I43294: Clara A. BETHEA (1885

Notes

Lucy married Colonel Taylor and left descendants. (from Granville Co. Hist. Soc.)
m. Lucy Penn, daughter of John Penn, 3rd signer of the Declaration of Independence and grand-daughter of William Penn, founder of the State of PA. (this is incorrect at least I haven't found any connection to Wm Penn on this side of the Atlantic).

Will of Harry/Henry Lyne to (5) his granddaughter, Lucy Taylor;

Msg from David W. McCullough a member of DSDI for many years through John Penn.
John Penn, whose daughter Lucy married John Taylor of Caroline in 1783 when she was 17 years of age. Something regarding Penn's Taylor ancestors can be found in Della Gray Bartherlmas The Signers of the Declaration of Independence, A Biographical and Geneaological Reference. Also the DAB (Dicionary of American Biography) contains an article of John Penn in Vol. 14. His birth is given as May 6 (old style calendar) but is May 17 in the New Style Calendar adopted in 1752. It is through Penn's daughter Lucy that my family has connection to the Penn. Lucy Penn (whose mother is Susannah Lyme Penn) gave birth to 9 children. She married John Taylor, son of James and Ann (Pollard) Taylor on Dec. 4, 1783. Her husband died in "Hazlwood", Caroline County, Va. in 1824. Several researchers, including a couple of historians, have warned me that Marshall Wingfield's "A History of Caroline County, Virginia" contains many mistakes, including some erroneous mixing up of families.

"The person that raised this issue was Marshall Wingfield in his book "A History of Caroline County Virginia" which was published in 1924. He wrote: " John Penn, according to Sanderson's "Biography of the Signers," was the only child of Moses Penn and Catherine Taylor; while Pittman's biography of Penn we are told that he had a sister. He was born in Caroline county, near Port Royal, on May 17, 1741 (also in dispute).

John Taylor, "of Caroline" was several years Penn's junior, is usually referred to in history as Penn's grandfather, and sometimes as his son-in-law, and it is barely possible that the latter statement is true, since the family records show that John Taylor married a Penn, but it is more likely that Taylor married a sister of Penn or some relative other than a daughter. It is no doubt quite true that Penn's mother was the daughter of one John Taylor, but certainly not of John Taylor, "of Caroline"."

^[S166]

Notes

William C. Preston (10/16/1816 - 9/21/87) m. (12/9/1840) Margaret Preston Wickliffe

Letter from William Preston to his son Robert Wickliffe Preston,
November 28, 1861
Bowling Green, KY
William Preston (1816-1887) was from Louisville, Kentucky. He was from a prestigious family: some of his relations included brother-in-law General Albert Sidney Johnston, cousins Vice-President John C. Breckinridge and Senator Thomas Hart, and uncles Secretary of War John Floyd, Governor James P. Preston, and Governor James McDowell. In 1840 he married a wealthy Lexington heiress who was also his third cousin, Margaret Preston Wickliffe. They had six living children (for the family tree, see Howard-Wickliffe-Preston Genealogy Website). He served in the Mexican War, and during the 1850s he took leadership roles in state (1849 constitutional convention) and national politics (House of Representatives). In 1858 President James Buchanan appointed him ambassador to Spain, and his family moved to Madrid. They did not return to Kentucky until July of 1861, whereupon Preston became involved in the unsuccessful peace process.

When the Ky. legislature established the Home Guards to counterbalance the official State Guard militia and began arresting Southern sympathizers, Preston left in mid September 1861 for the Russellville conventions in Logan County where he helped establish the Confederate State Government of Kentucky. Together with Henry C. Burnett & William E. Simms, Preston would go to Richmond as commissioner to negotiate the alliance with the Confederate States of America. He wrote from Bowling Green to his only son, Robert Wickliffe Preston (age 11), to explain why he had joined the secession movement and eventually to fight for the Confederacy.
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Bowling green Ky
28 Nov. 1861
My Dear Son,
I am away from you now but you are never away from my heart. When you grow older you will know how the war keeps me away from you and your mother and sisters, and how wicked men have made the people angry and unhappy and destroyed a great country. We were rich & will be poor, happy & will be unhappy and many mothers will see their children killed, because the Northern people would not let us alone. Many Northern people have already been killed & many homes darkened with mourning.

I am compelled either to join in this war against our friends, or see my state give money to carry it on, or give money to them to carry on this cruel and useless war, or to fly from you and your mother & little sisters. This is very hard, but I think it is better to bear banishment and leave you all than to support the State in carrying on this war, or in giving money to kill the Southern people. This then is the reason I am now far away from you. God may never permit me to see you again, but I wish you to love and obey your dear mother whom I love far better than life & to be a support and comfort to her. You must too be good and kind to your sisters, & gentle.

I wish you also dear Wick to study Latin well.

I will never cease to think of you & pray God for you constantly, and fervently.

Your devoted father

W. Preston

Robt Wickliffe Preston
Lexington, KY.

Box 54, folder 8, Wickliffe-Preston Family Papers, University of Kentucky Special Collections and Archives.

Children:
Mary Owen Preston (10/8/1841 - 3/16/1898) m. (11/25/1869) John Mason Brown (4/26/1837 - 1/29/1890)
Caroline Hancock Preston (8/3/1843 - 10/15/1917) m. (5/31/1870) Robert Augustine Thornton (1/26/1843 - 11/10/1915)
Margaret Howard Wickliffe Preston (12/10/1845-10/29/1926) m. (12/5/1878) George Montgomery Davie (3/16/1848 - 2/22/1900)
Robert Wickliffe Preston (12/2/1850 - 6/9/1914) m. (2/1/1883) Sarah Benton Brant McDowell (10/12/1850 - 2/28/1923)
Susan Christy Preston (10/16/53 - 6/22/1919) m. (5/22/1890) William Franklin Draper (4/9/1842 - 1/28/1910)
Jessie Fremont Preston (12/4/1855-2/10/1917) m. (11/5/1890) George Albert Draper (11/4/1855 - 2/7/1923)

PRESTON, William, (nephew of Francis Preston), a Representative from Kentucky; born near Louisville, Ky., October 16, 1816; pursued preparatory studies and was graduated from St. Joseph’s College, Kentucky; attended Yale College in 1835; was graduated from the law department of Harvard University in 1838; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Louisville, Ky., in 1839; served as lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Kentucky Volunteers in the war with Mexico 1846-1848; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1849; member of the State house of representatives in 1850; served in the State senate 1851-1853; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Humphrey Marshall; reelected to the Thirty-third Congress and served from December 6, 1852, to March 3, 1855; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1854 to the Thirty-fourth Congress; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain 1858-1861; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army and attained the rank of major general; appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the Confederacy to Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, in 1864; again a member of the State house of representatives in 1868 and 1869; died in Louisville, Ky., September 21, 1887; interment in Cave Hill Cemetery.

Honorable William Preston-(Major General CSA/Lt. Col., U.S. Congressman, Ambassador to Spain)
Major General CSA/Lt. Col in KY Volunteers; U.S. Congressman & Ambassador to Spain)

"William Preston, politician and soldier, was born near Louisville on 16 October 1816, to Major William Preston, a Revolutionary War Veteran who acquired choice land at the Falls of the Ohio [River], and Caroline (Handcock Preston. He received a classical education in several preparatory schools of Kentucky and obtained a degree in literary studies from Yale College in 1835 and an LL.B. at Harvard in 1838. After establishing a successful law practice in Louisville, he launched a political career as a Whig.

Preston participated in the Mexican War (1846-1848), achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 4th Kentucky Volunteers. He was a delegate to the 1849 Kentucky Constitutional Convention and served in the Kentucky House in 1851 and the State Senate in 1852. In September 1852 he was elected to fill the vacant U.S. Congressional seat of Democrat Humphrey Marshall. Preston advocated a pro-slavery position in the House, where he served until he was defeated by Marshall in the 1855 election. By 1856 he had switched allegiance to the Democratic party. He participated as a delegate to the 1856 Democratic convention, where he supported James Buchanan and successfully nominated fellow Kentuckian John C. Breckinridge for the Vice-Presidency. In late 1858 Preston received an appointment as U.S. Minister to Spain. He successfully negotiated the long-standing Amistad claims with Spain, but the U.S. Senate on a sectional vote rejected it. He tried to purchase Cuba from Spain for $30 Million and, using principles from the Monroe Doctrine, protested Spanish intervention in Santo Domingo.

Preston resigned the ambassadorship and joined the Confederate States of America, formed in February 1861. He rose to the rank of Major General and engaged in numerous battles, including those at Fort Donelson, Nashville, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga. At Shiloh his brother-in-law, General Albert Sidney Johnston, died in his arms. In January 1864 he was selected Confederate minister to Mexico. Frustrated by the lack of recognition from the Mexican government, Preston resigned and joined General Edmund Kirby-Smith's Trans-Mississippi Department in Texas in December 1864, where he served until the war ended. At war's end he spent several months in exile in England and Canada before obtaining a federal pardon in 1866 and returning to Lexington.

Preston served a single term in the state legislature in 1868 and was a delegate to the 1880 Democratic convention. He devoted most of his time to overseeing the large estate he had inherited from his father-in-law. [Honorable Robert C. Wickliffe-(Attorney & Legislator)]

In 1840 Preston married Lexingtonian Margaret Wickliffe, daughter of Honorable Robert C. Wickliffe-(Attorney & Legislator), Kentucky's largest slaveholder. They had five daughters: Mary Owen, Caroline Hannah, Margaret, Susan C., and Jesse Freemont, and a son, Robert Wickliffe. Preston died in Lexington on 21 September 1887, and was buried in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.

See J. Frederick Dorman, "General William Preston" FCHQ 43 (Oct. 1969); 301-308; J. Frederick Dorman, The Prestons of Smithfield and Greenfield in Virginia (Louisville 1982). Written by Charles C. Hay III for The Kentucky Encyclopedia, page 738-739; 1992.

My Southern Family

Clara A. BETHEA

1885 - 1953

ID Number: I43294

Sources

Richard GAINES

ABT 1760 - ____

ID Number: I58832

Sources

Jacob HACKNEY

ABT 1770 - ____

ID Number: I101260

Sources

Frances HENDRICKS

ABT 1700 - ____

ID Number: I39378

Sources

Rachel MONDAY

ABT 1800 - AFT 1831

ID Number: I30690

Sources

Lucy M. PENN

ABT 1764 - 2 Nov 1831

ID Number: I3618

Notes

Sources

Hon. William C. PRESTON C.S.A.

16 Oct 1816 - 21 Sep 1887

ID Number: I74753

Notes

Sources

AMY ROBSART

ABT 1532 - 8 Sep 1560

ID Number: I5988

Notes

Sources

Mary Agnes SILER

ABT 1820 - ____

ID Number: I18090

Sources

Elizabeth TANNER

ABT 1730 - ____

ID Number: I91273

Notes

Sources

John Mays WRIGHT

19 Sep 1836 - 6 Mar 1901

ID Number: I87357

Notes

Sources