Individual Details

Frances Harrison

( - )



The ancestral file gives the mother of Elizabeth as Mary Harrison. However, the marriage record of Elizabeth and James Rice in Pittsylvania Co, VA lists that Frances Richardson, mother, gave permission, for the bride, and Elizabeth Richardson also signed for herself.

Edmund Richardson is seen for Elizabeth's father, but unless there were two Edmund Richardson's that is incorrect. Actually there were multiple Edmunds which confuses the issue. Edmund Richardson was the father of Ann Eliza Payne Richardson who married Azariah Graves Walters, a son of Archibald, as his first wife. Edmund married Mary Dillard Harrison, 1811. I think it likely that Edmund was a son of Frances, therefore a brother to Elizabeth.

DAR lineage for Kate Holland Judkins, granddaughter of Azariah Graves Walters & Elizabeth Payne Richardson, states that the parents of Edmund Richardson were a Robert Richardson and Frances Harrison.

Another Richardson researcher sent me the following thinking it possibly identified Frances as nee Frances Harrison.
There is said to be a will in Pittsylvania Co, proven 1779 of a Benjamin Harrison, in which he names his daughter as Frances Richardson, wife of William Richardson.
An excerpt from indicates Benjamin had a daughter Diana who married Benjamin Martin:
.....With the union of these two Martin families, namely Diana Martin, dau. of Benjamin and Diana Harrison Martin, and John Jr. grandson of Isaac and Peggy Martin we have our two Martin lines.
Before we proceed with the lineage of Isaac Martin line, we shall take up the lineage of Diana Harrison, Martin, the wife of Benjamin Martin and the dau. of Benjamin Harrison, whose WILL was probated in 1779, Pittsylvania Co., Va.
An online database says that Diana Harrison Martin was born 1744 and died 1817 in Wilkes Co NC - so she could be a contemporary of Frances.

An online index from a Caswell Co book, Wills 1777-1814, indicates that a William Richardson died in Caswell Co, circa 1812. It is not the husband of Frances - the relationships involved indicate that he was her son.

Other possible children of this couple, besides Elizabeth, should William prove to be the husband of Frances Harrison were James S. Richardson, b. 1777 who married Anne Payne Ware [James & Anne named a son Edmund and a daughter Elizabeth Frances], Edmund Richardson who married Mary Dillard Harrison in 1811 [Anne Payne Ware was a 1st cousin once removed to Mary Dillard Harrison], and Mary Richardson, b. 1782, who married Andrew Harrison, 16 Jul 1803. [Andrew Harrison was either a brother or half-uncle to Mary Dillard Harrison, most likely the half-uncle. Mary & Andrew named their eldest son Willis Dodson Harrison - does that lead us back to Pittsylvania Co VA?] Elizabeth was age 65 in the 1850 census, so born circa 1785 but married James Rice in 1824. The William Richardson who died circa 1811-1812, would also seem to be a child of Frances.

I find one thing odd about the above information. If the Elizabeth Rice who married Archibald Walters was born in 1785, as indicated in 1850, or even born 1790 as indicated in the 1860 census, then it would have been unnecessary for her mother Francis to sign any sort of permission for her marriage to James Rice in 1824 - she would have been many years past 21. However, that seems to be the case.

I also found no deeds, etc. that seemed to be for an older William Richardson - they seem much more likely to apply to the son. None of the Caswell records seem to indicate any Senior or Junior William, either. One online database had given the elder William a death date of about 1818, I suspect he may have even died prior to the families move to North Carolina. Frances may have joined her children there, or come with them, as a widow.





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