These notes commence by continuing from the notes of Thomas Bicknell'sspouse, Rachel (Sparks) Bicknell, daughter of William Sample Sparks,taken from an article in THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, June 1997, Whole No. 178,pp. 4809-4826. The initial portion of the article appears in the notesfor Rachel's brother, George, and continues in her notes. The articlecontinues here at the bottom of page 4822:
"Also, Rachel's name does not appear as head of a household anywhere in astate census taken in North Carolina in 1787, nor on the North Carolinacensus of heads of families in 1790. Samuel Bicknell, brother ofRachells late husband, appeared as "Samuel Bucknall" on the 1790 censusof Wilkes County; he was in the "Seventh Company," which appears to haveinvolved the same area as had the District under Captain Alexander Gordonwhere he and Rachel had appeared on earlier tax lists. His household in1790 consisted of three white males age 16 and over; two white malesunder 16; four white females; and one slave. (White females were notdivided in any way by age group on the 1790 census.)
"Samuel Bicknell continued to live in Wilkes County until his death in1819. In his will (Wilkes County Will Book 3, p.314), he named his wife,Elizabeth, and children: Thomas, John, Sinsfield, Benjamin, Randolph,Nancy Camp, Jane Huland, Rhoda Brown, Hannah Stanley, and "my wife's fivechildren, Lewis, Larkin, Escenith, Clara, and Dolly." Elizabeth had beenhis second wife, by whom he was the father of these last five children.
"In her declaration for a pension in 1845, Rachel Bicknell stated thatshe was then living with her daughter, Mary, whose husband was DavidRoper, "on their charity." Fortunately, the marriage bond for MaryBicknell and David Roper has been preserved among the early survivingrecords of Burke County following the courthouse fire in 1865. Mostrecords were destroyed then, including all land records, makinggenealogical research in Burke County very difficult. The marriage bondof David and Mary (Bicknell) Roper is dated January 23, 1816, withSolomon Roper as bondsman and J. Erwin as witness.
"If Rachel Bicknell's statement is correct, that her daughter, Mary,had been born four months and fifteen days following her husband's deathon December 31, 1780, then Mary had been born on May 15, 1781. Thismeans that she was 34 years old when she was married to David Roper, wellbeyond the typical age for women to marry in those days. David Roper,according to census records, had been born between 1760 and 1770, and wasthus from 12 to 24 years older than Mary. He was a widower with a largenumber of children.
"David Roper was probably related to the James Roper who was bornabout 1766 in that part of Orange County, North Carolina, that becameCaswell County, in 1777; James Roper died in Burke County, NorthCarolina, in 1853. Of interest is the fact that a son of James Ropernamed Benjamin Roper, born between 1780 and 1790, moved to PickensCounty, South Carolina, as did David Roper. (A descendant of James Roper,Mr. L. David Roper of Blacksburg, Virginia, has done extensive researchon the descendants of this James Roper.)
"David Roper's name did not appear on the 1800 census of Burke County,although James Roper was shown heading a household and living near thehousehold headed by William Sparks, Jr. and Jeremiah Sparks, sons ofWilliam Sparks (born ca.1725) who had joined his relatives in the Forksof the Yadkin in 1764. This William Sparks, son of William SampleSparks, died in Surry County, North Carolina, in 1801/02. (See theQuarterly of June 1991, Whole No. 154, pp.3751-3798, for an article aboutWilliam Sparks, born ca.1725, and his family.)
"The 1810 census of Burke County has become so faded that much of itis impossible to read, but, fortunately, pages 342 and 348 are legible,and on the latter page appears the name of David Roper, with anenumeration of his household. On page 342 is clearly legible the name ofRachel Bicknell. They were obviously neighbors.
"David Roper was shown on the 1810 census in the 26 to 45 agecategory, as was a female, who was surely his first wife. They then hadten children, four sons and one daughter between 10 and 16, and threedaughters and two sons under 10 years. We can imagine that his marriageto Mary Bicknell in 1816 followed rather closely his first wife's death.(It is our assumption that the children in David's household were his ownchildren; it was not until 1880 that the decennial federal censusprovided for the relationship of household members to, or theirconnection with, the head of that household.)
"As noted, Rachel Bicknell was living near David Roper in Burke Countyin 1810; she was shown in the enumeration of her household in the "over45" age category. Living with her was a female between 16 and 26 who wasdoubtless her youngest daughter, Mary Bicknell. Mary was actually 29,but she probably fibbed to the census taker when he asked her age. Therewas also a male child, shown as under 10 years of age, in RachelBicknell's household in 1810. We wonder whether he might have been agrandson.
"Also appearing on a legible portion (page 27) of the 1810 census ofBurke County, was a household headed by "WilHam Bucknell.11 "Bucknell"was a frequent misspelling for Bicknell, and we believe that this wasRachells son who, with her son Micajah, had signed the 1797 deed withher, selling Thomas Bicknell's land in Wilkes County. Micajah Bicknellmay well have appeared on the 1810 census heading a household in BurkeCounty, also, on one of the many illegible pages. Wilham's age categorywas given in 1810 as between 26 and 45 (thus born between 1765 and 1784),as was that of the female in his household who was surely his wife.There were also one male and two females under the age of 10, and onemale between 10 and 16.
"Living not far from Rachel Bicknell in Burke County in 1810 wasElizabeth Sparks (recorded as "Eliza."), widow of John Sparks, grandsonof the William Sparks, born ca.1725, whom we believe to have beenRachells half-brother. John Sparks had followed his father, WilliamSparks, Jr., to Burke County shortly after 1800. (See the March 1996issue of the Sparks Quarterly, Whole No. 173, pp. 4603-10, for an articleabout this John Sparks and his widow, Elizabeth.)
"When the 1820 census was taken of Burke County, "Rachel Becknell" wasshown on page 95 as heading her own household, consisting now of onlyherself and a male child under ten; perhaps this was the same child whohad also been shown as under ten on the 1810 census--a grandson, perhaps.
"David Roper appeared, also, on page 95 of the 1820 census of BurkeCounty, heading a household that was enumerated as follows:
1 male, 45 & up (himself) 1 female, 26 to 45 (his wife, Mary)
2 males, 16 to 26 3 females, 16 to 26
2 males, 10 to 16 1 female, 10 to 16 1 male,under 10 1 female, under 10
"Some of David Roper's older children by his first wife had likelyleft home by 1820; we can be sure that at least those in 1820 who werethen under ten years of age were Mary's. A question on the 1820 censusasked for the number of persons in each household engaged in variousspecified fields of labor. David Roper reported the five members of hishousehold were engaged in agriculture.
"Also shown on the 1820 census of Burke County, on page 15, was"William Becknell" with a large family, whose name had been spelled"Bucknell" on the 1810 census. We are confident that he was Rachellsson. The enumeration of his
household in1820 was as follows:
1 male, 45 & up 1 female, 26 to 45
1 male, 26 to 45 1 female, 16 to 26
1 male, 16 to 26 2 females, 10 to 16
1 male, 10 to 16 2 females under 10
1 male under 10
"We have found neither Rachel Bicknell nor David Roper as head of ahousehold on the 1830 census of Burke County, North Carolina. DavidRoper had moved to Pickens County (called "Pickens District") in SouthCarolina by that time, as was probably also true of his mother-in-law,Rachel Bicknell. Located in the northwest corner of South Carolina,Pickens County had been part of Pendleton District until it had been cutoff in 1825. Today its northern border adjoins Transylvania County,North Carolina, although in 1830 that portion of North Carolina wascontained in Buncombe County.
"Unfortunately, the 1830 census of Pickens County is in very poorcondition, with large portions of a number of its pages faded beyondlegibility. Nevertheless, the surname of eleven heads of households isdiscernible as "Roper," including David Roper (page 317), whose age wasmarked in the 1160 to 7011 category. On the same page, indicatinggeographical proximity, are the names Singleton Roper and William Roper,both enumerated as between 20 and 30 years of age. We may wonder whetherthey could have been sons of David Roper by his first wife. Each had awife in the same age category as himself, with small children.Curiously, no female in David Roper's household was enumerated that wouldfit the age of his second wife, Mary (Bicknell) Roper, although theenumeration section of this page, as is true throughout this census, isespecially faded. It is clear, however, that there was one male between15 and 20 and two females between 10 and 15 living with David Roper inPickens County, South Carolina, in 1830. Where Rachel Bicknell wasliving in 1830 is not known; perhaps she was with one of her otherchildren, or appeared on one of the illegible pages of the 1830 census.
"David Roper was among fifteen men and four women named Roper whoappeared as heads of households on the 1840 census of Pickens County.David Roper's name is on page 370; he was now shown in the 70 to 80 agecategory. The female in his household shown as between 50 and 60 wasdoubtless his wife, Mary, while the female shown as between 80 and 90 wassurely his mother-in-law, Rachel (Sparks) Bicknell. Five years later, in1845, in her declaration seeking a pension, Rachel stated that herdaughter, Mary, had been married to David Roper, and that "she now liveswith her, on their charity" in Pickens County.
"As was noted earlier, in her 1845 application for a pension, RachelBicknell stated that proof she was the widow of the Revolutionary Warsoldier named Thomas Bicknell, was "herewith forwarded." That proof wasnot obtained, however, until 1851.
"It was on October 15, 1851, that Rachel Bicknell's application, withits four supporting documents, was sent by a Washington, D.C., lawyernamed Thomas LumpIdn to the Commissioner of Pensions, James E. Heath.Lumpkin must have been engaged by a member of Rachells family to performthis service.
"We have xerox copies of all the papers in the pension file of RachelBicknell from the National Archives. The only document created by theBureau of Pensions in this file is a form designed to show the receiptand disposition of pension applications; it was only partially completedfor Rachel. Fo]Llowing the number assigned to her (Rl2399), it wasstamped "REJECTED," without date or explanation. We can only conjecturewhy.
"David Roper apparently died sometime before 1850, and when the censusfor that year was taken in Pickens County, his widow, Mary (Bicknell)Roper, now 70 years old, was shown as living with Mead and MargaretSmith, aged 29 and 31 respectively, in the Eastern Division of the county(page 496). (It was the 1850 census that included for the first time, thename, age, and place of birth for each member of each household.) Besidesher age as 70, Mary Roper was reported as being a native of NorthCarolina; she could neither read nor write, owned no property, and had nooccupation.
"The Smiths, with their eight children, were natives of SouthCarolina. What the relationship between Mary Roper and this Smith familymay have been, if ' any, is unknown. On the 1860 census of PickensCounty (page 163A) Mead Smith was identified as "Washington Smith," age51, and a native of "Pickens, S.C." The age of his wife, Margaret Smith,was given as 50; she, also, had been born in "Pickens," as had theirchildren, four more of whom had been added since the 1850 census.
"Although Rachel (Sparks) Bicknell must have been living with arelative somewhere in South Carolina or North Carolina when the 1850census was taken, she has not been found in either of the indexespublished for those states. We hope that a record may exist somewhere toreveal the place and date of her death, as well as a complete list of herand Thomas Bicknell's six children. We know the names of only her twosons, William and Micajah, and that of her youngest daughter, Mary.Because only William and Micajah had been involved with their mother inthe selling of Thomas Bicknell's land in Wilkes County, North Carolina,in 1797, we believe that her three other children were daughters, ifstill living then.
End of article in SQ Whole No. 178.