Thomas Seale III
(1800-10 - 1842)
Descendant List and Notes
Thomas Seale III is reported to be a son of Thomas, Jr (c1764-1850, d. Perry County, Alabama, leaving a will), son of Thomas Seale who was brother to Charles Seale who married Lydia Muse. If this is correct, then Thomas, Jr, was first cousin to James Seale of Butler County and Thomas III was second cousin to Ransom and Anderson Seale. It is not so much Thomas, himself, that I am interested in, but his wife, and widow, who has been reported to be Nancy Perritt. However, I can find no documentation of this claim.
It would be reasonable for her to be a Perritt, as Needham Perritt was enumerated adjacent to Thomas Seale on the 1840 census of Butler County. There were three Thomas Seales listed on the 1830 Butler County census. One, on page 296 adjacent Arthur Sims and four entries from Wilson Murphy and Alfred Carter, was 60-70 years old with a female of the same age, the right age for Thomas, Jr. The remaining two households each had a male 20-30 who was the right age to be Thomas III.
Which Thomas?
One of these is listed on page 301, located somewhere between James Sims and Anderson Crenshaw. This family had one male 20-30, 2 females under five and one female 10-15. This group seems to fit best for Thomas III, with two females of the age of Elizabeth and Amanda. The female 10-15 is a puzzle. Is she another daughter? No one has reported any older than Elizabeth. If he is at the high end of his age bracket and she is at the low end of hers, that could be possible. On Thomas' 1840 census entry, the oldest female was only 20-30 and there were five more children, so if this is the same female, she is too young to be the mother of the two girls, although stranger things have happened. Is she perhaps a second wife, at only 14-15 years old?
There is another Thomas Seale on page 306 with one male under 5, one male 20-30, one male 50-60, two females under 5, one female 30-40 and one female 60-70. This male 50-60 is too young to be Thomas, Jr, who should be 60-70, but it is always possible that the census taker put the stroke in the wrong column. The two females under five are the right age for Elizabeth and Amanda, but the boy under five is undocumented. This family is near James Burkett, James Bedgood and two entries from Hiram Miller, whose family intermarried with several Murphy/Seale-related families.
In 1840, there is only one Thomas left in Butler County, three entries away from Wilson Murphy and Ransom Seale, where the 60-70 year-old was in 1830. Needham Perritt and Washington Bloxom are in between. The ages fit for Thomas and all seven known children. The woman is still only 20-30, very young for seven children. Three entries on the other side of Thomas is Benjamin Rhodes, Jr, who appears to be the one who married Sarah Murphy Mullins and later married Dicey Miller and went to Nacogdoches.
Sons of Thomas III
By 1842, Thomas III was dead. There are many court records from the 1850s relating to Wilson Murphy as the guardian of Thomas' four minor sons, John A, William Riley, James Thomas and Wilson. His three daughters were all married long before the Butler County courthouse burned in 1853, so if Wilson was also guardian to the girls, there are no records of it.
My question is: what was Wilson Murphy's relationship to these children? A guardian was usually someone close to the family, typically a family member. Was he perhaps their uncle? Was Thomas' wife actually a Murphy and not a Perritt? Was there an earlier wife before the young one in 1830-40? Was the first one the Perritt and the second a sister of Wilson's?
John A Seale, eldest son of Thomas III, witnessed an 1856 deed from Sarah Murphy(the elder) to her grandson Josiah Mullins and also the deed from Josiah transferring the same property to Wilson Murphy on the same day. As the property involved was from the will of John Murphy and the deed indicated that the remaining interest belonged to Ellen Murphy Seale and Wilson Murphy, John A Seale's witnessing could imply that he was representing someone else who may have had an interest at one time. It was customary, when property was transferred in which a woman had interest, for a male of her family to witness the deed in acknowledgment that her interests were being safeguarded.
Millers and Murphys and Seales, oh my
In 1850, William Riley Seale, age 14, was in or near Pensacola, Florida, with his sister Amanda Austin. He was two entries away from her in the household of William Miller, who was probably the son of Hiram and Milbry (Milbra) Miller. The Millers may also have been related to William, but I don't yet know how.
Osborne Kelly, another witness to the 1856 deeds, was married to William Miller's sister Elizabeth. They were enumerated adjacent the widow Milbry Miller in Butler Beat 6 in 1850. Elizabeth's sister Nancy married John Perritt. Their sister Dicey married Benjamin Rhodes, who had probably been married to Sarah Murphy (the younger) after her first husband (probably Job Mullins) died. Osborne Kelly's daughter Delila married John Hiram Mullins, grandson of Sarah Murphy Mullins Rhodes. (The fact that John H Mullins' middle name was Hiram raises the possibility that he was related to Hiram Miller. Was his mother actually Martha Miller?)
John A and Wilson Seale died in the war. John's estate papers of Sep 1863 refer to James Thomas "of Arkansas" but he apparently stayed in (or returned to) Butler County. He has not been located in 1850 or 1860, but on 21 Jan 1861, Wilson Seale appointed James T Seale of Butler County his attorney to receive final settlement of his father's estate. Thomas' Compiled Service Record says he enlisted at Greenville on 30 Aug 1862, so if he had been in Arkansas earlier, he was back by 1861. There is an entry on the 1866 state census of Butler that fits him and his new wife, and in 1870 he lived in Wilcox County. Osborne Kelly and John C Blackman posted bond for Elizabeth Seale's husband, Franklin Vickery, to become John's estate administrator. It seems strange that Franklin would not know if his own brother-in-law lived in the same county.
(Note: In Texas pension application #31025, James Thomas' widow states on 29 Mar 1915 that "He first served in Arkansas - don't know command - came home on or to Alabama in 1862. He served in all about 3 years. . . He last served in Company F 18th Alabama Regiment. Joined them in Aug 1862.")
Gone to Texas
By 1860, Benjamin and Dicey Miller Rhodes, John and Nancy Miller Perritt and Milbry Miller had moved to Nacogdoches County, Texas, and were enumerated almost adjacent William Riley Seale in the Melrose area, where John Wilson Seale and Allen Beckham Seale, sons of Ransom, also arrived 1871-72. William Riley Seale may have gone west from Pensacola with the William Miller family, as he married in Nacogdoches County in 1855 and was still there in 1860 and later, but William had moved on to Leon County, where Susan Miller Grimes' family also appeared in 1870. By that time, Osborne Kelly, apparently widowed, and his family, including his daughter Delilah and John Hiram Mullins, had also moved to Nacogdoches, to the Cherino area. (In 1880, Susan Miller Grimes' son Hiram and his family were in Hamilton County, where John Hiram and Delilah Mullins were.)
James Thomas moved to Nacogdoches County sometime between the 1870 census and about 1872, judging from the age of his daughter Gracie, his first child born there. He and his sister Mary Seale Jones may have gone with their third cousins John Wilson and Allen B Seale in 1871 or 1872. In 1870, Mary lived in the Shackleville area between Benjamin Saucer and Amanda E Murphy, widow of Julius, but in 1880 she lived with her daughter Mary Rasberry in Linn Flat, Nacogdoches County. Her daughter Callie married Columbus Blankenship, whose family had come out from Butler County in 1859-60. According to Carolyn Reeves Ericson's Nacogdoches - Gateway to Texas, Vol II 1850-1880, A Biographical Directory, Columbus Blankenship was son of Eliza Miller, another daughter of Hiram's.
It is difficult to establish birthdates for the four boys. Approximate years can be calculated from the dates when they received their final settlements from their father's estate as they turned 21, but at least two of those dates raise questions. On 11 Jan 1856, Wilson Murphy paid final settlement for William R Seale, who had become of full age sometime in the month of Oct 1854, indicating that he was born in Oct 1833. However, William was 14, 24, 34 and 44 in 1850-60-70-80 censuses, consistently giving a birth year of 1835. (In 1856, Benjamin Rhodes acted as agent in Butler County to receive William Riley Seale's settlement from his father's estate. Why didn't William get his brother John to receive his money? John was in Butler County, as he collected his own settlement in 1854 and witnessed the deeds from Sarah Murphy and Josiah Mullins in 1856.)
On 1 Dec 1856 Wilson Murphy paid final settlement to (James) Thomas Seale, who had reached aged 21, giving a birth year of 1835. But Thomas was 33, 43 and 63 on the 1870-80-1900 censuses, consistently giving a birth year of 1836. The 1900 census and his tombstone have a birth date of Nov 1836. It is rare for census ages to be that consistent for anyone.
On 29 Mar 1854, Wilson Murphy paid final settlement to John Seale, who had turned 21. Therefore, John had to have been born before 29 Mar 1833 and before Jan 1833, if his brother William was actually born in Oct 1833. Wilson Seal, via his brother Thomas, was paid his final settlement on 8 Feb 1861 "including $299.32 received 23 May 1853 plus interest thereon to Oct 1860." (Why that date? Did he turn 21 in Oct 1860?) So Wilson had to have been born before 8 Feb 1840, possibly in Oct 1839. On 21 Jan 1861, Wilson had appointed James T Seale attorney to receive from Wilson Murphy, Sr, all monies due him from his father's estate. From this, some researchers have used 21 Jan 1840 for Wilson's birth, but I don't think we can safely assume that he filed papers exactly on the day he turned 21.
Conclusions?
Madge Pettit, author of Pioneers and Residents of West Central Alabama prior to the Civil War, told me in 1989 that Thomas III's wife was named Nancy and she went to Nacogdoches County, Texas, where she died about 1890. I do not know what her source was. Some researchers have also claimed that Thomas' widow remarried and moved to Arkansas and then to Texas. Nancy Kuehl, author of A Seale Anthology, has this same information and also that Thomas married Nancy Perritt about 1835. Since three of his sons have not been located on any census for 1850, and I have not found any record of who she married, I cannot prove or disprove any of this.
However, since William Riley was in Escambia County, Florida in 1850 and John A Seale was in Butler County in 1854 to receive his settlement from Wilson Murphy and in 1856 to witness the deeds, and since James Thomas was there (and in Wilcox) from 1861-1870, she may have taken only the youngest son, Wilson, with her. Since Wilson appointed his brother James T in Butler to receive his settlement money for him, Wilson must have been in some other location. Maybe Wilson was the only one who belonged to her, and the older boys belonged to an earlier wife.
