time period before and she was amazed that they actually had it.

She found the original will and the one that was recorded int he Liber books. She said originally the name was spelled Wemyss, which tells me he is related to the Scottish Weymss line from Scotland, a direct line into Sinclair and all the rest!

YES!!! She's sending it by email. I'm so excited!

Diana

UK Archives returns...

Well, the requests for information from the UK archives came back, and it was nothing that we didn't already have. Just a letter for supplies to the English army for supplies, signed by Capt. James Weems. They did refer me on to somewhere else to see if they have his records of enlistment. Still waiting for the will to come from back to New York! I'm so impatient!!!

Hmmm. The plot thickens...

Well, so far the National Archives in London has responded to one request. Turns out just to be a letter signed by Captain James Weems, which we already knew about.

However! The NY archives has his and Alexander's wills and I'm so excited, I can hardly wait till they arrive by US mail. Of course with all the snow, they'll probably come by Santa Claus on his sleigh. 10 more inches coming tonight!

In the meantime, I've been looking at Thomas Scott Weems and wondering... why don't we have record of his immigration or his parents to the Americas? Is it possible that he was born here and not in Scotland?

More pieces to the puzzle are coming. I'm just so impatient....

Estate of Capt. James Weems

Good evening!

Ohh! Lots of luck today! Got your envelope, went to the bank and took care of the mundane chores of life, and then spent most of the day at the public library in Davenport.

Interesting place! They have a huge collection of books, almost all of which are included in Ancestry.com's database. Most everything I looked at, I already had but it was good to be able to look at the indexes for different spellings of the names; which eliminated the group from Sumner Co., TN. Almost any time they married or died, they used the names of Wims. Only the census listed them as Weems. They may fit in later, but right now I'm concentrating on NY.

It's sorta like finding all the pieces to a puzzle, putting them in the box, throwing them up in the air a few times to see where they land, and then trying to put them together.

Anyway! Today I found a cornerpiece! There is a book called "Genealogical Data from N.Y.'s First Newspaper" which has an entry for Capt. James Weems.

Weems, Capt. James late of NYC, dec'd - estate (7/7/29)

Because the date is repeated on the next couple of entries, it is most likely the date of the newspaper. I also searched the National Archives in London and found a corresponding entry for a James Weymss deceased, with a corresponding date, sort of.

According to the NY Colonial Records, he was replaced in 1723 after death. The will probate in London is in 1724 and the newspaper article is 1729, which means it took a while to get completed. I know it sounds a little odd but probates between the states of England often took several years, especially if they owned property in both places, which is probably what happened.

I also found the birth records of 2 of Thomas Scott Weems and Eleanor Jacobs children in St. Stephens Parish in Bucks Co., PA, giving me a place to look for other children.

I'm going to see if I can't find the original newspaper article, a copy of his probate in NY and a copy of the will from London. Pieces are falling into place!

Diana

Loose pieces...

Good evening,

It's been an interesting day. :-) I think I've pretty much exhausted all the materials online, and have found the following:

1) James (Captain) Weems came to America in about 1695 as a soldier from Scotland. He never left and died in 1723 in New York. Children unknown.

2) The PA line of Thomas Scott Weems, father John Weems was born about 1673, but there is no record of him ever emigrating to the US. There is another John Weymss in the Darien records, but he went to Panama, and another who went to Georgia. If they "are" the same people, the Darien records give his origin (Canongate, Edinburg) and parents, Alexander Weymss and Bessie Innes. (Make note of the name Alexander.)

3) The only recorded child of John Weems and his wife Isabella Scott is Thomas Scott Weems, b. 1704. There could have been more - should have been more. Meaning John Weems was born about 1673 and could have been a son of Captain James Weems, and brother of James (Deputy Surveyor) Weems of Anne Arundel County, who is also unaccounted for. He doesn't belong to the AA group. Or he could be the John Wemyss that emigrated through Panama.

4) Thomas Scott Weems family was born and raised in Cecil Co., MD, a fair distance from Anne Arundel. "Both" John and Margaret fit in well to his family and he does have children named John and Margaret that are unaccounted for. No one's ever tried to connect them until I did. And, someone in your family did think that Margaret was born in Cecil County. Thomas Scott and his family all moved to Abbeville, SC which isn't far from the jumping off point of Hillsboro, NC. In fact, Hillsboro was the jumping off place for most everyone goes into the wilds.

5) There is another unaccounted for bunch of Weems in Sumner Co., TN (now Macon Co.,) that could be related to John and Margaret Weems. No one has ever done quantifiable research on them because they didn't seem to be part of the Anne Arundel crowd, where all the royal blood was.

6)There are two marriages in Boston, MA, one for Thomas and one for sister Hannah; 1717 and 1724, meaning they came from a family that was here before 1720.

7) There is also an Alexander Weymss, came to US in 1695 through the West Indies, same as James (Capt) Weems. Records say he settled in New York. Quite a coincidence?

I think what we've found is the remnants of Captain James Weems family. He obviously married and had children in NY and had family in Boston, where his wife (Anne Campbell) and her father lived while he was the 2-yr governor. They seem to have gone from NY to MA to PA, to MD in Cecil Co., MD. That's close enough to the Gott family for Margaret to have married a Gott family member. I think that Alexander could very well be a brother or relative. He came from Canongate, Edinburg, Scotland.

Tomorrow, I've going to finally make it to the library, where I've pulled their list of NY genealogy records and matched it against what is available at the NY City library. The Davenport library has many of the same books and has a great collection of early records. I should be able to find something. Will also check out the PA, MA and MD books as well.

In the meantime, I've ordered land record, title searches on the Weems tract in St. Mary's Co., MD in 1657, church records from MD, and will continue to search for evidence that John and Margaret Weems are either the children of Thomas Scott Weems, b. 1704 or additional information on the Boston and NY Weems.

We now have the following suspects:

James (Captain) Weems from Albany, NY b. abt 1660 d. 1723

Alexander Weymss from NY b. abt 1670

Thomas Weems, married in 1724 in Boston b. abt 1700

Thomas Scott Weems b. 1704 in Bucks Co., PA

and a bunch of renegades who poison their husbands in Sumner Co., TN. (long story!)

Hope your day went as well!

Diana