BRISCOE FAMILY
Of
ENGLAND AND AMERICA
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LINEAGE
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Arms
Ardent, three gray hounds
Courant in pale sable.
Crest
A gray hound courant sable, seizing a
Hare proper.
Motto
Grata sume manu.
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PREFACE
REMARKS CONCERNING WILLIAM WALLACE HENTON, THE SOURCES FOR HIS GENEALOGICAL COMPILATION OF THIS BRANCH 0F THE BRISCOE FAMILY IN THE UNITED STATES, AND AN EXAMINATION OF SEVERAL CONTEMPORARY SOLUTIONS OF THE PROBLEM INVOLVED IN THE DETERMINATION OF THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE PROGENITOR, WALTER BRISCOE, ? - 1783/4, WESTMORELAND, LATER FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
By all accounts, William Wallace Henton, 1867 - 1947 was an inveterate and prodigious letter writer. Nearly all of his sources were correspondents, immediate members of the families concerned, who were deeply interested in their present relatives as well as their antecedents. The greater portion of Henton's work of compilation was accomplished during a period of twenty years beginning about 1910, although he continued to add information until shortly before his death. In order to confirm his correspondence and identify himself, he liked to travel and meet representatives of the scattered branches of this family which was, indeed, related to the Hentons.
Except for the very last few years, Henton spent his life in the quiet college town of Canton, Lewis County, Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi River, his birthplace, employed as a mercantile clerk and as a bookkeeper in a bank. The organization and the detail shown in his compilations reveal his sense of order and relationship. It makes the genealogical masterpiece intelligible, readily comprehensible, and compact to the investigator His father, Walter Briscoe Henton. 1840 - 1923, was a business man …
[ii page missing – Robert Briscoe]
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… time, but they are not proven. One or them, of course, may be confirmed In the future. Which one, I dare not have a guess.
There are, however, two partial exceptions. One relates to Hester Henton. 1775 - 1858, another antecedents as given by Henton which are, as far as I can see, correct and reliable. I have no reason to doubt the compiler's information nor his sources. I have made, I must say, no special study of them.
The other exception relates to Walter Briscoe, 1771 - 1855, and his father also Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4, concerning whom there are certain indisputable facts which Henton may not have possessed, as well as facts verified by documentary evidence now available. Among them are these. Walter Briscoe, 1771 - 1855, was a son of another Walter Briscoe, 1783/4, who made a will in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in April, 1783, in which he named sons, Walter and Stephen, and wife, Elizabeth, as beneficiaries of his estate. Later Elizabeth, relict of Walter Briscoe, decedent, did remarry, and young Walter and his brother, Stephen, inherited according to the terms of their father's will. Mentioned, was certain property in a part of Westmoreland County, afterward Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Records of Nelson County, Kentucky, confirm the above. I do not know for certain that Elizabeth's maiden name was "Compton" as Henton asserts on page 4 of his compilation which shows, Walter Briscoe, 1771 - 1855, named his second child, "Elizabeth Compton." There is other evidence which seems to bear out Henton's assertion. I have searched diligently, attempting to establish the Compton family name; but I have no incontrovertible evidence to do so.
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Nevertheless, I think Henton may be quite correct in his assumption that the mother of Walter Briscoe, 1771 - 1855, was Elizabeth, born Compton, and wife of Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4. If true, it is possible to trace Elizabeth's paternal antecedents another two generations.
Regarding the problem of the paternity of Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4, who resided in Westmoreland, later Fayette County, Pennsylvania, there has been a great deal of study by a number of interested individuals in this century. The records of Fayette County possess several critical documents relating to Walter Briscoe as I found in 1957, still I failed to uncover a trace of any member of his family, i.e., his parents, brothers, sisters, or any relative. Neither was I able to determine his place of residence before coming to Westmoreland and its political predecessors.
Of the three hypotheses that account for the progenitors of Walter Briscoe, the one used by Henton is the oldest. As well as I can ascertain, Henton accepted the study of Julia Hite Gallaher, deceased, of Waynesboro, Virginia, a descendant of the Briscoe Family, and a prominent genealogist. I contacted her sister, Frances, about 1957, but found it impossible to obtain information from her because of advancing age. Miss Gallaher's case, in respect to Walter Briscoe's paternity, granting that she actually asserted one, cannot be established with any information available to me.
Another solution to the problem is found in a series of 5 charts prepared at the instance of Richard Chalmers Todd, deceased, who lived at Middletown, Ohio, in 1942. Todd made no claim to be a genealogist; he is reported to have been dismayed when his mother,
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who had Briscoe progenitors and faced with the encroachments of age, was on the point destroying an unorganized mass of Briscoe family material she had accumulated, he resolved to preserve it. Taking charge of his Bother's collection, he had 5 charts, 11 X 17 inches - each, prepared by draftsmen in his office under his supervision. On chart number 1 he lists his principal sources as (1) Marion Willlams Fulks, 1870 - 1958, who lived at California, Missouri, and noted that she was the person "who has supplied a great deal of the material herein used." During the summer of 1943, while studying at the University of Chicago, I learned of Marion Williams Fulks and later initiated a correspondence with her to find that she once had lived in Louisville, Kentucky, and there had met a granddaughter of William Chenoweth Briscoe, 1807 - 1890, born in Hardin County, Kentucky, and who was a son of Walter Briscoe, 1771 - 1855, and Hester Henton, 1775 - 185S, and a grandson of Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4. The granddaughter, Mary Weller Schachner, 1869 - ?, gave Marion Williams Fulks names, birth and death dates of all of William Chenoweth Briscoe's brothers and, sisters, information about both Walter Briscoes and certain family traditions which I have preserved, and in part, have verified by correspondence with the daughter of Mary Weller Schachner, Katherine Weller Schachner Avellar, 1903 -?. Henton's compilation of that part of the Briscoe Family descended from Walter Briscoe and Hester Henton,
who were married in July, 1792, in that part of Virginia which the same year became Nelson County, Kentucky, has its Briscoe source here in Marion Williams Fulks' work. I visited her in 1955. (2) Mary Virginia Saunders White, 1889 - , of Gates Mill, Ohio, who contributed, for Todd's
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charts, the line of Edward Briscoe. 1685 - 1726. Of her, I have no personal knowledge. (3) Rhoda Wood Whitehorn, deceased, of Downers Grove, Illinois, who contributed the line of Henry Briscoe, 1762 - 1838, and whom I once visited at the time she resided in Nacogdoches, Texas, with her daughter, Catherine Whitehorn, now of Baltimore, Maryland, and with whom I have contact. The Todd charts are by far the most significant graphic contribution I have found. Very likely Henton never saw them for he died within 5 years after Todd had completed the charts. Although Marion Williams Fulks had visited Lewis County, perhaps in the decade following 1920, she told me that she never had heard of Henton and his compilation of the descendants of Walter Briscoe and Hester Henton. Nevertheless, working independently, Henton, who visited in Kentucky several times and included Mary Weller Schachner, 1869 - ? , in his compilation, as well as Marion Williams Fulks had contact with the same Louisville source. At this writing there are copies of R. C. Todd's charts in the Illinois State Library, Springfield, in the possession of Lillian Briscoe of Oblong, Illinois, a descendant of the Henry Briscoe 1762 - 1838, line, and in my files. I am certain that there are still, others.
The third plausible explanation relating to the paternity of Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4, is found in the professional study which I had made by Harry Wright Newman, genealogist and author of a number of genealogical works, of Washington, D.C., in 1956. In his thorough and scholarly examination of the problem, Newman asserts the Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4, is the fifth son of Philip Briscoe who died intestate in St. Mary's County, Maryland in 1743, who, in
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turn is the son of Philip Briscoe who died testate in Charles County of the same state, in 1726. The records of administration of the first named Philip undoubtedly prove that Philip had a son named Walter. That this Walter is to be identified with the Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4, who resided in Westmorland, later Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and devised, in his will dated April 1, 1783; to Elizabeth, his wife, and Walter and Stephen, his sons, lacks any documentary support. Further, for Newman to identify a Walter Briscoe who married a certain Elizabeth Compton, in 1762, as appears in the parish records of Trinity Church, Charles County, Maryland, which are at the Maryland Historical Society Library, without further evidence of any kind except that furnished to Marion Williams Fulks and Henton by Mary Weller Schachner, seems to me an assumption, perhaps warranted, but certainly not to be accepted without clear documentary evidence.
At this juncture, the study by L. W. Reid, deceased, once a professor at Swarthmore College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, which appeared in the Maryland Historical Magazine, XXII (March, 1927), 42-54, in an article, "Some Descendants of Colonel Philip Briscoe," Reid, in dealing with Walter Briscoe, son of Philip Briscoe who died intestate in 1743, and in turn son of Colonel Philip Briscoe, above mentioned, Reid does not assert, as does Harry Wright Newman, that this Walter is to be identified as Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4. Reid's conclusion is quoted from page 49 of his article, as follows: "Walter is probably the Walter who married Elizabeth Briscoe 13th May, 1762, (Trinity Parish, Charles Co. rec.)." No support for this probability is stated. For what it is worth, Reid is in error, if
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one wishes to be precise. An examination of the parish record will show that the name Briscoe does not appear but Compton does and follows the name Elizabeth. Therefore the determination of the paternity of Walter Briscoe, ? - 1783/4, still remains for others to establish.
One word more needs recording. William Wallace Henton, an untrained genealogist, single-handedly produced a genealogy of the Walter Briscoe line that surpasses in scope, organization, and authority, any other I have known in the Briscoe Family name. We are, all of us, in debt to him.
Edward Eugene Briscoe
San Antonio
January 31, 1970
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SOME DESCENDANTS 0F
WALTER BRISCOE, 1771-1855, AND HESTER HENTON, 1775-1658
Compiled by
WILLIAM WALLACE HENTON
Of The genealogical Information concerning the descendants of Walter Briscoe and Hester Henton contained herein was secured, collated and organized from primary sources by Henton, as a result of his life-long interest in this branch of the American Briscoe Family. Approximately 900 individuals are listed. Henton, born in 1867 at Canton, died in Saint Louis in 1947. He, also, gathered a mass of information regarding the Chenowith, the La Follette, the Van Meter, and the Henton families. This copy, made in 1955, is from an original typed manuscript belonging to Ora Lee Henton Kreitz, Henton's sister, then in the possession of Dorothy Kreitz Lincoln, the Latter's daughter, of 6342 Garesche Avenue, Saint Louis 20, Missouri.
The above remarks made by Edward Eugene Briscoe, 1207 Bailey Avenue, San Antonio 10, Texas July l5,1957.
[no page label - This appears to be a page copied from a book different apart from the manuscript – origin unknown – Robert Briscoe]
MERRITT EDWARD BRISCOE
Was born on Valley Creek. Hardin County, Kentucky, March 19, 1833. His parents were
natives of that State. They immigrated to Missouri in 1836, locating in Lewis County. Where
the father purchased 1,730 acres of land. His mother died December 10, 1874. And his father
September 20, 1875, and both lie side by side in Briscoe Cemetery. Mr. Briscoe's education was obtained in the old log school houses of early days.
In 1854 be built a log cabin on the site of his present homestead. Mr. Briscoe has always been a staunch Democrat, taking a deep interest in public affairs, although he took no part in the "Civil War," and the only office he has ever held was that of Justice of Peace, in 1874.
September 2, 1855, he married Miss Mary Jane Fletcher, who was born April 28, 1832, of parents who emigrated from Boone County. Kentucky, in 1854, and settled the "Fletcher Tract." Her father died December 5, 1873, and her mother November 2, 1879, and are buried in Dover Cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Briscoe have been born the following children: Charles J., born October 31, 1856, who married Miss Angie Vernon and now is a prosperous farmer of Cowley County, Kansas.
John S , born February 28, 1858, who married Miss Addie Henry, and is engaged in farming; in Highland Township; Sarah H., born August 16, 1860, and married to S. E. McCaun and lives near Durham; Merritt E. born September 22, 1862, who married Miss Bella M. Adams, and lives on the old farm.
Mary E., born October 17, 1867, and married to N. N. Vernon of whom a sketch is published elsewhere. William H., born October 7, 1869, and lives at home. In the winter of 1865, he visited his native state, for the first time since leaving it, but has since that date been back five times.