I recently came across this note in Davis Brewer's Family Tree:
From Les: In my first trip to NC in 1981, Mary Francis Lindley and I, she was the resident Lindley genealogist in Chatham Co., were invited to come over to a distant cousins old homestead and go thru an old trunk they found in the barn. Among the things in that trunk were many letters dated as far back as the 1840's. Whether the pages of an old bible that was from the Meacham family was in there or not I don't remember but in that group of letters I now find those pages.
I contacted Davis Brewer and he very kindly sent me his copy of the late Les Lindley�s notes on the Meacham Bible. The two pages are posted here:
The first page is incomplete and has notes that are some sort of calculation. It is unclear where the original Bible pages are or were, and as Les pointed out even whether they were in the old trunk in the barn or from some other source that Mary Frances Lindley uncovered.
I then got in touch with Madge Lindley, Les�s widow, and she has promised to look through his papers to search for anything that might shed light on this Bible record.
This is the first time I or Bob Bryan (who is in the Jesse line,has researched that line, and has spent much time in Chatham county) had ever heard of a Bible record for Jesse. Davis Brewer noted: �The year appears to be 1772, but Les Lindley says there is a smudge making 7 look like 2. According to the 1800 census, Jesse is 16-26, thus could not have been born before 1774. This supports a reading of 1777 from the Bible.�
There are also notes from Les about Jesse and Mary:
�In the 1850 census, Chatham county, NC. Mary Meacham, age 73, is living with son-in-law Ruffin Moore and daughter Mary A Meacham. Her son Jesse Meacham, Jr. is next door. Jesse is not listed, apparently having died.�
�Abstract 4-124 Orange County Court of August 26, 1782: Sackfield Brewer appointed guardian for Mary Brewer age 3 years march 1782 (AGREES WITH MARCH 28, 1779 DATE IN BIBLE PAGES), and Peter Brewer 1 year old July 1782.�
One of Jesse's and Mary's sons was John Pinkney Calvin Meacham. I found him in the 1880 Census for Lauderdale county, Tennessee (Dist 2, p.23):
"J P C Meacham 72 NC NC NC (birthplace of person, father, mother)"
So Jesse was born in NC in 1777. This agrees with my earlier conclusion (see A Chronicle of Meachams in Caroline County that Wm. Sr and his family moved from Caroline county VA (where his first children were born) to Chatham county NC around 1775 or 1776.