Seth Mayberry of Jackson County, Tennessee

Who were the parents of Seth Maybury?

Our most ambitious research project to date began in 1994 with an attempt to find the parents of Seth Maybury, who was born about 1783 and died after 1860, leaving many descendants in Jackson and surrounding counties in Tennessee. Most believe that Seth was a son of Francis Maybury who came to what is now Tennessee from Pittsylvania County, Virginia at least as early as 1785.

Francis Maybury, merchant, land speculator, etc.

Francis Maybury (as he always spelled his name) was a trader and land promoter. He also built the first courthouse in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1801. While living in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, he received several State of North Carolina grants for land located in what later became the State of Tennessee (1796). In addition to grants in his own name he also bought land warrants from others Most of the land he bought and sold was located in the modern counties of Jefferson, Hawkins, Sullivan, Grainger, Anderson, Union, Knox, Jackson, Overton, and Clay. Despite the large number of documents we have found about him, we have yet to find one that names his first wife or any of his children. Two documents from 1804 mention his second wife, Mary, whom he married about 1797. She was the widow of William Wilson of Pittsylvania County, Virginia and the daughter of James Dix. She and Francis apparently had no children.

George³ Mabry (George², Francis¹)

Again, we have no documentation but it is possible that Francis Maybury was a son of George³ Mabry (George², Francis) who was living next to his brother Isaac³ Mabry in old Rowan County, North Carolina in 1768. By 1773 George³ had moved across the line into that part of Pittsylvania County later became Henry County. He and his son, George⁴ owned land on Rock Castle Creek, Burk's Fork, and Greasy Creek. Isaac³ Mabry settled nearby on Robertson's Creek. When Francis Maybury made one of his early trips to what was to become Tennessee, he was probably accompanied by his presumed brother, George⁴ Mabry, who in 1790 bought 640 acres of land on Poplar Creek, near modern Oak Ridge. However, George⁴ continued to live in Virginia until 1796 when he and his father moved to Knox County, Tennessee and bought land on Beaver Creek. There the elder George Mabry died in January 1801. George⁴ is the progenitor of the prominent (and tragic) Mabry family of Knox County.

Other interesting discoveries

We have found deeds in Montgomery County, Virginia showing that George³ Mabry bought 1900 acres of land on the headwaters of Greasy Creek and on Burks Fork in 1792. This land is located in modern Floyd County very near and perhaps even adjacent to the land, just across the line in Carroll County where his nephew, Charles⁴ (Isaac³) Mabry is buried. This 1900 acres was not sold when George³ moved to Knox County, Tennessee in 1796. Rather, it seems to have been inherited by his son, George⁴ Mabry, who sold it in 1808.

John³ (George²) Mabry died in Halifax County, NC at age 102

Almost nothing is known about John³ Mabry except that he remained in Halifax County, North Carolina when his brothers and father moved to Rowan County in the 1760s. However, we have recently found two brief newspaper articles in the Raleigh Register which refer to the death of John Mabry, "in the northern district of Halifax County" at the age of 102 years. This was in 1815 and he was thus born about 1713.

Maybury incident involves family of Cherokee leader, John Ross

We keep discovering more and more intriguing information about Francis Maybury who traveled to places like Philadelphia and Baltimore to buy goods which he brought back to sell in eastern Tennessee. He is also known to have built the first courthouse in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1801. About the same time he operated a ferry across the Clinch River near Clinton, and also had a "public house" nearby.

We have recently discovered that his trading extended beyond the newly settled areas northeast of Knoxville. He also traded with Indian tribes some distance to the west. We have located several references to an incident in 1785 when he built a barge "on the upper Tennessee River" (probably the Holston), loaded it with goods to trade for furs and began making his way downstream. He was assisted by a young man named Daniel Ross, who had recently arrived in America from Scotland. One account says that when Maybury and Ross reached a point very near the present site of Chattanooga, they were captured by Indians who were intent on killing them. However, their lives were spared by the intervention of John McDonald, who had come to the area as a British Indian agent in 1766. The Cherokees allowed Daniel Ross to remain and establish a trading post and he later married Molley, the daughter of John McDonald and his wife, Anna Shorey. Anna Shorey was the daughter of William Shorey who had come as a British interpreter at Ft. Loudoun where he married a Cherokee woman called Ghigooia. William Shorey died at Ft. Loudoun in 1762.

Daniel and Molley Ross had a son, John Ross (pictured at left), born near Lookout Mountain in 1790. John was raised among the Cherokees and became a their champion in the struggle that led to the removal of the Indians from their home in Georgia to lands in Oklahoma. John Ross served for seven years as president of the National Council of the Cherokee, and in 1828 he became principal chief of the eastern branch of the Cherokee. After the failure of his efforts to preserve the Cherokee lands in Georgia he led his people in 1838-39 their new home where he united the eastern and western tribes under one government. John Ross was chief of the united Cherokee nation until his death in 1866.

For more information

Our research continues in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina in the hope of documenting these relationships and learning more about the descendants of George³ and Isaac³ Mabry. This research is sponsored by Dr. Eugene Mayberry of Naples, Florida, a descendant of Seth Mayberry of Jackson County, Tennessee. For the latest information, send a message to: Don Collins at: dcollins@bewellnet.com or Dr. Mayberry at: wemayberryhsd@earthlink.net.

Feb 2001